Draenor Orcs: Alliance and Horde

[Kelthos]

Hello all! I want to preface this by saying that I am almost certain the Draenor Orcs will be exclusively a Horde allied race, but I got to thinking about a way in which Blizzard could technically give Orcs to both factions that I think makes sense and would be neat. Since I personally don't see Saurfang betraying the Horde even with Sylvanas at its helm, I went a different way and started considering the Shadowmoon Clan. I wanted to hear your opinions on the idea just for fun. Without further adieu, here goes:

Mag'har Orcs: Horde Allied Race

This allied race would utilize the assets we have seen datamined on the Alpha. I imagine they will have skintones that range from brown to grey and various warpaint options to allow you to create an Orc from just about any Draenor Clan.

Now for the interesting (imo at least) bit:

Shadowmoon Orcs: Alliance Allied Race

I feel that the Shadowmoon Clan could realistically join the Alliance for 3 reasons.

1)The Iron Horde showed up to their doorstep and demanded they offer something of worth or be killed, pushing Ner'zhul into the void in the first place. Most of the remnants of the Iron Horde would now be in those other clans likely joining the Horde.
2) Rulkhan was personal friends with Velen who sacrificed himself to prevent her husband from destroying the Valley with the Dark Star.
3) The Alliance (in the form of the player) were the ones to help the Shadowmoon Exiles eek out their survival after fleeing from Shaz'gul.

Now I was thinking about what could possibly make the Shadowmoon Orcs different and interesting enough from the Draenor Orcs to warrant making them a stand alone Allied Race and I came up with the following: What if some Shadowmoon Orcs became interested in K'ara after she was purified? What if the Draenei allowed those interested Shadowmoon to study at the Temple of Karabor, thus allowing the Shadowmoon to be Priests.

A further idea I had, though admittedly more of a stretch, was to give the Shadowmoon some Lightforged-esque customizations and saying that the Lightforged Draenei are allowing some of them to undergo the trials. As Turalyon shows it is not strictly Draenei that are able to undergo this process.

Anywho, what are your guys' thoughts? Would you support the Shadowmoon Clan joining the Alliance? Why or why not? I think it would be fair and equally cool if the Alliance gains the Orc model for the Horde to gain the Human model in the form of undead like Nathanos... they could tweak the lore in such a way to allow more of them, I'm sure.

[Vonazak]

No orc will bow before a shiny boy king, like the alliance races do. Orcs have a free soul, and they fit better in the horde.

[Azahel]

The one thing that actually got me thinking about orcs on the Alliance is the implication that Saurfang didn't get rescued from SW and was last seen going to talk with Anduin.
Considering how he was not on the embassy with the other leaders and representatives for the horde allied race recruitment.
And how wrathion was previously present at the SW embassy and how he was last seen on an alliance base in draenor doing who knows what.
And the whole giving the horde NEs and Alliance BEs... Who knows?

No orc will bow before a shiny boy king, like the alliance races do. Orcs have a free soul, and they fit better in the horde.

Oh please, the orcs are bowing to a crazy corpse who sees them as little more than cannon fodder.

[Sangris]

You have to consider one thing:

If you'd get a Horde race, the Horde would get an Alliance race in return. The same happened already with Void Elves and Nightborne. Alliance wanted Blood Elves (even though as High Elves) and got the compromise that is Void Elves. Since they basically got a Horde race, Blizzard had to give the Horde an Alliance race (Night Elves).
So by asking for Alliance Orcs, you basically ask for an Alliance race given to the Horde aswell.

[Teri]

If they did this, they'd have to give Horde some type of Humans I suppose.

Kinda goes directly against the BfA cover art which is Orcs vs Humans.

[steelballfc]

You have to consider one thing:

If you'd get a Horde race, the Horde would get an Alliance race in return. The same happened already with Void Elves and Nightborne. Alliance wanted Blood Elves (even though as High Elves) and got the compromise that is Void Elves. Since they basically got a Horde race, Blizzard had to give the Horde an Alliance race (Night Elves).
So by asking for Alliance Orcs, you basically ask for an Alliance race given to the Horde aswell.

give me dwarf and all will be forgiven

[ro9ue]

Orcs vs Humans is like the foundational biblical philosophy driving Warcraft. There's no way in hell they would do that. I would bet $10000000 against it.

[Dagoth Ur]

I am usually in never say never camp, but giving Alliance any kind of orcs would just be utter nonsense. Still can't believe some people claim there's posibillity of Alliance aligned orcs unironically.

[Prifter]

The day Orcs join the races of the Alliance is the day Blizzard removes factions from the game altogether.

[Dudas]

Oh please, the orcs are bowing to a crazy corpse who sees them as little more than cannon fodder.

And yet they'd rather fight beside her than turn arms against her in the battle for Undercity. And I don't see Saurfang bow. I actually see how they both trade blows in terms of mentalities and strategies. Which is way more interesting than "Greymane told me this so it is true".

"The boy-king serves at the master's table. Three lies he will offer you."

[Toppy]

Orcs vs Humans is like the foundational biblical philosophy driving Warcraft. There's no way in hell they would do that. I would bet $10000000 against it.

I never got why that was so pushed.

WC1 and WC2 are some of blizzards least played and least sold games. They are by far the two games that players know the least about. WC3 is where the series exploded into popularity and it barely had any human vs orcs at all. Vanilla WoW had a little bit of human vs orcs in redridge, and that wasnt even Horde. We didnt really get all that much human vs orc until to a lesser extent Cata and to a greater extent Pandaria when blizzard started getting the "ITS ABOUT ORCS VS HUMANS!" hardon. Hell a much better argument could be made for Orcs vs Elves or Forsaken vs Humans at this point than Orcs vs Humans.

[Dudas]

I never got why that was so pushed.

WC1 and WC2 are some of blizzards least played and least sold games. They are by far the two games that players know the least about. WC3 is where the series exploded into popularity and it barely had any human vs orcs at all. Vanilla WoW had a little bit of human vs orcs in redridge, and that wasnt even Horde. We didnt really get all that much human vs orc until to a lesser extent Cata and to a greater extent Pandaria when blizzard started getting the "ITS ABOUT ORCS VS HUMANS!" hardon. Hell a much better argument could be made for Orcs vs Elves or Forsaken vs Humans at this point than Orcs vs Humans.

Cause most Alliance humans can't comprehend that the forsaken are not scourge and that orcs in the Black Mountain are not the same as those in Ogrimmar.
Just the same as orcs dream of being back on wolves and plundering alliance farm lands cause that is all they know. Sadly. People are still at that level.

In a way blizzard don't want to offer peace. They mimic it with every expansion with let's unite for a common cause and then they add a pawn in the story to trigger the conflict.

[Toppy]

Cause most Alliance humans can't comprehend that the forsaken are not scourge and that orcs in the Black Mountain are not the same as those in Ogrimmar.
Just the same as orcs dream of being back on wolves and plundering alliance farm lands cause that is all they know. Sadly. People are still at that level.

In a way blizzard don't want to offer peace. They mimic it with every expansion with let's unite for a common cause and then they add a pawn in the story to trigger the conflict.

Oh I get that for sure. Its also funny to me that people keep looking for logic in war when war is largely not that logical.

But Orcs vs Humans is hardly a Warcraft standard and every single time blizz tries to push it it blows up in their face. People are a hell of a lot more familiar with, and enjoy, Humans vs Undead than vs Orcs.

[Deleted]

Orcs will never join the Alliance and Humans will never join the Horde, it doesn't make sense. And Blizzard has stated multiple times that at the core the game is still about Orcs vs Humans, the first game carrying forward and building upon. You don't destroy that fundamental basis.

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I never got why that was so pushed.

WC1 and WC2 are some of blizzards least played and least sold games. They are by far the two games that players know the least about. WC3 is where the series exploded into popularity and it barely had any human vs orcs at all. Vanilla WoW had a little bit of human vs orcs in redridge, and that wasnt even Horde. We didnt really get all that much human vs orc until to a lesser extent Cata and to a greater extent Pandaria when blizzard started getting the "ITS ABOUT ORCS VS HUMANS!" hardon. Hell a much better argument could be made for Orcs vs Elves or Forsaken vs Humans at this point than Orcs vs Humans.

Why would Warcraft 3 sell so well if the first two games were bad? Maybe it's because the first two games were awesome and the audience was simply much smaller. You know, not everyone had a computer back in those days. You can't compare that data 1 by 1.

Blizzard knows that they have build this franchise on a solid foundation of Orcs vs Humans and they won't risk destroying that.

[Deleted]

Night elf ,blood elf crossing between factions is far enough.If they start doing this with other races then they just lose their indentity.Where are the old times where factions actually mattered.

[Darktbs]

People only care about Elfs.

If any other races were traded, given, swapped no one would care, but god forbid we get any elfs.

[shoc]

Yeah, Saurfang goes to see Anduin, but the keep is also up in flames. I would not be surprised if Saurfang escapes.

[Amaterasu65]

No orc will bow before a shiny boy king, like the alliance races do. Orcs have a free soul, and they fit better in the horde.

The irony on this is so big I can't even. I agree though, orcs should never join the Alliance. Will ruin the Alliance aesthetic.

[Blamblam41]

You have to consider one thing:

If you'd get a Horde race, the Horde would get an Alliance race in return. The same happened already with Void Elves and Nightborne. Alliance wanted Blood Elves (even though as High Elves) and got the compromise that is Void Elves. Since they basically got a Horde race, Blizzard had to give the Horde an Alliance race (Night Elves).
So by asking for Alliance Orcs, you basically ask for an Alliance race given to the Horde aswell.

Cool?

I could really care less of Horde get Saberon or whatever excuse of a race they are going to use for humans/gnomes.

It made sense from the get go that Horde would get Saberon and Alliance would get Draenor Orcs. It's very clear that's the story Christie Golden is pushing, and these races are all story.

[Blamblam41]

The irony on this is so big I can't even. I agree though, orcs should never join the Alliance. Will ruin the Alliance aesthetic.

The Alliance aesthetic? You mean how people bitch endlessly about how it's "humans and friends?" Please do go on about how the Alliance has just so much racial identity and aesthetic after hearing about how fucking boring it is from the same people for the last decade.

You want change? Cause I do, and I like this change.

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Night elf ,blood elf crossing between factions is far enough.If they start doing this with other races then they just lose their indentity.Where are the old times where factions actually mattered.

Where are people coming from with this identity bullshit? The Alliance is the Alliance, it's identity isn't going to change because Orcs got in. IF anything, the brown orcs pre-iron horde pre-felblood would have fit far better with humans than against them anyway.

The only reason the Orcs were ever stupid enough to work against humans was because they were duped into a racial superiority arms race fueled by technology or felblood respectively. Considering they are both titan born races... They are kindred spirits, like it or not.