*The Beginers guide to the Horde v. Alliance*Follow

I am happy to see that there is a really positive vibe on this forum lateley and alot of excitement for WoW. I decided to write this post to help out some people that are fairly new to the WoW universe and to clear up some confusion about the setting that I have seen in other posts.

Note: My main goal is to keep this brief. If you really want an exhuastive summary of the Warcraft universe history see this link:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/

Basics

When you create your character and choose from one of the 8 races you are also choosing which faction to be a part of, Horde or Alliance. This decision will greatly effect your "role" in the world of warcraft. You cannot party with the opposing faction, in fact, because the Horde and Alliance speak different languages you can't even speak to them (later you can learn a common language but its not easy and both players have to choose to speak in it). If you play on a PvP server, you will also not be able to create alternate characters of the opposite faction on that same server. All this "picking sides" serves to get you in character and emmerse the player in the conflict that is a key part of WoW.

The most important thing to note here, and what is most often misunderstood is that the Alliance are not necessarily the "good guys" the horde are not necessarily the "bad guys". Basically the Alliance are the established races of Azeroth; the Horde are new-commers that are fighting for a place in the world. When you choose your character don't think in terms of good or evil, but rather in terms of these different roles.

Very Brief History

A key aspect of the warcraft universe has always been the conflict between the Horde and Alliance. Decades before the events of WoW the Burning Legion (a super powerful group of world destroying demons) enslaved the Orcs and sent them to the world of Azeroth. After many years of bitter battles (yeah I'm simplifying a ton), the Warchief Thrall led the orcs to freedom from the Burning legion and during the events of Warcraft III all the races came together to defeat the threat of the Burning Legion. However, the brief truce during the events of Warcraft III is over, in WoW the tension between the factions is tangible from the moment you create your character.

The Alliance

The Alliance is comprised of the great civilizations of Azeroth. Under constant threat by the encroaching Hord, the Burning Legion, and even more sinister evil from accross the universe, these great kingdoms struggle for thier continued survival.

Humans: The Humans are a young and versatile race. After the fall of kingdom of Lorderon to the undead scourge, and Prince Arthas' decent into the clutches of the sinister Lich King, Humanity has fallen back on its last stronghold of Stormwind and faces its most dire threats yet as WoW begins.

Night Elves: The reclusive Night Elves defeated the Burning Legion 10,000 years ago. Recently, they had to sacrifice thier ancient homeland and thier immortality to defeat the Legion's return. Now they struggle to build a new homeland and have created a new world tree, Teldrassil, however, an evil corruption threatens its existance.

Dwarves: These are in many ways the typical high fantasy type sturdy, mine loving, ale drinking Dwarves. However, in WoW they have uncovered long lost secrets about thier race's origen, and the create of the world. You'll really have to see it to believe it.

Gnomes: Energetic and Ingenious the gnomes had a prospering technology based civilization, until disaster struck. They have taken in by their Dwarven nieghbors as the seek to re-establish thier civilization.


The Horde

The Horde races may be ugly, (in a charming sort of way I think) and misunderstood but they are certainly not evil. The bond these races share is that they are all outsiders that have banded together to forge a place for themselves in a hostile world.

Orcs: Freed from the taint of the burning legion the Orcs have returned to thier Honor-bound Shamanistic way of life. Their homeland in another dimension has been destroyed. With no where to return to they now try to forge a home for themselves in the lands of Durotar.

Tauren: Noble and peacefull, the Tauren were nearly destroyed by the Centaurs until Orcish Warchief Thrall took them in and saved them from the threat. They now support the horde out of gratitude and friendship for this deed.

Undead: Silvanas Whisperwind, a high elf brought back from the dead by the Lich King's minion Arthas after the dustruction of thier kingdom, has freed a small group of undead from the clutches of the Lich King and the Scourge. Freed from the lich kings control, but still suffering from the curse of unlife, they struggle to come to grips with thier situation and find a place in a world while beset from enemies in every direction.

Trolls: Outsiders from the rest of the world, the trolls have struggled long for survival in the world of Azeroth. Decades ago they forged an alliance with Orcs and to this day are key members of the Horde.


Hope that's helpful. Please comment with corrections, or if you have any more infomration that would be useful to people new the Warcraft Universe.

Arg! guess I can't edit the mispelling in the title... /sigh


Edited, Mon Nov 22 15:20:44 2004 by Talik

Elves will be elves. They know when they're better than everyone else.

Just to pull an idea out of the air. It is possible that the Scourge plauge only effects humans.

I’ve not played any of the Warcraft games. The only information I have about the history of the WoW universe I’ve gained from playing the game, reading the official site or read from posts by other players. And while I agree with your summation of the other races, including the orcs and tauren, I must disagree with you on the trolls and undead.

You state that neither of these races is evil. The evil of trolls is arguable. However, their culture drives them to kill and eat any race they encounter. I expect only their need for allies has kept them from inviting the hoard races over for dinner. I see trolls as little more than barbaric cannibals with no redeeming qualities. Of course, that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to play. *grins*

However, the undead are evil. Period. It’s stated on WoW’s home page that the undead are plotting in their underground city to destroy every living race. Some may take that as simply being antisocial, but I take it rather personally and consider such an agenda as being evil.

Here’s a quote from Blizzard’s description of the undead:

“Known as the Forsaken, this group is dedicated to serving their leader, the banshee queen Sylvanas Windrunner. These dark warriors have established a secret stronghold beneath the ruins of Lordaeron's former capital city. Situated deep beneath the cursed Tirisfal Glades, the labyrinthine Undercity is a sprawling bastion of evil. Within its shadowy confines, Sylvanas' royal apothecaries scramble to develop a devastating new plague - one which will not only eradicate their hated Scourge rivals, but the rest of humanity as well.”

Easy question. The plague was designed soley for humans to be effected by eating the grain that carried the disease. On top of that, most of the undead were created around Stratholme, a human city. This happened when Arthas wasn't corrupted by Frostmoure and when he was pretty much borderlining on obsession hunting down Mal'Ganis, a Dreadlord that first created the plague.

Good guide, by the way. Rate up. This should get most people away from the idea that the Horde is a group of evil races meant to destroy the Alliance. Hell, if it wasn't for WC3x, I'd still think that myself!

Edited, Mon Nov 22 19:17:46 2004 by Redmoonxl

About Trolls, I remember reading somewhere that yes, all trolls are hateful of all other races, however, the darkspear tribe, that one allied with the Horde, is at least attempting to "shoot straight." I'm gonna have to go look that up again...

all the tribes of trolls are evil, except the darkspear tribe, who joined the horde to survive the attacks from the other trollish tribes, hellbent on putting the dark spear tribe on the menu.
so it is justified why theres one tribe of trolls who side with the orcs.

but yeah the undead, and it states this on the race breifing cinimatic, the forsaken are only on the hordes side because otherwise they would have no allies, they are just useing the horde to survive, nothing more.
however i woudlent say they are down right evil either, they have hopes, dreams and goals, some do resent the alliance for their deaths, others are envious of the life that all the other races hold.
the fact they are killing humans and alliance in their missions is only because:

1) the humans paladins have deemed them evil, are uncareing or unaware of the fact they are free of the lich kings control, and thus are on a holy quest to kill them all... kill or be killed really.
2) the undead are on the horde side, thus they are supposed to kill the alliance.

the idea of playing a corpse isnt too appealing to me to be honist, but they do have alot of charicter customisation when you make them.

Nice...