Ok, I’ll admit, the Kul Tiran models have grown on me a bit, but I gotta say, I really like the Vrykul models a lot more. If the Alliance was going to get a large human-like race, it should have been the Vrykul instead though.
Why?
Well, a few reasons. First, there’s a lot more lore available in game for the Vrykul that has been building through the expansions - since Wrath, obviously. While a lot might argue that Kul Tiras has lore dating back to the old RTS games, this is true, but it wasn’t nearly as polished, nor as detailed as what Blizzard had to include in WoW. In the RTS games, Kul Tirans were just a different group of humans who sailed a lot. The Vrykul on the other hand have had entire kingdoms, history, heroes we’ve interacted with, mythos and gods, etc. all fleshed out and put on display. They also span the entire planet of Azeroth.
Second, their models, though needing minor updating, just flat out look better than the Kul Tiran models. I don’t mean polygons or shading or any other technical attribute. I mean the Vrykul males look like brutish proto-humans, and the females have this fierce, shield-maiden sexiness to them. The Kul Tirans just appear as overweight humans. Now don’t get me wrong. I like the aesthetics this presents - as a bunch of rowdy pirates and sailors, singing bawdy songs in rum soaked taverns. So I’m not trying to just say the Kul Tirans are bad. I just think the Vrykul are better from an aesthetic stand point.
Third is politics. I get that the Kul Tirans had left the Alliance, and that bringing them back into the fold was a huge deal. I mean, it was basically the first half of the expansion. Yet the Kul Tirans were already allies. You could have had the entire expansion exist, and just given humans a couple of new models. The way orcs have different postures, you could have given humans the Kul Tiran models and had those models start exactly the same way as Kul Tirans start currently - but at lvl 1.
However with the Vrykul, a quest to bring them into the fold, to actively work to build relations with one of the groups we come across in Legion would make a lot of sense. Perhaps Toryl in Jandvik begins introducing the Alliance to other Vrykul that might be open to alliances. Or Eyir, in Skold-Ashil, grateful to King Graymane for saving her from Sylvanas and her fancy lantern, could give her blessings her followers to side with the Alliance.
Either way, Kul Tirans rate a “not terrible” while Vrykul rate a “totally awesome” on my completely impartial scale and I think Blizzard should give us Vrykul as a playable race. Maybe even having them be playable by both factions the way Pandabearians are.
