Friday, February 9, 2018

"Gorgrond Orcs" Map in Latest Alpha Build: A New Allied Race?

In the latest BFA alpha build, dataminers at MMO-Champion have discovered a minimap for Gorgrond apparently called "Gorgrond Orcs." This does not appear to be a map of the full zone, which suggests that this could be for a scenario to unlock an as-yet unannounced Allied Race.

Gorgrond, of course, was a zone in Warlords of Draenor, home to the Laughing Skull and Blackrock clans. When Draenor A was destroyed after the Second War, Gorgrond and Frostfire Ridge smashed into each other, creating Blade's Edge Mountains.

So if "Gorgrond Orcs" were to be an allied race, there are a couple implications:

First, that they're from the alternate universe of Warlords of Draenor. There is no Gorgrond in the main universe.

Second, they could have two potential appearances: Most Orcs prior to the Fel corruption (the Draenor B Orcs were exposed to it for a far shorter period of time) had dark brown skin, like Garrosh (who was isolated from the rest of the Horde due to having had the Red Pox as a child.) Thus, Brown-skinned Orcs have always been considered a possibility for playable characters, and when Allied Races were announced (and even earlier, when people were throwing out the possibility of "sub-races," like Dark Iron Dwarves, who would of course become an Allied Race) most people assumed Mag'har would be an option (Mag'har being the quarantined orcs at Garadar led for a time by Garrosh.)

However, opening this up to Draenor B, we have a few things to consider:

First off, with Gorgrond, we could easily get Blackrock Orcs, who have charcoal-grey skin. Ironically, some of the existing major Orc figures are Blackrocks, like Saurfang and Eitrigg, though why they don't have grey skin like the ones found in Burning Steppes has never been answered. (And given that Saurfang just got a new model, it seems unlikely they'd change that anytime soon.)

But Gorgrond could also just be the setting for the scenario, which means we could also get other Orc clans. Granted, Frostwolves, Warsong, Shadowmoon, Bleeding Hollow, and Thunderlord Orcs are not really visibly distinct outside of tattoos and clothing, but Shattered Hand Orcs are, for some reason, pale white.

If we were to get Orcs from any of the Draenor clans, this would mean a fairly broad amount of variety. Given that we left Grommash alive at the end of Warlords, even counted him as an ally, it would not be that crazy for the Horde to absorb the Iron Horde entirely, which would be a pretty huge boost to its numbers, with Grommash as the faction leader.

So if Draenor Orcs are to be the Horde's fourth Allied Race, who then would the Alliance get?

One thing people have been talking about is the idea that Kul Tirasian humans might actually go that way. Kul Tiras, after all, has been an Alliance member before, and adding more humans to the Alliance would be a decent mirror to adding more Orcs to the Horde.

Tirasian (I think that's actually the demonym) human models have shown a far greater variety in terms of physique, though why Kul Tiras has fat and thin people while Stormwind is entirely populated by super-athletic types is an issue that adding Tirasians would kind of highlight.

I would not recommend holding your breath for Allied Races of those that already have them - don't expect Taunka, Wildhammer Dwarves, a separate Highborne, Forest Trolls, Broken Draenei, or, I'm sorry, High Elves. But that means we have Undead, Goblins, Worgen, Gnomes, Pandaren, and if I'm wrong in this article, Orcs and Humans left to "ally."

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