Do the Allied Races even matter?

[TheRagebear]

So, as the title says. Do the allied races even matter? Specifically, do they matter to the overall plot of Battle for Azeroth?

From what I've seen the only allied races getting actual screentime are the void elves and the nightborne, but honestly the latter don't really do anything that the blood elves couldn't have done already. They solidify the Horde's magical forces and give them easy outs, talking mad shit on Alliance mages (when they aren't being rendered useless by them in a nearly botched rescue mission ) whereas the void elves at least give the Alliance a second set of terrifying, shadow-dwelling assassins. ... Okay well, a first set. We know they don't like writing night elves as anything near competent.

But what about the Lightforged and the Highmountain? The Dark Irons and those other orcs from that timeline we all wanted to forget? So far I've yet to hear anything about the Lightforged mechs or the Vindicaar doing anything. I haven't heard of the Highmountain hawk riders causing the Wildhammers any trouble, let alone anything from the Wildhammers. Will we be seeing literally anything from them or the two upcoming races?

Do the allied races even matter beyond the two new sets of elves?

[Verdugo]

Vindicaar is busy being used as a critter blaster.

Did you honestly expect the allied races being anything more than a preparation for a new era of microtransactions?

[Kithelle]

Do they matter? Probably not much, except for maybe Zandalari and Kul Tiran the rest are mostly just filler.

[KainneAbsolute]

As horde you use the Highmountain eagles to enter Stormwind.

I want to think they used the eagles to be confused with griffons

[Deleted]

The Grand Army of the Light will play a pivotal role in the war against the terrible Void, so you will see Turalyon and the Lightforged on the very front of the conflict. A conflict that is inevitable. Sinners ignore that the true enemy is not the opposite faction, but the threat lurking in the dark. The Holy Light is the only hope for the Warcraft cosmos. If there is no Light, all will perish under the darkness. And the instrument of the Light's divine justice and will, is the shining Golden Army.

[Venziir]

Well the Void Elves pretty much wins the battle for UC, and the highmountain help save talanji.

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The Grand Army of the Light will play a pivotal role in the war against the terrible Void, so you will see Turalyon and the Lightforged on the very front of the conflict. A conflict that is inevitable. Sinners ignore that the true enemy is not the opposite faction, but the threat lurking in the dark. The Holy Light is the only hope for the Warcraft cosmos. If there is no Light, all will perish under the darkness. And the instrument of the Light's divine justice and will, is the shining Golden Army.

Cute. Now go to the rp forums

[Raetary]

well, they do appear quite frequently in BfA.

[Deleted]

Playable pandaren had fuck all effect on mop. Not the first time it happened

[Nathasil]

I agree 100% with the OP. Nightborne add extremely little to the "magic elf" theme, that Blood Elves already had - Void Elves would have arguably added more to the Blood Elf theme....meanwhile on the Alliance-Side the "real" Night Elves would have really needed the Nightborne+Suramar to drive their story forward. But i guess that would have made too much sense.

Now the Horde is cemented as the "magic elf"-faction and the Alliance is reminded of their No-Story-Shit-Allied-Races at every corner. Void Elves could have actually gotten story and backround if they were Horde.

As for the Lightforged....still not a race. Should have been an in-game-questline to "upgrade" your existing Draenei-Paladin. Will forever be completely useless as a standalone "race". Highmountain at least have a turf of their own where you can sit and RP. I would argue Highmountain could have also been used as an in-game "upgrade" quest for Tauren-Druids, as the blessing of Cenarius is their only difference from other Tauren....but Blizzard totally forgot to place ANY druidic connection in the entire zone. So fuck that, i guess.

I also agree with the 2nd poster: Allied Races were designed to generate shop-money from race changes...that's the only point about them Blizzard cares for.

[Deleted]

Cute. Now go to the rp forums

In other words, You lack arguments to counter my well-written and intensely-thought reply.

[TheRagebear]

well, they do appear quite frequently in BfA.

I know that the void elves do, Umbric and Alleria doing the things that night elves should have been doing from the beginning, sabotage and subterfuge and all, but what about the rest? Do they appear as nameless battleground NPCs or do they have any plot relevance?

The big thing that really got me thinking about this was the Vindicaar and my wondering how the Horde could possibly account for the Alliance having a space laser and the ability to teleport a squad of their equivalent to tauren just about anywhere at a whim. Add in the Dark Irons coming out of the ground and a certain mage famous for being capable of mass-teleporting armies and the Alliance stands to be an unpredictable foe for the Horde that can strike anywhere at any time. ... Unless Blizzard just opts to ignore it.

[Florena]

I hear dark irons are in the alliance campaign. Since maghar are in another castle *cough* timeline until the end of the war campaign they won't have a role until later.

[Venziir]

In other words, You lack arguments to counter my well-written and intensely-thought reply.

You mean your fanfic bullshit? Yeah no

[Arrashi]

You mean your fanfic bullshit? Yeah no

Well we can say one thing about allied races - they sure as hell made alot of cringy RP-ers pop up.

OT: I think that allied races will be cosmetic mostly with very few apperances past introduction.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

There will in short order be 21 playable races. Trying to make all of them 'matter' would make the story an even bigger narrative clusterfuck than it already is.

[Blizzard Moneybot]

Market the hell out of an allied race that has all the classes you play in the race you used to like until they turned it to shit and suddenly they make LOTS of $en$e.

[Venziir]

Well we can say one thing about allied races - they sure as hell made alot of cringy RP-ers pop up.

OT: I think that allied races will be cosmetic mostly with very few apperances past introduction.

Lf rp'ers seems new, but the Void elf ones are just horrifying

[Hallowseve17]

Allied races matter and they are relevant. In case some haven't figured it out yet, allied races are quite literally races allied with the Alliance or Horde and/or subraces. It's a system that gives us more customization, but they play a role in the current storyline and inevitably future storylines. Look at all the allied races we have or know we're getting. Yes some of them are less relevant than others, but they will have their time to shine.

Another thing people sometimes fail to mention is that the Alliance and Horde have more races in their ranks than the core playable races. People complain and say that allied races are "lazy reskins". That may be true to some extent, but people have been asking for subraces for years now, I'm one of those people. Allied races are just that: Alliance or Horde allies and/or subraces. They are meant to be a simple way to grant players access to something mostly unique and that also means we aren't all walking around playing clones of each other.

Another thing that's ridiculous is when people say stuff like "Oh, dwarves already got Dark Iron dwarves, Wildhammer dwarves aren't happening". That is pure ignorance. Read up on lore, quest and visit the different settlements in-game. There are legit allied races and subraces established as members of the Alliance and Horde. Don't make me provide a list, because I will. And don't get me wrong, Blizzard shouldn't go overboard with allied races, but if they make sense they need to be added, whether it'd be in BfA or not.

Sorry, that turned into a rant of sorts, but the point of this post is to show that allied races do matter and will matter. They provide new customization and uniqueness, which is welcomed, especially since WoW is so behind on customization.

[Florena]

Lf rp'ers seems new, but the Void elf ones are just horrifying

I've seen some good VE and LF rpers and some bad ones. Like one VE holy priest. Now, while I personally don't think a void elf would still be able to use the light with their current state, I'll concede I can't prove it and live and let live. But this person was flagrantly showing it off in emotes to try and be a special snowflake and even put in her RP addon that 'you would have heard about her and know that she still uses the light.' And then there was an RP in stormwind I happened across where some edgy lightforged character was possessed by a void entity. But really, these kind of issues existed before allied races. Allied races are just the new thing at the moment.

[MrSaggins]

The Grand Army of the Light will play a pivotal role in the war against the terrible Void, so you will see Turalyon and the Lightforged on the very front of the conflict. A conflict that is inevitable. Sinners ignore that the true enemy is not the opposite faction, but the threat lurking in the dark. The Holy Light is the only hope for the Warcraft cosmos. If there is no Light, all will perish under the darkness. And the instrument of the Light's divine justice and will, is the shining Golden Army.

They don't mind the undead then? Well there goes all of the speculation about death being the "true enemy" and all that.

Cute. Now go to the rp forums

Honestly almost everyone is passionately roleplaying a fierce defense of their faction pride on this forum; lost in the Warcraft meta and entirely bereft of objectivity. "Lightsworn" is just one of the few who look less silly because it's deliberate, and he connsciously knows he's doing a bit. It's the folks who actually get upset over having their narrow vision of this digital world (that makes their favorites out to be the good guys) challenged who worry me. In-universe characters aren't supposed to have an omniscient perspective that allows them to make objective judgements, they're working with limited viewpoints and emotional connections to people as real as they are.

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If you think about it the Horde has already had an allied race Warchief.