Don’t forget too that there were a number of Worgen who defected to the Twilight Hammer at Mount Hyjal who were completely eradicated, plus originally the Brashtide Crew faction was mostly, if not entirely wiped out until shown otherwise in Legion six IRL years later.
Then in Legion, the faction war in that expansion focused entirely on Undead vs. Worgen, meaning that close to 100% of Alliance-aligned characters Horde players fought against were Worgen.
There’s also a number of Worgen who were killed when Talanji and Prophet Zul were broken out of Stormwind’s Stockade.
They finally calmed down on killing Worgen en masse starting with Shadowlands. It so far looks like there are very few Worgen NPCs in Dragonflight, however, and even Shadowlands has almost no Worgen characters.
They’ve traded in killing Worgen with just not having Worgen at all, which is also part of the pattern for the race. In Cataclysm, Legion, and BfA, Worgen were mostly treated as cannon fodder. In MoP, WoD, Shadowlands, and from what I’ve seen of Dragonflight so far, Worgen are just not overly present at all.
They are especially lacking in having any significant strong female Worgen characters and one of the few times they had one, they killed her love interest and then never mentioned her ever again. They never really even showed her as a capable fighter.
As it stands, the notable female Worgen characters are basically just Celestine and Fiona, and even they don’t do a whole lot.
For a start, they should consider bringing back Lieutenant Thorn and letting her be more than just a quest giver. The trio of Worgen characters from the Island Expeditions could make a reappearance too. Fenrae is significantly different in personality than someone like Fiona or Celestine.
To be perfectly honest, there isn’t much variety in the way Worgen are portrayed in general. Usually they’re just warriors, merchants, generic citizens, or the occasional Druid or pirate.
There’s only about two Worgen Warlock NPCs with names currently, and one of them is feral and lives in the Dalaran sewers. It’s not confirmed one way or the other if the Warlock trainer from the starting zone is a Worgen. They should do more with Worgen Warlocks since the DF Affliction Warlock Talent Tree background currently features a Worgen character.
It certainly does look like that they just don’t know what to do with Worgen.
It’s honestly weird how they have the former Gilnean Archmage Arugal and occasionally have some generic and throwaway Worgen Mage characters but they don’t really have any notable Worgen Mage characters.
