"The initial story of the Shadowlands doesn't really fit adding Allied Races"

[Amnaught]

I'm sorry, but fucking *what*?

We're strictly allying with one of four new races in Shadowlands, that we're going to spend the entire expansion alongside. That is much more than we got for Void Elves. The only plot we got at all for those guys initially was a shoehorned quest specifically to recruit them. But regardless of the fact that there will be four heavily prominent potential allied races in this new expansion, are we forgetting that A) Zandalari trolls were in the BfA features trailer even though they weren't available until 8.2, and B) the first allied races in BfA were ones that were heavily featured in the *previous* expansion, instead of the new one? The idea that there wasn't a story-based reason to decide against allied races in 9.0 is insulting. It's because they didn't want to put the effort in, and they need to stop pretending it's not. Vol'Dun is a story that fits adding Sethrak. Naz'jatar is a story that fits adding Ankoan and Gilgoblins. Darkshore is a story that fits adding Night Elf Forsaken/Worgen. Shadowlands in its entirety is a story that fits adding the four Covenants as playable, after a campaign like Mag'har and Dark Irons got.


I dunno man, I'm just tired of them saying "It wasn't in the story" as a poor-ass excuse of an excuse to not include things that should obviously be there. the Vindicaar comes to mind.

[Byleth]

You're really arguing semantics here.

I mean, would you have preferred they just said, "We didn't want to do allied races at this time"?

The way it was worded was typical corporate speak, for we're not doing them, but we're not ruling out the possibility in the future.

[Andonais]

They aren't really races they are spirits from many worlds who have jobs and purpose in the shadowlands why would any of them realistically leave to join the alliance and horde.

[How dare you]

Remember how relevant Mag'har orcs were in BFA?

[mrsohta]

Covenants don't make sense because they are native to Shadowlands and don't leave that place. Ofcourse they could write it so they leave it later on but I'm not sure if that would be better.

[Theangryone]

Oh hey spirit beings kicking in the afterlife, how would you like to come to the corporeal world and fight in our meaningless faction conflict? Yep seems like they would jump on that

[Nathasil]

...

You forgot the most important aspect of this: Nightborne had to be handed out and after spending an entire Expansion building them up Blizzard really, really, REALLY wanted them to join the Horde. Exclusively. So they had to pull something from their behind to give the other faction.

This time, there is no such grand remaining race that absolutely must go to the Horde. So they do not need an "offset" for the other faction. That's why this time more strict rules apply.

Even more: They must wait and see which of the four new races turns out to be really, really popular, so they can pick the right ones for the Horde.

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

"We don't want to confirm the covenant races as allied raves because it wouldn't happen until 9.x and we want to be able to hype it up then."

or

"We don't want to confirm no allied races for Shadowlands because we want to hype up the expansion and that would disappoint people out of the gates."

Either way, not confirming/denying beyond "the initial story" makes complete sense from a marketing/PR perspective.

[Infinitiz]

It's because it doesn't make sense. They aren't technically alive. I'm not sure they would care for faction affiliation either.

It's still possible I guess, but only after the first patch is done and the story changes to the next phase come 9.1 or 9.2. Perhaps the 'gate' stays open between Shadowlands and Azeroth and they can come and live with us

[Kyphael]

Who cares, we should have gotten a new class anyway after getting a piss load of allied races to varying degrees of disappointment (here's emo elves and draenei with tattoos and brown orcs, have fun grinding away!) but apparently a new class didn't make sense eiher because of new customize options which is code for "adding more faces and re-paint options is easier than designing a new class."

[Darththeo]

You're really arguing semantics here.

I mean, would you have preferred they just said, "We didn't want to do allied races at this time"?

The way it was worded was typical corporate speak, for we're not doing them, but we're not ruling out the possibility in the future.

One, personally, yes ... it sounds more natural to say it that way.

And two, yeah, pretty much ... they may add some later.

[Gadzooks]

I'm sorry, but fucking *what*?

We're strictly allying with one of four new races in Shadowlands, that we're going to spend the entire expansion alongside. That is much more than we got for Void Elves. The only plot we got at all for those guys initially was a shoehorned quest specifically to recruit them. But regardless of the fact that there will be four heavily prominent potential allied races in this new expansion, are we forgetting that A) Zandalari trolls were in the BfA features trailer even though they weren't available until 8.2, and B) the first allied races in BfA were ones that were heavily featured in the *previous* expansion, instead of the new one? The idea that there wasn't a story-based reason to decide against allied races in 9.0 is insulting. It's because they didn't want to put the effort in, and they need to stop pretending it's not. Vol'Dun is a story that fits adding Sethrak. Naz'jatar is a story that fits adding Ankoan and Gilgoblins. Darkshore is a story that fits adding Night Elf Forsaken/Worgen. Shadowlands in its entirety is a story that fits adding the four Covenants as playable, after a campaign like Mag'har and Dark Irons got.


I dunno man, I'm just tired of them saying "It wasn't in the story" as a poor-ass excuse of an excuse to not include things that should obviously be there. the Vindicaar comes to mind.

But, if you look at it objectively, instead of "I want!", it doesn't make sense to let players choose races that don't appear in the greater WOW universe, are only found in an alternate dimension/plane of existence, and would make no sense questing around in Azeroth as one of them. You're going to purgatory, basically, and meeting races that aren't of your existence, you could look at the Shadowlands creatures as angelic beings, not flesh and blood creatures. It's not even a "from another planet" thing, where theoretically they could travel to Azeroth, but going to a plane of existence that won't be possible to travel to and from once the expansion is concluded.

They may find a way later to bring the races in as playable races, but as it stands, it doesn't make sense to unlock them as an allied race. They're not terrestrial beings to Azeroth. Every allied race lives and exists on Azeroth. Where are the owl creatures on Azeroth? Where are the vampire gargoyles?

Again - stop using 'I want!" to justify things. They're making a reasonable decision here, story-wise.

[Doomchicken]

Even more: They must wait and see which of the four new races turns out to be really, really popular, so they can pick the right ones for the Horde.

And make sure the wrong ones go to Alliance.

[Amnaught]

It's because it doesn't make sense. They aren't technically alive. I'm not sure they would care for faction affiliation either.

It's still possible I guess, but only after the first patch is done and the story changes to the next phase come 9.1 or 9.2. Perhaps the 'gate' stays open between Shadowlands and Azeroth and they can come and live with us

If it were possible for them to be in 9.1, why weren’t they in the features trailer, like the Zandalari? And what about the races we interacted with this expansion that storywise have already joined a faction and could stand to get one more quest to officially recruit them as playable, like what happened with the first four in BfA coming from Legion content?

[Nagawithlegs]

He's right. It doesn't deconfirm Allied Races, but it makes zero sense that AT LAUNCH we would be recruiting them into the Alliance/Horde when the factions don't even matter at launch.

They are just playing it safe. They'll confirm them as playable when the models are ready: they don't want a repeat of the outrage when they delayed Zandalari for months upon months.

- - - Updated - - -

If it were possible for them to be in 9.1, why weren’t they in the features trailer, like the Zandalari? And what about the races we interacted with this expansion that storywise have already joined a faction and could stand to get one more quest to officially recruit them as playable, like what happened with the first four in BfA coming from Legion content?

They aren't in the features trailer BECAUSE of the Zandalari. The Zandalari were marketed as being available at Launch and got pushed back until 8.1.5, which upset and soured a lot of customers. They likely will never do that again.

The Necrolords and Night Fae don't even have AR-ready models. They aren't ready to be announced as ARs.

[Omedon]

You don’t go to Sigil, City of Doors to recruit planars from the outer planes for your pathetic prime material land dispute.

Could the gorgeous races of Shadowlands make great players? Sure... but seeing an angel shout “for the [faction]” is a laughable mental image. We, and our Azerothian problems are indeed nothing on an extraplanar scale. Don’t expect extraplanar races until we leave prime material factions behind us.

[Nagawithlegs]

You don’t go to Sigil, City of Doors to recruit planars from the outer planes for your pathetic prime material land dispute.

Could the gorgeous races of Shadowlands make great players? Sure... but seeing an angel shout “for the [faction]” is a laughable mental image. We, and our Azerothian problems are indeed nothing on an extraplanar scale. Don’t expect extraplanar races until we leave prime material factions behind us.

This however is a pretty dumb critique, because in the end the lore doesn't matter: a blue angel is just a blue human with wings. Blizz don't care if you play as a tiny fox scavenger or a thousand year old alien veteran: they are the exact same on the power scale. A vampire being from another dimension does not mean Blizz won't let you pay $25 to become one.

[derpkitteh]

i don't think the covenant races should be playable tbh.

as cool as the necrolords are, these "races" are kind of natives to the shadowlands, but other races also slowly morph into them over time in their domains. you could be playing a kyrian on the alliance that was a tauren warrior in life. it just doesn't seem like a good idea, imo.

yes, i know that their former existence is completely erased from their minds, but it still doesn't feel like a great idea.

[Nagawithlegs]

On another note, gotta love the lore experts on these races introduced to the public a fucking week ago. LOL.

[Darththeo]

If it were possible for them to be in 9.1, why weren’t they in the features trailer, like the Zandalari? And what about the races we interacted with this expansion that storywise have already joined a faction and could stand to get one more quest to officially recruit them as playable, like what happened with the first four in BfA coming from Legion content?

Zandalari were originally paired with Dark Iron, not Kul Tiran. Mag'har Orcs were originally the later race.

Also, yeah, I agree. There are a lot of races that have possibilities from WoW's history that aren't being added as playable.