Mok'Nathal: Horde Allied Race Proposal/Concept

[MechaCThun]

With more information coming from the BfA alpha testing pointing towards mag'har/Draenor orcs being a new an allied race, a part of me feels like this is the time to post my concept for a Mok'Nathal allied race. I was holding out for them being implemented personally, and I believe my concept details lore/gameplay reasons why they could work.

Enjoy it if you can/are able to. If not... that too. It was cathartic.

NO FLAMEARINO.








Mok'Nathal




ALLIED RACE

Faction/affiliation: Horde, independent

Character classes: Hunter, Monk, Warrior, Rogue, Shaman

Main language: Orcish

Starting zone: Mok'Nathal Village, Blade's Edge Mountains, Outland

Racial leader: Leoroxx (formerly), Rexxar

Capital: Mok'Nathal Village, Orgrimmar

Racial mount: *Plainsrunning (the epic return!)
*This version of Plainsrunning would serve closer to what Running Wild currently is. The animation would be the sprinting animation and trail of dust effect would appear behind the legs when in motion.

RACIAL TRAITS

Summon Boar - active, 2 minute cooldown - Summon an angry boar to attack your enemy for ___ Physical damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds.

Summon Hawk - active, 2 minute cooldown - Summon a proud hawk to fly around you, absorbing incoming Physical damage for 6 seconds.
*The 2 active traits will share a cooldown much like the Goblin racial traits. You will not be able to use both at the same time. The damage tuning for Summon Boar will of course not be too high to the point of overpowered as well as the amount of damage Summon Hawk can absorb.

Lion's Courage - passive - Duration of Fear and Horrify effects are reduced by 20%.

Master of the Wilds - passive - Your attacks and abilities have a chance to charm nearby Beasts into fighting for you for a short while.
*This is a niche/flavor passive. Potentially good for soloing content; a small percent chance while attacking a NPC with the "Beast" creature group designation to fight a long side of you. Only 1 beast NPC can be charmed when the passive procs, and it does not have to be your main target. Example: if a group of 3 boars are attacking you, any of the 3 can be charmed.

ALLIED RACE HISTORY

This is just bullet points of the story that explains the recruitment of the Mok'Nathal. I leave it to imagination on how it would play/feel when actually doing the unlock questing:

- The faction war is heating up and casualties are quickly piling up on both sides, Sylvanas needs more forces

- Sylvanas calls upon the legendary "Champion of the Horde" Rexxar to help them, drives home the fact that this war could determine whether there will be a Horde left at all

- Rexxar, who wished to stay neutral from faction conflict, remembers the promise he made to Thrall (back during the "Founding of Durotar" campaign) that although he belongs in the wild, he would always be there for the Horde when he was needed


- Sylvanas, Rexxar, and the hero (player character) make the plan to try and recruit Rexxar's people, the Mok'Nathal, into the Horde

- While traveling to Outland, Rexxar and the hero are constantly targeted for assassination by the SI:7 of Stormwind; they found out the Horde means to recruit more allies

- Making it to Mok'Nathal Village in Blade's Edge Mountains the player character and Rexxar quickly notice a resurgence in the ranks of the Mok'Nathal

- Years have passed in Outland since the demonic threat of the Burning Legion (and to an extent the Illidari) was present, and this has allowed the Mok'Nathal to expand in their numbers

- A not-so-good-homecoming of Rexxar presents itself, as he and his father Leoroxx are still on neutral-ish terms with each other
- Rexxar explains to Leoroxx the state of affairs back on Azeroth and tries to explain on how this war could come to Outland

- Leoroxx is steadfast that the Mok'Nathal can handle their own, as they have done before, without the help of outsiders

- SI:7 follows them to Mok'Nathal Village and a battle happens (of course) seeing the destruction of most of Mok'Nathal Village

- Leoroxx perishes in the battle, but before he dies he finally accepts his son's choices while also asking him to preserve the Mok'Nathal

- Immediately contention arises between Rexxar and Matron Varah, who was a driving force behind the Mok'Nathal resurgence and does not believe Rexxar can lead their people the right way (shades of Garrosh and Thrall contention)

- This establishes Matron Varah as a secondary leader of the Mok'Nathal, and the quest ends officially bringing the Mok'Nathal into the Horde

PLAYABLE MODEL/CUSTOMIZATION

So we come to the real way Mok'Nathal can function fine as a playable race:

Model. The NPCs that are Mok'Nathal all share the current playable orc model and skeleton. Prior to the Burning Crusade expansion Rexxar was just a random orc model NPC but he was then updated, however, his model still uses the orc skeleton. As we do not have any official artwork that depicts the Mok'Nathal to look anything really different from orcs, ogres, or the combination of the two, it is very easy to use the current orc playable model/skeleton for playable Mok'Nathal and fall back on the customization to fill in the gaps.

Personally, I would make the Mok'Nathal model slightly taller than orcs but not as tall as tauren. But, hey would do I know.

Customization. This part will be the fun part because I have a very neat idea that will help bring home the identity of playable Mok'Nathal:

- Face: Instead of being able to custom facial expressions, I propose having the Mok'Nathal race have beast masks on by default. Taking a queue from the customization of Demon Hunters (blindfolds) this is really something we haven't seen in customization. We have seen the traditional wolf skin mask, but customization could add bear, boar, cat, even a hawk. How would this work with gear that goes on the head? Well, I couldn't imagine the beast masks being too bulky or too large that any sort of clipping would happen, which can be an easy fix for a developer.

- Hair: Pretty straight forward. Wild, unkempt hairstyles probably. Perhaps even recycling current orc hairstyles.

- Tattoos: All of the allied races have tattoo customization options, so why not. I think it should be a mixture of primal looking markings and scars, or just regular streak-like tattoos.

- Skin Color: Brown, tan, dark gray, or just enough of that spectrum of color to fill the "brown orc" niche.

HERITAGE ARMOR

Here is the tricky part. The Mok'Nathal do not really have any iconic/definitive style that matches their culture. Most, if not all, of the armor that is iconic for the Mok'Nathal is available in game, so the question becomes how do you build upon that?

Looking into history, I attempted to find certain cultures that put emphasis on animal-skin-armors or at least used that concept within their own culture. I immediately thought of Aztec and Mayan civilizations, however, I believe the Zandalari trolls will be heavily emphasizing that style of culture... so blah.

- HERITAGE ARMOR: COMING SOON -

[Deleted]

Cool! Thanks!

[Dinduffen]

I want ogres but I'd take it.

[Clone]

10/10 would play Mok'Nathal. Only thing I would change is switch the effects of boar and hawk.

[Syegfryed]

Your idea is cool, nice put in, but im very against any kind of half-breeds in this game

the first reason is because they would bring a whole new er of shitpost about people wanting half-elves, and to hell with that

Second, is with moknathal we will lose for ever the opportunity to have real ogres.

Moknathal have a small and dying/almost extinct village, with not enough numbers who already are horde since TBC (so not sense in recruit then) the clan population is made of half-breeds but is made of orcs and ogres as well.

They don't bring nothing new, they are just a orc clan with some of then with ogre blood, they have no much physic difference apart of some of then being yellow and big, it would be way better and way more interesting bring real ogres, with all they different traits, not just a big yellow orc, when we already are getting a subrace of orcs.

[Choppersan]

A well done idea,the only thing i dislike is having Plainsrunning instead of a proper mount,other than that i really like it,it's well written to the point it almost could be taken for real

[Paraka]

Make them Hunters and ONLY Hunters.

[MechaCThun]

Your idea is cool, nice put in, but im very against any kind of half-breeds in this game

the first reason is because they would bring a whole new er of shitpost about people wanting half-elves, and to hell with that

Second, is with moknathal we will lose for ever the opportunity to have real ogres.

Moknathal have a small and dying/almost extinct village, with not enough numbers who already are horde since TBC (so not sense in recruit then) the clan population is made of half-breeds but is made of orcs and ogres as well.

They don't bring nothing new, they are just a orc clan with some of then with ogre blood, they have no much physic difference apart of some of then being yellow and big, it would be way better and way more interesting bring real ogres, with all they different traits, not just a big yellow orc, when we already are getting a subrace of orcs.

This was one of first obstacles I ran into to be honest. Given the amount of time between TBC and Legion, I figured I would spin a story of allowing time to pass in order for the Mok'Nathal to replenish their numbers.

That being said, I also understand that there are only so many adult Mok'Nathal that can mate before it gets to inbreeding. I could have added a statement of random mag'har orcs or ogres (Ogri'la maybe?) that made there way into the clan and help reproduction that way, but I feel that would stray away from the identity of Mok'Nathal... well maybe not really, but that leads me to the next point of half breed races.

It could definitely open a can of worms in regards of people wanting half breed sub-races, but WoW being a fantasy RPG and all, I don't think it would necessarily be an OVERLY bad thing.

A well done idea,the only thing i dislike is having Plainsrunning instead of a proper mount,other than that i really like it,it's well written to the point it almost could be taken for real

I agree with you, and I wracked my head as to what kind of mount would fit them as a race. Most creatures native to Outland do not really fit being a Mok'Nathal mount (ravagers, hydras, felboars) and other beasts are already other race's mounts (wolves, talbuks, elekks).

Remembering what Plainsrunning used to be back in vanilla, I think a revamped concept of it would fit the Mok'Nathal greatly. Then again, a hulky orc-like race doesn't quite fit the bill of a super speedy runner.

[Choppersan]

This was one of first obstacles I ran into to be honest. Given the amount of time between TBC and Legion, I figured I would spin a story of allowing time to pass in order for the Mok'Nathal to replenish their numbers.

That being said, I also understand that there are only so many adult Mok'Nathal that can mate before it gets to inbreeding. I could have added a statement of random mag'har orcs or ogres (Ogri'la maybe?) that made there way into the clan and help reproduction that way, but I feel that would stray away from the identity of Mok'Nathal... well maybe not really, but that leads me to the next point of half breed races.

It could definitely open a can of worms in regards of people wanting half breed sub-races, but WoW being a fantasy RPG and all, I don't think it would necessarily be an OVERLY bad thing.

I agree with you, and I wracked my head as to what kind of mount would fit them as a race. Most creatures native to Outland do not really fit being a Mok'Nathal mount (ravagers, hydras, felboars) and other beasts are already other race's mounts (wolves, talbuks, elekks).

Remembering what Plainsrunning used to be back in vanilla, I think a revamped concept of it would fit the Mok'Nathal greatly. Then again, a hulky orc-like race doesn't quite fit the bill of a super speedy runner.

For the Mok'nathal not being enough numerous,perhaps you could add something in the storyline about them absorbing remnants of other clans and warping them in Mok'nathal through some kind of ritual?

I totally agree on Plainsruninng,a bulky orc race running in an high speed fashion it sound a bit ridiculous at best.

And yes i know there are not many other creatures you can use as mounts,but perhaps you can go full creative and create an unique creature as mount for them?

[Syegfryed]

This was one of first obstacles I ran into to be honest. Given the amount of time between TBC and Legion, I figured I would spin a story of allowing time to pass in order for the Mok'Nathal to replenish their numbers.

That being said, I also understand that there are only so many adult Mok'Nathal that can mate before it gets to inbreeding. I could have added a statement of random mag'har orcs or ogres (Ogri'la maybe?) that made there way into the clan and help reproduction that way, but I feel that would stray away from the identity of Mok'Nathal... well maybe not really, but that leads me to the next point of half breed races.

an orc/ogre need at least 12 years to be full mature, this time wasn't passed since TBC, and again, most of the clans are normal orcs, with a bit of half-breeds and ogres, even rexxar is just a 1/4 ogre, the blood is heavy diluted, and they resemble by just big orcs. th small clana re already Horde so there is no reason to recruit then, they are not necessary too, unlike void elves or Lightforged they don't have any kind of power influence or magic to boost us in the war.

Half-breed have a lot of problem in conception thats why most of time they dont go for this route in RPGs (apart from half-orcs and half-elves)

Like i said im very against moknathal because they don't bring nothing valid apart from another orc color, and will ruin every chance to get real ogres

It could definitely open a can of worms in regards of people wanting half breed sub-races, but WoW being a fantasy RPG and all, I don't think it would necessarily be an OVERLY bad thing.

It is a very bad idea, concept of half-things in RP tend to be the same cliche of edgyiest, loneliest and other shenanigas, besides will open a new era of people asking half things, and they will need to be addressed because they gave the horde half-breeds

i don't want more ten years o bullshit of people asking half elves and high elves, and if they do it, we are fucked

[Kresh64]

At this point alot of the Mok'nathal are the children of other Mok'nathal (like Rexxar) so they are very much their own race and not just 'half-breeds'. I think they would work very well as an allied race sharing the skeleton of the orcs, and Ogres can still become playable but as an actual race that starts at level one and has their own starting area like the main races.

As for the Mok'Nathal racial mount, the Clefthoof is more than big enough to carrey them around and hopefully the Outland originals instead of the 'Savage' horns and spikes all over WOD ones. With an updated model of course.

And about them having few in numbers just look at the Void Elves.

[CreatureLives]

It would be a way to finally make Rexxar relevant in WoW. Not just as a few quests but make him an actual leader of a race. Then he can be there for all the major Horde meetings.

It kinda sucks that I haven't heard shit about him at all in Battle For Azeroth. Seems like he'll be sitting this one out too. You'd think he'd feature in it heavily as he played a huge part in Daelin Proudmoore's demise. I'm still hoping for a possible Caverns of Time that retells that story.

[Broken Fox]

the first reason is because they would bring a whole new er of shitpost about people wanting half-elves, and to hell with that

There will be endless bitching regardless.

Second, is with moknathal we will lose for ever the opportunity to have real ogres.

We're never getting Ogres anyway.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyway I'd be totally down with the Mok'Nathal being playable. Rexxar rules. And some kind of mega bear would be a fitting mount for them I think.

[Cradix]

I'll just say one thing.

Plainsrunning as their racial mount? No dice.
Plainsrunning as a racial trait that works exactly like a ground mount? No problem.

[Syegfryed]

There will be endless bitching regardless.

is another bitching, im ok only the bitching about high elves, but high elves AND half elves would be a pain in the ass

We're never getting Ogres anyway.

maybe not, but they have way more chance then moknathal anyway

[Hyde]

I love it but I prefer if they get boar as their racial mount, and instead of plainsrunning, they would get QOL utility such as mount speed increase by 1%.

[Maljinwo]

Nice concept!
You even included the obligatory strong woman for Blizzard's stamp of approval
I'm not sure about rogues, I don't know if the Mok'Nathal would view that as strength.

[Baladeur]

With Chronicles vol.2, a lot of retcons came. Now, most of the Mok'Nathal actually are half-ogres half-orcs and, well, if they breed with each other, tehy'll always keep this "ratio".

As for why it would be different from actual orcs, I don't see any problem with that. We already have Draenor Orcs coming and they're way closer to our orcs than Mok'Nathal will ever be. Hell, we're talking about orcs that are at leats 50% taller, way bulkier etc. In game they use the same model as the orcs, but in a perfect world with unique models for every race, Mok'Nathal would be bigger than orcs and have differences with their model.

And I don't think having Mok'Nathal as an allied race would make the players want half-elves etc more than they already do. The Mok'Nathal are an existing tribe in game with lot's of lore and their own culture. Their is literally no faction that is only made of half-elves. In fact, I'm pretty sure Mok'Nathal are the only half-breed with an actual faction for them (and well, you can't make an allied race out of some random half-breed here and there with no identity, no faction etc).

Last but not least, saying we won't get mag'har because they're not enough, while it makes sense, doesn't really matter. Today in wow, the "uniqueness" of something in-lore is completely ignored. The deathknight are supposed to be only a bunch of people, yet there's a whole class out of them. The demon hunters is the same story, but they are even fewer of them. Also, there's only one ashbringer, one doomhammer etc, yet every single player can get their hands on them. And when it comes to a race... There is literally around 30 void elves in total (You can count them up during the quest haha) yet it didn't stop Blizzard from making a whole allied race out of them.

When you take all that into consideration (hero class, artifact weapons, void elves), getting to play Mok'Nathal is not a problem at all in comparison.


Yeah, I really want those half-ogres. Since at least 6 years now. So I had plenty of time to think about all we could say to justify their integration to the horde (or not )

[Futhark]

Horde gets Mok'Nathal
Alliance gets Kul'Tirasians

Ogres and Vrykul ignored forever

[The BrewCity Monk]

Horde gets Mok'Nathal
Alliance gets Kul'Tirasians

Ogres and Vrykul ignored forever

Well, if the Horde do get Vulpera, then maybe the Alliance will get Vrykuls. I still don't see Ogres ever being playable. The female ogre model wouldn't work out at all.