I guess it depends on the definition of “free” and what exactly he will do once he is “free.” Definitely something to keep an eye on for sure. 
Ion just confirmed that there are no plans for allied races in Shadowlands.
Maybe that will change in time, but I think we are in for a long, long wait.
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Where do you see that? The only thing I see referencing allied races on the liveblog is that they aren’t planning on adding customization options to allied races, which we already knew going in. Did Ion say something about allied races elsewhere?
EDIT: Nvm, Bagzak to the rescue.
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Found this on MMO-Champion regarding the recent interview:
" Customization
- The additional customization that is being added in Shadowlands was overdue.
- Many of the Allied Races already had more customization, so the team will come back to them at some point for more customizations.
- Character customization will never be over, it’s an ongoing project.
- The focus is Covenant armor and sets that match the raid’s team, but the team wants to return to class themed sets later in Shadowlands.
- The team is open to more Allied Races, but there are no plans for any in Shadowlands.
- There are no plans for blue eyes on Blood Elves.
- You can apply any texture to any model, that doesn’t mean it’ll be a customization that you can get.
- Character customizations will be on Alpha in the coming weeks, and then you’ll be able to see what options are actually planned."
Taken from here:
Seems like we will be waiting quite awhile for any new races of any kind to be added. Still, it does seem like they’re open to adding more new races at least, and plans could always change.
Going to be a long wait regardless, as we have about two years or so of Shadowlands whenever it launches. Guess we’re in it for the long haul, but I know I’ll keep marching for my most wanted races. 
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lmfao where?! The Legion ARs are in dire need of a small revision.
The post BfA ones though, yeah they got some unique features I can see.
This is probably a fair assessment. It took a long time before Kul Tirans and Zandalari were made available, and these guys were everywhere in BFA’s initial story. And then we ended up getting Mechas and Vulpera at the tail end of the expansion, so I definitely wouldn’t consider Ion’s response to be an outright “no” to the question of allied races in Shadowlands.
I found the point in the stream where he talks about this, so I’ll type out exactly what he says verbatim;
“It’s something we remain open to doing. It wasn’t just a Battle for Azeroth feature. But there are no planned allied races right now in Shadowlands. I think one of the challenges with the setting of Shadowlands, the idea, is that these aren’t traditional races. These are magical ethereal beings from another plane of existence. But maybe there’s a world where it makes sense for some of them to join the Alliance or the Horde someday. We’ll see. But definitely not at the start of Shadowlands.”
Player feedback is probably going to be one of the primary things they look at going forward. We know the four covenant races are already coded as if they were allied races, which helps with NPC diversity in the world, so it’s just a matter of whether or not the trigger should be pulled to make them playable. But this will likely take place after the narrative dictates that entities can start leaving the shadowlands, if indeed that happens at all.
Of course, if it’s possible for that to happen with Kael’thas, then I suppose anything goes.
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My two cents on this is that I’m kinda relieved. I just… Venthyr are striking 0 interest for me. Like I said, they’re basically even uglier Nightborne that everyone is attaching to “because they don’t look like blood elves and are ugly like the Horde should be.” It’s pretty much the reason behind people wanting them over something like San’layn. No offense to those that want them, of course, but yeah I just am not a fan. At all.
I hope that “they’re ethereal so don’t have interest in Azeroth” holds up and doesn’t change. I really wish they’d focus on the player feedback that at this point has been going on for years for races that people were excited for only to get shot down and shoved aside by random new lore. Yes, I’m salty about that. Races that have been asked for a while now just get completely blasted out of the water and ignored by the ‘shiny new thing’ and that bugs me so much.
Things like:
-San’layn
-Arakkoa
-Ogres
-Sethrak
-Vry’kul
-Ethereals
-Saurok
-Mogu
The list just goes on. Yes, new lore is cool, but people who have played for a while fall in love with old lore too, and for it to just be shoved aside and brought up every so often, teased, and then shoved aside again is so incredibly frustrating.
So that’s my feedback. If Blizzard is to focus on Allied Races in some point in the far future? Please consider what people have been asking for a while now, rather than giving into the ‘flavor of the month’ stuff.
Not that I think they even bother looking into this thread of course, ever. But it’s nice to at least imagine they care about what I others in the community have to say in some fashion.
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While there are, like, 20 different races from OG warcraft lore that I am hopeful for, I am hesitant to ever use the “flavor of the month” argument when it comes to talking about the viability of new race concepts. We’ve seen how damaging this becomes when you look at the whole High Elf v. Void Elf kerfuffle.
It also makes the implicit argument that seniority gives an advantage, and I’m not sure I buy that. Ogres, Sethrak and Mogu are awesome, but it’s also totally plausible that the devs have their reasons for simply not wanting to make them playable in their own IP, and that’s totally fine. But if they made a brand new race that is 3/4 wombat and said “here, this is our new upcoming playable race!” I don’t think it’s necessarily constructive to say “well that looks alright, but I’m obligated to dislike it because we haven’t gotten playable furbolgs yet.” If that were the standard we adhered to, we’d have to push for every humanoid race that has made an appearance since WoW vanilla to be present in a playable capacity before Vulpera players could ever have what they have now, and Vulpera players seem really happy.
I guess, at the end of the day, I’d rather judge concepts on their own merits, not by what should, should not, or has not come before them. I love san’layn, and I’d love to see them playable in some capacity. But I don’t think my arguments for them were ever based on “they were here first.” If they were, my support would immediately have to go to playable nathrezim, which predated san’layn by a significant number of years.
Hope you guys get the San’layn that you all want and deserve! Keep providing the feedback and fighting for what you want! You have my vote!
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That’s very fair, and I get it. Though I hope at least they consider the old races that people have been wanting along with the ones that are newer. Like how they added Mah’Gar and DID but also added the Vulpera and Mechagnomes a bit after, of whom were new.
I just don’t want the new stuff out of the blue to completely shove out any chance of the old ones being added in, that’s my issue. Like those wanting Zandalari, Mah’gar, DID, and such like that ended up getting what they asked for and having it make sense in the story. If something makes sense in the story and thematically fits, to have something just… replace it feels kind of meh.
For the record, I do want demonic races too hahaha, I just never bring it up. I’d play a Shivarrah or Succubus in a heartbeat, they seem pretty fun!
But yeah. I don’t know how to word it better than I did, and you’re right, things should be judged on their own merits. I just… don’t want the old races to be shoved aside and forgotten, like it seems sometimes.
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Yeah I understand that, and having a mix of old/new stuff in the allied race batches is probably the best way to go. I guess what bothers me is that I feel like we’ve genuinely reached a point where we can’t have new things without it being a controversy in some way. My feelings on the allied races we’ve gotten vary depending on the race in question, but I like them all enough that I’ve rolled at least 1 each. I really like what they’ve done with the mechagnomes and vulpera, but at the same time I know that fans of the actual mechagnomes (the Wrath version) and gilgoblins will see this as a slight. I remember, in the days leading up to the confirmation of the vulpera, there being a few gobbo posters that were convinced that all signs pointed to gilgoblins being the goblin AR. They commented this on virtually every vulpera speculation thread. I can only imagine how they felt after the 8.3 announcement.
It’s hard to make an argument that nuanced positions in the community are a good thing, as nuance itself seems to be a dying concept, but I really do think it’s the way to go. I’ll go to bat for San’layn, Nathrezim, Furbolgs, Jinyu, and Broken Draenei any day of the week, because I genuinely believe all these options would make for strong allied races (and I’ve even made a few threads on some of them as well). But at the same time I guess I just tell myself that it’ll be ok if what I want never comes to pass and that I shouldn’t view the next allied race negatively just because it is, for instance, a bear race that has nothing to do with furbolgs.
And I get that’s hard because, if we’re truly passionate about certain concepts, obviously we’re going to be disappointed if the whole idea gets dumpstered. Passion can be a great thing. But I guess I’m bothered by the idea that this same passion puts undue emphasis on the old and leaves little room for the new.
Yea. I wouldn’t mind getting like filler episode content where we do stuff with old races quest wise to unlock them out of the blue. I hope they don’t tie races to main storyline content. Mechagon for example seemed like a good filler content. Perhaps we can have zones that isn’t necessarily part of the main story that allows for cool customization, races, toys, features, pvp zones.
They don’t have to. Players seem pretty happy with their Mag’har orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves even though neither race had any specific importance to BFA’s storyline.
Still, worst case scenario, 8.3’s precedent of re-using old zones for current expansion content might be a possibility for making old races relevant again. Oh, you say you wanted Sethrak? Well, good for you, because 9.2 involves a reaper invasion of Vol’dun… or something along those lines.
I think one of the issues, albeit a more minor one, with currently existing races and playability consideration is that it was stated that Blizzard was “considering every race with two legs” when it came to determining allied races. Of course, a lot depends on the ongoing story and what races could fit within them, though in some cases new races can come in independent of the storyline more or less (Like the Mag’har).
It doesn’t mean that new races can’t be and shouldn’t introduced at all, but it really depends on the situation also. If it fills a niche not represented in WoW, like Halflings, nothing really wrong with that in my opinion. However, if you put in a new race that has identical themes, culture, and personality to another race, it begs the question of why not use the existing race in the first place. It’s a tricky slope from a development point-of-view.
As i mentioned, new races being created for the game aren’t a huge issue to me. After all, we got Vulpera and some races like Sethrak have good chances of becoming playable. I do also think that new races should never act as a replacement for an existing one, especially when the existing one can function just fine in the same storyline or setting.
As for the covenants, and I say this as we don’t know anything about them, it’s still hard to imagine any of them becoming playable races. If would be different if this was a new continent, as opposed to an afterlife. We also don’t know what will happen during or after Shadowlands, but currently I have a hard time seeing any of these denizens deciding to give up their current life to join the Horde/Alliance agenda and spend their time collecting boar butts and crab spittle. I don’t fault or look down anyone wanting them playable of course, again we all have races we want playable, but that is just my own current personal opinion.
There is a fan of every race that is in WoW, whether it is a PC or NPC race. New playable races, consisting of current or brand new races, are also a good and exciting thing, as it really cool to see the Horde and Alliance grow and get new members. New races being created are fine, so long as they aren’t intended as a replacement for any currently existing races and an assumption that fans of said races would “settle” for this new one instead.
It’s hard to explain better in more detail for me, but this is all just my opinion, of course. I want to see currently existing races get some love and even become playable, but I also think brand new races do have their roles in the game, especially if it fills a niche not represented by any other race.
Again, just my two cents is all.
I think what makes it tricky is that niches, at least in WoW, aren’t necessarily clear-cut.
So let’s take the void elves. They resemble the high elves in many ways, but it’s also clear that they were specifically designed to not borrow too much from the high elf aesthetic (their cultures are quite literally night and day). And yet this didn’t stop high elf fans from considering void elf inclusion as being an added barrier to the very idea of playable high elves. So what niche would be the correct categorization for the void elves? Clearly there’s a lot of gothic and lovecraftian influence, but the “fair-skinned noble elf” is also a heavy part of their lore as well.
I’d say something similar to the vampire races in WoW as well. “Vampire” isn’t a uniform concept, so I don’t think there is any race that could ever be added that would be a perfect paragon of what a vampire is. A nathrezim takes inspiration from Dracula, a venthyr from nosferatu, and a san’layn from more modern aristocratic interpretations. Would one necessarily step on the toes of others? Could all three be considered parts of the same niche, or do they each represent entirely different niches?
I’m not saying I have a definite answer, but it’s at least muddled enough for me that I wouldn’t feel comfortable accusing a new race of “niche theft,” especially since we have allied races that more or less borrow parts of core race niches anyway.
Pure conjecture and wishful thinking at best. 
I dunno because with the implementation of Vulpera, Gilgoblins aren’t ruled out. The only similarity they have is model. Same with void elves to high elves. This is a case of flat out Venthyr overlap with San’layn thematically.
One from the land of the dead, one undead. The Nath are demons and can be argued as fitting that thematic, plus I don’t really see them drinking blood. Just absorbing power, like Blood Elves or many other magical “vampires”. Granted, same can be said for Venthyr as anima isn’t blood. But they overlap with San’layn in practically every vein aside from that.
The only difference being origin and look. Venthyr look like ugly Nightborne whereas San’layn and human vampyr are monstrous varieties of their race that don’t look ugly baseline–just monstrous.
Meh. I dunno anymore, it just feels like no matter what happens, it’ll be shoved in our faces to “go play Venthyr for vampires”.
At this point I think our only solid chance is to get a night warrior quest line. It would be a shame for no voicelines or animations but I’ve accepted that.
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I dunno. From what I’ve seen with the initial post with Calia’s? artwork, the job is practically done! I, personally, want the traditional modified NE model for the males. But as lazy and money hungry as Blizz is, they would be fools to not implement this. So many people are intrigued by vampire lore and the Shadowlands is the perfect time to do it. They already have blood magic in the game with Blood DKs and Blood trolls. I honestly see this happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Venthyr are intended to be the Alliance version of San’layn.
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That’s a good point and yeah I find it interesting how the blood princes are modified night elf models with blood elf animations. I hope if we do see them again, they get updates! And that’s a very fair point in regard to best times to introduce.
I’ll have to calm my undead horses and see what lies ahead. I’m hoping we see that curse explored more in the next expansion. They did touch on it in Stormheim. Still love that little bit of side quests so much.
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I’m still in the camp of the horde aid Kael’thas in Revendreth and then in Castle Nathria. He’s set free for paying his debt in aiding in repairing Revendreth and the Shadowlands. He’s allowed to return to Azeroth, though he’s been changed during his time in the Shadowlands. The Sin’dorei are neutral about his presence but do not accept him as their prince anymore due to his past transgressions against the Sin’dorei. Kael’thas learns the Dawnfury are still alive from Bolvar or Koltiras Deathweaver.
Recruitment questline - We go with Kael to find the remnants of the San’layn that are now leaderless and scattered. Their control over the mindless uncontrolled scourge threat would be a valuable asset to protect the horde cities and towns. Kael becomes their Blood King as well as resurrecting Lana’thel to rule by his side. A small area in Northrend is carved out for their kind with portals to locations throughout Azeroth to be able to respond threats to the horde when needed. Blood King Kael’thas trying to repent for his deeds against his kin plans to continue this penance for as long as he draws breath, loyalty to his former kin and his tortured kin of the San’layn.
I would love to see as a racial the San’layn get something similar to the Void Elves where they occasionally take on a modified form. The San’layn gaining a more feral look and a blood aura for 10-15 seconds dealing an additional 5% bleed damage.
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