One nice thing that was announced at Blizzcon was the classes for the upcoming (and final, as far as we know) allied races - Kul Tiran Humans and Zandalari Trolls.
The Zandalari have a very broad list - in fact, they actually have access to every non-hero class. After rampant speculation surrounding the possibility of Paladins (perhaps related to Shirvallah) amongst the Zandalari, Paladin/Troll fans were excited to learn that yes, we'll be getting Zandalari Paladins. Presumably this will include an awesome paladin-themed dinosaur mount. The remaining classes were not terribly big surprises as Troll culture is pretty broad - I might have actually counted Monks out given the Zandalari history with the Pandaren, but in true Pandaren fashion it looks like they're letting bygones be bygones and teaching the Zandalari some kung fu.
We then got the Kul Tiran class list, and this contained a few surprises.
Obviously we knew that they were getting Druids given the incredible wickerpunk (to borrow a phrase from Matt Rossi) druid forms we've seen in Drustvar. But we also see them getting Shamans, which I did not really expect, though given the Tidesages attitude toward the elements (water and to an extent air primarily) it actually makes a lot of sense that they would have them.
But there were two classes that seemed odd for them to be missing.
First is the most obvious one: Mages. At this point, Jaina Proudmoore has become the racial leader of the Kul Tirans (it feels weird to say racial given that Kul Tirans and Stormwindians (yes, that is the demonym) are the same species, but we're talking in pure RPG mechanics terms) which makes the lack of Kul Tiran mages rather puzzling.
Not only do the Tidesages seem to be a combination of Priests, Mages, and now confirmed Shamans, but we also have a Fire Mage in Tol Dagor.
Yes, Jaina went to Dalaran to take her mage training to a new level, but she had already begun to study the arcane before then. Even if you consider the Tidesages to be purely priests and shamans, there are plenty of races (Orcs, for example) who have no specific cultural institution related to mages and yet nonetheless produce them.
The lack of Kul Tiran mages feels very odd indeed.
But on top of that, Kul Tirans don't have paladins.
Paladins were originally the "Alliance" class - in vanilla only the Alliance had Paladins while only the Horde had Shamans. And the impression I always got was that every human kingdom has its Paladins thanks to their legendary status during the Second War.
I was surprised when the Worgen did not get Paladins as a playable class, but I begrudgingly accepted it given the notion that Genn had been such an isolationist that he might have scoffed at the Paladins' altruistic morality and obvious connection to the Alliance.
But Kul Tiras, while withdrawn from the Alliance, was not so isolated. Human paladins are one of the most iconic race-class combos in Warcraft, and so it seems very odd that, in a manner that seems retroactive, they are essentially declaring that, among humans, only Lordaeron and Stormwind ever really had Paladins. I get why the Undead don't have them (though I think it would be awesome if they did and all the Forsaken Paladins simply tolerated the excruciating pain they'd feel if it meant allowing the Light to flow through them,) but neither Gilneas nor Kul Tiras? That seems odd.
On top of that, I think that you have a perfect Paladin order right there in Kul Tiras - the Order of Embers. Yes, Warcraft Paladins generally fill a more "battle cleric" role (there's a baffling bit of dialogue on the alliance ship in Boralus where Matthias Shaw expresses surprise that Halford Wyrmbane is fighting a war rather than remaining in some temple or cathedral and I have to ask Shaw "do you even know what a paladin IS?" /rant.) But I've always thought that Paladins also really embody the role of witch hunters - the kind of secret orders that go from village to village and destroy evil monsters that threaten them.
The Order of Embers has Paladin order written all over it, even if it apparently consists more of warriors, rogues, and hunters.
Now, I suspect that the reason for these limitations is balance. Dark Iron Dwarves got more class options than Mag'har Orcs, and I think that Blizzard wants to balance things to avoid accusations of bias toward either faction. Still, I generally believe in a "more the merrier" approach to player options (I've now introduced both Eberron and Ravnica NPC races to my D&D setting, for example) and given how easily supported these options would be in the lore, it feels weirder to exclude them than it would to put them in.
So I hope we see some reevaluation of that by Blizzard. Mages are extremely simple, being essentially just a switch to flick. Paladins are a bit more complicated as I think we'd expect a unique mount (though Lightforged Draenei don't have one!) But I think the only real longterm consequence of opening these classes up to the Kul Tirans would be happier players.
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