The playable Undead race can be described with two narratives.
One, the official one that the Forsaken generally believe and promote, is that they are the rightful inhabitants of Lordaeron - that the fact that they died is irrelevant to their claim on that land because they're alive again. They escaped the domination of the Lich King, and now they are besieged on both sides (or at least were in Vanilla) between the Scourge's attempt to pull them back under the Lich King's thrall and the zealous humans of the Scarlet Crusade who wish to purge them from the land, making no distinction between the Scourge's mindless zombies and anyone afflicted with the curse of undeath.
Within this narrative, the Forsaken are innocent, forced to reluctantly take up arms against their former allies and even family members just to defend their own existence. Their fight is for nothing short of survival.
The other narrative, I think, generates less sympathy:
The Forsaken, under Sylvanas' leadership, are worse than the Scourge. At the very least, what you could say about the Scourge is that they did all their evil against their wills. The Lich King forced them to spread plague and death over the land. They had no choice, because they were not in control of their own bodies or minds.
But the Forsaken, by definition, are. And despite the fact that they have their will restored to them, they have chosen to not only continue using Scourge tactics - raising fallen enemies to serve in their army, creating abominations from the flesh of prisoners - but trying to innovate, like developing ever-more virulent strains of the plague, such that they seem to have agents in gaseous form that can liquefy people.
Rather than re-embrace their fellow humans and attempt to restore Lordaeron to its former glory, they have actively attempted to exterminate the surviving humans in their territories, and the list of backstabbings and double-dealing that they've committed even within the Horde is quite long.
The thing is, both of these narratives are true.
The Forsaken were probably right to turn against the humans while Garrithos (by the way, where was that guy even from?) was leading the forces up in Lordaeron. The guy wanted to lock up every last Blood Elf just for accepting (not seeking out) aid from the Naga.
But that only justifies so much.
As I wrote about in an earlier post, the Forsaken have something of an identity crisis. Sylvanas wants them to become immortal using the Val'kyr or any other magic she can get her hands on. The new Desolate Council (which, given the future of Undercity, is probably not long for this world, unless they play into my point, which I'm getting to) has members who aren't interested in that, but would prefer to just live out what extra time they have in this new form and let that be it.
Sylvanas has really pushed for the Forsaken to have an identity independent of having been humans in Lordaeron - something that serves her well politically, given that she was an elf from Quel'thalas. But you could easily be a Forsaken who still feels very much that they are the same person who was once a living, breathing human, and that perhaps you look back on King Terenas fondly, and wish that Tirisfal was green and bright once again.
So here's the curveball: if that describes you, you have a living Queen.
Priests in Legion get a couple of surprising champions. Among the first is Alonsus Faol, who, unbeknownst to, well, everyone, had actually risen as a zombie as part of the Scourge but then regained his will along with the Forsaken. He's undead, but does not seem to have any loyalty to Sylvanas, and still practices the Light despite the difficulty that poses for someone in his position.
But along with him is a woman named Calia Menethil.
If that last name did not tip you off, Calia is the younger sister of Arthas and the daughter of Terenas. And given that Arthas obviously never produced any heirs, that means that his little sister, Calia, is the rightful Queen of Lordaeron.
Does she want the job? Hell no. As she says, she's "just Calia now." Declaring herself Queen of Lordaeron would not only raise the question of "ok, how many living subjects do you even have?" but would also put a massive bullseye on her back for Sylvanas to shoot with one of her Black Arrows.
Reluctant though she may be, if you know any Joseph Campbell, this is practically a prerequisite to becoming the sort of hero who becomes a leader.
Sylvanas rules the Forsaken with a powerful cult of personality - probably bigger than even Garrosh had. Everyone seems to serve her with utter devotion - but remember, these people have free will. And what do you think happens to people who don't wish to serve the Dark Lady?
How many of the Forsaken are serving out of fear, rather than actual dedication?
If Sylvanas were suddenly put off-balance - say, perhaps, by losing her city to the Alliance (purely hypothetical, of course) - would that not be the perfect opportunity for those who remembered Lordaeron, and remembered the glory of the Alliance, to rally behind the True Queen of Lordaeron and restore their land to its rightful sovereign, welcoming their ancient allies and kin?
Now, there's a big problem to deal with here, of course: the Alliance is not likely to be eager to have the Undead walking its cities.
But on the other hand, when you consider that the Dark Iron Dwarves - long seen as the most bitter enemies of the Bronzebeard clan - and the Void Elves - people who are suffused with what is literally the opposite of what is "good" in the Alliance's main religion - will both be welcomed in, is it really that hard to imagine a faction that already allows Death Knights within its ranks couldn't possibly allow a group of dedicated, proud humans that just happen to have a little case of the deads?
One would need to come up with a visual distinction for it to fit the Allied Race model as we've seen with the six announced races - you could go so far as the Nathanos/Death Knight human form, or you could do something to show that these people, say "New Lordaeron," have somehow severed their link to Sylvanas in a magical way.
And man, if you ever wanted a chance to do Undead Paladins, I think this would be your opportunity.
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