I donât think past story is meaningless, but the Hordeâs help could never have happened in the first place without the Alliance showing up before them and making sure Vorrik is alive to benefit from the Horde characterâs assistance. He would have been dead by poison without the 7th Legion, and the keystone would have likely been in the Faithlessâ hands.
What did each faction actually do for the Devoted, though?
Alliance:
Saved Vorrikâs life
Kept a piece of the keystone from the Faithless
Repelled a Faithless attack on the Terrace
Horde:
Rescued Vorrik from captivity
Recovered two other pieces of the keystone
Killed the Faithlessâ leader, Emperor Korthek
Helped restore the Avatar of Sethraliss
Defeated Mythrax, who Sethraliss originally sacrificed herself to imprison
Itâs hard to argue the Alliance did more than the Horde character did, but none of what the Horde did would have been possible without the Alliance happening upon Vorrik first. I just think itâs interesting how strictly neutral the Devoted seem to be, despite everything the Horde has done for them.
Oh I never said the past story was meaningless, but in terms of what may happen, if they happen to be swayed towards the alliance as an AR? Then all those events with the horde would have been more meaningless.
The points you make about the alliance saving Vorrik, being the reason that horde interacts with them has been a longtime argument of mine and one I make time and time again but tends to fall upon deaf ears.
People are attuned to only follow what is right before them and not the logic surrounding the events. Yes, I speak of them saving Vorrikâs life, which if that hadnât happened, the horde never would have rescued him, get the other pieces of the keystone and Mythrax would have been released FAR sooner.
See my above comments about the Nightborne. Much the same logic applies.
The fact is, and something I suspect many people seem to overlook, is that Blizzard writing is a means to an end. You are never going to get or not get an AR based on the lore of the game. You are going to get or not get an AR based on development/marketing decisions and hope to whatever god you worship that the writing thrown out makes any bloody sense whatsoever (which in many cases, it doesnât).
That is why I have always approached the situation on a purely logical standpoint. One can argue that the Horde have more interaction with a particular race but considering Boralus has all of zero interesting sentient factions that could play a counterpart to a Horde Vulpera or Sethrak AR, it stands to reason we are going to have to dip our hands in to the Zandalar cookie jar.
The only other example one could argue as a counterpoint is the (-sighs-) Junker Gnomes. While this is and likely will be an option, the fact the Horde will be working with them as well means they will be added only at the very tail end of BfA (Like HMT, LFD and NB were added at the last moments of Legion). This as a Vulpera counterpart is actually the worse case scenario as it will likely result in no faction getting the Sethrak, all their custom rigging and animations going to an absolute criminal waste and no one getting any new ARs until the twilight of BfA. While this would be the worst outcome for the player, it is also the path of least actual work involved. Based on some of the other ARs (or in the case of the Alliance, virtually all of them) being fairly low effort offerings, I am tempering my expectations pretty damn harshly.
Some news that you might appreciate with this actually. I know someone who is ratherâŚactive with the datamining end of the PTRs and the gnomes are on much friendlier terms with Gazlowe and the alliance barely has any interaction with them at all thus far. The goblins are stationed with in the central area with the prince and such where as the alliance is off somewhere in someâŚjunk yard like area.
Just because theyâre gnomes does not mean they will exclusively be alliance. Case and point: Night Elf -> Nightborne, same base race but opposite factions, Blood Elf -> Void Elf, again same base race but opposite factions.
Itâs also a possibility that the gnomes will end up being both factions or possibly even neither~
Time will tell with them and which way they may ultimately be swayed, I just know that as it looks right now, Gazlowe is in cahoots with the prince and the allianceâŚbarely get an eyelash bat in their direction.
*a single night elf (the Arcanâdor seed guardian) which wasnât affiliated with the Alliance. Or you meant the Moonguard, who werenât affiliated with the alliance as well?
It was just part of the justification. Stop acting as the Nightborne owed the Alliance loyalty just because they were nigh elves once. Itâs as dumb as demanding the Night elves to come to the Horde because they were once Trolls.
Nightborne just decided to join Horde because, sure, it isnât nice to be in a group who deeply distrusts you. But also because they deemed the Horde as a faction where they would fit better, based in their values, and their bond with Blood Elves, as they had a similar story.
You are again attempting to argue semantics (with more than a little reaching there) while seeming to miss my point entirely; the fact that the writing is just there to try and justify development decisions, often very poorly. I bought up the Nightborne as they are the best example of this.
At the end of the day, the decision has been made which race is going to be made an AR for what faction long before the writing is ever even attempted. This is why I find the âWell Horde quested more with them so they are surely going to be our friends!â argument so weak. If we are expected to believe the entire Nightborne faction can run off to the Horde over a teenage girl level hissy-fit between two elven drama queens than I would say all bets are off the table when it comes to the writing and AR logic.
Blizzard could drop an irreparable rift between Vorrik and Baine over the righteousness of pineapple on pizzas and try to sell that as the justification for the Sethrak siding with the Alliance for all we know. It wouldnât be too far off the mark for what we have seen so far.
Well, you see, my problem is youâre just unfairly downplaying how the Nightborne story unfolded to fit it as an example. Joining the Horde wasnât just a temper tantrum about Tyrande being mean, as you put it.
And yeah. I get the point. Blizz could pull a plot twist anytime to fit the Sethrak into the Alliance. Nothing to do here. But we can be hopeful theyâll rather build up the relationship between Sethrak and Zandalari and/or Vulpera and not dump the whole story build on the Volâdun storyline.
Anyone is entitled to feel hopeful towards what they want. Whether itâs alliance or horde, sure Iâd love for them to become alliance myself, overall I just want them playable. Faction matters little to me at that point, I just want to be able to play them~
Blizzard will take it in the direction Blizzard wants, by this point itâs likely already decided so thereâs naught we can do but sit around and wait to find if/when itâll happen and where theyâll go.
Hopefully we get some news soon on allied races in general. Even a âhey this date we will be talking about Allied Races and customization!â would be lovely.
To be fair, I strongly suspect that weâll get 4 allied races to close out BFA and lead into 9.0, to give people something to unlock and level during the lull between content that naturally happens when a new expansion is on the horizon.
I donât think Lightforged undead have a serious chance of becoming an allied race, at least I really hope they donât. I think mechagnomes are inevitable, unfortunately, but they do ultimately fit the bill as being a gnome-based allied race. Whatâs left after that for Alliance? A worgen-based allied race.
What are sethrak built off of?
I think thereâs a lot of oddities with the sethrak, both their model and their story, that donât quite rule them out yet.
They have experience battling minions of the old gods, which are likely to be a huge theme going forward, theyâre built off female worgen, which are getting a major update soon, they havenât quite openly joined the Zandalari at the expense of their relationship with the Alliance, and visually theyâre a natural counterpart to vulpera, who are built off goblins, who are getting a new model soon also.
All that aside, I just canât shake that stupid statueâs blurb. If those words, âlawful, just, faithful, firm,â arenât a description of the Alliance, then I donât know what is.
Honestly, I think the majority of people want Sethrak for the Alliance for two reasons:
Its pretty much confirmed the horde will be getting vulpera so logically the paired race should go Alliance
With the exception of worgen and Pandaren all of the Alliance consists of humanoid of varying height and ear length. Sethrak would bring in some much desired variety
A fair few people i talk too also think its a Nightborne situation as well for a good amount and thats not even the Horde hating strangely enough, other than that the other two are spot on as well.
Yeah this pretty much nails it. In addition, I think itâd be relatively easy to fit player armor onto sethrak and have it look good. Helmets might be tricky, but most players hide them anyway, and with a little bit of work they could probably look better than many of us imagine.
The biggest thing I like about them, aside from just how fresh theyâd be as a playable race, is the way their sexes are so subtly distinguished. Vessina in Hearthstone borrows from Sethraliss in lacking a rattle and having some fancy eye makeup on. I really like that, and I really like how the male sethrak arenât the musclebound hulks we normally get with player races.
It is true! Helmets are not a big obstacle, since we can hide them!
And even if you want to use helmets for everyone, they will have no more problems than those faced by worgen and taurens!
OKâŚyou guys need to stop assuming the gnomes will be alliance. YES they are gnomes but look at they are right now: the goblins have made their base IN meccagonâŚthe alliance are still out in the outer limits of the area. Gazlowe has already been shown to get along well with the prince more so than the alliance has.
Donât get me wrong, it could still be alliance AR but until we are told this is what alliance is getting, I wonât assume. And you canât say that just because theyâre gnomes theyâll be alliance, we have two races already that contradict this notion: Void elf (once Belves) and Nightborne (once nightelves).
Thereâs a chance the gnomes wonât be alliance at all, or could even go towards BOTH factions, doubtful but itâs still a possibility. Even the devs donât want to say anything about them being an AR in the first place, knowing the flames that will rise in doing soâŚor donât want to let people know they wonât be an AR or will be one for BOTH factions.
Itâs too soon to know where they will go, if at all. So until then, just keep a broad mind on the aspect :3