You know I just had an idea for the Skumblade tribe on the Isle of Thunder.
According to Exploring Pandaria, the Horde and Alliance presence on the island remains with their conflict turning into a friendly competition. So what if the Skumblade decide to get in on the action in some manner.
Say the Skumblade priests decided that the time had come for them to push them out of the Isle and to claim it for themselves. But Tomma, who doesnāt like or even respect these priests, realize that that they would be kicking a hornets ness and decides that the time has come to deal with them once and for all.
Thus we have a Saurok infighting happening, with either the Horde getting involved and Tomma being impressed with their strength or Tomma deciding that the tribe would need allies and turning to the Horde on his own.
The question is where are all the Skumblade Tribe members located, which is up in the air.
Garrosh took most of them as shown in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid. I assume the captured Skumblade Tribe broke free at some point during the raid kerfuffle and ran off somewhere on Kalimdor. It would explain that one dinomancer in Unāgoro Crater that seems to be part of the Skumblade Tribe:
Exploring Azeroth: Pandaria makes no mention of the Skumblade Tribe, and while there could be a few members of the tribe on the Isle of Thunder still, it may not be a significant amount.
Either way, I do see infighting with the Skumblade Tribe. Kroshik, the offspring of Kros who the Skumblade worship, was tamed by Nesingwary and taken from them, and this could cause some views on Kros to change and have some Saurok in the tribe to question things. The Saur Priests also have a lot of power and sway over the tribe, and Iām sure living in filth all the time canāt be fun or healthy, so I can see the Skumblade Tribe members having issues with management.
Thus, I could see a rebellion and a new tribe forming who then form relations with the Horde either on Kalimdor, probably the most likely scenario, or on the Isle of Thunder. Throw in some enemy Mogu clans who are up to no good, and that would be a good reason for this new tribe to be open to allies.
I assume something along the lines of this would happen as the new tribe of Saurok join the Horde:
And it isnāt like all of the Skumblade Tribe are RAWR and DEATH TO THE WEAK! Weāve seen some of them form bonds with basilisks and lament their unhappiness of the clan to a degree, so there could be some who would be part of a rebellion that would be much nicer to deal with.
Itās a fun thought and definitely a possibility. Especially since it would be a great explanation for why there are Saurok on Kalimdor.
-75 days (71 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
I always thought it was weird that Garrosh had any Skumblade prisoners, since the Sunreaver Onslaught was more about fighting the Mogu and there was no one present who actually would be inclined to imprison them for Garrosh.
Perhaps a group of Skumblade launched an attack within the mainland of Pandaria and got captured that way. Alternatively, like the Stonemaul during the Third War, there were two branches of the tribe. Like one on the Isle of Thunder and one elsewhere that ended up being found and imprisoned by the True Horde.
Garrosh was capturing many denizens of Pandaria (Saurok, Yaungol, Jinyu, etc) for various reasons, all of which were far from polite or friendly purposes.
Iām guessing a lot of the captures were to be subjugated to fight as indentured servants or maybe as gladiators for colosseum battle purposes. In the the Dagger in the Dark scenario, Garrosh had wanted to utilize the flesh-shaping magic to create his own Saurok army, so that could be some relation to why most of the Skumblade Tribe was captured at some point, likely by Garroshās goons. I can imagine them just storming the Skumblade residence and trying to capture as many of them as possible. Maybe taking a nice, long, hot shower afterwards given how the sanitation workers of the Skumblade Tribe have long since given up.
Assuming the Skumblade Tribe fled, had a rebellion, made a new tribe, and resided somewhere on Kalimdor like UnāGoro Crater, there would need to be some explaining to do from the Horde of how it is under new management and Garrosh went out like a piece of Mentos in a tank of Pepsi cola. Thatāll be some expanding upon for another post, though I am brainstorming a lot of ideas on this line of thinking.
Definitely many ways you could go about this line of storyline. And hey, with Unāgoro Crater having aspects relating to the titans, you can even tie some enemy Mogu Clans to it and any of the next three expansion storylines.
-75 days (71 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
Since weāve been talking about the Skumblade Tribe for awhile and MoP Remix has been on my mind a lot, I wanted to go over one of the most interesting parts of the Skumblade Tribe: the Shortfang members, who have basilisk pets.
The top tier management of the Skumblade Tribe believe in strength over all and the weak should perish. Those who are considered weak get put on the lowest level of the pecking order, are bullied by the higher ranking members, and live a fairly miserable life. One solace they have is that they have a basilisk pet.
This of course makes them viewed as even weaker, since relying upon a companion is not a strong look according to them. In fact, one of the ways that Shortfangs would be able to rise through the ranks and get a view of being strong is to kill their basilisk, which is a rather unpleasant thought.
Several Shortfangs, however, are very attacked to their basilisks and would prefer not to. Talking to them under a Saurok disguise even has them saying so. One named Shortfang, Siakann, has a basilisk named Farros and mentions this:
āThey tell me that I can shed my shame. I only need to do one thing, and then I will not be a shortfang. But I cannot do that. I cannot take Farrosā strength for myself. Not after what he has done for meā¦ā
A brief aside is that this Saurok mentions having a father and a mother, so yes, female Saurok do actually exist in-game somewhere. Maybe theyāre hanging out with the female Ogres.
Anyway, as weāve discussed, Saurok are capable of forming bonds with beasts. In this particular case, we see that bond being pretty big between Siakann and Farros. Itās a pretty important thing to point out when people say that Saurok are all RAWR and EAT YOUR FACE when theyāre quite a bit more than that.
With the idea of a Skumblade Tribe rebellion, Iām wondering if this could start with the Shortfangs getting fed up with the tribeās treatment of them, being filthy, questioning the whole Saur Priests and Kros (the devilsaur spirit that the Skumblade worship), and the well-being of their basilisks. Others could join them, of course, but it seems like a pretty fun storyline potential to see them being viewed as weak, only to take over the tribe and lead it to prosperity of some sort.
Itās a fun idea to think about and could have a lot of potential. Throw in some enemy Mogu, and it all seems very fitting. Maybe sometime Iāll type up a scenario like this, though Iām still needing to type up a few things for a few other race request megathreads.
If you want to know a bit more on the Shortfangs and basilisk pets, I made an old post around the time that this megathread went up that went into a bit more detail here:
Anyway, itās one of many ways to implement a Horde-friendly tribe of Saurok, and itās definitely worth discussing over. Makes me wonder how many Saurok might actually be running around on Kalimdor now from escaping the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, come to think of itā¦
-73 days (69 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
So as mentioned in the last post, we have an in-game mention of female Saurok existing from the NPC I linked having some flavor text when you talk them in Saurok disguise:
āMy father was a brute. My mother was a saur-priest.ā
Not that there was really any doubt that female Saurok existed. I assume all the models look male since they were designed to be enemy mooks at their creation and creating a female model at the time for their purpose wouldāve taken some resources. Which I know is a bit weird since we see Saurok eggs in-game, but this was likely something that wasnāt meant for insane people like me to look at and ponder upon.
Of course, with several recent expansions, weāve seen some NPC races who previously were just male be able to get female models among them. I suspect that if we saw Saurok in the future and having a bigger role, preferably a friendly tribe and seeking real estate on the Horde side of that character creation screen of course, we may see female Saurok in-game then.
In the meantime, as I said last post, maybe theyāre just hanging out with female Ogres wherever they are. Until they come out of hiding, Iāll keep an eye out for them and report on any findings. Itāll be really exciting when we do see female Saurok in-game though! (And NO, not like THAT, so you perverts can stop laughing now. -o - )
-72 days (68 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
With MoP Remix still going on, I wanted to go over a boss mob again from a scenario. This Saurok Samurai is a potential boss you can fight in the Arena of Annihilation scenario:
Not much is known about him, other than his entire clan was killed off.
Iāve mentioned him before in an old post. Even if this was just meant as a Samurai trope thing, itās still interesting to see Saurok capable of working towards becoming a Samurai. Itās definitely something much more than your typical feral-like RAWR Saurok.
Makes me wonder if a playable Saurok tribe would have Samurai among their ranks with some sort of honor code. A shame there isnāt much more known about this Saurok, since it is something that would help flesh Saurok out more (and NOT with the Mogu flesh shaping magic).
If youād like to see my old post on this mob, you can see it here:
Maybe if I get more character slots, Iāll make a Saurok Samurai character. Would be fun to make some backstory for!
-69 days (65 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
Many Lizardmen races have some sort of affinity to water of some sort, usually in the form of increased swimming skills and maybe being able to hold their breath longer underwater. MoP Remix reminded me that we have two tribes that help showcase this: The Muckscale and Deepscale Tribe.
-The Muckscale Tribe is found in the Dread Wastes, usually around bodies of water. They do swim in deeper bodies of water, including into a cove where you find one of the named Matid in that areaās questline.
-The Deepscale Tribe is the tribe that attacks the Wandering Isle in the Pandaren starting area. They speand long periods of time swimming in the deep sea.
-And of course weāve seen numerous Saurok tribes outside of Pandaria who could have swam off the continent, during and after the mists disappeared. Thus several big reasons I feel like swimming would be an important aspect of Saurok.
Itās a big reason why I feel that a Saurok racial should involve increased passive swimming, both in speed and also holding their breath longer than other races. I remember Iksar from Everquest 1 having something similar, where they started with a skill of 100 in swimming, so it would make for a neat throwback for those who want to recreate their Iksar characters as Saurok.
And given that Summer officially starts tomorrow, Iām sure several Saurok would love to have some pool or beach parties with plenty of delicious BBQ food to munch on!
-68 days (64 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
Hope everyone has a fun, happy, and safe Summer time!
I wouldnāt expect water breathing, since lizards donāt have gills and if I recall correctly, anoles are the only lizards with a creative way of making air bubbles underwater to breathe.
However, I would think that Saurok could hold their breath underwater much longer than other races, since a lot of reptiles are capable of doing that for long periods of time. Marine iguanas, for example, can hold their breath for 10 or more minutes, making Guybrush Threepwood proud!
-67 days (63 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
If youāve been doing dungeons in MoP Remix, chances are you ran across a group of Saurok as a boss in the Moguāshan Palace dungeon. This is the Glintrok Tribe, which is one of the most notable existing Saurok tribes that weāve discussed many times before:
So what makes this tribe notable? A lot of it comes from their leader, Gekkan. According to the in-game Adventure Guide on him, it says the following:
āAs the mogu clans battle for supremacy, the cunning Gekkan leads his fearsome saurok raiding party into the palaceās fabled treasure caches. Loyalty is not usually ascribed to these ruthless reptilian beings, but Gekkanās courage and tactical brilliance inspire a sense of honor in his soldiers.ā
This was one of the biggest finds around the time this megathread had started, because it shows Saurok are capable of having a form of honor and also loyalty. Not to mention having some tactical skills of some extent, which would be needed when your tribe is trying to survive and the stinky evil Mogu clans are wanting to subjugate you.
Now, I donāt really know how honor is really shown with them. You just engage them and beat them up, get loot, and move on with the dungeon. Nothing is really shown in that respect in-game. Itās likely some flavor text written without giving a huge amount of thought, but it still ended up being fairly important to Saurok as a whole.
It was another reason why I feel like Saurok fit the Horde very well. Having honor is a pretty important deal in the Horde, and with Saurok having the ability to have that and show it. And also being loyal is pretty important for members of a faction to have when trying to operate said faction.
If any existing Saurok tribes were to ever get fleshed out in becoming a playable faction, the Glintrok are one of the few contenders in my own personal opinion. However, that would require a lot of writing and planning since there isnāt a lot to them, and honestly, I would expect a new Saurok tribe to come up if Saurok ever became playable in my own personal opinion.
Still, a tribe that is experienced in raiding Mogu vaults, likely has a lot of titan related artifacts from it, and has some aspects not found in a lot of other tribes could make them an interesting candidate. Something that could also fit well in upcoming expansion storylines, possibly in The Last Titan.
Or if there were multiple Saurok tribes that joined into one for the playable faction, having the Glintrok among them would be interesting and could give Saurok of that tribe a unique personality. Just one of many directions you could go with the playable Horde Saurok faction. Bit of a fun thought to see Saurok tribes unite, but thatās a post for another day.
If you want to see my old post on the Glintrok tribe, you can see it here:
Kinda puts āstrength and honorā into a new perspective.
-65 days (61 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
I had a thought on thatā¦ What if the Alliance got the canon kill credit for the Moguāshan Palace?
Perhaps a new leader emerges, sees that that their people need to improve their lot in life, and to that end sees that one of the established world powers would be their best bet. And who better, than the rivals of the fiends of the Alliance that killed their revered chief? Thus they seek to contact the Horde, and the Pandaren can be the perfect middle man as peace attempts have been made in the past.
If the whole faction war kerfuffle thing was still prevalent, I could see the Glintrok Tribe taking offense to the Alliance killing their leader, since they were very loyal to him.
Since the whole armistice thing however, I donāt really see future new faction specific races having much ire towards the other faction in storylines, so I donāt know if anything like you describe would be implemented in the near future.
Gekkan, mostly from the flavor text, also seems to be a fairly unique Saurok that could be molded into a leader, so if we were to see his tribe come back and fleshed out in the future, Iād hope to see him come back also as opposed to being dead. Maybe he survived that encounter, maybe that dungeon isnāt canon at all, or maybe it wouldnāt be addressed so people would be like āOh hey, itās that boss from that dungeon!ā I mean, death has been a minor setback for a few NPCās.
Something I had thought was if we ever went back to Pandaria and the Pandaren made peace with Saurok tribes finally, there could be neat quests you could do in assisting the Saurok against a threat, most likely evil Mogu clans. Riding Galleon to shoot at targets, then hopping off and following Gekkan who leads Saurok into battle, and so on as throwbacks to MoP and the mobs within those tribes would make for a fun questline and nostalgia.
Anyway, itās just one idea out of several for ways playable Horde Saurok could be implemented. It is fun to discuss them, however!
-64 days (60 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
Awhile ago, Blizzard announced a presentation at Gamescom, which takes place August 21st through August 25th:
If you donāt know what Gamescom is, itās pretty much E3 but taking place in Europe.
Not entirely sure what will be announced there that would be WoW related. TWW comes out for everyone on August 26th (August 23rd for those with early access), so I assume it is mostly to create hype around it. Maybe some things about other versions of WoW, like SoD or Cataclysm Classic could be shown also.
Not expecting a whole lot out of it, but if anything of particular interest does come from it, Iāll be sure to help report it here. Once TWW does come out, Iāll be curious how long itāll be before we start getting Midnight announcements. Both it and The Last Titan will have some interesting potential in general.
But until then, weāll need some time to enjoy TWW.
-62 days (58 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
Weāve seen Earthen NPCās being added to Orgrimmar, but it looks like that isnāt the only Horde place theyāre being added. Wowhead made an article showing a few Earthen NPCās being added to Thunderbluff:
The odd sight of Horde Dwarves aside, it is great to see new playable races added to areas of whatever faction or factions they have joined. Weāve seen that with several of BfAās Allied Races and Dracthyr, and with Earthen, it seems like this will be set for future playable races.
For Saurok specifically, it would be a fairly interesting thing to see. I mean, yes, playable Horde Saurok being interesting is quite the understatement, but assuming they did become playable, it would be a great journey in their story of having once been slave soldiers to the Mogu and having to fight for their freedom, then surviving the world (of Warcraft!) they were put in, only to find their place with allies and a future for their tribe.
Not to mention the irony of evil Mogu creating Saurok to take over the world (of Warcraft!) for them, only to have Saurok eventually become saviors and defenders of the world (of Warcraft!) and toppling down the evil Mogu clans at the same time. Something I hope gets to be a theme if we ever got playable Horde Saurok someday.
It does make me wonder where Saurok NPCās would be and what they would be doing there. Maybe swimming and basking on rocks in Orgrimmar, climbing the cliffs of Thunderbluff, or working with the Zandalari to help pacify and train devilsaurs in their capital city. Definitely a lot of potential!
Sounds like something Iāll have to think of for future posts, but if you have any ideas of where Saurok NPCās would reside in-game, please share your thoughts!
-61 days (57 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
July 2024ās Trading Post items have been officially announced:
The reward for doing all tasks is this neat baby Naga battle pet:
Nothing Saurok related that I saw this month. Although, a lot of stuff in here would go really well with Kelfin and Ankoan/Jinyu characters if they ever became playable.
Still, Iāll keep an eye out for anything Saurok related on future Trading Posts!
-59 days (55 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
As you play MoP Remix and are doing the Isle of Thunder campaign, you likely have seen this Saurok in the mines section of the zone:
This Saurok is tied by a chain to a Mogu slaver, who I think has the Saurok under mind control. It use to be if you killed the slaver first, the Saurok gets a buff called āFREEDOM!ā and will attack other Mogu in the area. At some point, however, they just despawn fairly quickly. I assume getting out of the area to regroup and get some therapy or something after what the Mogu put them through.
Iām not entirely sure that these Saurok are from the Skumblade Tribe, the only tribe on Isle of Thunder I can remember. None of the Skumblade Tribe have any different scale colors other than orange/red and yellow. It could be entirely possible that these Saurok are from another tribe that was then transported to the mines.
It seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to have something more to do with freeing enslaved Saurok, which also happens in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. It wouldāve tied well into the Pandaren trying to make peace with the Saurok in general, and given how big of an antagonist the Mogu were in MoP, wouldāve worked well with storylines in general. Instead, it always feels like the storyline goes āSome Saurok got enslaved by the Mogu. Welp, that sure is a thing! Letās move on!ā whenever it gets involved. Really disappointingā¦
And of course that gets repeated with the Clearscale Tribe in BfA. The one that Chen Stormstout is more concerned about his booze than thinking that helping to free the enslaved Saurok could have more of a long-term benefit. Yes, Iām still as bitter as some of the ingredients used to make said booze. And no, I doubt Iāll stop complaining about that missed opportunity anytime soon.
-ahem- Anyway. Whenever I do go through the mines section, I always free whatever Saurok I do see. Itās a bit hard to do in MoP Remix, since Taoshi doesnāt quite understand the logic of freeing Saurok (like a certain other Pandaren I know ) and some slotted gems cause AoE damage that unfortunately hit the poor Saurok, but I still try.
I do think with a playable Saurok tribe, having an evil Mogu clan is a must for their storyline. Especially one that tries to enslave and conquer them, likely with ten times more strict determination than Nintendoās view of fan projects, which would make for some great questlines and be a good reason for said Saurok Tribe to be open to getting help. Especially since the Moguās employment opportunities are terrible, the health benefits are near zero, and their severance pay involves getting your soul severed from your body. 2 out of 5 stars, would not recommend even in this economy.
So maybe free some Saurok when you get the chance. Youād be helping them avoid a horrible life that is almost as bad as working a retail job!
-58 days (54 days with early access) until TWW releases!-
) and some slotted gems cause AoE damage that unfortunately hit the poor Saurok, but I still try.