New allied races.

[Grazrug]

Quick question. Do you think the covenants will become allied races? If yes whom gets which and why?

I think Venthyr will join the Horde and the Sylvar join the alliance. That would be the logical conclusion.

[Maljinwo]

Hopefully none

Going into the land of dead and fucking up the mystery was bad enough that a random grandma was hanging around in Oribos
No need to get any of the Shadowlands' people into Azeroth to make death even more irrelevant

[Progenitor Aquarius]

I would love to have Kyrians and Venthyr as allied races! That would be amazing.

[Villager720]

I don't think they will be, nor should they be. When this expansion ends, nothing from the Shadowlands (including access) should persist lorewise in Azeroth.
They've trivialized death enough as it is without Kael'thas and Uther visiting their homelands whenever they feel like it.

[BaumanKing]

Instead of adding new allied races, how about developing existing ones? There are many playable races that continue to sit on the bench in terms of customization and relevance in lore.

[Khaza-R]

I guess they could be a 9.2.5 pre-order feature like Legion ARs were. But I really doubt it.

I don't know why they would come to Azeroth to help us fight dragons.

[Amathricus]

I wondered this going into ShadowLands but I'd say 100% no, simply because they don't have the varying facial looks. When we got the Allied Races in Legion/BfA, from the start you could see how different each of the members of those races could look. Facial features (eyes, noses etc) and how detailed they looked. If you look at a Kyrian or a Venthyr, the faces basically all look the same, there is no variety. The faces themselves don't even look too detailed vs playable races.

I agree it would be fun to have some of these races to play, but it seems unlikely. And honestly, I'm okay with that at this point. We get to move on to newer and more draconic (apparently) things. lol

[loras]

Quick question. Do you think the covenants will become allied races? If yes whom gets which and why?

I think Venthyr will join the Horde and the Sylvar join the alliance. That would be the logical conclusion.

You have a strange idea of logic if you think creatures from the land of the dead should come to the land of the living.

Personally i think none of them really fit any race, the Kyrians are true neutral by design, the Sylvar are chaotic neutral by design, the Venthyr lawful neutral and the Necrolords are just a bunch of chanceless nonsense.

At most i could see the forsaken picking up some tricks from the necrolords, leading to forsaken with necrolord looks.

[Gnomette]

I would not want any of the races in Shadowlands to be playable, they all feel like something pulled out of a different medium that was forcibily inserted in to WoW. Bland, boring, very uninspiring and ill fitting. They just don't belong, the next time they do this they should really out source someone like Chris Metzen who's an actual TTRPG nerd that knows how to create races appropiate for the setting.

Shadowlands feels like a discount off brand version of WoW that is trying to pass itself off as the main brand, like they glanced at Raid: Shadow legends then decided that was what they wanted to emulate aesthetically for some new races. Generic is the word. I'm still waiting for them to add the rest of the troll tribes to the game. Sand trolls, ice trolls and forest trolls variants that are loyal to the Zandalari Empire. They were just forgotten about.

[Wonderment2]

I doubt it, I think we would have seen it set up by now of they were.

Maybe in a few expansions.

[Grazrug]

Instead of adding new allied races, how about developing existing ones? There are many playable races that continue to sit on the bench in terms of customization and relevance in lore.

I disagree. Blizzard made it clear that new races have always connection to the current plot. So having the covenants join us is a logical leap.
ogical leap-

[Skytotem]

Quick question. Do you think the covenants will become allied races? If yes whom gets which and why?

I think Venthyr will join the Horde and the Sylvar join the alliance. That would be the logical conclusion.

Ideally, we'll get customizations themed after the Venthyr for San'layn and Alliance nelf souls that died in Teldrassil will get reincarnated in vaguely Sylvar-like forms.

[shoc]

They will obviously be adding all 4 of them as new allied races as thanks for saving the Shadowlands. Angels, Vampires, Fauns and Undead Hulks are all classic RPG archetypes. Ultimately the playable races in WoW are enablers of specific RPG fantasies, these four are just as key as Orcs, Dwarves and Elves.

They were clearly set up from the beginning to be this way. Draka and Kael will bring playable Maldraxxi and Venthyr to the Horde, Uther and Ysera will bring playable Kyrian and Sylvar to the Alliance.

Forget about lore, the development of 4 whole races is a huge investment, and implementing them as ARs is how they make their ROI.

[Grazrug]

They will obviously be adding all 4 of them as new allied races as thanks for saving the Shadowlands. Angels, Vampires, Fauns and Undead Hulks are all classic RPG archetypes. Ultimately the playable races in WoW are enablers of specific RPG fantasies, these four are just as key as Orcs, Dwarves and Elves.

They were clearly set up from the beginning to be this way. Draka and Kael will bring playable Maldraxxi and Venthyr to the Horde, Uther and Ysera will bring playable Kyrian and Sylvar to the Alliance.

Forget about lore, the development of 4 whole races is a huge investment, and implementing them as ARs is how they make their ROI.

Exactly. I am happy we are on terms here.

[Aucald]

The Kyrian and Venthyr are the only Shadowlands denizens I can see easily mapping to an Allied Race. The Night Fae are actually a collection of different races: the Slyvar, Vorkai, Faerie, Tirnenn, and a motley assortment of spirit beings of all manners. Similar to the Necrolords, who consist of various types and forms of undead beings of different proportions, from the slender and skeletal Lich-like casters, hulking abominations and giant humanoids like Margrave Krexus, and the spider-like Aranakk.

[Eosia]

Quick question. Do you think the covenants will become allied races? If yes whom gets which and why?

I think Venthyr will join the Horde and the Sylvar join the alliance. That would be the logical conclusion.

But the problem is there are multiple races in each covenant. Granted some are more support, but there is no single "Maldraxxi race". Same goes for Ardenweald as you have the Sylvar, the Vorkai, and the faries. All three of them play an integral and major role in that zone. Granted Blizzard can just pick one and be all like "Here's what you get".

But the problem becomes why would any of them join one faction over the other? As far as the Lore is concerned, there is only one Maw Walker.. our individual character. So all four covenants were assisted by the Horde and the Alliance, depending on which faction we ourselves play. Inventing slights to make one join one faction and not the other would be sloppy writing unlike Legion/BfA where each Allied Race had specific and logical reasons for picking the side that they did such as Tyrande's treating Alyssra like she was Azshara versus Lady Liadrin who empathized with her because the High Elves of Quel'thalas went through the same thing the Nightbourne did when Arthas corrupted the Sunwell resurrecting Kel'thuzad. Or it was just obvious that no explanation was needed like the Zandalari Trolls and Kul'tirans.

We do not need to have allied races added every expansion. Same with classes.

[Rendark]

We can only hope that they never add any new allied races.

[Hugnomo]

I so so so so hope(d) so. It's looking less likely. But I'm not losing hope until the 9.2.5 is released. Or prepatch

- - - Updated - - -

The Kyrian and Venthyr are the only Shadowlands denizens I can see easily mapping to an Allied Race. The Night Fae are actually a collection of different races: the Slyvar, Vorkai, Faerie, Tirnenn, and a motley assortment of spirit beings of all manners. Similar to the Necrolords, who consist of various types and forms of undead beings of different proportions, from the slender and skeletal Lich-like casters, hulking abominations and giant humanoids like Margrave Krexus, and the spider-like Aranakk.

Kutirans aren't only big boys and girls either, yet ...

- - - Updated - - -

They will obviously be adding all 4 of them as new allied races as thanks for saving the Shadowlands. Angels, Vampires, Fauns and Undead Hulks are all classic RPG archetypes. Ultimately the playable races in WoW are enablers of specific RPG fantasies, these four are just as key as Orcs, Dwarves and Elves.

They were clearly set up from the beginning to be this way. Draka and Kael will bring playable Maldraxxi and Venthyr to the Horde, Uther and Ysera will bring playable Kyrian and Sylvar to the Alliance.

Forget about lore, the development of 4 whole races is a huge investment, and implementing them as ARs is how they make their ROI.

I am so wishing you're right. Holding my breath since the expac announcement for this..

[Thestrawman]

Allied races were a BFA feature. They aren't coming back.

[Aucald]

Kutirans aren't only big boys and girls either, yet ...

I doubt they'd make the abomination and gladiator-type Necrolords available for any Allied Races, for obvious gameplay-related issues. Ditto for Night Fae's Tirnenn or Faeries, and probably the Vorkai since they're quadrupedal. I suppose you could just take the more humanoid Sylvar and any of the humanoid bipedal Necrolord types, but that would still be a pretty diminished offering compared to the more fully-featured and customizable Kyrian and Venthyr.