Introducing Earthen in the next expansion to the Horde seems unconventional, challenging the established lore. If the addition of a dwarf race is necessary, it would be more fitting to restrict it to the Alliance rather than the Horde.
Alternatively, considering races that share a thematic link with digging, stone, or related elements could provide a more lore-friendly option for the Horde:
I think it’s fine that they are getting dwarves. After all, they aren’t Alliance, they’re neutral and happy to join whomever they feel they fit with better. These people have never met any of us, you can’t assign old hatreds and such to them.
Having said that, I doubt I will be playing them. Pretty boring extra race for me. I would have liked Tuskarr.
As for your suggestions… most of those can’t use mounts, I cannot ever see us playing Mogu unless we’re those green ones and I doubt they’d want to after what Garrosh did to the Vale. Drogbar would have been a better Earthern race but… also uninterested and clearly not intended to play, they don’t exactly wear gear so it’d be like Dracthyr.
Those that I listed are the only intelligent digging or stone related races. Nerubians could be a fifth but they have weird proportions. I do think Anubisath could be a cool race for Horde. They just need to become smaller, probably an offspring of Anubisath or curse of flesh?
It still feels awkard having dwarves running around org, it just feels like a mish mash of races at the moment.
Or hear me out, the horde uses their ogres or hires more of them to dig as hired muscle. Ogres should have been playable ages ago. It wouldnt be the first time ogres are hired to do so
they even are a stone race since they came from the gron evolution ladder
Yeah, they look very different than the original earthern. These look more soft.
However we all know why we got earthern and this model. Because of pure laziness, the animation and model is already finished, just add stone texture and voila…
I don’t see how they challenge the established lore since there’s no Earthen in the Alliance yet, so seeing them in the Horde is not that strange (except visually I guess. But visual =/= lore).