This thread is dedicated to discussing the possibility of playable Saberon, as well as Saberon in general, and all the things they might come with if they are to be playable. Such as customization and new lore.
Content
Saberon Lore
Saberon 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
Saberon Heritage Armor and Mount
Saberon and Shadowlands
My personal interest in Saberon
- Saberon Lore - What we know so far.
Unfortunately, there is very little we know about the Saberon. What we do know, is that they are a feline-like humanoid race that lived on Draenor. They are said to have embodied the savagery of Draenor, a feat few races of Draenor can claim. They are incredibly adaptable to the planet’s diverse environments, there’s not a niche that the ferocious Saberon haven’t conquered.
One interesting piece that we’ve been told and shown is that the Saberon and the Arakkoa had gone to war against one another. Talon King Terokk, however, single-handedly turned the tides and won.
We don’t know what their origins are, but using simple logic for how most animal races originate it stands to reason a Wild God-like entity created them.
After the destruction of Draenor and it’s transformation into Outland, no known Saberon remained. However, after the Mag’har of the Alternate Draenor arrived on the Main Universe Azeroth, some are seen fleeing into the Northern Barrens after catching a ride through the time waves.
One interesting fact I’d like to throw in, is that they existed within the game files during MoP.
- Saberon Culture
Saberon outwardly appear more advanced than beasts; they have a social structure and can shape simple tools into weapons. Saberon hunt in parties, whose coordinated attacks, sharp rending claws, and ability to shadowstep behind prey make them very deadly.
Saberon are noted to have highly developed rituals and customs.
They have an affinity for magic, and hold these individuals to a higher social rank.
- Which faction?
This is a tough choice, as there are reasonings for why they could be either or neither.
For starters, part of their culture is cooking and eating other humanoids with Orcs being one example specifically mentioned. This could push them more towards the Alliance if Orcs are the race they find the tastiest. However, there of course are still humanoids on the Alliance.
Another piece of lore worth noting is that Saberon have strong hearts, and shaman of the Laughing Skull clan find many uses for them. This could turn them away from the Horde, as they’d have a distrust for them. Therefore they could have more of an open mind for the Alliance if contact is made.
Let’s take a look at some more Alliance leaning arguments. Another involves the Night Elves and their fascination with these kinds of races. They were the creators of the Worgen form, and a comment is made about how the “Claws of Shirvallah” mimic the Worgen form. The Night Elves may want to “tame” the Saberon and find them a place within the Alliance. This would give the Alliance a new “savage” race, plus a new animal race with a tail. It would also give the Alliance a new Druid and Shaman race which would help balance out the factions in terms of class availability as Horde have more races with access to Druids and Shamans. Additionally, having Saberon would give the Alliance another foothold on Kalimdor.
This isn’t totally a turn off from Horde however. Some Saberon join the players Garrison as a follower regardless of which faction you’re on.
Let’s take a look at their race and Druidism for a moment. If anyone played a Druid during WoD, they’ll recognize the talent “Claws of Shirvallah” which changed the Cat Form into a Saberon. Shirvallah is a Zandalari tiger loa also revered by the Gurubashi and Darkspear trolls. With that information in mind, recall the Tigon. the Tigon is a creature resembling a humanoid big cat, so far primarily seen in the form of troll priests taking on the aspect of the feline loa Shirvallah and Bethekk. By the time of the war against the Iron Horde, troll druids had created a way for all druids to take on a half-cat form like those of Shirvallah’s champions through the “Claws of Shirvallah”.
This would suggest that because Trolls (Horde) have more to form a relationship with the Saberon, they would be more likely to join the Horde.
Another reason pushing them to the Horde, albeit not entirely meaningful, is that they use the male Worgen skeleton. This would give the Horde access to the skeleton, which seemed to be a trend when it came to the Allied Races during their introductions.
The final reason for Horde affiliation is that they are already residing within Horde territory.
- Emotes and Voice-Lines
Unfortunately there was no YouTube video of all the lines compiled, so here is a sample of what a male Saberon sounds like. Female Saberon do exist however: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Ralshiara
They have many emotes already available, plenty for a solid foundation. Given they also already use the male Worgen skeleton, it likely wouldn’t be difficult to port over any new additions from the Worgen onto Saberon with minimal tweaking.
- The Dance Emote
I’m not too well versed in dance, but a parody of the Worgen dance could work well. Feel free to provides some suggestions and I’ll come back to edit this section.
- Saberon Racial Banner and Tabard
Given the Mag’har scenario, it’s likely the Saberon that come onto Azeroth originated from either the Streamscar or Tailthrasher Tribe. We can knock out the Streamscar tribe as they attacked our Garrison outposts and would therefore less likely ally with either faction. This leaves the Tailthrasher Tribe.
There isn’t a known symbol they represent themselves by, but this just means it gives Blizzard room to be creative. They could even go so far as to say the tribe rebranded themselves to go with their new home.
- Racial Leader
For similar reasons above, there is no current known leader. Not only did we kill two of the potential leader during WoD, more were likely killed by the Lightbound. This again gives Blizzard the opportunity to name a new one that made it onto Azeroth and set up their tribe in the Barrens.
- Racial Capital
One perfect location to set up a racial capital would be inside the Wailing Caverns. Other suggestions include around the Stagnant Oasis or the Forgotten Pools.
- Potential Classes
Warrior
Rogue
Shaman
Hunter
Druid
Priest
- The Female Model
As I had mentioned above, female Saberon do exist. In game they are however represented using the male model. This can be easily resolved if they replicated what they did with male Worgen skeleton, simply using the female Worgen skeleton as a base for creating a female Saberon model.
- Customization Options
All of what I’ll be listing is what we currently have available through NPCs. I’ll be leaving out obvious things like various face options, just specific examples that can be easily described.
Fur Color
- Tan
- Black
- Snow Leapord
- Tiger
Accessories
- Cloth Eye Patch (various colors like red, black, and brown)
- Tooth Necklace
- Ear Necklace
- Feather Necklace (various colors like red, black, brown, and green)
- Loincloth color selection
Feel free to suggest more. Of course there would be eye colors, there could be hair/mane options. Tooth options would be a nice addition too.
- Racials
Drawing from what we know, here are my suggestions:
One obvious suggestion is a speed increase buff, like what Worgen have. Of course, it’s likely Worgen could feel cheated by having another race with their racial so it’s mostly off the table.
Wild Frenzy: A minor personal bloodlust.
Claws in the Night - Leaps nearby an enemy and swipes the air multiple times, inflicting damage to enemies in front of the caster.
Shredding Net* - Traps the enemy in a net, inflicting damage on impact and damage every 1 sec. and rooting the target for few seconds.
Intimidating Roar - Incapacitates/fears nearby enemies for a couple seconds.
Apex Predator - Passive increased damage against Beasts and Humanoids
- Saberon Heritage Armor and Racial Mount
For their Heritage Armor I strongly suggest keeping it to as close to their tribal attire as possible. They could have an option for “melee” theme or “ranged” theme.
As for their racial mount, the Garrison followers ride a Skeletal Raptor. As we already have that accounted for, I instead suggest a replica of Running Wild.
If they absolutely must have a mount mount, I suggest a saber mount using the WoD models. Another suggestion is a Ravager, especially given the only Ravager mount that’s been available was retired.
- Saberon and Shadowlands
This section isn’t for the involvement of Saberon in the Shadowlands, but more so what is possible outside of it. We know there won’t be a time skip, but given the average expansion canonically lasts about 1-2 years (plus the amount of time they’ve already been on Azeroth during BfA) that is more than enough time for Saberon to have gained a foothold.
With the long speculated Old World Revamp, it’s likely we’ll return to locations like the Barrens and come into contact with them. Assuming the expansion after Shadowlands is indeed the so-called Cata 2.0 this would be the perfect opportunity to gain this race as a playable option.
- My personal interest in Saberon
Similar to Ethereals, ever since I first saw Saberon introduced I’ve wanted them as a playable race. One of my main characters during WoD was a Druid, and I absolutely loved the Claws of Shirvallah talent. It was a major disappointment to see them get deleted.
To end off on a reason you may want Saberon, they have a tail. 
Please consider submitting an in game suggestion for Saberon (and Ethereals). This can be done by: In Game Menu → Support - > Submit feedback or bug report.
- 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
- Please respect the rules and if you see something I need to improve on I kindly ask that I’m notified.
- 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 Ethereal and Arakkoa posts, please feel free to take a look here:
