The Sethrak have probably been the No.1 most requested playable/allied race addition since they arrived back in BfA, and their unique look is both the main reason they are so wanted, and why it was very unlikely that players would get their wish. However, two specific factors in Dragonflight have now given players some hope that we may one day actually see the sneks as a playable option.

First off, the basics: Dragonflight does indeed have some new Sethrak models, so let’s take a look.

sethrak titan-forged? they seem to have draconic horn options and not the cobra fins in this version, so they’ve definitely undergone a very different evolution process pic.twitter.com/F5iHLepeEm

— Simaia – might post spoilers-ish ? (@keyboardturn) July 15, 2022

As mentioned by Simaia, these are both draconic and stony-looking versions, but the fact they have been brought back at all is certainly encouraging.

The second factor is significantly more relevant, and that’s the Dracthyr themselves. For a very long time the argument against a slightly less humanoid race has been the armor dilemma as well as mounting and similar issues with less humanoid bodies. With Dracthyr, we can see possible workarounds for that, both with the partial armor application where it fits, as well as the Visage form solving the mount issue. The Visage side was already a thing with Worgen, but a lot more effort has been put in in with the latest race. And while a Visage form doesn’t really make a lot of sense for Sethrak right now, that’s a relatively easy hurdle to get across with a new subset of the race at some point down the line. Not to mention the fact that this sparks even more hope for other fan-favorites, like Nagas!

Now, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas did state there were no plans for new allied races in Dragonflight, but with the complexity of a potential Dracthyr-like system, it probably wouldn’t be an allied race anyway – more like what the Dracthyr have been. So while it is still very unlikely that we see playable Sethrak in Dragonflight, the expansion did give us hope that we might one day be able slither in their shoes.

So, is all of the above just me doing some mental gymnastics because I really want to play the snakes, or does it actually make sense to you?