Happy Easter from the Saberon thread!
Our fight for playable Saberon will not end until we win!
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Just wanted to drop a piece of MoP concept art!
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What book is that from? I never knew there was a cat race considered to be put on Pandaria before, and I donāt recall seeing one there either. Wonder if this became the Saberon in WoD.
Looks pretty neat regardless. Iām sure I could find some various catmen images from various fantasy media and MMOās to share for Saberon idea inspiration! 
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Mists of Pandaria Collectorās artbook
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O_O AND THEY DIDNāT EVEN BOTHER ADDING EM!? BRUH, that looks so good, love the armor and weapon especially! Wonder why Blizzard didnāt add them?
Edit: No but seriously, the art for that armor, and general build for that creature is in my opinion pretty cool. Kinda disheartening they didnāt add em, would have been really cool to see them as an ally weād make in Pandaria, a tribe of noble and great warriors! BLIZZARD IF YOUāRE READING THIS, BRING EM BACK!! PLEASE I BEG OF YOU!!! ;-;
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Saberon are my number one wanted playable race at the moment, followed by some kind of dragon.
Iāve been into the idea of a warrior tiger since I was a kid, so orange or white tiger warrior would be a must for me.
After that Iād want a black panther rogue, a snow leopard monk and a lion/mountain lion mage or shaman. 
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Same here with the panther rogue, obsessed with panthers OC and I main a rogue sooā¦ Yeet.
Also, this gives me an ideaā¦ WoW doesnāt just HAVE to give us saberon, they could use those guys, especially if we want em on the alliance, that armor is telling me thatās a more noble race. If they were to bring them into the game, as an allied race, yeah people might be upset for bringing a race they aint never heard of into the game like the velfsā¦ BUT, I imagine they already have some lore and stuff set up for them. Iām betting that they worship the white tiger SOOO ideaā¦ Alliance would get the cat people from the MoP concept art, and the Horde could have the saberon. Think thatād make perfect sense, and if Blizzard has no intention of making saberon more intelligent and yeeting the saberon that we saw run away to the barrens a useless idea, (theyāve scrapped ideas before in the past) then they could bring these guys in insteadā¦ Or maybe those guys go over to the saberon of Draenor and teach em their ways Make em more docile in the process, and maybe even noble.
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I thought up of a few jokes and a flirt for Saberon and wanted to share them:
Jokes
No. Saberon donāt meow. You can stop staring at me expectedly.
The worst thing the enemy can do? Throw catnip at us. It even even annoys our allies well after the fact. Rather embarrassing, reallyā¦
Flirts
I can leave you feelingā¦PURRfectly content.
Will think of more over time and share them!
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Ehhhh, Iām not so sure about this bit as an idea. I feel like itās a bit of an uncomfortable message to make one race uplift and educate another in order to make them worthy of being playable on a faction, or something like that. Even if the lore on them is sparse, I think a raceās natural behavior should be allowed to speak for itself instead of being anotherās child or pet.
You make a valid point, but I donāt see this happening, the teaching part I mean. But, Iād still like to see more about the feline people from Pandaria, Iād especially like to know why they arenāt in the gameā¦ Curious to know if theyāre maybe in the game files though. Or did Blizzard like, just take the models and yeet em into draenor, wouldnāt surprise me if they did.
Edit: One thing I dislike about the idea I posted, if the saberon WERE to be taught by some other more ācivilizedā group of cat people, turning em more noble or something, is that it would probably take away that savagery that I myself love so much.
I wanna see a saberon on catnip now.
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Yeah, Iām not saying no saberon at all (and while personally I donāt like the idea of more monster races going to the alliance, Iām aware thatās just an unpopular preference of mine). I just think the whole idea of uplifting the race to fit an inappropriate theme does a disservice to the race concept itself. Kinda like how worgen seemed to get sanded down the moment they became playable, or draenei bent over backwards to show how not-demon-like they were.
Yeeaaaah, personally main reason I support more monster races on the allianceā¦ Is because I donāt like the whole āHolier than thouā crap they seem to give off. I want to see more savagery from the Alliance, and I think some monster races could add some more flavor to them. But thatās my opinionā¦ However, Saberon will need to be uplifted in some manner, because the majority arenāt THAT intelligent. unless it comes to hunting or killing, then they show their brains Weāve seen some saberon able to interact with other races though, the big tiger guy who I donāt remember the name of, in Highmaul, was the champion of Highmaul. He also restrained himself from killing us when we did well in the Arena in Nagrand Questlineā¦ So maybe they donāt need THAT much uplifting, but they need to still develop more. Hoping that we see a friendly group of em when we return to Azerothā¦ And I forgot what the point I was going to make was 
lol
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My thought on saberon is that they donāt need to be uplifted because weāve already seen proof of them having some form of budding civilization and means of communicating with others: the follower Leorajh you can recruit from Spires of Arak. I think heās supposedly the first shaman of his kind, or something like that? Thereās also the mute skinner, although that doesnāt stop him from being amicable enough to join you. And because of WoDās funky time stuff, thereās a narratively pre-built timeskip where that kind of knowledge could already start to be spread around.
Thatās why I threw out an idea earlier up-thread about incorporating that stilted speech in a way other than ābig dumb beastman no talk good.ā If the race actually has physical difficulty speaking full sentences and instead developed an alternate means of communication amongst themselves (like sign language), I think youād be able to better portray that brutish first impression without actually writing them off as too stupid to be feasibly playable.
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Continuing on with the friendly or more intelligent saberon Iāve noticed in game, from your own point Sarm. And I can recall reading your thread concerning speech, it works but I donāt think itās much of a concern myself.
Leorajh was consuming apexis crystals and it made him calmer and more intelligent overall. He was kicked out of his clan for being too small and weak, and if Iām not mistaken the Arrokoa were planning on killing him after āstudying the catā. The Skinner, I could have sworn he spoke, although if he is mute that would be kinda neat I guess, also the big tiger follower we getā¦ for killing and hunting other saberon, I think can show that some saberon donāt give a DAMN if weāve hunted their people for sport or body parts. So there is definitely something there for a possibility of saberon being rather intelligent, donāt think weāve much to worry about in that area I imagine. On the alliance in Gorgrond, (not sure if heās there for horde, havenāt done the quests there yet) if you go for the arena, I believe it was, you find this panther like saberon who is holding I THINK a necklace, and he gives you some quests to gather trophies for you. The guy seems completely fine with us, and I think it also shows us some of their culture, so another bonus from that. The saberon also becomes one of the people you summon with the ability in that zone. All of these saberon, show intelligence in some fashion, some moreso than others though. So ye, you make a good point man, thereās no real need to write them off as too stupid although I have heard people use that as a counter argument for why we shouldnāt have saberon
Curious question, if saberon were to become an allied race, what kind of quest or story would you hope to see from them? Or concerning culture, what do you think would be an interesting twist for em?
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I had a silly little idea about that. No idea if itād work well but why not.
Itās an unavoidable fact that saberon donāt really have a whole lot of meat to player-visible culture or buildings or things like that, but instead of thinking thereās no story to be had there, I think it allows for (what I think is) a unique opportunity to tell a story of them advancing their own civilization from the ground up, which is something WoW hasnāt done with a race before. Kinda like an MMO version of them going through the first couple of stages of Age of Empires. Saberon go out into the world and study what other races do, try out what works for them, discard what doesnāt, and adapt the results into something they call their own.
On the surface I know this doesnāt sound a whole lot different than being uplifted, but I think the key difference is that in this situation, the saberon themselves would be the proactive ones in āhunting and gatheringā knowledge, and theoretically gives them the ability to reject unwanted aspects. Offhand example: cats love to kill for fun. They proooobably wouldnāt be all into the āpreserving the balance of natureā druid shtick. Iād imagine they might respect a wild god / loa like Shirvallah or Ashamane, but might be too independent to be completely subservient and reverent. (Lions are the only big cats that live in groups, according to Google)
Alternatively you could go full-on murderhobo concept and have them more Rexxar-like in a āI prefer to live out in the wild instead of in the company of others. Iāll tolerate you but never fully assimilateā way, and only choose to meet up with other saberon/allies for short periods of time to trade or work together before going their separate ways again. That might be more of a story dead-end, but you could at least put some focus on how individual saberon live in various environments as a sort of hermit wild-man thing.
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Man the idea ya present definitely has promise, I really like the idea of them building up their own civilization especially. My only concern with this, is the last part (gonna quote it below)
We see so many saberon who are anything BUT loners, they work in prides, or as they call it Clans. HOWEVER, that doesnāt mean it isnāt impossible for a saberon to like, want nothing to do with a clan. SO, random thought that popped into me headā¦ What if we came across one of these loner saberon? (Tossing this here before I forget, could also incorporate little trade caravans of saberon too) Maybe he/she is found by a Horde Scout, maybe fighting off whatever enemy we have at the moment, and not fairing TOO well due to numbers or whateverā¦ Anyway we save them, and I imagine theyād say āThank youā very grudgingly, or just tell us to go away. However we donāt, we go with em, we learn of a small clan who this loner may be doing trading with, or maybe this loner wants us to help this clan, one way or another we find the clan of saberon who need our help. We help them with their problem (hopefully one that isnāt silly or boring) like maybe a civil war? Or something, anyway we help em, we show em that the Horde are strong and we can offer em our aid. Down the road, we ally our selves with the saberon, and maybe (and I really really hope thisād be the case if Blizzard went this route) that loner saberon, becomes a new character that Blizzard can build up on, and give the community a new character to love and wanna see more of. Off subject for a moment, but thatās something I think Blizzard needs more of, we need new character that we can love and be sad or whatever if they were to dieā¦ least imo.
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Honestly, I havenāt thought much about it. I imagine there could be several ways to go with this.
If they became Horde, then making amends between them and the Magāhar Orcs, in particular the Laughing Skull Clan, could be interesting. Not sure how much bad blood could be between them, though that would need to be addressed if they were to become Horde. Not impossible to write around, of course, though a bit of a challenge IMO.
I suppose running into them on Azeroth, those who ran away from the Magāhar when they all ported from Draenor, and making friends with them as either faction would be very interesting. Iād be very curious what all theyāve been up to in our worldā¦and also really worried about what the Botani have been up to, since some came back with us.
I donāt know about any of them being enlightened like with Leorajh, I think. Itās something that could be interesting to work with, though I wouldnāt want Saberon to completely change as a result. Something that gives them a bit of character with how they were before with a little bit of savagery still might work well with this line of thinking, though itās a bit hard to explain.
Itās something Iāll have to think more on to really be able to explain it better. Iām sure there are plenty of possibilities, though! 
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The Horde has two races of civilized and aristocratic elves in the faction of monsters and savages.
The alliance could have another bestial race.
Kajamite did the same for the goblins.
Apexis could do the same for knowledges on a lesser scale, at least enough to make them more sociable, without depending on outside intervention.
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bro, iāve wanted to be a birdman since tbcā¦a birdman warlock
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The alliance already kinda does with draenei, which is a sort of adaptation on the whole Baphomet / demon look. I think their Gift of the Naaru racial is supposed to evoke that same image of the pentagram on the goat head. It looks to me like Blizzard really dropped the ball on doing much interesting with the worgen though, but Iām admittedly hella biased about that.