Save for the actual Virmen, as well as the Vulpera, I think WoW needs a real vermin race. Not necessarily a blatant rip-off of Warhammer Fantasy’s Skaven, but something unique to WoW.
For example, what if the Virmen, before the sundering, somehow found their way to the Well of Eternity and decided to take a dip in the pool, similar to how the trolls did?
Or, instead of being lazy and using the Well of Eternity as the basis for the lore, what if new lore was created? Lets be honest, there’s a lot of elves on Azeroth (too many). What if some sect of the Highborne went their own way instead of following the future Nightborne / High Elves and ventured forth to some unknown land, and decided to make their own little Well of Eternity, similar to that of the Nightwell / Sunwell. They succeeded, however, the whole time, they have been carefully watched by a race of vermin men (can be rats, rabbits, etc). At the ceremony, thrown in celebration of the new Well, this vermin species ambush them and completely slaughter them all, taking the Well for themselves, along with a celebratory dip into the pool. Bam, evolved, intelligent, upright vermin men.
We have plenty of races like that already. You would just need particularly intelligent Gnolls. Say some got into some Kajamite, or perhaps it was a reaction exposure to Azerite.
I feel like all future races that are introduced should come from other worlds. We have a vast universe with many planets but the story only dwells on three.
Maybe some rat people were living on one of the worlds the Draenei settled and ditched but before Sargeras consumed their planet they reverse-engineered some remaining Draenei tech and, with their massive numbers, were able to build some ships and escape.
They could join the Horde as our space faring crazy sci fi race. Lots of magi-tech but more of a space pirate flare. Probably with a culture than emphasizes warlocks above all so they can use demons as batteries for their weapons and ships to better contrast with the Alliance’s light-oriented Draenei.
The demons can even be trapped inside giant rat wheels and made to jog forever to provide power to the engines. It drains their fel energy as they exert themselves.
I would kill to be able to play as Kobolds. Either as allies of the Horde or Alliance. Makes more sense for them to be Horde though, but it would be interesting to see Kobold-Human diplomacy.
I am not a fan of the idea. I think Vulpera have the scavenger-rodent thing going for them, and making that the basis of a new race seems redundant, as others have stated. And the Forsaken already have the smelly-gross-out humor that would probably be a major them for a new rodent race.
I mean, a Beaver or Rabbit race would be funny for the obvious potential for filthy jokes… but I would not be a fan.
I am going all in on Mushroom People. We need plant-like races. Give the Alliance Botani and the Horde the Mushroom People.
Well we have the Faldorei in Legion - Night Elves who became spider-like creatures. We could encounter the “Rodorei” - Rodent Elves.
