Updated Allied Race Speculation

[Reallyhappy-dalaran (Reallyhappy)]

@Piouspelicañ-jubeithos

I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense gamewise (not like “lore-breaking”, but something like "giblins join the horde because they like pretty elf cities and they entrance them, or “gnolls join the alliance because they’re sick of dying to lowbie humans”).

On one hand you are acting like Gilbins care about Elves, on the other, Hogger should 100% be high king.

[Grandblade-wyrmrest-accord (Grandblade)]

@Murphio-moon-guard

Oh no, the Horde race goes the the Horde.
What a bad.

I mean, everyone and their mother apparently wants High Elves, so more skirting around it would cause a lot of angry threads.
How will they ever cope with angry threads?

[Reallyhappy-dalaran (Reallyhappy)]

I forgot the most important reason why im hesitant about Vulpera.

They are heavilly requested and have a ton of fan demand, and this is BfA.

[Piouspelicañ-jubeithos (Piouspelicañ)]

I meant more that even if it’s a flimsy reason, it’s still a reason. It was the first thing that came into my head.

[Reallyhappy-dalaran (Reallyhappy)]

I was just joking around with you, besides, Hogger overthrowing Anduin and leading the alliance to total victory would be the greatest plot development.

[Piouspelicañ-jubeithos (Piouspelicañ)]

Alternatively, the forsaken rez Hogger, and he in turn brings gnolls into the horde. fabulous

[Traut-moon-guard]

Id be for a Gnoll race. Sign me up. Even if the name is locked as Hogger/Meatball

[Murphio-moon-guard (Murphio)]

@Traut-moon-guard

To be 100% honest, I forgot the Guardians of the Grove name, and they’re basically Centaur with Night Elf torsos instead of humanish ones. And arent all Elves just Trolls with some crazy mutation?

Well I meant Elves on four legs in terms of culture, and the visual similarity is obvious, but I’m actually fairly certain they don’t have anything in actual relations to Night Elves except for a connection to Elune, mostly through Cenarius.
Cenarius is really weird like that.
But if you’re actually just talking about Centaur’s relations to the GoG then yeah, they’re actually directly related, but the difference is still fairly important, as Centaurs are also related to Earth Elementals while the GoG are not.

@Grandblade-wyrmrest-accord

I mean, everyone and their mother apparently wants High Elves, so more skirting around it would cause a lot of angry threads.
How will they ever cope with angry threads?

lol, yeah, it’s not like they already have that and likely will for all the time they ever exist.

[Bairz-vashj]

I don’t necessarily believe the allied races have to follow the pattern of having a “parent race”. Even though it does look like that so far with the current available allied races being somewhat attached to certain core races.

I personally would love to see…

Horde: Taunka, Forest Trolls, Ogres, san’layn

Alliance: Broken Draenei, Jinyu, wildhammer dwarves, vrykul

If for some reason they are basing it off of the core races and what’s left…

Goblin=Vulpera

Gnome=junker gnomes

Worgen=loa infused trolls (like the Zul’aman bosses)

Forsaken=light infused undead

[Falrinn-turalyon (Falrinn)]

@Bairz-vashj

I don’t necessarily believe the allied races have to follow the pattern of having a “parent race”. Even though it does look like that so far with the current available allied races being somewhat attached to certain core races.

I think the whole “parent race”->“Allied Race” thing is mostly a side effect of Allied Races perferring to use existing or mildly tweaked models of existing races in order for them to be inexpensive from a development cost.

But as Kul Tiran Humans prove, it only matters until Blizzard comes up with an idea they think is worth breaking precident for.

Given this, my guesses for the next two Allied Races hasn’t changed in awhile. Vulpera for the Horde and Junker Gnomes for the Alliance.

[Maxghorn-drakkari]

Another elfcraft fan over here

[Reallyhappy-dalaran (Reallyhappy)]

@Falrinn-turalyon

I think the whole “parent race”->“Allied Race” thing is mostly a side effect of Allied Races perferring to use existing or mildly tweaked models of existing races in order for them to be inexpensive from a development cost.

But as Kul Tiran Humans prove, it only matters until Blizzard comes up with an idea they think is worth breaking precident for.

Given this, my guesses for the next two Allied Races hasn’t changed in awhile. Vulpera for the Horde and Junker Gnomes for the Alliance.

I disagree with this for the simple notion of the fact, even if they have vastly different models, they are still the same race.

Void Elves are Still Thellassian elves, Nightborne are the origanal highborn who lived alongside the night elves, Mag’har Orcs are still orcs. Lightforged are Draenei, Kul Tirans are still human, even if they have a unique model, Dark irons are still dwarves, Zandalari are still trolls despite using the night elven skeleton, and when lightforged undead come around, their still undead.

Vulpera share a skeleton with Goblins but not much else, which is part of the reason im hesitant. Gilblins were created by the Bildgewater Cartel. Which is a shared history, and i dont think were getting hobgoblins.

[Falrinn-turalyon (Falrinn)]

@Reallyhappy-dalaran

I disagree with this for the simple notion of the fact, even if they have vastly different models, they are still the same race.

Put yourself in Blizzard’s shoes for a momment.

Someone on the team makes a pitch for an Allied Race that everyone thinks is brilliant, it fits with the overall narrative, and doesn’t come at an enormous development cost because it merely requires brushing up an NPC model that was already designed to use arbitrary equipment.

Are they going to reject that pitch purely over a self-imposed technicality about parent races?

[Xanthine-thrall (Xanthine)]

We still want ogres damn it.

[Reallyhappy-dalaran (Reallyhappy)]

@Falrinn-turalyon

Someone on the team makes a pitch for an Allied Race that everyone thinks is brilliant, it fits with the overall narrative, and doesn’t come at an enormous development cost because it merely requires brushing up an NPC model that was already designed to use arbitrary equipment.

Are they going to reject that pitch purely over a self-imposed technicality about parent races?

Vulpera are going to be less relevant then Gilblins 8.2! The Gilblins are related to the Hordes plotline in that expansion, as they make up a good part of the Sea Slaves the horde is going to help revolt, so if we are going purely off story relevance, yes, Gilblins have Vulpera beat.

[Granfaloon-shadowsong (Granfaloon)]

I never have, but with Rexxars new model I think I am coming around. Moknathal would be awesome.

[Desanvos-dalaran (Desanvos)]

Vulpera and Mechagnome seem to be the next most likely pair.

From there I want to say

Sanlayn and Jinyu seem the most logical answer.

[Droité-tanaris (Droité)]

Agreed on the Vulpera and Junker-Gnomes (Full MechaGnomes, being the automatons that they are seems very unlikely).

Junker-Gnomes are getting an entire zone devoted to them (which does look fun), and Vulpera do have an unusual amount of effort put into their character models and animations (and also rely on the Goblin rig, both male and female). This would effectively take care of the Goblin AND the Gnome equivalent Allied Races.

As for Humans (either SW or Worgen) and Forsaken… By the looks of things we are liable to get some form of Alliance Undead Allied Race (though I REALLY hope that split is primarily an ideological one, not just a magic one). As for the Forsaken counterpart … no friggen clue. I have no idea what they’re Allied Race counterpart could be.

[Ariël-drakkari (Ariël)]

Only San´layn variation I´d support would be one similar to the Nightfallen (yeah, DO make them look like actual horror inspired vampires please, cause the model people wants is basically a Belf DK with contact lenses and that´s lame… makes one wonder over “Twilight Vampires” and yeah no, I rather we keep FAR AND AWAY from those).

@Reallyhappy-dalaran

Vulpera are going to be less relevant then Gilblins 8.2! The Gilblins are related to the Hordes plotline in that expansion, as they make up a good part of the Sea Slaves the horde is going to help revolt, so if we are going purely off story relevance, yes, Gilblins have Vulpera beat.

Also, they feeed much more the lazy aspect of dev development (they just need minor adjustments and voila!! new race extremely siumilar looking to “origin” race without causing a “Hurde Biaaaas!!” uproar on player population like Vulpera would.

[Droité-tanaris (Droité)]

@Reallyhappy-dalaran

@Falrinn-turalyon

Someone on the team makes a pitch for an Allied Race that everyone thinks is brilliant, it fits with the overall narrative, and doesn’t come at an enormous development cost because it merely requires brushing up an NPC model that was already designed to use arbitrary equipment.

Are they going to reject that pitch purely over a self-imposed technicality about parent races?

Vulpera are going to be less relevant then Gilblins 8.2! The Gilblins are related to the Hordes plotline in that expansion, as they make up a good part of the Sea Slaves the horde is going to help revolt, so if we are going purely off story relevance, yes, Gilblins have Vulpera beat.

Gilblins have never really been that relevant. For all respects an purposes they’re just another variant of Merlocks, primitive underwater species that normally worship/follow naga (though they’re REALLY underdeveloped in comparison, and lack any of the charm). The entire species is also a very recent occurrence, created by Hobart Grapplehammer.

I get that we’re going to be helping some of them in 8.2, but something about them becoming a playable race just bothers the crap out of me as a Bilgewater main. The entire race is literally described as “their adaptations to aquatic life has drained much of their higher brain function, leaving them more instinctual and driven almost exclusively by greed”. The PC Goblins already have issues with being almost entirely defined by Gallywix and being essentially portrayed as one-note Greed Filled Lemmings; would Blizz really just add in “Dumb Water Greed Filled Lemmings”?