Blood elf (playable)

Core races
Human Dwarf Night elf Gnome Draenei Worgen	Pandaren Dracthyr		Orc Undead Tauren Troll Blood elf Goblin
Allied races
Void elf Lightforged draenei Dark Iron dwarf Kul Tiran Mechagnome		Nightborne Highmountain tauren Mag'har orc Zandalari troll Vulpera

This article is about the blood elf playable race. For blood elves in general, see blood elf.

Blood elves
Icon of Blood
Character classes	Death knight, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock
Main language	Thalassian
Secondary language	Orcish
Starting zone	Sunstrider Isle, Eversong Woods
Racial leader	Lor'themar Theron
Capital	Silvermoon City, Eversong Woods
Racial mount	File:IconSmall Hawkstrider Small.gif Hawkstrider

The blood elves of Silvermoon City start in the Eversong Woods, the northern section of Quel'Thalas. Farther south is the Ghostlands, a level 10-20 zone.

According to WoW Census, Blood elves are currently the most played race on the Horde. Many realms will find this obvious.

Background

Long ago the exiled high elves landed on the shores of Lordaeron. They struck out tofind a new home, and after many battles with the trolls, established the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. Using a vial of sacred water stolen from the first Well of Eternity, the high elves created a fount of mystical power at a convergence of ley energies in Quel'Thalas. They named this fountain the Sunwell. Its potent arcane magic fed and strengthened the high elves, and soon the wondrous city of Silvermoon was established.

Protected by a magical barrier, the high elves enjoyed peace for roughly four thousand years, but that peace was not meant to last. The Amani trolls gathered an immense army and assaulted the elven kingdom. Vastly outnumbered, the high elves hastily struck an alliance with the human nation of Arathor. The elves taught a small number of humans how to wield magic. In exchange the humans aided the elves in destroying the trolls' power base forever. Over the following years the high elves returned to their reclusive ways, but during the Third War, the diabolical Prince Arthas Menethil brought battle once again to their doorstep. Arthas craved the power of the Sunwell and would stop at nothing to harness it. He invaded Quel'Thalas and wiped out most of its population. In the end, even King Anasterian Sunstrider lay dead.

Additionally it became clear that the high elves had become addicted to the Sunwell's arcane energies. Now that the source of their magic was gone, the few remaining high elves quickly grew ill and apathetic. Prince Kael'thas, last of the royal line, returned from his studies in Dalaran to find Quel'Thalas in ruins. Thirsting for vengeance, he gathered the survivors, renamed them blood elves, and took a group of the strongest fighters to join Lordaeron's campaign against the Scourge.

Due to human prejudice, Kael'thas was forced to accept the assistance of Lady Vashj and her reptilian naga. When the humans discovered that the blood elves had been working with the naga, Kael'thas and the others were imprisoned and condemned to death. Lady Vashj soon arrived to set them free, leading them through a portal and into the broken wastes of Outland. There, the elves met the one being capable of putting an end to their hunger: the renegade demon, Illidan Stormrage. Certain that the blood elves would die without Illidan's assistance, Kael'thas agreed to serve the Betrayer.

A lone representative, Rommath, was sent back to Azeroth with a message of hope for the blood elves remaining in Quel'Thalas: that one day Kael'thas would return to lead his people to paradise. Rommath had made great progress in teaching the blood elves advanced techniques to manipulate arcane energies. With renewed purpose, the blood elves have rebuilt the city of Silvermoon, though it is powered by volatile magics. Emboldened by the promise of Kael'thas' return, the weary citizens of Quel'Thalas now focused on regaining their strength, even as they forged a new path into an uncertain future.Template:Cite

Mounts

The racial mount for the blood elf is called the hawkstrider, although at first they were named 'cockatrices' as announced by Gamespot. Blood elf paladins (blood knights) have a darker version of the charger that is black with bronze and red armor.

The blood elf languages are Thalassian and Orcish, and they are able to pick the Hunter, Priest, Warlock, Rogue, Mage, Paladin and Death Knight classes.

Leadership in Quel'Thalas

• Lor'themar Theron, Regent of Quel'Thalas: Leader of the blood elves on Azeroth in the wake of Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider's betrayal.
• Grand Magister Rommath: Leader of all blood elf Magi on Azeroth, and a fiercely loyal servant of Kael'thas.
• Halduron Brightwing: Ranger-General of Silvermoon, the blood elves' military commander on Azeroth, leader of the Farstriders (organization of blood elven rangers).

Racial abilities

[Mana Tap]

[Arcane Torrent]

Activate to silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds. In addition, you regain 6% of your mana. If you play a death knight or a rogue this ability restores 15 runic power/energy.

Arcane Affinity

10 point skill bonus to Enchanting (note, this also raises the cap by 10 at each level of enchanting).

Magic Resistance

Reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2% (as of Patch 3.0.2)

Reasons for racial abilities

Two epic hawkstriders.

The elves have long delved into the magical and arcane as evident by their cultural centerpiece, the Sunwell. Thus, they have developed a natural Arcane Affinity as a result of the well's magical presence, making the blood elves naturally skilled with arcane arts such as Enchanting. The elves' constant exposure to magic also gave them a natural defense against many kinds of magical manipulation, granting them a natural Magical Resistance. Arcane Torrent comes as a natural manipulation of Arcane energies from the Sunwell and allows the elves to tap into and unleash the magic that is their birth right.

Appearance

Male and female blood elves are both very thin and wiry in stature, although the men have some muscle on them whereas the women are very slender and have feminine figures. Blood elf hair color ranges from bright blonde to grayish charcoal, and their skin is a variety of different flesh tones. Male blood elves are considerably taller than female blood elves, creating the most distinct variation between men and women in this race. In comparison to other races, male blood elves are very thin and weak-looking whereas female blood elves have slender bodies and small stature, also noticeably having the least musculatured character models.

Classes

Female paladin (blood knight)

Blood elf characters can play as the following classes:

• Hunter
• Mage
• Warlock
• Rogue
• Priest
• Paladin (Blood Knight)
• Death Knight

Blood elves are the only Horde race able to play as Paladins. For balance, the draenei are the only Alliance race to be able to play as shaman. Blood elves are the only playable race who do not have the Warrior option. This was due to the limit on the number of classes a race is able to choose.

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

It is also quite likely that the decision was made to reflect the magic nature of the Blood Elves as all their classes use some kind of magical powers. (With the possible exception of Rogues, although that class' description refers to them using a 'touch' of mysticism. Also Rogues can be explained as a type of ranger) Additionally, Blood Elves generally prefer to engage enemies at range - only three of their classes are melee fighters. Also, [Mana Tap] would not work with Rage. However, with the recent addition of the Death Knight's Runic Power mechanic, this is no longer justification, as [Arcane Torrent] awards the very similar depleting-with-time resource of Runic Power, though Runic Power is magical, and not emotional energy.

Starting Clothes

The starting clothes for Blood elfs vary depending on the class, for example, the caster classes, like mages, priest and warlock begin with a robe (each one resemble the colors of the class, i.e: red for warlock) while the Melee classes begins with a war-like armor, made of mail, linked on the middle (for paladins) or made of leather with a bit of body armor for hunters and rogues.

The main colors for blood elfs clothing are red, green, white, blue and purple

Most of the Blood elfs Magisters (NPC) use robes, with different colors, like red, green, purple.

Starting attributes

	Base	Mage	Rogue	Warlock	Hunter	Paladin	Priest
Strength	17	17	18	17	17	19	17
Agility	22	22	25	22	25	22	22
Stamina	18	18	19	19	19	20	18
Intellect	24	27	24	26	24	24	26
Spirit	19	21	19	21	20	20	22

Connections to other Horde groups

• Though not normally advertised, starting blood elf characters can use a Orb of Translocation to get to the entrance of Undercity. The Orb works both ways, so characters can easily travel between the two capitals.

Trivia

• It is interesting to note that the female blood elf dance is derived from the dance routine in the music video for Britney Spears' song "Toxic", which lyrics happen to be a very spot-on description of the magical addiction blood elves suffer.
• The male blood elf dance is almost exactly identical to the dance that Napoleon does in the movie Napoleon Dynamite.
• Contrary to popular belief, blood elves still have a strong affinity with nature, especially the Farstrider rangers. Like the Quel'dorei before them, the sin'dorei have druids, but they are not the same as kaldorei or tauren druids; the blood elf variety of druids are closer to traditional "medieval" druids, working to conserve and maintain the natural environment of Quel'Thalas. While most cannot shape-shift, they share some of the same druid spells such as Speak with Plants. However, there is at least one shape-shifting druid (High Botanist Freywinn).
• Blood elf NPCs are the only Horde race that do not call out for help when an Alliance player attacks them. This is most likely due to an over sight by Blizzard during production of The Burning Crusade. Getting too close to or attacking a blood elf NPC will still summon guards to protect the town or city.
• The blood elf guards use the old blood elf models from Burning Crusade Beta that share the same animations with night elf males, rather than the player blood elf models use.
• Blood elf guards are the only guards with mana.
• All blood elf guards are male unlike guards for most other races of Azeroth. On an interesting note, all night elf guards happen to be female.
• Blood Elves,mostly females,are often the leading performers in music video machinimas such as in Single Ladies (Beyonce),Poker Face (Lady Gaga) and Piece of Me (Britney Spears).