[Concept] Orc and Draenei Demon Hunter Backstory

[Susanoo]

Orc and Draenei Demon Hunters are the top candidates for the next Demon Hunter races if blizzard ever decided to add more races to the class. Many players want to see non-elf options added to the demon hunter class to expand variety to demon hunters. However, some players feel that it would not make much sense to add additional races to becoming a demon hunter that is non-elf or keep the existing races as-is. I will say to those players that it does make sense to add Orc and Draenei demon hunters, and it would not make sense to add Void elf or Nightborne demon hunters or limit the classes customization options.

Backstory:

The Illidari has returned to Outland and taken over the Black Temple and Hellfire Citadel to use as a base of operations to strike against minor Legion incursions in the Twisting Nether. With Akama (or shade of Akama) part of the Illidari, the broken have once again re-joined to further the primary objective of eliminating powerful demons. Recognizing that there will always be a powerful demon lord and the possibility that the Burning Legion could return, the Illidari have not remained idle after Sargeras's defeat. By establishing a presence on Outland once again and taking over Hellfire Citadel, the Illidari also has command over the Fel Horde to use as foot soldiers against demons. With Illidari leadership recognizing the need to train new elite demon hunters, they begin looking for possible candidates to undergo the process of becoming a demon hunter. Due to Blood Elves and Night Elves being hard to find in Outland, the Illidari must consider training non-elf races for the process. The Illidari requests that the Broken Draenei and Fel Orcs send their strongest warrior to undergo the ritual of becoming a Demon Hunter. During the training, they see that the Broken Warrior, during the process, begins to reverse the de-evolution and once again takes the form of an Eredar while adapting to the newfound power. The Fel Orc, throughout the process, begins to regain some sanity as a new presence of a demon is there to fight against. Both of these two new Demon Hunters are assigned a dangerous mission to eliminate a Pit Lord who has made a home in Outland and is rallying scattered Legion forces. The mission is considered a suicide mission, but it is necessary to measure these two new hunters' power. They succeed flawlessly and kill the pit lord and its forces and prove that Broken Draenei and Fel Orcs are worthy of being trained in the ways of a demon hunter. The Illidari requests that the Broken Forces and Fel Orcs send their strongest warriors to undergo the process of becoming a Demon Hunter.

Starting Experience:

Similar to Allied Race Death Knights there will not be a unique starting experience but a quick Cinematic and receive orders from Illidari Leadership to go to Azeroth and eliminate Demon Presence found there. This will start at the top of the Black Temple and portals to major cities will be available for quest completion. Orc and Draenei DH will start at level 10 and receive a pair of Warglaives and sent to the capital city to begin the leveling experience.


Challenges:

The challenges for Orc and Draenei demon hunters to become reality would be the creation of Unique Meta model, adding animations to the Orc and Draenei skeleton to make the class work, and the adding new skins/customization options. Besides that the other issue would be the right timing which most likely will not come anytime soon because another Demon Centered Xpac wont come for awhile.

Thoughts:

I believe the Illidari will return as an important faction once again in-game. It is feasible that with the Legion command wiped out, the lesser Demon lords will fight for dominance of the shattered Burning Legion. I do not believe that after the Legion Expansion, the Illidari's work is done. They can either become an organization that will work to slay powerful demons throughout the nether or work to destroy other troublesome forces in the Universe. Like how Allied Races became Death Knights in Shadowlands, there will most likely be a time where the forces of Disorder rally again to bring the Universe's destruction. I also believe Sargeras will come back somehow, as he was the Big Bad of the Warcraft Universe, and he was not killed at the end of Legion for a reason. (And Blizzard loves to reuse old villains)

Additionally, an Orc Demon Hunter was added to a Hearthstone Adventure. https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Karnuk,_Demon_Hunter

[Caerule]

Yeah, I've argued for a while now for Orc and Eredar Demon Hunters.

I think it can be a more simple affair, really. We could just return to Outland to find that Akama has been spreading Illidan's teachings to Fel Orcs and fallen Eredar at the Black Temple, letting them reclaim their minds from fel corruption, and control their demonic instincts.

It's a nice way for Akama to find a new purpose for the Black Temple of Karabor.

[Unlimited Power]

Yeah, I've argued for a while now for Orc and Eredar Demon Hunters.

This tbh. I'm all for non-Mag'har Orc DH and Eredar/Broken DH, but specifically Draenei DH makes absolutely no sense considering the Draenei backstory. Same applies to Eredar Warlocks.

A fel corrupted Draenei is an oxymoron. A fel corrupted Eredar is not a Draenei.

[Susanoo]

This tbh. I'm all for non-Mag'har Orc DH and Eredar/Broken DH, but specifically Draenei DH makes absolutely no sense considering the Draenei backstory. Same applies to Eredar Warlocks.

Agreed, which makes it important to highlight in-game that the Draenei Demon Hunters would not be regular Draenei. Instead they would be Broken who underwent the demon hunter training and because of it their broken state reversed and they look like Draenei/Eredar again (Albeit with Fel features). An infusion of fel energy has shown to reverse crippled states and that was shown in-game through the Arrakoa in WOD. They Draenei race would just be used for selection purposes but other than that lorewise they would be formerly Broken Draenei.

[Caerule]

Agreed, which makes it important to highlight in-game that the Draenei Demon Hunters would not be regular Draenei. Instead they would be Broken who underwent the demon hunter training and because of it their broken state reversed and they look like Draenei/Eredar again (Albeit with Fel features). An infusion of fel energy has shown to reverse crippled states and that was shown in-game through the Arrakoa in WOD.

Why not just make it the actual Eredar, though? I mean, their leaders are dead. A new path to power and place in the world might be a tempting path for some of them.

[Susanoo]

Why not just make it the actual Eredar, though? I mean, their leaders are dead. A new path to power and place in the world might be a tempting path for some of them.

I like the idea of Broken undergoing Demon Hunter training to battle the demons that have taken so much from them and in the process restoring them from their shattered form. Plus there is already and established relationship between the Broken and Illidari.

[Venziir]

Considering that the Illidari army already consisted of all the remaining orc clans, such as Dragonmaw, Bonechewer, Laughing Skull and Shadowmoon it would make perfect sense.

[Susanoo]

Considering that the Illidari army already consisted of all the remaining orc clans, such as Dragonmaw, Bonechewer, Laughing Skull and Shadowmoon it would make perfect sense.

https://twitter.com/l0rdofcalamity/s...032001/photo/1

I just saw that blizzard made an Orc Demon Hunter in hearthstone.... Could be a possible hint towards Orc DH becoming cannon in the future.

[Florena]

They could honestly just retrofit them into the existing DH starting experience the same way they did worgen and goblin DKs in Cata. Say that some orcs and draenei, wanting revenge on the Legion, joined with the Illidari.

[Kathranis]

Personally, I think the best way to do it would be to explain that a small number of Ashtongue broken and Dragonmaw orcs were permitted to begin training as Initiates, and continued their training after the events of Legion.

They could either do that after making broken and Dragonmaw into Allied Races, or they could just give draenei and orcs more customization options, with demon hunters getting some exclusive Ashtongue and fel orc appearances.

Obviously they'd need to be given their own DH animation kits. I think they could probably also be given new shared metamorphosis forms that could pass as either a demonic draenei or a demonic orc.

https://twitter.com/l0rdofcalamity/s...032001/photo/1

I just saw that blizzard made an Orc Demon Hunter in hearthstone.... Could be a possible hint towards Orc DH becoming cannon in the future.

Eh, I mean it's part of the Ashes of Outland storyline that also involves a naga and a sporeling becoming demon hunters, after Mecha Jaraxxus and his Mad Max-style Rusted Legion conquer Outland and mechanize a bunch of Outland characters.

[Razion]

I think they could just add DHs to all races like how DKs did it: by adding an NPC per race in the DH starting zone to explain. Demons invaded at many points before BC, which like how the DK situation justified by having heroes fighting and falling to the Scourge, heroes of respective races could have fought the Demons and gained their motivation to seek out training that way.

[Susanoo]

I think they could just add DHs to all races like how DKs did it: by adding an NPC per race in the DH starting zone to explain. Demons invaded at many points before BC, which like how the DK situation justified by having heroes fighting and falling to the Scourge, heroes of respective races could have fought the Demons and gained their motivation to seek out training that way.

The only problem with that is demon hunters require special animations, customization, and a custom metamorphosis model. Similar to how druids were and are still limited because blizzard probably does not want to create druid models for every race.

I'm actually against allowing every race be demon hunters because I feel that races that really have been screwed over by the burning legion should be allowed to be DH. Draenei have a clear hatred of demons and the burning legion and Orcs were corrupted by the burning legion and used as a tool. Fel Orc customization's and Eredar customization's also have been something players have wanted but it wouldn't make to much sense adding the Eredar to the alliance and Fel Orcs to the horde. Giving those red skins and demon corrupted features through a demon hunter could be the way to do it in some form.

- - - Updated - - -

Eh, I mean it's part of the Ashes of Outland storyline that also involves a naga and a sporeling becoming demon hunters, after Mecha Jaraxxus and his Mad Max-style Rusted Legion conquer Outland and mechanize a bunch of Outland characters.

I'm taking it as a bread crumb that the idea of an Orc Demon Hunter has floated somewhere in blizzard HQ

[Razion]

The only problem with that is demon hunters require special animations, customization, and a custom metamorphosis model. Similar to how druids were and are still limited because blizzard probably does not want to create druid models for every race.

I'm actually against allowing every race be demon hunters because I feel that races that really have been screwed over by the burning legion should be allowed to be DH. Draenei have a clear hatred of demons and the burning legion and Orcs were corrupted by the burning legion and used as a tool. Fel Orc customization's and Eredar customization's also have been something players have wanted but it wouldn't make to much sense adding the Eredar to the alliance and Fel Orcs to the horde. Giving those red skins and demon corrupted features through a demon hunter could be the way to do it in some form.

At this point all classes have a lot of their own set of unique animations for those classes that were made to be applicable to all the races. If they didn't have the foresight to have those class animations of DHs be usable on other races going forward, then frankly I think that's just bad planning. It should have been applicable for other races going forward -- for if anything, being able to use those animations in stories or for other bosses and abilities going forward in the future. Restricting the animations only hurts themselves going forward, and they should have known going into DHs that the animations would have been generally useful to all races and that DHs would have been expanded to more races many years down the line if not more immediately. Really, it just would create more work for them in the future to not have future-proofed it for later. But without confirmation which way about how difficult it would be for them, still I'd say even if it were that difficult they're still eventually going to need to suck it up and do the work for it. 10% of the roster for one class isn't an acceptable level of options for players. 1 race per faction wasn't good in Vanilla for Druids, and it's not good for DHs now - it's even worse now that there are more races. They should have learned this lesson a long time ago. It isn't our fault as players if they didn't have the foresight to see this coming. They should have known better.

As far as unique customization options go, fair point. It is a lot of work. Other races have been subject to demonic corruption before, too (Nightborne, Feltotem, etc.) and those visual options are desired as well. Not every race has established unique skins, but the examples you give are two birds and one stone sort of situation where they should be added as options anyway, and they double as DH flavor skins so there's extra reason for those. Yet, the Legion is a global threat and all races have an equal stake in the Legion's destruction. Not having customization options shouldn't be a deterrent for these races having the class flat-out. Maybe eyes is the bare-minimum they could do for some of these other races, but they did this with DKs at the very least so that much seems feasible.

[Soon-TM]

Considering that the Illidari army already consisted of all the remaining orc clans, such as Dragonmaw, Bonechewer, Laughing Skull and Shadowmoon it would make perfect sense.

And it had strong ties with some Broken as well, so Draenei/Orc DHs would make perfect sense. Gief pl0x

[Venziir]

Personally, I think the best way to do it would be to explain that a small number of Ashtongue broken and Dragonmaw orcs were permitted to begin training as Initiates, and continued their training after the events of Legion.

They could either do that after making broken and Dragonmaw into Allied Races, or they could just give draenei and orcs more customization options, with demon hunters getting some exclusive Ashtongue and fel orc appearances.

Obviously they'd need to be given their own DH animation kits. I think they could probably also be given new shared metamorphosis forms that could pass as either a demonic draenei or a demonic orc.




Eh, I mean it's part of the Ashes of Outland storyline that also involves a naga and a sporeling becoming demon hunters, after Mecha Jaraxxus and his Mad Max-style Rusted Legion conquer Outland and mechanize a bunch of Outland characters.

Sure anything HS-related should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the tortollans did originate in HS so it wouldn't be a brand new thing.

[username993720]

Yes and no.
I can see Orcs being Demon Hunters but, Draenei are unlikely as they worship the light. Nonetheless, the Broken of Argus are prime candidates for a Demon Hunter race, if you ask me.

[Blackthorn94]

I think it could be interesting but I do wonder how they would fit them into the story now the Legion is dealt with as I cannot see anyone wanting to undergo the process to be come a DH if there are less and less demons to hunt, unless the do Legion 2 which wouldnt suprise me