I can understand both points of view and am way too sleepy to offer constructive criticism. I guess I’m mostly thinking of the playerbase they could attract. Probably not fair of me to judge something prior to it even existing, but it’s hard not to when it’s the arch-nemesis of your favorite race, which is already rather openly ostracized.
TBF I’m kind of amused in a dark way that people are still against Pandaren in WoW. That’s … kind of dumb. Dumb in the way of watching a dog constantly running face-first into plate-glass windows levels of dumb.
alright, so let’s say Mogu don’t come in because of their bad history with the Pandaren who are already part of the Alliance and Horde. Mantid don’t come in because of their bad history with the Pandaren for the same reason.
The problem is that every other race in Pandaria has had negative relations at one time with the Pandaren other than the Jinyu, and the one tribe of Jinyu we did see working with the Alliance got pretty decimated in the aftermath of the Jade Forest incident, so while they might be a workable Allied Race for the Alliance, they also suffered quite terribly from working with us, and then got basically abandoned once that story beat was done and dusted.
So a race from Pandaria, that the Alliance and Horde and the Pandaren as a whole have good relations with.
Grummies? They’d be an interesting addition to the Alliance and could play well with both the Explorer’s League and their obsession with ‘Lucky Doo’s’, and they’d offer a breath of innocence much like the Vulpera did for the Horde.
Hozen for the Horde. Oh my God, but I would crawl over broken glass for playable Hozen.
Alternatively, we could go Full Void Elf here and have a race completely unconnected to either the Mogu or the Tol’vir pop up as an Allied Race.
Ogres, as I’ve stated before, could be a fascinating addition to the Horde, especially if they’re not just dumb brutes. Gorian refugees that arrived with the Horde, the highly evolved Ogre Magi from Blade’s Edge Mountain and the Stonemaul Clan from Kalimdor come together with Azerite and form a single clan of mentally-evolved Ogres at the cost of never growing to immense size as they normally do could be a fun way to get Ogres without breaking the game.
Likewise, having the Broken of Outland come fleeing to Azeroth after a Legion invasion permanently taints their homes in Outland and they permanently join the Alliance would solve so many issues as well as finally tie up the last of the Draenei plot-threads that have been left hanging.
Alternatively, ‘Mercenaries’ based upon the original races might be a fun twist. Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes from the Pirate-Factions of Kul’tiras, all of ‘one’ race but using the same racials could be a fun addition to the Horde, while having Light-Bound Orcs, Tauren and Darkspear Trolls taken prisoner during the Battle for Azeroth within the Alliance could make both for a fun dramatic twist, especially if some people in the Alliance think this is a good thing and others are horrified at the implications.
We still have Ankoan which at first were called Deep Sea Jinyu, I honestly thought with their connections with the Jinyu as well as both the groups working with the Alliance they would of been an Allied Race, but… You know Mechagnomes instead. Jinyu could still work, even if there are less of the group that worked with the Alliance, Blizzard has shown us they don’t care when it comes to population with the Void Elves. I could also see the Jinyu fitting well with the Tushui philosophy.
For the Hozen, I don’t know if it is still the case since I don’t play Hordeside often, but in Dazar’alor in the spot where the Kor’Kron are training there is one that is a Hozen.
“Rico got this b---- on lockdown!” is the best line from MoP without question.
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Just drag us, kicking and screaming, back into some lighthearted stuff, after years of grimdark stories. Vulpera gave us some innocence back to the Horde, Hozen would give us some laughter after all the tears.
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With regards to Mogu and such… I always viewed it this way.
When have the Pandaren ever held grudges?
This is my logic behind the Zandalari too. It helps in both cases you have a contrast of Lei Shen and Zul with… the actual good section and leaders.
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Suna Silentstrike
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Hey Gentarn, just wanted to say I read this thread last night while in bed and I thoroughly enjoy the thought and ideas you put into each idea presented. Very organized and very enoyable as well as a cool prompt!!
While I love the idea of Jinyu, Hozen and Mogu being added to the factions, I still await for the day we see Broken/Krokul draenei recruited with Alliance. While even in Velens protest to at least keep some of his people away from battle once again, they simply must aid the people who helped them. Both on Outlands and Argus.
(I find the Nagrand Broken more interesting since they’ve been around the longest and I have the most fond memories with them but thats just me!!!)
I’ve always been a huge fan of Mantid becoming a playable race. With the defeat of their queen, they’re released from the hivemind (think Lich King and the Scourge). Always felt they would have been a good addition to the Alliance. Also, we need a race that doesn’t suffer from sexual dimorphism.
I was their wakener, they were my friends 
Fair, but even she admitted she was consumed by hatred
Yaungol…we must have Yaungol…well, I must have Yaungol…well, must is a strong word. but I want Yaungol…Yaungol?
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I mean, I’d hell’s play Yaungol and Taunka for the Horde, and it’d be relatively easy for Blizzard to pull off since they’re basically fluffier Tauren with yak heads and buffalo heads.
An interesting Allied Race for the Alliance could be altered Saurok, especially since we’ve seen them working alongside Kul’tiramisuian Pirates well before the Tentacle Power Hour featuring N’Zoth. Add Jinyu to that and we’d be golden.
Alternative : Blizzard decides to make Wastelanders into Dragon-Folk because N’Zoth corruption and Wrathion needs new minions and has a cure/immunization potion, but it only works for Black Dragons.
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Getting either as a customization option for Tauren would be so nice since they are lacking in options. The women have had like 4 faces since Vanilla and they never really explored what a Taunka woman would look like, they only designed the men :(.
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I’m going to pay you a million gold to go back in time and do this in TBC.
Let’s do a twist, new allied races are The Oracles and the Frenzyheart Tribe. They’re neutral, but you can only have one unlocked at a time.
Tauren have drawn the short straw since vanilla and have continued to do so including highmountain tauren unfortunately. HMT have something like 31 total customization options compared to the 42-61 for other allied races, even the ones introduced at the same time as HMT had 30% more options by comparison. Hopefully they’ll take this customization revamp as an opportunity to give tauren some love. Especially since helmets tend to look so poor on tauren, we need all the head customization we can get. I’m not holding my breath though lol