Saurok were created by the Mogu, who were created by the Titans. With Un'Goro being such a titan influenced location, it's not so unrealistic that similar beings were created there.
Lots of lore nerds like myself in card design :). Even if we don't have the space to tell a great story through text we still think it's important that everything fits together. The players that do care about that sort of thing can piece together the world on their own and it's fun to think about.
Originally we had an idea to do a more long-nosed Saurok-like minions that resembled more crocodile/alligator than lizard. The thought was that the Mogu-created Saurok were made to deal with humanoid creatures like Pandaren, the Tol'vir created version of Saurok might have had to be a bit more bulky because the main threats weren't humanoid, but dinosaur! We had a bunch of names for them, none of them actually got close to shipping. The only one I remember was Reptol. Rep as a homage a favorite dinosaur from the past, Reptar. Tol in reference to their creators, the Tol'vir. We thought Sauroks were pretty sweet though and decided to just stick with them because we were already doing a bunch of weird and wacky stuff with the plant/dino/humanoid lifeforms in this version of Un'Goro.
We often explore similar designs in a class to reinforce class identity. What does it mean, mechanically, to be a Paladin? Paladins aren't very good at killing minions outright, but are good at setting health and attacking to finish them off. You can see this echoed in Dinosize as well.
As it turns out, similar sounding designs can play very differently. Flamestrike is just "Shadowbolt everything", but doesn't feel close to the same card.
Iksar
He's a Tol'vir. He looks awesome!
Iksar
Pretty close in proximity to Un'Goro. Our story is that a group of Tol'vir from Uldum wandered into Un'Goro and made a home for themselves there.
Iksar
Saurok were created by the Mogu, who were created by the Titans. With Un'Goro being such a titan influenced location, it's not so unrealistic that similar beings were created there.
Iksar
I agree, everyone says Saurok are jerks but to be fair I'd be pretty mad if that was my history.
Iksar
Lots of lore nerds like myself in card design :). Even if we don't have the space to tell a great story through text we still think it's important that everything fits together. The players that do care about that sort of thing can piece together the world on their own and it's fun to think about.
Originally we had an idea to do a more long-nosed Saurok-like minions that resembled more crocodile/alligator than lizard. The thought was that the Mogu-created Saurok were made to deal with humanoid creatures like Pandaren, the Tol'vir created version of Saurok might have had to be a bit more bulky because the main threats weren't humanoid, but dinosaur! We had a bunch of names for them, none of them actually got close to shipping. The only one I remember was Reptol. Rep as a homage a favorite dinosaur from the past, Reptar. Tol in reference to their creators, the Tol'vir. We thought Sauroks were pretty sweet though and decided to just stick with them because we were already doing a bunch of weird and wacky stuff with the plant/dino/humanoid lifeforms in this version of Un'Goro.
TL:DR we thought a lot about lizard people
Ben Brode
We often explore similar designs in a class to reinforce class identity. What does it mean, mechanically, to be a Paladin? Paladins aren't very good at killing minions outright, but are good at setting health and attacking to finish them off. You can see this echoed in Dinosize as well.
As it turns out, similar sounding designs can play very differently. Flamestrike is just "Shadowbolt everything", but doesn't feel close to the same card.
Daxxarri
<3