The Unofficial Saurok Playable Race Discussion Megathread! šŸŠ

Link for you: https://pt.wowhead.com/sound=32500/vo-mp-salyis-intro-01

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Ahh, the sound of hope of getting that Son of Galleon mount to drop, only to have my dreams crushed each week multiple times. It does sound a bit slower and deeper than I would expect a Saurok to speak, come to think of it.

On the subject of Saurok voices, when I played Everquest 2, I actually worked on a voice to somewhat RP as my Sarnak Necromancer. It was mostly a raspy voice and I didnā€™t have sssss sounds with S syllables at the time, but Iā€™ve thought about practicing it again for fun sometime. I donā€™t have a way to record my voice at present, but maybe someday Iā€™ll do something like that.

If I find anything that resembles how Iā€™d expect Saurok voices to sound like, Iā€™ll be sure to share them here. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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The most important thing for me, in this audio, is that it shows anyone who can talk again that sauroks donā€™t talk and are just mindless beasts who are actually very articulate. For the dissatisfaction of your opponents and victims. AHAHAH.

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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 Iā€™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 theyā€™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 havenā€™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 isnā€™t as if we stopped the evil Mogu clans in the area, so theyā€™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 donā€™t see why this couldnā€™t apply to Saurokā€¦though I donā€™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 weā€™d see Saurok as happy as that iguana above!..especially when they sample all sorts of meat recipes! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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Exploring Azeorth: Kalimdor comes out tomorrow, unless the release date has changed without me knowing. My copy doesnā€™t have an ETA, unfortunately, but when it does come, Iā€™ll take a look at it for potential (albeit on the low side) Saurok information.

If you donā€™t know what that is, itā€™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, Iā€™m not expecting much at all for Saurok, but there is some potential interest with the Unā€™goro Crater section. In-game, weā€™ve see a Saurok for the Unā€™goro Madness micro holiday, and while Hearthstone is a separate world from WoW, they have Saurok residing there.

Unā€™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 donā€™t expect much Saurok mention at all, but I figure it is best to leave no stone unturned when it comes to Saurok research! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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Stepping in for more Saurok support :slight_smile:

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

Regrettably, I canā€™t show it because Youtube canā€™t translate Portuguese br in a 100% comprehensible way to English.

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So as it turns out, Exploring Azeroth: Kalimdorā€™s release date changed for the second time to December 7thā€¦on the day it was suppose to releaseā€¦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 arenā€™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 Iā€™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, Iā€™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. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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

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 Iā€™d likely have a wall of videos. Iā€™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. Itā€™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 hasnā€™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:

Letā€™s get some reptiles on that character creation screen! :snake: :crocodile: :turtle:

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Speaking of Lizards and Snakes and all things Sethrak and Saurok, I thought Iā€™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 Burtonā€™s Legless Lizard. Despite not having legs this is a lizard and they are actually related to Geckos!

:snake::lizard:

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Taken by Stephen Mahony on Flickr:

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Taken by Ryan Francis on Flickr:

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Itā€™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 Burtonā€™s Legless Lizards here:

Itā€™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! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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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, thereā€™s so much that can be done. Not only do they look neat, but their lore is simply very interesting.

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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 canā€™t say Iā€™m the sole cause for the interest of those races becoming playable, but if I did inspire anyone, itā€™d be pretty cool.

Interest in playable Saurok has been kinda there since MoP. As Iā€™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, theyā€™re too primitive and angry to ever realistically become one, making it a bit of a pipedream. Itā€™s likely a reason you donā€™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, theyā€™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 hasnā€™t had before with them being a lizardmen race. Lots of potential as a playable Horde race, in my opinion! :lizard:

Iā€™m glad Iā€™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 canā€™t say what Iā€™m doing is effective at all, but hey, itā€™s something.

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

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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 :slight_smile: I almost grabbed an image of saurok but did something else, however itā€™s still super cool to think about. Donā€™t Saurok use the worgen skeleton in some fashion? They would be a super neat Allied Race for sure, I feel.

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

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That sounds like fun. Iā€™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 NPCā€™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. Iā€™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.

Iā€™d be fine with either method to be honest. Iā€™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 Iā€™m fine on either faction. :meat_on_bone::crocodile: :cut_of_meat::tiger2:

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Iā€™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 theyā€™re playable.

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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 wouldnā€™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 donā€™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 donā€™t really see Saurok Mages being too far out there as a potential option. Iā€™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 donā€™t see why they wouldnā€™t be able to learn mage spells when Ogres are perfectly able to.

While Iā€™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, weā€™ll see people be able to make Blizzard Wizard Lizards. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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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.

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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 didnā€™t dabble in any of the other caster classes (Wizard, Magician, Enchanter). You also had weird cases where Frogloks could be Wizards, but couldnā€™t be Magicians for whatever reason.

Itā€™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, theyā€™re completely different classes, but I donā€™t see why a race wouldnā€™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 wouldnā€™t want anything to do with that school of magic.

For Saurok, I donā€™t see why they couldnā€™t be warlocks and, by extention, mages. Itā€™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 wouldnā€™t see playable Saurok throwing that chance away if it were an option to them.

At least in terms of playable classes, Iā€™m personally rooting for Warlocks and Death Knights for them. Priests would also be great to make a Saurok Shadow Priest. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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