I'm ... conflicted. I love Ethereals and would love to play one. I'm warming up to the Pandaren and I would definitely love to play one. The problem lies in which faction would get which;

This picture is clearly an Alliance building, almost certainly in Stormwind. Ethereals for the Alliance? I can believe it - the Alliance doesn't have a mercantile race, whereas the Horde has Goblins (so Ethereals for the Horde wouldn't work so well, given that that niche is already filled on the Green, Red, and Spiky side).

But that'd mean that the Horde gets Pandaren! The *Horde*! The only people less culturally and socially suited for membership in the Horde are probably the Gorloc Oracles! I could see Pandaren in the Horde - they desperately need a faction with an actual moral compass to counterbalance the orcs, goblins, undead, and blood elves, and (more importantly) Metzen is pretty upfront about his Horde bias - but it's an ugly, ugly match in-game and out. Ultimately - and I freely admit my Alliance bias here - I don't think the Horde is morally deserving of the Pandaren.

The race I'd *like* to see for the Horde is Satyrs; like orcs and blood elves they have major experience in sucking demonic power from the festering hellteats of the Legion; like orcs, goblins and undead they like to despoil and ruin the places they live in; they have a *major* hate-on for the Night Elves; they're pretty badass; and satyresses would be hot. I'd roll a satyr druid, pulling power from the Emerald Nightmare. Unlike orcs and undead, the Satyrs would not feel the need to make irritatingly feeble and self-serving excuses to cover up their evil; Satyrs are evil and don't care who knows it. Hellgoats vs. Spacegoats! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

On the other hand, Ethereals and "Mists of Pandaria" ... do not go together even if you squint. So I'm inclined to think that one or the other - or possibly both - is a red herring.

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