Dragonians, potential new playable race?

[CWerk]

While questing in Droughtlands, I came to Mister Opal. That Dragonian merchant that teamed up with the people of Lantern Hook, trying to prove that not all of it's kind are evil.

I know there won't be new races in Storm Legion, I ain't asking (anymore) for them, I just want to hear your thoughts. Dragonians aren't quite human, but they're humanoid enough to be interesting to play with. Not all of them are evil, and I can see how they'll fit to the story. They got fed up by Maelforge and they turned, helping the fellow people of Telara. If we ever see the Planes, it would be nice to see a race that is trying to bring them down "from the inside".

It's just a thought. Probably, the new races in future expansions will be something different, but what do you think?

[NearioNL]

Nice idea, but no.
why?
Not all of them are evil. In other words: most are
If we make it an playable race, then the world of Telara will be flooded with "not evil" dragonians and that would mean that suddenly just a small part is "evil". You would change the whole vibe of that race.

They got fed up by Maelforge and they turned, helping the fellow people of Telara. ?

Mealforge = dead ;)
So if they "turn" then, it would be because their leader is dead and not because they turned from him. an whole other perspective.
edit: hmm you could work around this offcourse. creating lore that states that a whole faction of Dragonians did turn from Mealforge before the whole ID-issue

I like the race, and yes it would be a neat playable race. But when I look at it as a whole, I must say no

personally would much rather see a non-humanoid race. I know this would be harder to make, since they cant "copy/paste" the current movements, etc from the current races. but still, I would vote for it :P

[Alyvian]

that would be going against the established lore already, i reccon if such a race would be implemented it would be better to flat out say that they were loyal till maelforge got killed which shown them he is no god nor immortal.

[Caydin]

Mister Opal actually betrays you in the Fall of Latern Hook

[xanduin246]

Mister Opal actually betrays you in the Fall of Latern Hook

but thats an alternate timeline, theres no way to tell if he would/is going to do that in ours

thats like saying regulos devoured telara, well yes, in the alternate timeline future, but thats not the case in this timeline, it could still happen, but we dont know yet

EDIT: oh and i dont think dragonians would make a good player-race, i think our best chance for a new race would be something from the planes, "good" races that didnt invade, like the Shalastiri from the plane of air. maybe once we go up into the planes, we'll find a city of "good" people that would join us. i dont know what the planes are like, but i imagine them like planets like Telara, but with just their planar energy, like the plane of fire would have cities and different citizens, but everything would be molten magma and brimstone etc. maybe some of those citizens are nice, just like on telara, we have good and bad original inhabitants

[Ryaad]

that would be going against the established lore already, i reccon if such a race would be implemented it would be better to flat out say that they were loyal till maelforge got killed which shown them he is no god nor immortal.

Actually the Blood Storm dragons ARE gods and gods are NOT immortal. Maelforge personally has killed lots of warrior gods (look at his lore page) and I can't remember where it states that the Blood Storm dragons are gods but I know it does. Also Maelforge (along with Greenscale, Laethys and Akylios) are not dead. Their physical form in Telara died but their planar form still is within their respective planes. I believe their planar form was weakened when they made their physical form and they are going to remain weaker once the physical form dies but they are still quite powerful as they are on their home turf. I may be confusing some stuff here with speculation but I know the Blood Storm dragons are gods and gods are not immortal.

[Caydin]

but thats an alternate timeline, theres no way to tell if he would/is going to do that in ours

thats like saying regulos devoured telara, well yes, in the alternate timeline future, but thats not the case in this timeline, it could still happen, but we dont know yet

EDIT: oh and i dont think dragonians would make a good player-race, i think our best chance for a new race would be something from the planes, "good" races that didnt invade, like the Shalastiri from the plane of air. maybe once we go up into the planes, we'll find a city of "good" people that would join us. i dont know what the planes are like, but i imagine them like planets like Telara, but with just their planar energy, like the plane of fire would have cities and different citizens, but everything would be molten magma and brimstone etc. maybe some of those citizens are nice, just like on telara, we have good and bad original inhabitants

Even though it was an alternate timeline, the potential is still there. Based off his dialogue, both in Telera and in the sliver, Mister Opal maintains the superiority of his race. He really doesn't like the fact that he has to work with the natural denizens of Telera (soft fleshy things, I think is what he calls us). If push came to shove, I'd rather expect him to be an enemy rather than an ally.

[bitnine]

but thats an alternate timeline, theres no way to tell if he would/is going to do that in ours

If you read the quest text though, one of the reasons it gives for diving into the pool and getting a glimpse of the future is to have a sense of which "allies" actually harbor traitorous thoughts. So part of the premise is that the two are somewhat related.

[Ivengar]

I like the idea of a dragonoid player race even if it is a race we have not seen yet. Lets face it, dragons are cool.

I also would like to see gnomes as a player race too and yes they have to be smaller than dwarves.

You could have the dragonoids on the guardian side and the gnomes on the defient side.

Of course I hate that they split the two sides the way they did, having your player base is never a good move for MMO's.

[Fangthane]

I don't see what it matters if they are "evil" or not. I mean, Eth, Bahmi, and Kelari are all evil!

But I simply don't believe we need any additional races. Start down that path, and soon enough subsequent expansions will introduce something completely idiotic, like gungans or giant koalas (see what I did there?).

[ShinChuck]

Lore is not something that decides the future. Different things happen, times change, and so forth. If you told Americans in 1945 that the Japanese would become a staunch ally, they'd have laughed!

People sometimes incorrectly apply the term "retcon" to "development". A retcon is a change in established canon in some fashion, either by straight changing or adding facts that were originally unknown. Development over time, however, is different: a race may have been mostly up till this point on one side or the other, but the discovery of new lands might introduce new relatives who are different from the ones we've known, sweeping social change might change alliances (like the above example, or to talk in-universe, the Vigil had been, as far as we know, widely favored for years through a relatively peaceful time before a social change split the world into pro-Vigil and pro-Sourcestone groups over a short period of time).

Heck, there's two larger continents we never even knew about that are essentially retcons according to the Wikipedia definition:

"Still, and utterly unknown to their Ascended foes, the Storm Legion has controlled over half of the continent ever since -- spending ages in preparation for the battle to come."

That's right, suddenly, two whole continents appeared, with forces even the Blood Storm fears and incredible technology, and it somehow entirely escaped our knowledge for likely hundreds and thousands of years!

There's no reasons dragonians or centaur can't reasonably be worked into existing lore as heroes, or dwarves couldn't be worked in as enemies (like the Dark Irons in WoW), and I'm all for it when it has gameplay benefits to boot.

[millie]

I saw no reason for additional playable races in Dungeons and Dragons (the original dice and chat game).

I saw no reason for additional player races in all sorts of games up to and including Everquest.

I saw no reason for additional player races in Vanilla WoW or Everquest II.

.... and guess what I see no reason for additional player races in RIFT. Its just plain silly a sop to the weak minded and easily bored.