E3 06: Draenei to be new WOW race

Fearsome blue-skinned demon descendants will be playable in the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade.

LOS ANGELES--For months, rumors have swirled about the identity of the new playable race of the Alliance, one of two factions in the wildly popular massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft. They began when WOW publisher Blizzard announced that the first expansion for the game, The Burning Crusade, would introduce the blood elves as a new race for the game's other faction, the Horde.

Enter the Draenei

Check out the new WOW race in action!

Conjecture has run the gamut of crazed fans' imaginings, from the fuzzy pandaren to the fishy countenances of the reviled and adored murlocs. On the first day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, GameSpot editors descended upon the booth of Vivendi Games, Blizzard's parent company, to catch a first glimpse of the still officially unidentified new playable race.

The giant video display in the Burning Crusade area of Vivendi's booth clearly shows the demonic draenei piloting around a selection of forested zones. A huge wall display features a draenei in paladin trappings--complete with hammer, shield, spell tome, and lion-and-eagle armor--doing battle with a blood elf rogue. And if there were any further doubt left, the trailer goes on to show blood elves presenting themselves to orc warchief Thrall, a horde leader, followed by a draenei kneeling before the King of Ironforge, surrounded by a host of Alliance.

The new race carries the physical appearance of the Eredar demons. Fans of Warcraft III will remember the Eredar as otherworldly creatures controlling powerful magic, who served the cause of the evil titan Sargeras. The wicked Kil'Jaeden and the mighty Archimonde, who sought to topple the night elves' world tree, were counted among the very highest ranks of the Eredar and the forces of the Burning Legion.

The new characters are easily recognizable as hailing from the Eredar ilk--their huge stature, long tails, hooved feet, and snaking beards all paint an imposing picture. If the Alliance needed a "tough"-looking race, this is absolutely it. They also have an undeniably noble air, broad chests thrown forward and heads held high, and their eyes are a gleaming blue.

Despite their appearance, however, the hulking humanoids were revealed as draenei in an official Blizzard statement. Jeff Kaplan, lead designer, told The New York Times, "Lots of players have wanted to play demons, and Draenei are the closest you can get to looking like an Eredar." While the new race doesn't look like any of the draenei wandering around the current Azeroth, the draenei of the Burning Crusade are actually descended from Eredar, giving them their impressive new appearance.

86 Comments

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 6:08 am PT

    really impressive

  • Vypor

    Posted Jul 4, 2006 11:14 am PT

    Unfortunaly due to laws in China Blizzard are unable to use the Panda in certain asspects (such as killing) I know that this does not go for the rest of the world but Blizzard want to give each country/continent the same content.

  • Deyyhayederaned

    Posted Jun 19, 2006 2:40 pm PT

    Knowledge speaks; the eredar is the race that was corrupted by the burning legion and made in to its generals. The Draenei 'exiles' fled their demon corrupted race, and based on the description at the expansions promotional page were a race not unlike elves only better at magic. Ergo they are not demons and the Draenei of the frozen throne are the mutated Lost Ones.
    Note I was rather hoping it be pandarens, get drunk have fun smash someones head in.

  • Brotherbraak

    Posted May 19, 2006 8:17 pm PT

    I'm not surprised, I heard it was Draenei for months

  • shock6666

    Posted May 18, 2006 7:33 am PT

    Dead links

  • MysticalForce

    Posted May 17, 2006 11:30 am PT

    Cool.... Would like to know when it will be release in Australia :-p

  • zage212

    Posted May 14, 2006 8:30 am PT

    There is also a new class. The magic breaker.

  • GoldenBlackness

    Posted May 14, 2006 4:31 am PT

    *sniff* No fair! I wanted cute, fuzzy Pandaren! *sob*

  • anjul

    Posted May 11, 2006 9:24 am PT

    BlZZARD should have added a little message at the end say "Now say thank you." My god, i can't wait for the expansion!!!!

  • janlopes

    Posted May 11, 2006 7:22 am PT

    sweet.

  • wytefang

    Posted May 10, 2006 4:17 pm PT

    Who cares, not I...MMORPGs are a cancer to our gaming hobby.

  • imdeanlabouty

    Posted May 10, 2006 3:34 pm PT

    Wow. They waited all that time to tell us what everyone had already guessed?

  • Oni

    Posted May 10, 2006 3:05 pm PT

    Awesome to all the people who new what the new race was going to be. You win, here's your prize ->

  • Inconsistancy

    Posted May 10, 2006 3:01 pm PT

    NoO!!! yet again the Horde ends up with the un-cool race now my beloved horde will be even less populated... i think blizzard shoulld switch them that would be awesome

  • SteveTwo

    Posted May 10, 2006 2:47 pm PT

    Yeah! Pat my own back! I've been saying it would be the Draenei since the concert after Blizzcon!

  • gla001b

    Posted May 10, 2006 2:45 pm PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • gla001b

    Posted May 10, 2006 2:44 pm PT

    Yay! I was right about it!

  • adamias13

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:54 pm PT

    very cool
    can anyone belive that blizzard tried to say that wisps would be the new race
    as an aprils fools prank that was lame
    but i can belive this

  • RelentlessFury

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:44 pm PT

    Most of you are lame. Blizz Does not let down in the quality of their games. GG all you haters.

  • Zonelezz

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:28 pm PT

    HOHO awsome!!

  • Hoffy

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:23 pm PT

    I agree it should have been the pandarens. I said that the two new races should have been the pandarens for the horde and blood elves for the alliance shortly after WOW shipped. But i heard about the Draenei in my magazine (Computer Games) a couple months ago, but no one would believe until today.

  • Distortion0

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:13 pm PT

    What the....it looks like the WoW devs took a bunch of random parts, glued them to an elf and said "Make this a little fatter, it's the new allience race. The uhhh, *looks at a rap album* Drey...*looks at his own knee*nee! Draenei!" Reading through the comments, the idea of "fun and unique" skills slays me. "Fun and unique"? In WoW? Hhahahaha.

    But so I don't seem like a complete troll, they're new monster designs look really good. Then again, these are probably high level monsters. You'll still be fights pigs, bears and spiders to get to level 50.

  • GoFeR24

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:10 pm PT

    I don't like this game...The graphic is "plastic" ;[

  • warcraftguy321

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:55 pm PT

    Should of been pandarens...

  • Khimarhi

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:49 pm PT

    O man that is awesome Alliance gets the goods again

  • terhynes

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:46 pm PT

    They are Hottt!!!! So cool

  • rbarahona

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:30 pm PT

    I'm sure that this will be one of the greatest races in WoW. Now finally people will begin playing with the closest thing to demons.

  • Unknown_Knight

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:30 pm PT

    Awesome, wonder what classes will be available. And racial ablilities.

  • JivexDragon

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:15 pm PT

    horde and alliance should switch these races.

  • gibb1

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:12 pm PT

    i want it, but the time for the game to come out i will have no money

  • JimmyCos

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:11 pm PT

    wow, this is cool, i like ugly races and now i return to the alliance...

  • zarbatsu

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:09 pm PT

    sweet i will buy an acc soon

  • Spoonto

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:02 pm PT

    so they've added two new races and some dungeons(instances) a new continent and flying mounts...
    Might as well add one or two new classes too spice things up a bit, don't u think? That would make me play again....

  • jchasey

    Posted May 10, 2006 12:02 pm PT

    Draenei Paladin?!

    /woot!

  • FalloutDude

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:50 am PT

    sad, where is my fuzzy panda T_T

  • orbit18

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:47 am PT

    Yay this is gunna be awesome... i knew this was going to be the class!

  • Banana_Kid

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:45 am PT

    Lame. It's not Wargen.

  • kramboid

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:35 am PT

    If i get a free month with the expansion or a time card or something like that, i may buy it

  • apanizo

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:25 am PT

    They look pretty badass.

  • cvrd

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:19 am PT

    So the old Draenei rumor was true. Thank you for making them look different from the ones in Swamp of Sorrows, Blizzard.

  • LordOfDark19

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:13 am PT

    Pretty fearsome demons, cool!

  • Orowa

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:11 am PT

    Anyway, the horde'll own them...

    Die, Alliance!
    Except maybe Night Elves.

  • Orowa

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:09 am PT

    AWESOME PWNGE OMGWTF UBER MEGA LEETOWNAGE DAYEMMMM!!!!(!!!!!)

    As for you infidels, the Frozen Throne draenei were corrupted forms....

    the storyline is going to rock so much....

  • walrusma

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:07 am PT

    Man... Blizzard waited until E3 to announce this? Ha.

  • CrapfullyCrap

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:05 am PT

    yeah I totally called that on the Feathermoon server.

  • sigma8

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:03 am PT

    These look cool... It's kinda like Old-school Star Trek Klingons (guys in black gym outfits with gold vests) versus the modern-day Star Trek Klingons (massive forehead prosthetics).

  • mikasta

    Posted May 10, 2006 10:56 am PT

    it was the only possible race for the alliance, will be fun killing them .

  • Mistpunkh2o

    Posted May 10, 2006 10:45 am PT

    yep... age of conan... sounds pretty... damn... gay... a lot of people like the lore and stories of WoW. and if i was going to play another mmo... it wouldn't be age of conan... k thnx

  • ell_the_strange

    Posted May 10, 2006 10:42 am PT

    There's gonna be a new kind of hell on RP servers now...

  • Chainblast

    Posted May 10, 2006 10:35 am PT

    What I love is when people say this and that cannot happen in a Blizzard game. You guys do realise that Blizzard creates their own loer and can simply alter/create/reveal new lore that suites their creative design ideas right? Hell, you're starting to sound like LOTR nuts, except, the greator of Warcraft lore is still around and creating.

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