The reason we're getting so many new races this expansion is that each is really a variant of an existing race. Had we only gotten, say, Kul Tiran Humans (which, based on my use of the glyph on pickpocketing that gives you a disguise based on who you pickpocketed, look like they'll just be referred to as "Kul Tiran" for their race) and Zandalari Trolls, some very well might have complained that these were too similar to existing races to be as big of an expansion feature as Draenei and Blood Elves or Worgen and Goblins had been (and Pandaren, though they were the only race released with Mists, also came with a whole class.)
And besides, people have been asking for Dark Iron Dwarves, Mag'har Orcs, and High Elves for ages, and, well, 2/3 ain't bad! (Personally, though they came out of nowhere, I actually really like the Void Elves, and I think they're an interesting jumping off point to explore what the Void really is.) So by introducing all these races en masse, it feels like a significant-enough feature to match something like brand-new races (and with their own racial traits, in a mechanical sense, these are entirely new races.)
Naturally, as someone who has a sentimental attachment toward my 12-year-old characters as well as a reluctance to shell out $25 for race changes, most of these new races are going to wind up being for secondary alts.
But thinking about the races themselves, there's an interesting theme.
All of the Alliance allied races that are currently out are imbued with a sort of inherent magic to them.
The Lightforged Draenei are saturated with the magic of the light - my favorite blue aliens in this case aren't even blue anymore. The Draenei have historically been devout worshippers of the Light, but these people have it as a part of their essence. What does that do for their free will? And will there be an expectation that the Draenei should all undergo the Lightforging process? Velen seems to have become disillusioned with the moral absolutism of the Naaru after what happened between Xe'ra (I can never remember where the apostrophe goes) and Illidan, and while I think his connection to the Light is still strong, I do think he would balk at such a radical action, at least for himself.
The Void Elves have, of course, imbued themselves with the opposite force. There's a ton of stuff that the Void Elves represent politically when it comes to Quel'thalas, but while the Light has for most of WoW been seen as a largely (if not with perfect consistency) good force, the Void has, until recently, always been seen as pure evil - Shadow Priests sort of find themselves in the context of Warlocks, Death Knights, and Demon Hunters as the "using evil to fight evil" category. Fun story: my Priest character (who is a Shadow Priest) is a Blood Elf. It's not clear to me what the Void Elves have done that got them exiled and transformed them physically that this guy hasn't. I like to think that he's just a hypocrite about it. But for the Void Elves, what is everyday life like for them? They've made a home for themselves on the ruins of the planet that Sargeras sliced in half (RIP the Titan Telongrus,) but what insight will they provide the Alliance with when it comes to this volatile and hazardous force?
Then we've got the Dark Iron Dwarves. I'm making an assumption here, but I would imagine that, prior to when Emperor Thaurissan summoned Ragnaros to the Molten Core, the Dark Irons presumably looked a lot more like other dwarves. If you compare the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer Clans, the only real visual difference is the Wildhammers' facial tattoos. But Dark Irons have grey skin, burning hair, and literal fire in their eyes. So I'd guess that Ragnaros transformed them, and that Dark Irons are literally imbued with elemental fire. To be fair, this is one of the better-understood magical forces, but nevertheless, the Alliance can now add "Fire Dwarves" to their roster. (In D&D, the "evil dwarf" variant, the Duergar, are also grey-skinned and more subterranean than their dwarven brethren, but their personalities are practically opposite from the Dark Irons. Duergar are passionless and kind of emotionally empty, fueled only by a kind of compulsive greed, whereas Dark Irons seem to be defined by a kind of emotional overload of fury, debauchery, and anger - which again, makes sense if they're imbued with fire.)
Now, the Kul Tirans, who we expect to be out in 8.1 or some other patch, seem to be the exception here. Other than being a lot burlier than their Stormwind brethren, and having a bit of a different culture (they get Druids. I'm still pissed that Worgen didn't get Paladins, and though we haven't seen Kul Tiran paladins among the NPCs, I feel like there's no reason they shouldn't, as proud members of the Alliance in the Second War.) But yeah, Kul Tirans seem largely to be just other humans, and of course a lot of Kul Tiran NPCs just use the standard human model, so it's more of an opportunity for a different body type.
Now, Horde-side, there's also a fair bit of magic-infusion.
The Nightborne are, of course, as infused with Arcane magic as the Lightforged are with Light and the Void Elves with Void. They've spent ten thousand years feeding off nothing but the arcane. While they are weening themselves off the Nightwell (as it dissipates,) it's not clear if the change is reversible. They of course have a lot in common with the Blood Elves (and thus the Void Elves too, actually,) but the magical addiction the Blood Elves have dealt with was born more out of excess, whereas the Nightborne had nothing else to sustain them for a very long time.
The Highmountain Tauren are also imbued with magic, but it's a subtler and probably less intense saturation. Huln was blessed by Cenarius and given his antlers - the Horns of Eche'ro - as a sign of the demigod's favor. The Highmountain have carried that sign for ten thousand years (man, culture is way more resilient in Azeroth. Name one famous person from ten thousand years ago on earth - though I guess it helps when you have a lot of races that basically don't age.) But I would argue that the Highmountain do carry some intense nature magic within them, even if it isn't as much as the previously mentioned races with their various schools. (Kul Tirans excepted.) We do know that the Tauren were transformed from the Yaungol in a similar way that the Night Elves (who were probably just known as "Elves" back then) were transformed by the Well of Eternity, meaning that technically, the Tauren are actually already a little on the Arcane side (ironic, given their inability to be Mages.)
The Mag'har, of course, are sort of defined by their lack of magical saturation. Granted, the visual similarities between the Blackrock Orcs and the Dark Iron Dwarves makes me wonder if the Blackrock are similarly imbued with elemental fire. The difference being that the Elements of Draenor are actually a lot more explicitly benevolent. Our universe's standard orcs carry Fel taint with them, but the Mag'har (both of Draenor B and the small number from Outland like Garrosh) are only as magical as being the long-since evolved versions of a giant created by Aggramar (which seemed to be not so much a Titanforged creation as a kind of massive elemental.) But that's a distant enough evolution that I'd say the Orcs are just people, and the Mag'har in particular are free of magical definition. Notably, in the Mag'har unlock quests (I have yet to do them - my one Horde 120 isn't even revered with Honorbound yet,) we find that the Draenei have been effectively Lightforging some Orcs, though given the Draenei are zealously trying to convert everyone to the Light (though there's wiggle room on whether the Draenei have truly become insane zealots or if that's just the opinion of the Mag'har,) they see these "Lightbound" as corrupted in a similar way to the Fel-crazed orcs who worked for the Legion.
Finally, we come to the Zandalari. On one hand, it's not entirely explicit, but the fact that these guys have glowing eyes is, I think, noteworthy (then again, standard Draenei do too.) It's clear that the Zandalari have a much closer relationship with the Loa than other Trolls - indeed, Zandalar is kind of the Troll equivalent of Mount Hyjal. But is this the same level of magical infusion that we're seeing with the other allied races? I don't really know. Rastakhan himself is clearly pumped full of Loa juice - first Rezan kept him alive for 200 years (Trolls typically live about the same amount of time as humans, I believe) and now Bwonsamdi has given him some equivalent blessing. Still, I think that if there is any magic running through their veins, it's probably more on the level with the Highmountain Tauren than, say, the Void Elves.
If we compare this with the existing races, I think that you'll see we've got a lot more magic here than previously. Obviously the Undead are sustained entirely through necromancy magic. The Blood Elves have a subtle Fel taint (though the golden eyes now available suggest that this might be getting replaced with the Sunwell's new Holy magic.) Likewise, as previously mentioned, Orcs have a bit of Fel with them still. I'd argue that the Worgen are probably the most suffused with Life magic, given the way that Goldrinn's essence is in inescapable part of them.
So that means we have Life, Light, Fel, Death, Void, and Arcane all represented in different playable races, which actually covers the 6 primal forces in the Warcraft universe.
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