I don’t like the idea of races being a ‘hive mind’ so I personally don’t think doors were closed. BfA didn’t depict them as evil either, so that’s a disagreement point for sure. They were trying to find a home in the Horde, and we don’t know what Sylvanas’s orders were anyhow. Not to mention, again, Dreven doesn’t represent all of them anyhow, much like how Vorath doesn’t represent all now. He’s a singular entity.
Either way, we’ll need to see what happens in the future. There’s many story threads that can happen, and free-willed races can make their own decisions, meaning they can also be heroes like DK.
If we see entire armies of them and multiple groups then yes, it’ll be hopeless. Thus far it’s been individuals since Wrath, though.
Having a day to digest over the news, I still feel it’s important to keep up with the playable Horde San’layn support.
As we saw from the datamined in-game text, it seems like more can still be done with San’layn in general. They have not been barred at all, and as I mentioned about the whole Crown of Wills thing, it gives even more reason for San’layn to get their free will back.
I think a few bad apples shouldn’t really define an entire race. Not all humans act like the Defias, not all Dark Iron Dwarves act like their NPC counterparts when they were angry mooks, not all Zandalari were bad dudes like during MoP, and so on. At this point, it’d be silly to just say that all San’layn are still utterly evil and like to burn down orphanages while kicking puppies. And they shouldn’t be mindlessly evil for the sake of it when they are capable of being much more and something really cool and interesting.
Playable Horde San’layn support is still something I feel is important to keep going in some fashion. Is it a guarantee we’d see them become playable? No, but I think it does help to show how awesome they would be as a playable Horde race.
And as I said before, I’d strongly prefer them to be their own race slot as opposed to a customization race. Especially seeing how Wildhammer Dwarves have been treated, and unless they get better treatment as a customization race, I don’t really want to see any other races just slapped onto parent races without much thought or fanfare past that. If Wildhammer Dwarves became their own race slot, then it would further support San’layn to be their own race. If I play a San’layn character, I want to actually feel like a San’layn, see a presence in-game with storylines and lore, and not feel like Blood Elves are LARPing and have San’layn not exist or mentioned at all.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m in it for the long haul. I’ve seen interest in playable Horde San’layn rise as this megathread has gone on, and I think they’d still be really popular and well received should they become a thing. As long as I keep playing the game, I’ll keep marching in support of playable Horde San’layn as best as I can.
Very true! They’re still entirely possible for all the reasons you said right there. No amount of trolls trying to whine at me through ignore will change that. If I live rent free in their heads while no longer giving them attention, and if saying “San’layn should be on the Horde” angers them, then good.
They can’t handle a different opinion? I don’t care.
After the conversations last night, I feel it’s important to show support, yes. I might not be on as much as I was before, but I still am very glad to have spread our ideas and inspired hope for them as playable.
My quick look over the datamined stuff, it just sounds like a power grab by an individual.
San’layn were already free of the Lich King.
The Scourge is essentially no more with the destruction of the helm.
So now you’ve got a bunch of undead that could be the more mindless variety where this single San’layn dude is bringing them under his control, which fits for a vampire.
Should still be plenty of San’layn with a will of their own which doesn’t have to align with this guy’s.
As for the Darkfallen vs San’layn thing, I wonder if it’s an oversight, or if they’re planning to differentiate things. Perhaps other vampires like the humans and the vrykul could also be considered Darkfallen, but not San’layn.
Maybe we’ll get a correction or maybe it’ll be explained.
I really feel like Void elves and the High Elf options should really be divided apart. Then just majorly double down on the void element for void elves like with all the options shown in Fen’s thread and add San’layn as their own race. There’s enough differences and lore to fully embrace the blood/vampire/undead angles.
Very good point. A San’layn showing up so close to the reveal of the next expansion, and the next expansion itself (Given 9.2.5 is the last patch, so everyone says) could indicate further relevance as we return to Azeroth (thank gods). I think the end of that had folks discussing things like: “If it’s bad HERE… it’s probably much worse in Northrend” which could be foreshadowing.
Again, the vampyr are a perfect asset we could have on the Horde against the scourge. They know the ins and outs, AND as we saw with Vorath, can control huge swaths of them. I think a really cool plotline would be the infighting between various intelligent scourge members, some who want to fight along with their living kin (what we’d get playable) and some we’d need to fight against.
That would be nice. I really hope the whole “Scourge rampaging across Azeroth while we’re away” thing isn’t just swept under the rug in favour of some new boring cosmic threat of some kind.
I don’t know that I’d like losing my mini-Alleria. I wanted a high elf AR all through BfA, but now I’d have to give up my Alleria-style void elves for it. I dunno, I don’t like losing things.
Yes, there’s definitely enough to make San’layn their own race. Coming up with an Alliance pair race for it though is admittedly hard without stepping on toes, as long as the intention is to keep the elf balance anyway.
It’d be an easy way to build out some cool storylines and questing without needing a whole lot of assets made to do so too. I don’t mind stuff like that if done well. Gives areas of the old world more usage and story.
Could easily run concurrent to any sort of new land mass story/questing too.
They could leave a bit of overlap since they’re already opened that box.
Just separating them and giving them proper classes (I’m all for no restrictions, but proper default visuals) and racials and heritage stuff.
Making them more distinct from each other.
I’d expect a bit similar overlap between San’layn and Blood Elves. Hair colors and styles. Maybe even skin tones…look pale if you want, look more alive if you want.
I don’t mind the over lap, I just think they should both be distinctly their own via racials, mounts, heritage stuff [quests/gear etc]
As pointed out earlier, Northrend is mentioned during that alleged Blood Elf heritage weapon quest:
I imagine Northrend was hit the most hard of the continents, seeing as that is where the Lich King resided. I am wondering if we might do a brief revisit that could lead into the next expansion.
I recall rumors that Galakrond could be revived. His remains are in Northrend, and there were alleged screenshots of a cinematic involving Maldraxxus necropolis floating above it. Not sure if that will actually be what happens, though it does fit in some with the whole dragon themed rumor for the next expansion.
If you want to know who Galakrond is, here is his Wowpedia page:
From what I can tell so far, the Scourge is still a thing and will be a threat still. I imagine those who could have some semblance of thought of who they once were would gain their free will back, but otherwise mindless undead will still be a thing.
Anything to do with Northrend could be interesting, since most San’layn resided there. Not sure if any others are still there since WotLK or if they managed to go elsewhere, but still something to note about it. We still have some missing Blood Princes, and likely other Blood royalty we don’t know about yet. Hopefully, we’ll see some San’layn appear that aren’t generically evil in the near future. Moreso since they have a lot more interesting potential as a playable Horde race.
At any rate, I’ll continue to keep an eye out for anything of interest to report back here.
That’s the issue for me so far, that two expansions back to back have presented them with very little nuance as just antagonists for the oppossite side. We really didn’t get San’layn as part of the Horde, from the Horde side, so we just saw them through the alliance eyes as “bad guys”. It just bums me that the writers seem to want this presentation from them, instead of doing something different.
Oh yeah I agree with that, what worries me is that it has been 2 expansions in a row where Blizz has just showed them as antagonist with little complexity, which makes me fear on what is their view for them. The fact we got so little in terms of connection between the San’layn and Venthyr really bummed me out, because it really made me consider that Blizzard doesn’t really care about San’layn beyond seeing them as cannon fodder.
Just thinking on the Darkfallen vs San’layn thing.
What if they went with a two birds one stone approach.
With the playable race being Darkfallen.
Then maybe have racials like that one Zandalari troll one where there’s options to choose.
Mount Movement racial :
San’layn - shift into a cloud of bats - speed increase, flight where available
Dark Ranger - Shift into banshee form - speed increase, flight where available
Daze racial :
San’layn - Feed - target is dazed for X seconds, X damage done, returned to caster as health.
Dark Ranger - Banshee’s Wail - target is dazed for X seconds, X damage done (would health be returned or maybe a different effect?)
Could theme racials this way to differentiate them.
The part that’d be a bit annoying with something like this would come down to heritage quests…they’d have to either add armor sets for both styles or something that’s more neutral.
Overlap for visual customizations would work well.
Hmm…I dunno.
You’ve got both blood elf and night elf visuals in the dark rangers.
You’ve got the male night elf looking body shape in the San’layn.
Could easily just add the female night elf for San’layn and have both body shapes available.
Just kinda playing with the idea here and wondering if it’d be a good approach to making both a reality.
