Sethrak are a reptilian race that were long speculated to become playable sometime in BFA. In 8.3, the Voldunai reputation that I expected to be tied to their unlock scenario was instead given to the Vulpera, who joined the Horde. I’m not even going to go into how stupid that is and just focus on Sethrak here. These are all the reasons for and against Sethrak as an Allied Race, who they would join and why they will probably never be a thing.
Who are the Sethrak?
I should probably clarify before anything that by “Sethrak”, I am only referring to Vorrik’s Devoted. People make cases against Sethrak such as “They enslave Vulpera” when they are really referring to the Faithless, who were destroyed along with the traitor Korthek.
We don’t know a great deal about Sethrak society, but we do know that they live mostly “beneath the dunes”, which could refer to some large area beneath Vol’dun as we saw inside the Temple of Sethraliss. From what we know, Vorrik is their leader, but he could merely lead those most faithful to their Loa and not the race as a whole.
Where do their allegiances lie?
The Sethrak live closely with the Zandalari Trolls and share their faith in Sethraliss, so it is very plausible that one could consider them allies. After the incursion against Korthek, the Devoted are now allied with the Vulpera and indebted to the Horde. The Alliance, however, also provided some aid to the Devoted Sethrak by saving their leader’s life and returning his key. This has been the cause of dispute amongst both factions as to who would gain their full allegiance.
Which faction would they join?
This is the big question. I’m going to try to answer it by presenting both sides of the argument and giving my opinion.
When the Alliance established a foothold on Vol’dun, they saved the life of Vorrik and returned his key to him, fighting off the Faithless attack on their Temple in the process. They did not provide any further aid. Later on, the Alliance attacked the Zandalari in an assault on Nazmir and Zuldazar.
The Horde were much more involved in the war between the Devoted and Faithless. They defeated Korthek and restored their Loa Sethraliss after a long campaign to stop the summoning of Mythrax, an ancient enemy of the Sethrak. The Horde later allied themselves with the Zandalari and defeated Mythrax in Uldir.
Considering both these points, it is clear the Sethrak would join the Horde for these reasons:
• The Horde are allied with the Zandalari and the Vulpera, who are close allies with the Devoted.
• The Horde defeated Korthek and restored Sethraliss.
• The Horde defeated Mythrax through a connected quest chain.
• The Alliance attacked the Sethrak’s allies after helping them, which I believe would be enough for them to change their opinion of the Alliance.
Why will Sethrak probably not become an Allied Race?
There’s one large reason that people ignore which makes it unlikely the Sethrak could integrate into any other society. Where the Sethrak go in large numbers, the sands follow. Literally. Sethrak leaving Vol’dun would change the landscape of anywhere they settled, making it uninhabitable. They are almost designed to not integrate with other races.
A popular argument against playable Sethrak is helmets. While I believe many plate helmets could work on Sethrak, hoods clearly would not. Worgen look silly as it is. Sethrak would look worse. The only solution to this would be to hide head armour as is done on arm and leg Mechagnome slots. This feature got a lot of negative feedback.
Another glaring issue is the lack of female models. Sethrak don’t have many sex-defining features or organs that the other races do. Many Sethrak in Vol’dun have female voices, but are visually indistinguishable from males. If they were playable, the only difference would be the character’s voice, or perhaps their patterns and colours. This would be interesting, but it’s not likely something Blizzard would do.
I hope I covered everything here. Let me know if you have any additional arguments or input!
would happen.
