Now, let’s be honest. Nobody asked for Bedazzled Earthen as an Allied Race, and I doubt the majority of players are going to be interested unless there’s a funny or busted meta with them, like with the Mecha-Gnomes.
BUT ...
it does make for an interesting segue for Allied Races to return to the table. If these Earthen are interested in joining up, what about the other races? As much as I love Ogres, it seems that, unless you can make the female half of the racial equation a barbie doll, Blizzard won't do it, and given the new intro zone paints Ogres as a depraved threat to all life, its highly unlikely we'll ever get them. There's rumors that the new Humanoid version of the Nerubians, the Neruwubians, could become an Allied Race, especially if they rebel against The Blade of Bae herself, Xal'atath, and we've had some Allied Races in the wings for some time, and hinted at in some of the Heritage Quests.Mok'nathal were invited in as members of the extended Orc ‘family’, so we might be seeing the Clan migrating to Azeroth in its entirety, given what we’ve seen of Outland becoming more and more inhospitable and incapable of sustaining life. Mok’nathal could also become the key for the Horde to complete subjugating the various Ogre Clans in Horde territory and either ending their predation on Horde merchants, or bringing more Ogre Clans directly into the Horde’s army.
Broken and Krokul also seem like they’d be likely to be included as Allied Races, given that the Broken have been a part of the Draenei experience since the Burning Crusade, and during the Manari recruitment/mini-quest thing, Velen stated that he’d been trying to reach out and help the Krokul, despite their leader having a furious mad-on at the Prophet. With Outland dying and Argus a Fel-blasted wasteland still crawling with Legion demons, now leaderless, bringing all the various branches of the Eredar home to Azeroth only makes sense.
Ethereals could easily tie into the Ren’dorei given the bond between their two racial leaders that was explored in the last patch(s) of Legion, and wouldn’t be too graphically hard to pull off, with ethereals using the male human model as gender 1, and the male ren’dorei model as gender 2, given that as beings of mostly energy now, they are more defined by their allegiances and their skills than if they dimple or dangle.
Sethrakk and Tortollan would work well as Neutral Allied Races, given that they have reasons to join both factions and either have a loose social structure (the Tortollans) or have suffered repeated civil wars and conflicts (the Sethrakk) and may not be entirely welcome in their own homeland anymore. Being reptilian like the Drac’thyr, they’d have few external secondary sexual characteristics and thus could share models between the genders. Tortollans might be a more hilarious version of the Mecha-Gnome issue, armor-wise, with their shells meaning they can’t display cloaks, chest or leg armors, except for what would show up on the limbs, but everything else shows up, while Sethrakk would be a horror-show for most helmets, but could share armor-models with Worgen or Vulpera, given their body-shapes.
Hozen and Jinyu would tie in well to the Pandaria mode coming in, and we’ve been clamouring for them for years, and we’ve seen the Monkey King following us with interest in the War of Thorns, and the Jinyu would no doubt be incredibly interested in their Ankoan cousins. Jinyu use Kaldorei models, which is an easy fix for Blizzard, and Hozen might be a struggle to fit weapons to, but God dammit, let me go Ape.
Mogu and Naga would make for some spicy Neutral Allied Races, with the Neptulon-worshipping Naga seeking aid against a resurgent Azshara-aligned army of Naga and Mutants pushing them out of the deep, and sacred, depths of the ocean to mine for more Azerite that is beyond our ability to reach, and the Rajani Mogu, now with their beloved Titan Watcher dead, seek new allies, and new context, in what it means to ‘defend’ Azeroth. Neuptulon Naga might have a Visage-like form, of a form that blends Kaldorei and serpent/fish features, but shift back into their Naga form in battle, meaning Blizzard doesn’t need to code new weapons and armor models, they can just use normal Kaldorei for their Humanoid forms and Naga have their own armor models ala the Dracthyr, while the Rajani Mogu, and those Mogu Clans who have submitted to their rule, and their teachings, can use Draenei armor models with almost no alterations.
Tuskarr would be a stupidly simple inclusion, with Tuskarr seeking new hunts and new lands to explore and to fish joining the Alliance or the Horde as Neutral Allied Races, and given they basically use the Pandaren male rig, even their women, this would be hilariously simple for Blizzard to implement.
When I find the person who stole Kookooachew, I’m coming for your toes with a dull, rusty spork.
Gnolls and Centaur would be interesting Allied Races, with the Centaur we’ve met in the Dragon Isles eager to explore and tread new lands, and the friendly Gnolls of the Dragon Isles eager to explore, get away from the Rot-Matriarch and get the chance to meet, and eat, new and interesting people. Gnolls seem to use Worgen rigs, and Centaur only need Human or Sin’dorei upper armor models, and Draenei boot models. They are pantless, deal with it. Not the strangest thing you’ll have seen, but they’d probably be unable to mount most ground mounts, and flying would be … troublesome, again locking them out of most mounts barring Highland Drake or similarly sized models, or flying carpets. Or maybe they get the Blessings of Ohuna and turn into a bird, and the ‘fun thing’ here is they turn into any flying mount that they’ve connected to this ability.
Which could lead to hilarious moments of Centaur turning into Planes, Helicopters or Mechano-Spiders, but again, not the weirdest thing we’ve seen.
What are your thoughts?
situation.