I could see that pairing work, especially since both the Orcs and Humans came from Ogres and Vrykul. Though with how the Weathered Northrend Sigil had both the Taunka and Vrykul race coded, while excluding the Iron Dwarves, I can’t help but feel that pairing is more likely.
That’s completely fair. Like I admitted, it was a crazy idea.
It really is and I feel that Blizzard is setting the ground work for it. We have the Orc Heritage Armor revealing the the forest of Thunder Ridge will return to Durotar, Heartlands established that the Mag’har have made Hammerfall and the Arathi Highlands their home, Exploring Eastern Kingdoms told us that the Bloodfang Pack control Shadowfang Keep, etc…
Though I do wonder how the world revamp will change things. For example would the AU Mag’har still start in Orgrimmar or in Hammerfall with a portal sending them to Orgrimmar?
There’s also the Draenei heritage quest that reveals they’ve been working on a new capital, and probably some others I’ve forgotten about now. I’ve been part of world revamp speculations long enough that I still can’t say if we’re actually getting that new status quo anytime soon, but there’s certainly tons of information about a new status quo now.
I’m still crossing my fingers that we get ogres before or at least with that point. Horde ogres need to be represented in the status quo!
War Within took a bunch of stuff I had no interest in and made me super invested. I would love to see that sort of effort put into ogres.
This makes the most sense. I only mentioned Vrykul because it is the only huge race I remember over the years related to the Alliance in any way. There are probably more but this is the only one that stood out to me.
It’s all good. I didn’t see your response or Bagzak’s before I had posted so that was on me. Crazy ideas can be good.
I don’t remember that in the Orc Heritage quest but thankfully I can do it on all my Orcs so will probably pay more attention this time around.
I love that the Mag’har have some place to call home. I don’t own TWW so don’t know any of the lore/story going on nor have I bought any WoW books in a long time.
The revamp should make these things known and bring everything up to the current time period. I think they should do away with most of the old starter quests/zones and have them make more sense for the current faction situation and current enemies. Redo those areas and either exclusively use Exiles Reach or give us some place that all current and future races will make sense going like a training camp or something.
The more options for us getting playable Ogres the better IMO. Like I’ve mentioned, I don’t own TWW so am not up on the current story/lore but what you are suggesting sounds good to me.
While I don’t really mind finding other Ogre clans to help out and join the Horde, I do think that the MU Stonemaul Clan needs to be part of the playable Horde faction at the very least.
The MU Stonemaul Clan has quite a lot of importance to the Horde, seeing as they were one of the founding members. It would feel really odd if they weren’t part of the playable Horde Ogre faction and if another clan came out of nowhere to become the playable Horde Ogre faction instead.
It would be like if the Darkspear Trolls never became playable, but we eventually got Zandalari Trolls as the only playable Horde Troll faction. It’s why I feel like it’d be a glaring omission to not have the MU Stonemaul Clan playable.
But in addition to the MU Stonemaul Clan? It’s a great idea, seeing as the multiple Horde Ogre clan idea for the playable Horde Ogre faction seems like a popular idea. But bare minimum, I feel like the MU Stonemaul Clan with the AU Stonemaul Clan mixed in as the base for playable Horde Ogres is needed. Any other clans would just be icing on the cake!
As for Alliance Vrykul, that is another popular counterpart to Horde Ogres. A lot of it is based on both races being big, progenitors to Humans/Orcs, and both being excellent shipwrights.
That said, there are some criticisms of Alliance Vrykul, so I can’t say it’s the perfect candidate that will please everyone. Still, it is good that there are a number of potential Alliance candidates to go with Horde Ogres.
I still lean towards Alliance Furbolg myself, but that is just me.
Once again, I found my mind wondering to the idea of the Stonemaul, like the Mag’har, having a lore capital that, currently, isn’t reflected in-game and actually I’m torn on it.
Generally speaking my characters are generally parked in expansion capital, in this case Dornogal, and should we get playable Ogres in TWW then he’ll most likely be parked there when I’m not playing him. However I do like how I can have my characters visit their racial capital. Case in point, while we do have the Trading Post in Dornogal, I like to take my shaman to Orgrimmar for it. I like that I can take my Zandalari to Zuldazar, my Nightborne to their own section of Suramar, etc…
Now my Stonemaul Ogre not having their lore capital reflected in-game isn’t a deal breaker for me, though it would be disappointing that I couldn’t look around at the Stonemaul capital.
I have to admit that I’m curious on how others would feel if playable Stonemaul, like the Mag’har, end up with a lore capital that currently isn’t reflected in-game.
I get ya. Maybe I’m falling into what I call a “preemptive compromise”, but a lot of my ideas have tried to pattern themselves off of Blizzard’s recent choices. A lot of “recent” playable races, like Earthen and Mechagnomes, end up not being the Earthen or Mechagnomes we know, but a new group relevant to whatever new place we’re going. I would prefer to just use the Stonemaul as the basis for any playable ogre storyline, but if I am to predict one I am going to predict something at least sort of new related to something we might run into soon.
The good news is the game has been leaning more in a “unity” direction for awhile, and I don’t mean the factions. I mean, like with the Orc Heritage quest, there’s a sort of soft assumption that any group (like the orc clans) that isn’t explicitly evil (and explicitly evil is rarely a thing anymore, after the man’ari) or already playable elsewhere will be associated with the playable race as a whole. Something I just noticed in War Within is that a bunch of the “Earthen” cosmetics are actually usable on Dwarves and Dark Iron Dwarves as well, treating all three as a sort of overarching meta-race (I know of a couple of things that also do this with Orcs and Mag’har Orcs).
So even if we did get playable ogres through liberating “Arathi Ogres”, the Stonemaul would probably still show up sometimes and assumed to be part of the playable race, even if not in a particularly obvious way.
They could always grab all the available Ogre clans from AU/MU and allow us to somewhat pick which clan we want to be affiliated with kind of how the Mag’har have the different skins for different clans. Ogres could always have some different armor, back items, tattoos, etc. to differentiate.
I haven’t paid attention over the years but years back I don’t remember seeing any criticisms to Alliance getting Vrykul and even remember some wanted them but I wasn’t really looking so could’ve missed negatives. And as far as Furbolg I’ll leave it up to Alliance players to decide which race they’d like to have if Horde ever got Ogres.
Do Vulpera have a capital? They have little camps but not sure if they had a capital nor am I sure they would have one even if they could since aren’t they kind of wanderers? And I don’t consider Orgimmar the capital of the Goblins so one more homeless Horde race. Their capital got destroyed in their specific starter zone but maybe the new zone for Goblins will have one. I really do not consider the Darkspear Trolls capital to actually be a capital and think they need an update to it.
As far as having a capital that currently is not in game for Ogres I’d say depends on where it is. If Ogrezonia or Ogre’la or whatever it’s called became a thing I wouldn’t mind their capital there or Dire Maul. Most other places just don’t scream Ogre capital to me so I think it would start to annoy me over time.
It would be interesting to see the Nightborne rebuild Dire Maul, since it used to be a Highborne city. In that case, the (Stonemaul) ogres could easily still have a district there, but in an entirely different context.
Just having the Stonemaul build something in Dustwallow would work though. That zone could use a revamp anyway (independent of any world revamp), as it’s never really had any significant content in it, even before Theramore was destroyed.
I’m also kinda looking forward to ogre racials. The Earthen ones just have such fun flavor elements to them. I thought I was being ambitious with my Breakerborn idea before, but I think something like that is more possible nowadays.
In that scenario, I could easily see the Stonemaul show up to help liberate their brethren.
That’s true and from what I read the Earthen intro lets players pick their back story. Like if they were previously a Stonebound or Stormrider. So Ogre players could get an option where they pick what clan they are from.
There’s a bit of a debate on that. Some consider the Vulpera Hideaway in Vol’dun their capital, but as others have pointed out it’s outright called a temporary camp. Plus with how the caravan moved into Orgrimmar, others consider Orgrimmar their capital.
The Goblins have Bilgewater Harbor in Azshara as their capital.
The Darkspear Isles is their capital. Though it being properly upgraded would be rather cool.
I know what you mean, Like if Stonemaul Village was just restored to a regular Ogre village/mound, then it wouldn’t really feel like a proper capital. It’s why I think it should be upgraded into something like Stonemaul Citadel.
Highmaul gets a bit swampy by the shore and harbor where it meets the Zangar Sea. I would totally be okay with half of Dustwallow Marsh being rebuilt as a Stonemaul City as glorious as Highmaul. Again, it’s not like the zone is really used for much.
How about they rebuild Theramore but add in Ogre architecture?
Lol, I forgot about that place. But if it doesn’t have a banker, AH and professional vendors I personally don’t consider it a capital. And if I put it that way than quite a few races are without a capital. I guess if you just say this is where the majority of a race is it can be considered a capital but if it doesn’t have the amenities other capitals have it feels cheap to me.
It appears you could consider capital cities to be where the majority of a race resides, has the amenities I had mentioned or is actually called a races capital in lore/books. To me if it doesn’t function like other capitals it just isn’t.
To each their own.
I keep picturing the Isles but in the place that little village is on the coast. The Isles are just bare minimum. I’m guessing when you say capital you are talking from lore while when I talk capital I mean you can do everything you can do in other capitals like bank, AH and professions and you can’t do any of that on Darkspear Isles. There is no reason to go to “capitals” like that so defeats the purpose of being called a capital IMO.
Definitely need a Citadel type structure. Something huge and imposing to let you know you are in the presence of Ogres and not just some stones.
I do miss the days of capital cities. It really made the game feel more like a world (of Warcraft!), though I understand why they abandoned that idea.
In terms of an Ogre starting area, a lot depends on the playable factions or factions.
-If it is just the MU and AU Stonemaul Clans, then I can see them starting in the Stonemaul home in Dustwallow Marsh in a rebuilt home. Could even be part of the revamp of the area, where you can start there, quest, and so on. It wouldn’t be as big as a racial capital, but could be redesigned and have more of an underground area to give the devs more space to design it.
-If we’re dealing with multiple clans as part of the playable Horde Ogre faction, I could see starting at Dire Maul, which would be taken over by the Horde and Alliance in a joint effort. Stonemaul home could still be revamped above in some fashion.
As for a new Ogre Empire…I don’t really see that happening with the MU Stonemaul Clan or any Ogre clans part of the Horde.
Empires are more in the business of conquering instead of being subservient. I also suspect the Horde would be very dubious at a new empire of any sort, and with the MU Stonemaul Clan having a history of corrupted leaders who went into business for themselves, it would likely raise a number of red flags. Likely, they would be of the Horde-at-war variety.
I’m going to guess the MU Stonemaul Clan at the very least will stay as a clan, with maybe a council being formed at best. It’d be a form of checks and balances thing, especially if multiple clans are involved, and even Rexxar could be part of it if he particularly wants a say while still being able to wander as he usually does.
Yes folks, only in the Stonemaul Ogre megathread will you see deep discussions about Ogre democracy! Now more than just a big pointy stick with spikes in it!
That reminds me, one of the things I liked about the Darkspear Heritage quest was pointing out that, while they may not be the biggest or strongest tribe, they make much better decisions than the others when it comes to leaders and allies.
Now the Stonemaul can’t exactly brag about making good decisions with leaders (or even allies, since the Horde didn’t exactly stop Onyxia from wiping out their village), but that’s the sort of direction I think would make sense to make with the Stonemaul as well. For ogres, I think the simplest way to handle that would just be for them to still be impressed by strength, and just admit the Horde is stronger as a whole than some ogre-only empire. I would still like to see some imperial aesthetics with a fully playable ogre group though.
Well, the MU Stonemaul Clan could always just realize that the potential for having a corrupted leader leading the clan into ruin and potentially losing their home once again would be rather low on their list of fun, happy, and healthy activities. That would be a good incentive to be with the Horde.
Of course, it could also be that the MU Stonemaul Clan is in debt with the Horde for having saved their home and knowing that they’re better off being part of the Horde. Thus they honor their debt by having members of the clan being sent off as adventurers to do various work for the Horde, including helping to save the world (of Warcraft!). You can also do something similar with the AU Stonemaul Clan, since them joining the MU Stonemaul Clan works well for a number of reasons.
Having Rexxar around would also be a good reason for the MU Stonemaul Clan to want to be part of the Horde. I know Rexxar isn’t exactly the MU Stonemaul Clan leader currently, but I would think they would still have some loyalty to him. It wasn’t exactly his fault that Mok’morokk went into business for himself.
And the Horde does get something out of the Stonemaul Clans being part of the Horde. Dustwallow Marsh is a good area of defense from the sea, in the case of Naga attack, or if the Alliance decides to have another kerfuffle with the Horde again. Plus Ogres make for some really strong units and also can help out as ship wrights.
As for imperial aesthetics, that can certainly happen. Maybe by raising rep with the Horde Ogre clans, you can get some goodies like gladiator transmogs, togas, fancy mounts like chariots, and so on. Seeing as Ogres can have a Roman theme in some places, it might be good to look at Roman designs and such for some inspiration.
I could easily see MU and AU Stonemaul become one.
I still wonder if Blizzard would just have Rexxar become the Stonemaul leader again. While they have developed new characters, like Talanji, they’ve also had known characters as become racial leaders, like with Jaina.
You know, I rather like the idea of a Horde Ogre Clan Renown, with the different Ogre clans having their own reputation underneath. It would be a neat way to show them working together and having their own niche within their Ogre unity.
In thinking about a Legion Remix, which I feel was lowkey confirmed, I realized that there is a chance it could change my playable Ogre leveling plan.
I planned on taking my Ogre Warrior through Legion, but if we get playable Ogres in say 11.2.0, or 11.2.5, than I don’t know about redoing Legion so soon. Granted in that scenario I could wait until the Legion Remix to play an Ogre, but while I’ve been patiently waiting for them, I can’t image waiting longer once we can actually make one.
Now one thing I really like about Chromie Time is how it allows us to make our leveling experience different for each character. So I’ve already decided BFA is for my Forest Troll, but I realized that I didn’t have a back for my Ogre. So I might do Mists or WoD.
Though if Ogres come with Patch 11.2.7, and since I don’t know how the holiday season will look next year, then circumstance could see me waiting until a Legion remix, and me just following my original plan.
Didn’t he only take up the chieftainship because he beat their leader and not because he wanted it? I would prefer an Ogre to be leader TBH.
Rexxar is my favorite character but always got the feeling he preferred to be the warrior rather than the leader so can’t see him taking up the leadership. He prefers the wilds more so than being around others also from what I remember. His animal companions are the ones that always pay the price but his love for them is something very unique to WoW and I like it since I love pet classes to begin with.
If Blizz ever decides to kill off Rexxar I am seriously gone for good. He fought along side all the greats of the Horde and still has honor unlike most others. They’ve killed off so many good Horde characters that Rexxar is the last of a golden age for me so removing him basically tells me my time with WoW is over. The only character I still love seeing when he shows up.
" I love the Horde. I made a promise to Thrall that I would defend it." - Rexxar
EDIT: If Blizz ever wants to release a book on Rexxar I would buy it. Anything Rexxar has my full attention.
I doubt they’d kill off Rexxar just to release the Stonemaul.
He could easily do some sort of Mak’gora battle with an Ogre that wants to lead and just not do it to the death. (Old Mak’gora were to the death or yield and Thrall was more interested in to the yield in the early days of the New Horde.) So long as he’s beaten the other ogres would follow the new leader. (Rexxar could probably even throw the fight convincingly and still have that work out.)
