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Tauren
Icon of the Earth Mother
Character classes	Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warrior, Death Knight, Paladin, Priest, Monk
Main language	Taur-ahe
Secondary language	Orcish
Starting zone	Red Cloud Mesa, Mulgore
Racial leader	Cairne Bloodhoof ( Deceased), Baine Bloodhoof
Capital	Thunder Bluff, Mulgore
Population	8,000
Racial mount	Kodo

This article is about the playable version of the tauren. For the info on the race in general, see tauren.

The tauren of Thunder Bluff is a faction of tauren that start in the Red Cloud Mesa, an area of rolling plains atop the high cliffs in southern Mulgore. They are the Horde tauren player race.

As of the Cataclysm expansion, Tauren are the only playable race that has every Tank and every Healer class availible to them. No other race, Horde or Alliance, can boast either.

Background

For countless generations, the bestial tauren roamed the plains of the Barrens, hunted the mighty kodos, and sought the wisdom of their eternal goddess, the Earth Mother. Scattered across the land, the wandering tribes were united only by a common hatred for their sworn enemy, the marauding centaur. Seeking aid against the centaur, the chieftain, Cairne Bloodhoof, befriended Warchief Thrall and the other orcs, who had recently journeyed to Kalimdor.

With the orcs’ help, Cairne and his Bloodhoof tribe were able to drive back the centaur and claim the grasslands of Mulgore for their own. For the first time in hundreds of years, the tauren had a land to call their own. Upon the windswept mesa of Thunder Bluff, Cairne built a refuge for his people, where tauren of every tribe is welcome. Over time, the scattered tauren tribes united under Cairne’s rule. There are a few tribes who disagree about the direction their new nation should take, but all agree that Cairne is the wisest and best suited to lead them towards the future.

Though the noble tauren are peaceful in nature, the rites of the Great Hunt are venerated as the heart of their spiritual culture. Every tauren, warrior or otherwise, seeks identity both as a hunter and as a child of the Earth Mother. Having reached the age of maturity, you must test your skills in the wild and prove yourself in the Great Hunt.^{WoWMan 183}

Character

Starting attributes

	Base	Druid	Hunter	Shaman	Warrior	Death Knight	Paladin	Priest	Monk
Strength	25	26	25	26	28	113	27	25	??
Agility	15	15	18	15	15	69	15	15	??
Stamina	22	22	23	23	24	100	24	22	??
Intellect	15	17	15	16	15	25	15	17	??
Spirit	22	24	23	24	22	44	23	25	??

Racial traits

[War Stomp] (2 min cooldown)
Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds.
[Endurance] - (passive)
Base Health increased by 5%.
[Cultivation] - (passive)
Herbalism skill increased by 15 and you gather herbs faster than normal herbalists.
[Nature Resistance] - (passive)
Increases your resistance to harmful Nature effects by 1. Scales with level

Reasons for racial traits

The tauren are some of the most physically imposing creatures to ever walk the earth.

Their natural body structure grants them not only great strength, but an incredible Endurance to damage.
Their immune system is compounded with a deep connection to the natural world, thus they have a passive Natural Resistance to everything from poisons and acids to the weather.
Being great huntsmen and natural wanderers with a certain natural affinity, the tauren developed a deep knowledge of the botanical life of Azeroth, using it in various shamanistic rituals, as well as for medical treatment. Because of this the tauren are natural herbalists.
Hunting the kodo and wandering the wilds has not been easy for the tauren, and facing the centaur has made it no easier. All tauren are born with the ability to communicate with the spirits in times of need, beseeching them to shake the earth and stun their enemies. This ability has been nicknamed the War Stomp by the tauren's enemies.

Character size

The tauren character model is large. The beginning tauren character will not notice this; everything is tauren sized, and is scaled to the tauren point of view. Later, when the character interacts with other races, the difference is evident. Occasionally, tight quarters will hamper a tauren character's movement.

Mounts

Because of their size, tauren used to have the most restricted selection of mounts of any race. Among the racial mount vendors, the tauren could only use the their own kodo and the orc's dire wolf. From the racial PvP mounts, they could also select the troll's raptor. Mounts beyond these must be hardier, because the ones available to the Horde can all bear a tauren. Oddly, the tauren had no restrictions on flying mounts.
These restrictions were lifted in patch 3.0.8.

Classes

Tauren characters may play as druids, hunters, shamans, warriors, death knights, paladins, and priests.

They were the only Horde race that could play as a druid, though as of Cataclysm, the troll race (together with the worgen for the Alliance) was allowed. They are the only Horde race that cannot have characters of the rogue class. The hypothetical tauren rogue is a common joke among Horde players.

For the tauren, the rogue profession is an alien concept and therefore rare (if not non-existent) among its peoples.^{WoWRPG 80} Renegade Grimtotems possess the rogue and sorcerer class.

Roleplaying a tauren

Tauren are a very tribal and ancestral people, so worship of spirits and ancestors would be part of the roleplaying. Also, their size usually makes them seem a bit more fearsome, though most tauren aren't going to attack a person without good reason. Tauren do not have much of an accent, so you can type out their speech as you would normally.

Videos

External links

World of Warcraft Community Site (US) Tauren

World of Warcraft Community Site (EU) Tauren