What races are underused in the lore and story ?

[Thelxi]

I'd say all racial cultures could and should be utilized more, even Human and Orc. Blizz moved past dwelling on them and now keeps throwing vampires and angels at the wall, but I think less would've been more in this case.

In no way am I saying I want another WoD with orc shit absolutely everywhere, but with some variety I think it would be cool to have proper Tauren hubs/zones for example, or nelf or forsaken stuff. Music, art, all of it. They were a big part of the game initially, and they really aren't anymore. Legion dipped its toe in at least variety and class cultures, and I think that worked great. Why not more who knows, ask the marketing department I guess.

[CaptainV]

Imho....

Dwarves.

Dwarves havent really had racial specific attention since... well, Cata.

You can argue that they had Dark Irons but thats not what im talking about, I mean literally Dwarves as a specific lore race with lore specific focus, aside from Magni, we get next to nothing on dwarves.

I remember a time Brann Bronzebeard was a big deal.

[Ardenaso]

Furbolgs, Ogres, Horde living humans

[geco]

Every race except humans, orcs and nightelves basically.

This.
The Elves weren't used Correctly yet. (How do they use them so many and that only gives you the feeling that they did not use them)
The Orcs used them beyond the limit and drown no longer makes sense.
Humans were always boring.

[uuuhname]

Tauren, worgen, pandaren by far.


No thesis needed to overly explain personal bias and falsely claim the contrary.

I would have to agree here. the pandaren are kind of in a weird spot considering their whole story and lore is tied to Pandaria and not really anywhere else. however there's no reason you can't have Chen Stormstout or a Chen stand in be something of a wondering monk the PC's run into every now and then /shrug

[Grazrug]

All of the Horde ones. Those who are overused are Draenei, night elves and humans. We have enough of those for years. Time to use the Hordies more they deserve it.

[Le Conceptuel]

I'd say all racial cultures could and should be utilized more, even Human and Orc. Blizz moved past dwelling on them and now keeps throwing vampires and angels at the wall, but I think less would've been more in this case.

WDYM the most interesting part of Warcraft lore for many players is the race they play? Nope, no culture. Can’t go in-depth with the culture. Who cares what they eat, how they live, the rituals of their religions, their folklore and architectural styles, the science their culture excels at, or the behavior and stereotypes of their cultural demographics?

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

The cultural differences between human kingdoms should be explored more in depth to give some real identifies to each kingdom and justify the division of Arathor Empire.

[mysticx]

The cultural differences between human kingdoms should be explored more in depth to give some real identifies to each kingdom and justify the division of Arathor Empire.

Haven't the human kingdoms pretty much ceased to exist, though?

Stormwind is still there, Gilneas has some people left, Stromgarde is... in limbo, being a warfront and all, but between the old Horde and the Forsaken, the rest are pretty much wrecked...

[Grazrug]

Haven't the human kingdoms pretty much ceased to exist, though?

Stormwind is still there, Gilneas has some people left, Stromgarde is... in limbo, being a warfront and all, but between the old Horde and the Forsaken, the rest are pretty much wrecked...

Stormwind, Stromgarde, Dalaran and Kul Tiras are all standing.

[Saltysquidoon]

Dal's been reduced to a neutral city
Kul'tiras still exists
Gilneas was destroyed in Cata
Alterac was destroyed in WCII
Lorderon was destroyed in WCIII
Stromgarde was destroyed offscreen
Stormwind was destroyed in WCI and rebuilt

That's not a lot of standing nations to play with the politics of.

[Kithelle]

1. Dwarfes
2. Gnomes
3. Worgen (As a people)
4. Pandarians
5. Elfs (Beside night elfs currently)
6. Taurens

But are Night Elves being featured? Not really...Tyrande is and one Elf doesn't make a race. Legion did a lot with all the Elves (well except Velves), BFA saw some things happening with Velves but still not much on the lore side for them.

I love Elves but everyone on your list (and others) deserve some more attention above them

- - - Updated - - -

Dal's been reduced to a neutral city
Kul'tiras still exists
Gilneas was destroyed in Cata
Alterac was destroyed in WCII
Lorderon was destroyed in WCIII
Stromgarde was destroyed offscreen
Stormwind was destroyed in WCI and rebuilt

That's not a lot of standing nations to play with the politics of.

Places could be perhaps rebuilt and repopulated...but they wont. I mean look how much time it took them to fix Stormwind after Deathwing's attack

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

Haven't the human kingdoms pretty much ceased to exist, though?

Stormwind is still there, Gilneas has some people left, Stromgarde is... in limbo, being a warfront and all, but between the old Horde and the Forsaken, the rest are pretty much wrecked...

Of course not Stormwind, Dalaran and Kul Tiras are intact and well, Stromgarde has been rebuilt and the Horde threat has been repelled and Gilneas can be rebuilt too.

[JABoyle3875]

Is it an Orc?
Is it a human?
Is it an undead? (strictly because of Sylvanas)

Yes? Then it is underused.

[Le Conceptuel]

I think it’s [the race I play] which ought to be, according to lore, the best but is cucked and bad in WoW. My race needs to be center-stage next expansion and have the most powerful member leading it.

/s

[Soon-TM]

I think it’s [the race I play] which ought to be, according to lore, the best but is cucked and bad in WoW. My race needs to be center-stage next expansion and have the most powerful member leading it.

/s

Please don't conflate the very vocal nelf/velf posters in these boards with the entirety of the lore-inclined playerbase.

[Le Conceptuel]

Please don't conflate the very vocal nelf/velf posters in these boards with the entirety of the lore-inclined playerbase.

Sensible. I suppose I was being a little overarching in my claim, but we all know there are two particular races I'm talking about.

[loras]

What are the races that are in your opinion underused in the story of Warcraft ,whenever it comes to political presence, the resolution of societal and and economic problems as well as military or magic support during conflicts ?

I feel that the Dwarves have been really underused during the expansions of Wow with them being one of the strongest military, technological and economical powers of the Alliance with them being the second biggest provider of high tech to the Alliance behind the Gnomes and while it's clear that they can't have a navy as large as Kul Tiras or Stormwind fleets theirs could still be a really dangerous and useful one with them having steam-powered, better armed and protected ships than most human ships. I also think that it would be interesting to see more of their internal issues such as seeing the Ironforge senate and see if Wildhammer and Dark Irons became part of the senate and what is their representation here, and what problems there must be with it.

The Wildhammers too have their usefulness with their Griffon riders but also their proximity to nature with them having many Shamans, and it's possible that they could have druids if the Night Elves or the Worgens teach them, while the Dark Iron have too lots of technology at their side with their own cannons, riffles but also their mole machines that could be very useful for infiltration or sabotage; and their connection and use of fire and shadow magics such as fire and magma elements or void creatures and their Dark Iron Golems that can be reinforced by magic such as the Omnitron Defense System could be very useful to the Alliance.

The Gnomes too have been really neglected with their technological expertise and capacity to produce strange but far from harmless technological devices or weapons haven't been exploited enough in the story. I am pretty sure that they could have found lots of means for example to fight the biological weapons of the Forsaken or Goblins weapons or Old Gods or Burning Legion minions. It's also have been noted that Gnomish mages can be very powerful and that they have the most creative repertoire of spells of all arcane users races but it's almost never seen in the story. The city of Mechagon and what technologies are found here are for me telling about the things they could have done and what Gnomeregan could be if they had some real focus on and that they were finally allowed to restore their capital and move forward from their loss.

On the Horde side I find that Nightborne and Blood Elves' mastery and knowledge of magic, as well as their unique techniques haven't been used enough by the Horde during both the Alliance-Horde War, the war against the Burning Legion and the recent conflict in BFA despite the two races being among the most knowledeable and powerful users of magic in Azeroth. Lorthemar is also in my opinion one of the most interesting and reasonnable racial leaders and it could be interesting to see what changes and reforms he could bring to his people to help restore and better their society.

I also feel that the Taurens rarely if almost never do something really interesting or amazing in the story despite being the strongest playable race but also having a good versatility and number of magic using classes such as druids, shamans, priests or paladins and outside of Baine, Mayla and Hamuul they don't have many leaders and other characters who do something important in the story, and even these are pretty flawed characters who don't do that much in the story, outside of rebelling against tyrannical warchiefs in Baine's case.

This going to sound weird: humans.

I mean BfA was the first expansion in a long time that focused on them decently in Kul Tiras, on them as humans being humans; pluriform, very far from united and honestly best off that way.

They're usually just sort of there as a backdrop, a prominent backdrop but a backdrop nonetheless, barring well-loved stories like the defias and maybe the cult of the damned / scarlet crusade (the former centres on undead and is mostly just historically human, rather than culturally, and the latter went to corruption crazy zealots pretty quick in a way that poorly resembles anything truly human).

Some might counter about lore characters, but keep in mind that just because zappie boi was on the frontline or vol'jin on the throne doesn't mean that the trolls as a race were getting decent development.

Barring that, Gilneans - it is really past time they got Gilneas back.

At least the gnomes are sort of doing their own thing by now, even if Gnomeregan is still weird.

[Drench]

Forsaken #1

[Saltysquidoon]

This going to sound weird: humans.

Honestly a fair point. There has been so little written about stormwind's society and culture it's almost impossible to categorise it beyond the most agressivly vanilla cliche fantasy medieval society that ever existed.

On the other hand Anduin, Jaina, Varian, Khadgar and Shaw have had so much screen time over the years most people would be forgiven for thinking they're overexposed.