The Unofficial Saurok Playable Race Discussion Megathread! 🐊

Bagzak-rexxar · October 17, 2021, 6:07pm

Saurok really have gone a long way from just being near-feral. Even during Pandaria, some were capable of forming a form of honor, which I’ve talked about before:

Then of course, there is BfA, where they were able to work with other races, even if they were pirates:

So they’re far from being mindless beasts and there is plenty of evidence to support that. I still think there would be some tribe of Saurok out there we haven’t come across yet that would be more receptive to others than other Saurok tribes as a result, and a lot could be done with such a tribe.

It is a shame that our return to Pandaria in BfA showed the Clearscale tribe as near-feral mooks that nobody paid any attention to. It isn’t as if we stopped the evil Mogu clans in the area, so they’re likely still trying to enslave them and other Saurok tribes on the continent. A missed opportunity to do something neat with Saurok sadly, though BfA in general pretty much has the theme of missed opportunities in general.

Even in RL, reptiles have have the ability to have intelligence and emotion. Take this iguana for example:

It is really happy to see its owner and enjoys being pet. Not all reptiles can be this level of cuddly, but many are capable of having a bond of some sort with people and being fairly intelligent. I don’t see why this couldn’t apply to Saurok…though I don’t know how cuddly they could get. :V

Imagine how happy Saurok could be having a place in the Horde, a chance to lead their race into a brighter future, and even helping to work towards a huge goal in life such as being a world (of Warcraft!) savior. Maybe we’d see Saurok as happy as that iguana above!..especially when they sample all sorts of meat recipes!

Bagzak-rexxar · October 18, 2021, 4:31pm

Exploring Azeorth: Kalimdor comes out tomorrow, unless the release date has changed without me knowing. My copy doesn’t have an ETA, unfortunately, but when it does come, I’ll take a look at it for potential (albeit on the low side) Saurok information.

If you don’t know what that is, it’s a book that involves Zekhan (Zappy Boy( and Rexxar exploring Kalimdor and writing down their findings. You can see more information and some sample pages here:

Now, I’m not expecting much at all for Saurok, but there is some potential interest with the Un’goro Crater section. In-game, we’ve see a Saurok for the Un’goro Madness micro holiday, and while Hearthstone is a separate world from WoW, they have Saurok residing there.

Un’goro Crater is a potential spot for playable Saurok to reside in, so it is worth a look to learn more about the area at least. Again, I don’t expect much Saurok mention at all, but I figure it is best to leave no stone unturned when it comes to Saurok research!

Fallynn-wyrmrest-accord · October 18, 2021, 8:54pm

Stepping in for more Saurok support

Grayphus-nemesis · October 19, 2021, 1:21am

Today I watched a Dungeon Master of D&D, talking a lot of interesting things about races related to dragons and dragonborns.

Regrettably, I can’t show it because Youtube can’t translate Portuguese br in a 100% comprehensible way to English.

Bagzak-rexxar · October 20, 2021, 3:57pm

So as it turns out, Exploring Azeroth: Kalimdor’s release date changed for the second time to December 7th…on the day it was suppose to release…makes me wish they had done that before I made all those posts in other megathreads. < - <

In a more positive light, how about we look at something sweeter: Dinosaur fossil cakes!

Now, these aren’t specifically Halloween themed, but you could make it more spooky in a way, or even make skeletons for a graveyard cake. There are several different types of fossil cakes, so I’ll link a few to show off what you can do with the idea:

As you can see, there is quite a bit you can do with the idea. As I said before, I’m sure there are ways to make it more spooky for Halloween as well.

I feel like Saurok might do something like this, only in a meatloaf cake and maybe actual whole bones to gnaw on.

Bagzak-rexxar · October 21, 2021, 4:24pm

Today is October 21st, which means it is National Reptile Awareness Day!

National Reptile Awareness Day is a day to celebrate, appreciate, and educate others about the importance of reptiles and also help with the conservation of them. I went and found some videos I wanted to share to help celebrate the day:

A brief general facts video of different reptiles.

Showing off a skink and a snake.

Showing off some snakes, a monitor lizard, and a chameleon.

Another snake and some alligators (the one with the white scale pattern and black spots would make for a neat Saurok scale pattern).

Showing off a couple of snakes, a tortoise, and a lizard.

Showing off an alligator

Showing off a snake.

There are all sorts of videos on National Reptile Awaress Day if you want to look it up on YouTube. I could link more, but I’d likely have a wall of videos. I’ll of course gradually post more videos in the future for more Saurok idea inspiration.

Reptiles are awesome and play an important role in nature, so National Reptile Awareness Day is pretty important to help educate people and also help out reptiles all over the world. It’s also a good day to spread awareness of some really awesome reptilian races in Azeroth, who have a lot of potential as playable races. Warcraft hasn’t had any playable reptilian races at all since its creation, and there are some great candidates that would add so much to the game being playable and who would love to get on that character creation screen!

Be sure to help celebrate the day with our friends at the Sethrak megathread also:

Let’s get some reptiles on that character creation screen!

Nadezhdha-proudmoore · October 22, 2021, 2:26pm

Speaking of Lizards and Snakes and all things Sethrak and Saurok, I thought I’d share one of my favourite lizard species.

http s://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenmahony/6729667589

http s://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanfrancis/24329922999

The Burton’s Legless Lizard. Despite not having legs this is a lizard and they are actually related to Geckos!

Bagzak-rexxar · October 22, 2021, 3:58pm

Taken by Stephen Mahony on Flickr:

Taken by Ryan Francis on Flickr:

It’s a very interesting animal to see, and legless lizards in general do have differences between them and snakes:

And I also came across a video that talks about Burton’s Legless Lizards here:

It’s always neat to learn about the different types of reptiles in the world. Many of them would make for great scale customization options for Saurok and Sethrak while also inspiring ideas for things like racials!

Fallynn-wyrmrest-accord · October 23, 2021, 5:04pm

Saurok came up in another thread (with support) and I wanted to hop in and just say I still really would love these folks as playable. The story potential of Saurok is honestly huge, there’s so much that can be done. Not only do they look neat, but their lore is simply very interesting.

Bagzak-rexxar · October 23, 2021, 6:13pm

I saw that thread and was very happy to see others supporting Horde Saurok and Ogres in there, among other races I want to see playable. I can’t say I’m the sole cause for the interest of those races becoming playable, but if I did inspire anyone, it’d be pretty cool.

Interest in playable Saurok has been kinda there since MoP. As I’ve said before, Lizardmen are a popular race in various games and media, and that likely caused some initial interest in playable Saurok, since Warcraft as a whole lacked any type of Lizardmen since its creation.

The problem is that any discussion about it during the years since MoP usually leads to people concluding that, while they would make a neat race, they’re too primitive and angry to ever realistically become one, making it a bit of a pipedream. It’s likely a reason you don’t see them discussed too much or even included in things like player polls on forums since MoP.

Of course, if you look at them more closely, they’re more than just angry lizards that go RAWR and BLARG as quest jobbers. You have a race with a great backstory, a pretty awesome antagonist with the Mogu, a theme that fits very well with the Horde and parallels with the Orcs, and also adds something refreshing that the game hasn’t had before with them being a lizardmen race. Lots of potential as a playable Horde race, in my opinion!

I’m glad I’ve taken up the charge for supporting them and the Stonemaul Ogres. I still need to figure out other avenues to show off support for them as playable Horde races, so hopefully I can figure something out. I can’t say what I’m doing is effective at all, but hey, it’s something.

I still hope to see them and other races people have been wanting on that character creation screen, someday!

Fallynn-wyrmrest-accord · October 24, 2021, 6:03pm

I write worldbuilding blog articles, and my recent one was were-animals other than wolves. I picked lizard for one of them and thought of Saurok I almost grabbed an image of saurok but did something else, however it’s still super cool to think about. Don’t Saurok use the worgen skeleton in some fashion? They would be a super neat Allied Race for sure, I feel.

Grayphus-nemesis · October 24, 2021, 6:29pm

Yes sauroks and saberons use the worgen model. They would need a few things being done to update them as a playable race.

Bagzak-rexxar · October 24, 2021, 8:19pm

That sounds like fun. I’ve been really into world-building features of settings, as they add a lot when done right.

Yep! Both they and Saberon utilize the male Worgen skeleton as NPC’s.

If they both became playable, I could see the playable models being built from the ground up, but likely utilizing the Worgen skeleton in a way. I’m sure the female Worgen skeleton could work well for female Saurok and Saberon as well. It is also possible they would be built from the ground up altogether, but it likely would take more time and resources if they did it that way.

I’d be fine with either method to be honest. I’m sure playable Saurok and Saberon would be fine with the Worgen skeletons. The important thing is that both would be playable finally, with Saurok preferably on the Horde. Saberon I’m fine on either faction.

Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord · October 24, 2021, 9:20pm

I’d like to see them modify the Worgen skeleton and model for this. Still close to what they are in game now but allows them to make them slightly different so its not a complete copy.

But also this. So long as they’re playable.

Bagzak-rexxar · October 25, 2021, 4:20pm

A thought occurred to me regarding mages, in that there a number of races considered primitive are capable of being them.

Aside from playable races you wouldn’t normally expect to be mages (Orcs and Trolls, for example), a notable one would be Ogres. A number of Ogre clans have mages, despite them being of the dumb variety of Ogres. I don’t know how, but they are capable of casting different types of magic. Kobolds are also able to be Mages kinda as geomancers, who utilize mage spells as well. There are likely other examples of primitive races being able to become mages.

In which case, I don’t really see Saurok Mages being too far out there as a potential option. I’ve presented the idea of Saurok coming across magical artifacts which would give them the knowledge of warlock and mage spells for them to potentially become those classes. I don’t see why they wouldn’t be able to learn mage spells when Ogres are perfectly able to.

While I’m personally wanting warlocks as a class option for Saurok, I know there are others wanting Saurok Mages. Hopefully, should we be lucky enough to get playable Horde Saurok, we’ll see people be able to make Blizzard Wizard Lizards.

Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord · October 25, 2021, 4:24pm

While I too lean towards warlocks I always have trouble imagining a society that has warlocks not also having mages.

Probably a side effect of old lore where Fel magic was more just an evil mage thing.

Bagzak-rexxar · October 26, 2021, 12:04am

It could be culture related whether a race dabbles in one school of magic or not. I recall in Everquest 1, you had Iksar (Lizardmen) that were into necromancy but didn’t dabble in any of the other caster classes (Wizard, Magician, Enchanter). You also had weird cases where Frogloks could be Wizards, but couldn’t be Magicians for whatever reason.

It’s hard for me to imagine that being the case for the most part in the context of WoW. In my own personal opinion, if a playable race has warlocks as an option, I could see that race also being able to dabble in mage schools of magic. Sure, they’re completely different classes, but I don’t see why a race wouldn’t explore mages as a career path unless they felt really strongly against it. Of course, warlocks in general I can understand how a race wouldn’t want anything to do with that school of magic.

For Saurok, I don’t see why they couldn’t be warlocks and, by extention, mages. It’s possible Mogu have warlock and mage related artifacts and other such magical items in their vaults that Saurok have looted that could increase the intelligence of users. There is a lot of practicality in having mages, and I wouldn’t see playable Saurok throwing that chance away if it were an option to them.

At least in terms of playable classes, I’m personally rooting for Warlocks and Death Knights for them. Priests would also be great to make a Saurok Shadow Priest.

Grayphus-nemesis · October 26, 2021, 1:47am

One of the biggest dissatisfactions with the Zandalar trolls is that they cannot be wizards.
Sauroks would have to have access to the warlock class.
I don’t see them as paladins but…

Bagzak-rexxar · October 26, 2021, 4:38pm

Do you mean warlocks? Zandalari can be mages from my understanding, unless I am mistaken.

I do remember the kerfuffle that went on when it was first advertised they could be warlocks, with some vague idea that they couldn’t be paladins at first until later in the expansion. At some point, they changed their minds, removed warlocks from the class selection, and added paladins fully. I’m guessing Zandalari culture frowns upon practices of warlock related magic, similar to Mag’har Orcs since they kinda rejected Gul’dan in WoD. Maybe we’ll see Zandalari Warlocks if they add a new batch of race/class combos like they did in Cataclysm.

Saurok Warlocks sound very fitting in general and I imagine they would’ve come across something warlock related overtime.

I don’t see much regarding Mogu dabbling in warlock magic, though apparently there is a Mogu Cultist card referred to as a warlock in Hearthstone, but it seems like Mogu being warlocks would be a thing. It’s why I figure that the playable Horde Saurok faction would’ve come across warlock and mage related artifacts, likely from Mogu vaults, that would give them the knowledge to be those classes.

If anything, it would be a good way to either give Sauroks a necromancer class or a necromancer skin for warlocks, since Mogu necromancers are a thing. Likely, there would be some necromancer artifacts and tomes in those Mogu vaults that Saurok raided.

I don’t really either, though I’m sure there are others that could make an argument for them. I see something like Zandalari Paladins being an exception to how people view Paladins in general, and I don’t see too many races doing something similar. That’s just my own personal opinion, of course.

I’ll be happy if I get playable Horde Saurok that can be Warlocks and Death Knights at least. Priests would be great also to make a Shadow Priest, but I’d happily use that character idea if Sethrak became playable also. Hunters would be a given, and I’ve been tempted to consider a Saurok Survival Hunter.

Hopefully we’ll see Saurok on the Horde side of that character creation screen someday!

Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord · October 26, 2021, 4:53pm

That’s true.

Like I said I think I’m just stuck on old lore sometimes. Lol

Yeah that’s another thing I run into as well with it.

I’d want…

Warrior
Hunter
Rogue
Priest
Mage
Warlock
Druid
DK
Monk

Yes. Those.

Should be a thing for everyone…

Give me a necromancer class blizzard!

Saurok for the Horde!