Saberon in general do wear armor, as we’ve seen members of several Saberon tribes wear different types. It’s possible some of the snow leopard Saberon don’t because either they don’t need it to keep warm or they’re closer to the feral side compared to other tribes.
I suspect if we saw Saberon in the future, assuming they get fleshed out more as opposed to staying as mook quest jobbers, we’d see different types of new armor for them. Including the snow leopard tribe, of course.
Speaking of, I’d like to think with playable Saberon, that the various tribes of Saberon banded together when the threat of the Lightbound came to be in order to have a chance of survival. It would make for a great story and be a good explanation for all the different types of Saberon, similar to how the playable Mag’har Orcs have different clans.
There are two methods that I can see this line of thinking go:
The first is that a bunch more Saberon came with us to Azeroth than shown. Considering all the Mag’har Orcs in the game, NPC’s and players, and several beasts and other beings that came with them not shown in the unlock scenario, it can be reasonable to assume that a bunch of Saberon and Botani also came.
The second is that only a few Saberon came with us to Azeroth, but they somehow are able to later open a portal to get as many of the Saberon tribes that were united to escape to Azeroth.
Both can work well for storyline purposes and would be really interesting. After all, several years have gone by since we left AU Draenor and things got really dire since. It would be a really engaging storyline, in particular if it lead to playable Saberon.
Obviously, such ideas need more fleshing out, but I’m sure something could be workable.
As usual for each year’s Winter Veil, I take several screenshots with the flying sleigh ride.
This year for Saberon, I opted to try an Elixir of Giant Growth to see the model better. A problem with that, however, is that the feet stick out through the sleigh, which is an issue I’ve had with Saurok screenshots. So I tried to take decent angles so you couldn’t see too much of it.
Also, since the Saberon model utilizes the male Worgen model, they’ll occasionally howl while riding the sleigh ride. I view it as the Saberon just having a lot of fun.
I’m not really interested in them, simply because they currently use the hideous Worgen model. No offence to all worgen fans out there. I do like Worgen, but I really don’t like their model.
If Saberon however would get a body revamp (along with Worgen), then they sure would make a nice addition.
I am against more one faction only races though. wow doesn’t need even more toxicity because of races. So if they’ll add them, I would like to see them neutral like Pandaren.
If Saberon were to be on only one faction, Horde is likely the best place for them in my own personal opinion. I initially leaned towards Alliance for various reasons, but have since leaned more towards Horde nowadays. I think they may fit better, especially if they may be extremely dubious to Lightforge Draenei thanks to the whole Lightbound thing causing them to want to run away to Azeroth when given the opportunity.
I’ll likely make a small new year post soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this level one Saberon as he levels up and explores:
And of course, playable Saberon support will continue onward in the new year and beyond!
This is just my opinion but I think they would be a Horde allied race because the have a tribal/shamanistic society. Also I think it would be hilarious to have cats and dogs on the opposite faction.
However, people did point out that orcs used to hunt them down for their hearts… but I don’t think it was the orcs that joined the Horde.
Of what I can take from the first post and the points that were given, Saberon would lean towards the Alliance. Having a lion race in a faction obsessed with lions would also be a plus.
However, if they’ll ever become playable, then I really hope for neutral Saberon. In general I wish for more neutral races, instead of keeping the stale division.
Personally though… not really interested in Saberon, due to the awful looking Worgen model.
Actually, the AU Laughing Skull Clan were the ones who hunted Saberon for their hearts. They and their descendants are part of the AU Mag’har Orcs who joined the Horde. You see several of them in BfA as NPC’s.
It is unknown if the other AU Orc Clans hunted Saberon as well, but given how Saberon didn’t exactly rush for a Horde invitation with them and opted to run off into the wild, it’s possible they were on less than friendly terms with each other.
These were some of the reasons I initially leaned Alliance for Saberon. However, I neglected to think about the Lightbound being the big reason several Saberon opted to jump into the portal back to Azeroth, along with the Lightforged Draenei and Turalyon currently sitting on the throne of Stormwind being potential issues.
As a result, I don’t see why things couldn’t be worked out between the Saberon and the Horde. Especially since both would be affected by the Botani who also came to Azeroth and if the Lightbound invaded Azeroth or became an issue again. It would make for a great storyline of making amends between Saberon and the AU Mag’har Orcs while working together to take on the Botani threat, which would be quite serious in general.
Maybe sometime, I could try and write some scenarios involving Saberon joining the Horde and the whole Botani thing. It has been awhile since I have made scenario writings in general, but there is so much potential here, that it would be important to show off ideas of what could be done with it.
Regarding Saberon being neutral, it could be possiblel. I’ve mentioned before the idea that enlightened Saberon, from a storyline in WoD, could be on the Alliance while Horde Saberon could be more of the hunter-gatherer type. Obviously, such an idea would need a lot more fleshing out, including personality and culture types of Saberon on both factions.
On the subject of neutral races in general, some new playable races I can see being neutral while others really make sense to be only on one faction. Even with the whole armistice “World of Peacecraft” thing going on currently, I do think faction identity is important. Neutral races are fine, but I think having a huge amount of them would diminish faction identity and not be as interesting as getting new races specific to a faction.
This isn’t to say never add neutral races, but instead to add in neutral races when it makes sense for a race to be neutral as opposed to doing that for every new race going forward. Especially since some races clearly belong or fit one faction over the other. Just my own personal opinion, of course.
Playable Saberon may not necessarily utilize the Worgen model. We’ve seen some NPC races be built completely different from the NPC models, like with the Nightborne. Of course, the Worgen model could still be utilized as a skeleton with Saberon-unique animations to save some resources. Hard to say what would happen if Saberon did become playable.
