How has The War Within story experience changed your attitude on playable Earthen?

I’ll be honest — when we were first told that the Earthen would be an Allied Race with The War Within, I was pretty whelmed. Sure, I love playing Dwarves, but the history of the Earthen prior to the expansion — while interesting — wasn’t something that encouraged the idea of making them playable. While it was an exciting prospect to finally be able to play a Dwarf-ish race with the Horde, the Earthen weren’t even present on my list of desired Allied Races (Vrykul continue to occupy the top spot, in case you were wondering).

All that said, I was willing to give the Earthen a chance. Even though the Earthen were established in the Warcraft lore it was revealed early on that those in Khaz Algar were different from the ones we’ve previously met so that encouraged me — I was hopeful that the new story would give us a reason to not only ally with them but also enkindle a desire to create a character of the race. Having completed the campaign and unlocked playable Earthen I can say that while I don’t feel they’re the best Allied Race added (that would be the Highmountain Tauren), they’re definitely up there.

One of the main reasons is that we get two whole zones dedicated to the Earthen; I don’t think we’ve ever spent that much time with a race ever before unless you count the post-leveling campaigns alongside the Nightborne. But what really sold me on playable Earthen was how the game made an effort to create and examine a whole philosophy to their existence. We see that initially in the split between the Oathsworn and Unbound, but it’s in the smaller stories like “Hope, an Anomaly” that really sells the faction. If I have any criticism of the experience, it’s that the unlock doesn’t require as many of the small questlines as it probably should — the Mourning Rise sequence that is required does a fantastic job of examining Earthen existence as it currently stands, but I found Seven Soldiers to also give us an interesting perspective on their lives as well.

What about you, though? Did The War Within quests change your attitude on playable Earthen? Do you feel the game explored enough of their lives and motivations so that becoming a playable/Allied Race makes sense to you, or are you still struggling to understand why they were added? Or were you on board with playable Earthen from the beginning?