Playable Races I'd Like to See Part I: The Consortium

I know, I know, "But there's Goblins, and Worgens just around the corner!" I don't care, I'll always wonder who else could make a good playable race in future WoW expansions, so this will be a recurring post where I toss out who I'd like to see as a playable race in the future. So without further ado, I'll make out my first suggestion:

Ethereals:

While the goblins are more synonymous with Star Trek's money-grubbing Ferengi, I've always liked the Consortium. These guys are the true bastards of capitalism. Just do a few quests in Nagrand, or talk with their counterparts in Shattrath or Auchindoun, and you'll quickly realize, "Hey, these guys aren't very nice." That's why I think it would nice to have these magnificent bastards become a playable race.

Obviously, there would be some great aesthetic possibilities with playing as an ethereal. Gear could be given an additional aura, with wisps of energy flowing around the character, where the color is different depending on the color of the character's "skin". Of course, they wouldn't walk, but glide across the ground as they move.

As far as classes go, rogues, mages, and warriors would be obvious choices, as we've already seen them out and about in Outlands. Another possibility that I think would be cool is an ethereal warlock. However, they would have unique pets that they could summon if only because the void destroyed their homeworld, so voidwalkers may not be the most tactful choice for beings to summon. Perhaps their interaction with the warlocks of the Horde and Alliance has taught them how to summon additional beings that may be useful in stopping the void creatures that destroyed their world (fight fire with fire and all that). I'm not sure how a healing class would fit in, though, as there isn't much info out there that suggests that ethereals have any spiritual leanings like a druid, shaman, paladin, or priest would have. Perhaps that's something that could be fleshed out later. One class that I could see being omitted, and possibly a source of controversy, is the death knight. Those are the creation of Arthas, and it would be very difficult for Blizzard to shoe-horn an excuse into the game as to how he would be able to force ethereals to become DKs.

Racials would obviously be magic-related, like having an advantage in enchanting (possibly even better than the Blood Elves?). An offensive ability that I'd like to see is something that allows ethereals to syphon mana off their target, like a combination mana burn and mana regeneration (perhaps regenerating the mana of all party / raid members up to X%?).

Who ethereals would align themselves with would be an interesting question, though. We know the Consortium are a bunch of opportunists more than happy to play two parties off of one another in the name of profit, so would they ever ally specifically with the Horde or the Alliance? Would Blizzard go with the Ethereum or Protectorate as a possible faction to make playable? Another option (and one that I'd LOVE to see implemented one day) is putting the ethereals in a THIRD major faction independent of both the Horde and the Alliance with their own goals, and priorities. It could be some sort of League of Unaligned Races.

Both from an aesthetic standpoint (Glowing energy beings? Yes, please!), and in terms of lore (a possible independent race with no close ties to either Azeroth or Draenor), there could be a lot of interesting directions Blizzard could go with if they introduced ethereals as a playable race in WoW.