World of Warcraft Newbie Guide 2a: Alliance or Horde?

World of Warcraft has two different factions known as the Horde and Alliance. By choosing a race, you ultimately choose a faction to play. This choice dictates the types of quests you get as well as the cities that are allied to you and will attack you on sight. Being part of a faction allows exclusive communication with players of that faction. It also means that you'll only be able to group with players of that faction for group activities.

Things that will not change are the dungeons and raids you can enter (although some will be easier to enter for one faction than others) and anything related to a neutral faction (quests, reputation, and so on). Aside from being influenced by friends to choose Horde or Alliance, consider the information below in terms of racial choices and lore to ensure you build a character that you want (which is even more important if you are a prospective roleplayer).

Alliance

Stormwind Keep in the Human's capital of Stormwind.

The Alliance are a group of civilized races dedicated to keeping the peace within their realms by defeating those who they consider threatening to their peace from time to time. The Alliance, while considered to be the paragon of goodness, are not necessarily so for each individual. For instance, at one point, the Alliance leader Varian Wrynn was a warmonger who started a war needlessly with the Horde purely on the basis of the actions of insurgent Forsaken (though he has mellowed out a bit since then). The races of the Alliance are the Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves, Draenei, and Worgen.

Horde

Grommash Hold in the Orc capital of Orgrimmar.

The Horde, while it began as a group of aggressive, bloodthirsty Orcs from the planet Draenor, have lifted the demonic influence from them and acquired allies through strong ties or the latter faction's ulterior motives. Members of the Horde have a tendency to use violence as a form of diplomacy as much as any other given method. While the Horde may be (may have been) associated with being nefarious or otherwise evil, they can be honorable or outright righteous, as the warmongering Garrosh Hellscream, leader of the Horde, has shown. The races of the Horde are the Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Undead, Blood Elves, and Goblins.

To go to the next section to choose your race, click here. Click here to return to the main article.