Draenei Rumor

The draenei are perhaps the most commonly mentioned race in the speculation around the undisclosed Alliance playable race in the Burning Crusade expansion. Blizzard itself has never confirmed any of this, but this rumor has become more popular than the pandaren one.



New Alliance Race?
Despite some speculation that the new race is the Eredar, this is still easily dismissable because of the size, evil, selfishness, possible rarity and incredible power of those creatures. Not to mention, the Eredar have no known connection to Azeroth at all other than their repeated attempts to destroy it. Though there are some possible explanations, until its confirmed tomorrow its easy to speculate that the creatures in the pictures could easily be some variant of the Draeni race.

Valekraft Note: As posted on the World of Warcraft homepage today 5/10/06 Draenei is the New alliance race... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/technology/10warcraft.web.html As mentioned below the Draenei as we see them in Warcraft today are twisted remnants of their former forms... The playable race will be the original form of these wonderful creatures.

Official Burning Crusade Website: http://worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/index.html

Draenei is no longer a rumor.



Connection to Outland
It is confirmed that the Draenei is the new race.
 * Since Outland will be an integral part of the Burning Crusade expansion, and the blood elves are one of the races in servitude to Illidan in Outland, it makes sense that another Outland race would also be involved for balance. Other races currently found on Outland include ogres, naga, and draenei.
 * Draenei on Azeroth, and apparently any other world beside Outland, are affected with a severe homesickness—so much so that the majority of those currently on Azeroth have gone mad, while many of the rest have become so desperate and apathetic that they are even willing to accept help from orcs (their most hated enemy) in the hopes that they can return home to Outland. This motive is similar to one of the reasons the blood elves have joined the Horde.
 * Unlike these draenei who have already sunk into their depression and madness, a group of draenei newly arrived from Outland would not be suffering the full effects of their homesickness. These draenei would likely be much more active and fit than the others and would still have an intense hatred for orcs, whom they have still been fighting on Outland. Once they learned of the effects being away from Outland has on them, these draenei would also become desperate to return to Outland and drive the demonic forces from it once and for all, so they might live there peacefully.
 * As a race native to Outland, the draenei could provide material assistance to the Alliance in Outland.
 * Just as the Horde is said to have accepted the Blood Elves due to the strategic advantage provide by their connection to the Blood Elves already on Outland, which they hope will help in their fight against the Legion—the Alliance could accept the Draenei for THEIR knowledge of the current state of Outland, as well as the benefit provided by a race of master spies and assassins. This alliance would also seem to be one "of convenience", which is rumored to be one of the things Blizzard is going for with the Alliance race, and have somewhat unsteady relations between the draenei and other Alliance races—similar to the Forsaken and the Horde.

Common enemies

 * The draenei were a peaceful race living alongside the orcs, up until the Orc race fell to demonic corruption. The newly formed Horde then used the draenei as a test of their newfound strength, hunting them nearly to extinction when they weren't keeping them as slaves. The survivors on Outland are said to be overcome by a blind rage when they see an orc, and will do anything in their power to kill it.
 * The draenei would also likely have a strong hatred of the Burning Legion that has ravaged the remnants of their home, and would likely be willing to join the Alliance in order to participate in combatting the demonic army.

Potential starting zones

 * There is plenty of unused space in the Eastern Kingdoms, not far from where draenei can currently be found.
 * Draenei currently live in the Swamp of Sorrows, just north of the Blasted Lands. Only a bit further to the northeast, past Redridge, there is an unused zone visible on the world map. A group of draenei newly arrived through the Dark Portal, and not wishing to live among their half-mad kin in the Swamp of Sorrows, could easily make their way to this zone. Other zones, such as the one east of Loch Modan and the Wetlands, could be connected to this first zone and used as their secondary levelling (10-20) area and/or location of their newly built capital.
 * However, placing the draenei in the Eastern Kingdoms would upset the "continent balance" currently existing in WoW (equal races/starting areas per continent) and may cause problems with overpopulation. If Blizzard were to consider this important enough, there are several other areas that could support a new race besides the Eastern Kingdoms - from unused zones on Kalimdor to islands in the Great Sea. There is no proof that Blizzard considered the race balance between continents as a major factor of the expansion race choice however, and it is still possible that the starting areas for both races could be on the same continent. Starting both races in the Eastern Kingdoms would also lend itself well to having further expansions focus on other battles on Kalimdor.
 * Some draenei may have escaped Draenor's destruction through one of Ner'zhul's many portals, which would open the possibility of a starting zone and capital neither on Azeroth nor in Outland.

Unmutated draenei

 * According to Caydiem, the draenei were once a beautiful race similar to humans—before the destruction of their world mutated them. It is possible that a faction of draenei would somehow have avoided or reversed this mutation—meaning they would be closer in appearance to the other Alliance races than to the Horde races.
 * In The Last Guardian, Medivh surmises that Draenor must have had "humans or near-humans."
 * This image from the Burning Crusade concept art features a figure some believe to be an unmutated draenei.
 * The symbol on its cloak is similar to the symbols featured on a new style of architecture.*.
 * As an alternative, it might be possible that a major storyline of the draenei (as mutated, but playable) could be finding a way to return themselves to their original, beautiful forms (much as the blood elves are searching for ways to sate their crippling magic addiction)—eventually resulting in a character being able to choose to switch from the 'ugly' Draenei model for a 'beautiful' draenei model if they complete all the appropriate quests to find a cure.

Faction balance

 * Blizzard is seeking to bring more players to the Horde by adding the blood elves, a pretty race, to the relatively ugly Horde. Some believe they would also want to add an ugly, and therefore presumably less popular, race to the Alliance.
 * Jeff Kaplan at Blizzard has said that they did not intentionally design an ugly race for the Alliance, but instead tried to develop a race that people would find "cool" and would want to play. This doesn't preclude the addition of an ugly race to the Alliance.
 * The draenei would provide a more "Horde-ish" race for the Alliance.
 * Without falling into the narrow "pretty or ugly" dichotomy, draenei could be viewed as more akin to the races of the Horde. Just as the blood elves will theoretically draw more Alliance-oriented players to the Horde, this type of race could draw players who prefer the Horde's kind of races to the Alliance.

Class balance

 * Classes have been announced (though subject to change at any time): Warrior, Priest, Mage, Hunter, and Paladin.
 * Blood elves will be able to become warriors, priests, mages, warlocks, with rogues and/or hunters still unannounced. The Alliance race will also likely have have 5 or 6 possible class choices, to keep the current faction balance equal.
 * Draenei are easily able to be warriors, rogues, priests, and hunters. Mages are also possible, based on the obsession among many draenei of finding ways to open magical portals (an ability traditionally available to mages) back to Outland—an interest which could easily lead them to study with the Alliance mages. That gives the five class options to balance with the five options likely to be available to the blood elves.
 * Even if Blizzard decides to give the blood elves six options (both hunter AND rogue), the draenei have one more likely choice—Druid. Unlike any other known race from Draenor, the draenei suffer horribly by being separated from the world. There is also the statement by Caydiem that the draenei were mutated by the destruction of the planet - which doesn't seemed to have happened, at least not so severely, to any other race on that world.  This might indicate a special connection between their race and their homeworld—a connection that could easily be played upon to give them a "druidic" background and nature, making druid a possible class choice.  However, making draenei able to be druids may upset the faction balance in Moonglade, the neutral druidic center of power, with more druids for Alliance then for the Horde.
 * Warlock is an unlikely class for the draenei based on their past experiences with demons.
 * Paladins have been confirmed as Draenei have history of devotion to the light.

The shaman counter-argument

 * Many argue that since the draenei are described as shamanistic, they can not become an Alliance race. The Alliance is not likely to ever get a race with the shaman class, as shamans and paladins are designed to be unique to their factions.
 * It is possible that not all groups of draenei retained their shamanistic traditions through the decades of strife caused by the orcish rampage across Draenor, that world's destruction, and the subsequent rule of Magtheridon over Outland.
 * Even a current shamanistic heritage does not require that shamans be a playable class, as blood elves had the Spellbreaker unit in Warcraft III but they will only be appearing in World of Warcraft as guard units; the same may occur with draenei shaman.

The Broken

 * The Burning Crusade Besitary features the Broken, the faction of draenei led by Akama and loyal to Illidan. Also described are the Lost Ones, who are said to be subjugated by the Broken.
 * This would appear to rule out Akama's draenei as a playable faction. However, providing labels to refer to previously known factions of draenei may be preparing the way for the introduction of a new, as yet unseen faction.  The Broken may fill a role similar to the Dark Iron dwarves or the Blackrock orcs.

Debunked arguments

 * The February issue of Computer Gaming claimed the Alliance race was draenei.1 It has been clarified that the inclusion of this statement was a mistake, and made without any confirmation from Blizzard.2