Blood elf (playable)

The blood elves of Silvermoon City start in the Eversong Woods, the northern section of Quel'Thalas. Farther south is the Ghostlands, a level 10-20 zone.

According to WoW Census, blood elves are currently the most played race on the Horde.

Background
Long ago the exiled high elves landed on the shores of Lordaeron. They struck out to find a new home, and after many battles with the trolls, established the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. Using a vial of sacred water stolen from the first Well of Eternity, the high elves created a fount of mystical power at a convergence of ley energies in Quel'Thalas. They named this fountain the Sunwell. Its potent arcane magic fed and strengthened the high elves, and soon the wondrous city of Silvermoon was established.

Protected by a magical barrier, the high elves enjoyed peace for roughly four thousand years, but that peace was not meant to last. The Amani trolls gathered an immense army and assaulted the elven kingdom. Vastly outnumbered, the high elves hastily struck an alliance with the human nation of Arathor. The elves taught a small number of humans how to wield magic. In exchange the humans aided the elves in destroying the trolls' power base forever. Over the following years the high elves returned to their reclusive ways, but during the Third War, the diabolical Prince Arthas Menethil brought battle once again to their doorstep. Arthas required the power of the Sunwell to revive the necromancer Kel'Thuzad and raise him as a lich. He invaded Quel'Thalas and wiped out most of its population. In the end, even King Anasterian Sunstrider lay dead.

Additionally it became clear that the high elves had become addicted to the Sunwell's arcane energies. Now that the source of their magic was gone, the few remaining high elves quickly grew ill and apathetic. Prince Kael'thas, last of the royal line, returned from his studies in Dalaran to find Quel'Thalas in ruins. Thirsting for vengeance, he gathered the survivors, renamed them blood elves, and took a group of the strongest fighters to join Lordaeron's campaign against the Scourge.

Due to human prejudice, Kael'thas was forced to accept the assistance of Lady Vashj and her reptilian naga. When the humans discovered that the blood elves had been working with the naga, Kael'thas and the others were imprisoned and condemned to death. Lady Vashj soon arrived to set them free, leading them through a portal and into the broken wastes of Outland. There, the elves met the one being capable of putting an end to their hunger: the renegade night elf/demon, Illidan Stormrage. Certain that the blood elves would die without Illidan's assistance, Kael'thas agreed to serve the Betrayer.

A lone representative, Rommath, was sent back to Azeroth with a message of hope for the blood elves remaining in Quel'Thalas: that one day Kael'thas would return to lead his people to paradise. Rommath had made great progress in teaching the blood elves advanced techniques to manipulate arcane energies. With renewed purpose, the blood elves have rebuilt the city of Silvermoon, though it is powered by volatile magics. Emboldened by the promise of Kael'thas' return, the weary citizens of Quel'Thalas now focus on regaining their strength, even as they forge a new path into an uncertain future.

Mounts
The hawkstrider is the blood elves' racial mount. It was formerly called a cockatrice but was later changed, though that mythical beast remains the inspiration for the hawkstrider. As their name implies, hawkstriders resemble other members of the tallstrider family, though their plumage is both larger and more vibrant. They come in a variety of bright colors and have a thin, curved beak and burning orange eyes. Epic versions include decorative armor on the chest and head. The hawkstrider's movements exhibit the same rhythmic, back-and-forth motion which characterizes the other two-legged mounts. They use a heavily modified tallstrider model, but they possess a wildly different looking exterior and a unique standing-jump and running animation. The Blood Elven Blood Knight use a darker form of the charger with a dark red armor unlike the Alliance races who receive a blue armored version.

Leadership in Quel'Thalas

 * Lor'themar Theron, Regent Lord of Quel'Thalas: Leader of the blood elves on Azeroth in the wake of Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider's betrayal.
 * Grand Magister Rommath: Leader of all blood elf magi on Azeroth, and a former servant of Kael'thas.
 * Halduron Brightwing: Ranger-General of Silvermoon, the blood elves' military commander on Azeroth, leader of the Farstriders (organization of blood elven rangers).
 * Lady Liadrin: Leader of the Blood Knight order of Silvermoon City (the order of the paladin class in Silvermoon).

Starting attributes
In addition, you regain 6% of your mana. If you play a death knight or a rogue this ability restores 15 runic power/energy.

Reasons for racial traits
Arcane Torrent comes as a natural manipulation of Arcane energies from the Sunwell and allows the elves to tap into and unleash the magic that is their birth right. The elves have long delved into the magical and arcane as evident by their cultural centerpiece, the Sunwell. Thus, they have developed a natural Arcane Affinity as a result of the well's magical presence, making the blood elves naturally skilled with arcane arts such as Enchanting. The elves' constant exposure to magic also gave them a natural defense against many kinds of magical manipulation, granting them a natural Arcane Resistance. Mana Tap was previously used to drain magic from the environment, but was no longer necessary when the Sunwell was restored.

Appearance
Males of the race are tall and slender, standing above the average human, and characterized by a lean, athletic musculature, making them seem somewhat thin when compared to larger races such as orcs. Females stand somewhat shorter, just above a human male in height, and have slender, delicate builds. They have a wide range of hair colours spanning from charcoal black to nearly white and a spectrum of skin colours ranging from pale to tan to ruddy. Blood elves have very long and thin ears, however their ears differ greatly from a night elf's. The ears of a blood elf point vertically, whereas a night elf's ears point behind them. Blood elves also have eyebrows that extend well off of their faces like whiskers. Both males and females are what would typically be considered exceptionally beautiful, with chiseled, refined features; males can also sport some facial hair, in the form of goatees. Their eyes glow green due to the influence of the fel energies they turned to with the destruction of the Sunwell.

Classes
Blood elf characters can play as the following classes: As seen in the Undead campaign in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Blood Elf campaign in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, elven swordsmen with no mana do exist. Thaladred the Darkener and the Sunblade Vindicators(no relation to Draenei paladins) also appear to be warriors, both use warrior abilities, have no mana bar, and the former is wearing the Warrior tier 5 armor set.
 * Hunter (Ranger)
 * Mage
 * Warlock
 * Rogue
 * Priest
 * Paladin (Blood Knight)
 * Death knight
 * Warrior

Because of these examples, it is not unjustified that Warriors became a playable class for Blood Elves in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Starting Clothes
The starting clothes for blood elves vary depending on the class, for example, the caster classes, like mages, priest and warlock begin with a robe (each one resemble the colors of the class, i.e: red for warlock) while the melee classes begins with a war-like armor, made of mail, linked on the middle (for paladins) or made of leather with a bit of body armor for hunters and rogues.

The main colors for a blood elf's clothing are red, white, orange, green, blue and sometimes purple.

Most of the blood elf magisters use robes, with different colors, like red, green, and purple.

Connections to other Horde groups

 * Though not normally advertised, starting blood elf characters can use a Orb of Translocation to get to the entrance of Undercity. The Orb works both ways, so characters can easily travel between the two capitals without having to go through the Plaguelands, which are much higher level zones than the Undead and Blood Elf starting areas. Note that Blood Elf players begin with a "Friendly" status with the Forsaken while being Neutral with other members.

Trivia

 * It is interesting to note that the female blood elf dance is derived from the dance routine in the music video for Britney Spears' song "Toxic", which lyrics happen to be a very spot-on description of the magical addiction blood elves suffer. The male blood elf dance is almost exactly identical to the dance that Napoleon does in the movie Napoleon Dynamite.
 * Contrary to popular belief, blood elves still have a strong affinity with nature, especially the Farstrider rangers. Like the quel'dorei before them, the sin'dorei have druids, but they are not the same as kaldorei or tauren druids; the blood elf variety of druids are closer to traditional "medieval" druids, working to conserve and maintain the natural environment of Quel'Thalas. While most cannot shape-shift, they share some of the same druid spells such as Speak with Plants. However, there is at least one shape-shifting druid (High Botanist Freywinn).
 * Blood elf NPCs are the only Horde race that do not call out for help when an Alliance player attacks them. This is most likely due to an oversight by Blizzard during production of The Burning Crusade. Getting too close to or attacking a blood elf NPC will still summon guards to protect the town or city.
 * Blood Elf guards (spell breakers) in Silvermoon City and other parts of Quel'Thalas have a distinctly different model and portrait than those used by playable blood elves and by other blood elf and high elf NPCs; their models were not updated from the ones used in the Burning Crusade beta. They share animations with male night elf models and have unique aggro and death sounds. Their models are very similar to the spell breaker in WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne.
 * Blood elf guards are the only guards with mana.
 * All blood elf guards are male unlike guards for most other races of Azeroth, except for Ironforge guards. Conversely, all night elf guards happen to be female.
 * Although blood elf eyes supposedly glow green, their model's eyes do not actually glow in the dark. Possibly an oversight.
 * According to the WoW Census, there are just as many Night Elf characters as there are Blood Elf character, both sides equaling up to 17% of both the Alliance, and Horde's total player count.

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