They could get so much praise for this too, like when they announced ARs, the community sprung up with excitement only to be ignored. .-.
Perhaps they’re trying to attract new players to the game, but that’s not the best idea given the new players might look into the lore in place and be like: “Wow, I want to play this!”
Sorry, no, that’s not playable, they keep adding new stuff out of the blue and giving no love to old lore.
With regards to what potential races could be playable…hard to really know.
As I said before, around the time of Shadowlands launching, there were four allied race ID’s, slots, or something found. I don’t believe it was a case of Blizzard putting a NPC race in PC files to make it easier to put armor on them, which lead to speculation of Covenant races becoming playable.
Assuming this rumor is true, it’d be great if we got four new races out of it, but the rumor did state it was only one, so it’d wind up being a neutral race most likely.
Darkfallen seems to be one that makes the most sense to me. However, assuming they would be neutral, I’m not sure how fitting it would be to have undead Night Elves on the Alliance and how different they’d be in classes and aesthetics. I know something would likely need to be addressed with them regardless of how playable Darkfallen would be implemented, but I don’t know the best way to address them.
One worry I have would be San’layn representation in playable Darkfallen. They seem to be a part of the group now, so it might not really apply to everyone. Would they be able to have things like a bat related form of some kind? Would people wanting Dark Rangers be fine with some San’layn aspects in their playable race? I don’t recall Dark Rangers having the same abilities as San’layn from what I remember.
And if there isn’t any San’layn representation as playable Darkfallen characters, what then? Seems like the chances of playable San’layn would plummet afterwards. Not to mention that if Darkfallen become a neutral race, would we potentially see Night Elf San’layn of some kind? We haven’t seen any of that before, so I don’t know how the San’layn part of it would be treated.
I feel like it’s something worth discussing to share how we feel. I’d like to see both San’layn and Dark Ranger fans pleased with playable Darkfallen, but I worry about San’layn features not being there at all. Moreso if Darkfallen were somehow neutral. Would like to hear some thoughts on this.
Anyway, regardless of what happens, I’ll hope for my usual most wanted races. However, I’ll keep an open mind, as nothing is set in stone that we will receive at least one new playable race as a preorder incentive.
Whatever happens, I still hope for the best for playable Horde San’layn. 
I think they are trying to make sure the allied races fit into the current narrative.
I’d really rather we get enough distinct looks from each other, since there are many differences between the two despite being Thalassian.
Belves already feel sore about everything of our’s being taken for a race that was supposed to be distinct from us to begin with.
Belves having things such as Dark Ranger, Phoenix and Farstrider should be a thing. Velves should get more voidy options. If more Helf looks are visited then it should be something like hair that is different from our’s.
Yeah I admit I’m one of those people because of everything we have shared with Void Elves and nothing has been shared or given to us to compensate for it but I’d still take the burgundy hair color they have, if nothing else just that.
The thing is, “Darkfallen” were originally just vampyr blood elves, and then only recently was it extended to Dark Rangers, and likely other relevant undead elves. I would think they’d definitely have representation in there, it would be ridiculous if not. Of course, Blizzard has made many mistakes before, so it’s a good thing to be wary about.
As for Night Elf San’layn, yeah, people have speculated that’ll be what ends up happening. Blood Elves on the Horde, Night Elves on the Alliance. We know the blood curse can afflict beyond Blood Elves (stormheim) so who knows. I do think they’d make sense, but specifically because of this:
-Northrend was mentioned as a probably HUGE issue, worse than Dead Scar, in recent times.
-San’layn have popped up again, and Dark Rangers now have the ‘darkfallen’ label.
It does seem they ‘ding’ the relevance angle. They do not ding the ‘new model’ or ‘updated model’ angel, though, like Gnolls, Tuskarr, and I assume Furbolgs. Sethrak also have the newer models!
It’s curious for sure. My concern is that it’s a ‘nogo’ because people will flip out about elves, though. Especially since the human forms of the new dragon race are elven in male form.
Also no, San’layn and Dark Rangers are definitely different; Dark Rangers are not vampiric. At least, not that I’ve seen.
As I said before, there isn’t a single race that could be playable out there that could become playable and please everyone. Someone is going to complain about any new playable race for any reason.
As for the Elf complaints, it didn’t really stop Nightborne from becoming playable when they were heavily requested during Legion. Or Void Elves from coming out of nowhere. Much as it is a bit of a joke, elves are popular, and I could see something like Darkfallen being a good marketing tactic to get people to sub and preorder the next expansion. Moreso if they’re vampiric.
Yes, “World of Elfcraft” jokes will pop up again, but if it gets people playing, I can still see it not being much of a hindrance. It isn’t like we’d see too many other elf races after Darkfallen as well, though I’m not entirely against multiples of a parent race provided they have unique aspects to them. There would be differences between Blood Elves, Night Elves, Nightborne, Void Elves, and Darkfallen to warrant them being playable and still being unique.
I lean towards Darkfallen being likely not out of personal bias, but it’d make for a neat tie-in with WotLK Classic in terms of marketing. I also think despite complaints, they’d be popular in-game as well, and assuming Blizzard has San’layn part of the Darkfallen faction, a lot of great potential storylines. It also seems to be a popular rumor, being suggested by people like Red Shirt Guy.
Then again, I want to keep an open mind and see what we get, assuming we get anything at all. Hopefully, 9.2.5 will get announced soon and preorders for Dragonflight will open up so we can see if the rumor is true. Hoping for the best, regardless.
Darkfallen night elves rejoined the alliance, and as far as we know san lynn still want allies.
It seems like perfect foreshadowing.
Ah, I was trying to remember what happened to the Night Elf Dark Rangers. It also more suspect that there are allegedly encrypted files involving Calia and Tyrande in some fashion for 9.2.5.
We also know that Lor’themar wants to meet with Kael’thas, but who knows if it’ll get shown in game? Would be interesting for Lor’themar to tell Kael’thas of the San’layn, who were his former followers, and Dark Rangers. Maybe he’ll ask Lor’themar to help them if they are free from domination.
And of course, Denathrius was rescued by the Dreadlords, all of which having some form of vampiric aspects. Not sure if that would be related at all, but still something to point out.
Much as I try to temper my expectations, the possibilities is getting me excited. Going to try to keep an open mind, but hope is rising once more. < - <;
I think all of what you say has majorly good points, yeah. There’s a lot to consider. I’ve also seen a few people say ‘no more elves except Darkfallen’ because it’s just such a cool concept. They were built up to be really interesting, and I love their lore a lot. Also, yeah… I mean, elves are popular, as are vampires. Blizzard might want to hook in many people for their preorder, especially after how badly Shadowlands did. Reasonably speaking and from a business perspective, it makes sense–as Elves are proven to be incredibly popular.
It is silly how we can pull the popularity card at least in this thread, but hey, it’s a card in our deck, so why not mention it. Plus, these specific elves aren’t playable and again have a totally different theme than any of those currently playable. There are no vampire themed races right now playable (and no, before someone says void elves, that’s a big no. I’m talking blood-drinking vampires, not the perceived ‘void eats stuff so therefore are vampiric’ which I don’t see as vampiric at all.)
I also find it super interesting how Red Shirt Guy & quite a few others have this strong speculation point. He jumped to Darkfallen right away. It surprised me, because I just… didn’t think about that. I figured it’d be a no for the reasons I mentioned, not to mention the ‘villain batting’, but there likely is more to it, especially with more emphasis on Northrend.
Agreed, also a friend of mine pointed out something I didn’t even think about. Those ships in BfA on Alliance side were supposedly humans and night elves. We never saw the outcome there, just some burning ships, San’layn blood elves casting, and the like. Who’s to say some turning didn’t occur when our backs were turned? 
(Also I imagine the Darkfallen there could swim, besides, they’re undead)
All I want are cute little bat wings, that wiggle every time I trip down the stairs like the clumsy idiot I am.
You know…
…they’re adding a winged race now. Soooooo…
Wings for Darkfallen aren’t off the table.
In fact, perhaps that should be a red hot topic of discussion for us now, given the Dracthyr have wings and will be playable.
So… like I said, we should get wings too. 
I was thinking of the cute little bat wings seen in the Fel Elves from Kael’s army in the Sunwell patch.
This also works though, yes, that would be adorable. Not going to lie, haha. I have something like that with the bone wings on my San’layn Blood Prince.
Considering Lana has giant bat wings, they could take the rigging from the Fel Blood Elves and just put Bat Wings on instead.
This guy, for reference. The cloak has tinier wings than would be reasonable so they’re, you know, tiny wings too. 
Fellow Bone Wings Undead Elf reporting in.
Also San’layn/Darkfallen Dark Ranger in spirit just waiting for Red-eyes and pale skin…
While I don’t personally care about uniqueness, I don’t think a shared Darkfallen AR would make sense from an in universe stand point.
There doesn’t exist a group of alliance leaning Thalassian Darkfallen, but we do have a Kaldorei one.
Like I know the idea of Darkfallen AR is pure wishful thinking at this point, but with the set ups we have right now, I do think it would be more likely to see a Kaldorei v/s Thalassian divide somehow whether it’s a race with different models depending on faction, or just new customization options for NE and BE.
I do think my thoughts about all of this are more wishful thinking rather than stuff that could happen. But something so cool could be done with Kaldorei Dark Rangers + the Ardenweald Seed. And then Soulshape could be their racial?
If the PTR BE quest made a connection with the Venthyr and San’layn, and bring in Kael, I could see a similar connection with Thalassian Dark Rangers and Venthyr, and then Door of Shadows as their racial?
While Door of Shadows would make for an awesome Darkfallen racial, I’d prefer if all of these movement abilities ended up on the talent trees myself.
Warlocks have real trouble with movement for example, so if Soul Shape was made into a Kal’dorei Dark Ranger racial, then either they’d be unquestionably the best Warlock race, or if they don’t get Warlocks then Warlocks just lose out on movement entirely.