Hearthstone's Journey to Un'Goro expansion launched all the way back in April 2017. It brought us the first Legendary spells to the game through Quests, the Adapt mechanic, and a whole new tribe of Elementals which updated quite a number of older cards. In addition to these great new things, we received a brand new race that was original to Hearthstone, the Tortollans.
Basically put, the Tortollans are turtle people. They are primitive humanoid-turtles which are native to Un'Goro Crater in Kalimdor. Our Eggnapping friends though were supposed to have a contrasting new race according to Hearthstone's Dean "Iksar" Ayala, which never saw the light of day. The Reptari was this second race that would be new to the Warcraft universe.
Dean describes the Reptari as a large, aggressive, and angry race compared to the Tortollan's slow and defensive characteristics. The name Reptari was never finalized as it was just the working name as they were investigating adding a second new race. The temporary name was inspired by Dean's favourite "lizard guy of all-time" from the Nickelodeon hit series, Rugrats, who went by the name of Reptar. Hear me roar!
The Reptari didn't end up making it far into development, which Dean believes was a positive because adding a second new race could have "taken away from the setting and story more than necessary". He also calls out the Saurok, a lizard-y race that already exists in the Warcraft universe, if they really wanted the contrast, and we did receive a few of them with the set.
This isn't the first time Dean has mentioned this race though. The first of which was during Sunkeeper Tarim's card reveal where he called them the "Reptol", which was a group of reptiles created by the Tol'vir.
What do you think? Would you have liked to see another brand new race added to the game back then? What about if the "Reptari" made an appearance in a future expansion? Let us know what you think down below!
Quote From Dean Ayala Really happy with Scholomance so far. Both in terms of metagame and the magical fantasy vibe. I had a bunch of favorite decks in playtesting, but post-release have had the most fun with Paladin and Shaman. Argent Braggart is my personal favorite card of the set.
Last set I was this happy with was probably Un'Goro. The thing I think about most is how I spent a bunch of time brainstorming a crocodile race to go alongside Tortollan. We ended up cutting because adding one new race to Warcraft was already pushing it.
The crocodile working name was 'Reptari' named after my favorite lizard guy of all-time, Reptar from the Rugrats. They were meant to be large, aggressive, and angry characters to contrast against the slow and defensive nature of the Tortallan.
Admittedly, this never got very far. In retrospect I think introducing a bunch of new character races would have taken away from the setting and story more than necessary. Saurok are also an existing race of lizard-y folk that we could have used for contrast if we really wanted.
And here's Dean's post from over 3 years ago from Sunkeeper Tarim's reveal reddit thread.
Quote From Dean Ayala 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 The Reptol, in reference to reptiles created by tol'vir (although to me it's because it sounds like Reptar and Reptar is the best dinosaur ever). 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
Comments
The Reptari tried to make their way into Un’Goro, and had even gained a small foothold in the outskirts of the crater! But then, a lone Tortollan stood up and shouted, “OUT OF MY JUNGLE!!!” HIs bravery inspired his kin to push back and expel the Reptari invasion.
I think they made the right call in not cramming too many unique elements and sticking with the Saurok. I'm always happy to hear how much the team cares about the lore, and I think the toutolians are a big enough contribution as it is, seeing as they had a heavy presence in WoW during the Battle for Azeroth expansion these last two years. Seeing them in game felt stratifying because there was such a spotlight on them in Un'goro. That spotlight and satisfaction would have been diluted if they had to share it with another new race at the same time.
Honestly the Saurok would probably be good enough to fit a more aggressive role if they needed it for the setting. I wouldn’t be opposed to another Un’Goro set one day with the Tortollans versus the Saurok. Maybe add in a plant tribe as the set’s new thing to give relevance to some of the older Un’Goro cards too
Tortollans were a great addition to the game, I know at least of one other person who thinks so, can you guess who it is? :D
Reptari tho, they do sound kinda meh.
Mmh, not a particularly interesting tribe to me.