Rather than have them add new factions / races immediately, I’d love to see them expand on what they have first (which they plan to do, IIRC). But if they do eventually add more races, I want them to be more along the lines of what we see already.
Ghouls, werewolves, orcs, goblins, vampires, necromancers… This is a world where if there’s something magical or inhuman, it’s evil. I think that gives the setting a flavor that is really, really neat. Any monster they add should fit that theme.
Someone earlier mentioned ogres. Not a bad start. Sure, ogres are “typical,” but so are orcs and goblins, yet they’ve both been given such character. Why not use ogres?
What about trolls? Except the trolls could be themed around Viking mythology. Hell, what if Grendel was used as the basis for trolls? A creature that lurks in the swamps, sneaks into towns, rips apart the inhabitants and eats them, literally eats them? Both furred and ape-like, tall and gangly and deadly? I’d dig that, and we already have the clearly Viking-based Raider background in the game.
The thing is, you can take these sort of races – “cookie cutter” races as you call them – and turn them into something great, just as the orcs and goblins have been given a broad brush of color that fits the setting.
Hell, I could even imagine a crazy “Druid” type opponent working for the Beast faction. Of course, they’re evil and they want you dead; they’ve let themselves go TOO wild; but using Druid-style powers as horror elements working alongside werewolves, giant snakes, horned bears and things like that would make for an utterly awesome touch to the game. Again, none of that is anything “new” or “uninvented” or whatever you want to say. It’s just an old trope reexamined and re-imagined.
