Gnolls and Kobolds as Allied Races; just hear me out!

Community General Discussion
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Alright, so Dragonflight introduced us to revamped Gnolls. They’re obviously built off of the Worgen skeleton, which I’ll say looks surprisingly pretty good. I wouldn’t mind them being just a bit more chonky – I might have used the Tauren as the base skeleton (sized down, obviously) – but no complaints.

With the Kobolds, we’re obviously seeing a lot of new skeletons for them in the upcoming expansion. But monsters rarely have all the animations necessary for a fully playable Race. My natural inclination would be having a medium-sized Kobold built off of the Gnome skeleton (serving as a more comparable Alliance counterpart to the Horde’s Vulpera). I could really see the Gnome’s “waddle” sort of run animation looking good with the Kobold’s mouse-looking tails.

Of course, one or both of these should probably have a Horde counterpart as well. I’ve never been particularly fond of Quilboars, but you could certainly do that. I think a much more exciting option would be Ogres using the Kul Tiran skeletons as a base (though they’ve gotta keep their original Chris Farley dance animation).

I’d probably go a smidge more limited on their class choices – I don’t see either being good candidates for Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Paladins, or Priests (although a case could maybe be made for Kobold Priests with a belief based around their love of candles).

Again, just my two cents on the matter. While the Earthen aren’t the most exciting race in the world, it’s nice seeing the concept of allied races continue. I do think these might be a little more exciting, though!

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Bumping this. I think, as the recent Warcraft Rumble has shown, I think Gnolls are actually surprisingly iconic. I’d personally see them as a better fit on the Alliance, although I wouldn’t be totally opposed to them being “neutral”.

My thinking would be to set the tone by introducing them with some humor.
Like maybe Hogger is present at some event with other prisoners from the Stockades (like some kind of community service), when there is an ambush to break one of the prisoners out (maybe a new Defias gang?). Hogger catches their scent, and agrees to help catch the prisoner, like he took a bite out of Hogger’s sandwich and Hogger demands justice. The guard on-duty doesn’t see any harm in allowing him to tag along.

So you track them down and discover the prisoner was actually working with a remnant of the Twilight’s Hammer cult, and you have a brief fight. The guard recognizes this could have become a pretty grave threat, and as payment, agrees to cut Hogger’s sentence short, provided he and his gang stop trying to pillage incoming trade supplies.

Hogger then declares that, after seeing how “weak” you all are, that “Alliance need Hogger and friends for protection!”, and insists that he and his Gnoll pack will lend their might to the Alliance. The guard is just like “Uh, sure? I mean, I guess they won’t cause too much trouble, right?”.

So in their heads (and more importantly, in their hearts), Gnolls see themselves as the absolute apex predator, the mightiest warriors, the greatest hunters, everything. And they’re generally just tolerated, but are seemingly helpful enough.

Conversely, maybe upon seeing the likes of actual magic, and larger-than-life threats like demons and dragons, you’ll occasionally see a Gnoll NPC running around like it’s the end of the world, giving you some comedic relief that can appreciate just how fantastical everything in WoW actually is.

No idea what would make for fun racials, though. I feel like their login screen has to be the area around guard-tower in Elwyn Forest near Hogger’s original location, though.

Maybe when you’re near death, you’d call out and summon a few other Gnolls that would attack your target?

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Why would the Alliance or Horde want them?

How many players would “really” main either?

How much work would it take to get gear looks to work on them? Would it require more than Drathyr which is a full on race and not an allied race?

Neither race is really organized or intelligent in great numbers.

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Also, probably as the singular example of a more “serious” story development for Gnolls, maybe having a Gnoll “Death Knight” appear at Acherus, which should be seen occasionally explaining to other NPC’s the power of “Decay” magic.

To my knowledge, it still hasn’t been fully explained, but it has a super cool aesthetic, and one that actually meshes quite nicely with the Unholy spec. Could be cool to throw some breadcrumbs between the two concepts.

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No, not hearing you out. I’d take Murlocs before them creeps.

At least murlocs have the best dance in the game.

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I dunno, I think Gnolls are pretty great honestly. I could actually see possibly changing one of my existing characters to one (unsure which).

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I dont see how any logic would possible reinforce Gnolls being a choice for alliance.

None of their lore suggests they would be a good fit for alliance but I see it as being very feasible on Horde.

Same goes for Kobolds, but I dont see Kobolds adding anything of notable significance to the horde.

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I mean Hogger and the Gnolls in general gave the Alliance constant problems, I feel like the Horde would LOVE to have such an individual amongst their ranks.

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Yea I mean they are a different size, shape and have completely different animations OBVIOUSLY they are using the worgen skeleton
/s

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As for Kobolds, we are getting lore for this in War Within and the new Swole ones look cool.
And if we want to get technical…we already have a few of them in The Horde.

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Blizzard is never going to add another allied race with a unique skeleton that can wear armor again. KT was the very last.

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I am starting to think Kobolds will become an allied race, after seeing the stuff involving them in TWW beta.

There’s a sub-group that we become friends with.

Idk though- we’ve done the same with several other races, but the option is there should Blizzard decide it.

Playable Murlocs almost became a thing, after all.

I think, eventually we’ll get them. WoW’s version is pretty iconic.

I’d play one, who doesn’t want to be a smelly rat-person?

I played a Ratonga in Everquest 2 as a kid, same thing.

13

Yes but before any other race, we will get Firethen the ancient allied race of deep lava dwarves and Iceathern which is even more ancient allied race of north pole dwarves.

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14

Don’t forget the Airathen, the ancient race of deep-air dwarves.

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15

Sorry my bad, you are right :slight_smile:

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That’s the Dark Iron and Frostborne.

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Kobolds are a harder sell for me because they’re so small and small races don’t tend to showcase personalization very well, but they’re at least a classic race so I wouldn’t hate it if we got them.

I’m on board for gnolls though. They’ve been a memorable race for a long time, and at least since the Traveler novels they’ve been depicted as more than sapient enough.

I probably wouldn’t play one personally, but if they were part of a big drop of Allied Races like the launch of Battle for Azeroth, I’d be all for it.

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You haven’t seen the Swolbolds yet have you?

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But do the kobolds have Pack Tactics?

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They literally use the Worgen rig.

Also, ironic given that Vulpera are built off of the Goblin rig, yet also have a number of custom animations.