This thread is dedicated to discussing the possibility of playable Ethereal, as well as Ethereal in general, and all the things they might come with if they are to be playable. Such as customization and new lore.
https://i.imgur.com/qKGJI5W.jpg
Content
Ethereal Lore
Ethereal Culture
Which faction?
Emotes and Voice-Lines
The Dance Emote
Racial Banner and Tabard
Racial Leader
Racial Capital
Potential Classes
The Female Model
Customization options
Racials
Ethereal Heritage Armor and Mount
Ethereal and Shadowlands
My personal interest in Ethereal
- Ethereal Lore - What we know so far.
Ethereals are native to the planet K’aresh, which was assaulted by the Void Lord Dimensius. In an attempt to defend themselves, one of the mortal races on the planet partially succeeded in constructing magical barriers around their cities. Arcane energies brought onto the planet during the assault made it through the barriers, and tore away the mortals’ corporeal shells and infusing their souls with enough energy so that they could barely subsist without a body. They came to call themselves ethereals, and bound themselves with enchanted strips of cloth to provide their souls with enough structure to survive. This became a blessing, as it enhanced their minds and magical abilities. The ethereals would fight back against Dimensius, but due to his power growing over time the ethereals fled K’aresh.
https://i.postimg.cc/zDxHFCT4/Ethereal-Plunderer-TCG.jpg
Ethereal society would fracture into several factions overtime: First was the Ethereum, holding the ruling council of Nexus-Princes, which became dark and twisting in their obsession for vengeance. A Nexus-Prince that left the Ethereum would go on to form the Protectorate, the duty of which was to stop the Ethereum in their destructive path. Lastly is the Consortium, another offshoot group made of smugglers, traders, and thieves, that aid the Protectorate in their endeavors.
We first come into contact with the ethereals in The Burning Crusade, as both friend and foe. They are found throughout Outland, and we encounter all three groups. The main objective of the Ethereum on Outland was to use the manaforged of Netherstorm to become Void, but their efforts were thwarted by the Protectorate. We also help out the Consortium which came to Outland to benefit from its riches.
In Wrath of the Lich king we see the ethereals again. The Ethereum negotiated an accord with Malygos and the blue dragonflight during the Nexus War. This connection was used in a second attempt to become Void years later.
In Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, groups of ethereals came to offer many of their new technologies and services.
In Legion, the accord with Malygos is revealed. He promised the Ethereum access to his dragonflight’s treasures. The Ethereum, in their quest to become Void, were using the surge needles in Coldarra to call up Void energies from the Twisting Nether. With the help of the blue dragon Azuregos, we defeat the Ethereum leader. We later discover a group of Void ethereal called the Shadowguard, a group of Ethereum that succeeded in their quest, and their objective was to call the Void to Mac’Aree. Additionally, after the creation of the Void elves at the hands of the Netherguard Void ethereal group, we see that some ethereals join the Void elves in Telogrus Rift. A Void ethereal takes interest in us during the Trial of Style as well.
Lastly we come to Battle for Azeroth, where members of the Consortium provide portals to Shattrath City and continue teaching the void elves. Additionally, a Void ethereal sends another Void ethereal to the Brawler’s Guild to study us.
- Ethereal Culture
Ethereals are loosely based on pre-Islamic Arabia. They also have a resemblance to mummies found in Egypt, an Arab nation.
https://i.postimg.cc/mDwzqMJz/jordan-powers-ethereal-props-render-v2.jpg
The ethereals are driven by trade and economics, and accordingly, their political structures are centered around trade princes and political “companies”.
They are similar to goblins, in the way their political systems work, and like the goblins, the ethereals will support anyone who would further their profits, and oppose anyone who dares interfere with their plans. They also share in the goblins’ propensity for technology, though their technology appears to be far more powerful and otherworldly.
Ethereals are known to be collectors and traders of arcane items and artifacts. They are liars and scoundrels who will stop at nothing to pursue their mysterious aims.
- Which faction?
There is likely to be much disagreement on this, especially considering how sought after this race is to play. Regardless of backlash, and with much debate, I have reached the conclusion that ethereals would be an Alliance race. However, there is still a very slim chance the race could be neutral.
So. Why the Alliance?
We are all well aware that the Horde and Alliance both have relatively equal interaction with the ethereals throughout the game. In recent encounters however, this interaction has been more and more focused on by the Alliance. With the addition of void elves, that creates a direct link into the ethereals joining. Additionally, the Horde already have a money and technology loving race with the goblins so giving ethereals to the Alliance would balance the scale.
- Emotes and Voice-Lines
Many people may be unaware, but ethereals have both male AND female voice lines. Due to ethereals being as old as they are, there are several expansions worth of voice-lines available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et4Lc_GMZlA
While the race has very few emotes, they do still have a foundation to build from for their old and new models alike.
- The Dance Emote
This took me a while to figure out, and I by no means consider this to be a final draft decision.
I think the best choice of dance would be using a pop-culture reference rather than a cultural dance. While researching some options, most of the cultural dances used partners and the primary one that didn’t (belly dancing) I could not logically tie to ethereals.
In conclusion, I believe their dances should be a copy of the StarCraft 2 Zealot/Adept/High Templar dances. Males and Females can have the same dance, or pick 2 out of the 3.
- Ethereal Racial Banner and Tabard
The most likely faction of ethereals that would become playable would be the Consortium. An updated model is all that would be necessary, as well as changing the red background to be purple to match their partnership with the void elves.
https://i.postimg.cc/Dw9Xb71Z/Consortium-Tabard.jpg
- Racial Leader
There are quite a few candidates for this position.
Primary Candidate: Nexus-Prince Haramad
He is the last living Nexus-Prince and therefore the heir to becoming Nexus-King.
https://i.postimg.cc/DyYsnrZ1/Nexus-Prince-Haramad.jpg
Another option is either Locus-Walker or Shadreen as they are the ones allied with the void elves. However, the process for “unlocking” ethereals could involve either of them locating Nexus-Prince Haramad and appointing him Nexus-King.
- Racial Capital
This one is quite simple really. The Consortium resides in the Stormspire located in Netherstorm. As this is their base of operations, it can remain as their racial capital.
- Potential Classes
The available classes for ethereals is very much already clear and set in stone.
Rogue
Warrior
Mage
Hunter
Priest
Warlock
Tinker - If this were ever added.
- The Female Model
We already know that both sexes do in fact exist, and there are a handful of NPCs and voice-lines to prove it. However, the sexual dimorphism is a bit lacking. This isn’t an issue though. One simple solution that Blizzard has already sided with is adding breasts to their chest pieces like other races already do. While that piece is un-equipped, their bandages and energy would slightly bulge outwards where their breasts would be.
Here is an example done in Hearthstone:
https://i.postimg.cc/W1y0sM5Q/Grand-Lackey-Erkh-184658.png
Androgyny is not a bad thing! An androgynous race could fit well for players that are non binary, prefer an androgynous look, and much more! Besides, the argument of needing clear differences went out the window with Vulpera.
- Customization Options
All of what I’ll be listing is what we currently have available through NPCs.
Cloth Colors:
- White
- Silver
- Dark Purple
- Light Brown
- Dark Grey
- Pale Green
Soul Color:
- Void
- Light Red
- Magenta
- Blue-Purple
- White
- Dark Magenta
- Pale Green
- Pale Blue
Wrap Style:
Various ethereal NPCs have different ways that they are wrapped in cloth.
For example, some have a single strand cross their face diagonally, some leave that section completely exposed, and some completely covered.
As another example, some ethereals have the chest wrapped in various ways, and some leave most of their chest exposed.
My last example I’ll list goes back to faces. If the face is completely covered, a glowing pair of eyes the same color selected for their soul could bleed though. It would essentially be the same effect Demon Hunters have access to for one of their blindfolds. A Hearthstone character has this option, and an image is shown below.
Accessories:
While there are almost no accessories, one that some ethereal players may like the option to have depending on their preference for old vs new ethereals is claws.
The new ethereals have metallic claws attached to the tips of their fingers. This can be made as a toggle in their customization.
- Racials
Drawing from what we know once again, here are my suggestions:
Translocator - An ability similar to the Vulpera Camp racials.
Allows for them to save a location, and using the ability again teleports them back to it.
Phase Shift - Passive. Takes less damage while moving.
If anyone has ever seen ethereals while they move, they leave behind fake copies of themselves that quickly blink out of existence. Them moving would cause the enemy to strike at false targets and therefore explain taking less damage. It would by no means by significant, just a 1% reduction for flavor.
Negotiator - Passive 5% price reduction on buying vendor good. As well as potentially a 5% increase on selling goods.
Bottomless Storage - Passively increases your bag space by 10.
- Ethereal Heritage Armor and Racial Mount
Anything from the new ethereal models would work well.
Here is a good option from Hearthstone:
https://i.postimg.cc/TYCMtc0M/Arch-Thief-Rafaam.jpg
As for their racial mount, I suggest this from Hearthstone
https://i.postimg.cc/mgJnnpFq/Nexus-champion-Saraad-HS.jpg
- 13.5. Armor
Here are some examples as to how armor would appear on an Ethereal player. These images are of NPCs which doesn’t equip armor the same way as the player model, but this is simply to provide viewers with an idea as to how it looks.
Ethereal:
Void Ethereal:
- Ethereals and Shadowlands
There’s no question at this point that there is some link between the Ethereals and Brokers. Their societies are very similar, as well as their design. It’s possible Brokers are what happens when an ethereal dies and enters the Shadowlands. That, or brokers are what business focused races become when sent to a merchant style afterlife realm.
- My personal interest in Ethereal
I first started playing WoW at the tail end of The Burning Crusade, and it was when I first encountered them in Outland where my love for them began.
I have the Ethereal Soul-Trader, and have farmed the armor set on all of my characters throughout the years. Unfortunately, because the armor is white quality it can’t be used for transmog.
Please consider submitting an in game suggestion for Ethereal. This can be done by: In Game Menu → Support - > Submit feedback or bug report.
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I’ve finally decided to create a Discord server for this small community. If you’re interested in joining, the invite link is: https://discord.gg/MKzZUdyauY
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Please respect the rules and if you see something I need to improve on I kindly ask that I’m notified.
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Since there is downtime in terms of new races, and information is few and far between, I’ve included an arcade section with a few games to provide members with things to pass the time.
If you made it this far and haven’t yet seen my Arakkoa and Saberon posts, please feel free to take a look here:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/unoffical-playable-arakkoa-discussion-thread/921807/1
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/unoffical-playable-saberon-discussion-thread/904427/1
