There are lots of cool races out there in the wild, but not all of them are likely to ever become playable. Here are some Races that I personally wish I could play as, though I hold no hope of it ever happening in my heart.
Man’ari!
I love these guys. But they are very unlikely to happen.
Why? Is it because of the story? Is it because they are evil?
No. The story is fluid. Anything could happen. A group of Draenei could be corrupted against their will and then free themselves and stay in the Alliance. Or a group of Horde Warlocks could summon Man’ari and force them to join the Horde through magic. Anything is possible because fiction is fictional and the story can go anywhere Blizzard wants it to go.
They are unlikely simply because physically they are just recolored Draenei, and we already have one of those. Hopefully one day we will get so many races that it would be fine for a base model to have 2 different recolors lol
Dryads!
Dryads are great, but they are rather unlikely to become playable.
Why? Is it because they have four legs?
Not really. Dryads are children of the Demigod Cenarius, father of Azeroth’s Druidism. Just like all Blood Elves have Racials based on the Arcane regardless of Class, all Dryads could have a Druidic Shapeshifting Racial to grow humanoid legs so they can use Mounts and stuff.
The reason why Dryads are unlikely to be playable is because they have far too many particularities about them. They don’t consume meat, they are immune to magic, the Loa gods of the Trollkind are scared of them, they can enter the Emerald Dream at will, etc. Sure, Blizzard could just ignore all their lore to make them playable in a “Gameplay First” fashion, but I don’t think they would.
One way to make them playable would be to say "because they chose to join Mortals in their Mortal conflicts, Cenarius took his godly blessings from them, but that would make Cenarius a pretty heartless character. “Oh, so you want to go to dangerous wars? Then let me make you vulnerable to magic attacks” lol
I don’t believe Blizzard would add Dryads. Hopefully they could add a Dryad Form glyph for Druids.
Harpies!
Playable Harpies would make me very Harpy, but there are two reasons why I find them unlikely to be playable.
1 - They aren’t very popular among the playerbase.
2 - They are flying creatures in a game where all combat and most meaningful forms of content are grounded.
You know when you’re in a no-flight area riding a Dragon, and you jump off a cliff and the dragon chooses death over flying and you think “that’s just stupid”? Imagine if the whole game was like that. That’s what would happen if Harpies were playable.
A Shaman pushes you off the middle bridge in Eye of the Storm? Why can’t you just fly back? Why does your character choose death?
And sure, if they were popular enough to be profitable Blizzard could potentially try. But are they? I don’t believe so.
Maybe one day Disney will make a popular TV show about Harpies, and then we will see.
Centaurs!
Centaurs are probably the least possible race in this list. And again, as children of Cenarius the reason is not their four legs. They could shapeshift out of that for Mounts.
No, the reason is simple: Blizzard does’t care about Centaurs.
They literally don’t exist outside of Vanilla content. Once you’re past Vanilla levels you’ll never see a Centaur ever again. The QUILLBOAR got a model update in BfA while Centaurs are still using their 2004 models.
If there’s a will, there’s a way. There is no will here, at least none from Blizzard’s side, which is the side that can make things happen.
What about you? Which Races do you wish you could play as but you’ve abandoned all hope they would happen?
