Azeroth's player races are divided into two affiliations, the Alliance and the Horde, with five races representing each. A simple way of thinking of Alliance vs. Horde is "humans vs. orcs." The humans are the central and most populous race of the Alliance, and the orcs serve the same function for the Horde. It is important to know, however, that although the only two truly evil races (trolls and undead) do belong to the Horde, the Horde itself is not evil. Either affiliation is valid for players who want to tell stories about heroic "good guys," and either affiliation can contain quite reprehensible villains as well.
ALLIANCE RACES
- Humans - Pretty much as you'd expect, although at present humans are not permitted
to play "nature-based" classes like hunters and druids.
- Dwarves - Much like classic fantasy dwarves, but with an interesting twist - a passion
for archaeology, exploration, and engineering.
- Gnomes - Clever, mischievous tinkers and arcanists, as you'd expect, with amiable
and easygoing personalities and a tragic racial history.
- Night Elves - Forget Tolkien... a Night Elf is a lithe, muscular, feral, long-lived,
purple, nocturnal creature of the forests... with a superiority complex.
- Draenei - Noble and virtuous, these immigrants from the world of Outland may look like huge demons, but possess some of the purest hearts in all the worlds.
HORDE RACES
- Orcs - Azeroth's orcs are fierce and warlike but honorable and deeply spiritual, more
like green Klingons than Tolkien's orcs.
- Tauren - Orcs' true partners - peaceful bovine humanoids with a reverence for nature
and a culture that suggests Native American traditions.
- Trolls - Throw out your ideas of big dumb guys: these trolls are crafty, lithe, long-eared
and cunning... and they practice BAD voodoo.
- Forsaken - Forget White Wolf... these Undead are rotting, shambling nightmares
with missing body parts and missing morals, but intact minds.
- Blood Elves - Beautiful, vain, brilliant and cultured, the magic-addicted Blood Elves are attempting to rebuild their shattered society.