Is there really a difference here? Even culturally? Is there some development or aspect that isn’t obvious to a casual observer?
Draenei’s entire idea was faith in the light. They even shun Broken for losing their connection to it.
Like for a new player, how would you describe the difference of choice, other than Lightforged having some more gold plated appearances and racials?
It’s the difference between an Undead (Forsaken) and a Death Knight basically.
Both are technically Undead, but Death Knights are the pinnacle of what an Undead is.
That’s sounds so sad 
.
Another race added that is the pinnacle of what one race can be.
Well very specifically it’s a pinnacle of what any Light-worshipper can be.
Turelyon is a good example of a non-Draenei Lightforged.
Yes and no.
LF isn’t a race. It’s a religious order within the Draenei culture. An extremist religious order.
Virtually all of the allied “races” are glorified customization options that could/should have been achieved via the character creation screen, barber chair or a character model slider (Kul’Tirans)
I mean it an extent but they all had some good reasoning to stand on their own two feet.
Void elf: used magic forbidden in their culture. No longer tied to Sunwell. Voidy.
Dark iron: own culture and aesthetics.
Zandalari: own culture and aesthetics.
Etc
Only one maybe was High mountain, but even they had their own unique story of being blessed by Malorne and loving eagles etc.
With Draenei and Lightforged, all I see is light worship and more intense light worship 
.
Lets be real. Void Elves existed because people wanted Blood Elves on the Alliance.
yes, there are some that are actually different, hence why I used the qualifier virtually.
different cultures/aesthetics =/= new race. The culture/language/aesthetics/etc of Germany is different than that of Uruguay. Does that mean that Germans or Uruguayans arent human beings?
Dark irons, while aesthetically different, are still at their core dwarves, just like the bronzebeard and wildhammer varieties.
Same with trolls. Different tribes might worship different loa(s), but they are still all trolls.
Void elves are just a foolish capitulation without actually capitulating to those that have whined, cried and begged for them for the last ~20 years. So, we needed up with a race that ~no one wanted/asked for, that had to be shoehorned/retconned in with goofy reasons and didnt solve the “issue.”
Furthermore, customization options =/= race:
brown orc =/= new race
Tauren with antlers =/= new race
tattooed draenei =/= new race
gnomes with machine parts =/= new race
fat humans =/= new race
pretty much any new race suggestion i have seen on the forums =/= new race
What allied races SHOULD have been is actual, new races coming into the folds of the Alliance, horde (or both) based on interacting with said races over time.
Examples:
etc…
Lightforged Draenei are just Draenei that remembered to bring a charger, let us not kid ourselves.
This. This entire thing has changed from BC onwards. Velen was seen as a hero for their people because he broke that tradition of shunning the broken. The further you go in our timeline, the more disillusioned he becomes with the Light. I think after Xe’ra tries to brainwash illidan, his faith is broken.
The Draenei are the exiles. Faith may have guided them to Azeroth but it does bit necessarily drive all they are.
The light forged are the opposite - they NEED the Light to survive.
So hypothetically if a prime Naaru came down and said an action needed to be done, is there be a chance for Velen to say no?
And further, would the Lightforged then see the Draenei as sinners that lost their way?
Yes - exactly that. Velen would stand his ground and denounce the Light’s plan, casting a hand across all the people he has grown to protect and care for, that would have fallen to the wayside if he had followed the Light. The broken, the krokul, and the faithless. He would tell the naaru that there is no Justice under their rule.
And if he was anyone else, not the prophet Velen who had led all Draenei, lightforged or otherwise, from the consuming blaze of the burning legion, a zealot would be cleaning his blood off their blade before he could finish his thought. To defy the Light is blasphemy. A contradiction to its teachings must be pruned to secure the purity of its pattern and law.
But, if the prime wills it…perhaps his blood will be spilled after all. If not by a Draenei, then by a True, Pure, Faithful follower of the Light.
That’s kinda the reason Lightforged Draenei warlocks make sense now - they can’t really take the Light out of them without causing irreparable damage to their bodies (think elves with the arcane) but that doesn’t mean they don’t regret their decision.
Well then I hope in the next expansion we see this. If it really is Void and Light, then I’m hoping we see some division of faith and choice happen with the Draenei and Lightforged.
I do know in the story currently it is hinted Velen is “questioning”, but yeah I’d love something more solid.
I’d love to see more too tbh. We got a lot of Velen’s broken faith in legion - when he met Rakeesh, the Butcher. His son, taken by Kil’Jaeden and twisted to hunt his father and his people to their last.
His son, who the Light had assured him dead in the exodus after he received a vision of the moment he held his fel-scarred body.
After Illidan kills Xe’ra, Lightforged folks on the ship are heartbroken. Lost. Turalyon in particular sounds like he might just give up on the whole fight with the Legion.
Velen is the guy who just stoically told us to gather as many shards of her body as we could, and to pour them into a forge along with the remnants of a fallen Naaru for empowerment. There’s no reverence. No respect. If anything there’s a bit of spite. He references being given the same “choice” illidan was - but by sargeras. He wishes he could’ve done the same.
Velen is a changed man. What I’m really interested in is what may happen should he meet AU Yrel. Her Velen died a martyr to his faith. I feel like she’d view our version as fallen - an insult to the memory of her mentor.
I wonder if she would attack him.
That would be one of the biggest red flags of the divide. Velen who we all have seen as this representation of good and purity, and Yrel who states she is a champion of the same, but then attacks him when he denies her.
Exactly!!! And I think she would. The divide here is the folks who think the Light is inherently good - and those who know it’s just a tool like any other.
Blizzard was drawing blanks on the Alliance’s Allied Races, so they decided to make them the same race, but with more of their gimmick.
Lightforged Draenei. Draenei, but with 110% more Light.
Mechagnomes. Gnomes, but with 110% more Mecha.
Kul Tirans. Humans, but with 110% more body mass.
Yeah Lightforged are sexier, thats the difference. I mean…look at those glowing tattoos…and the rune on their head 
perfection.
Why do I now wish to see DH and Lightforged Draenei interactions 