Mag'har in the Battle for Azeroth story

[Deleted]

So we've seen much of the initial content of BfA already and lead-ins for content yet to come, but what I've noticed is that of all the Allied races, the Mag'har practically non-existent in any of the questing zones. Every other allied race makes an appearance in either the capital cities or during quests, even old NPC races like Tuskarr, Hozen, Jinyu, Tol'vir, Vrykul, every kind of Troll, etc. show up in the capital cities. All except Mag'har Orcs. The only one of them I've seen in beta is a Laughing Skull Orc that teleports you from one of the Alliance zones(I think Drustvar) back to Zandalar, but that is very possibly a placeholder since there's no context for him.

I'm wondering if this is just coincidence, that maybe they were a late addition and hard to fit in what already existed. Does Blizzard just want to give players the Mag'har customisation options but are worried that the whole space/time travel thing and the memories of WoD would put people off if they had a bigger presence? Did I miss an appearance somewhere?


Recapping whereabouts the other Allied Races show up(*):
Zandalari and Kul Tirans: Both have an entire island
Highmountain Tauren: Lasan Skyhorn helps break out Talanji and Zul, there are multiple Highmountain npcs scattered across the Horde bases in Zandalar and one co-leads the Horde base in Stormsong Valley. Part of an Island Expedition group.
Nightborne: Thalyssra helps break out Talanji and Zul, also has multiple npcs, joined the Reliquary, also has an Island Expedition group.
Void Elves: Show up in the Siege of Lordaeron, has an Island Expedition group, Umbric shows up in Vol'dun.
Dark Iron: Take charge in the Alliance Zuldazar story.
Lightforged: Turalyon takes part in the Arathi Warfront, have an Island Expedition group. These guys have the least appearances from what I've seen, but they did also just have the entire Argus storyline.

(*)Don't take this as a definitive list, I've seen a lot less of the Alliance PoV, so there could be many more appearances from the Alliance races that I'm missing out on.


With the Mag'har story set 30 years in the future of the WoD events, it would be nice to have the new Mag'har get some development and maybe show which(if any) of the ones we knew are joining us on Azeroth.

[Biotec]

I think the fact that they are WoD Orcs is what is causing their lack of presence. Maybe not so much that players still have bitter memories of the expansion itself, but morso that they are so disconnected from our world and history that they don't have a proper place.

The Nightborne feel at home working with the Bloo Elves, the Dark Iron have been part of the Alliance for a while, the Highmountain and Lightforge can blend in with their cousins with little issue, and the Void Elves are connected to the world and some major characters.

The Mag'har have none of that. They are all young and foreign to our world, our characters, and the story. They don't know how our Horde works so they are just kind of there. It was a mistake to pull them from the AU instead of Outland because they just can't be part of our story without it feeling weird and forced.

[Trollokdamus]

they were a late addition

This is what I'm thinking.

There must be a reason for them not to have been mentioned during the last Blizzcon. I suppose the original plan was to release the Zandalari alongside the Dark Iron, but the former got postponed so they had to come up with a replacement.

I think the fact that they are WoD Orcs is what is causing their lack of presence. Maybe not so much that players still have bitter memories of the expansion itself, but morso that they are so disconnected from our world and history that they don't have a proper place.

The Nightborne feel at home working with the Bloo Elves, the Dark Iron have been part of the Alliance for a while, the Highmountain and Lightforge can blend in with their cousins with little issue, and the Void Elves are connected to the world and some major characters.

The Mag'har have none of that. They are all young and foreign to our world, our characters, and the story. They don't know how our Horde works so they are just kind of there. It was a mistake to pull them from the AU instead of Outland because they just can't be part of our story without it feeling weird and forced.

Not sure what you're talking about. The Mag'har will be respected by the MU orcs for being "pure", uncorrupted honorable warriors, an embodiment of what they themselves used to be. The trolls and tauren will also recognize them as capable hunters and warriors. The Mag'har will fit right in. Unlike say Void Elves, whose only link to the Alliance is Alleria and who is going to be shunned by almost everyone who follows the Light.

[gcsmith]

So we've seen much of the initial content of BfA already and lead-ins for content yet to come, but what I've noticed is that of all the Allied races, the Mag'har practically non-existent in any of the questing zones. Every other allied race makes an appearance in either the capital cities or during quests, even old NPC races like Tuskarr, Hozen, Jinyu, Tol'vir, Vrykul, every kind of Troll, etc. show up in the capital cities. All except Mag'har Orcs. The only one of them I've seen in beta is a Laughing Skull Orc that teleports you from one of the Alliance zones(I think Drustvar) back to Zandalar, but that is very possibly a placeholder since there's no context for him.

I'm wondering if this is just coincidence, that maybe they were a late addition and hard to fit in what already existed. Does Blizzard just want to give players the Mag'har customisation options but are worried that the whole space/time travel thing and the memories of WoD would put people off if they had a bigger presence? Did I miss an appearance somewhere?


Recapping whereabouts the other Allied Races show up(*):
Zandalari and Kul Tirans: Both have an entire island
Highmountain Tauren: Lasan Skyhorn helps break out Talanji and Zul, there are multiple Highmountain npcs scattered across the Horde bases in Zandalar and one co-leads the Horde base in Stormsong Valley. Part of an Island Expedition group.
Nightborne: Thalyssra helps break out Talanji and Zul, also has multiple npcs, joined the Reliquary, also has an Island Expedition group.
Void Elves: Show up in the Siege of Lordaeron, has an Island Expedition group, Umbric shows up in Vol'dun.
Dark Iron: Take charge in the Alliance Zuldazar story.
Lightforged: Turalyon takes part in the Arathi Warfront, have an Island Expedition group. These guys have the least appearances from what I've seen, but they did also just have the entire Argus storyline.

(*)Don't take this as a definitive list, I've seen a lot less of the Alliance PoV, so there could be many more appearances from the Alliance races that I'm missing out on.


With the Mag'har story set 30 years in the future of the WoD events, it would be nice to have the new Mag'har get some development and maybe show which(if any) of the ones we knew are joining us on Azeroth.

Could be related to the recent changes to the data mined scenario text, those that come don't just come to pay a debt, they come ebcause if they don't they will all be exterminated by the Draenai

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This is what I'm thinking.

There must be a reason for them not to have been mentioned during the last Blizzcon. I suppose the original plan was to release the Zandalari alongside the Dark Iron, but the former got postponed so they had to come up with a replacement.


Not sure what you're talking about. The Mag'har will be respected by the MU orcs for being "pure", uncorrupted honorable warriors, an embodiment of what they themselves used to be. The trolls and tauren will also recognize them as capable hunters and warriors. The Mag'har will fit right in. Unlike say Void Elves, whose only link to the Alliance is Alleria and who is going to be shunned by almost everyone who follows the Light.

I think the big thing was the worry as people noticed all the customization and unique things the Zandalari got, if they released them alongside dark iron there would be all of the "Horde Favoritism" calls, which is blatantly true anyway from blizzard, but they'd rather not give more fuel to that fire.

[logintime]

I wouldn't be surprised if they were a late change from a previously planned Orc-alternate allied race. Blizz has done these last minute change-ups before.

But also, it doesn't really make sense of them to have any presence in the expansion at launch. The connection to AU Draenor is closed and we have to forcibly open it to visit and recruit the AU Orcs. Lorewise, there wouldn't be any of them (or hardly any) on Azeroth prior to this, and certainly not acting in alliance with the Horde.

[Deleted]

I think its probably because they decided on mag'har later in development than most other allied races. They werent even shown at the BFA reveal even though Blizzard was showing the straight back orc model - one would think they would have gone well together.

Development tends to happen in long cycles so its possible they get their own "token representation" somewhere in a patch. Not that they really need it though, when they already got a full expansion devoted to them.

[Elfezen]

They do exist in Outland (Nagrand) and their capital is Garadar, with many questlines, its still mag'har orcs

[Venziir]

They do exist in Outland (Nagrand), with many questlines, its still mag'har orcs

Wrong orcs, wrong answer, wrong story, wrong expansion

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I think its probably because they decided on mag'har later in development than most other allied races. They werent even shown at the BFA reveal even though Blizzard was showing the straight back orc model - one would think they would have gone well together.

Development tends to happen in long cycles so its possible they get their own "token representation" somewhere in a patch. Not that they really need it though, when they already got a full expansion devoted to them.

The straight orc wasn’t shown, uness you mean Saurfang

[Deleted]

I'm still quite confused as to why they forget about the Mag'har in outland. Why pick time traveling Mag'har from an expansion most people seem to want to forget happened, devs included? That terrible lore could have been left well enough alone if they just moved the orcs from outland over to the Horde, possibly with the Mok'nathal joining them at a later date. Outland is already stated to be slowly crumbling so it's not as if this wouldn't wrap things up.

I'm not trying to go on but these people are paid a good salary. If I can take five minutes to work this out why can't they?

[Deleted]

I'm still quite confused as to why they forget about the Mag'har in outland. Why pick time traveling Mag'har from an expansion most people seem to want to forget happened, devs included? That terrible lore could have been left well enough alone if they just moved the orcs from outland over to the Horde, possibly with the Mok'nathal joining them at a later date. Outland is already stated to be slowly crumbling so it's not as if this wouldn't wrap things up.

I'm not trying to go on but these people are paid a good salary. If I can take five minutes to work this out why can't they?

Because most of them are dead. I'm ignoring all named npcs in Nagrand (Outland) now, but can you remember how many mag'har we have slaughtered in SOO? They were from Nagrand.

[Deleted]

Because most of them are dead. I'm ignoring all named npcs in Nagrand (Outland) now, but can you remember how many mag'har we have slaughtered in SOO? They were from Nagrand.

That feels like a stretch to say that when we have void elves that are infinitesimally small in number. We could do with out Warlords of Memelore.

[MechaCThun]

Mag'har orcs from AU Draenor will be the catalyst for bringing in the Mag'har from Outland. One of Thrall's roles in BfA will be "doing his part" as well as trying to figure things out internally after killing Garrosh and feeling as if his "calling" has abandoned him, and Blizzard will re-introduce Greatmother Geyah back into the story with new interaction between her and Thrall. Supposedly a long the lines of Thrall coming a long way, but still has a ways to go. We still have to deal with Thrall being all down and depressed, unsure of himself still (events of Legion).

Mag'har orcs will be featured a lot in the 2nd major content patch that continues the BfA story.








Don't ask me how I know; my source won't be a source anymore.

[Kemsa]

am sorry to say it bruh, but many of the Outland Maghar brown ORcs were slayed by the champions in the Pandaria campaign, heck you can even see the "Elite Hellscream warriors" using the pvp vanilla plate set and they are brown orcs. This is one of the reason Maghar orcs from outland were not introduced as allied race instead we got the WoD ones, because their numbers were literally thin, i can even said they were almost extinct. Fortunate the new Maghars are going to bring something that since Cataclysm is being an issue, Procreating. New warriors for the Horde from work hand to champions, new families, new and refreshing lore.... aside from the fiasco of some story writing.

Also i want to see how the SHamans of AU Draenor are going to interact with the new world, i want to see Thrall meeting his "alternate universe" SIster/himself. Oh men so much stuff that can happen.............and so much can be never told. sigh

[Deleted]

They probably did it because Kul Tirans probably weren't ready and they assumed Alliance would cry over it if Horde got their BfA faction earlier.

Why they announced Zandalari alongside Dark Iron is a mystery to me though.

[Kellorion]

Mag'har orcs from AU Draenor will be the catalyst for bringing in the Mag'har from Outland. One of Thrall's roles in BfA will be "doing his part" as well as trying to figure things out internally after killing Garrosh and feeling as if his "calling" has abandoned him, and Blizzard will re-introduce Greatmother Geyah back into the story with new interaction between her and Thrall. Supposedly a long the lines of Thrall coming a long way, but still has a ways to go. We still have to deal with Thrall being all down and depressed, unsure of himself still (events of Legion).

Mag'har orcs will be featured a lot in the 2nd major content patch that continues the BfA story.








Don't ask me how I know; my source won't be a source anymore.

We already have had the Outland Mag'har Orcs. We have since TBC, Thrall had them join the Horde. Just because Jorin et all arent walking around doesnt mean they arent members.

[Deleted]

I think it's obvious their whole backstory is setting up a return to Draenor, where we will likely explore the Ogre continent. They will have their time.

[Deleted]

I think it's obvious their whole backstory is setting up a return to Draenor, where we will likely explore the Ogre continent. They will have their time.

We haven't returned to Outland, Northrend or Pandaria, why would we return to an area that everyone has bad memories of? It's easily considered the worst expansion and would've killed WoW if Legion hadn't been such a return to form.

[Kyphael]

I consider Warlords of Draenor the worst expansion ever (the first to make me unsub for two years) but I still can't wait to play a Mag'har orc, so the expansion stigma isn't enough to drive this player away from playing that race.

[Cosmic Janitor]

They probably did it because Kul Tirans probably weren't ready and they assumed Alliance would cry over it if Horde got their BfA faction earlier.

Why they announced Zandalari alongside Dark Iron is a mystery to me though.

Same reason? They didn't have Kul Tirans yet figured out and were probably unsure how bad the reactions to fat humans would be. Maybe they originally didn't want them at all as an allied race? Plenty of possibilities. Dark Irons on the other hand were an easy thing that just required some textures to be recolored and were a thing people have been asking for years. I wouldn't be surprised if they had the brown and upright orcs planned way earlier and just held them back because they could hardly present 4 horde races and 3 alliance races without getting flak for more horde favoritism.

[Deleted]

We haven't returned to Outland, Northrend or Pandaria, why would we return to an area that everyone has bad memories of? It's easily considered the worst expansion and would've killed WoW if Legion hadn't been such a return to form.

Because those aren't planets, they are continents (outland is not even a continent. Just some s**t floating in the nether). Also, speak for yourself. I liked Draenor.

Actually i couldn't care less how you feel. Theres still alot of areas that Warcraft fans want to visit, theres continents to explore and now theres a plot. So, yes, it's a strong candidate. Get over your irrational hate.