I bet he felt pretty saur after that
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Saurok or Sethrak.
I donāt care, the game has been lacking a playable lizardman race for ages. It would be refreshing to have either or.
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so many good races like this and people still lose their minds about more elves, heh.
Btw, i find saurok ok to join, even more than Sethrak because of their background and easy model to work on, like no elm problems, but i would be fine with anything.
The game donāt have a reptilian race and it bother me a lot, while i am a dragon people fan because of dnd, this at least would fill the gap
Thinking of a few racial ideas. I donāt really have much thought in terms of competitive racials, but have an idea for a few racials that are for flavor and for fun.
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5% resistance to shadow magic or fire magic. Since they were created with dark magic, I feel like it could work. Otherwise, I could see a slight resistance to fire magic.
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-5% Frost resistance. Some media has reptilian races susceptible to the cold, much like in real life where reptiles seek the sunlight to stay warm, keep energy up, and keep their metabolism going.
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Regeneration ability of some kind. This might be a bit redundant, but they could have a passive health regeneration similar to the Darkspear Trolls. Debatable, of course.
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Faster eating time and/or more health gained from meat ideas. Since Saurok are voracious, I can see them as quick eaters. Also, since they are meat lovers, I could see them get more benefits out of meat items they consume.
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Faster swim speed and able to hold their breath longer. I can see them being land and water capable, and they would be able to swim faster and have at most twice as long of a breath meter underwater compared to normal.
A few of these I was inspired from Iksar from Everquest, but Iām sure others can be more creative, like the racial ideas Reallydeep listed earlier.
As I think of more ideas, Iāll be sure to post them, but Iād be happy to hear some suggestions for racials and such for Saurok. ^^
I would love to play as a Saurok, or any animal-based race really! WoW has so many wonderful and interesting animal-inspired races, itās a shame the majority of them have been relegated to just being NPCs. I think Sethrak are probably the most likely out of reptilian races, but I would love to see Saurok or even Naga alongside them~ I just want to play as a reptile person, plz Blizz.
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Goblins experiment on a trive leader. Give them a kajamite injection or kaja cola. Boom. They may slightly mutate though.
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I would like them if Naga arent playable. They seen to use the worgen skeleton. Better race then night elf worgen imo.
Been doing some Saurok research, and found the concept of the Saurok Shortfangs to be a bit interesting.
In the Skumblade Tribe, their belief that the strongest are the ones in charge and to eradicate the weak, which is a common view among most Saurok. Shortfangs, in particular, arenāt very strong, and Iāve read that they need pets to help protect them. The ones in the Skumblade Tribe use a basilisk pet called āIhgaluk Basiliskā show here:
If you speak to them in Saurok form, on the Isle of Thunder, they do have some interesting, albeit depressing things to say:
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There are ways for a shortfang to become stronger. If I wanted, I could escape the scorn of my tribe. There are waysā¦ but I am afraid. I am too scared, too weak. They do not understand me. I will be a shortfang all my life.
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The saur-priests have seen my weakness. The brutes beat me, call me shortfang. If I did not have my basilisk to protect me, I would be all alone. Likely dead.
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(The saurok cowers behind its pet.)
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(The shortfang recoils in fear.)
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I am nothing, I am no one, I am weak. I am nothing, I am no one, I am weak. I am nothingā¦
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You bend down to speak with me? A pet-keeper? A shortfang? I know my place in this world, stronger. I am not so strong enough to fight on my own, so I keep a pet. I am called weak, and pushed to the edge of the village. You should stay away from me, before they see you.
A named Shortfang āSiakannā says the following:
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They 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¦ (I believe Farros is the basilisk pet he has. Saurok, at least the Skumblade Tribe, possibly frown on having pets, thus the Shortfangās lowly status. Apparently killing the pet and eating its meat could elevate a Saurokās status)
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I will never know the strength of Kros. I will never hunt in his fields. I am not the predator. I am the prey.
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I was not always a shortfang. I was strong.
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My father was a brute. My mother was a saur-priest. I am nothing. I am a disgrace to the Skumblade. I will die in the filth, and they will not eat my meat.
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(When being sacrificed) As a shortfang, I must wait until the stronger saurok have had their share of meat.
Some of the hierarchy makes sense, given the primitive nature of the Saurok. I assume most tribes would act like this. Despite that, however, the Saurok shortfangs do have some hints of free thoughtā¦kind of.
Most Saurok shortfangs arenāt too thrilled to be in the position they are in, granted most seem to want to be stronger and thrive in the Skumblade Tribe as opposed to outright leaving it. The first text for regular Shortfangs could refer to leaving the tribe, but it could also refer to eating their basilisk pet.
Siakann shows some form of bonding and appreciation for his basilisk pet, refusing to ever want to kill it. In some ways, it can show that the Saurok are capable of more than just savage rage.
Despite what I typed, it isnāt a huge basis for Saurok to run off and form their own hippie tribe utopia where everyone is equal and such, but it could be taken into consideration should Saurok ever be considered as a playable race. A band of Saurok from different tribes that think differently and wanted to escape the other Saurok that called them weak and threatened their lives because of it would make for an interesting story, in my opinion.
On another note, that basilisk I linked earlier could work as a Saurok Hunterās starting pet. They likely wouldnāt be referred to as shortfangs, and would just be actual hunters that utilize traps and hunt with their pet. I am unsure if any other Saurok tribes use different pets, let alone have pets to begin with.
At any rate, all I typed is speculation on my part. As I mentioned, some creativity would need to be taken to implement Saurok as playable. Still an uphill battle, but not impossible, in my opinion. ^^
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First thing for this post, I did want to state that tomorrow starts my 4 week summer class, so forum posting and Saurok research may slow down for awhile. I should have some free time in July, hopefully.
On a more fun note, I found something interesting from one of the game designers of Hearthstone. They explained why they put Saurok in UnāGoro:
"Originally we had an idea to do a more long-nosed Saurok-like minions that resembled more crocodile/alligator than lizard. The thought was that the Mogu-created Saurok were made to deal with humanoid creatures like Pandaren, the Tolāvir created version of Saurok might have had to be a bit more bulky because the main threats werenāt humanoid, but dinosaur! We had a bunch of names for them, none of them actually got close to shipping. The only one I remember was The Reptol, in reference to reptiles created by tolāvir (although to me itās because it sounds like Reptar and Reptar is the best dinosaur ever). We thought Sauroks were pretty sweet though and decided to just stick with them because we were already doing a bunch of weird and wacky stuff with the plant/dino/humanoid lifeforms in this version of UnāGoro.
TL:DR we thought a lot about lizard people"
Now to be clear, this is specifically regarding Hearthstone, which does do some things different from actual WoW. Even so, itās good to see devs have some fondness for the Saurok, and hopefully this could inspire more Saurok stuff on WoWā¦preferably as a future playable race for the Horde, of course.
We did see at least one race that, I think, came from Hearthstone first and then put into WoW as a currently NPC race, with that race being Tortollans. So it is possible for the WoW devs to get some inspiration from the devs at Hearthstone. I also do like a lot of the Saurok artwork theyāve made for the game.
Seems like Saurok might be considered WoWās lizard man race ultimately. I do want to point out that, in my opinion, I consider Sethrak to be snake men as opposed to lizard men. Snakes and lizards are separate species. I also still believe that both can be playable and still have differences in them, be it in terms of game mechanics, lore, and culture.
All in all, just a fun thing I found in my Saurok research. ^^
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Good hunt!
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So I mentioned the Saurok overthrowing the Mogu Empire a few posts ago, and what I am referencing is from in-game text. For the achievement, āThe Dark Heart of the Moguā, you have to read text on four different objects. One of which has the following:
"Even by mogu standards, the reign of Emperor Dojan II was short and brutish. His maniacal drive to finish his fatherās work and complete the great purge against the rebellious saurok legions drove him to leave his court in disarray while he set out on a doomed military campaign.
From his perch high on the cliffs overlooking the Krasarang Wilds he oversaw the slow clear-cutting of the jungle, the establishment of Dojanni Dungeons, and the gradual genocide of the saurok race.
What he didnāt expect was for the remains of the saurok fifth and seventh legions to scale the enormity of the cliffs in the dead of night, ambushing his imperial pavilion from the Valley of Four Winds and forcing him over the edge. His body was never found, and the resulting disarray in the capitol left the empire in chaos for over two years while the saurok melted back into the wilds and disappearedā¦"
This gives me a couple of ideas. One is that if the Saurok do become playable, it would be neat to bring back Mogu as antagonists. I believe there are actually some in BfA collecting azerite, and while I donāt know a lot of Mogu lore, it could lead to them beng up to no good somewhere and to introduce a tribe of Saurok in another area, having to fight them to survive.
The other is that if they can do something like this to the Moguā¦imagine what they could do to the Alliance. Swimming in the canals of Stormwind, climbing up and sneaking into the castle, and even tossing Anduin down to a pack of hungry Saurokā¦well, obviously that wouldnāt happen specifically, but you get the idea. ā <;
This is all just thinking out loud to imagine possibilities, of course. The Saurok, in my opinion, have a lot of potential if written right.
Edit: Wanted to add that 4 week college classes are really brutal, so posts will be sparse until July. (nyarrs) -o -;
Sauroks for Horde, Grummels for Alliance.
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I think I mentioned earlier about turning into a Saurok and being able to talk to Saurok NPCās. If anyone is interested in it, you can do so with the following quests, āSkin of the Saurokā, on the Isle of Thunder, both on Wowhead:
According to some of the comments, classes with combat pets have them can turn into blobs/oozes, roaches, grubs, and the red basilisk I linked earlier. Apparently your pet also has a chance of turning into a Saurok also, which I am unsure if it is a bug and, if so, if it has been fixed.
Also according to comments, the type of Saurok you get turned into is random.
And lastly, you run and stay on all fourās, though a comment says if you /dance, you stand on your hind legs. I am unsure if this is true or, if it was true at the time, it was patched out.
Video of the Horde version of the quest:
Itāll be something I play around with when I manage to get free time. Right now, all of it has been devoted mostly to my summer class. x- x
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Thatās really cool! Iāll have to look into that sometime. I wonder if their run would be modified to be bipedal or if theyād actually run on all fours if they ever came to be as an AR.
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They has a bipedal run animation!
(Model viewer link)
Though running on all fours would be interesting :o
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Might get set up similar to Worgen?
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If they come as an allied race, chances are the males at least would be using the Worgen model still, although running on all fours passively would be a neat change to make them a little different. It makes me wonder if they would have a version of the Worgenās Running Wild that you toggle instead.
Itās hard for me to imagine seeing playable Saurok holding weapons still as they run on all fourās, though. Assuming that run is their passive run, weapons would just be instantly sheathed when they move and instantly be held when they stop moving. They might just stay standing on their hind legs when in combat mode.
I think in the grand scheme of things, they should run passively on their hind legs and either through their own Running Wild skill or using a dash-related skill, they would then run on all fourās. Seems easier to work with and code with regards to combat and such.
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So I mentioned the quest where you turn into a Saurok a few posts ago. As it turns out, one of the Saurok there can see through your disguise. His name is Gokkar, and he has these to say to you if you speak to him while as Saurok:
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I have seen your magic. I know that you are not saurok. You are other. Your magic makes you weak. You are coward who hides in enemyās skin. YOU ARE NOT STRONG! <Gokkar spits at your feet.>
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I know you are not one of us. You are one of them. I follow you. I watch you. You kill our people, but you also kill mogu. You kill straight-back trolls (Zandalari). I do not care who you kill. I pick up the meat afterward. So very, very much meat.
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I smell you, outsider. I know you are not one of us. Why do you sneak into our village? Why do you wear the skin of our people? I do not understand.
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I know your secret, outsider. I know you are an enemy. I smell through your false skin. I am not scared of you. Fear is for the weak. I am not weak.
While Kroshik is being sacrificed:
- I smell through your disguise, stranger. You are bold to come to such a sacred ritual. What do you intend here? Will you eat the flesh of Kroshik?
Itās interesting to see a Saurok, especially one of the Skumblade Tribe, not take you out for lunch, the meal would be on you of course, but instead has some restraint. It does show that Saurok, while they have a lot of primitive rage, can at least put it aside for some reason. Of course, the Skumblade Tribe arenāt going to become best friends with you and go bowling, nor would they become paragons of justice or the John Cena of Pandaria, so I again doubt theyād get far in Ultima IV.
First of all, his comment on magic, referring to your Saurok disguise, making one weak leads me to believe that mages would likely not be among the Saurok, but it could also be specific to the Skumblade Tribe. Saurok generally donāt strike me as being magically inclined, even if they managed to get magical books or artifacts. Theyāre mostly primitive, and may not have the skills to be able to become full mages.
Warlocks, on the other hand, would likely fit them having been made using dark magic, and I could see some Saurok wanting to delve into that direction. If they performed raids on the Mogu, I can see them coming across Warlock related items and being drawn to them. The difference between mages here is the way Saurok were created, they could have some understanding and mindset for dark magic. Now, in most tribes, I can see Warlocks being frowned upon, weak magic weak pet weak lizard blah blah blah, so a tribe that has evolved from being completely primitive might be able to be more open-minded about this form of magic. Warlocks just fit them, in my opinion, and Iām sure something could be written for playable Saurok to be Warlocks.
Getting back to Gokkar, this Saurok is also keen on you killing Mogu, which at this point would likely be a Saurok hobby if not a sport. If a tribe of Saurok were to join the Horde, it makes more sense to me to have them fighting a group of Mogu, armed with azerite weapons from BfA, trying to wipe them out, wherever this particular tribe decided to start their own civilization.
Zandalari, some of which did ally with the Mogu, are mentioned here, and since Zandalari did join the Horde, it could cause some issues. Iām sure something could be written here, be it that the Saurok are more fixated on the Mogu being their mortal enemy and donāt care much about the Zandalari, a tribe that joins the Horde left Pandaria before the Zandalari allied with the Mogu, or some diplomacy happens to explain that the Horde Zandalari are good Zandalari and so on. Obviously, this needs to be fleshed out, but even so, it shouldnāt be a barrier for the Saurok to join the Horde, in my opinion. I really donāt see Saurok on the Alliance, and I strongly believe that between the two, the Horde fits them much betterā¦and not just because I want them on Horde. ^^;
As I stated before, there are interesting aspects of Saurok that can show they could be a bit more than angry lizards, but the Skumblade Tribe is not who Iām looking for in terms of what tribe playable Saurok would come from. Even then, and again sounding like a broken record here, a lot of creativity and lore building would need to be done to implement Saurok as a playable race.
Something Iāll think more on is that for a newly created tribe of Saurok, that would represent playable Saurok, what exactly we would want out of it. I donāt expect tree hugging hippies that frolic with the bunnies over the grassy plains while wanting world peace, but at the same time, they would likely need evolve to be more than primitive lizards and have some civilization of some sort. A hurdle for sure, but not an impossible one.
Saurok research will continue when I have the time, as there are a few other things to post and discuss. Iām really looking forward to being done with this summer class so I can devote more time to it, also. <- <;
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Arenāt there some magic using Saurok in one of the MoP dungeons? I recall one being a healer or even a mage. I think that mentality might vary on tribe. Also Iām short responding at the moment but can put some more thought into it later too.
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Itās very possible. Itāll likely be something Iāll need to add to my āto-researchā pile, since MoP is an expansion I really havenāt done much of. If they have healers, I could imagine a Shaman or Priest. Saurok do have saur-priests, in the Skumblade Tribe particularly, and Iām sure they are capable of being Shamans. They may be angry lizards, but even they need healers to be able to survive and thrive.
It is possible that Gokkar was referring to your character using magic to fool the Saurok into thinking you are one of them as opposed to magic in general. It also could vary depending on the tribes. If we do actually see a Saurok Mage mob, then it could very much be that different tribes operate differently, and could give some arguments for playable Saurok to have the mage class.
Iāll add āSaurok mob classesā to my list of stuff to research and see what I can come up with when I get the chance.