If the Blood Elves go Neutral, what race should the horde get?

[MrWolly]

Satyrs could potentially tie in with the Horde. Perhaps a sect that wishes to denounce their demonic affiliation, or were forcefully turned and want to escape. A female model could be made, and the old male model could be updated. They would be humanoid instead of undead, similar to the Forsaken, and their racial mount could be a fel hound, or some other sort of creature. Likely classes would be Warrior, Warlock, Mage, Priest, Hunter, Rogue, and Druid, Death Knight, and Monk would be debatable.

[TheDangerZone]

Or they could return Dalaran to where it used to be and turn the city into a small 1-5 zone where they then get ported to Goldshire afterwards. Quests involved could be like killing things in the sewers, subduing renegade mana residues (oozes and elementals), delivering stuff, etc.

But is not really necessary for them to have a game play home city; neither worgen nor goblin have their own cities. But it wold be cool story wise for them to use a phased Dalaran floating a conflict zone for the 12-20 experience*. Blood elven Eversong questing experience would have to be retooled to be similar to the pandaren starting area with the choice at the end of the storyline, with the horde keeping pretty much keeping the content from Ghostlands up as it is, and seditionist blood elves just questing on other alliance hubs, adding some npc's along the way.

*How cool would it be to move Dalaran** between darkshore and bloodymyst? It would allow the seditionists to level in darkshore or a revamped bloodmyst island (giving some love to the draenei as well)

** I think it would be fair if this phased Dalaran wasn't a major city but just a quest hub, with no portals whatsoever. Think bilgewater port. Portals would be used only when quests deemed it necessary.

[Yriel]

In the events of the Domination offensive storyline, Lor'themar Theron tells the player that he was considering old alliances, and Varian tells Jaina after the Purge of Dalaran that he was in talks with the blood elves to join the alliance. It is likely that after the events transpired, the conversations have stopped altogether, but maybe it has been merely a setback.

So, If Lor'themar goes through with his plans, it's assumable that not all blood elves would follow with his politics, so there would be a schism within the race. For gameplay purposes, this could mean that the blood elves become a neutral race, such as the pandaren. This would leave the horde with one less unique race, unbalances.

The Trolls think about leaving the Horde, too. I guess thats the idea behind the Dominance Offensive quests, that all the major races of the Horde are so PO´ed with Garrosh that they consider to leave. And then Thrall reunites them all together in the end.
Right now it´s the Trolls with the occupation of Echo Isles by the Kor'krons and the Elves with the Dalaran stuff, my guess would be that the Tauren will be next with 5.2 and maybe even the Goblins (although they are kinda hard to abuse) with some Gallywix shenanigans.

So if you think they all will really leave the Horde you need a lot of replacement races.

[TheDangerZone]

The blood elves are not, leaving, the horde.

You need to understand op, this current event with what lor'themar says is something used to stir up gossip like this thread you made, a red herring, but there isn't anything genuine about it.

They cannot make a race already affiliated with a faction leave in world of warcraft, because it would break up guild members, force friends to go over to another side, and screw up so many peoples accounts.

They will never risk the numbers of people quitting wow over such a stupid mistake.

Just remember that this is a excersise on speculation, i'm not saying, not truly believe, that this will actually happen. (Well, if it did, I'd be static as balls as I finally would be able to run alliance side content)

What I really don't get though, are your arguments against, that seem as wildly speculative as this thread itself. If a faction of blood elves would defect to the alliance, it also means that another faction will not. As much as true is that several blood elves are discontent with the Horde, there are as many happy with things are. I doubt that Lor'themar has the power to convince all of the blood elves to hypothetically switch side, so this basically would make them playable for both factions.

Getting that out of the way, I don't validate your arguments. Why would blizzard turn the players that are blood elves neutral? it doesn't makes sense. The faction choice would only be to new players. If a horde blood elf wants to defect to the alliance, they would just have to pay their race change as any other mortal. So, why would this "screw so many people accounts"?

Or are your fears based on the possibility that too many of the horde blood elf player base would race change over this? I do not feel that it is a valid concern, but I regard it as a possibility at least.

---------- Post added 2012-12-04 at 10:49 PM ----------

The Trolls think about leaving the Horde, too. I guess thats the idea behind the Dominance Offensive quests, that all the major races of the Horde are so PO´ed with Garrosh that they consider to leave. And then Thrall reunites them all together in the end.
Right now it´s the Trolls with the occupation of Echo Isles by the Kor'krons and the Elves with the Dalaran stuff, my guess would be that the Tauren will be next with 5.2 and maybe even the Goblins (although they are kinda hard to abuse) with some Gallywix shenanigans.

So if you think they all will really leave the Horde you need a lot of replacement races.

As implausible that blood elven sedition would be, the speculation of this thread is based on it. As such, we are not questioning the validity of such argument, but the ramifications that such event would cause.

[Yriel]

As implausible that blood elven sedition would be, the speculation of this thread is based on it. As such, we are not questioning the validity of such argument, but the ramifications that such event would cause.

Well it´s your thread but i find it strange that you want to discuss the secession of one race and totally ignore the same drive in another.

[Xeraxis]

None. The alliance should just lose one race to neutrality as well. Preferably the Dreanei just so I can change my current Alliance ones over to horde with my mains.

[TheDangerZone]

Well it´s your thread but i find it strange that you want to discuss the secession of one race and totally ignore the same drive in another.

I didn't want to come off as cutting, but personally I don't see other hordes races switching sides. "The Horde is Family" is a huge boost for the Darkspears, and the Tauren are loyal still and even if disenchanted by the horde, they haven't outright stated separatist sentiments. Forsaken have been in the backburner this expantion, but as always, they are in the horde out of convenience, not out of love; yet still, the horde will always offer them more than the alliance. Now, goblins being all about profit, could ally themselves with the alliance, but at the same time, I feel like their role has always been supportive, and wouldn't be a game changer on the grand scheme of things.

Personally, I find possible blood elf separation fascinating, as it already has a background granted by the rts and definitely plays in the loyalty conflicts within the horde and at the same time revisits storylines within the alliance. I guess that is why I find it worthwhile talking about although is merely speculation.

[Drilnos]

You realize that this is a hypothetical idea thread, so there's no real reason to post your comment. You aren't contributing at all to the discussion.

With the events of MoP taking place, I wouldn't be surprised if Hozen consider joining the Horde.

Or... *fingers crossed* Saurok.

Their culture is like a micro-Horde of separate Warbands led by Chiefs. This is similar to how Thrall found Cairne, so it wouldn't be that difficult for them to be integrated.

We're currently transitioning to a more huggy touchy feely Horde where all are in touch with our feminine sides. The Saurok were driven into the wilderness by their very creators, the Mogu, who are not nice people in and of themselves, because they had a chronic habit of murdering slave races when the Mogu specifically told them not to do that. If the Mogu think your methods are too extreme, the Nouveaux Horde has no place for you.

On topic, if Blood Elves did somehow manage to join both sides and leave an imbalance, there's really only one race that makes any sense at all to become Horde playable, and that would be Ogres. Not that I particularly relish the thought of playing an ogre, but they're the only singleton race left.

[Talen]

Why? If the Alliance had access to Blood Elves, they would have access to 8 races while the Horde only had access to 7. This means that either Alliance would need to lose one of its unique races or Horde would need to gain another unique one. If the latter happened it would be completely even, and Alliance would have no need for a new race.

Because then the Horde get a brand new race while the Alliance get a Horde cast off. That's not going to be popular. You need to match a new race with a new race, or let one go neutral - somehow - from each side.

You cannot give the Alliance an existing Horde race for itself - because you literally cannot take existing BElfs away from the Horde - and then giove the Horde something brand new. What happens to one HAS to happen to the other in this case.

So, if the Alliance got access to BElfs - or even High Elfs - you would need to find some Alliance race that would work with the Horde.

Humans are out. They are iconic to the game and the Humans vs orcs scenario.
Of the other races, the possibilities that stick out are:

1: Dark iron dwarves siding with the Horde as they refuse to follow Moira and join their Ironforge enemies.
2: Evil Gnomes who resent the limitations the Alliance impose.
3: Highborne Night Elfs wfrom Dire Maul who refuse to rejoin the druidic hippies and want to work with their Highborne cousins in Silvermoon.

And so on. There are various options and stories that can be sued, but option 3 makes both Elf races neutral and seems to require the least degree of reworking.

But one thing that has to happen - if the Horde gets a new race, the Alliance gets a new race. If a Horde race is made neutral, then an Alliance race also needs to go neutral.

However, while I wouldn't say it's impossible for Blizzard to follow through on this storyline and make the BElfs neutral, and while I'd say it's only slightly more likely that the Alliance would get High Elfs, overall this scenario seems fairly unlikely.

Would they? The new plague seems to be pretty effective and they are able to raise dead to their ranks now.

They're doomed. The Alliance can pretty much take them out and the Forsaken can't raise non-humans. The plague is dangerous, but so far appears to be little more than a siege or ambush weapon of little use or value against prepared troops. Nor do they have any allies in the region - its been made pretty clear that Sylvanas has pretty much ensured the BElfs don't care for her or her people beyond that of necessity. So, right now, Sylvanas either needs a major source of dead to rebuild her armies or she needs the Horde to hold the Alliance in check.

EJL

[Stormdash]

I don't know why human are out -- because of the title of a nearly 20 year old game? I'd say that "orcs vs. humans" as the defining dynamic of Warcraft has run its course. You think there's a meaningful place for that in a game that we know is going to ultimately be Azeroth vs. Legion/Titans/whatever? And if you want parity, humans make the most sense -- Blood Elves are the most popular Horde race, Humans are the most popular Alliance race, and they are the two most popular overall.

There are only three playable Alliance races I can think of a lore hook by which they could try to make them playable on both sides, in no particular order --

1) Human. There are multiple human subfactions unaffiliated with the Alliance, and even hostile to the Alliance; take one of these, be it Defias brotherhood or more likely some bandits that don't have their own eponymous rep. Wastewander, maybe.

2) Night Elf. Not because they have any love for the Horde, but because you could marry it to the idea that both elf races are neutral because they are reunifying in general. I've nerded about that before, that if the Night Elves have lost their disdain for the arcane, the major schism between them has closed. If they were basically an unplayable third faction you could have them split among the factions for their own purposes, the way Knights of the Ebon Blade are.

3) Worgen. Like the human, you just pick some other, non-Gilnean Worgen as the Horde-available type. THe Northrend ones up in Grizzly Hills, I guess.

Apart from those, you're probably looking for a new Horde race.

[eschatological]

I've always thought a third faction of nature types would be doable - sick of the war, night elves and tauren from the Circle, tauren and dwarves and trolls from the Earthen Ring form a hippie commune somewhere pretty and bring all their skills (read: classes) those 4 races would bring. Potentially pandaren would fit in there as well.

So you'd have:
Priest:
all 5 races
mage:
all but tauren I believe
warlock:
all but tauren I believe
rogue:
all but tauren
druid:
troll/tauren/night elf
monk:
all 5
hunter:
all 5
shaman:
all but night elf
paladin:
tauren/dwarves
DK:
all but pandaren
warrior:
all 5