Magic Wish Granted: Which races would you have on the Horde and Alliance?

[Triceron]

A magical fairy descends, granting you a wish to choose what races would be on the Alliance and Horde. This wish overrides all the history of WoW, as if any current and previous Racial options never existed.

- Please categorize full list or races per faction. There should be no expectation that we're keeping the current list of Alliance and Horde races; we're not just modifying it, we're completely redefining it. If you just mark down 'I want Naga on Alliance and Ogres on Horde' then those are the only two playable races. FULL LISTS PLEASE!

- Existing players do not have to be regarded. No need to pander to the X crowd just to keep any given current race
- Cut and add any number of races. Note down any Neutral races you intend to consider
- Categorize them however you wish. Think we should have Single-gender races as full options? Think we should be able to mix-and-match Racials? Bam! Wish granted

[DatToffer]

If we can go with Neutral, can we go with more factions than Horde and Alliance ? I have my old six factions concept I could just list here, instead of shoving everything into Horde and Alliance.

[Mysterymask]

You know what fuck it let's get weird 6 for each with random crossovers cause fuck it

Horde
Centaur
Ronso
Protoss
Grassrunners
Phrexians
Madolches

Alliance
Harpies
Drow
Terrans
Miqo'te
Hedgehogs (think Sonic)
Agents (The Matrix Online)

Hey you said whatever so I'm getting weird have fun googling

[Katsutomai]

Hm..

Alliance

Saberon
Worgen
Human
High Elf
Night Elf

Horde

Orc
Ogre
Troll
Centaur
Taunka

Neutral

Pandaren
Vulpera
Forsaken
Blood Elf
Goblin
Vrykul
Naga
Tauren

Deleted From Existence

Gnomes
Diaper Gnomes

[Triceron]

If we can go with Neutral, can we go with more factions than Horde and Alliance ? I have my old six factions concept I could just list here, instead of shoving everything into Horde and Alliance.

No real limits. Magic wishes aren't really bound by these limits, but I just wanted to keep Horde and Alliance as frameworks so it doesn't get overly complicated; feel free to change that if you like though.

[Amnaught]

Limited, but possible hybrid races. Half-orc and half-elf, both as neutral races.

Unlockable race/class combinations.

Night Elf worgen, really missed the opportunity in Darkshore for this one.

Horde Eredar.

Felborne Elves on Horde.

Other races of undead for Horde.

Vrykul and Ogres, at their proper height, with a "crouch" toggle so they can fit through any door that a Zandalari or Kul Tiran can.

Horde and Alliance separated into two factions each, still able to talk and group with each other, but separate factions.

Orc, tauren, and trolls on the Horde
Humans, dwarves and gnomes on the Alliance
Undead, Blood Elves, and Goblins on a new Horde-adjacent faction.
Night elves, draenei, and worgen on a new Alliance-adjacent faction.

Bonus points if you find a way for each faction to have a different standing with all of the others. Obviously the Horde and Alliance are at war, but what if the Night Elf faction was only at war with the Undead faction, and neutral towards the Alliance and Horde? You could still only group and chat with people of allied or neutral factions. Guilds would choose a faction and no one from an at-war faction could join.

[Clone]

This would be my take

Alliance: strictly Theramore aligned
humans
dwarves
high elves
half elf
night elves as a later addition

Horde: strictly Thrall's Horde
orcs
trolls
taurens
ogres
mok'nathal
forsakeen as later addition

[DatToffer]

Alright then, I'll try to keep it nice and clean.

First I'm gonna separate the Alliance and Horde from the Night elves and Forsaken :

Horde
Orcs, Trolls, Taurens, Goblins, Ogres, Taunkas, Highmountain, Mag'har, Zandalari, Vulperas, Mok'nathal, Sethraks, Hozens, Dragonmaw, Amani, Gilgoblins, Drogbars, Yaungols

Alliance
Humans, Bronzebeard, Gnomes, High-elves and Blood elves, Draenei, Wildhammer, Lightforged, Void elves, Mechagnomes, Dark iron, Kul tirans, Gilnean worgens,Arathi humans, Dalaran dragonbound, Alterac humans, Earthen, Jinyus, Ankoan, Forstborn, Broken

Then I'll just give Night elves and Forsaken their own factions :

Forsaken
Undead, Undead elves, Banshee, Nerubians, Arakkoas, Gargoyles, Kvaldirs, Fal'dorei, Ice trolls, Drusts, San'layn, Flesh golems (see frankenstein monsters), Val'kyr, Liches, Slimes, Shades, High-cast Nerubians, Cryptlords

Night elves
Night elves, Furbolgs, Dryads, Treants, Sporelings, Night elves worgens, Nightborne, Sprite incarnates (Sprite darters as humanoid), Nagas, Mountain giants incarnate (Mountain giants made smaller), Botani, Furbolg blessed by the Wild, Dragonbound elves, Repented satyrs, Crystal dryads, Blessed harpies and blessed quillboars

Neutral
Pandarens, Ethereals, Brokers, Tortollans


---------


More factions : Burning Legion and Mongrel Horde

Burning Legion
Felguards, Imps, Succubus, Nathrezims, Shivarras, Satyrs, Eredars, Felborne, Aranasi, Wyrmtongue, Annihilan, Voidwalkers, Gan'arg, Mo'arg, Netherdrakes, Fel orcs, Inquisitor, Felblood elves

Mongrel Horde of Garrosh
Gnolls, Kobolds, Troggs, Centaurs, Harpies, Quillboars, Snobolds, Sauroks, Stonetroggs, Mogu, Dragonmaw, Stone orcs, Blessed gnolls, Hobgoblins, Depth kobolds, Dark harpies, Sandtaurs

[Dazmalak]

4 factions-

Horde: Orcs, Trolls, Goblins, Ogres.

Alliance: Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes

Forsaken: Undead, Blood Elves, Worgen

Guardians: Night Elves, Tauren, Draenei

Neutral: Pandaren

Removed from game: Vulpera, Void Elves

I'd make Allied race skins available to the base models for character creation. Draenei would resemble their original broken forms from WC3 and not be space travelers with ridiculous technology. Blood elves would be closer to their original depiction as quasi mana vampires.

I'd double down on the factional archetypes and what makes each of them special. There would be class restrictions in each faction as well as special classes in each faction and race.

[Polygons]

Horde:
Orc/Ogre hybrids only, no full ogres
Exiles (humans)

Alliance:
Ethereals no gender
Satyr

[Tayfe]

Alliance

Nigh elfs
Human / Kultiran
Dwarves
Worgens
Draenei/ Lightforjed
High Elfs
Sethrak
Arakoa
Shaldorei
Tortollan
Jinyu/Ankoan
Sylvar


Horde

Orcs/ Maghar
Troll / Zandalari
Ogre
Mok'nathal
Blood Elfs
Sanlayns
Forsaken
Tauren / Highmountain
Hozen
Vulpera
Goblin / Unshackled
Venthir

[Th3Scourge]

Hozen for all

[Lochton]

Horde:
Race:	Addition:
Orcs	All Orc choices under customization selection
Tauren	All Tauren choices under customization selection
Troll	All Troll choices under customization selection
Undead
Ogres
Saberon

Alliance:
Race:	Addition:
Humans	All Human choices under customization selection
Dwarves	All Dwarf choices under customization selection
Gnomes	All Gnome choices under customization selection
Night Elves
Worgen
Draenei	All Draeneichoices under customization selection

Neutral:
Race:	Reason/Addition:
Goblin	There should be an option for Goblins to pick their faction
Vulpera	There should be an option for Vulpera to pick their faction
Lightforged Undead	There should be an option for Lightforged Undead to pick their faction
Pandaren	There should be an option for Pandaren to pick their faction
High Elves	There should be an option for High Elves to pick their faction	All High Elf choices under customization selection
Nightborne	There should be an option for Nightborne to pick their faction
Ethereal	There should be an option for Ethereals to pick their faction
Broker	There should be an option for Brokers to pick their faction
Botani	There should be an option for Botani to pick their faction
Naga	There should be an option for Naga to pick their faction
Satyr	There should be an option for Satyr to pick their faction
Sethrak	There should be an option for Sethrak to pick their faction
Venthyr	There should be an option for Venthyr to pick their faction
Kyrian	There should be an option for Botani to pick their faction

[The5thVegetable]

You know what fuck it let's get weird 6 for each with random crossovers cause fuck it

Horde
Centaur
Ronso
Protoss
Grassrunners
Phrexians
Madolches

Alliance
Harpies
Drow
Terrans
Miqo'te
Hedgehogs (think Sonic)
Agents (The Matrix Online)

Hey you said whatever so I'm getting weird have fun googling

How dare you give miqo'te to the Alliance! I want my catboys with spiky shoulderpads, damnit!




Oh yeah also I want Ogres for Horde and Krokul for Alliance. And that's basically about it. Maybe forest trolls actually, those could be cool.

[DatToffer]

Horde:
Race:	Addition:
Orcs	All Orc choices under customization selection
Tauren	All Tauren choices under customization selection
Troll	All Troll choices under customization selection
Undead
Ogres
Saberon

Alliance:
Race:	Addition:
Humans	All Human choices under customization selection
Dwarves	All Dwarf choices under customization selection
Gnomes	All Gnome choices under customization selection
Night Elves
Worgen
Draenei	All Draeneichoices under customization selection

Neutral:
Race:	Reason/Addition:
Goblin	There should be an option for Goblins to pick their faction
Vulpera	There should be an option for Vulpera to pick their faction
Lightforged Undead	There should be an option for Lightforged Undead to pick their faction
Pandaren	There should be an option for Pandaren to pick their faction
High Elves	There should be an option for High Elves to pick their faction	All High Elf choices under customization selection
Nightborne	There should be an option for Nightborne to pick their faction
Ethereal	There should be an option for Ethereals to pick their faction
Broker	There should be an option for Brokers to pick their faction
Botani	There should be an option for Botani to pick their faction
Naga	There should be an option for Naga to pick their faction
Satyr	There should be an option for Satyr to pick their faction
Sethrak	There should be an option for Sethrak to pick their faction
Venthyr	There should be an option for Venthyr to pick their faction
Kyrian	There should be an option for Botani to pick their faction

Your neutral list is actually pretty well thought

[Luck4]

First off I would break Alliance and Horde into three factions. Then I would remove Undead as a playable race, and then I would retcon Blood Elves lore a bit by making all Kael'thas followers Blood Elves and the ones remaining in Azeroth would stay as High Elves, no name changing, no use of burning crystals, no mana tap, etc. Instead, they would seek help from the Highborne Night Elves to make a new well. Btw, Night Elves here made amends with the Highborne before Vanilla.

So let's get into it:

Allied races included!

Alliance

Humans - Kul'tiran Humans
Dwarves - Dark Iron Dwarves
Gnomes - Mechagnomes
Worgen - Saberon

Horde

Orcs - Maghar Orcs
Trolls - Zandalari Trolls
Goblin - Gilgoblin
Tauren - Highmountain Tauren

Eldar

Night Elves - Nightborne
High Elves - Void Elves
Draenei - Lightforged Draenei
Pandaren - Vulpera

Sorry Undead/Forsaken fans, but I don't like your race, your leaders, your lore, your cities.

[arkanon]

Alliance:

Humans
Dwarves

Horde:

Orks
Forsaken









That is all.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The two faction "Horde vs Alliance" dichotomy makes no sense after WC3. It was resolved in TFT with the Horde's exodus from the EK to Kalimdor. The Horde and the Alliance are located on different continents and don't want anything to do with each other. Note how the Horde and the Alliance did not ghave any involvement in TFT's storyline. That's because their story had been told and was finished. The bonus campaign had to stupidly contrive reasons for the two to fight.

In staying with the lore of WC3, the Night Elves and the Forsaken should not join the Alliance or Horde.

• The Night Elves in WC3 were depicted as an empire that rivalled the combined strength of the Alliance. They had no need to join the Alliance. The Elves can singlehandedly wipe out the Horde overnight if they really wanted to. Joining the Alliance makes no strategic sense, as they are located on different continents. The Alliance doesn't want anything to do with events happening outside the Eastern Kingdom, nor do the Night Elves care what happens to the EK. Unlike every other Alliance race, the Elves do not worship the Light and culturally have nothing in common with the Alliance. They should never have been shoehorned into the Alliance, period.

• Similarly, the Forsaken joining the Horde makes no sense. Didn't Thrall just lead a slave rebellion? Why then does he accept a slaver into the Horde? And didn't he sail away from the EK to leave those Alliance problems behind? Why is he getting entangled in the EK again? How does either side benefit? Spoiler: they don't. They're located on completely separate continents. The Horde doesn't have adaquate maritime infrastructure, meaning that if Sylvanas wanted them to come over to the EK she would have to set aside ships for that task, and the few remaining functional Lordaeron ships really need to be used to deter invasions from the Scourge and the Alliance. Furthermore, the Horde is made up of tiny refugee tribes of hunter-gatherers. They have no heavy industry like the Alliance. The Horde and the Forsaken cannot meaningfully contribute to each other. And why would your average Forsaken - made up of Lordaeron and Dalaran humans and Quel'thelas elves - want anything to do with the Horde? That's a dealbreaker. The Horde ruined their world! It'd be like telling Germans, Poles, and Soviets to work together. Or Japanese and Chinese and Koreans to work together. Sorry, no existential threat like the Scourge or the Alliance will allow childish stuff such as "they must put aside their differences!" to happen. Just won't. It's a stupid saying perpetuated by a cannibalistic media culture by authors who have never bothered to study history or talk to people in the real world.

So TFT ends with us having 7 factions:

• 1. Alliance (Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, High Elves, and maybe Gilnean Worgen)

• 2. Horde (Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Goblins, Ogres, and maybe some others like Quillboar, Furbolgs, Centaurs, etc)

• 3. Night Elf Empire (Night Elves, Dryads, Treants, and Giants)

• 4. Forsaken (Undead human, undead high elves, and flesh golems)

• 5. Scourge (Undead human, San'layn, Nerubians, flesh golems, etc)

• 6. Illidari (Blood Elves, defector Night Elves, Naga, Demons, Broken, and maybe other races of outland. Ogres, maybe?).

• 7. Legion (many different species of demons, also some defectors from other factions like Eredar, Orcish warlocks or Satyrs)

Right away we have a problem where the playerbase is too divided. In WoW, you only really need to have two characters (1 Horde and 1 Alliance) to see most of the story content. With this setup the player would need at least 7. If you don't make the super evil factions playable (Forsaken, Scourge, and the Legion), you still have the problem of your players needing to level up at least 5 different characters to experience all of the story content. At that point, you're better off making a singleplayer game (ie, Warcraft 4) then you are making an MMO in which players are going to have to invest hundreds of hours on a single character, if not thousands.

(The answer is, ofcourse, to just make a Warcraft 4. That's the most effective way to have multiple different POVs in a game).

For WoW, we really need to cut down this list to three factions. MAYBE four factions at the very most but that's really stretching it. Because one of the core appeals of WoW and its clones are the diversity of the factions, the Night Elves will be automatically cut from being playable. Arthas and the Scourge were more popular than the Elves anyway, so them being cut won't be anywhere near as big a deal. They can be made into a local threat for the Horde or Illidari questlines.

The Forsaken and the Scourge are redundant, as they are both undead factions that kill and raise anyone they can find led by evil dictators who are trying to exterminate all life and take over the world. Again, the Scourge and Arthas were very popular, so I'd probably lean towards making them playable over the Forsaken. Also, like the Night Elves, the Forsaken don't have as much race diversity as the alternatives. Thus, I would make the Forsaken a local threat for the Alliance questlines.

The Legion weren't playable in WC3 and didn't have a fan favorite character, let alone even a playable campaign. Demons are already a part of the Illidari so keeping the Legion isn't a necessity.

That leaves us with four diverse factions.

• 1. Alliance (Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, High Elves, and maybe Gilnean Worgen)

• 2. Horde (Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Goblins, Ogres, and maybe some others like Quillboar, Furbolgs, Centaurs, etc)

• 3. Scourge (Undead human, San'layn, Nerubians, flesh golems, etc)

• 4. Illidari (Blood Elves, Naga, Demons, Broken, and maybe other races of Outland. Ogres, maybe? Arakkoa? Defector Night Elves, maybe? Or Satyrs?).

Four factions. This is really stretching it, but it might just be doable. Cutting any one of these playable factions is going to be very disappointing for Warcraft fans. If one must be cut, then it will probably have to be Scourge, as they are the most evil. It's easier to write Horde, Alliance, and Illidari characters coming together to fight against new expansion threats than it is to write them fighting with the zombie army that is trying to kill and raise everyone (and who also killed all of their friends and family and ruined their kingdoms). It's also easy to justify neutrals like the Pandaren joining any of these three factions.

The Scourge are still pretty popular, so playing as them could be a limited game mode like playing as the forces of Sauron in LOTRO, but they wouldn't get questing content like the other factions. Not being able to quest as an undead character would be pretty disappointing though, so each faction has access to Death Knights. Same starting zone as in Wrath where the player gets raised by the Lich King, goes on a short murder spree, and then breaks away and joins of the three factions.

So we have our three playable factions:

• 1. Alliance (Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, High Elves, and maybe Gilnean Worgen).

• 2. Horde (Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Goblins, Ogres, and maybe some others like Quillboar, Furbolgs, Centaurs, etc)

• 3. Illidari (Blood Elves, Naga, Demons, Broken, and other races of Outland, etc).

Other than Death Knights, I can't really think of any neutrals that could plausibly join any of the three factions besides Pandaren. The Pandaren questline that introduces them to the Illidari could have interesting story material, as they remember the War of the Ancients. They would at first be highly skeptical of the Illidari's use of the Fel, but if they got to see the Illidari truly fixing up Outland and pushing back the Legion, as well as interacting with some repentant Illidari demons, they might come around. Oh, speaking of the Pandaria races: Jinyu for Alliance, Hozen for Horde, and Saurok for Illidari. The Saurok were experiments that were cast aside, so Illidan would really sympathize with their broken, pitiful state. That is pretty much what his faction is all about, after all. A bunch of broken rejects coming together.

Draenei should not be included as a playable. Don't mistake me; I quite like Draenei. They're one of my favorite races. But the version of them introduced in BC was a blatant retcon and introduced tremendous plotholes to the game. In Lord of the Clans, we were told that the Orcish Horde's greatest accomplishment prior to invading Azeroth was... massacring some farming villages on Draenor. In that sense, it contextualizes the fake glory of the Horde and their cold hearted petty savagery. But then BC reintroduces them as an ancient, super advanced spacefaring race with hyperdrives and shield generators and death star lasers, who really should have wiped out the Horde overnight. And then them joining the Alliance makes any faction war look nonsensical given the level of technology they have.

[Dejiko]

Either abandon the idea of factions or let people choose which one they would like to join, regardless of race.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Phrexians

They definitely could have slid right into the Warcraft setting, replacing the Forsaken/Scourge/Legion, what with them being a horde of robo-zombies trying to take over the universe. Pretty memorable aesthetics too.

Vrykul and Ogres, at their proper height, with a "crouch" toggle so they can fit through any door that a Zandalari or Kul Tiran can.

I think it would have been cool if tall races like Ogres just couldn't fit into human sized buildings at all, let alone Gnome sized buildings. It would give playing different races more flavor. In the latest FFXIV expansion, Lalafell sized buildings were introduced that only Lalas could enter, which was cool (though I wish that was used more than it was). It'd also make the world feel more immersive if houses were scaled to the size of their occupants. The average size of a human peasant's house in WoW is ridiculous.

Neutral:
Race:	Reason/Addition:
Goblin	There should be an option for Goblins to pick their faction

I suppose Goblins do work for the highest bidders, and the Alliance is far and away the wealthiest faction... but evidently the Alliance almost never employs Goblins in the entire franchise. Probably because they'd rather spend their money paying for Gnomish quality rather than for Goblin junk that goes haywire.

Neutral:
Race:	Reason/Addition:
Ethereal	There should be an option for Ethereals to pick their faction

I know Etherals have always been a popular race option, but I struggle to think of a reason why they should care about the faction conflict on Azeroth. The Etherals can teleport to any world or dimension at will. That's why they're running a transdimmensional and intergalactic trading service in the first place, because that's more valuable to their time than fighting for some savage's war on some backwater planet. Maybe they could befriend a few people in the Horde or the Alliance, or might want to buy some land in Dun Morogh to build a vacation home, but he's not going to care to fight or quest. I guess there might be one exception to the rule who wants to go adventure across the universe and has decided to adventure on Azeroth for a time, but why would the Horde or the Alliance trust such a fickle person with valuable intelligence?

Same problem with the Brokers (even though they're cool). Or really, any of the Shadowlands races. They've got better things to do than fight on Azeroth.

The Dark Covenant

Named for the Warcraft 3 mission in which Lady Vashj recruits Kael'thas. Recruit Sylvanas and the Forsaken post-TFT.

1. Blood Elves
2. San'layn (as undead High-Elves)
3. Forsaken (undead humans)

Kael'thas and the elves aren't going to work with any Undead faction. The Undead destroyed their kingdom and nearly wiped out their entire race. Furthermore, Sylvanas is no better than the Lich King, doing everything he did in committing mass murder and enslaving people and comitting horrific human experimentation. The very things the Illidari fought against when they went to war with the Scourge in TFT.

Thematically, the Forsaken joining the outcast faction makes sense, but logistically the Forsaken benefit little from joining these guys. Most of Illidan's forces are in Outland while the Forsaken are stuck on Azeroth, a completely different planet. The Dark Portal is stuck on the other side of the continent and the Forsaken would have to travel past a dozen different hostile Alliance kingdoms to reach it. It's the same problem with the Forsaken joining the Horde, where it is logistically impossible for one side to benefit from the other.

Sorry Undead/Forsaken fans, but I don't like your race, your leaders, your lore, your cities.

I think the undead are an integral part of Warcraft's soul. Unfortunately, the Forsaken storyline just wasn't setup well to make sense in a MMO where each player race has to be a part of a faction and there are only two. Sylvanas is just as evil as the Lich King, which means that realistically nobody wants to be her friend. And her faction is stuck in Northern EK and surrounded by a lot of powerful hostile nations that should be able to pretty easily wipe her out. She has nothing to provide to people on other continents or planets so they have no reason to help her out, and even if they did she's again stuck in Northern EK which makes it extremely difficult to provide aid to her.

In order for the Forsaken to work in WoW, you need to rewrite TFT and either transplant them to another continent or world (ie, the Forsaken break free in Northrend, so they're not surrounded by a dozen different hostile kingdoms that would wipe her out overnight), and/or you have to make her not so ridiculously evil so she can plausibly forge alliances with other factions.

Or you don't make a MMO, and you make Warcraft 4 and you can have as many different factions of varying different moralities and in different predicaments as you want.