This is a question I ask myself. Can zandalari and vulpera challenge blood elf supremacy?
While blood elves will remain the most played Horde race (still the best-looking paladins, still the only demon hunters, still a main race), I think the proportion of blood elves will be significantly reduced.
A lot of people seem to forget (or not know) that vulpera had a prior NPC-only model in early BfA alpha, only to get completely revamped with a model with playable quality.
No way Blizzard did all that work only to shelve them later.
I think Vulpera will be popular but I think Belves are still going to reign supreme. People like feeling sexy and nobody outdoes belves in terms of mass-sex-appeal.
This is a race that is so popular that they recoloured them for alliance players and they still say they want the vanilla flavour instead of licorice.
I donāt doubt blood elves will always be the most popular Horde race, the problem is their proportion to other races. They are 38% of the Horde!
But I think itās not just about sex-appeal. But, when you analyze their classes, you find out almost half of the blood elves are paladins (because they only compete with tauren) and demon hunters (no competition). Also, thereās no cute/fun race in the Horde, so people who do not want to look like a monster only had the blood elves until recently (nightborne already are 3.9% of the Horde, more than pandaren and goblin, and I think theyād be even more popular if their model issues were fixed).
When you look at the several classes, one by one, blood elves are the most common race (except for warlocks and warriors, where undead and orcs shine), but the proportion is not so overwhelming.
I think zandalari may hurt blood elves in one of their specialties: paladins. And vulpera adds a new option for those who donāt want to look like a monster.
Youāre right, class availability definitely plays a part in it. I donāt have a horde paladin because I didnāt really want to be either race. I also might be underestimating the number of blood self players who just donāt feel like they have other options.
Theyād probably need some new lore to justify it, but it would be cool to see Vulpadins, just for more variety. Pallies and Druids and to a lesser extent Shamans across both factions can always use a bit more variety.
Hello fellow caravan members! A mysterious messenger from Volādun recently shared a little insight into the history of questlines in the Volādun area.
That Sumber quest line is from early alpha ā I believe before the zone was available publicly in any form. It was set in the Eternal Spring area, south of where Akundaās temple is now (the Eternal Spring is still there in-game, but no Sumber). There was a crazy exiled shaman in a cave nearby who was summoning sand elementals and forcing them to attack the lone water elemental Sumber (and his few remaining water elemental allies) at the Eternal Spring. Earth elementals rumbled in the dry riverbed nearby.
As the quest text you found implies, you helped a vulpera who went to the spring looking for water but decided to stay and help the elementals. The idea was that, by the end of the quest line, youād have dammed up the waterfall and helped bring some water back to the area ā and learned how valuable water was in the zone.
It was one of the first quests I made in the zone, and it never even made it to second-pass (so all of that text in there should not be considered canon ā it hadnāt been approved by anyone else). Also, itās important to note that thatās not the same Kiro that you know in-game now. It was a totally different character (a female vulpera actually). The character didnāt get used anywhere ultimately, but we liked the name and ended up using it for the character that you know as Kiro now Itās not the same character, though.
Bonus info: There was another, related quest line nearby that was removed as well ā the rest of that vulperaās caravan was up the mountain a bit, defending the remains of their caravan from ranishu whoād stolen their supplies and were eating everything in the troll ruins there.
But when the geography of that area changed, we ended up scrapping the vulpera quests there and using the areas for Akundaās temple storyline. The 3 vulpera there never made it into any other quest lines directly, but their personalities heavily influenced the 3 vulpera at Court of Zakārajan (Omi, Tacha, Kenzou). In fact, a couple of their quotes in the game now are directly stolen from the 3 vulpera at the Eternal Spring (āA worker is worth their wage.ā is the example I think of first ā that was originally said by one of the vulpera asking for help with the ranishu ā insisting that she pay you for your time because she didnāt believe in charity).
Kenzou is roughly based on an old character in the Eternal Spring questline, who was much more starry-eyed, a go-getter who believed everything was like the legends heād heard told around the campfire (his name was Hiro ā a bit too on-the-nose for āheroā, but did also influence Kiroās final name later). Hiroās personality in the Sumber questlines was a bit too naive/goofy for vulpera, though. Especially for being one of the first few vulpera that you meet ā I think Kenzouās more practical leadership personality fits the vulpera better. What do you think?
This is really interesting information, and has the side effect of completely torpedoing the long-standing speculation that the totem-related quest text that was datamined many eons ago was related to playable vulpera becoming shamans.
It would seem that as far as Vulpera casters are concerned, weāre back to a blank slate. However, Iām still very excited by all that weāve learned!
A shame to hear a lot of Vulpera content got cut early on, especially the long-speculated āVulpera Shamanā chain.
On the plus side, thereās some neat info there.
Well if I understand it correctly, it wasnāt ever really a vulpera shaman chain, just a chain with a vulpera that used some totems that left some broadcast text that got misinterpreted. So itās not that they were going to be shamans and it got cut, itās justā¦ we read too much into some text relics for something interesting but ultimately unimportant.
I think your āundeniableā, āLikelyā and āNo wayā lists are right, but I think Druid, Paladin and warlock are all about the same level of āWe really have no ideaā
Druids seem feasible based on the speculation the Vulpera are related to a wild god, but Druids require a lot of extra art assets made for them and the horde already has more Druids than Alliance.
Warlocks seem feasible because Blizzard isnāt usually stingy handing out warlocks on the class lists but from a lore perspective Vulpera donāt really seem like the kind of individuals to dabble in dangerous things for the sole purpose of power.
Paladins seem feasible because they could have sunwalker lore written if Blizzard wanted to and the horde needs a new paladin. But Blizzard is pretty stingy about handing out paladins and while the lore could be created, there are no current hints theyāre planning it.
Soā¦ theyāre all up for debate. Itās just a matter of where Blizzard is planning to go with them.
And this right there is why I am utterly convinced that they will make vulpera an allied race. The hard work on blizzard end is done. The charavhter models are fantastic and customizable. Even the biggest haters of Vulpera agree on that.
If they release em they will have I assume tens of thousands of toons race change. That equates to money. And we all know how much Activision-Blizzard loves their money.
I just donāt understand the people that go out of their way to be miserable if an allied race were to be added in. And thereās some Iām totally against too, like Lightforged undead or undead night elves. But in that situation Iād politely comment that Iām not a fan of the idea, give my reasoning, and leave. If people truly would have fun playing them and want them, Iād have to deal with it. After all. I wouldnāt be forced to play itāand thatās what people act like is going to happen.
Like it or not, Vulpera have the biggest community if you look at discords. The thread is constantly abuzz.
Also in regards to a prior conversation, hey! Iām an elf player >:P not all of us are mean. Only a fair amount. Though I guess Iām not a āproper elfā for not being rude but hey who cares. Iād rather be me than a cookie cutter.
I see a lot of āthey offer nothing to the hordeā comments, but Iāve always viewed the horde as a bunch of disparate races not tolerated by the alliance with the sole commonality of valuing freedom; which would be stifled by the alliance had they not banded together out of mutual necessity. All the current horde ARs appear to be small loner factions wanting to venture out into the world, and to repay the horde for their help. I canāt see how anyone could refute that.
Exactly what I was thinking, many of those belf players appreciate the non-monstrous aesthetic, so itāll be interesting to see what happens.
Paladin just seems like a fitting sethrak class for some reason, and rogue/shaman for vulpera. I wish druid, but all those forms would be time consuming to work onā¦ I guess keeping this toon as a nelf is for the best though, all friends/family exclusively play alliance.
Iām betting itās far more civil, barely toxic, and a tad melodramatic compared to most other communities too (a trend Iāve noticed in roleplayers and those who play anthropomorphic races, theyāre typically a lot more friendly and accepting on average).
Have we seen any evidence Vulpera need to drink water? I canāt remember. Fennec Foxes can get by just using the moisture from food, though will drink water if it is provided.
I agree though, highlighting the struggle for water can really sell the desperate feeling of a desert
![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
Itās not the same character, though.![:frowning:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/frowning.png?v=6" ":frowning:")