Intro Fly-thru and Starting Areas
Intro Fly-thru
After you choose the starting details of your character, you will be given what looks like a cinematic based on your race with a voice-over giving some background history of the race. This is actually a real-time fly-thru in the game and you will see actual players moving around if you look carefully, and you may get a glimpse of some combat. The fly-thru usually starts at a capital city and flies through parts of the country-side to your starting area.
Starting Areas
Depending on your race, you will start in one of eight starting areas:
- Orc: Valley of Trials, Durotar, Kalimdor. This area is dry and rocky, mostly consisting of reddish desert.
- Tauren: Camp Narache, Mulgore, Kalimdor. Mulgore is lush and green, with large lakes, grassy plains, and mountain valleys.
- Troll: Valley of Trials, Durotar, Kalimdor. (Same as Orc.)
- Undead (Forsaken): Deathknell, Tirisfal Glades, Eastern Kingdoms. Tirisfal Glades is a dark forest over-run with the mindless undead of the Scourge.
- Blood Elf: Eversong Woods, Quel'Thalas, Eastern Kingdoms. Rebuilt city.
- Dwarf: Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh, Eastern Kingdoms. A snowy area with mountain paths and frozen lakes.
- Gnome: Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh, Eastern Kingdoms. (Same as Dwarf.)
- Human: Northshire Valley, Elwynn Forest, Eastern Kingdoms. A low, forested region with various human settlements in it.
- Night Elf: Shadowglen, Teldrassil, Kalimdor. A huge, ethereal, twilight forest that perches entirely on top of a colossal World Tree to the northwest of Kalimdor.
- Draenei: Ammen Vale, Azuremyst Isle, Kalimdor. Area near the crash site of the Exodar.
Note: Until The Burning Crusade will be released, the Night Elves will remain the only Alliance race to start on Kalimdor, the western continent, and the Undead the only Horde race to start in the Eastern Kingdoms. For many players – especially for Alliance – this means you don't see quite as many of the other races in your faction for the first dozen levels of the game. For the Horde, it is much easier to get to and from the Eastern Kingdoms.
See also: Campaigns for an intro to the quest lines in the starting areas