I agree with your estimation. They would most likely appear in a later patch. Hope there’s at least an announcement for them!
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For my take, I just can’t reconcile the inhabitants of the elemental plane of death being able to extricate themselves from it and back to Azeroth - a different plane/realm. I also know that the covenant individuals are chosen to specifically perform certain obligations within the Shadowlands. Having a Kyrian suddenly leave their sacred duty to come to the land of the living would be antithetical to their eons worth of following the path.
If a maldraxxus soul leaves Maldraxxus, are they still considered Maldraxxi? Are they upholding their charge to protect the Shadowlands?
The models look fantastic but lore wise and gameplay wise, I just can’t see this occurring. Obviously there is a first time for everything! But this would be quite jarring.
After pondering it some more, if there is a dismantling of the Shadowlands, or some kind of re-vamp, which would change the ‘Arbiter’s arbitrary contract’ with souls, then I could see them freed from covenant obligations. But this would be rather intense. Time will tell if this occurs!
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Well if you’d done any of the Kyrian story they’re finally starting to question the path. Also they owe us. There is absolutely no lore that suggests they can’t leave the shadowlands and plenty of lore showing that they can.
Yes. They regularly leave the shadowlands in order to protect it. Well they did before their civil war. Like they’re literally the covenant that leaves their home realm the most. No offense but why are you bringing up lore concerns when your knowledge of shadowlands lore seems to based on zone previews?
Not really. There is nothing suggesting they can’t do it. Also as stated. THEY OWE US FOR SAVING REALITY.
Covenant obligations will now include helping the mortals of azeroth because they saved the shadowlands and all of reality. Each covenant will have an obligation to send a single garrison of individuals to the mortal realm.
Also this would make even more sense if the next expansion is dealing with another cosmic force such as light or void. That’s motivation besides quid-pro-quo to aid us.
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It would be nice to get them in the form of soulshaping. Like. Let us start having extra bodytypes to pick from in the barber. Fuse the humans, dwarves tauren. And let us pick. And the shadowlands races could be our first “out their” bodytype that we can earn on any character. So on my troll I can pick between, Zandalari, Darkspear, or the covenant I chose bodytypes and allow for races to be unlocked that way.
Draka and company does leave the Shadowlands and carries out clandestine ops on Legion planets but that’s all for the Shadowlands. If they chose a faction, they’d be working for other reasons then their Maldraxxus “mandate.” They never left their covenant to execute those missions, just the Shadowlands. If Maldraxxus goes alliance, what does that mean in the grand scheme of things? That’s the reason I ask “are they still Maldraxxi?” Are they going to operate on behalf of the Shadowlands - their eternal charge - or the boy king on Azeroth (if they go alliance)?
If Maldraxxus goes alliance that, to me, suggests that the factions on Azeroth are tantamount to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe. Naaru were never exclusive to Draenei, loa aren’t exclusive to trolls. Now, I can see the lore starting to elevate Azeroth to a apex-cosmological entity status and we (the Azeroth inhabitants) become an extension of Her (Azeroth’s) will, but that is another topic entirely, I think.
Kyrian questioning the path doesn’t mean their questioning their obligations, just the method by which they achieve ascension and whether or not their past lives are a help or a hindrance in carrying out that mission. They never once question their duty to ferry souls. That is what I’m having difficulty reconciling. The covenants are entirely neutral and maintain their own philosophies. This is depicted in how we have examples of both factions in the covenants.
The “owe us” part is odd to me, too, because most of those individuals are doing what they do to save the world’s they were part of: for example, draka hitting up the legion planet/legion-invaded planet is out of an understanding that the legion is a threat to reality. Heck, we may owe them for helping covertly harry the legion, that in doing so may have made the Legion’s invasion of Azeroth weaker overall. Perhaps we owe Kyrian for defending themselves against the Void so the void didn’t unravel reality from within the Shadowlands. Etc etc.
I think this is a good discussion to have to better flesh out the understanding of the future possibilities, and I agree that the Shadowlands should play a role in future cosmological battles (light void order etc). We’ve already tangoed with Fel, and now Death. We will need Void, Light and Order (hopefully the penultimate showdown is us confronting the titans).
In sum, here’s a thought experiment: if Kyrians could have helped protect Uther (because they were aligned with some force on Azeroth and tool an active role), would that have been a good thing or a bad thing? Would we have known about the jailors plot without Uther’s involvement? Would we have gotten a sweet Wrath expansion 
? Should the cosmological realms concern themselves with the actions of mortals?
Ok, there’s enough verbosity for one post! 
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I doubt the covenants will go horde or alliance. Garrisons will. And they aren’t quitting their covenant. As part of their covenant duties they will be aiding us.
Their obligations are now to us for saving their reality. They’d have no obligations because they wouldn’t exist without us.
And yet we’re the ones who ultimately saved the universe by dealign the finishing blow on the legion (and if you ever playeda fps or moba kill blows is all that matters) AND saving the shadowlands from the jailer. So I guess they owe us twice now.
Without us, no shadowlands. They owe us. That’s how politics works.
Irrelevent
Considering they owe us then they have to. Whether they agree with it or not. That’s how quid pro quo works. They don’t have to like it but they still owe us. But regardless azeroth and the mortal realm seems to be a battleground for all of reality. So yeah it’s in their own best interest to aid us. If azeroth falls to the void and gives birth to a void titan all of reality will fall. Shadowlands won’t exist. So yeah questing in westfall might seem “petty” for them but ultimately if it aids us in saving the universe they’ll do it.
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I think and hope the covenant races become playable for us. After helping them save their realm, it makes sense that a small fraction of the covenants will devote themselves towards preventing the same problems from happening again.
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It’s going to happen. Bank on it. Two go Alliance, the other two go Horde.
I called playable Vulpera the moment they were first revealed back during the BFA announcement – and the same goes for the Covenant races this expansion. Blizzard is nothing if not entirely predictable.
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You also called playable Sethrak a long time ago on one of your other alts and that didn’t happen. In fact a lot of people were saying Sethrak would be playable instead of mechagnomes. Usually arguing that they wouldn’t be playable cuz they are unpopular and because of lack of mog capabilities on arms and legs. Bottom line. You can’t be certain when it comes to allied races.
I would prefer setrack, or furblogs. But I am dlwn on getting kyrians
If that’s how it happens, I hope Horde doesn’t get Maldraxxus and Venthyr.
The devs did say they were open to adding additional allied races when they made sense. Unless the Sethrak or another race starts showing up more in Shadowlands, I don’t see them as being a potential possibility. You are correct in saying we can’t be certain when it comes to allied races, considering how void elves were implemented and all. However, the covenant races have the most potential at this time.
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I don’t see the members of the covenants dropping their duties to come to silly faction conflicts of the Horde and Alliance. Especially when some of them were apart of the silly faction conflicts before.
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Yea. I am just saying. Many people often often say they were certain vulpera would be playable from the beginning, but a lot of it came down to luck, because many were also saying the same thing for sethrak.
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I think it’s perfectly doable. if helping the races on Azeroth with their conflicts also keeps future threats towards the Shadowlands under control, why not?
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The option to work with Horde and Alliance would still be there and not having to be held to some mortals bickering with each other. I’m not saying Blizz can’t/wont Just feels far more forced than the ones we’ve gotten so far.
The covenants have a higher purpose than like the Pandaren said joining this race war.
I see what you’re saying. Comparing their traditional duties to conflicts on Azeroth is quite different. It does seem like there will be a lot of changes coming to Shadowlands though. I don’t think the entirety of each race would leave their duty, but I do see the covenants sending a small fraction to help us out.
It would make the most sense if they became neutral allies, like the Pandaren, and then they can choose what faction to work with. If they already came from lets say the horde, why wouldn’t they continue to work for the horde? New forms doesn’t necessarily mean new allegiances.
On another note, aren’t the factions currently under a peace agreement? There’s not much of a war going on between the two at the moment. If anything, it seems like our conflicts are going beyond Azeroth towards the cosmic level, which affects all realms of existence.
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I adore the idea of a Venthyr Druid in Gargon Form talking down to enemies in a thick Uberwald accent. Not sure how logical it would be for them to be druids, but it’s still an amusing mental image for me.
It would be ridiculous for us to gain access to Kyrian, Venthyr, Tiernenn and the Maldraxxi as playable ‘races’. If you could play them, there would literally be no point to death in WoW.
You ‘dying’ may as well be a level up point, where you wake up in the afterlife, and come back to Azeroth in your sleek new heavenly body…
…to kill boars. And loot old raids.
Stop. There must be an end and meaning to everything, and they represent THE END, before your rebirth.
HOWEVER, on the rebirth tale: if Blizzard gave us access to races from other worlds / planes of existence that can no longer BE reborn (like Droman Aliothe), THAT would make more sense, and be a lot more interesting.
If a race must be taken from Shadowlands, a much better argument could be made for the Night Fae Satyrs (they technically already exist), the Ascended Stewards, and the Venthyr Stoneborn. The latter two, having never been mortal, deserve an actual life.
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Yeah, the faction conflict is overplayed.
Now them coming to help protect one of if not the most important thing in the cosmos…the world soul of Azeroth…that makes sense. There’s now or has been 3 cosmic level powers wanting it for their own.
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