Last Race Suggestion: Vrykul as playable?

[Ciddy]

I still think Vrykul as an Alliance race could make sense (Humans in WoW supposedly descended from them, after all). Either way, I'd be all for it because I think a Vrykul Warrior would be so badass.

But yeah, as someone else said...I think if Blizzard wanted to make Vrykul playable, they would've done it in Wrath. Since it didn't happen there, I don't think it will ever happen.

[Pony Soldier]

I actually could see this happening, lore wise at least. They would be a Horde race since they hate humans so the Alliance would never work for them. Plus they are also savage like the Horde is so it'd be a perfect match. I can see them getting along with the Horde especially the Orcs very well. Then for Alliance they could have the Tuskarr. Only thing though with both of these races is that it wouldn't make much sense at this point. If they were going to add them it should've been back in WotLK or at the latest Cataclysm. Maybe Blizzard might go back to Northrend for a new story but until that happens adding both of these races at this point wouldn't make much sense. Also, the lack of lore they have. The Vrykul don't have a whole lot of lore other than what was told in WotLK. Same with the Tuskarr. Both of those races need to be involved with the game's story more to build up some lore so that it would make more sense for them to join the Horde and Alliance. We can't just add them to the playable race roster just because we want them, because they're cool. The other problem I see for the Vrykul is their size. It's the same thing with Ogres although a bit smaller, they're too big to be playable. As with the Ogres, Blizzard would have to reduce their size to that of a Tauren and they just wouldn't look right. They're supposed to be big.

So with that said I think Vrykul could've worked as a Horde race if they were designed to be a little bit smaller and had more story to them. There also didn't seem to be many friendly Vrykul so there again it wouldn't make much sense for them to just be like "oh we're sorry, please forgive us, can we join you guys?". Also we're at a point in WoW where we don't need anymore additional races, we have enough. As I have said several times in threads like this, it's time to focus on what we have now and make them even better. More customization options, maybe sub races like the brown Mag'har orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves. People seem to forget that this is an RPG game not Marvel vs. Capcom where that game has like 60 characters to choose from. They can do that because it's a fighting game but this is WoW, an MMORPG. Having a huge roster of races to pick from (other than the ones we have now) is not it's main focus. It was nice getting them in the past but we have enough now. It's time to focus on other things.

[Maxilian]

I think what Nelinrah was referring to was that the Vrykul are literally larger Humans, as they are the progenitors of the Human race in-game. The Humans were cast out and eventually made their way to EK. Dwarves are an entirely different race in that regard. If we're to use your vein of thought, then Orcs are simply green humans on steroids and so on.

and the NE comes from the trolls and the BE/HE come from the NE, what's your point?

[CalamityHeart]

For some reason, I'm just not too keen on this. I can't be enthused by the idea of making a race that was once the enemy of both factions playable for either. That's probably a major reason I can't get behind playable naga either (along with the myriad of other reasons why I don't think they should be playable, but I digress). It's the fact that since they've been an pretty all around aggressive enemy before. the line of reasoning "Oh, but these are the NICER vrykul!" just can't sit well with me.

[Deleted]

They're just a larger version of humans. There's no reason at all to add them.

Dwarves are just small humans, then, and gnomes are midgets. Elves are just humans with pointy ears. Vrykul aren't just larger, they have their own viking-like look.

[Tydrane]

Vrykul would "fix" the Horde's "ugly race problem"? Have you seen Vrykul? The only people who could possibly idolise their appearance are retarded metalhead stoners (though I do concede a large portion of WoW's playerbase falls into this category).

Anyway, I'm calling it now: Vrykul will never be added as a playable race. They were a minor villain race featured in one expansion, there aren't enough of them left for it to make any sense, they have no recogniseable faction leader (because we killed them all) and they don't really have a faction capital. Oh, and they wouldn't move the story along enough, or in any meaningful way. We've already heard their story, and a little of their history insofar as it pertains to the genesis of humans on Azeroth.

And they probably wouldn't join the Alliance or the Horde because I'm pretty sure both factions experimented on them with the plague/blight during the Northrend campaign.

[Techno-Druid]

Vrykul would "fix" the Horde's "ugly race problem"? Have you seen Vrykul? The only people who could possibly idolise their appearance are retarded metalhead stoners (though I do concede a large portion of WoW's playerbase falls into this category).

Anyway, I'm calling it now: Vrykul will never be added as a playable race. They were a minor villain race featured in one expansion, there aren't enough of them left for it to make any sense, they have no recogniseable faction leader (because we killed them all) and they don't really have a faction capital. Oh, and they wouldn't move the story along enough, or in any meaningful way. We've already heard their story, and a little of their history insofar as it pertains to the genesis of humans on Azeroth.

And they probably wouldn't join the Alliance or the Horde because I'm pretty sure both factions experimented on them with the plague/blight during the Northrend campaign.

Have you seen the male human? Not exactly a beauty king..... Weren't worgens enemies of both factions back in Wrath....

[PepperjackJig]

The Vrykul could always be added as a playable race for the Horde (does the alliance need a race that's basically a gigantic human). It would help the issue "ugly races" in the Horde and they are pretty much one of the last original races that qualify as playable.

Story wise, I could see a gory of vrykul splitting off from the rest and becoming somewhat of a "nicer" faction. Like the forsake and blood elves, they could need a little help to get their kingdom rolling, so they ask one of the Hordies if they could have memberships. idk, just my opinion. I say ogres and vrykul for Horde and High elves and furbolgs for the Alliance.


Class ideas:
*Warrior
*Death Knight
*Paladin
*Hunter (Owl pet)
*Monk
*Mage
*Druid (more connected to nature than humans are)

Mounts: Clefthooves

Cool idea, but... Having Clefthooves as a mount for them makes zero sense, given they are only on Draenor/Outland, Shoveltusk would make more sense.

[Techno-Druid]

Cool idea, but... Having Clefthooves as a mount for them makes zero sense, given they are only on Draenor/Outland, Talbuk would make more sense.

Sorry, I meant shoveltusks, I'll edit it.

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No, they literally are just large humans. Dwarves aren't related to humans at all.

Dwarves are related to humans, they are a different race, but they are related, so are gnomes and mogu.

[Yig]

Deconstructing this from as many points of view as I'm able, it really seems the only logical reason against this as an idea is "I don't like it" really, despite all the claims to the contrary. Along with the problem I think any race has an element of now, we've pretty much got the gamut of the spectrum available here at this point that anything new is going to seem boring or contrived.

They aren't just big humans. Dwarves have different shaped bodies and unique facial structures. So do Vrykul. They have much bigger noses and more exaggerated caricaturized facial structures. Many fantasy MMOs have Giants as a race because they are a staple of fantasy. You see people in this thread claiming Dwarves make sense for being a staple in fantasy ignoring that Vrykul are just Giants because of pedantic semantic points over their origins in lore. They are just another way WOW has created giants, just as Warcraft's Trolls have nothing to do with the trolls of Norse mythology or the trolls of generic fantasy.

Lore aside, high elves and blood elves are just lithe humans with big ears and glowing eyes.
Ogres are related to Orcs, and are basically big giant fat orcs with giant noses.

It's all well and good if Vrkykul don't appeal to you, but trying to argue against them with this kind of logic just shows a limitation of your imagination. Playing a Vry'kul would not feel anything like a human. They would have very different running gaits and combat animations, facial expressions, elaborate hair styles, big awesome nose rings and facial piercings, a bone through their nose (I would love to see that for trolls when/if customization is expanded for players in a content patch) tribal Nordic black metal looking and Celtoi/Germanic tattoos and warpaint, they could have different colored skin or even stone or iron skin.

I'm really not that invested in the idea, though of all the obscure NPC races people are always asking for they are among one I favor if I had to, next to something like Murlocs or Jinyu I'd go with Giants. But I am annoyed with bad arguments and enjoy playing Devil's Advocate as well as mental masturbation. So here I am.

Detractors should stop hiding behind a symantic shield to dismiss their candicacy as a player race, their silhouettes look nothing like humans, imagine a team of raiders from either faction and a big giant decked out in armor or hooded like a European Druid with a stave would complement the line up well. They are giants, just as dwarves are dwarves. They have unique idiosyncratic facial features just as dwarves do. They are actually kind of a hybrid of dwarves and humans in purely visual taxonomy. They have big noses, wide cheeks, big thick elongated brows. Big chompers for teeth, expressive facial hair that offers all manner of entertainment in the animation department and visual customization department.

I totally recognize they have issues not being neon colored or having horns or tails, but Blizzard could do a lot with them. Many Norse giants in fantasy are depicted with horns, Blizzard's own Frost Giants have horns, and there's no reason other than "I don't like it" to dismiss new ethnic groups and populations from some island chain in the seas of Northrend. There could be a special breed made by the Titans who have ram's horns.

I would love Frost Giants too, basically giant wide dwarves with icicle beards.

We've got to admit however the game has hit a point in it's life where new races are mostly for people looking for visual entertainment and the smaller subset of lore nerds. We've got basically everything represented iconically. A feline race or reptilian race still offers some ground, but personally they still aren't going to offer anything more than what we have.

If Blizzard decides they want to venture into uncharted waters with less humanoid races, that opens up some very entertaining options. It would be a lot of work for the team in comparison to another bipedal humanoid, but they just made a massive increase to WOW's dev team specifically I feel to explore a lot of the more ambitious stuff they've felt leary of exploring traditionally in the last ten years.

The animators can do things now that make just about any choice surely a lot of fun to watch in action with a lot of distinct personality.

We're all basically arguing favorites essentially, if Vry'kul are boring to you, you either just don't like them as an opinion aesthetically or you need to tickle your imagination IMO. We've kind of hit a point where everything has an issue of being boring and where your own sentimentality has a lot to do with what you're going to be championing in a discussion like this.

None the less, I love talking about this stuff.
Apologies for the wall of text, and to those who feel I'm just a pontificating wind bag with a trumped up sense of my own opinions.