oooh…I shall check it out. Also, Happy Birthday 
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As a goblin I must apologize for the fact that ogres were considered for Cataclysm, but you got us (not that that’s a bad thing 
)
Just checking in to give my bump for ogres! I hope they have a racial that let’s me ride on their shoulder
Dream big, ogre fans! 
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Thank you, but it’s not until the end of the month when it’ll be my birthday. Getting closer and closer, though! I’m looking forward to it. 
No need to apologize. Goblins were a great addition to the Horde, allowing me to make a couple of really fun characters I love writing for and developing personalities and such.
The frustration mostly comes from Ogres getting considered so many times and not getting in. From Cataclysm to allegedly Vanilla’s launch and for WoD, they get so close…yet so far away. They seem to get the short end of the stick a lot. x- x
I suspect in an alternate universe where we did get Ogres instead of Goblins, we’d see a Goblin megathread supporting them as an allied race. I wouldn’t be the one to lead it, but I would still have helped to support it.
Let’s just hope we’re in the timeline where we get playable Ogres and Saurok for the Horde someday!
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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Happy Birthday You’re a very positive voice on the forums and I’m grateful for all the ideas you’ve helped give not only here, but in other communities as well. I wish for you to get ogres sooner rather than later. 
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I try my best to be positive, though it can be hard at times. Shadowlands hasn’t exactly been a favorite expansion of mine, and I do worry about what the future holds for this game sometimes.
Still, I press on and on as best as I can. It has been far too long since Horde Ogres were a presence of any sort in the game, and I’ll continue marching in support for them as best as I can. They shouldn’t be forgotten, especially given how big of a help the Stonemaul were to the Horde on several occasions. The Horde Ogre clans deserve better than that.
It has been many years since WoW first launched and Horde Ogres have gotten close to becoming playable a few times. I’m hoping it won’t be too long before we see Ogres on the Horde side of that character creation screen someday!
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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Happy birthday!! I love seeing your posts on the forums.
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Happy Bday Bagzak 
, may your bday gift be all the playable races be what you desire 
, you do amazing work in the forums and contribute so much!! Definitely a true gem on these forums!! Don’t ever change!!
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Lot of work went into this. Awsome! I like the whole Dire Maul and arcane magic to work with the Ogres.
I wish Crushridge Ogres would join the horde too. Just not in a mind control way. Maybe if the alliance starts to try to reclaim Alterac, then can team up with the Forsaken again when they get a new leader.
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It looks like today is a good day to talk about Mug’thol and the Crushridge Clan! To begin, let’s take a look at their significance to the Stonemaul Clan.
Wowpedia mentions that the Stonemaul Clan use to be in the Eastern Kingdoms, where for unknown reasons, the clan split into two. Was it political differences? Did some Ogres have ambitions to explore? Or did an Ogre eat one too many helpings of beans that day? For whatever reason, the clan split. The Stonemaul we know today left the Eastern Kingdoms.
“For unknown reasons, the Stonemaul clan separated in two with one remaining in Lordaeron and the other journeying to Kalimdor and establishing themselves in the Dustwallow Marsh.”
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Stonemaul_clan
The clan that stayed behind are thought to have become the Crushridge Clan:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Crushridge
The Crushridge Clan aren’t exactly Ogres of high moral fiber. They attack Horde and Alliance adventurers while trying to keep their territory.
There isn’t too much more to the clan, so lets look at the leader of the clan, Mug’thol:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Mug'thol
You might remember him from Warcraft 3, as he did play a bit of a role there.
Sylvanas came across them while fighting against Varimathias. Of course, being the kind and benevolent zombie elf, she used her cunning diplomacy to work with the Mug’thol and is clan in a fair and meaningful manner!
…by which I mean she was a jerk and proceeded to enslave him against his will. Guess some things never change, do they? 
Mug’thol did eventually break free, when he got an artifact called “The Crown of the Will.” Since then, he and his clan resided in Alterac Valley, oddly enough not really seeking revenge against Sylvanas for what she did to him and his clan.
Interestingly enough, it is said that Mug’thol commands this Ogre, who seems to have some relation to the Boulderfist Clan:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Or'Kalar
Not sure if the Boulderfist Clan works with the Crushridge Clan or what, but still interesting to note.
It is also said that he is still alive, despite a quest chain in Classic WoW where you had to go kill him:
https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=495/the-crown-of-will
I’m guessing this questline isn’t canon to the story anymore.
So now that I talked about the Crushridge leader, let’s speculate some!
Could the Crushridge and Stonemaul Clans reunite and join the Horde? I’m sure something could be done. It would be neat to reunite them and also continue Mug’thol’s story some.
I always figured Mug’thol would be seeking revenge against Sylvanas. Back during BfA, I had the idea of the Stonemaul Tribe reuniting with the Crushridge Clan to assist in a possible coup against her. Obviously, a coup never really happened, where Sylvanas just went “RAWR TEH HORDE IS NOTHIN’ DEATH DEATH BLARG!” and then hobbled off to the Shadowlands for totally morally grey reasons.
I don’t really see Mug’thol coming back during Shadowlands to get revenge, especially since he’d have to get in a long line to get a chance at revenge. At the moment, Azeroth is getting swamped with undead, so his clan is likely busy with that since they’re unaffiliated currently.
However, it isn’t impossible to work with the Crushridge Clan. If they reunite with the Horde, they could work as a 4th clan if Blizzard went with a multiple clan route for playable Horde Ogres. Otherwise, they could reunite into a bigger Stonemaul Clan as well, with Mug’thol being part of a potential joint leadership with Tharg.
A similar idea was presented by the Ogri’la fan website I linked before. If you’d like to see what they came up with, be sure to check this section of their website:
Ogri’la Fan Website Ogres lore section
The Crushridge Clan is worth exploring for ideas. It’s possible they’ll just be jobbers for players to beat up on as they level, but they could be more than that with some interesting storyline opportunities.
I imagine a fun quest where you go with Or’Dac, that Stonemaul Emissary from Pandaria, to try to reach out to the Crushridge for possible reuniting with them. It could start out rough, but then the Crushridge Clan could see the true meaning of Winter Veil and end up working with the Horde.
The important thing, of course, is that the Stonemaul Clan we know from Dustwallow Marsh is part of the playable Horde faction. As long as that happens, I’m very much open to other Ogre clans joining for roleplaying and world building opportunities.
That’s about it for this post. If I learn anything else of interest of Mug’thol and Crushridge Clan, I’ll be sure to post it here. If you notice anything I’ve forgotten, feel free to post it here!
Dream big, Ogre fans! 
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Shadowlands has begun to really get me down lately. The grind just seems to be way too much, the content isn’t -bad- but there’s definitely problems with tuning in some PvE content and PvP content seems to be all but dead in the water. Customization options appear to be finished for the duration of the expansion just …because. There’s no good logic behind just abandoning an on-going project. Who even knows what’s going to happen there.
Will we see more Allied Races? Probably not this expac. Who even knows what the next expac is going to look like at this rate, if THIS is what we can expect going forward. Maybe things will get better and then we might still get Ogres in a really good expansion. That would be nice.
Here’s hoping…
Is hard to be positive sometimes 
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I’ve been worried over the future of the game, myself. This considering how rushed BfA’s ending was, how Shadowlands seems to have many corners being cut and the development cycle seemingly taking as long if not longer than between BfA patches. Let alone the breaking of the promise of more customizations during Shadowlands.
It will be hard to gauge what direction the game will head towards before the next expansion. As I said, I’m hoping to at the very least be back on Azeroth next expansion. My disdain for the current expansion primarily comes from being in the afterlife, which for many reasons should not have been definitively defined in my opinion. It’s a very detached feeling.
However, if I start to see more corners being cut, new races of any sort not being announced (aside from the covenant races), and more exploring the cosmology of the universe, my interest will likely wane. I’d probably give at least two more expansions to consider whether I would take a hiatus or not.
I actually did quit once, where I hated WoD, and Legion soured me to the point that I skipped it entirely and didn’t come back until BfA, which brought me back with their allied race announcement. I honestly was heavily considering sitting out this entire expansion, waiting until a week or so after launch to actually delve into it, where a Saurok spirit in Maldraxxus was brought to my attention.
And yes, it is hard to remain positive. With Shadowlands, I knew we were going to be stuck with it for about two years or so, and seeing the customization kerfuffle occur that caused the majority of people I’ve seen in different megathreads quit or heavily consider quitting was very disheartening for me. There is a huge level of uncertainty with where this game will take us.
I do wonder how I would feel about the game if I had the races I wanted. Would I feel the way that I do with playable Ogres and Saurok on the Horde? Well, I would still not like this expansion at all, that is for sure. On the other hand, I’d be more likely to stay with the game as a whole, since I do still enjoy playing it in general. Granted, I’d still worry about it going the direction Everquest 1 and 2 headed, but at least my characters would feel more complete and I would be happier in general.
I still feel that new races are still a possibility in the future. They’re great for marketing buzz and as a cash cow for those who would be interested in race changes and/or leveling boosts. I want to think that the new character creation screen was done to make room for more races in the future:
Granted, I’m still worried about covenant races somehow becoming playable in some fashion. I’ve wrote about my general disdain to that idea (no offense to those who do want them playable as it is my personal opinion), and while I feel like the chances of it happening are low, it’s still greater than 0%. We’ll have to see what happens in the future, though.
In general, I don’t really expect allied races this expansion. At best, maybe the next expansion has a pair or two that acts as a pre-order bonus for us to make and level before the next expansion. While I still hope for Ogres and Saurok on the Horde, seeing at least some popularly requested races would make me feel better and feel that Blizzard is taking our feedback.
As I said before, I’m not planning to go anywhere anytime soon, and I’d prefer to stay with WoW as opposed to grumbling off into the sunset to find another MMO to stay with. I still like the game, Blizzard has not said no to playable Ogres and Saurok, and there isn’t really any alternative MMO’s currently out I’m presently interested in. So long as I keep playing, I’ll keep marching in support of playable Ogres and Saurok on the Horde. I have to try, as you never know if it could lead to something.
Still, I do worry about the future of the game. I’ll keep trying to be positive, and honestly, the sooner we’re out of the Shadowlands, the happier I will feel. With any luck, the Horde will remember they have some Ogre clans within their ranks and will officially make them full members of the Horde.
So long as I’m still here playing the game, this is how I feel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ5PCNjpOyM
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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WoD would’ve been THE perfect time to introduce playable ogres, and give another draenor race to alliance, perhaps arakoa or saberon. It just feels like a gargantuan wasted opportunity, but then again most of WoD was.
I don’t see another expansion bringing us this close to ogres again since we’re likely to keep exploring the cosmos. The ogres lost to blood elves as 4th race and they just never came back to the conversation.
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I remember seeing a lot of rumors of Ogres becoming a playable Horde race during WoD. I have no idea if it would’ve been the MU Stonemaul Clan or if it would’ve been an AU Ogre Clan in Draenor. I also wouldn’t mind playable Saberon and Arakkoa, both of which would make excellent playable races I’d love to see.
It did feel like BfA was a perfect opportunity to bring playable Horde Ogres:
- Huge war with the Alliance.
- Stonemaul Clan was in a huge debt with the Horde.
- Stonemaul Clan played a part in killing Jaina’s father, which would’ve added to the plot.
- Plenty of loose threads to work into the unlock scenario.
- Would’ve been a really hype announcement that fit really well with the expansion’s theme.
Alas, no sign of Horde Ogres anywhere. not even as grunts somewhere. Just two neutral Ogre merchants. Instead, we get to bend space and time again to bring in AU Mag’har Orcs, one of the few good things to come out of WoD. Really odd how the Horde prioritizes the debts they want to collect on. -grumble grumble-
I do feel like there could be other opportunities to bring in playable Horde Ogres. It isn’t like new races have to play a leading role in expansion storylines, for that matter. Some races we’ve gotten, while they played some role in expansions, didn’t necessarily play leading roles during the entirety of the expansion.
Granted, I would prefer we work with what we have back on Azeroth as opposed to exploring the cosmos, though that is a personal preference of course.
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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A common argument against playable ogres is that they’re “too dumb.” Sometimes I wonder if that’s actually something to embrace rather than debunk. A good joke often seems to be the best way to get everyone to agree on something.
Regardless, I’ve been fighting that impression since before World of Warcraft. Nowadays we have the Gorian Empire to point to (even if, despite claims that it would show ogres before they were dumb, most of the ones you run into are indistinguishable from the ones in our timeline), but I used to point to Warcraft III. Even back in the Warcraft III manual it said that they were a lot smarter than most people gave them credit for.
What I found really interesting is information about the “Ogre Legion.” Supposedly, one early draft of Warcraft III had a storyline about civilization-building ogres, but it was all cut aside from a handful of references to the faction, their cleverness, and their inexplicable presence all across Azeroth (which was implied to have an explanation in that story).
I can’t find any details about it, unfortunately, but it’s fascinating. Not just as an ogre fan, but because what little I can find reminds me of Goria. It really gives the impression that the Gorian Empire was not something invented whole cloth for Warlords of Draenor after all, but was inspired by a scrapped idea from Warcraft III.
Also, it’s never really been directly contradicted in modern lore, either, especially when we now have things like Gorian architecture sitting around in Exile’s Reach.
EDIT: Incidentally, I do think Warlords of Draenor was a decent compromise when it came to humor. The rank and file ogres being dumb, with named ogres having more of a presence, is actually not even that far off from how orcs are presented (especially when you bring peons into the mix). I think it’s okay to have generic ogres be really goofy, but when you want to tell a serious plot, you have someone like Cho’gall appear with a totally coherent speech (despite their void allegiance on top of everything) and cook their enemy alive on their own throne.
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There are multiple levels of Ogre intelligence, yes. I can see three different types of Ogre intelligence within the playable Horde Ogre faction.
The first would be the big and dumb ones. The ones who speak in broken English.
The second would be the smarter ones that are still a bit gruff, such as Tormmok, the Ogre follower you can get in WoD. Likely, the AU Stonemaul Clan would bring this personality.
The third would be the intelligent Ogres that can speak very well. This would be along the lines of Draz’Zilb in the Stonemaul Clan and the Ogri’la Ogrs in general.
I would say that we’d see all three through NPC’s. It’s possible the player characters could use the dumb personality, which honestly would be the most fun IMO to hear their voices for the different emotes. It would make them a bit more unique as well, as opposed to being similar to Orcs but more gruff. This is a personal preference, of course.
I wouldn’t expect all Ogres of the playable faction to be dumb, but I think some of them should be as it is a bit iconic of them. There should also be those who are intelligent as well to go along with them. It would add to the world building to see Ogres of different types and see how their society is.
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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You know, something I’ve always been torn about when imagining playable ogres is the context of their joining.
Not because it’s too hard, but because it’s too easy.
The Stonemaul Clan have been part of the Horde since Warcraft III. They don’t need any excuse at all to be playable.
The question, then, is how do you make a story for them compelling? There has been precedent for that sort of thing before in World of Warcraft, but usually one of two things happen. Either we get some new version that’s not part of the faction in order to justify showing it join, or the story just ignores the fact that they’re already part of the faction and treats it like they’re only joining now anyway.
The former is disappointing because it puts aside established lore in favor of new things that often times have no connection to our existing characters or plots. The latter is often just plain jarring, and similarly expects you to not care too much about the established lore in order to accept why history is essentially repeating itself.
For ogres, the former would be the equivalent of introducing the Ogre Continent and having the playable ogres come from there. The upside is that they could do a lot of cool new things with them and ignore any issues with the ogres having been diminished. The downside is that those ogres would have no history with us. You wouldn’t be playing ogres from Warcraft II or Warcraft III, and such ogres even joining into the faction conflict would be silly, because it would be completely alien to them.
The equivalent to the latter would be just coming up with a new story for the Stonemaul. In this case, we’d at least get a clan of ogres we know that have had history with us. The downside is it’d likely sweep away the history with Rexxar, which would suck because Rexxar is cool, and it wouldn’t have an easy excuse to involve any of the Gorian elements, which are also really cool and I really want to see.
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I feel with the Stonemaul Clan specifically, it would be fairly easy to give meaning to them becoming a playable race finally.
A lot of it would require a reason for them to pop up again, in which there are many ways to go about doing that. I feel that using them to get Dire Maul for the Horde for good would be a great way of repaying their debt to the Horde. Once that is accomplished, then they could ask for official Horde membership, in which the Horde would be more likely to utilize them in other locations with Feralas and Dustwallow Marsh secured
I don’t really expect a huge story involving them, and what is there would make for some events for players to engage in as well. I mean, Goblins and Worgens had intros that gave them character and meaning while showing how they joined their respective factions. They did appear later on in the expansion, but it wasn’t as if they played leading roles. Granted, Ogres would either start at L1 at Exile’s Reach or they would start at their own racial hub as an allied race, but there could still be events and such to lead them into becoming playable beforehand.
For Gorian elements, that can still be done with the AU Stonemaul Clan joining up with the MU Stonemaul Clan. It would explain sudden armor designs, buildings, and such. That way, none of it would get abandoned.
As for Rexxar, if we got the Stonemaul Clan specifically, it would make sense for him to show up. Given his character, I don’t see him still wanting to be the leader of the Stonemaul again, and he can still come and go in expansions as needed. I don’t think he would be completely abandoned or ignored.
My own personal preference of course is that the playable Ogre faction does consist of the Stonemaul Ogres at least. It ties into Warcraft 3, has a lot of loose ends to work with, and is more meaningful as opposed to other random Ogre clans that come out of no where.
That said, I’m sure something could easily come up for them to come into the spotlight again and have some great storylines. They won’t be the stars of an expansion, but their supporting role would be very welcomed and useful when it comes to needing strong members of the Horde to beat up whatever enemies are in the way currently.
I’m sure what I typed isn’t perfect, though I will think more on what you said to see if I can better answer it if it isn’t completely satisfactory as an answer. I do think there is plenty to work with here, though.
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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Would have been a great time to do so.
Pretty much how I feel about this expansion and a necromancer class.
Or the last expansion/mechagon patch and a tinker class.
Lots of missed opportunities to add things players want.
Which is funny since it was ogre mages that created the orcs. Doesn’t seem like a dumb race to me.
It’s really no different from Orcs. You’ve got the, dumb as bricks, peons, then more intelligent tacticians and spell casters.
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Not to mention all sorts of Ogre innovations have been made that other races utilize, such as the Orcs using ships designed after Ogre ships among other things. Speaking of which, the MU Stonemaul, and likely the AU Stonemaul as well, have made their own ships, so the Horde could always use them as shipwrights. Another potential use for the Horde Ogre clans!
I do think Ogres would have some differences between them and Orcs, aside from looks. Especially if they utilize the Ogre intelligence tiers that we discussed a few posts ago. Lots of possibilities with that line of thinking.
I will say if I ever get to make my Ogre Warrior, I do intend to play him as big and dumb. It’s a fun thing to engage in light RP with, especially when trying to talk in broken English. It would be a dream come true to remake my Ogre Berserker from Everquest 1 and 2 into an Ogre Fury Warrior.
Dream big, Ogre fans!
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What’d be fun is if they actually took the player suggestion of multiple voice packs to choose from and ogres could have a smarter one and a dumb one =D
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