Gnolls & Kobolts,the future of Faction balance

Faction balance is an issue we all face everyday,yet an solution seems to be far off. Well not anymore.
Let me introduce Gnolls & Kobolts

Having observed the other races fight for Azeroth while they cowerd in the shadows,dens and bushes the Gnolls & Kobolts deside to join in on the fight to protect their way of life though some factions of the Gnoll & Kobolts decided to not join

To unlock the Gnolls & Kobolts you need to do a prequest. In this prequest you travel the world using the eyes of a Gnoll and a Kobolt. You watch quietly from afar as the other races of Azeroth fight to the death to preserve all ways of life. After watching countless heros die you gather your strength and travel back to your clan. There you convince your leaders to send an emissary to closest city.

This is where the faction balance steps inn.
Similar to how they did they pandarians the nativ Gnoll and Kobolt clan will travel to either Stormwind or Orgrimmar. There they will plea their cause and wish to help keep Azeroth safe. That way both factions gets the chance to play both Gnolls & Kobolts.

Classes for Gnolls(Based on them being fighters,but not the “smartest” of the bunch)
Gnolls: warrior,rogue,shaman,hunter,monk

Racial:
Gnolls:
Warriors spirit (increase versa 1%)
Hoggers legacy (increase dmg reduction by 25% for 2 seconds,5min cd)
SHINEY! (Increase value of grey items by 15% when sold to vendor)

Classes for Kobolts (Based on them being smaller,smarter but a bit cowardly. So they prefer standing further away)
paladin,mage,warlock,rogue and priest

Kobolts:
My candle!: A candle is lit on your head. Increases hp by 1% and boosts your morale(?)
You no take candle!: when reduced to 25% base hp your light flickers. Increase movementspeed by 25% for 5 seconds. Can occur once every 60 seconds.
Candlewax: when in a group of 4 or more enemies are less likely to attack you due to the stench of candlewax

Any suggestions is welcome:)

5 Likes

I’d play a Kobolt warlock to be fair.

I’d play Kobolt, sounds like fun :joy:

Gnolls.

“Our people are hated, pushed out to the sides, to the edges of the world, where we can be forgotten, where we are Vermin, where we are the thing to shake a fist at, to be disgusted at. They do not know our culture, and they do not care. But the Gnolls know, oh we know, we were there at the start. Your mighty cities? Built on Gnoll bones, Stormwind? That mighty edifice of stone? Gnoll land. When history tells the tales, it will be the rememberers of the dead who tell the tales, oh yes, my friend, even when your cities lie in Dust. We will Remember you. Oh…we will Remember you…

Colonel Fangore the Second.

The Skeleton exists. The model skeleton exists, it’s the Tauren model, just scaled down. We know Gnolls can be smart, they can cooperate in pirate collectives, and are intelligent enough to speak eloquently and tell the damned future! (Sayge in Darkmoon Fayre)

So lets go basics. The model exists. The Skins exist…Starting zone. Burning Steppes
Mounts: Desert Lions, those horrible old things, not proud golden Alliance ones, the actual savage and fierce things, the Skar to Mufasa…Things that can survive a desert environment.
Base them on a real life culture? How about the ones who actually -have- the legends about Hyenas, the Zulu’s and Masai…
The are fairly matriarchal, with the males tending to fulfil the roles of the Chiefs of the Impi’s, their warbands, famed ones being Hua’gar, known by the crude name of ‘Hogger’ to humans, because they cannot understand Gnoll words, Lieutenant Fangore, seriously, they ascribe the ability of a species to have a military distinction between soldiers and officers, and think them too simple to be classed as an intelligent people?

Why are they Horde?

Because the Humans drove them from their land, and they have just seen that a desert survivalist culture has been accepted, in the Vulpera. They have seen that the Horde is a place for those marginalised and driven away. And they know, oh they know, that humanity will never accept them, and if humanity will not, then the Alliance never will. Oh the Draenei possibly will There is no ill will there, but who cares what they think? Does anyone think that Stormwind will listen to the Exodar? Really….

Home city? Bantu.
A compact town, wattle and daub, with animal pens, The centre of it? The Cathedral of Bone.

It is made of bone. Bone and skins, some of the skins leather from the varied races the Gnolls have slain. But this is a place of reverence, not of contempt…for all those bones, all those flayed bodies?

They are a sign of the things the others will never understand.
“Bipedal Hyena’s” scientists and priests of humans call the Gnolls, but they never truly understand what comes with that. Hyena leave nothing behind. Everything has value. Value is key to Gnoll culture. Everything is of use. Even in death.

Their mocking yowl? That is an actual pre-emptive praise, a sign of thanks for what service the person about to die is going to fulfil in the future.

Those tents with the faces on them?

That is respect.

Young Gnoll cubs who emerge for their tent will be cuffed around the ears if they do not turn and utter thanks to the person who’s skin makes up their tent, every morning, and kept them warm all night.

“Whose tent is that, whelp!”
“My Tent! It is my parents tent!”
“NO! INSOLENCE! That is not your tent! That is not your parents tent! That Tent belongs to Lieutenant Parker of Stormwind! It is his skin leather that makes it! It is is face that is on it! You see the tattoos on the leather? His Tattoos, he earned them as a Warrior of a Stormwind Impi! You -will- show respect to Lieutenant Parker every morning when rising, or you will amount to nothing and become one of the Lost of no Value!”

Enemies are honoured. Their bones, can be turned to armour, their sinews, to bow strings and thonging, their skin, aye, to tents and leather, their flesh? Well, the Impi’s are mobile, and mobile armies must eat.

Gnolls are merciless…but they honour those they kill. Everyone has Value.

The main societal groupings are simple.

“Rainmakers” named for the rain they make fall, in terms of tears, they are the meat and bone of the Impi’s, they are Warriors, Hunters, those who Kill. It is a good career, but a high risk one. A Rainmaker will likely make a name for themselves, and it is a glorious profession, but equally is likely to regarded as a monster by Humans and Alliance types, and be slain as a simple ‘monster’

“Bonespeakers” Those who will commune with the dead, the Shamans of the Impi’s, who will speak with dead Gnolls and dead humanoids of other races, and ensure proper reverence is shown, Shaman is a catch all term, it can include those with more arcane leanings, or even those who commune with the “Worthless” as Gnolls call Demons.

“Marrowtalkers” These are the middle ground, the cunning politicians, diplomats and dissemblers, they, as named, can crack to the heart of a bone, to the very marrow, and understand it better than any, which applies to words, and not just bones… Humans may have SI:7, Gnomes may have GCO, Horde may have “The Shattered Hand” but within Gnoll society, .If you want the Trickster, the Beguiler, the One who can win with words, You go to a Marrowtalker.

Yeah. Gnolls…I’m just saying.

Gnolls…

2 Likes

Yes to Gnolls;

:smiley:

3 Likes

YES! You have a Windwalker Gnoll Monk, an Arms Warrior Gnoll, and a Marksmanship Hunter Gnoll right there. Just…MAKE IT HAPPEN BLIZZ!

I mean yes! All of that! Make that happen! Right now! This instant!

Wouldn’t even take a second. “Click Gnoll” “Yes, absolutely yes” Class “Who the heck cares, I’d be a Gnoll!”

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Yeah I would switch to Gnoll fairly fast too.

More importantly,adding this inn as a neutral faction(gnolls and kobolts together :heart: and the player picks horde or alliance to travel to) will add the wanted flavor and “bruitish” feel to the alliance side too. This might push a better balance between the two factions:)

And maybe the 1-10 quests could be a journey you take from hometown to thr faction hub you picked?

My bank account would be empty in half an hour and Blizzard would be raking in cash from faction and race changes if they brought in Gnolls.

I would rather have Oracles and Frenzyheart!

So I guess the argument could be made to add more “beast” races,and that the player would be able to pick what faction they joined?

Don’t see why not. Aslong as they can be Druids!

Dude, Id so play gnolls.
They have been my favourite fantasy beast race since I was 6!

I first saw them in Heroes of Might and Magic III

And then I played in custom made maps in Warcraft III

MEMORIES!

I mean I just saw that again today, that picture, and just was like, yeaaaah, I wrote about three castes of Gnolls. Someone actually created it as art. before I even thought about them as a playable race. How do we make this happen! Who do we need to bribe?

how would this fix the faction balance?
ppl would just roll a kobolt or a gnoll and go horde to their pre existing community.

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Gnolls are pretty sweet, not my absolute favourite but i’d give one a go. They rarely receive huge attention in fantasy universes that feature them outside of really searching for it.

This thread reminds me of a “sorta but never” book project I start many moons ago where I was penning a concept for a serious of fantasy books, but I never got beyond the world building stage, but what I do remember is my clearly penned idea for Gnolls in this world.

They were a principally nomadic race inspired by the Ar@yns of indic history, and in their nature, warmongers. Thought of as slavish by others, they were actually reasonably intelligent, but simply did not care to cultivate cultural artifacts or develop systems like writing and such, as they tended to “take what they needed” from cultures they dominated instead, the only skills they developed themselves were those that helped them wage war (such as smithing weapons) and the rest they ignored.
The truth of this was the Gnolls had a far more ancient history than many races realised, where once upon a time they had a responsibly sophisicated culture (again, inspired by the advanced civilisations of the indic area) with good developments in science, technology and culture, however this culture collapsed in the periods before, and of the Gnolls that survived, they blamed the decadence of the culture at the time, and over many generations this became embroiled into a racial mindset of them simply “not really doing culture because they don’t have one” as opposed to then being sceptical of what “high culture” might bring to them.
There was also some kooky stuff about how their ancient (pre-nomad) culture was essentially run by the collective spirits of their ancient heroes and leaders combined into a single goliath like entity that behaved as their “god on earth” as a way to direct them meaningfully against their baser natures, which is what led to their culture erupting quickly compared to the other races of the world at the time (at this point in the history, the Gnolls had systems of writing, libraries, cities, irrigation, understandings of alchemy, science and geography wherein the point other sentient and sapient humanoid races on their continent were beginning to build towns and develop more sophisticated trading systems.)

As cool as Gnolls would be… What about the OGRES?! And the every other race that isn’t a beast race ‘‘Or furry’’ ?!

No matter whatever race you apply. as long as its got fur. People are gonna climb their walls at home and do a split over it.

Gnolls and kobolds are for furries and also, this does not fix the faction imbalance anyhow.

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See what I mean?! See?!

Next allied race has to be a fish… Or potato race. Or another elf or deformed human. Or another Skin colored orc. Or people are gonna loose their sanity. (Or completely new Alien race!)