With most classes now being available to all races, I was wondering, both in race and class choice, but also RP backstory, if your character is more inside the norm, or outside the norm, and how do you wrote or idealized said character?
For instance, a human paladin with silver hand themed backstory would be pretty inside the norm, but a draenei warlock would not exactly be. Do you tend to stick with the most usual and predictable, or do you try to make the most opposite of that?
Typically, there should be a solid reason, or at the very least a logical coincidence of how your characters race happens to coincide with their class.
I chose to dedicate a backstory to when Bloodrott was alive at one point. Some challenges included how a Tauren deathknight could come to be, especially in the timeframe I chose to write him in, which would have been pre-burning crusade.
Most Tauren hung around Mulgore and the surrounding areas, rarely adventuring from their homeland in Kalimdor.
So, using the lore at the time to string together a likely story, a plot was born.
If you could make a character “outside the norm”, their story better be good!
I’d say most of my Pandaren characters are at least somewhat typical of their race in temprement. The views of some, especially those associated with my Winterclaw or Iceclaw clans, may not entirely align with common depictions of Pandaren in game, but I also don’t think they stray too far from what could be considered normal.
My presently most frequently played of these characters, Yun, may be a good example. A Death Knight and formerly Felsworn, two things quite atypical of Pandaren (or any race for that matter), but she’s even tempered and generally friendly or at least nice towards others and prefers to maintain peace and good vibes; very typical of the race.
I don’t usually set out with the goal of going with or against the grain with the characters I create; that is more a side effect of what I end up doing. Yun, for example, was originally written for a campaign that was never finished which involved her as the deposed leader of a group of Felsworn Pandaren, hence why being Felsworn is part of her background. Had I just made Pandaren DK character from scratch I probably wouldn’t bother with such a thing.
I’d say they are inside the norm, but outside expectations.
By this I mean, that it is perfectly reasonable to assume the people of that race have the potential/ability to become that class, but depictions of this combination are shockingly lacking.
Why they are lacking could easily be written off as their culture doesn’t encourage it or even actively attempts to suppress it the needed abilties.
For example: Shamans and Druids amongst the Blood Elves. There really shouldn’t be a reason they can’t happen. The only arguments I’ve heard that are fairly plausible to me is cultural. Blood Elves actively work to suppress/discourage the development of Shamanist and Druidic ability amongst their people.
Hmm hunters are kinda all over the place theme wise, so it’s a very flexible class you can fit reasonably for every race. I think the details can tell more of a story in this case.
For example, this character, Oliver Barthcellos, he’s a gilnean hunter. Gilneas hunters usually use guns and muskets because the kingdom was pretty industrialized before Cata, but Ollie chooses to use bow and arrow both because he was trained by Night Elves after the gilnean refugees settled in Darnassus and because his worgen form allows him to draw the bowstring further and shoot arrows that hit a lot harder.
He’s very gilnean in the stubborn self-reliant kind of way, but at the end of the day he’s just another person in Azeroth. A gentle guy who happens to be cursed and also happens to be good with ranged weapons. He gets food and gold with these skills, but feels happier when he can help someone with them.
As the Champion, you’re always outside the norm.
It’s what they count on.
Gnomes and magic (even the spooky variety) go hand in hand. So definitely inside the norm!
Magic that actually works without blowing you up is definitely outside for gnomes.
The gnomes of warcraft are direct spiritual descendants of Dragonlance gnomes who are so infamous for things that don’t work that a gnome whose inventions actually worked was seen as cursed (by himself as well).
Good thing Mr. Whindle is, ICly, more on the destro side. So, still in the norm 
Halandor is not a single race, so I’d say he’s perhaps outside of it.
He’s a Half-Elf (Thalassian/Lordaeronian) and serves the Argent Crusade. He was raised in Corin’s Crossing and joined the Order of the Silver Hand as one of their first squires. He stayed with the Order of the Silver Hand until the Argent Dawn came about and then joined them, which of course turned into the Argent Crusade, and he’s been there ever since.
In the norm but not what you expect. As soon as you go beneath the surface it isn’t hard to see!
My Demon Hunter is an alt of this character; my rogue I’ve played since vaniller. The rogue functions as an inconspicuous glamour to continue vigilantism against warlocks, demons, guilty people who pay their way to escape justice, offenders in kaldorei lands.
Talks with an Appalachian accent. Likes guns. Likes machinery and is an Engineer. That seems anti-tradition but. The accent is a relic of Kalidar culture which I imagine would have been very boggy/swampy at places, and I think it’s gorgeous phonetically. Uses guns yes, but with special ammo developed to deal with undead and demons, developed over her career! Flying machines use biodeisel and algae-formulated hydrocarbons. Loves the land, loves Elune (even if moonwells probably burn now). Deviant in appearance but thoroughly, culturally, very traditional!
The few characters I have a consistent head-canon with are within their race’s natural narrative.
A Kul’tiran druid utilizing the rock bear form from Emerald Dream. I rationalize this as an advanced form of bark skin, with the druid’s mentality focused on extreme defensive maneuvers. As a Kul’tiran, this is a natural evolution of his regular transformations utilizing plant life, only now incorporating stone into the transformation.
A Blood Elf paladin fixated on her service to just causes - formerly as a method of controlling her innate magical addiction, but with that cured via the Sun Well’s purification it has become a genuine source of compassion for her to shield and guide others toward healthier lifestyles.
A Draenei warrior whose devotion to the light borders on the demonic (named her Valkya for the Warhammer reference, lol). She’s almost a foil to my BElf paladin, demonstrating how utter devotion to a belief can manifest into toxic and cruel ideology. She champions the Light’s domination through conquest, believing that so long as she is successful in her endeavors that the Light champions her victories, and, when defeated, that she is merely being redirected by the forces she praises.
My Mechagnome warrior is probably more sympathetic to King Mechagon, but is more than able to calculate which direction the currents flow. I’d say he fits in presently with the Alliance’s endeavors. Able to rapidly change his perspective based on what will be the most logically productive recourse he is willing to fight and serve whichever cause will enable him to continue enhancing himself and performing beyond organic inferiority. To this end, he considers himself a gift to the Alliance King, an agent of impeccable steel to be directed toward the Alliance’s foes…but open to whatever arrangements will enable his continued progress in machine worship.
My char fits the mold pretty well though my back story is a little out the ordinary for a Draenei holy priest. Though it is not outside of the realm of possibility.