Ehhhhh I dunno about ‘no’ lore. They were a big part of the Argus patch, showed up in the priest/paladin campaigns, and their faction leader is currently in charge of Stormwind.
Outside of Mayla showing up to go “I’m still here!” the Lightforged have had more lasting impact on the Alliance than the Highmountain have on the Horde, in that when they show up it’s actually notable whereas it’s really easy to forget the Highmountain even exist.
It’d be nice if they got to use the city instead of just a tiny hole in Nighthold though. It wasn’t until like…DF that their little fraction of the city was expended to include the garden iirc?
The fact that Jaina wasn’t retconned to use Kul Tiran female model I agree is terrible, but I’d hesitate to call Kul Tirans ‘just’ human when they got both Tidemother and witch hunter as super special focus lore that sets them apart from the other kingdoms.
None of it’s ‘good’, all of it’s squandered, but neither side’s really winning this fight.
When Blizzard added the Draenei and Blood Elf races to the rooster, both got two dedicated zones that went from level 1-20 that explored their people and culture.
Anything less than this is a step backwards in my eyes.
Now people are saying that certain races should have even less because that’ll somehow make their presence more acceptable, understood or better is crazy.
The allied races were already objectively bad and hastily way of introducing new races, whittling it down even further so it is out of sight and out of mind doesn’t solve the issue.
You are just adding to the pile under the rug but look for the silver lining cause you get more ‘customizations’.
I have very mixed feelings in regards to Dalaran. It was never truly neutral and always leaned more towards the Alliance than the Horde which is, to a large degree, understandable.
That being said, the Purge of Dalaran remains one of the most horrific events to play out within the game itself and it is beyond strange that it is still being danced around rather than openly acknowledged that Vereesa Windrunner is culpable in the murder of torture of innocent civilians.
The timing is also strange given that the faction war has been cast aside…
I always opposed Dalaran neutrality, and to this day consider it a mistake, they were, and always should’ve been Alliance.
A counter to the Horde getting Quel’thalas. It didn’t even need to float, they could’ve kept the shield up and remain safe that way.
They wanted a base in Northrend? Could’ve taken over one of the towers in Crystalsong Forest, and the Horde’s Quel’thalas could’ve taken the other tower.
So yeah, I’m glad Dalaran is gone. Sad for the roleplayers, but it was a blackhole sucking in everything mage related from other races and factions.
I’ve always disliked both people being dismissive of Gnomes, and in parallel how the devs have written Gnomes for the vast majority of time (it’s not been quite so bad for Goblins, at least imo)
But then, perhaps contrarily, I also can’t stand Mechagnomes. What felt like it could have been an interesting look at their lore, the transition from Titan servants to organics to nearly back again, Gnomes as not just bit-characters? IMO felt entirely wasted on a very frustrating and grindy tack-on endgame thing. And they dialed the ‘zany’ up even further.
The one redeeming feature of Mechagon/island is it’s not Argus…
The odd ven diagram of people who want night elves to be violently anti-arcane but also the most vocal about nightborne going Horde and ‘betraying’ the night elves as an interesting bundle of opinions.
Who knows, it could be the best thing that happened to mage roleplayers. I recall the years 2004-2008 being the best era for Kirin Tor roleplay, and I say that unironically. We were also two hundred times fewer.
nelf rpers morphing into soyjaks before my eyes as i remind them a contributing factor to the nightborne joining the horde was the night elves (through Tyrande) chiding them, scolding them and acting superior to them making the brotherhood offered by the sin’dorei the more appealing
I’m sad we got cyborg gnomes who were relevant for all of a patch and then may as well have just been customization options for regular gnomes instead of the Northrend mechagnomes who were cool in a creepy sort of way.
While I might not fully agree with how they handled the end of the Fall of Dalaran story, I do hope it gives space for other magical organisations to breath.
The Shen’dralar have, for example, never been so important and around as they currently are in Kaldorei-society. Yet they have had no time to shine ever since they rejoined Kaldorei-society due to Dalaran and the Kirin Tor hogging all the magical limelight
This also gives a way and reasons for the Conjurers of Azeroth(Stormwind’s mage society) to get a place of relevance again! And many more organisations!
In the same vein, I do hope that when they do add Haronir (Druids) they wont be members of the Cenarion Circle in the same way Zandalari Dinomancers aren’t. I hope they’ll deconstruct the Cenarion Circle abit aswell, giving more room for racial organisations like the Zandalari Dinomancers, Gilnean Harvest Witches and Kul Tiran Drustspeakers to gain a place of prominence alongside, but not as a part of, the Cenarion Circle!
Same could be said for many other multiracial organisations. While the multiracial aspect isn’t inherently bad, it becomes bad when it overtakes their racial heritage and theme’s to a degree where their racial organisation might aswell not exists like the Sunwalkers and Seers in Legion, or Delas Moonfang as a prime example
