To be fair I feel like Shadowlands is reversing that trend. Assuming the four main covenant races become Allied Races, it feels like the Alliance would get the Kyrian and Sylvar, while the Horde would get the Venthyr and Maldraxxus Gladiators, I assume. I know a lot of people don’t think much of the Kyrians, but I think they’re pretty cool, and everyone seems to really like the Sylvar. Venthyr are vampires and certainly cool just from that, let alone their zone and culture and aesthetic, but I think the biggest flop would be whatever races comes from the Necrolord Covenant.
BFA has been rough for the Alliance in the Allied Race department though, there isn’t really any denying that. I don’t think that can really be fixed though. Maybe new customization options for Allied Races will help? The helf crowd seems pretty excited to see velves get new customization, but that’s a whole other can of worms.
Well, unfortunately we will never know seeing as Blizzard decided to give us the trash Gnomes we got instead of just using the Northrend ones we already had that people were asking for them to add instead.
And to be honest, I don’t believe that devs feel they have done something that needs to be remedied.
So let’s stay in the same situation as BfA regarding anything. And as we shouldn’t expect anything about allied races from Shadowland, let’s just walk around, hand in hand with the horde, help some of the Shadowland people, and then they’ll end up going to the horde because the horde helped them more , or because nothing related to them was written for the alliance that allows them to show interest in the alliance or in the worst case scenario, that they are neutral and can choose any of the factions, making the choice of the alliance something unimportant, keeping our ostracism high since they may be massively in the horde.
I don’t think it’ll be the Sylvar because of how closely tied to Loa and Trolls they are. Plus, that would be pretty boring (the “pretty” races for Alliance, the “ugly” races for the Horde again). I also don’t think any of the new races will become playable, but for the sake of discussion:
I think it’ll be:
Kyrian and Venthyr - Alliance
Sylvar and Maldraxxus - Horde
I think Maldraxxus Gladiators, not that I’ve really seen anything that could be playable, would belong on Horde just because the Alliance likely compare them to the Scourge (for good reasons), so that makes sense to me. And Kyrian are very obviously a token Alliance race due to their beliefs and ideals.
Sylvar and Venthyr are more interesting. Sylvar look to be benign but they are deeply steeped in Loa lore as well as the cycle of rebirth. Tyrande is said to have a huge role played in the Night Fae campaign, but we also know Vol’jin will play just as big of a role. Plus Bwonsamdi’s dungeon and pocket dimension is in that area as well. It would also give the Horde another “pretty” race while matching the animalistic attributes most of the Horde has.
Consequently, Venthyr would add a very interesting dynamic to the Alliance. It’d be an “uglier” race, but not just reviled like the Mechagnomes. They’re aristocratic and could fit in nicely with the Alliance aesthetic. I understand they have ties to Blood Elves, but they also have some parallels in the Alliance when it comes to stature, class, and monarchy.
Of course, I really don’t see them becoming playable. I imagine Blizzard is steering clear of allied races for a little bit, and I would personally just like to get an expansion with an out of the box race that we don’t have to work towards. As much as my best friend wants playable fauns, I don’t see it happening.
They’re connected to Wild Gods more than Loa or Trolls. While I think Ardenweald will let us explore Loa some more, I think the more immediate lore will be about Wild Gods in general.
Please… no. Kael’thas is not allowed to become an Alliance character. That’s not fair to Blood Elf players.
Well personally I never thought the Sethrak were going to be playable.
I knew from day 1, Blizzard was baiting the playerbase into playable Vulpera. But the Sethrak clearly seemed like NPC’s to me. The way they only have 2 or 3 combat animations, and the way their tails drag against the floor made it seem like they would only really be significant in Vol’dun and not appear anywhere else.
I don’t want them to be playable. While the fantasy is there, and the sethrak are really cool. I’d rather have a race with an entire set of character animations.
I think Kyrians going Alliance is more or less set in stone if Shadowlands races are being made into allied races. They definitely don’t fit in with the Horde. But this is another reason I think the Sylvar going Alliance is a good thing; it’s not just another human looking race.
I don’t think he will be. Like I said, I honestly don’t believe anything is leaving the Shadowlands other than the players in the current story. Kael’thas was butchered back in BC, and he deserves to have some redemption. But I don’t see him leaving the Shadowlands.
Well, Loa and Wild Gods are one in the same in most cases. They’re essentially the same thing. There’s a large section where Loa are being reborn, and it explains how the Wild Gods keep coming back. Some Loa aren’t Wild Gods (like Bwomsamdi) but a majority of them are.
More than anything, though, I doubt we’re getting anymore races for a while.
God I just have no interest in any of them. They’re so basic…unless they throwing those Gargoyles at us, it’s just nothing new. Which isn’t likely. The Venthyr are probably the best ones because it’s not everyday you see Nosferatu inspired vampires in games.
Sylvar! Another vulpera race for horde. What a surprise?
Venthyr! Another junkgnome race for alliance!
I really fail to see how a vampire race has anything to do with ally.
More that I think having races that are more visually different would be interesting. Shockingly, not everything is about “Yay for Horde, boo for Alliance!” Having another traditional “pretty race” on the Horde instead of more furries (which yeah, they’re I guess still sort of furries, but semantics) would be a nice change of pace rather than going down the “They monsters, they bad, go Horde” that everyone seems to want to happen. Consequently, giving Alliance more than just pretty humans and Draenei clones gives them another Worgen type race where there’s some ferocity and you all aren’t just dolls.
We also don’t know how the stories will unfold anyway. So who knows? Venthyr could mirror Alliance ideals by the end of their overthrowing their dictator dude, and we could find out the Winter Queen consumes the souls of children? I just think it’d be nice to shake it up and not give the obvious choices to the obvious factions. Don’t think I deserve snark from you for that.
There are major lore figures associated with the Covenants. It’d be weird to develop them and then do nothing with them. If the Venthyr are becoming an allied race I would fully expect Kael’thas to either become their leader, or end up as their representative on Azeroth in whatever faction they join. I think the Venthyr in general would also fit in better with Blood Elves, Nightborne, and even Zandalari, than any of the Alliance’s currently playable races. Its weird to say, but the Horde has a lot of aristocratic cultures/societies compared to the Alliance.
Loa is the term Trolls give to spirits they worship. They even consider wisps to be Loa. Wild Gods are naturally occurring powerful spirits born from nature itself. We see them from other worlds while we’re in Ardenweald, even speak to one who’s world was destroyed by the Legion and just remains in Ardenweald because of it. In reality I imagine the Wild Gods known as Loa make up an insignificantly tiny proportion of Wild Gods passing through Ardenweald.
I think we’ll need to wait and see? Allied Races definitely bring in money through the in-game cash shop. I can’t see Blizzard going an expansion without adding some.
Ugh, don’t remind me. I honestly miss the days where the Horde were more nomadic and “simple” (we can joke about “mud huts” and all that, but I really did like that aesthetic…) and would prefer to have something similar to that rather than going down adding yet another aristocratic race. Part of my disdain for the modern Horde is how far we’ve moved away from what made it different from the Alliance. With the Forsaken in charge, lately we’ve just been Human Structures both Gothic and plague-invested. It’s been really boring…
See, now you’ve hit on an interesting point that I hadn’t considered as much. Shadowlands being THE Shadowlands, for the entire universe(?) or whatever. I don’t…know how to feel about that idea, of other planet residents also coming to this Shadowlands. I’ll have to see how it’s done, but I’m not…confident it will be explained well.
To that point, Wild Gods are (at least for what we know right now) limited to Azeroth. I don’t know if we have evidence that they existed on other planets, even if the Titans had been there, because I don’t believe the Draenei had any despite being a race with connections to the Titans. Azeroth was a wild, untamed world before the Titans arrived, and the Wild Gods were the animals on this planet long before they were ascended. I actually see them as the Pack Leaders from the Primal Zerg in Starcraft; they just became powerful on their own, without a God’s interference. Trolls have been worshiping Loa for longer than Night Elves have even been alive, so it’s really hard to say, y’know?
Side note: Ardenweald is the zone I’m most excited about because I absolutely adore Loa/Wild God Lore, haha.
Well, one could also arguing adding flight back to a vendor would keep more subs, but Blizzard hasn’t done that. I don’t know if the reception of Allied Races instills confidence in continuing forward. As I said before, I’d really prefer to just get out of the box races again like we did for the Blood Elves, Draenei, Worgen, Goblin, and Pandaren personally. But then again, I’ll still make an Allied Race no matter if it’s Horde or Alliance, out of the box or after a grind, because I have no control over myself or my desire to write and create stories.
I’d still be happy since both races are interesting to me, though I imagine we’d also have people pissing and moaning about how we didn’t get the vulpera.
