Intro
The addition of the Earthen further throws off the balance of how the core races are represented across their corresponding allied races. So I created this chart of the vacant spots that would need to be filled in order to achieve that balance. Then below that I’ll include the spots that I would fill with a few of my personal choices. What would you guys add or change?
Humans: Kul’Tiran, 1.
Dwarves: Dark Iron, Earthen
Gnomes: Mechagnomes, 2.
Night Elves: Nightborne, 3.
Draenei: Lightforged, 4.
Worgen: 5., 6.
Orcs: Mag’har, 7.
Tauren: Highmountain, 8.
Trolls: Zandalari, 9.
Undead: 10., 11.
Blood Elves: Void Elves, 12.
Goblins: Vulpera, 13.
My Personal Choices
IDK: Maybe these Arathi Humans in The War Within will be interesting?
Leper Gnomes: An interesting thing is there’s precedent for Leper Gnomes being considered undead and serving the Forsaken. We could use these guys for another faction swap like the Void Elves and Nightborne.
IDK: I know people adamantly don’t want to see more elves. I get that. But indulge me for this exercise. Meanwhile I don’t have an idea so if you do that’d be nice lol.
Broken: Our mutated friends that should have been the first choice for Draenei allied race imo. They’ve been in the Exodar with us since Outland and they deserve a spot on the field.
Night Elf Worgen: Here’s the trick—emphasizing that some of these Night Elves were cursed against their will by the Druids of the Scythe in a similar way to the other Worgen. That way there can be a larger amount and they’re not tied to one group.
IDK: Not Saberon. That’s just cat people instead of wolf people. Be more creative. Spray bottle Maybe a more cursed or naturally blessed version of them. Maybe one that shifts between the two states.
Pale Orcs: I like the idea of the Orcs thinking to themselves that they want to rescue their kin from a similar fate as their own corruption. As opposed to the Void Elves, they could culturally reject the power that changed them. Their inclusion would also mirror the Kul’Tirans by being a smaller version of the original core race.
Taunka: These bison-people are literally the cousins of the Tauren that developed to live in the harsh conditions of Northrend. As a result, dark shamanism is a cultural norm as they seek to bend the elements to their will. This is an interesting deviation from other shamanistic groups besides antagonistic ones. However, these guys are explicitly said to be allied with the Horde.
Frost Troll: Both the Darkspear and Zandalari are distinctly tropical communities. Frost trolls being the extreme opposite could create some interesting parallels. They could also use this allied race as a way to give players access to the more muscular troll model—something the players would want that would also further visually differentiate them from the others.
Skeletons: A race that’s amusing for its lower range of customizability. But that’s not to say there wouldn’t be any. All you’d have to do is explain why these skeletons are at all special lorewise and it could work.
IDK: I don’t like the idea of another lightforged group because we already have one, I don’t see that as an overly creative idea, and it doesn’t fit the vibe that I find interesting about the Forsaken. Maybe this spot could go to something based on the spectral aspect of the undead.
IDK: Undead elves are too overdone at this point so I personally don’t like San’layn. Like with the Night Elves, I think we’re going to have to be pretty creative to break through the callous disregard people have for elves in general. What would be drastically different from the other elf races?
Gilblins: I know we don’t have an aquatic based core race yet (which I would‘ve preferred first) but there’s no better choice for the Goblin allied race. The Gilblins could be the more natural counterpart to their green cousins, and could even reflect that difference by swapping with the Leper Gnomes to the Alliance.
But the Worgen and Forsaken are both more creative and interesting than anything to come out of allied races, so I don’t think it’s fair to bring them down to that level.
For example, you say Saberon aren’t a good addition to match with Worgen, but Vulpera for Goblins apparently works somehow? There’s some double-standards there.
Are we aiming for models? Culture? General similar appearances?
The system behind ‘Allied Races’ as a whole is creatively bankrupt; these should have been customization options for the races they’re based on and then given expanded racials as options and replacements.
The only actual different ‘race’ would have been the Vulpera, and maybe HMT and DID. Outside of that, everything else can literally be a different skin or BT (remember those, Blizzard? Expand on it already!).
Gosh no I don’t like the Vulpera at all. But they already exist. This list is about balancing out what already exists, not introducing something equally as flawed as Vulpera.
Jinyu/Ankoan aren’t spin offs of Night Evles, they should be made into their own core race with their own unique models with better love and attention than what is allocated to allied races. Sethrak are also just snake people, which 1. isn’t a spin off of a core race and 2. is lame because they’re just snake people. Also what’s wrong with Night Elf Worgen that could be sick.
I am very curious if they’re going to be depicted as anything other than just regular stormwind style human. I dont think there was any concept art of the actual people. Just their cool armor.
From the Alliance side they only scared them away without harming them. Pretty dumb way to tell the story. You have literally different versions. Depending on which faction you are playing.
Well yeah. It was going to be more harsh but the Alliance forum community rose up and the backlash was huge. The Alliance wasn’t allowed to really do things bad.
One way or another, they should have stuck with one variant. Now they have two different ones that contradict each other. But well, story writing is just not really a strength in this game.
There was another area where if you did the Alliance side the Horde butchered some town in BFA. But , unless I am forgetting, it’s like never referenced on the Horde side of the campaign.
And yeah. The story has always been meh with plot holes you aren’t supposed to think about.
It makes no sense. WoW has great lore assets and world building. But they never use it for a cohesive story. Never have and I don’t expect them to start now.
My head cannon is that a dev or such pushes a story through without consulting the writing team and they are told to just make it work. But then they have more freedom on the side quests.
To me, it explains why expansion stories always stink, but side quests often have amazing moments.
