Allied Races: Any new race or just preexisting races

[Joeydivision82]

I see a bunch of people refer to any potential new race added to the game as an Allied Race, when currently the only ones added or discussed by Blizzard have been variants of existing races.

I personally wouldn't consider Vulpera, Ethereal, or Ogres an Allied Race, I would consider them a brand new playable race the way Blood Elves, Draenei, Goblin and Pandas were.

Even the WoW website has Races and Allied Races separated, which to me would imply they are different things.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I think this debate was settled when Kul'tirans were announced. That isn't an existing race reskinned.

[Xylense]

allied race isnt about whether or not they're newly introduced into the game. from a technical standpoint, they simply re-use existing models. a new race comes with level 1-20 content (usually its own starting zones) and a unique player model. thats the only real difference.

outside of racials, the race really is just customization. And up until allied races, they'd been limiting themselves to adding a new 1-20 starting zones, hubs, potential faction capital, racial faction with mounts and whatever else to add a new playable race. Now they aren't, and they're speeding up that process by using existing skeletons (vulpera are goblins, etc)

[seleri]

At this point, anything seems to be up for becoming an allied race.

Vulpera, assuming they get added and I think they will, are a completely new race unrelated to their "parent race" (goblin skeleton in this case). Kul Tiran are brand new models.

Based on that, I don't see why something like ethereals or ogres couldn't be an allied race. I personally hope they give us a couple of new "real" races next expansion though.

[LordCowz]

I'm pretty sure the key part of being marked an "allied race" is not the "race" part but the "allied" part. Every allied race so far has been an otherwise neutral party that through reputation and a chain of events decided to ally themselves with either The Horde or the alliance. Most of them are neutral with both sides until outside influences have them join one of the existing factions. It's not about whether they are new races or re-skins.

[Joeydivision82]

I'm pretty sure the key part of being marked an "allied race" is not the "race" part but the "allied" part. Every allied race so far has been an otherwise neutral party that through reputation and a chain of events decided to ally themselves with either The Horde or the alliance. Most of them are neutral with both sides until outside influences have them join one of the existing factions. It's not about whether they are new races or re-skins.

I've considered that, but the fact that they are separated from the other races to me implies that the term applies to variants of existing races.

Also, all new races added after Vanilla should fall under that banner since theres a reason within the lore they chose to side with their current faction.

- - - Updated - - -

I think this debate was settled when Kul'tirans were announced. That isn't an existing race reskinned.

But Humans are an existing race in the game and they are a variant of that. It doesn't have to be simply a reskin.

[RobertMugabe]

I see a bunch of people refer to any potential new race added to the game as an Allied Race, when currently the only ones added or discussed by Blizzard have been variants of existing races.

I personally wouldn't consider Vulpera, Ethereal, or Ogres an Allied Race, I would consider them a brand new playable race the way Blood Elves, Draenei, Goblin and Pandas were.

Even the WoW website has Races and Allied Races separated, which to me would imply they are different things.

Allied Races are just races that you can unlock, that's the whole Concept behind them. They can be brand new or reskins.

...and why did you have to create this thread? There are a Million threads about the same thing

[Joeydivision82]

Allied Races are just races that you can unlock, that's the whole Concept behind them. They can be brand new or reskins.

...and why did you have to create this thread? There are a Million threads about the same thing

You know you have the option to keep scrolling, right?

[RobertMugabe]

You know you have the option to keep scrolling, right?

I mean you're Breaking the rules FYI

And no creating duplicate threads is shit... you're just repeating Topics that have already been discussed over and over.

[Rhlor]

I want vulpera

[Goldielocks]

I think this debate was settled when Kul'tirans were announced. That isn't an existing race reskinned.

More than likely the playable Kul Tirans use the human skeleton, so they still count as an Allied race in that regard. Also the Nightborne aren't reskinned Night Elves. They have their own model but share the NE skeleton.

[Joeydivision82]

I mean you're Breaking the rules FYI

And no creating duplicate threads is shit... you're just repeating Topics that have already been discussed over and over.

How am I breaking the rules? I used the search function and didnt see this threat, so I made one.

Quit crying and just move along.

[Destinas]

They were Blizzard's answer to sub-races. They don't necessarily follow any strict rules so far. They can't really be called "sub-races" since some of them are actually "proto-races" for their species (like Zandalari/Darkspear, Mag'har/Orcs), and some have always been a separate race/clan (Dark Irons were never Bronzebeard dwarves). Most of the others, however, are simply magically-enhanced versions of already playable races (Light-infused Draenei, Cenarius-blessed Tauren, even more Arcane-infused Night Elves, Shadow-infused Blood Elves).

The original "rule" was that they were using existing skeletons/animations in order to easily pump these out, with some unique parts to their customization/model (antlers, different hairstyles, different horns, different Nightborne ears, Nightborne standing stance, Zandalari posture, tattoos, etc). But, even that has been abandoned for some future Allied Races, with Kul Tirans having unique animations and models. Zandalari males even have a fairly unique mixture of troll male animations, with some unique ones based on their model from MoP (which were modified from Jinyu, which were modified from Night Elves, which the Botani also use). Meanwhile, Zandalari females have a different posture/stance, but generally use the same animations as troll females.

Another loose rule was mounts and armor. We've seen (for most Allied Races) what types of mounts and armor they would wear that 100% represents who they are. Mounts, most often, are an offshoot of the mount used by the "original race" despite faction lines (like manasabers vs nightsabers). Some Allied Races have mounts that don't match their original race, but are still things we've seen before from them, or are models we've obtained before (Core Hound, Moose, Direhorn). The armor is supposed to represent everything we know about them, as well. Void Elves are an anomaly to this rule, but they still kind of fit - their mount is a Void version of the Blood Elf racial mount, and their armor looks quite elven (as far as shapes and trimming) while still having a major Void theme.

Another very loose rule was that they already were introduced to the player before they became an Allied Race through quests, and usually had a reputation associated with them. This is the case with the vast majority of Allied Races so far, with Void Elves being an anomaly (since their only introduction was Alleria, and they had a rep that didn't match them at all). Dark Irons and Mag'har do have older factions associated with them that could have been used (Thorium Brotherhood, Mag'har), but they were just considered "rewards" for doing the War Campaign and getting exalted with the new faction reps. They had something in common though - they were both introduced as major allies of their factions before this expansion, both in Draenor (and Cata for DI). Even Zandalari and Kul Tirans have reputations and questlines setting up them as Allied Races for the future.

Considering all this, things like Vulpera would fit in perfectly, since they use the same animations as Goblins, they have been introduced to us in questlines, and they are already a reputation in BfA. Vulpera also have clear examples of what types of armor they would have (desert-y hide scraps and a head wrapping) and a racial mount (hyenas, which there are several colors we haven't gotten). Yeah, they're a completely different race - but Blood Elves were considered a new race entirely, despite the fact that they are a sub-race of Night Elves in lore. Nightborne and Void Elves were also new races to their respective factions, simply giving the other factions existing animations. Ogres, while being a different race than orcs, are also the proto-species for orcs in lore, just like Zandalari for all other trolls, so that would fit perfectly. We also know what their racial mount would be (boars) and generally what their armor would look like (from Draenor, which there are several options). Considering that Rexxar (a half-Ogre) uses Kul Tiran animations, it would be completely fitting to use a mixture between updated older Ogre/Moonkin animations and Kul Tiran animations for a playable Ogre Allied Race. Or, they could bypass Ogres entirely and have Mok'nathal to fit more of the loose guidelines they already have for creating Allied Races.

The only reason they would add a new full race is if they are a new race with new animations that would need a new starting experience that would start from level 1. Something like Ethereals or Naga would fit into this category if they wanted either of those to be playable, since we have examples and models of how they would be animated, but they don't have most of the player/class animations. Things like Botani or Saberon could be fine Allied Races, since they use animations for other existing playable races.

tldr - The rules are all over the place, but Vulpera and Ogres fit into the few bullet points that are common themes for Allied Races.