So we essentially got High Elves. We have every flavour of Troll you could ever want. Now how about throwing the Orcs a bone, too?
The Dragonmaw Orcs have been a part of the franchise since WarCraft II, as well. They remain the only “unconquered” Orcs that have been fighting since that Second War. They have played a major or minor role in every expansion to date. Brief refresher:
Classic: Primary enemy in the Wetlands for Alliance characters, the first room in BWL is a Dragonmaw Orc in charge of the chromatic brood.
TBC: The whole Netherwing grind - the Dragonmaw Orcs were members of the Illidari (also contributing to the case for Orc Demon Hunters).
WotLK: Admittedly minor here, but they are mentioned by the Horde ambassador at Wyrmrest Temple as something they need to atone for, given the enslavement of Alexstrasza.
Cata: The entire zone of the Twilight Highlands (and my favourite introduction to a zone in the history of the game) is dedicated to them. Their Alliance counterparts, the Wildhammer Dwarves, have been made playable - why not the Dragonmaw? Not to mention that the Dragon Soul (a.k.a. the Demon Soul), the focus of three instances and the key to defeating Deathwing with Thrall’s Kamehameha, was a Dragonmaw artifact before the draconic lore was added.
MoP: Zaela’s unfortunate heel turn had much of the clan serving as antagonists during SoO to both Alliance and Horde.
WoD: UBRS was remade to serve as a Dragonmaw dungeon, Zaela being the end boss.
Legion: Interestingly, during the PvP artifact appearance ceremony for the Horde, Gorfax Angerfang (previously a Wetlands rare) has been chosen to represent the post-Zaela Dragonmaw Clan, showing that they still serve the Horde. He even got a nifty makeover from the previous green skin to the Dragonmaw ash colouration.
BfA: Pretty quiet on this front, but the Vulpera recruitment quests take you to the Twilight Highlands, where the Mag’har are being resettled, possibly to help reinforce the area after the loyalists to Zaela moved to UBRS.
So yeah, unlike most other clamoured for - and eventually implemented - “sub races,” the Dragonmaw Orcs have been present in the minds of the developers all throughout the history of the game. Why the snub?
“How are they different from other Orcs?” you ask. Well, as mentioned above, they are culturally distinct from the other Orcs in that, although they were demonic-influenced, they were never conquered by the Alliance. They don’t have that nomadic, persecution complex that the other Orcs have. This may be due to their other key distinction - their draconic influence. Perhaps the residual energies from the Dragon Soul helped them to stave off the lethargy that affected the other Orc clans?
As for physically? Their skin is ashen grey. Their eyes glow amber. And they have draconic brands or tattoos. Add in some draconic baubles, and you have enough to make a more distinct Allied Race than, say, Highmountain Tauren or Mechagnomes. But that’s reaching pretty far - I’d settle for expanded options for the core Orc.
“They’re already playable! The Mag’har have grey Orcs with glowing eyes!” you cry out. False. Those are Blackrock Orcs, their appearance due to exposure to a primordial elemental and quite distinct. In fact, Dragonmaw Orcs were conspicuously and entirely absent from Draenor itself.
As for Fel Orcs from our universe’s Draenor, that being Outland? They did join up with the Horde after Magtheridon and Illidan were taken out. In fact, they served as sentries in the Blasted Lands until WoD happened.
As awesome as dragonmaw would be i dont see it happening due to the Mag’har. The point of them was for non green orcs so if blizz turns around and gives normal orcs non green skins too they will ruin the aesthetics of mag’har
Yeah no. The maghar represent the WOD clans. Vanilla orcs could get dragonmaw and fel orcs as variants with pretty cool customization. If they want to add more skins for the maghar later one they could add shattered hand orcs, really white like Kargath.
Probably because they’ve been cast as enemies in every expansion except for some stints in MoP.
Dunno about Fel Orcs.
I’d imagine the Mag’har wouldn’t like to see them at all though.
I support this. The Dragonmaw have always been a cool clan even if they’ve been in the background mostly. Twilight Highlands was probably one of my favorite zones at least storywise in CATA with the Wildhammer/Dragonmaw.
As for Fel Orcs, i’ve wanted them for a long time. There could be some cool customizations there. I’d love to have one as a Warlock.
No forest or ice trolls yet. Darkspear currently have some blue skins that look very similar to some of the ice troll skins, but they’re still different.
We should definitely get the Blackrock and Dragonmaw skins.
Fel orcs could work, we’ve seen some Horde fel orcs in the Blasted Lands.
There was a Dragonmaw orc in game at the prestige level 2 ceremony for Horde, Gorfax Angerfang. There was another Dragonmaw orc named Koak in one of the books who stuck with the Horde. Not many Dragonmaw are left within the Horde but there’s some.
Pale orcs refers to the usually Gollum-like cave orcs we saw in WoD, not Shattered Hand orcs. The male Shattered Hand NPCs in WoD (IE, the overwhelming majority of them) have a sickly pale skin we don’t have as playable right now. The reason we didn’t get it is probably because there’s no female variant and it has 3D piercings which could cause clipping issues.
They officially joined the Horde in Cataclysm and, as evidenced as recently as the Vulpera recruitment quest, the Dragonmaw remaining in the Twilight Highlands are active members of the Horde, even post-Zaela (and what a poor heel turn that was, anyway).
I’d still prefer actual Allied Races with their own heritage armour, racials, and mounts… but if that’s not going to happen, flip that switch for NPC options becoming available.
I’m down but they would need different racials and voices, they couldnt work as simple skins from a lore perspective as they are biological very different.
I would want fel orcs to have a chance for an increase of attack or spell power where they enrage and have glowing red eyes,similar to void elves void form that happens in combat.
I dono what to suggest for dragonmaw orcs for racials.