How about Quillboars?
I support Crick elves!
Murlocs because Mmmrrggllm
As a continuation of the first post I did, I will, once again, offer up some suggestions for Core or Allied races if I had Carte Blache authority to add them.
Round 3 picks - Northern Allies Theme
Faction: Alliance
Race: Frostborn
Classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Shaman, Hunter, Rogues, Priest, & Mage.
- One of the few openly Friendly faces the Alliance was able to befriend in Northrend, the Frost Dwarves have an established history with Muradin Bronzebeard, and seem to continue to maintain a good relationship with the Alliance to this day. Hard to tell and maybe a little heavy on all the Dwarves in the Faction. This could make for a continuation story for the Council of Three Hammers to possibly expand to form a permanent Union of Four Hammers. In the end they’re a pretty easy pick for another Allied Race for the Alliance and speaking of easy picks…
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Faction: Horde
Race: Taunka
Classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Shaman, Hunter, Druid, & Mage(?)
- Much like the Frostborn Dwarves for the Alliance, the Taunka are a very easy pick for such a position as an Allied race for the Horde. They aided the Horde against the Scourge and pretty much largely threw their lot in with the Horde like the Frostborn have with the Alliance. They’re hardy survivors and could make for some good story telling between them & the Tauren over how they use the Elements (The Taunka’s approach to using the Elements is very akin to the Blood Elves usage of the Light prior to the purification of the Sunwell. IE: Using them by Force.)
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Faction: Neutral
Race: Tuskarr
Classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Shaman, Hunter, Rogue, & Monk(?)
- One of the few truly Neutral Races to both the Alliance & Horde, the Tuskarr are rather peaceful People on the surface, but fierce fighters when their homes & families are endangered. While I suspect their approach to Faction conflict would be…hesitant, I could see some of them taking their new Friendship with either Faction to basically be seen as a extention of “Fighting for Family” - all be it, an adopted Family of sorts.
Round 4 picks - Redemption for old Enemies Theme
Faction: Alliance
Race: Centaurs
Classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Shaman, Hunter, Priest, & Mage(?)
- When thinking about races that have largely served as enemies, while showing the possibility of becoming Friends, and having unique enough Characteristics to make them interesting. None stick out more to me than the Centaur. It would give the Alliance a Brutish race, it would give the Tauren a considerable reason to be hesitant about peace with the Alliance, and it could make for a spiritual redemption story where the Centaur under new Leadership try to make amends with their past given their connection to Cenarius. This could also give the Night Elves some extra story, give the Dark Irons a chance to play Hero some more, and give the Alliance a truly unique race. On the absolute opposite side of the field however…
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Faction: Horde
Race: Man’ari
Classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Paladin, Shaman, Hunter, Rogue, Monk, Priest, Warlock, & Mage.
- Much like the Centaur, the Man’ari have their own past hostilities with both the Alliance & Horde. However, for them the bitter history would primarily be with the Draenei (much like the Mok’Nathal.) Because of that rather bitter history, the Draenei should have their turn in the spotlight to cost the Alliance a potential new ally in the form of these particular Man’ari who could be left adrift on Azeroth with no place to call home, no allies to support them, and basically on the verge of dying out. The Draenei prevent them from seeking refuge in the Alliance, but the Horde could give them a chance to prove themselves. After maybe a scuffle between a Man’ari Champion against a Mok’Nathal Champion in a Honor Fight, maybe the Blood Elves & Orcs could work together to aid this new possible ally in their quest of acceptance (or Redemption.) The Orcs can use their experience of being enslaved by the Legion and the Blood Elves can use their own past experiences with the Demonic Forces to help the Man’ari find a new place in the larger world of Azeroth. This in turn could also give the Mok’Nathal a rather strange kindred spirit within the Horde that also dislikes the Draenei.
(Also to be fair…the Alliance got Void Elves, so giving the Horde a off-shoot of one of the Alliance’s more popular races would be fair, and come on…Draenei are Blue (Alliance Blue) vs. Man’ari are Red (Horde Red)…It’s practically begging to happen!)
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Faction: Neutral
Race: Arakkoa
Classes: Warrior, Death Knight, Shaman, Hunter, Rogue, Monk(?), Priest, Warlock, & Mage.
- For a Neutral race that has some hostilities with both Player Factions, while proving to be capable of Friendly cooperation with both of them, and offering a very unique Race to the game. The Arakkoa would make a nice addition as a Neutral race. As for what their story reasons could be…I will admit I’m not confident enough in my Lore knowledge of the Arakkoa to make a possible story suggestion. I know they have been both Enemies & Friends…So, cool bird race for the win is all I can say!
Anyways I think that will do for now. I have others I can think of that would be cool to see, but I don’t want any individual list to get overly huge either. So, maybe later I will start my next picks.
I duuno I’m just partial. I’d never go allie again Once was enough.
Well that’s understandable.
These are the only afterlife races I’d be interested in playing myself. Waaaay better than venthyr (personal opinion, I really hate venthyr personally. Not putting down those who like them. Just giving my perspective on it.)
I love their designs and would likely play one.
I didn’t honestly think of this for the Stoneborn myself, you’re right…they’re not. They’re their own thing.
My suggestion has been said. San’layn. Others have covered pretty much everything though for me. I also would play Sethrak & Arakkoa. Ogres I support for the Horde. The Alliance I don’t play much, but wish them the best.
What I’ve not seen, however, is Mantid. The only way they would work is if there was a group of them that literally detached from the hive mind and oath to the Old Gods. Is that possible? Yeah, maybe. Plausible? I’m not sure. But I do think they’re interesting.
Finally, Saurok. I would play them, they have lore potential to be super neat and rise up.
Kul Tiran:
Do you want to look like you chug a keg of ale for breakfast?
Suplex an orc?
Uppercut a shark into the stratosphere?
Have a moustache so manly it makes Charles Bronson jealous?
Kul Tiran.
More.
Just more.
That’s all. I would prefer allied races to be “allies in other places that aren’t just reskins” and not “legitimate copies of existing races that are a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit different” but… whatever works, I guess.
Race: Lightbound Orcs – commonly referred to as just “Lightbound”.
Faction: Alliance
Racial Leader: Exarch Hellscream, primarily – Yrel is an important figure to them, too.
Classes: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Warrior – maybe Death Knight if Bolvar is still raising more of them. I also had an idea for Demon Hunters for them, except Holy-powered with an archangel motif.
Racial Abilities: I can’t come up with anything specific at the moment…their racial abilities would be Light-based, obviously, but still unique from the Lightforged.
Lore: In a nutshell – the Lightbound return on the scene and are the main villains for a while in a “it’s the Light’s turn to be evil” expansion, but they are eventually defeated and come to see the error of their ways. The Horde (the Mag’har in particular), having had previous bad blood with the Lightbound, wants absolutely nothing to do with them and is more than happy to leave their broken forces to rot – but the Alliance establishes friendly relations with them and the Lightbound are officially recruited into the Alliance’s ranks (all thanks in no small part to the Alliance player). Although they’re no longer raving, rampaging lunatics, the Lightbound are generally still quite zealous and truly believe that they are the future of the orc race.
Eh, “Allied” races really feel like they’re “half-baked” - either the design is barely more than a color shift of another race, they’re phoned-in in terms of plot and story relevance, or just done some other glaring injustice. It’s a term variable to the point of meaninglessness - some get unique skeletons, some get capitals, some get deep history and relevant, and some get bumkiss.
Mostly those on the Alliance for that last part.
Just go back to full-scale, full-featured races, do them the deep, robust representation they deserve with all the trappings and amenities, and go from there. No more ten-mile wide, one in deep scatter-shot half-baked races, but… races. Not pallet swaps, sub-divisions, or variants - those can be customized into existence and left at that. Give me new skeletons, new capitals (with all the features), lore, architecture, characters, history, plot anchoring and focus. No more half-measures or slapdash efforts.
I like to add additional comment to this topic.
- Make all elves a neutral race.
- Make Kt a neutral race. They seem more like a they work for who ever pays the most.
- Taurens/goblins as a neutral race.
I like the idea of a neutral race as it adds flavor to the game. This variety makes it more interesting. We can add more race that apply to the horde and alliance lost races. Like ogres for horde and Dwarfs for alliance or maybe a netheral man. netheral man should be perfect to get shaman or druid added to their class.
Or perhaps rather than new races include NPC variants such as the Bonechewer orcs from Hellfire Peninsula. Blizzard is already heading along this path with the Mechagnomes and the array of Blood Elf variations. We could have male trolls who can stand up straight as well as Sandfury and so forth (If we don’t already have those skins.).
We do have some mixed race NPCs out there so include them as long as some lore exist that this could happen with mutual consent. Sorry. No Garona origin-like backstories, please.
I would vouch for more customizations and some alterations to current races.
Combine the draenei, dwarf, gnome, orc, tauren and troll races, but lock the allied race options behind the current achievements. Once unlocked, you’re free to mix’n’match the customizations. New players will still have to do the legwork, but they won’t be forced to roll a new character.
(Not 100% sure how to do the other allied races. Maybe a free race change to the unlocked race that lasts 48 hours or it expires.)
Add: frost dwarf, taunka, broken and TBC Maghar orc options (because how old are Wrath and TBC?).
Remove the WoD Maghar, because the portal to “that” draenor should have remained shut and locked. Bring in the TBC maghar, because they’ve been part of the Horde and been around a lot longer. Replace the quest chain with one that happens in Outland. Save the Maghar from ogres, or help them realize they probably don’t have much longer left on Outland, cuz its a dieing and stuff.
If we “have to” have a new race…
The Jinyu for Alliance and Hozen for Horde.
Jinyu could breathe underwater, have a small boost in swim speed, and their classes could be Warrior, Hunter, Shaman, Priest, Death Knight, Mage, Monk.
Hozen could have a climb racial that lets them go up and down cliffs and trees, classes could be Warrior, Hunter, Shaman, Death Knight, Monk. As dumb as they seem, I can’t see them as a cloth class. Maybe Warlock under heavy influence of a demon?
Two different pirate factions from the south seas. Like Aldor and Scryer, members of either faction can join either group of pirates, and the focus of the expansion is the battle between pirate factions, which helps break apart the tired Horde/Alliance thing.
Sethrak.
A new and unique race with some compelling lore that’s a bit different than what we have on the character selection screen.
WoW is well overdue for a reptilian race and IMO, the Sethrak could be quite the iconic race and are definitely one of the more unique ones WoW has come up with.
Alternatively I have an entire thread I wrote with another forum goer that you can read.
Oh that is a good thread.
I think I’ll do another.
Race: Man’ari Eredar – commonly referred to as just “Man’ari”.
Faction: Horde
Racial Leader: Rakeesh (revived) – oh dear, poor Velen would lose his mind.
Classes: Demon Hunter, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior – maybe Death Knight if Bolvar is still raising more of them.
Racial Abilities: Their racial abilities would be fel-based. Considering the demonic cycle of death and rebirth, perhaps a Man’ari player can get a free rez (with a long CD), but to balance it out they also get a weakness debuff that lasts for a few minutes.
Lore: After the Legion’s defeat, the Man’ari people, having been fractured and struggling to survive for a while, start to rebuild their society on Argus under the guidance of Rakeesh, who was eventually revived. The Draenei and the Lightforged understandably see this as a direct threat, and unbeknownst to the rest of the Alliance a few rogue forces of Draenei and Lightforged mount an attack on the Man’ari and attempt to wipe them out for good. Desperate, Rakeesh, with total mistrust of the Alliance and the hatred of his father still burning deep in his heart, directly petitions the Horde for help, appealing to their history of offering second chances and insisting that the Man’ari are no longer a threat and just want to exist like anyone else. Albeit very reluctantly, the Horde Council agrees to help them and the Horde player is tasked with routing the rogue Alliance forces and saving the Man’ari. Once accomplished, Rakeesh pledges the loyalty of the Man’ari to the Horde. And unsurprisingly, the incident causes tensions to rise between the factions.
Wonderful! Thank you!