Racial terminology

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This article or section contains lore taken from the Warcraft RPG books.

Racial Terms

This is a page for racial terms in Warcraft Lore. These are technical terms.

Aberration

An aberration has a bizarre anatomy, strange abilities, an alien mindset, or any combination of the three.^{MG 185}

Half-ogre

It is unknown who first came up with the term "Half-ogre" but it is used by all races of the world. Even by the esteemed anthropologist Brann Bronzebeard in his scientific reports. Half-ogres do not appear to be insulted by it, and they also refer to themselves by the term. It is not a "racial slur" but a technical term, and a term of self-identity.^{HPG 7-8}

Half-human half-ogre

A rumored race created from the union of humans and ogres.

• See Half-human half-ogre

Half-ogre magi

Half-ogre magi is the term for the theoretical offspring between ogre magi and orcs. Ogre Magi were creations of Gul'dan during the Second War, but they refused to mate with orcs for purpose creating mok'nathal. So their existence is rare if unlikely^{HPG 7}

Half-orc

It is unknown who first came up with the term "Half-orc" but it is used by all races of the world. Even by the esteemed anthropologist, Brann Bronzebeard in his scientific reports. Half-orcs do not appear to be insulted by the term, and they also refer to themselves as Half-orcs. It is not a "racial slur" but a technical term, and a term of self-identity. ^{HPG #?}

Half-draenei

A half-draenei is the offspring between an orc and a draenei. They show a blending of orc and draenei features.^{HPG 139,167}

• See Half-draenei

Half-elf

Half-elf is the term used by all races on Azeroth to describe the group of half human and half high elves, and its even used by the esteemed anthropologist Brann Bronzebeard. In fact Half-elves use it to define themselves, and while humble hold some pride in the term. It is a technical term and term of self-identity rather than a "racial slur".^{APG #?}

Half-night elf

Half-night elf is the term used to describe the offspring of humans and night elves.

• See Half-night elf

Half-blood elf

Half-blood elf is the term used to describe the offspring of humans and blood elves.

• See Half-blood elf

Half-Kaldorei

Half-Kaldorei is apparently another term for half-night elf.^{S&L 133}

• See Half-night elf

Mongrelman

Mongrelmen is a term used for a race of miscellaneous hybrid individuals from various races. Mongrelmen on Kalimdor hide from the other sapient species for fear that they will be mistaken for members of the Burning Legion, or worse. They also tend to be fairly weak. There are mongrelmen which share heritage from Ironforge dwarves, high elves, night elves, trolls, goblins, orcs, tauren, crabmen, and grippli. Those races genes are dominant and determine the mongrelman's appearance. Some mongrelmen are born with missing body parts due to genetic mutation from incompatibilities in the parent races.^{MoM 200}

Human

Human is modern name for prolific race of humanoids on Azeroth formally known as the Azotha.

Near-human

Medivh used this term as one other possible explanation for Garona's parentage if not human. Traditionally in fantasy/sci-fi, near human means something that shares a common ancestor with humans or evolved from humans. That is humans and near-humans are related by ancestral roots.

Demi-human

A term used for races that are human-like, such as elves, orcs, gnomes and dwarves.^{W3Man 85} See The Alliance of Lordaeron.

Note: While demi-human is used to describe only a few specific races that share similar characteristics, it does not mean that they are all related to "humans".

Half-breed

Half-breed is a term used by biologists to categorize any species made up of two separate species. It can also be used as an insult, the term "half-breed" was used by orcs and ogres to refer to Rexxar in the Third War. It was used to negate Rexxar's mixed orc and ogre ancestry, excluding him from either society.

Goblinoid

Goblinoid is a sub-category of the term Humanoid describing races with similar characteristics to goblins. Orcs and goblins are not the only goblinoids on Azeroth. Some of the previously unknown species are crossbreeds, while others seem to be races unto themselves. It is unknown who came up with the term "Goblinoid". It is used very few times in the Manual of Monsters a technical bestiary manual. It is a technical term rather than a "racial slur".^{MoM 193, 195,197,202}

Note: While Goblinoid is used to describe only a few specific races that share similar characteristics, it does not mean that they are all related to "goblins".

Humanoid

Humanoid is the technical term used to describe roughly human like species. That is "having human form or characteristics". A humanoid usually has two arms, two legs, and one head, or a human-like torso, arms, and a head. Humanoids have few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but most can speak and usually have well-developed societies.^{MG 191} Humanoid can refer to any race (not neccesarily sapient) that share at least some similarities to basic human build, at least from the torso up. Dryads for example are considered fey "humanoids" even though they have bestial lower bodies. Not all humanoid-like creatures are considered humanoids however, and many are classified as Giants, or Undead. In some cases these are smaller sub-categories within term humanoid, for example, Goblinoid, Giant or some Fey. It is a technical term, rather than a "racial slur".

Note: While humanoid is used to describe races with similar characteristics, it does not mean they are all related to "humans".

Giant

Giants is a humanoid-creature of great strength. They are a very large size (above 3 meters/yards or so) and larger than most Ogres (though ogres are considered as one of the races of giants of Draenor). This includes most semi-intelligent large humanoids and some intelligent. Most giants are the creations of the Titans, birthed when the world was young.^{MG 190}

Note: While giant is described races with similar characteristics, it does not mean that all are related to giants.

Fey

A fey is a creature with supernatural abilities and connections to nature or to some other force or place. Fey are usually human-shaped or have human-shaped portions (such as a humanoid torso and the body of a stag or other wild creature).^{MG 189}

Note: While Fey is used to describe a few specific races with similar characteristics, it does not mean that all are related.

Dwarf

The term dwarf was the term humans gave to the race of short, stocky, and bearded humanoids once known as the Earthen. At the time the Dwarves did not know that the word literally meant "diminutive". They are glad they weren't called worse by the humans, for example "beard-men" or "rockheads" or something like that.

The name stuck, and now all races around the world use it to describe dwarves, even the Dwarves themselves. While it might have originated out of an apparent racial slur, today dwarves are proud of the term, and do not see it as being a negative terminology, and in fact gladly call themselves dwarves. ^{APG 140}

Mountain Dwarves

A term used to describe various clans of dwarves that live primarily in the mountains. The primary clan of mountain dwarves is the Bronzebeard Clan.^{LoC 19}

Hill Dwarves

A term used for clans of dwarves that live primarily in the hills. They construct their buildings above ground, with roofs opened to the sky (rarely digging very deep into the hills).^{LoC 19}

• See Hill dwarves.

Wild Dwarves

Wild dwarves is a term for the dwarves of the Wildhammer Clan. ^{DotD 35 W3Man 12 MoM 54} Perhaps "wild dwarves" are a sub-type of hill dwarves, or it is a term derived from Wildhammer.

In Day of the Dragon, the Khaz Modan hill dwarves and Aerie wild dwarves are shown to have racial enmity to each other, although they call each other "cousin".^{DotD 261}

Outsider

An outsider is at least partially composed of the essence (but not necessarily the material) of some plane other than Azeroth. Some creatures start out as some other type and become outsiders when they attain a higher (or lower) state of spiritual existence.^{MG 194}

Note: While outsider is used to describe a few specific races with similar characteristics, it does not mean that all are related.

Magical Beasts

Magical beasts are similar to animals but can have higher intelligences. Magical beasts often have supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but sometimes are merely bizarre in appearance or habits.^{MG 192}

Note: While magical beast is used to describe a few specific races with similar characteristics, it does not mean that all are related.