Time to literally scream at Blizzard what I’m looking for in WoW…
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came back to bump for the cause.
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I came across a neat San’layn art piece on DeviantArt of a San’layn that kinda looks like a Blood Death Knight, though I am not 100% certain. It was created by Vermintales and was uploaded to the website on Oct. 2nd, 2023.
“Dar’kinor Bloodcroft” by Vermintales on DeviantArt
I’ve been trying to find art pieces and such showing off San’layn as different classes. It’s something I think helps a lot when it comes to customization and imagining San’layn as various classes.
I’ll be continuing to hunt for more San’layn and general vampire related art pieces to share for playable Horde San’layn idea inspiration. Still hoping for the best for them in the future! 
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race! 
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+1 for playable San’Layn
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Thank you for all of this. Was a pleasure to read. Maybe we will get San’Layn playable in the Midnight expansion.
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I wonder if Midnight might do playable San’layn?
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I think if san lynn become playable, they will need a new running animation. They already have unique idle and talking animations.
The guys do anyway, work on the chickas.
It’s an interesting thought and definitely possible since there is the theme of “uniting the Elf tribes” for that expansion. I don’t see why San’layn should be excluded from that at all.
Of course, I’m not wanting to count my chickens before they hatch. Especially when I see neutral Earthen being made playable over Wildhammer Dwarves, who are relegated to Customization Race purgatory, and something else for the Horde like Forest Trolls. So who knows if there would be some random group of Elves somewhere that comes out of nowhere and would become a neutral playable race instead?
If San’layn were to become playable and as a full race, I’m not sure how all it would be done realistically, such as whether they would be a neutral race or be Horde only while Alliance gets something else. I am of the opinion that San’layn should be a Horde only race, but given we have Darkfallen on both factions and that I can see Blizzard leaning more towards neutral races to save on resources. Frankly, I’d be happy to just have Horde San’layn as a full race, even if San’layn were neutral.
It’s also possible that we could see more types of Elves become Customization Races in addition to a new full playable race as well. Granted, most of y’all know my opinions on how Customization Races have been treated, so I’m not especially keen on that idea. It could be a part of the whole “uniting the Elf tribes” theme, but line could mean a lot of things.
It’ll be awhile before we get any announcements regarding what Midnight is. Maybe we’ll get info at Blizzcon this year, but with TWW launching late summer/early fall potentially, I don’t know how much info we would get. Especially given that it could be taken the wrong way to see an expansion launch, only to see the next expansion almost immediately announced and opened for preorders.
Guess we’ll see when we get there. I’ll be helping to report info on what Midnight is when it gets officially announced, but I do strongly suggest tempering expectations. Still hoping for the best as always, of course. 
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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So there has been a lot of TWW news, including storylines and such. One such storyline has Dalaran as an important part of it. Don’t worry, I’ll leave the spoiler tag below and then talk without spoilers on San’layn stuff below it.
Click here for TWW spoilers
Dalaran falls down and goes BOOM! From the sound of it, there are some survivors, including our player characters, that we have to fish out of the rubble.
Ok, with spoilers out of the way, you may recall that Dalaran has the Violet Hold, which houses many prisoners, including Blood-Princess Thal’ena:
Not sure if she would still be a princess or if she would be queen if Lana’thel is dead…well, dead dead as opposed to being undead dead.
Anyway, without spoiling the above text, there is an opportunity for the prisoners in the Violet Hold to all escape. And assuming that Thal’ena is still…alive? Whats the term here for undead? Well, if she still around, which is possible since wouldn’t you know it, San’layn are pretty darn hard to kill, this could mean that she could have escaped the Violet Hold in the above events.
And assuming that did happen, the question is what would the Blood-Princess/Queen then do? Well, ok, ASIDE from having the biggest bloody good time of a celebration party I mean.
I mention this because of Midnight coming and if we’re uniting the elf tribes and San’layn sure seem like a tribe of elves to me, maybe something could come of this. Moreso if Thal’ena and other San’layn gain control over the blood curse, which with the Lich King dead, should be a thing.
Seems like a pretty neat opportunity to bring in the San’layn again where we help them and have the Horde see the true meaning of Winter Veil and get them on the Horde side of that character creation screen! With a possible Thal’ena as leader!
…ok, some of this is wishful thinking, but it’s something I wanted to bring up as I was doing the Assault on Violet Hold dungeon as my engineering character for an engineering quest and wouldn’t you know it? First boss I face is Thal’ena and that is what got me to realize this thought. And thus I kicked butt ASAP to get to posting!
Anyway, this is an interesting thought that could hopefully lead to something with San’layn playable in some fashion. I’ll think on this scenario and see if I can go into more detail.
…of course, much as I’d love for this to happen, it might not be what Blizzard has planned, and this does assume that Blizzard remembers Thal’ena to begin with. But dagnabbit, I’m sure going to try and show my support for playable Horde San’layn opportunities best as I can!
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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I would make one, and make them both look and name them after Jin Kariya and constantly go on about plans.
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This seems like the time for Blizzard to do this sort of thing.
With the introduction of a Death Knight San’Layn Hero Talent thingy, it’d be a great tie in. Death Knight San’Layn do have an ability which gives them “Essence of the Blood Queen”, which could be a reference Thal’ena… or it’s just another Blizzard reference to Lilith, which would be really stupid.
Either way, this would be a great opportunity for Blizzard to introduce a great allied race. The issue is that they seem to be associated with both factions via Death Knights, but only really fit in with the Horde.
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On the subject of Blood-Princess Thal’ena, we don’t really know a lot about her, do we?
Seems like she was just created as a boss for us to beat up in the Violet Hold dungeon in Legion and unfortunately has about as much depth as a kiddie pool in the Fall. So I figured I would talk some about her, seeing as there is a chance to write her escaping Dalaran’s prison and becoming the leader of a playable faction of Horde San’layn.
There is some backstory to her to work with, given she is the daughter of Blood-Queen Lana’thel. Seeing as the queen is deader than Disney Star Wars’ fanbase, this would effectively make Thal’ena a Blood-Queen now. I forgot about Lana’thel’s soul thingie in the Shadowlands…then again, I try to forget about Shadowlands as much as possible.
The thing to note is of the vampyr curse the San’layn have. Years in isolation in the cell would’ve driven Lana’thel mad without a way to satisfy the need to feed could’ve given her a way to eventually work control over the curse, along with the Lich King’s death and the whole helm of domination being crafted into something else also having a hand on weakening the curse and letting the San’layn more in control of themselves.
We could also say that Dalaran studied her to learn about the San’layn, possibly to work on a cure for the curse. Research material would then exist. Lana’thel could have gathered them in her escape or eventually, we’d have to get them ourselves after learning of its existence.
And of course escaping Dalaran would lead a question of what she would do after that. I’d like to think that she was able to travel somewhere and meet up with remaining San’layn, who hear the call of the new Blood-Queen to assess the situation and gather their bearings. Possibly making a makeshift blood orb to quell the need to feed as they look over any research material on their curse from Dalaran.
We could say that they end up in the Ghostlands. If they’re in mostly control of themselves, I could see them wanting to be closer to their homeland, going with the idea we’ve talked about of residing in Deatholme. It’s a bit of a mirror of the Void Elves having done a similar thing back in the day.
As for how Thal’ena became a San’layn, you could have it where she and her mother had a tight relationship, often calling her “princess” as a nickname (fitting, no?) and through the whole Scourge attack, Lana’thel became a San’layn and finding her daughter in critical condition afterwards, opted to turn her into a San’layn. This could play into Thal’ena having conflict of her mother’s choice, which was done in desperation and it was either have her under her control as a San’layn or have her possibly lost as a mindless Scourge. This would be before Darkfallen with free will was a thing of course.
Seeing as Lana’thel was one of Kael’thas’ folowers and the San’layn did kinda become a thing because of him, that could also play in Thal’ena’s storyline. I don’t know if the Venthyr would want to walk Kael’thas in the fresh air of the living on a leash, but I’m sure she would have some harsh words for him. Moreso after learning about his betrayal from the San’layn eventually being accepted back into Silvermoon.
It’s an interesting scenario to think about, and seeing as we have a neat storyline opportunity, we might want to have some discussions on it. Kinda funny how she was initially created just as a dungeon boss jobber, only to potentially see her fleshed out quite a bit.
I’ll be thinking more on this scenario with Thal’ena becoming the Blood-Queen leader of the Horde San’layn faction and sharing thoughts here. If anyone else has any thoughts, I’d like to hear them also. It’s pretty important to keep playable Horde San’layn support going, and it seems like a great discussion point!
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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I could see their recruitment involving both the Blood Elves and Forsaken, each interested in them for a different reason.
Possible the Knights of the Ebon Blade as well.
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The Forsaken could act as a mediator between the San’layn and the Blood Elves in order to get them to learn the true meaning of Winter Veil and accept them.
Right now, popular opinion of the San’layn by the Blood Elves is being very dubious torwards them. Moreso with the recent Blood Prince that caused problems in the Blood Elf heritage questline that we had to beat up and blow up. So they would be generally wary of accepting them again. Of course, this is a bit hypocritical of them since they allow Darkfallen and Death Knight Blood Elves just fine and even allow Human zombies walk around their city without much of a thought. Makes me wonder what their thoughts were when some San’layn tried to join the Horde in BfA.
I don’t see why the Forsaken wouldn’t be sympathetic to the plight of the San’layn. Especially when they have Darkfallen within their ranks now. It wasn’t really their fault they became San’layn and they’re obviously not in the best situation at present. Besides, if the San’layn can take control of the vampyr curse, much like how the Worgen took some control over their curse, it would mean that they wouldn’t continue to grow in numbers and be a potential threat in the future. Plus they would make for some really awesome allies.
The San’layn that are able to gain some control over themselves again have an uphill battle in proving themselves as they fight off the vampyr curse they have. And frankly, that part of the curse should be weakening enough (Lich King’s Death, Crown of Wills, etc) for them to become more like themselves, which would play into their storyline quite well.
Finding themselves undead suddenly with a curse and possibly addiction they’re trying to fend off isn’t exactly the ideal fun vacation time. There is also the matter of several of them being followers of Kael’thas at one point, which of course they became San’layn because of him and Kael’thas would’ve likely betrayed them as he did later on anyway. Both of which can work well in their storyline.
We don’t know what is going to happen in Midnight, but there has been hints of void stuff and it has been brought up that San’layn could have some power over the void to help give an advantage. So in terms of “uniting the Elf Tribes,” Horde characters could work on getting the San’layn in control of their vampyr curse while helping the Forsaken mediate between them and Silvermoon, eventually letting those San’layn accepted back into Silvermoon and becoming full members of the Horde.
And of course Ghostlands is getting something of a revamp, at least to allow flying, so you may as well design Deatholme to be the racial hub for Horde San’layn. But as I said many times before, I don’t want to count my chickens before they’ve hatched seeing as missed opportunities tends to be a trend sadly.
Still, it’s worth bringing these ideas up in my opinion.
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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When we get the san’layn hero spec icon we can get an idea what would be on san’layn banners or tabards.
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Icons for the Hero Specs coming out have been revealed. The icon that is in the first colum, second row looks like the San’layn Death Knight talent:
Looks like it would make for a great icon to put on a San’layn racial banner and tabard.
And no, as I said before, I don’t see the San’layn hero talent lowering playable San’layn chances in general. The Priest San’layn talent wouldn’t either, and there is more to a San’layn than the Death Knight or Priest class, which ironically, you can’t even use Darkfallen customization for Death Knights still last I checked.
Saying that some fancy text on a UI for one class on a feature that may not be evergreen would affect playable chances is just silly. I keep going until we either get San’layn as a Customization Race officially or we preferably get them as a full playable Horde race!
Also, I’ll be thinking some more on the Thal’ena scenario I’ve been talking about. Might type up some general stuff when I can, though I need to type a couple scenarios for a few other race request megathreads I promised before, so hopefully I can find the time to do all that soon.
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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Falls said other day she thinks first one in second row is San’layn which makes sense honestly. 
Also yes to this forever and ever until it becomes a reality for us.
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Wowhead had an article regarding Dracthyr being able to have regular flying, which the new name for it will be Steady Flying:
There is a restriction with it:
“The only restriction this addition has is that it ends the moment you touch the ground, so it can’t be used like Druid’s Flight Form to Herb or interact with objects.”
For San’layn, I could see this being applied to a bat form facial that we’ve discussed before.
I imagine there being a cast time to turn into a bat and having similar restrictions, though maybe not losing bat form when you land. I can also see Dragon Flying mechanics also being applied to the bat form and being able to switch between both types of flying for it.
And of course, having the bat form being customizable in the barber shop would be a really cool unique feature. Different types of bat forms and even having different types of clouds of bats would be pretty awesome to see. I assume some customization options could be drops or quest rewards as well.
Assuming we ever do get San’layn as a full race, this does help chances of them having bat forms as a racial, as it is very workable now in my opinion. Hopefully we’ll see that happen someday!
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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Or you could just let the San’layn have their big wings and just fly around with those.
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It could be an option, but the only San’layn I’ve seen with wings are the Blood-Queen and Blood-Princess. It’s possible I’m forgetting someone, but it seems like only female blood royalty have those wings. Maybe it’s the way the curse works or maybe both of them just really like drinking Red Bull energy drinks. Who knows? 
My own personal preference would be bat forms. It’s very fitting not just with the whole vampire theme, but it works well with how San’layn would need a way to traverse and not bring much attention to themselves…which sure, seeing a bat in bright sunlight in some places like beaches or the local blood bank would be suspect, but it can work to be blend in other areas. Plus there is a decent opportunity for a bunch of bat form customizations.
If anything, throw wing customization options with its own flight animations in the barbershop so people can design their San’layn the way they want. Bat form, cloud of bats form, and wings would make for a nice variety for however people want to role-play their San’layn.
–Still dreaming of playable Horde San’layn as a full race!
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