Oh wow, Ardenweald customization for Draenei would’ve been really cool.
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I doubt blizzard would make a whole new race tbh. The only undead like that is Calia and she was a special thing.
Undead assets are already made tbh. Id I had to guess maybe it would be a nightwarrior sort of situation for night elves and blood elves.
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I know I was swept up by the excitement and I made people annoyed. Now I promise to be more considerate of others and enjoy guessing for fun. I do think it would be a lot easier for darkfallen ranger to have a barbershop thing but I won’t lie I would like to see them as a allied race but I honestly happy either way!
Alliance suddenly getting Forsaken is and will always be a bit of a kick in the nards imo.
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Fair, it’d be super cool for Horde races, though!
I wouldn’t mind this as long as it was a bit more extensive than just red eyes. Torn ears, for example, and fangs. I’d love something FAR more extensive, but at that point, it’d be alright just for that.
This might still be likely due to the mention of Night Warrior when they were asked about Dark Ranger customization. Who knows.
Still no new news on 9.2.5 yet so… yeah. Sometimes stuff comes out on Wed though, so 
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This, they really need to start wanting things that actually belong on that side or would work on that side instead of trying to always pirate our stuff.
Only Horde races, legit only Horde races.
Would they get top fangs or larger bottom tusk?
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I wonder when… or even IF we’re going to get 9.2.5… why is it so heavily encrypted? Will the PTR ever decrypt it or will we not know until launch? and when will it be launched? While all this waiting and anticipation. I hate unknowns. I wish blizzard was more transparent so I know what to be excited about.
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Well, we’re definitely going to get 9.2.5.
But 9.2.5 is unique in just how much has been encrypted compared to past patches. We’ve got at least 2-3 questlines that are encrypted - Calia and Tirisfal, then Sylvanas/Anduin/Tyrande stuff. (EDIT: Even the splash screen is encrypted, which hasnt happened before.) Then we have unencrypted stuff - blood elf heritage quests + weapons and dark iron dwarf quests + weapons, various QoL changes.
As for why it’s encrypted - hard to say for sure in this case, but Ion revealed in recent interviews that they wanna encrypt story stuff going forward as much as possible without interfering with quality or things that need to be tested on PTR. This is to combat spoilers and out-of-context datamining and let players experience stuff for the first time together, in game.
My personal opinion is that it won’t be unencrypted until 9.2.5 launch. They may announce some details of it closer to launch - hard to say.
But yeah, in this case, Blizzard’s silence creates a lot of worry and it’s frustrating.
Edit: No clue as to when. 9.1 to 9.15 had a 5 month gap, so maybe late June-July?
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Interesting, I didn’t know this stuff was far more encrypted than usual. I wonder if that’s a good sign? Perhaps they are preparing for something big. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high, though. But surely they know we’ll need something cool to tide us over to prepatch and beyond. I can’t imagine the expansion is coming out anytime soon.
Edit: Compared to previous patches, I mean! In terms of more encryption than usual.
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Because I currently have nothing else to do, I thought I’d make a megapost of “things I consider possible evidence for elven allied race in 9.2.5.” Individually, some of these aren’t much, but when taken together…
Music Added in 9.2.5 Same Length & Structure as Allied Race Intro Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvTUp2gUpDY
This music is similar to Eversong Woods music in terms of sound-
Features in Sylvanas audiobook, where Darkfallen is redefined as including all undead elves
For a 9.2.5 easter egg.
Texture Files in 9.2.5 That Appear to be Elven Underwear
https://i.imgur.com/814qGkA.png
https://i.imgur.com/L4jNRqE.png
https://i.imgur.com/6QTw9Y3.png
- Important to note this is speculation on my part - I’ve been told by others that dataminers believe this to be undergarments, but we don’t know for sure
- The logo looks similar to blood elf logo/symbols, but is distinctly different. If you recongize it, please let me know. I haven’t been able to find it else where. It doesn’t fit anything we’ve seen on Alexstraza or Dracthyr either
Texture File for Death Knight Eye Glow
https://i.imgur.com/6l3VGpf.png
- Added in 9.2.5 and flagged as encrypted
-
Could be used for an NPC, but the current use is solely for playable racesI have been corrected - NPCs have used these before. Maybe these could be for a Darkfallen DK NPC? Haha.
The Dark Ranger’s Pupil Quest
- Added in 8.1, but updated in 9.0 and 9.2.5
- Both factions
- Quest text mentions a newly raised Dark Ranger named Prelus (newly raised is significant considering we don’t have a way currently to raise more in the present lore, I believe)
Miscellaneous
- 9.2.5 is light on ‘world content’ compared to 7.3.5 and the last patch of BfA: The former gave us pre-order allied races, the latter gave us access to allied race death knights
- Encrypted Story Content in Tirisfal
- Encrypted Armor Set (could be pre-order set, but logically could also be heritage armor - I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same heritage armor if Alliance/Horde both get Darkfallen)
- No pre-orders after Dragonflight announcement
- Dark Rangers Kitala Starshadow and Delaryn Summermoon got their textures updated for 9.2.5
- Some changes to Dark Ranger armor from 8.1, unsure what for
Still can’t post links, fml
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Oops early enter, wanted to post those for you.
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9.2.5 has been officially confirmed to be in the works, so I don’t see it not coming out at all. I’m assuming we’ll get an announcement of some kind in the (hopefully) near future, whether it’s a brief video if there is something major in it or we’ll suddenly seen a Wowhead article or something.
If the Microsoft buyout of Activision already went through, I might expect something in June. Even with E3 canceled entirely this year, I’m assuming Microsoft is having a presentation of some sort in June still like they’ve done without E3 before. However, I’m not expecting Blizzard to hold off any announcements for then since they’re not officially part of Microsoft yet, and I don’t think they’ve ever been part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer of Gaming event either, unless I’m mistaken.
I would like to think an announcement wouldn’t be too far away. I don’t know if it would be coupled with a WotLK Classic release date or if that would take priority over 9.2.5 info, but as frustrating as the wait is with all the rumors of at least one new allied race and questions about potential playable Darkfallen, we’re still keeping an eye out for any news or datamined info of interest in the meantime.
As I said before, I’m not really thrilled at radio silence in general. Moreso given where we’re at with the current patch since it has pretty much finished up by now, which is normally around when we would get info on what is to come in the near future. I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the talk of not showing off much in future patches, which I feel like is just going to be more annoying if we go through periods of time like Shadowlands between patches without any info whatsoever.
I suppose if Darkfallen weren’t part of the equation, it wouldn’t be as frustrating, since as I said before, a lot of races if they were hinted, you’d know what to expect and there wouldn’t be as much worry about how they’d be handled. However, if we are getting playable Darkfallen, there is still a lot of questions and worry about how they’d be handled, since they’ve been reclassified and there is a possibility of one new race that is semi-neutral. Thus for most of us, the frustration level is rising as the wait increases.
Of course, the rumor of getting at least one new race is just that: a rumor. We could end up not getting any new races. However, there is a lot of suspicious things going on like with all the encryption (including the character login splash screen), along with preorders for Dragonflight still not being available. Even then if we get at least one playable race, it is up in the air what they would even be. Who knows what is going on?
As for the Light themed Undead, I can’t rule them out completely, but I still don’t see it. In my own personal opinion, they seem like a race that would cause huge backlash as opposed to getting people excited to part with their cash for a potential early access through preorder. It’s really hard for me to imagine them getting greenlit for development compared to other races that would not only fit, but would be a lot more popular and reasonable. I can’t say they have no chance whatsoever, but it’s hard for me to see them ever becoming a reality. Even with Calia involved, who was a special case for her undead status.
Hopefully, whatever is or isn’t coming, we’ll know sooner than later. I’ll continue to keep an eye out for more info to report in the meantime. 
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Thanks!
I’m realizing the logo on that armor texture looks like an upside down version of the Blood Elf race logo - you’ve got the “spikes” and the red gem.
(blood elf logo for reference:)
https://i.imgur.com/v9RXWKZ.png
Could be fitting for a sanlayn/undead elf race to turn it upside down. We’ve already got void elves that use a very altered version of the logo - but keeps some thematic elements, like the bird and jewel.
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True! It’d be super weird for an Alliance variant to get it, though. Wonder if a different AR would be set for the Alliance? Not entirely sure what, granted, but who knows.
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I’m getting excited about a undead allied race for the alliance but I’m still just going to wait on celebrating and see what happens.
Sorry I love being a detective while doing seeing datamining!
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It’s unusual, but not without precedent. The final stage of the Saurfang quest chain leading up to the duel with Sylvanas was encrypted until it went live as well.
The DK eyes could be almost anything. It’s possible Koltira or some other DK is involved in the Tirisfal quests somehow, or is just chilling in new Brill. Wowhead doesn’t have any listed, but since NPCs are server-side, it’s kinda tricky to mine them.
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To get into the technicals of why I said ‘only for playable races’…
https://wow.tools/files/#search=4504586%09&page=1&sort=0&desc=desc
This file - if you view the contenthash, you can see where this file has been used before. It’s only been used - and is only located - in each and every playable race folder. If it were used for an NPC in the past as a separate texture file, it would show up under contenthash.
EDIT: Have been corrected. NPCs do use these despite them being located in playable race folders. Thoras Trollbane for instance.
Also, NPC textures aren’t server side.
For instance, this is Onnessa in 9.2.5 next to the Stormwind Stables:
Fixed link (hopefully): https://wow.tools/casc/preview/fdid?buildconfig=ae922cd33db4acd59a47e074519f3da7&cdnconfig=c8859e7baf58af3bf9f7abb539df4c1e&filename=textures%2Fbakednpctextures%2Fcreaturedisplayextra-151842_hd.blp&filedataid=4521362
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NPCs can and do use textures from the /characters directory. The baked NPC stuff is for combining skin/armor/etc… layers for the head and body down to a single image to reduce draw calls and texture samples. Things like eye glow or shoulder armor generally live in their own material and mesh element/geoset, so they don’t necessarily need to be baked out.
And, yea, the NPC textures are on the client, but the definitions, spawns, inventory, and such are all on the server.
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I see what you mean now. Thanks for the explanation. Will edit my post to reflect that.
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