WoW Petopia Community

It is buried somewhere in the Mmo-C 8.0 Speculation thread. I didn't read it on the thread itself. Was shared on the Story Forums and Scrolls of Lore.

Hmmm, with all this speculation of Vereesa being the injured/dying elf in the image of the burning world tree, depending on the means of her demise, there may just be a chance that she take Sylvanas up on an offer of Undeath.
So then the idea of undead elf (apart from Sylvanas at this point in time) models, could be upon us before we know it....

OT ~
Of all the races that I have seen to date, if i could pick one to be a playable race, I would have to pick the High Arakkoa. I just loved their models and animations so very very much. For me they were one of the few good things to come of WoD, but they certainly were a winner at that

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I hope Wildhammer dwarves make the cut, and I hope there's some sort of minimal chest armor for every armor type, to show off their body tattoos. And also because we should be able to have some Conan the Barbarian typed dressed warriors, like back when dps warriors could wear leather and mail.
Mechagnomes.

If void elves are going to be pulled out of thin air, then Malorne should bless some Night Elves with deer antlers and have that be an allied race. I'm sure blizzard could whip up a lore reason, like after Teldrassil is destroyed, Malorne (who has a special tie with Elune) wants a world tree and protectors for it that are free of the various kinds of corruption that have plagued or scared the other world trees.

Krokuul or the old Broken model for alliance.

For horde, UD skins of elves and trolls. Some skin (and hair) options from some of the Draenor orc clans.

Since the ‘allied races’ are going to be single-faction I would have preferred they started with the partisan races we already recruited to our sides through the length of WoW history. I don’t really have a problem with neutral races picking sides, as long as they weren’t ones that players of both factions established good relations with in the course of the story. Otherwise, no matter which side is chosen, half of the characters are going to witness the races that they quested for, became exalted with, became the most important contact on Azeroth for, suddenly choose the other faction and become hostile to them. I think it’s a nonsensical change in plot unless there are compelling story reasons behind it, and I feel that “We need to balance out this allied race concept” isn’t a compelling story reason. Hence I think Nightborne are one of the worst choices. The void elves and lightforged draenei will certainly add interesting looks but I think they feel pretty contrived in order to make everything racially balanced.

Instead I would have preferred, at least initially:

- Mag’har and Kurenai (brown orcs, broken draenei) from BC, updated to the recent models for each. People have always wanted these.
- Frostborn (frost dwarves) and taunka from Northrend.
- Wildhammer dwarves from Cataclysm. Laughing Skull orcs from Draenor. Both bring new ornament / scars to the races.
- Hozen and jinyu from Pandaria
- Dark Iron dwarves. Zandalari trolls. The latter were originally friendly to everyone but they went nuts in MoP and I guess is a complete reset for them.

I know the concept is that Azerothian races are picking sides, and not all these are from Azeroth, but neither are Lightforged draenei.

I don’t know how the stories with vulpen and tortollans evolve in BfA but they could possibly have become allied races too. Otherwise there are plenty of races that have never been particularly friendly to anyone who could have come on board and finally pick sides, like Quillboars which seem to have had a model update (I think?).

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Shaman avatar by Spiritbinder.

Blizz said that both factions will have questlines that will explain what happens. For example, the Horde will have a big questline involving the Nightborne joining their side, but the Alliance will also have one. It won't be as big as the Horde one, but Alliance players won't be left clueless.

The Zandalari that we've been fight are those that serve Zul. The Zandalari that are joining us are the ones that serve King Rastakhan. Rastakhan originally reluctantly supported Zul, but no longer does. The whole thing will be explained in BfA.

I love the idea of the Horde getting the Nightborne. Personally I think it makes prefect sense from our story line. As far as other allied races I hope they do come up with a Dark Ranger style race.

I also think feral nightelves may be fun ( for alliance obviously) though difficult. I saw mention of a titanborne race earlier on in the thread and while they sound neat they probably should be a hero class and not a race. Anyway it will be interesting to see how close we are on our hopes and speculation

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Whether or not Blizzard "explains" the Nightborne suddenly wanting to kill me on sight....eh, that doesn't cut it for me. I worked my behind off helping them, and got emotionally invested in that questline. I still consider it, especially the Insurrection part, one of the best in game. And now Thalyssra and friends will want me dead. Great. Awesome. And I get a dip-dyed blood elf that they just lored on up out of thin air to "balance" it as compensation? Great. Awesome. Thanks.

I guess if I were Horde, I'd be thrilled about BAF. They get three real races, and keep BFF status with Thalyssra

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Flight Rising Lair

It'll all get explained. We don't know exactly what happens, so making assumptions is jumping the gun.

It seems like Silgryn takes a sect of Nightborne and joins the Horde.

It doesn't seem like Thalyssra or her Nightfallen are involved. I'd wager it's the Nightborne that were in Suramar, not the Nightfallen.

I think I will wait to pass judgement until the story line shows up. Also I love the void elf look but maybe I am weird ( wouldn't be the first time people thought so )

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Nope, it is Thalyssra and all of the Nightborne. In the Org Embassy, Liadrin mentions making inroads with Thalyssra and the Nightborne to join the Horde.

I also suspect it's for population balance, to give Horde another pretty race. I can say that 2+:1 A:H is kinda rough when you're the H.

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Sofia, the remarkably purple spirit cat as drawn by Ket Shi.

http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=lair ... e&id=50139 - Dragon Lair at flight rising!

Remember the Mantids in MoP and how we ended up having to slaughter our buggy buddies? And that it really sucked? But, at least that was for both factions equally...

And, yes I know the story isn't out yet. But I don't need the story to know what the ending is, since they already told us that we'll be out for blood and that any hope of peace between factions is dead. That means my Nightborne friends are soon going to want my head. I don't have to like that.

As for "prettiness", why not give the Horde void elves? I'm sure they could tailor the lore to that idea, seeing as void elves didn't exist prior to a couple months ago. Maybe Alleria could have decided to join her sister or something? Makes as much sense as anything else, to me. And, the problem would have been solved even more neatly by making them neutral like Pandaren.

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Flight Rising Lair

We knew we were going to have to fight the Paragons from the get-go. The end of their questline revealed that if Y'shaarj or any remnant of him returned, they would side with him over us. It wasn't a surprise that they were bosses in SoO.

They actually said that the faction conflict has gone on unresolved for too long and that this xpac will finally resolve it for good. As for the Nightborne, as long as the reason for them joining the Horde makes sense, I really don't mind.

There are multiple reasons why Alleria wouldn't join the Horde. First off, Turalyon is Alliance through-and-through. He was only working with the Horde on Argus because the Legion was the greater threat at the time. As seen in the Demo, Turalyon has completely returned to the Alliance. Him and Alleria share a very strong love, and she won't go to the Horde just to join Sylvanas. Further, she has expressed on the Vindicaar her continued hatred for the Horde. She was shocked/angry that the High Elves (now Blood Elves) would join the Horde, that Sylvanas is their Warchief, and is now a monster. If you are a Horde MM Hunter and you talk to Alleria, she says that she'll someday take her bow back from you (unlike with the Alliance, where she says she'll just ask for its return). And continuing with examples to show her hatred for the Horde, Alleria journeyed to SMC after Argus to try and convince the BEs to rejoin the Alliance.

I don't know if we'll ever have a neutral race again. Sometime during the MoP content drought, Blizz stated in an interview that they actually didn't like the idea of Neutral races and don't plan on ever doing that again. Whether they'll change their mind or not is another matter.

Great list, and I concur, the races they have picked make little sense thematically, in popularity, inclusive to the 13yr story thus far, etc.

I've kind of felt with the story more of late, the whole "Light and Void" theme the game has gone feels like a plot from Manga cartoon series. And now making Light and Void as race options/variants makes it even more contrived. There were SO many better, relevant options.

I know why they have done it however, they were simply trying to squeeze in a bit of everything in regardless..

Something Old, *Dark Iron

Something New *Void Elves

Something Borrowed, *Night Borne *Light Forged *High Mountain

Something Blue, *Zandalari

They actively come out and said this, and that the Void elves were just added to have something that was new/unexpected. It's seems they are just box ticking to me without all to much consideration of the world of warcraft or it's history.

Also the fact they are adding races to just one side, that both factions are intimately affiliated with, is just "?!??!??"
I really liked the Nighborne story, but now that they are going to be alined with the horde, one is left with a sour taste in ones mouth, and the same goes for High mountain, and also the Lightforgded for my Horde.

In BfA they are wildly trying to horn shoe this Horde Vs Alliance wedge back between the factions, which while it's always going to be underpinning to wow, how many times to they want to force us, to do this dance, it's old and tired. Then while fostering this "Hate Thy Neighbor", expect us to feel OK with adding these neutral factions that exalt us, into these camps, and we are meant to be ok with this.

And before I get "shot down" with "But wait for the Story, blah blah blah" I'm going off my personal views and off their track record on this one. They could potentially convince us of this with incredible story telling, but again, going off their track record, I'm not going to hold my breath.

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Agreed . I think box ticking is a major part here. Plus choosing races with models that will need the least amount of work.

As for story explanations, I think everyone here already understands that there will be explanations and our contention is more that the whole thing seems a bit contrived. George Lucas gave an explanation for the Force in episode 1 and do it became an undeniable part of canon, but it didn’t mean people thought it was at all satisfactory or good story telling.

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Shaman avatar by Spiritbinder.

They have said that the Highmountain, Lightforged, and Nightborne were used because they were the most immediate in player's minds (in terms of story), as well as popular. VEs will have plenty of story, starting in 7.3.5. It is hard to judge whether they'll be any good or not, since we haven't seen them yet.

As I have said, the Nightborne and, I'm sure, the Highmountain will have a story explaining why they are joining the Horde. It won't just be, "Welcome to BfA! The Nightborne and Highmountain have joined the Horde! Now, go to Kul Tiras!" The Lightforged make perfect sense, and Blizz has explained already why they are joining the Alliance. When the Draenei fled Argus, the Genedar split into two ships: the Xenedar and Genedar. They then went their separate ways (possibly for survival reasons). In 7.3, it was like the whole family was finally reunited.

You do have to wait for the story, Spiritbinder. Until we actually know what is going on, you can't say it is being shoehorned. It has been clear that the Alliance and Horde have constantly had tension between the two, but ultimately put it aside to fight a greater threat. Now that there is no immediate threat, the tensions can begin to boil over again. But the details of all this will be revealed in Before the Storm and in the xpac itself. A really good analogy I read concerning this whole this is: "If you and your roommate hate each other, but a stranger comes into your house and tried to burn it down, you and your roommate will work together to stop the stranger. When the stranger is gone, your still hate your roommate, and have to deal with them."

Also, just in case some have forgotten, these won't be the only Allied Races. Many across forums act as though this is it. Blizz said that more will come in patches and such.

*snip*

Ok, reset time.

I deleted everything after the post above mine. There were some personal things that were better left to PMs, if at all. Other people chimed in with much milder input but, since I think everyone involved read the posts and got it off their chests, I’d rather not leave personal criticisms up here for posterity. I hope everyone is ok with that.

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Shaman avatar by Spiritbinder.

It looks like blizzard is getting their wish in a roundabout way. It's too bad.

On another note do you think they will ever consider making non bipedal races playable?

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I think they might. Certainly doable with Naga, it would just take them having a unique mounted position. As for things like Dryads, Centaur, Nerubians, etc, I think that can also happen, but it would come down to whether Blizz is willing to make a race that can't use mounts.