So full disclosure a lot of the Drak’thyr stuff is a blind-spot for me. I messed around with making one but never really felt engaged with what they were, so I’m probably missing out on some lore.
That said, what exactly is a visage and why do Dragons/Drak’thyr have them? I mean let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say that Drak’thyr are limited to what visages they have in-game because Blizzard doesn’t want to spend the resource on making it a thing for every race we’ve seen a dragon visage for.
Is there a reason given for why a reptilian demi-god would need to look like an elf/human/tauren/draenei(?)/orc etc? Or is it purely an aesthetic thing so they look pretty?
Is it limited to dragons/drak’thyr or have other races demonstrated an ability to do the same? (not talking about druids). Could for example, a Nerubian do it? Is it a specific thing the Titans granted uniquely to dragons?
The Dragons invented the concept of Visages so they could get close to early mortals without them freaking out. Also it is nice for getting through doorways.
The Drakthyr visages were supposed to be somehow special and inherent to their natures, but they never actually got around to explaining HOW they were. It is like it was a plot point that got dropped.
In the War of the Scaleborn the Aspects developed their visage forms to better interact with the mortals who had started living on the dragon isles, as a means to recruit them when the inevitable war broke out and to better learn about them.
Nethalarion would use this same group to ultimately create the Dracthyr, as as means to be his ultimate dragon killing weapons.
The Incarnates apparently developed the ability entirely on their own for their own secretive reasons. It seems to be a draconic thing that any sufficiently intelligent dragons can learn to do if they choose too
Neltharion designed them and he left behind no answers to that question. The Dracthyr Visages are unique in that they are completely unsuited for disguise purposes so I would surmise that they were created in order to more efficiently interact with humanoid books and devices.
I really wanted an answer to that! That and seeing Chromatus use his own Visage!
YES, I KNOW he probably will be forgotten in this saga or be corrupted, turn (to opposites of the order Aspects like Nightmare, Infinite etc) and with the Dark Heart absorbed into Iridikron (Xal’atath parting gift before fight) to be able to match the Aspect and specially his sister Vyranoth who is both an incarnate and aspect! (Can’t wait to see if she evolves from Ice to a Prismatic Crystal Dragon like Umbrelskul that dragon model look so good!)
Oh how I despair of never seeing Chromatus animated in WoW!
Joking my dramic reaction aside… I really hope they at some point tell us? Maybe as a racial quest?
So they were created to have this power to transform into a sapient race (or in at least one case, bovine-adjacent) because while the Titans thought Dragons were cool and ostensibly needed them to have their draconic form, they also needed them to be able to interact with their other creations (the Vrykul and Earthen) without it being too jarring. So they designed them with a magical ability to assume the form of another creature…and is it just the one form, or could a dragon change their mind and pick another one of a different race entirely?
A Visage form defaults to whatever sort of mortal the Dragon finds most appealing. They can change their visages, but do not do so often. It is a bit like wearing clothing that is not your style. You can do it, but you likely do not want to.
My guess is the nature of development and presumed demand pushed them to make the “special” humanoid forms for dracthyr, and then just kinda left it the ball in the writers’ court to figure out why that was the case.
“If they’re visages, why are they limited to one? Why are they entirely new instead of the peoples they’re trying to blend in with?”
“I don’t know. Not my problem. Make it happen, lore weenies.”
You also have Kairozdormu, whom used an elven and later an orc visage. The latter of which he died in.
Then you have Acridostrasz who has used a human and orc visage.
Which is kinda the problem I have with the whole “oh a visage is a reflection of the dragon” when we have at least three examples of dragons that have used various visage forms depending on the situation.
Judging by a questline coming in 10.2.7 and a recent interview, it sounds like they initially planned on having Dracthyr visages being special but have since retconned that to some extent and are leaving it open to the idea that Dracthyr visages are much like visages of regular dragons. It seems they might be open to adding new Dracthyr visage forms at some point.
This would explain why they never followed up on the initial lore explanation that Dracthyr visages are different from dragon visages.
If they were to add new base forms for Dracthyr visage, I hope they also consider adding a way to add barbershop presets similar to how we can save transmog presets.
Others have already pointed out that dragons created visages to better interact with mortal races. That’s pretty straightforward.
Dracthyr visages are a bit more open ended. The way I personally see it is Dracthyr were created by Neltharion using the … essences(?) …power(?)… of all the different flights. The idea being that Dracthyr would be elite soldiers. Dracthyr visages more than likely weren’t part of Neltharion’s priority ingredients, nevertheless, considering what Dracthyr were made with, Dracthyr visages ended up being a latent function.
Presently, they’re use is with the same intention as their dragon counterparts; to better interact with other races.
And for the practical reason that their forms are too large and clumsy to deal with things such as books, scrolls, and manipulating devices not suited for their form. Note that their Visages don’t resemble any other form, being more purposely tailormade for specific uses.
The way some dragons and dracthyr talk about their visages feels like it is deeper than a disguise, sort of like a manifestation of their personality or a part of who they are.
It feels weird.
I wonder if a dragon could have a visage of an even bigger dragon.
I had thought it was going to be revealed the Infinates had a deal with Neltharion way back when and had abducted humans and elves across time that not be missed for experiment materials… but that never happened, sadly.
It would of justified their visage form as being an expression of their non-draconic sides.
I think they still aren’t 100% decided on what Dracthyr visages are. They could still potentially drop a lore reason why Dracthyr visages are more limited than dragon visages (though this is probably unlikely at this point).
I think the problem is that they’ve become reluctant to move forward with their original lore explanation for Dracthyr visage forms due to players not being happy with Dracthyr visage being limited to just human/elf/half-elf in appearance, so we’re just going to get vague responses like “no current plans to expand visage forms” and “no plans to expand visage forms, but could happen some day” instead of a flat no.
