The consensus on the next expansion is pretty tight this year (meaning we might all look like fools on Friday) but I think the oft-rumored "South Seas" expansion does have some room open for two potential main antagonists. Azshara could carry an expansion on her own, even though I think most might assume that N'zoth would be the true Big Bad - of course, you could also have Azshara take advantage of our killing N'zoth in a middle raid tier (Old Gods have never been final bosses, though with Naxxramas moving to Northrend in Wrath, C'thun retroactively became the final boss of vanilla.)
But let's make the assumption that this is going to be an Old God-themed expansion. What do I want to see in it?
The Old Gods are heavily inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, even borrowing several names C'thun is clearly a reference to Cthulhu, even though the latter is more equivalent to whoever would be the high priest of the N'raqi Faceless Ones. Yogg-Saron is clearly a reference to Yog-Sothoth, and if you squint your eyes, N'zoth might be a reference to Azathoth (I suspect the similarity between this and the name Azeroth is probably coincidental.)
But here's a big difference between the way that the Old Gods have been portrayed versus how similar entities show up in works of classic horror: in WoW, every monster can be confronted eventually. We've fought two of these things, not to mention the Lich King, Deathwing, soon multiple actual Titans.
One of the hallmarks of Lovecraft's works is that these beings are so alien and so far more powerful than we mortals that even catching a glimpse of them is, essentially, a defeat, as no one's mind could survive such a thing.
But another aspect is the idea of cults dedicated to them operating in secret.
And that's an area where I think WoW and Lovecraft could have a better thematic overlap.
One figure I hope plays a prominent role in the theorized South Seas expansion is the Prophet Zul. It was Zul who appeared to the Zandalari - previously a kingdom willing to cooperate and even ally with the Alliance and Horde to preserve Troll history and fight against the depravity of the Gurubashi and their worship of Hakkar as well as the Drakkari's literal blasphemy in slaying their own gods. The Zandalari were literally working with us up to months before their turn - there are Zandalari NPCs in Stranglethorn Vale post-Catacylsm who help us attempt to stop Jin'do.
But very suddenly, the Zandalari turned against us. Why is that? (Meta-narratively, I think they wanted a reason to do their Zul'again remakes, but let's look in-universe.) The story goes that the Prophet Zul showed up, preaching the need to unify the Troll empires after the Cataclysm started Zandalar sinking beneath the waves. Here was a mysterious prophet with a name that is often used as a prefix for proper names. No one knows where he's from.
This would be the perfect chance to have a WoW version of Nyarlathotep.
Nyarlathotep Lovecraft's only human-shaped eldritch abomination (not counting hybrid creatures like those in the Dunwich Horror.) Described as the "Soul of the Outer Gods," Nyarlathotep is the only being of his that engages with humanity on their scale, and thus has actual malevolence rather than a vast indifference.
What if Zul is actually a malicious manifestation of the Old Gods' (or perhaps specifically N'zoth's) desire to spread madness between the humanoid races, using Zandalari culture to force insane ritual and eventually bodily transformation on the people of Azeroth?
I want to see that, but that's the low-hanging fruit.
I also want to see, essentially, the Shadow Over Kul Tiras.
In Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, a young man (I think he's either a recent High Scholl or recent College graduate) is taking a tour of northeastern Massachusetts before he settles down, exploring the homes of his ancestors. On the way between two well-known towns, he is forced to take a detour to the town of Innsmouth, where he quickly discovers that something very, very strange is happening. He finds out that a few generations back, a wealthy sea-captain who lived in Innsmouth made contact with horrific fish/frog-like humanoids living beneath the ocean, and he started breeding with them and spreading their bizarre religion, worshiping a massive undersea entity called Dagon through the town. Thus, Innsmouth has become the home of a murderous cult of people who gradually turn into fish monsters.
I would love to accompany Jaina to Kul Tiras and slowly uncover to her and our horror that the people of Kul Tiras (or at least a powerful faction within) have started worshipping N'zoth and transforming into monsters. Seeing Kul Tiras as a misty seaside civilization, half-ruined by the Cataclysm, and with dark cultists lurking among the citizenry: that would be really cool.
For one thing, I really like urban environments in fantasy RPGs, and fighting cultists on the streets of Kul Tiras' capital seems like a great time to me. It would also give Jaina an opportunity to prove herself to her people by leading the resistance to this madness.
Essentially, I think what you need to do to get that Lovecraftian tone is to have a creeping horror, rather than just straightforward monster fights all the time. Warcraft, given the name, often operates on large-scale warfare than human-scale mystery, and I'm sure that by the end of a zone's quest chain, you'd have to have revealed the monsters for who they are so that a true fight can begin, but with proper art direction and tone, you could help establish the stakes of fighting N'zoth really well.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Friday, October 27, 2017
Leaks and Datamined Stuff for Expansion Seven - One Week Until Blizzcon
With Blizzcon one week away, we WoW fans are looking forward to a nigh-guaranteed expansion announcement.
Many in-game hints suggest an expansion that has us setting sail to fight Azshara and her Naga and the forces of the Old God N'zoth, with a strong emphasis on the Void in patch 7.3 suggesting we might get a clearer picture of just how the Old Gods and the Void fit together.
But none of that is concrete - it's all speculation based on what is already readily visible in-game. So what evidence, then, do we have of actual stuff from expansion seven? And how much should we read into them?
Kul Tiras Textures:
Weeks ago, dataminers discovered a set of textures that were labeled as "Kul Tiras Quest," appearing to be textures for use on cloth armor pieces, and several other textures that seemed appropriate to the "doodads" found decorating a zone. The nomenclature of "Kul Tiras Quest" is consistent with other quest reward items - for example, you might see textures for "Leather Stormheim Quest" stuff. The strong implication here seems to be that Kul Tiras is likely to be a zone in the next expansion.
How Much to Read In? 10/10. Given that the first time we heard "Iron Horde" was on the name of a texture that looked like just a field of vaguely mottled grey, this is a far more concrete piece of evidence. I would be, frankly, shocked if Kul Tiras is not a location for the next expansion.
Subrace Data:
Recently, dataminers discovered files for four races: specifically Lightforged Draenei, Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, and Void Elves. These sort of files exist for any race - playable or NPC - and it would make sense for Legion to have these as they all show up in-game (though Alleria's Void Elf form only in a cutscene,) but the thing getting people excited is that these seem to have non-zero entries in a category that directs to a background image for a character select screen, which is something most NPC races do not have. Given that players have long speculated about the possibility for sub-races, this could indicate that Blizzard is moving forward with the idea (perhaps in place of a new playable race.)
How Much to Read In? 6/10. This, honestly, could just be an error, or perhaps a half-baked idea in the works. I can't really imagine adding Highmountain Tauren as playable without adding, for example, Dark Iron Dwarves. Now, if this is real, it could also just be incomplete. Still, I could see this as an error, a proof of concept, or some some other thing. It's certainly possible, but I wouldn't stake everything on it.
Tottle Pet:
A battle pet named Tottle who seems to be a Tortollan (as introduced in the Secrets of Un'goro Hearthstone expansion) could suggest the introduction of these turtle-folk to the game (it wouldn't be the first time - Sir Finley Mrrgglton showed up in Stormheim,) which would then imply some kind of jungle zone, which would fit well in an island-hopping expansion.
How Much to Read In? 3/10. Even if this is highly likely to be true, it doesn't really tell us much about any major expansion features, and if Tortollans show up, we really don't know what that means.
Seabraid Stallion Mount:
The name for a mount called a Seabraid Stallion was datamined. The going speculation is that this could easily be a Kul Tiras-affiliated mount, given how it namedrops the sea and is also a horse (the human mount.)
How Much to Read In? 2/10. Like Tottle, this could have a million explanations.
Many in-game hints suggest an expansion that has us setting sail to fight Azshara and her Naga and the forces of the Old God N'zoth, with a strong emphasis on the Void in patch 7.3 suggesting we might get a clearer picture of just how the Old Gods and the Void fit together.
But none of that is concrete - it's all speculation based on what is already readily visible in-game. So what evidence, then, do we have of actual stuff from expansion seven? And how much should we read into them?
Kul Tiras Textures:
Weeks ago, dataminers discovered a set of textures that were labeled as "Kul Tiras Quest," appearing to be textures for use on cloth armor pieces, and several other textures that seemed appropriate to the "doodads" found decorating a zone. The nomenclature of "Kul Tiras Quest" is consistent with other quest reward items - for example, you might see textures for "Leather Stormheim Quest" stuff. The strong implication here seems to be that Kul Tiras is likely to be a zone in the next expansion.
How Much to Read In? 10/10. Given that the first time we heard "Iron Horde" was on the name of a texture that looked like just a field of vaguely mottled grey, this is a far more concrete piece of evidence. I would be, frankly, shocked if Kul Tiras is not a location for the next expansion.
Subrace Data:
Recently, dataminers discovered files for four races: specifically Lightforged Draenei, Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, and Void Elves. These sort of files exist for any race - playable or NPC - and it would make sense for Legion to have these as they all show up in-game (though Alleria's Void Elf form only in a cutscene,) but the thing getting people excited is that these seem to have non-zero entries in a category that directs to a background image for a character select screen, which is something most NPC races do not have. Given that players have long speculated about the possibility for sub-races, this could indicate that Blizzard is moving forward with the idea (perhaps in place of a new playable race.)
How Much to Read In? 6/10. This, honestly, could just be an error, or perhaps a half-baked idea in the works. I can't really imagine adding Highmountain Tauren as playable without adding, for example, Dark Iron Dwarves. Now, if this is real, it could also just be incomplete. Still, I could see this as an error, a proof of concept, or some some other thing. It's certainly possible, but I wouldn't stake everything on it.
Tottle Pet:
A battle pet named Tottle who seems to be a Tortollan (as introduced in the Secrets of Un'goro Hearthstone expansion) could suggest the introduction of these turtle-folk to the game (it wouldn't be the first time - Sir Finley Mrrgglton showed up in Stormheim,) which would then imply some kind of jungle zone, which would fit well in an island-hopping expansion.
How Much to Read In? 3/10. Even if this is highly likely to be true, it doesn't really tell us much about any major expansion features, and if Tortollans show up, we really don't know what that means.
Seabraid Stallion Mount:
The name for a mount called a Seabraid Stallion was datamined. The going speculation is that this could easily be a Kul Tiras-affiliated mount, given how it namedrops the sea and is also a horse (the human mount.)
How Much to Read In? 2/10. Like Tottle, this could have a million explanations.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
More Datamined Expansion Hints
It would seem that 7.3.2 carried a few pieces of the next expansion with it, though the HUGE CAVEAT here is that this is all fragmentary and does not give us a really comprehensive sense of the expansion. We've got a week and a day before Blizzcon starts, so it won't be long before we have confirmation, but let's look at the latest stuff.
First up is a battle pet called Tottle, who appears to be a Tortollan, as seen in Hearthstone's Un'goro expansion. The Tortollans are a race of turtle-people who are apparently tied closely to the Wild God Tortolla (whom we helped in Hyjal during Cataclysm.) This could just be something tied to Hearthstone, but given that the Secrets of Un'goro expansion for Hearthstone was a while ago, I'd guess we might be seeing these turtle-folk pop up in expansion seven, presumably as an NPC race.
Second is a mount. We only have the name, which is "Seabraid Stallion." Such a name could fit just about anywhere, but it certainly doesn't count against the idea of a nautical expansion - in fact, given that horses are the human racial mount and we're likely going to Kul Tiras, it wouldn't be too odd to see a sea-themed horse mount as tied to some kind of Kul Tiras faction.
That's about it. I haven't seen any really convincing copyright applications for titles, but then I didn't see one for Legion.
First up is a battle pet called Tottle, who appears to be a Tortollan, as seen in Hearthstone's Un'goro expansion. The Tortollans are a race of turtle-people who are apparently tied closely to the Wild God Tortolla (whom we helped in Hyjal during Cataclysm.) This could just be something tied to Hearthstone, but given that the Secrets of Un'goro expansion for Hearthstone was a while ago, I'd guess we might be seeing these turtle-folk pop up in expansion seven, presumably as an NPC race.
Second is a mount. We only have the name, which is "Seabraid Stallion." Such a name could fit just about anywhere, but it certainly doesn't count against the idea of a nautical expansion - in fact, given that horses are the human racial mount and we're likely going to Kul Tiras, it wouldn't be too odd to see a sea-themed horse mount as tied to some kind of Kul Tiras faction.
That's about it. I haven't seen any really convincing copyright applications for titles, but then I didn't see one for Legion.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Evidence of Subraces?
WoWHead has actually uncovered some potential evidence of potential subraces coming in the next expansion.
Whoo-boy!
The article lays it out fully, but the gist is that there are four sets of "race" data in the 7.3 files that you would get with any kind of character model that can equip armor. Now, this is not an uncommon thing - any humanoid race that can equip different kinds of armor, like Naga or Vrykul, will have similar files.
The distinction here is that each of these has a non-zero value for determining the background for the character select screen. The aforementioned NPC races do not have such a thing.
The four races they found are Highmountain Tauren, Nightborne, Lightforged Draenei, and "Void Elf."
Now, obviously these are all tied to Legion, and would probably have to exist for this patch, though of course the Highmountain Tauren and Nightborne would have to have been in since 7.0.
Speculation abounds, of course. In the case of the Tauren and Draenei variants, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to add those to the existing factions of their brethren.
The elves are less obvious. Nightborne, while certainly related to the Highborne that would become the High Elves and then the Blood Elves, are still probably more physiologically similar to the Night Elves. But dialogue between Silgryn and Lady Liadrin aboard the Vindicaar suggests that the Nightborne would be more likely to join the Horde, connecting with Quel'thalas.
The Void Elves, of course, would probably be brought in by Alleria, and if we assume that she's recruiting among the High Elves, that this would probably be a Blood Elf subrace.
So perhaps the elf subraces would allow players to get the other faction's elves.
A lot of questions come up with this. Obviously, the first is whether this is actually indicative of what we're going to hear about at Blizzcon, but if we assume that's a yes, then we have the following:
First off, would subraces be purely cosmetic or would they have their own racial features?
Second, is this it? Because there are some other very obvious subrace options for, for example, Orcs and Dwarves.
Third, is this going to be something one can change in-game with ease? Or will we have to either start new characters or pay to change things?
Fourth: are there going to be class restrictions on any of these? Because I'm really tempted, if this is real, to have a Lightforged Draenei Death Knight (I don't roleplay, but I do have a story in my head for my Death Knight, and it would actually make a lot of sense for him to leave Argus officially redeemed by the Naaru.)
So, big caveat here is that this is all datamining, and not even in an Alpha or Beta patch. But given that, according to the pattern kept by every expansion except for Warlords, we're due for new races, this might be a way to give people something like that by bringing in stuff that has existed in-game for a long time.
Not that I don't want truly new races.
Whoo-boy!
The article lays it out fully, but the gist is that there are four sets of "race" data in the 7.3 files that you would get with any kind of character model that can equip armor. Now, this is not an uncommon thing - any humanoid race that can equip different kinds of armor, like Naga or Vrykul, will have similar files.
The distinction here is that each of these has a non-zero value for determining the background for the character select screen. The aforementioned NPC races do not have such a thing.
The four races they found are Highmountain Tauren, Nightborne, Lightforged Draenei, and "Void Elf."
Now, obviously these are all tied to Legion, and would probably have to exist for this patch, though of course the Highmountain Tauren and Nightborne would have to have been in since 7.0.
Speculation abounds, of course. In the case of the Tauren and Draenei variants, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to add those to the existing factions of their brethren.
The elves are less obvious. Nightborne, while certainly related to the Highborne that would become the High Elves and then the Blood Elves, are still probably more physiologically similar to the Night Elves. But dialogue between Silgryn and Lady Liadrin aboard the Vindicaar suggests that the Nightborne would be more likely to join the Horde, connecting with Quel'thalas.
The Void Elves, of course, would probably be brought in by Alleria, and if we assume that she's recruiting among the High Elves, that this would probably be a Blood Elf subrace.
So perhaps the elf subraces would allow players to get the other faction's elves.
A lot of questions come up with this. Obviously, the first is whether this is actually indicative of what we're going to hear about at Blizzcon, but if we assume that's a yes, then we have the following:
First off, would subraces be purely cosmetic or would they have their own racial features?
Second, is this it? Because there are some other very obvious subrace options for, for example, Orcs and Dwarves.
Third, is this going to be something one can change in-game with ease? Or will we have to either start new characters or pay to change things?
Fourth: are there going to be class restrictions on any of these? Because I'm really tempted, if this is real, to have a Lightforged Draenei Death Knight (I don't roleplay, but I do have a story in my head for my Death Knight, and it would actually make a lot of sense for him to leave Argus officially redeemed by the Naaru.)
So, big caveat here is that this is all datamining, and not even in an Alpha or Beta patch. But given that, according to the pattern kept by every expansion except for Warlords, we're due for new races, this might be a way to give people something like that by bringing in stuff that has existed in-game for a long time.
Not that I don't want truly new races.
Speculating on Expansion Seven Features
While WoW has still been fundamentally the same game since Vanilla - you do quests and dungeons to get experience and loot that lets you advance in power - the game has gone through some pretty radical mechanical revamps. In recent expansions, we've also had features added that aren't necessarily intended to extend beyond the life of the current expansion, with elements of those features that people like carrying over in new forms.
So what new stuff might we see in the next expansion?
This is very tricky, as it requires us to extrapolate a lot from what we've got now. But we can make some guesses and certainly imagine what carries over.
New Thing: Ships?
The Vindicaar has functioned as a mobile town on Argus, allowing us to have a home base in each zone. Now, the funny thing is that technically, I'd imagine that each zone simply has the Vindicaar in it, as you'll never be in a zone on Argus where the Vindicaar is not. But it gives the impression that you're flying to each of the different areas of interest on Argus.
A similar thing could work with an island-hopping expansion, having you park your ship off the coast of each zone, and using the ship to travel between the zones.
Having a ship that you could build up and customize would also be a way to take the Garrison/Order Hall concept in a new direction.
New Thing: Alternate Character Advancement:
Artifact weapons gave us a way to keep "leveling up" after hitting the level cap. I hope that they'd tread carefully here, as while I think the talent-tree-like initial trait system was interesting, the grind for more Concordance of the Legionfall is not terribly interesting (and the Netherlight Crucible aspect is frustratingly RNG-dependent. Frankly, I think that WoW could stand to back away from RNG significantly - I miss the Cataclysm Justice/Valor point system for getting gear.) Having a system somewhat like artifacts, but different, could allow players a little more customization. Actually, if you wanted me to pick a model I like, I'd point to the Honor Talent system, which allows you to get several talent "slots" filled out early on, but then increases your options for each of those slots as you go.
Recurring Thing: Level-Scaling Zones and Dungeons:
While it did make it hard to have a single plot throughline for the Broken Isles (though Order Hall campaigns and the Light's Heart stuff provided that,) I think the level-scaling on the Broken Isles was a fantastic feature, and allowed every zone to feel relevant at endgame (though the Broken Shore and now Argus have kind of dimmed their significance.) I have to imagine this is going to be an evergreen feature going forward. The question, then, is if they'd consider doing this retroactively to older zones.
Recurring Thing: Mission Tables:
Frankly, I would not mind losing the whole Mission Table thing. Even though Legion has been much better about forcing you to go out and do stuff if you want to really advance your character, I feel like losing the Mission Table stuff would not hurt the game very much. Bodyguard followers/champions are fun and something I'd like to keep, but if we're going to have followers, I'd rather have them acting as buffs in certain zones or something than having to send them on missions constantly. That being said, we've had them two expansions in a row, so they'll probably keep the system around.
Recurring Thing: World Quests:
World quests are, I think, a pretty good evolution of the daily quest system, and again, give old areas relevance at the level cap. Keep 'em!
Recurring Thing: Class Orders:
I really like that there was a bunch of class-specific content in Legion, and would love to see them continue to to that. Having new portals and such to the order halls established in Legion would be cool. The question is whether they could stay relevant. While the flavor of the order halls is essentially timeless, many of its features are pretty clearly Legion-specific - artifact forges, command boards, troop recruitment NPCs, etc. I suspect we'll be saying goodbye to these places, which is a shame.
Recurring Thing: Selected Artifact Traits:
While I think our weapons are going bye-bye in 8.0, some of their features would be welcome additions to their respective specs. I don't know how these would be worked in (maybe just as talents) but I hope that some of the cooler and less weapon-specific things could be kept.
So what new stuff might we see in the next expansion?
This is very tricky, as it requires us to extrapolate a lot from what we've got now. But we can make some guesses and certainly imagine what carries over.
New Thing: Ships?
The Vindicaar has functioned as a mobile town on Argus, allowing us to have a home base in each zone. Now, the funny thing is that technically, I'd imagine that each zone simply has the Vindicaar in it, as you'll never be in a zone on Argus where the Vindicaar is not. But it gives the impression that you're flying to each of the different areas of interest on Argus.
A similar thing could work with an island-hopping expansion, having you park your ship off the coast of each zone, and using the ship to travel between the zones.
Having a ship that you could build up and customize would also be a way to take the Garrison/Order Hall concept in a new direction.
New Thing: Alternate Character Advancement:
Artifact weapons gave us a way to keep "leveling up" after hitting the level cap. I hope that they'd tread carefully here, as while I think the talent-tree-like initial trait system was interesting, the grind for more Concordance of the Legionfall is not terribly interesting (and the Netherlight Crucible aspect is frustratingly RNG-dependent. Frankly, I think that WoW could stand to back away from RNG significantly - I miss the Cataclysm Justice/Valor point system for getting gear.) Having a system somewhat like artifacts, but different, could allow players a little more customization. Actually, if you wanted me to pick a model I like, I'd point to the Honor Talent system, which allows you to get several talent "slots" filled out early on, but then increases your options for each of those slots as you go.
Recurring Thing: Level-Scaling Zones and Dungeons:
While it did make it hard to have a single plot throughline for the Broken Isles (though Order Hall campaigns and the Light's Heart stuff provided that,) I think the level-scaling on the Broken Isles was a fantastic feature, and allowed every zone to feel relevant at endgame (though the Broken Shore and now Argus have kind of dimmed their significance.) I have to imagine this is going to be an evergreen feature going forward. The question, then, is if they'd consider doing this retroactively to older zones.
Recurring Thing: Mission Tables:
Frankly, I would not mind losing the whole Mission Table thing. Even though Legion has been much better about forcing you to go out and do stuff if you want to really advance your character, I feel like losing the Mission Table stuff would not hurt the game very much. Bodyguard followers/champions are fun and something I'd like to keep, but if we're going to have followers, I'd rather have them acting as buffs in certain zones or something than having to send them on missions constantly. That being said, we've had them two expansions in a row, so they'll probably keep the system around.
Recurring Thing: World Quests:
World quests are, I think, a pretty good evolution of the daily quest system, and again, give old areas relevance at the level cap. Keep 'em!
Recurring Thing: Class Orders:
I really like that there was a bunch of class-specific content in Legion, and would love to see them continue to to that. Having new portals and such to the order halls established in Legion would be cool. The question is whether they could stay relevant. While the flavor of the order halls is essentially timeless, many of its features are pretty clearly Legion-specific - artifact forges, command boards, troop recruitment NPCs, etc. I suspect we'll be saying goodbye to these places, which is a shame.
Recurring Thing: Selected Artifact Traits:
While I think our weapons are going bye-bye in 8.0, some of their features would be welcome additions to their respective specs. I don't know how these would be worked in (maybe just as talents) but I hope that some of the cooler and less weapon-specific things could be kept.
Two Weeks Until Blizzcon - Picking at Plot Threads
With Blizzcon only two weeks away (technically 13 days, as it's past midnight when I write this!) and the announcement of the next World of Warcraft expansion practically guaranteed, I thought it would be fun to go over hints that we've seen recently of what might be coming. Consider, for example, that Deathwing's interest in Netherdrakes (which led to the creation of his Twilight flight) was teased two expansions ahead of time, and that Blizzard has only gotten more ambitious in setting things up that there are almost certainly in-game hints at what is not come not only next year, but also probably the expansion after that (and maybe even the next.)
I'd like to write another post speculating on mechanics, but if you read this blog, you'll probably notice that I'm more of a lore junkie than a virtual gearhead.
What I want to do here is not talk about what I think is coming, but instead look back at threads that have been spun, as it were. A lot of threads have been paid off pretty well - especially in Legion - and to be certain, not every thread is going to pay off - sometimes people change their minds on which direction the story is going.
Now, I'm also going to limit this to Wrath and later, as nothing big really springs to mind from earlier WoW that hasn't been addressed or doesn't seem like a dead end. Of course, there are reverberations of events from as early as vanilla that would still fall in my valid territory. Also, I'm only human, so I might miss some things, and it's also possible that some things I think are unimportant are actually a big deal.
Let's begin:
"There Must Always Be a Lich King"
The big question here is why. We're led to believe that the Scourge would run rampant as a full on zombie apocalypse if it weren't for the Lich King holding the reins. But doesn't that seem like it would be fine? I mean, if we had defeated the Scourge as an organized force with a command structure and strategic thinking, shouldn't it be a cakewalk to mop up some zombies? If the implication here is that Arthas was holding the Scourge back, we also have to ask: why? Now, maybe some small fragment of his soul was left, or perhaps there was some practical reason (keeping the living around to make fresher corpses,) but these don't feel totally satisfying. If it was just a lie, well, I guess we bought it, though it would have been nice to have a chance to roll the old WIS (Insight) check on that.
Plot-wise, though, this device allows for the Scourge as an entity and the Lich King as an figure to continue to exist even after our victory. That may have simply been a way for Blizzard to keep the Scourge in their back pocket if they wanted to bring them back, which the Death Knight campaign definitely hints at. We'll get to that further down the line.
"The So-Called Grand Admiral"
While Varimathras' coup d'etat in the Undercity during Wrath is clearly getting paid off in Antorus, another Warcraft III-era Dreadlord made an appearance in Wrath but then literally walked through a portal and was never seen again. Mal'ganis was the dreadlord that tormented Arthas, but even with the soul-stealing Frostmourne, the demon escaped to corrupt the Scarlet Onslaught. But we didn't see him later in Wrath and we haven't seen him in Legion. What is that guy up to? Is he just on some other front in the war right now?
"They do not live. They do not die. They are outside the cycle."
Herald Volazj says this as he dies in Ahn-Kahet, but it's not obvious who he is talking about. Who? And what cycle? (See below when I get to the "Circle" and the "Rings.")
"Um... no clever thing here, but N'zoth and Deathwing"
While it never showed up personally in Cataclysm, N'zoth had its fingerprints (tentacle-prints?) all over the expansion. Sending its own forces to back up the Destroyer (they're pretty good at giving everyone a unique epithet, but Deathwing and Sargeras both get the same,) the only time we may have actually physically been in N'zoth's presence was when L'ghorek was being corrupted in Vashj'ir. While we didn't get too many specifics about N'zoth then, we've gotten far more info on him since. Actually, the Cataclysm-era toy, the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, makes plenty of references to N'zoth and its apparent home of Nyalotha, which will, well, come up later.
"Kaja'mite and Kezan"
Ok, I'm grouping these together even if they're not totally the same thread. But they're both goblin stuff. First off, we found out that the goblins had apparently begun as small and unintelligent creatures who were enslaved by trolls, who then became super-intelligent thanks to a material called Kaja'mite, which allowed them to build a super-advanced civilization. At some point, this intelligence faded and they declined into their current hyper-capitalistic, ingenious-but-insane culture. So here's my big question: what the fel is Kaja'mite? Are we talking Old God blood like Saronite? Is it something infused with the blood of Azeroth like the Well of Eternity? Is it some other thing, amybe not blood?
Then, we have Kezan. Goblins from levels 1 to about 5 quest through part of the island, but it's clear that there's a lot more there, including the fabled goblin city of Undermine. There is a volcanic eruption that necessitates your departure from Kezan, but it's unclear if the whole island is destroyed. What's going on there now?
"We Shall Return"
With the Draenei finally getting to return (albeit probably temporarily) to their homeland, I would imagine the people of Gilneas don't want to have to wait 25,000 years as well. The end of the Gilneas and Silverpine questing leaves things a bit ambiguous - I've interpreted it that the Alliance holds Gilneas but that the Horde has full control of Silverpine, but we haven't heard anything about that since.
"How dead are the Old Gods?"
Cho'gall seemed to commune with and be possessed by C'thun - so just how dead was C'thun at the end of AQ40 (and Yogg-Saron at the end of Ulduar?) Maybe it's simplest if all we have left is N'zoth, but something tells me that even if you take out the most important part of a continent-sized goo-and-tentacle monster, it's not going to be totally dead.
"Where the hell is Kul Tiras?"
After getting Gilneas and Tol Barad in Cataclysm, it seemed odd that we wouldn't get the island nation that was supposed to be just off the coast of Dun Morogh (roughly where Vashj'ir is.) This is also Jaina's homeland, so... well, let's just say there's been a lot of rumors about this location lately.
"How does killing an ancient time-traveling dragon in a future that never happened help us?"
Murozond might be dead, but technically he hasn't even happened yet. Nozdormu is still (I think?) fated to fall to this bizarre corruption, and even if his death in End Time counts, we have no idea what kind of stuff he got up to, or from our perspective, will get up to, before that moment.
"How fares Zandalar?"
According to info we got on the Isle of Thunder, the island of Zandalar was slowly sinking beneath the waves, which is what prompted the Zandalari to begin this wild crusade to reunite the trolls and conquer the world. We don't know how King Rakastahn is doing, or who the hell the Prophet Zul is.
"Horde leadership issues"
At the moment, the Orcs only kind of have a leader in good old Varok Saurfang, and the Darkspear Trolls went from having their leader as Warchief to having no leadership, seemingly, at all. Thrall is clearly in retirement (much as his voice actor/former VP of the Creative department at Blizzard Chris Metzen is) and so there are some positions to be filled.
"Where is Wrathion?"
Given that the little scamp was all about preparing us for this invasion (which he actually inadvertently helped cause,) Wrathion's absence from Legion has been a pretty big surprise. What is he up to?
"Who is 'The Master?'"
In Warlords of Draenor, we find that Admiral Taylor's garrison was betrayed by a necromancer hiding among his officers. This necromancer killed basically everyone there at the bidding of his "master." Who is that master? I've had theories ranging from Ner'zhul to Kel'thuzad to Bolvar, but we haven't heard anything else on the matter since.
"So does anything from Draenor matter?"
I liked Y'rel, and there's a version of Thrall's dad who we can, with some relative ease, go and talk to. But it was an unpopular expansion. So other than having Gul'dan 2.0 there to set off Legion, is there going to be any longterm consequence of Warlords (ok, also Maraad's death, which made me very sad. And they set up Draenei Vigilants! How the hell did we not come back from Draenor with Vigilant Maraad?)
"Just about everything Ilgynoth and Xal'atath say"
Holy crap, these are each probably worth a post (in fact I think I've at least done an Ilgynoth post.) There's a huge amount to go through, but let's narrow it down to a few factoids:
Xal'atath seems to imply that there was a fifth Old God on Azeroth that was consumed by the others (possibly Xal'atath is a remnant of that one. Also could explain why Y'shaarj was the most powerful if it was the one to consume the fifth.)
It's also implied that by ending the Emerald Nightmare, we actually woke up N'zoth.
We hear more about this Nyalotha place, which definitely seems like Warcraft's equivalent of Rl'yeh to me (consider the lines "In his house in Rl'yeh, dead Cthulhu lies dreaming" compared with the line "In his house in Nyalotha, he lies dreaming." Also, was it "emerald dreaming?" (see above. Also sorry.)
"The Circle"
Holy crap, guys. The circle. Everyone talks about The Circle or The Rings. We first hear the echo of Medivh mention it in the pre-Broken Isles quests in Karazhan, and then we've got Ilgynoth talking about it. I think we hear Sargeras talking about it at some point. What the hell is the thing? What does it mean?
"Alleria, the Void and the Light"
With Alleria doing Void stuff and the audio drama really putting forth some more nuanced and morally complicated portrayals of both Light and Void, you've got to imagine they're going somewhere with this.
"Who did Odyn give his eye to?"
This is cheating a little, as it's something more from Chronicle than the game, but we know Odyn gave his eye to some power in the Shadowlands that allowed him to create the Val'kyr. What power was it?
Probably tons more threads:
This is what I've been able to think of, relatively free of concrete speculation. With the story of demons and also Titans save Azeroth herself being put to bed this expansion (obviously leaving just enough room for a return if they want) I'm definitely seeing a ton of Void-themed ideas there, though also a decent number of Scourge-related (or at least undead-related) ideas as well.
I'd like to write another post speculating on mechanics, but if you read this blog, you'll probably notice that I'm more of a lore junkie than a virtual gearhead.
What I want to do here is not talk about what I think is coming, but instead look back at threads that have been spun, as it were. A lot of threads have been paid off pretty well - especially in Legion - and to be certain, not every thread is going to pay off - sometimes people change their minds on which direction the story is going.
Now, I'm also going to limit this to Wrath and later, as nothing big really springs to mind from earlier WoW that hasn't been addressed or doesn't seem like a dead end. Of course, there are reverberations of events from as early as vanilla that would still fall in my valid territory. Also, I'm only human, so I might miss some things, and it's also possible that some things I think are unimportant are actually a big deal.
Let's begin:
"There Must Always Be a Lich King"
The big question here is why. We're led to believe that the Scourge would run rampant as a full on zombie apocalypse if it weren't for the Lich King holding the reins. But doesn't that seem like it would be fine? I mean, if we had defeated the Scourge as an organized force with a command structure and strategic thinking, shouldn't it be a cakewalk to mop up some zombies? If the implication here is that Arthas was holding the Scourge back, we also have to ask: why? Now, maybe some small fragment of his soul was left, or perhaps there was some practical reason (keeping the living around to make fresher corpses,) but these don't feel totally satisfying. If it was just a lie, well, I guess we bought it, though it would have been nice to have a chance to roll the old WIS (Insight) check on that.
Plot-wise, though, this device allows for the Scourge as an entity and the Lich King as an figure to continue to exist even after our victory. That may have simply been a way for Blizzard to keep the Scourge in their back pocket if they wanted to bring them back, which the Death Knight campaign definitely hints at. We'll get to that further down the line.
"The So-Called Grand Admiral"
While Varimathras' coup d'etat in the Undercity during Wrath is clearly getting paid off in Antorus, another Warcraft III-era Dreadlord made an appearance in Wrath but then literally walked through a portal and was never seen again. Mal'ganis was the dreadlord that tormented Arthas, but even with the soul-stealing Frostmourne, the demon escaped to corrupt the Scarlet Onslaught. But we didn't see him later in Wrath and we haven't seen him in Legion. What is that guy up to? Is he just on some other front in the war right now?
"They do not live. They do not die. They are outside the cycle."
Herald Volazj says this as he dies in Ahn-Kahet, but it's not obvious who he is talking about. Who? And what cycle? (See below when I get to the "Circle" and the "Rings.")
"Um... no clever thing here, but N'zoth and Deathwing"
While it never showed up personally in Cataclysm, N'zoth had its fingerprints (tentacle-prints?) all over the expansion. Sending its own forces to back up the Destroyer (they're pretty good at giving everyone a unique epithet, but Deathwing and Sargeras both get the same,) the only time we may have actually physically been in N'zoth's presence was when L'ghorek was being corrupted in Vashj'ir. While we didn't get too many specifics about N'zoth then, we've gotten far more info on him since. Actually, the Cataclysm-era toy, the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, makes plenty of references to N'zoth and its apparent home of Nyalotha, which will, well, come up later.
"Kaja'mite and Kezan"
Ok, I'm grouping these together even if they're not totally the same thread. But they're both goblin stuff. First off, we found out that the goblins had apparently begun as small and unintelligent creatures who were enslaved by trolls, who then became super-intelligent thanks to a material called Kaja'mite, which allowed them to build a super-advanced civilization. At some point, this intelligence faded and they declined into their current hyper-capitalistic, ingenious-but-insane culture. So here's my big question: what the fel is Kaja'mite? Are we talking Old God blood like Saronite? Is it something infused with the blood of Azeroth like the Well of Eternity? Is it some other thing, amybe not blood?
Then, we have Kezan. Goblins from levels 1 to about 5 quest through part of the island, but it's clear that there's a lot more there, including the fabled goblin city of Undermine. There is a volcanic eruption that necessitates your departure from Kezan, but it's unclear if the whole island is destroyed. What's going on there now?
"We Shall Return"
With the Draenei finally getting to return (albeit probably temporarily) to their homeland, I would imagine the people of Gilneas don't want to have to wait 25,000 years as well. The end of the Gilneas and Silverpine questing leaves things a bit ambiguous - I've interpreted it that the Alliance holds Gilneas but that the Horde has full control of Silverpine, but we haven't heard anything about that since.
"How dead are the Old Gods?"
Cho'gall seemed to commune with and be possessed by C'thun - so just how dead was C'thun at the end of AQ40 (and Yogg-Saron at the end of Ulduar?) Maybe it's simplest if all we have left is N'zoth, but something tells me that even if you take out the most important part of a continent-sized goo-and-tentacle monster, it's not going to be totally dead.
"Where the hell is Kul Tiras?"
After getting Gilneas and Tol Barad in Cataclysm, it seemed odd that we wouldn't get the island nation that was supposed to be just off the coast of Dun Morogh (roughly where Vashj'ir is.) This is also Jaina's homeland, so... well, let's just say there's been a lot of rumors about this location lately.
"How does killing an ancient time-traveling dragon in a future that never happened help us?"
Murozond might be dead, but technically he hasn't even happened yet. Nozdormu is still (I think?) fated to fall to this bizarre corruption, and even if his death in End Time counts, we have no idea what kind of stuff he got up to, or from our perspective, will get up to, before that moment.
"How fares Zandalar?"
According to info we got on the Isle of Thunder, the island of Zandalar was slowly sinking beneath the waves, which is what prompted the Zandalari to begin this wild crusade to reunite the trolls and conquer the world. We don't know how King Rakastahn is doing, or who the hell the Prophet Zul is.
"Horde leadership issues"
At the moment, the Orcs only kind of have a leader in good old Varok Saurfang, and the Darkspear Trolls went from having their leader as Warchief to having no leadership, seemingly, at all. Thrall is clearly in retirement (much as his voice actor/former VP of the Creative department at Blizzard Chris Metzen is) and so there are some positions to be filled.
"Where is Wrathion?"
Given that the little scamp was all about preparing us for this invasion (which he actually inadvertently helped cause,) Wrathion's absence from Legion has been a pretty big surprise. What is he up to?
"Who is 'The Master?'"
In Warlords of Draenor, we find that Admiral Taylor's garrison was betrayed by a necromancer hiding among his officers. This necromancer killed basically everyone there at the bidding of his "master." Who is that master? I've had theories ranging from Ner'zhul to Kel'thuzad to Bolvar, but we haven't heard anything else on the matter since.
"So does anything from Draenor matter?"
I liked Y'rel, and there's a version of Thrall's dad who we can, with some relative ease, go and talk to. But it was an unpopular expansion. So other than having Gul'dan 2.0 there to set off Legion, is there going to be any longterm consequence of Warlords (ok, also Maraad's death, which made me very sad. And they set up Draenei Vigilants! How the hell did we not come back from Draenor with Vigilant Maraad?)
"Just about everything Ilgynoth and Xal'atath say"
Holy crap, these are each probably worth a post (in fact I think I've at least done an Ilgynoth post.) There's a huge amount to go through, but let's narrow it down to a few factoids:
Xal'atath seems to imply that there was a fifth Old God on Azeroth that was consumed by the others (possibly Xal'atath is a remnant of that one. Also could explain why Y'shaarj was the most powerful if it was the one to consume the fifth.)
It's also implied that by ending the Emerald Nightmare, we actually woke up N'zoth.
We hear more about this Nyalotha place, which definitely seems like Warcraft's equivalent of Rl'yeh to me (consider the lines "In his house in Rl'yeh, dead Cthulhu lies dreaming" compared with the line "In his house in Nyalotha, he lies dreaming." Also, was it "emerald dreaming?" (see above. Also sorry.)
"The Circle"
Holy crap, guys. The circle. Everyone talks about The Circle or The Rings. We first hear the echo of Medivh mention it in the pre-Broken Isles quests in Karazhan, and then we've got Ilgynoth talking about it. I think we hear Sargeras talking about it at some point. What the hell is the thing? What does it mean?
"Alleria, the Void and the Light"
With Alleria doing Void stuff and the audio drama really putting forth some more nuanced and morally complicated portrayals of both Light and Void, you've got to imagine they're going somewhere with this.
"Who did Odyn give his eye to?"
This is cheating a little, as it's something more from Chronicle than the game, but we know Odyn gave his eye to some power in the Shadowlands that allowed him to create the Val'kyr. What power was it?
Probably tons more threads:
This is what I've been able to think of, relatively free of concrete speculation. With the story of demons and also Titans save Azeroth herself being put to bed this expansion (obviously leaving just enough room for a return if they want) I'm definitely seeing a ton of Void-themed ideas there, though also a decent number of Scourge-related (or at least undead-related) ideas as well.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Imagining Subraces in WoW
The idea of a sub-race in an RPG allows you to add more cosmetic options without necessarily requiring you to create new mechanics or even story. Many racial variations exist in-game among NPCs, but are not available for players, despite the fact that there is plenty of story justification to allow for these groups to play alongside the existing iterations of the playable races, as we'll see below.
So what could we do with sub-races?
Human:
Oh boy, let's just start with the elephant in the room. Warcraft's humans are all basically white people, and even though there are (or were) seven human kingdoms, they're all variations on European cultures. Now, there are a handful of faces and skin tones that allow you to create pseudo-Asiatic or black human characters, but especially when you consider the NPCs, it's basically all white folks. The fact that in Warcraft, humans are descended from the Viking-like Vrykul reinforces this idea of whiteness being equivalent to humanity. I can't really defend this other than saying that I think this flaw in the game's world was done with thoughtlessness rather than conscious bigotry. Unfortunately, this isn't the only problematic race in the game (Trolls are probably the biggest offenders, though Tauren and Pandaren have their issues as well.)
Anyway, aside from creating entire "lost kingdoms" of humanity that borrow from other real-world cultures, I think just fleshing out appearance options is all you can do. Maybe give us more than one "Asian" face to choose from, and perhaps different hair textures. And maybe have some non-White human NPCs.
Dwarf:
This is pretty obvious and built-in, especially given that since Cataclysm, we've officially had all three major dwarf clans inducted into the Alliance. So let players make Dark Iron and Wildhammer dwarves. This could be as easy as just adding different skin color options (that would alter eyes or tattoos for Dark Irons and Wildhammers respectively) unless they wanted to make more official subrace options.
Gnome:
This one's a bit tricky. Aside from leper gnomes, we don't see a lot of variants on the Gnomes. Mechagnomes are different enough that I don't think they'd count as the same race (same with Earthen for Dwarves.) This might be an argument for only giving races with obvious subraces the option (to be fair, in D&D, this is the case, with only one type of Tiefling but three kinds of elves.)
Night Elf:
You could make the distinction between Highborne (like the Shen'dralar) and the greater Night Elf population more pronounced. At the moment, I think the only real difference is hair color. One wild idea is if you were to make High Elves, though lore-wise it would make most sense for this to either be an Alliance-playable variant of Blood Elves, perhaps starting in the Human starting zone, if not getting their own unique one. The Nightborne could also be an option here, though I think they'd make the most sense as a new race.
Orc:
There are actually a few options here, especially as we saw the various orc clans fleshed out in Warlords of Draenor. You could easily have Mag'har brown-skinned orcs (I don't know if you'd want to have alternate-Draenor Frostwolves or just stick with the main universe.) You could also have the grey-skinned Blackrock/Dragonmaw Orcs, whom we did see brought into the Horde (at least partially) during Garrosh's reign. While canonically I think most of them went with Garrosh after he escaped, I imagine some might have stayed under Vol'jin. Also, let's not forget that even though he doesn't look it, Saurfang, who is the de facto Orc leader, is a Blackrock.
Troll:
I'm not going to delve into the problematic nature of the Trolls as I did for humans, but one area where the distinctions is not so problematic (within the race) is that we actually have some firmly delineated Troll empires with their own variations. Zandalari, Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farraki trolls all have pretty different looks and feels to them. While the Darkspear would technically fall under Gurubashi, you could add in some new looks and features to allow for some or all of these other empires to get representation. The question, though, is what brings them into the Horde. The role of Zandalar in the next expansion would determine a lot for this idea.
Tauren:
Again, setting the problems of Warcraft's "noble savage" race aside, what might we see as variations? Well, if we want to set the bar low, we could do something as simple as just allowing us to have tattooed Grimtotem Tauren. If we wanted to go farther, though, we could add in the Taunka, who are technically a different race but obviously very closely related. I don't think Yaungol would work, given that there's no real lore connection that would make them part of the Horde (also, they're technically only as related to the Tauren as the Trolls are to the Night Elves.)
Undead:
The question here is how much physical variations we could tolerate. Technically, any undead in any form that serves Sylvanas is a part of the Forsaken. That includes undead High Elves (almost always Dark Rangers) as well as ghosts, skeletons, abominations, and the like. I think the undead elves would be easiest to implement, and skeletons could be just a skin option (existing Forsaken already have lots of exposed bone.) Ghosts and abominations would probably go a little outside the whole "humanoid form" that you need for a playable race.
Draenei:
We've actually got two great options for Draenei sub-races. First, there's the obvious: the Broken. The only thing about the Broken is that it would have to be class-restricted from Priests and Paladins. But otherwise, they've been there since BC, and they're truly just Draenei who have been hit with some nasty curse. The other option is new, which is the Lightforged. These guys do look different, but not so much that you wouldn't call them Draenei. Technically, this could apply to other races, as Turalyon is one as well, though with X'era dead (um, spoilers, I guess?) I don't know if new Lightforged are capable of being created. If nothing else, let us get some of those beards that the Lightforged have. My Mage needs a good wizard beard!
Blood Elves:
The most obvious thing here would be High Elves, but those would be an Alliance variant. That being said, depending on how official this sub-race option would be, you could actually implement that without too much trouble. There aren't really any other variants that don't involve being consumed by magic withdrawal or taking a big step on the path to becoming demons.
Worgen:
Actually, the only real variant I could imagine is if you had Night Elf Worgen. The cosmetic effect might only manifest when using your Two Forms ability, but it would make sense in-lore. I'd settle for a Warlords-style model revamp.
Goblin:
Ok, the craziest here would be to allow Hobgoblins, which are those ogre-like guys that Goblins hand out with. Beyond that, the only other variant I can think of are Gilgoblins, but I don't know if that's something Blizzard really wants to go deep on in-lore. Like with Worgen, I'd settle for a Warlords-style model revamp.
Pandaren:
Ironically, you could have made Wandering Isle Pandaren and Pandaria Pandaren quite different, but I think the whole point of the Wandering Isle was to justify playable Pandaren having just as little knowledge about Pandaria as any other playable races. We already have Black and Red Pandaren as fur color options, so maybe that's all we get.
So that's what we've got. I think that subraces as an option are definitely doable, but only if Blizzard is willing to leave some races out. In fact, in most of these cases, you get some of the benefit of new playable races without needing to implement new zones and leveling experiences (the exception might be the High Elves, who would not logically be starting in Quel'thalas, given that they'd probably be Alliance.)
I know this is something players have been hoping for for a long time. The question is whether people would find it a suitable major feature for an expansion, assuming this would take the place of adding new races.
So what could we do with sub-races?
Human:
Oh boy, let's just start with the elephant in the room. Warcraft's humans are all basically white people, and even though there are (or were) seven human kingdoms, they're all variations on European cultures. Now, there are a handful of faces and skin tones that allow you to create pseudo-Asiatic or black human characters, but especially when you consider the NPCs, it's basically all white folks. The fact that in Warcraft, humans are descended from the Viking-like Vrykul reinforces this idea of whiteness being equivalent to humanity. I can't really defend this other than saying that I think this flaw in the game's world was done with thoughtlessness rather than conscious bigotry. Unfortunately, this isn't the only problematic race in the game (Trolls are probably the biggest offenders, though Tauren and Pandaren have their issues as well.)
Anyway, aside from creating entire "lost kingdoms" of humanity that borrow from other real-world cultures, I think just fleshing out appearance options is all you can do. Maybe give us more than one "Asian" face to choose from, and perhaps different hair textures. And maybe have some non-White human NPCs.
Dwarf:
This is pretty obvious and built-in, especially given that since Cataclysm, we've officially had all three major dwarf clans inducted into the Alliance. So let players make Dark Iron and Wildhammer dwarves. This could be as easy as just adding different skin color options (that would alter eyes or tattoos for Dark Irons and Wildhammers respectively) unless they wanted to make more official subrace options.
Gnome:
This one's a bit tricky. Aside from leper gnomes, we don't see a lot of variants on the Gnomes. Mechagnomes are different enough that I don't think they'd count as the same race (same with Earthen for Dwarves.) This might be an argument for only giving races with obvious subraces the option (to be fair, in D&D, this is the case, with only one type of Tiefling but three kinds of elves.)
Night Elf:
You could make the distinction between Highborne (like the Shen'dralar) and the greater Night Elf population more pronounced. At the moment, I think the only real difference is hair color. One wild idea is if you were to make High Elves, though lore-wise it would make most sense for this to either be an Alliance-playable variant of Blood Elves, perhaps starting in the Human starting zone, if not getting their own unique one. The Nightborne could also be an option here, though I think they'd make the most sense as a new race.
Orc:
There are actually a few options here, especially as we saw the various orc clans fleshed out in Warlords of Draenor. You could easily have Mag'har brown-skinned orcs (I don't know if you'd want to have alternate-Draenor Frostwolves or just stick with the main universe.) You could also have the grey-skinned Blackrock/Dragonmaw Orcs, whom we did see brought into the Horde (at least partially) during Garrosh's reign. While canonically I think most of them went with Garrosh after he escaped, I imagine some might have stayed under Vol'jin. Also, let's not forget that even though he doesn't look it, Saurfang, who is the de facto Orc leader, is a Blackrock.
Troll:
I'm not going to delve into the problematic nature of the Trolls as I did for humans, but one area where the distinctions is not so problematic (within the race) is that we actually have some firmly delineated Troll empires with their own variations. Zandalari, Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farraki trolls all have pretty different looks and feels to them. While the Darkspear would technically fall under Gurubashi, you could add in some new looks and features to allow for some or all of these other empires to get representation. The question, though, is what brings them into the Horde. The role of Zandalar in the next expansion would determine a lot for this idea.
Tauren:
Again, setting the problems of Warcraft's "noble savage" race aside, what might we see as variations? Well, if we want to set the bar low, we could do something as simple as just allowing us to have tattooed Grimtotem Tauren. If we wanted to go farther, though, we could add in the Taunka, who are technically a different race but obviously very closely related. I don't think Yaungol would work, given that there's no real lore connection that would make them part of the Horde (also, they're technically only as related to the Tauren as the Trolls are to the Night Elves.)
Undead:
The question here is how much physical variations we could tolerate. Technically, any undead in any form that serves Sylvanas is a part of the Forsaken. That includes undead High Elves (almost always Dark Rangers) as well as ghosts, skeletons, abominations, and the like. I think the undead elves would be easiest to implement, and skeletons could be just a skin option (existing Forsaken already have lots of exposed bone.) Ghosts and abominations would probably go a little outside the whole "humanoid form" that you need for a playable race.
Draenei:
We've actually got two great options for Draenei sub-races. First, there's the obvious: the Broken. The only thing about the Broken is that it would have to be class-restricted from Priests and Paladins. But otherwise, they've been there since BC, and they're truly just Draenei who have been hit with some nasty curse. The other option is new, which is the Lightforged. These guys do look different, but not so much that you wouldn't call them Draenei. Technically, this could apply to other races, as Turalyon is one as well, though with X'era dead (um, spoilers, I guess?) I don't know if new Lightforged are capable of being created. If nothing else, let us get some of those beards that the Lightforged have. My Mage needs a good wizard beard!
Blood Elves:
The most obvious thing here would be High Elves, but those would be an Alliance variant. That being said, depending on how official this sub-race option would be, you could actually implement that without too much trouble. There aren't really any other variants that don't involve being consumed by magic withdrawal or taking a big step on the path to becoming demons.
Worgen:
Actually, the only real variant I could imagine is if you had Night Elf Worgen. The cosmetic effect might only manifest when using your Two Forms ability, but it would make sense in-lore. I'd settle for a Warlords-style model revamp.
Goblin:
Ok, the craziest here would be to allow Hobgoblins, which are those ogre-like guys that Goblins hand out with. Beyond that, the only other variant I can think of are Gilgoblins, but I don't know if that's something Blizzard really wants to go deep on in-lore. Like with Worgen, I'd settle for a Warlords-style model revamp.
Pandaren:
Ironically, you could have made Wandering Isle Pandaren and Pandaria Pandaren quite different, but I think the whole point of the Wandering Isle was to justify playable Pandaren having just as little knowledge about Pandaria as any other playable races. We already have Black and Red Pandaren as fur color options, so maybe that's all we get.
So that's what we've got. I think that subraces as an option are definitely doable, but only if Blizzard is willing to leave some races out. In fact, in most of these cases, you get some of the benefit of new playable races without needing to implement new zones and leveling experiences (the exception might be the High Elves, who would not logically be starting in Quel'thalas, given that they'd probably be Alliance.)
I know this is something players have been hoping for for a long time. The question is whether people would find it a suitable major feature for an expansion, assuming this would take the place of adding new races.
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