I just want to be clear, I am NOT speaking to the quality of any of the Allied Races.
However, THEMATICALLY the Lightforged Draenei and Void Elves both suffer from the same issue, albeit in opposite ends of the spectrum.
The Lightforged Draenei are not a “race” at all. The Draenei aren’t even a “race”, they’re just a small group of Eredar that fled Argus in the distant past. And the Lightforged are an even smaller group of those Eredar who only just recently performed a ritual to INFUSE their bodies with the power of the Light.
They are, in essence and all practically, a “race” of Paladins.
Like Paladins, they’ve not only recently performed a ritual of devotion to the Light, but their bodies are physically infused with it, just as Paladins’ are. This would likely make them immune to plague, and also make it physically impossible to empower themselves with other forms of magic.
This is obviously problematic.
Void Elves suffer much the same fate, their bodies being warped and seemingly infused by the Void.
That would make things equally unstable to wield any other forms of magic.
I’m both instances, you’re essentially putting the player race in a very different starting point than other races. While I do not imagine the Draenei would ever produce nor allow a Warlock within their culture, it is at least TECHNICALLY possible.
The same isn’t necessarily true of a number of Lightforged or Void Elf class combos.
So, I would strongly encourage rebranding both “Allied Races”.
In the case of the Void Elves, it’s actually a fairly simple “fix”. Simply rename them to High Elves (or something else), just something that doesn’t INHERENTLY connect the race to Void magic specifically. This would allow them to become Paladins, which is obviously Blizzard’s end goal for “All races as All classes”.
It keeps them effectively the same, but doesn’t make ALL of them aligned with Void magic.
Now for the Lightforged Draenei, it’s a bit more involved — although I think either of these solutions would actually be a net positive anyways.
First solution would simply be replacing them with “Eredar”. Effectively still the Draenei model, but different customizations. Current Lightforged customizations could go to the existing Draenei (being a Light-worshipping culture already), where Eredar would get normal and Fel-themed options. It wouldn’t necessarily force then into being Light or Fel aligned, but just giving those options. I’d probably rebrand the racials, or at least change the ions and visuals.
Another option — one FAR more involved, though arguably cooler — would be to replace them with the Broken. While they aren’t necessarily my cup of tea, I think they would still make a great addition.
In either case, you’d have to update their opening voice-overs.
For the “High Elves” (or whatever you might call them), just say they fought alongside Alleria, they followed her into the dangerous places among the stars, and some have begun hearing whispers questioning their sanity. Effectively the same, but not inherently poisoning the well.
For “Eredar”, you’d just change it that when the Army of Light arrived, some among the Legion’s ranks defected to rejoin their former brothers and sisters. Together, they fight under their ancestral name of Eredar…”, something like that.
For the “Broken”, it’s more work but probably an easier intro, “when the first Draenei fled Argus, not all among the Eredar were so willing to serve the Burning Legion. Those who weren’t executed were forced into hiding. Countless millennia have made them ruthless survivors…”, something like that.
Ultimately, the goal is that you have races that make more sense as “being EVERY class”, which again, is obviously Blizzard’s goal right now.
It still doesn’t allow for Undead Paladins to exist (which I don’t think any amount of creative writing is going to allow), but I think this would improve these two races pretty dramatically.
