The benevolent empire of the Pandaren, which controls Pandaria.
The Pandaren Empire, founded in ancient times, before the Great Sundering of the world, shared resources and mystic knowledge with the haughty night elves of central Kalimdor. However, as the night elves' racial obsession with the forces of magic drove them to the brink of madness, the gentle pandaren decided to sever their ties and leave the night elves behind forever. Sensing that magic would be the doom of any race that trifled with it, the pandaren clans, or shao'dins, traveled far into the treacherous lands of the south. There the pandaren established crude, but beautiful cities of stone and sturdy bambus reed. They lived in peace for many generations before the burning shadow came to engulf the world...
[[Image:panda-groupphoto.jpeg|frame|The Pandaren empire]