lizard love.
4 Likes
Today is the big day, as TWW launches for everyone! 
I am unsure what all is going to be available once the expansion opens for everyone. There were several things locked from early access, including the max level campaign questline, which is required to be able to unlock Earthen.
Speaking of, I donāt know if Earthen will be available to unlock when TWW opens up for everyone. When you hit L80 and go back to the Earthen capital city and complete the quest that opens world quests, a splash screen pops up giving suggestions of what all you can do, with unlocking Earthen being part of it. So itās up in the air if thatāll be available later today or if it and/or the max level campaign gets time-gated as well.
But as soon as Earthen are available to unlock, Iāll take screenshots of the Horde and Alliance embassies to see where the new banner is placed and how much room there is. I just need to finish the max level campaign whenever it is available, I assume do a scenario questline that unlocks them, and Iāll have them.
Of course, there will still be plenty of room for a Saurok banner in the Horde embassy, Iām sure. Not to mention the Horde side of that character creation screen for Saurok! 
Anway, I hope that everyone has a fun time with the new expansion today!
And Iāll still keep an eye out for anything of Saurok interest to report back on! 
-TWW releases for everyone today! Hope everyone has fun!-
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please! 
3 Likes
Earthen appear to be unlockable on September 3rd, along with the rest of the max level campaign that is part of the criteria for unlocking them:
As I said before, Iāll check out the unlock scenario, the Earthen starting area (which is a bit different from other Allied Race starting areas), and take screenshots of both the Horde and Alliance embassies. Seeing as Saurok could work as either a Core or an Allied Race, itāll be good to note some things about unlocking Earthen since we havenāt had an Allied Race in quite some time.
At some point, Iāll be leveling one of my Rogue characters, who aside from being my jewel crafter and lock picker for locked boxes, will be able to utilize Glyph of Disguise for some TWW Saurok screenshots. Iām thinking our Saurok ambassador will be needing to meet with the Earthen since theyāll be allies if they join the Hordeā¦which may cause some confusion to seeing Dwarves on the Horde.
Anyway, Iāll continue to keep an eye out to report on anything of Saurok interest in TWW!
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
3 Likes
When it comes to playable Saurok, I expect there to be just one tribe as part of the playable faction. However, I did think about if it could consists of several other tribes with a storyline that could mirror the Orcs.
For this storyline, I imagine a Saurok tribe trying to unite with other tribes because of a growing evil Mogu threat. This could be near the beginning when the Saurok revolt against the Mogu or it could be at some point after the mists around Pandaria lifted, which would tie into a current evil Mogu threat of a new empire growing.
In either scenario, I imagine a tribe of Saurok realizing that they need to stand up to the Mogu, since being divided gives little chance of success. So they try to unite with other tribes so there is a chance of survival. Some would join up because it makes sense, others would be too bull-headed and not wanting to share power/treasures with others, and some would be a bit too zealous with their beliefs to want to willingly join up with others (Skumblade tribe comes to mind).
The storyline could then be at a point where all is lost and that an exodus needs to happen. So with whatever tribes and individual Saurok are gathered and supplies pilfered from the evil Mogu, the Saurok traverse elsewhere to try to survive and not be enslaved for eternity, which is a possibility with the Mogu.
This location could be either a new continent or somewhere weāve been, such as Unāgoro Crater. The the case of the latter, this united tribe could meet with remnants of the Skumblade Tribe who defected and help set up a settlement there. The titan stuff in the area gives a reason for the evil Mogu to scout there, find the Saurok that escaped them, and causing a massive war fairly close to Horde territory.
Through this storyline, I could see Thrall noticing a lot of similarities between the Saurok tribes and the Orc clans, which would allow a pretty interesting bond between them and be a big reason why Thrall would offer Horde membership. After all is said and done, Saurok could become part of the Horde and give the Horde some protection against any further evil Mogu attacks on Kalimdor.
As far as what tribes could be part of it, a lot depends on when this exodus happens. If it was before the mists were lifted off Pandaria, it would be some new tribes we havenāt heard about. Otherwise, several tribes we know of could actually become part of this united tribe, which could work pretty well for MoP nostalgia.
If the tribes were fleshed out more, without the use of flesh-shaping magic, it could allow for some role-playing opportunities. Different tribes having differences with culture, scale colors, and so on would make for some interesting player choices for their Saurok characters.
I donāt know if Saurok would end up in a Magāhar Orc situation, but it is fun to think about several tribes uniting into one from dire situations. And if Saurok had their own starting scenarios, it would work well for that as a questline.
So what do yāall think? Multiple tribes part of the playable Saurok faction united into one? Lots of storyline potential, I see!
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
3 Likes
That would be rather cool, especially as we go about trying to unite the Saurok.
3 Likes
Septemberās Travelerās Log Reward is the Plunderlordās Golden Crocolisk.
I have to admit, at one look at it I went āThis is the perfect Saurok mount.ā
4 Likes
Yes! There are two crocolisk mounts on the trading post next month. one for sale and one you earn from doing enough monthly trading post tasks, next month! Gotta admit, Iām pretty excited in general for both of these mounts since alligators/crocodiles are one of my favorite animals.
Here is a list of what will be available for tenders next month:
And the monthly reward is this crocolisk mount:
And the other crocolisk mount on the Trading Post is this:
Crocolisks have been a pretty big potential mount possibility for Saurok, especially of the Pandaria variety. Since there are crocolisk mounts already, it could easily be edited to have a Pandaria crocolisk for their racial mount. If that is what would be their racial mount, of course.
Iām definitely going to get both of them and add them to my āpotential ground mounts for potential Saurok charactersā collection in the future!
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
4 Likes
I love YouTube recommendations when it works.
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
4 Likes
Thatās a cool find.
3 Likes
So with each allied race unlock, the allied races got a presence in the capital(s). Case in point when the Magāhar were first unlocked, they took over the Hall of the Brave, the Zandalariās unlock added to Zandalari Warlocks with the Darkspear ones, and the Nightborne unlock gave us Nightborne throughout both Orgrimmar and Silvermoon.
Now with the Earthen unlock this week and the knowledge that they will be in both Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, I got to wondering where other potential allied races, like Saurok, would go. Like would they have a set spot, be sprinkled in the city, would they just be added to Orgrimmar, or two two Horde capitals. I have to admit that I can easily see the Saurok being sprinkled in the various water pools of Orgrimmar.
3 Likes
Many years ago, I made a post about where Saurok could have their own area in Orgrimmar:
I suppose a lot depends if they became a Core Race or Allied Race and how many would be placed in Orgrimmar. If a Core Race, I can see them having their own area like the above post. Otherwise, we might see a few here and there like with the Dracthyr and somewhat with the Earthen.
I can also see them in various places in Thunder Bluff. With the upcoming update to Eversong Forest and its surrounding areas, including Silvermoon, maybe we could see a few here and there in the area if they did become playable. I donāt really know specific places, but Iām sure they would be interested in visiting all the Horde capital cities like other new playable races. I still imagine them surprising the Zandalari in how to train devilsaurs in their own capital city as well. 
Maybe weād be lucky enough to see our Saurok ambassador character become an actual NPC in some place too. Probably in Orgrimmar if not where ever the playable Horde Saurok faction would reside. Just a fun thought, of course!
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
3 Likes
That would be the perfect area for the Saurok.
3 Likes
Still a big fan of this idea.
3 Likes
I have gotten both crocolisk mounts on the Trading Post:
As you can see, they would make for some really neat Saurok mounts. Especially if they were edited to be Pandaria Crocolisks and maybe have some things like extra weapons and armor on them.
Come to think of it, Saurok using Pandaria crocolisks as mounts would be an interesting contrast to Pandaren, who have Pandaria Turtles as their racial mount. One interesting comparison would be Saurok being the more aggressive type while Pandaren are usually the more passive type. Itās pretty interesting to think about.
Anyway, crocolisk mounts are a pretty big possibility for Saurok racial mounts, along with mushan. I can imagine Saurok riding crocolisks into battle causing fear in their opponents as they have two creatures with sharp teeth to deal with!
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
3 Likes
Yeah crocolisks are one of the good choice I think for the Saurok. I still think they should have a neat Dimetrodon thing going on if the end up in Unāgoro butā¦ >.> Crocs are good in my book.
2 Likes
The Anarchy WoW private server has Saurok, Ogres, and Naga as playable races
Why canāt Blizzard?
1 Like
This feels wrong on so many levels, I donāt know where to beginā¦
Going to be posting this in both my megathreads, since there are some things of interest to both of them. So Earthen were available to unlock, though I think Blizzard temporarily disabled the questline since there were bugs involving the scenario in the last part of the max level campaign. Those who were lucky to start and get through it still got to make Earthen. Hopefully stuff will get fixed and the ability to unlock Earthen will be available for everyone soon.
I did take a screenshot of the Horde and Alliance embassies with the Earthen banner within. I tried to take a good angle as best as I could:
Oddly enough, there was a Night Elf in the Horde embassy. They spoke common to me, which I couldnāt understand, and stared at the Vulpera banner for a bit before leaving. Not sure what to think there. 
Anyway, there is still plenty of room in both embassies for more Allied Race banners, so that is a good thing. My hope is that theyāll get filled with races weāve been wanting to see playable for quite some time.
The Earthen unlock doesnāt seem to have its own scenario. After finishing the max level campaign and having done the other side questlines beforehand, I got them unlocked as soon as I finished the max level campaign. This means future Allied Races may not have their own unlock scenario at all in the future. Part of me kinda likes the unlock scenarios, as it makes the feeling of unlocking Allied Races much more exciting, but weāll see if future Allied Races have their own unlock scenarios or if they just unlock when finishing a campaign questline.
The Earthen also have a short questline when you first create them, which is pretty interesting. Iāll comment more on that when I can, as I currently am fighting a sinus headache. So Iāll comment on that in another post.
Also, other than a quest turn-in soon as Earthen get into Orgrimmar, there havenāt been any comments from NPCās or anything like them wanting to chop my head off walking around as an Earthen. So I guess the Horde is use to having Horde Dwarves already.
Anyway, Iāll comment more when I can. Hopefully those wanting to make Earthen will get to make them ASAP. Iāll have to level mine so I can get a much more proper attire and such.
Going to take a bit for me to get use to Horde Dwarves. Even if they are robo stone Dwarves. 
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
2 Likes
While I personally like doing the race recruitments, I can see how this do achievement unlock race thing with the Earthen could work, as long as it depends on the race and context we have.
When it comes to the Saurok, I feel that they need to make it clear working with the Saurok is leading to recruitment in some manner. Perhaps it could be like a call back to the Hozen, where we initially fight, then we win them over, and help train them up for a conflict against a different enemey.
In thinking about it, if this system was in Mists and we got playable Hozen, it would have fit.
3 Likes
Any new Allied and Core Race in the future really needs to show something in-game that would give a reason and interest for a faction to offer membership and for that race to want to join. It can easily just be part of the narrative. Having it not really be shown and just be a sudden passing mention of it being in the background of the game just makes it feel flat and not right. Especially running around as an Earthen in Orgrimmar without any buildup to their being offered to join the Horde.
Saurok in particular would need something like this. Especially if they became a neutral race, as something like the Alliance really would need to have some sort of reason to allow them roaming free in places like Stormwind. But even on the Horde, there needs to be something that shows the bond between them growing and then eventually having an invitation with meaning.
Just barely working with them and then being like āWelp, they opened the doors to us. Lets go to the embassy to get a joke about watching our tails when we turn and not to chew on citizens, har har har!ā just really cheapens the deal. Moreso when Saurok have a lot of story potential to show how they fit the Horde. Precarious situation that threatens their existence, needing allies for survival, having a bond with several members of the Horde, and such being shown in questlines really enhances the gameplay and makes it feel great when they would become playable.
Hopefully the banal āEarthen joining the Alliance/Horde without much fanfare or reasonā treatment wonāt get applied to future playable races. Itās fine if there isnāt an unlock scenario as long as the campaign questline shows events leading up to the event of a race joining a faction and said faction offering membership, as well as that event itself being something you see and participate in of course.
Itāll be something to keep an eye out for any future playable races, Allied or Core, and see how that gets handled. Hopefully if we get playable Horde Saurok, theyāll get treated better in that regard.
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
3 Likes
This lizard is utilizing tarot cards to see what the future holds for Saurok! I canāt really read the results, but you can help to give Saurok a good future!
With the beginning of each month, I make in-game suggestions for each race I want to see playable along with a mention of their respective megathreads on these forums. While it is far from a guarantee of seeing our dreams come true, I do think every little bit helps, and doing it monthly I feel is reasonable and not that intrusive or annoying.
If youāre interested in doing the same for races you want to see playable, I made a little guide on how to do so in-game here:
Let us hope playable Horde Saurok are in the cards someday!
-Playable Saurok for the Horde please!
3 Likes