Before I start please let me say this here: This is just some speculation and not any actual prove to this. Just observation and coincidence I have seen. Please don’t be upset or bothered but love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
So I’m not trusting leaks but love to guess things especially allied races. My first thought is I remember that blizz said they might add more allied races if it fit the narrative and right now the undead are in a tricky spot. No more Valkyrie to raise forsaken or the dark lady to guide. Plus the forsaken lost there home and I believe they want it back no matter how reckless it might be.
So I think Calia is going to try to find a solution for both the forsaken and human who lived in lorderon or under city. So before I start no I don’t believe in lightforge undead theory but I believe while in shadow lands Calia might learn ways to help heal the forsaken from pain they might feel and this could introduce a newish model of undead but still keeping the iconic look with some differences. But the biggest thing is Calia will allow them to decide where they would rather be. Some might want to stay with the horde and Lillian Voss while others could join the alliance with Derek proudmoore. This way Calia could be in the middle helping peace on both side. Also the night elf dark rangers could lean toward Derek because he might have helped them and blood elf dark rangers stay with horde due to silvermoon and the forsaken. As for normal forsaken they don’t trust Calia or were raised before and refuse her treatment. My last though is the book before the storm where Turalyon learned that forsaken are not monsters and now he might be king of the alliance and Genn see forsaken not as completely monster but still hates the dark lady.
I know this might not be to popular but this is just a guess and there might not even be a allied race at all. I do feel that blizzard has been preparing for this I’m excited to see 9.2.5 even if there is no allied race.
As I said elsewhere, I think Calia is meant to serve as the spiritual (probably even take over as the main) leader of the Forsaken. She’s a canonical undead that still retains her connection to the light with no adverse side effects like self-combusion.
I think what this means is the undead will “live” again and regain their connection to the light while still retaining their racial strengths (like Worgen). Gameplay wise, this will mean they get paladins (is no coincidence that the undead and human races shared a class list minus paladins) and they’ll have access to Nathanos and Calia model types (upright, less/no decay, etc).
I doubt we’ll see an actual allied race or anything like that. None of that makes any sense. Calia is the natural heir to the Lorderon throne as well and would be a pretty good arc for her bring some measure of peace and healing to her people like her brother, against his will, put them on their current course.
All this speculation, and the fact that there is so much in 9.2.5 that’s encrypted on the PTR is very fun and exciting. But boy I hope we aren’t just setting ourselves up for disappointment if it turns out to be nothing.
I think this is a solid theory because outside of Kul Tiran, allied races are reused models. The models we have left are: Forsaken and Pandas. Maybe I’m forgetting one because I haven’t consumed enough coffee?
I’d be surprised if we do get any allied races in DF. Already getting an entire new race and with every race can be every class, they have a ton of animation to work on.
I don’t know why but the new dragon races in dragon form reminds me of female worgen and do transformation but just do it differently and they can choose which side like panderans.
I understand and it undead allied race thing might not even happen but we can all agree something is going to happen between the forsaken and humans about under city and as a lore nerd I’m excited to see.
There is one character that in my opinion should be the leader of the Forsaken, and kind of seems like she was built for it from the start.
This person use to be a citizen of Lordaeron, a simple peasent, until Arthas was corrupted and turned everything upside down, when the kingdom was destroyed, and undead flooded the area, this person joined the Scarlet Crusade where her father would become the arch bishop, after perishing in battle and being buried was soon raised as an undead, but not a mindless undead, but rather one who could think and had freewill, even when all the other forsaken were scared not to obey the Darklady, this person could not look at themself and couldn’t believe that they were now the one thing they fought against most of their life, when returning to the Scarlet Crusade, they were shunned and they attempted to kill her even though she was of her own mind and communicating with them, she even went so far as to contact her father who ordered her death without hesitation, after realizing the power she now possessed she killed her father and hunted the rest of the Scarlet Crusade using her legendary blades.
After accepting that she was now undead, she decided that her purpose in her new life would be helping the newly raised forsaken come to grips with what happened in their former life and what is going to happen in their new life.
She has even been shown to have the power to raise fresh undead into Forsaken, which even surprised the Darklady, and her fellow forsaken, likely because of her past as a holy crusader.
This character is Lillian Voss, she had one of the greatest character archs of any character in Modern WoW, she went from an Enemy>Denial>Anger>Grieving>Acceptance>Teacher
Lillian is literally the future of the forsaken unless they can find another way to raise fresh undead.
I agree with that is why I believe she should be a horde leader to the forsaken but also allow a choice that the dark lady would never allow. There might be some that might want to try the alliance with Derek but again this is only theories and may never happen.