Azerothian species

[Fishman]

There is no real proof for the "Elves evolved from Trolls" Theory. :X

[Alyran]

Creations of the Titans:

* Iron Vrykul -> Vrykul, Humans
* Iron Dwarfs -> Earthen, Dwarfs, Troggs
* Mechagnomes -> Gnomes, Leper Gnomes
* Tol'Vir -> Obsidian Destroyers
* Different kind of Giants (Sea, Earth, Storm etc)

Troll rumours:

* Trolls (native to Azeroth) (Jungle, Forest etc)
* After certain influence/discovery Well of Eternity, two different species; Elves and Trolls
* Night elves turn into
-> High Elves - Blood Elves (banished because of use of magic)
-> Naga (by unknown influence when great part of Night Elf society sunk by sundering)
-> Harpy (not sure, or by betraying Azshara, or worshipping Aviana)
-> Satyr (by burning Legion)
-> Worgen (by worshipping Goldrinn, the Druids of the Scythe)

Insectoid races
* One empire (Aqir)
* After Troll wars split, Nerubians and Qiraji
* By influence of C'Thun -> Silithid?

Draenor/Outland Natives
* Arakkoa
* Sporeling
* Gronn -> Ogrelords -> Ogres
* Orcs
* Mok'Nathal (ogre/orc half breed)

World of Argus
* Eredar
* After corruption some fled (Draenei)
* By influence of Fel magic -> Broken and Lost Ones

Dragons
* Protodragons
* By Titan blessing five dragonflights (red, blue, green, bronze, black)
* Deathwings experiments -> Twilight, Chromatic, Netherwing
* Infinite is presumed a corrupted bronze flight

Native Azeroth Races/unknown origin
* Trolls (see above)
* Tauren -> Taunka
* Furbolg -> Pandaren?
* Gnolls
* Quilboar
* Tuskarr
* Wolvar
* Goblin
* many more

[Dark Side]

You have that mostly right.

The Aqir were the original name. They then split into the Qiraji and the Nerubians.

i think they split silithid and nerubians. Quiraji are old god manipulated aillithid

[Kaneiac]

i think they split silithid and nerubians. Quiraji are old god manipulated aillithid

The Monster Guide book, and I believe one other, I can't remember, said Qiraji and Nerubians are the two races that split from the Aqir.

The origin of the Silithid is unknown.

The AQIR were created by C'thun as a whole.

[Dark Side]

The Monster Guide book, and I believe one other, I can't remember, said Qiraji and Nerubians are the two races that split from the Aqir.

The origin of the Silithid is unknown.

The AQIR were created by C'thun as a whole.

okay, il buy it

[Deleted]

I recall something about the original Silithid (the ones that eventually split in Nerubians and Aqir) were actually critters that literally came too close to the Well of Eternity.

Elves are quite probably a result from Troll mutation of sorts, although there are sources that another actual Deity came by, saw the Trolls and thought them interesting and decided to remake them in her image. Given what we know about Azeroth and Powers That Be this is just as plausible as Trolls turning to Elves thanks to the WoE.

Gnomes, Dwarves and Humans are a bi-product of the Titans and Yoggy... That much is established.
Tauren... Kindof feel like another odd offshoot that're Troll-related. Perhaps a loa-worshipping that went wrong? They /do/ share the same number of fingers and toes.

I'm more interested in a lot of the non-major species though;

Keepers and Dryad (and even Centaur) are traceable to Cenarius.
But where do the Furbolg come from?
What about the Kobolds/Snobolds? They're prolific enough to be counted a sortof major species on the planet.

[pillowpants]

Thx for the correction.

I found the blue post I was referring too. It has a lot of other good information as well.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...575587&sid=1#1

[Deleted]

WoE is the Well of Eternity. After it exploded it became the Maelstrom. The night elves (who came before high elves) built their civilization around it and it's magical properties. Queen Azshara and her exclusive sect, the Highborne, recklessly used the Well which attracted the attention of the Legion. After they were stopped and the Well destroyed, Malfurion (I think) made arcane magic illegal. The remaining Highborne disagreed which eventually led to their banishment. They traveled across the sea, eventually founding Quel'Thalas and established the Sunwell with one of the remaining vials from the WoE, and called themselves High Elves. They also forsake all night elf culture and embraced the sun. It's unknown what caused it, but they they eventually evolved physically into what we see today. Blood Elves are simply renamed High Elves for their fallen brethren with new political and social ideals, along with green eyes instead of blue as a result of their magical addiction and siphoning techniques.

The Highbourne that went under when the WoE was destroyed were twisted by the Maelstroms powers and became the Naga.

As someone said, it's speculated that night elves came from trolls since it's known that trolls have existed for a lot longer.

Taurens? Not much info on their origins. I guess they got sick of being milked so they stood up.

Humans. It's established in game that they were the 'inferior' offspring of the Vrykul. I read a blue post not too long ago that said that these 'aberrations' were taken to what is now the northern Eastern Kingdoms. It also explained the name Tyr and it's relations to humans. Tyr was a watcher in Ulduar who lost his hand in a battle or something. Instead of 'regrowing' it, he replaced it with a Silver Hand as a sign of strength and determination to the lesser races. When the humans were taken away from Northrend, these stories traveled with them too, and we still see it in names like Tyr's Hand and the Knights of the Silver Hand.

There's also the spider races. I forget the name of the original race that the Amani and Gurubashi trolls fought for years and eventually split. The northern spiders became the Nerubians and the southern became the Aqir. This split clearly happened before the Sundering, confirming that the trolls are older.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't feel like looking up every little thing I talked about. I will try to find that blue post though.

This seems to about hit the spot as far as I know. So in summary

-Azeroth forms
-Trolls, maybe tauren, arachnoids and proto-dragons evolve. Old Gods arrive and start doing their thing.
-Titans arrive and create earthen armies to combat old gods and empower the dragons (some more than others) to act as guardians. Much ass is kicked.
-Old gods inflict slumbering earthen with the curse of flesh.
-Nightelves (or highborne, I think the destinction is more cultural than biological) evolve from trolls who settled near the Well of Eternity.
-The sundering. (unsure which comes first) Some Earthen awaken to find themselves squishy and pink(ish). Gnomes, Vrykul, Dwarfs and Troggs (very cursed dwarfs) are "born".
-Some vrykul suffer further from the curse and are born "inferior". The children born to "loving" vrykul mothers are spirited away to the eastern kingoms (most are just killed) to one day become the human kingdoms.
-Highborne exiled from Kalimdour and rename themselfs High Elves. The addiction to magic becomes aparent as they are separated from it, taking on the pink skin.
-Orks arrive through the dark portal.
-Alliance and H-elves have a falling out. Some stay loyal though and follow the alliance, presumably going cold turkey to beat their magic addiction. Those who abandon the alliance begin searching for magic, any magic. Dependancy on Fel sources (whether they know it or not) begins to corrupt them more (the green eyes for most).
-Draenei arrive via poor piloting skills.

Think that covers all the races.

I recall something about the original Silithid (the ones that eventually split in Nerubians and Aqir) were actually critters that literally came too close to the Well of Eternity.

Elves are quite probably a result from Troll mutation of sorts, although there are sources that another actual Deity came by, saw the Trolls and thought them interesting and decided to remake them in her image. Given what we know about Azeroth and Powers That Be this is just as plausible as Trolls turning to Elves thanks to the WoE.

Gnomes, Dwarves and Humans are a bi-product of the Titans and Yoggy... That much is established.
Tauren... Kindof feel like another odd offshoot that're Troll-related. Perhaps a loa-worshipping that went wrong? They /do/ share the same number of fingers and toes.

I'm more interested in a lot of the non-major species though;

Keepers and Dryad (and even Centaur) are traceable to Cenarius.
But where do the Furbolg come from?
What about the Kobolds/Snobolds? They're prolific enough to be counted a sortof major species on the planet.

Maybe they're gnomes that got hit extra hard by the curse of flesh, in the same way that troggs and dwarfs are related?

No idea about furbolgs though.

[delus]

The night elves have a faction called the highborne. The highborne get exiled and get a sun tan, turning their skin pink. These pink skinned elves become high elves. The high elves of quel'thalas drink green kool-aid and start calling themselves blood elves after the scourge trashed their home.

[Dahak]

This is a good question. Unfortunately we don't really know much about Old Gods. If I had to make a wild guess, they are parasites feeding on the life force of planet's life. I don't really know how "life force" kind of thing would fit to known lore, though.

Edit:
I happened to just read Tribunal of Ages page in WoWiki. It is quite well established that Old Gods are parasites of some kind: "Abedneum yells: Accessing. In the early stages of its development cycle Azeroth suffered infection by parasitic, necrophotic symbiotes."

However, there was speculation about the meaning of word "necrophotic". It reads:


Looks like someone else has come up with my idea, too, with actual evidence (very weak evidence, based on assumption of a typo, but evidence regardless).

I'm going to divide my reply up with [fact] and [theory] flags, just to make it clear what is and isn't cannon/lore here:

I disagree with it being a typo, as there is also a piece of loot named "Necrophotic Greaves." Necrophotic means literally "Dead light."[Fact]
In the WoW universe, the Naruu are the embodiment of Light. When they die, they become void entities, who feed ofg Light until they're reborn.[Fact]

In this instance, Muruu would be a necrophotic being - something created from dead light.[Theory - Linguistic conjecture based on Void being dead Light energy]

It therefore seems likely that the Old Gods are beings of the void (not meaning "space" in this usage) - possibly from the previous universe, as is one of the theories behind the Lovecraft Old Gods [Theory, but fairly standard C'thulu Mythos theory]

The other possibility is that the "dead light" means they are literally creatures of shadow energy, who grow their own bodies around them. Maybe we'll find out more in Cataclysm... maybe some brave archaeologist will go stick a trowel in an old god!

[Powerogue]

apparently the vrykul and dwarves came about at about the same time, then when the old gods used the curse of flesh on the vrykul they started having human children, which the parents secretly sent down to the shores of lordaeron. so humans weren't "always there", they technically came about a little after the curse of flesh.

elves and taurens, who knows about them. i think trolls and tauren might've been some of the earlier species that the titans created, then the trolls (debatedly) became night elves due to the well of eternity, and the other types of elves kind of branched off from them.

[Dark Side]

I'm going to divide my reply up with [fact] and [theory] flags, just to make it clear what is and isn't cannon/lore here:

I disagree with it being a typo, as there is also a piece of loot named "Necrophotic Greaves." Necrophotic means literally "Dead light."[Fact]
In the WoW universe, the Naruu are the embodiment of Light. When they die, they become void entities, who feed of Light until they're reborn.[Fact]

In this instance, Muruu would be a necrophotic being - something created from dead light.[Theory - Linguistic conjecture based on Void being dead Light energy]

It therefore seems likely that the Old Gods are beings of the void (not meaning "space" in this usage) - possibly from the previous universe, as is one of the theories behind the Lovecraft Old Gods [Theory, but fairly standard C'thulu Mythos theory]

The other possibility is that the "dead light" means they are literally creatures of shadow energy, who grow their own bodies around them. Maybe we'll find out more in Cataclysm... maybe some brave archaeologist will go stick a trowel in an old god!

Well, the dwarves are ready to hurl boulders at Isorath if that helps you....stupid dwarves

[Sickric]

Hey everyone

I was trying to figure out where all the species come from on azeroth, and i came to the conclusion that for alot of them i don't really have a clue.

-- Before titans arrived:
Old Gods
Elementals
Trolls
Dragons
??

-- Titans come, titan see, titan do
Titans (doh)
Gnomes
Dwarfs

-- Dark portal and the big spaceship crash
Draenei
Orcs

That, leaves a few questions:
Were the following races allways there:
Elves
Taurens
Humans

Also, we got 3 types of elves atm
High elves (i assume thats the pure race)
Blood elves (really high elves addicted to magic and revenge)
Night elves
I sort of assumed that Night elves were high elves in early times of azeroth, but focused completely on nature and changed over time


Anyone care to shed some light? mostly about humans/taurens and elven races

PS: keep your trolling to yourself, we can do perfectly fine if the forumtrolls crawl back into their basements.

You got the elves thing mixed up Night elves were the first and high elves came from them which then the high elves became blood elves

[Winterstorm]

wtf? you guys seem to be terribly misinformed
the night elves were the ONLY elves originally, and were transformed into the highborne (high elves) after prolonged exposure to the magic of the well of eternity, and the blood elves are just high elves by a different name, they aren't necessarily addicted to magic

nobody knows where the night elves come from, but the theory is that they somehow evolved from trolls

stop telling people that your theories are solid proof, guys

edit: damn, beaten to it

Highborne =/= High Elves.
Highborne are the night elves that used the arcane magic of the well of eternity with Queen Azshara. Those of the Highborne that survived the Sundering left to the Eastern Kingdoms, started living in the day rather than the night, and with the creation of their Sunwell became High Elves.

Blood Elves are the High Elves after Arthas destroyed the Sunwell that delt with there magic addiction through stealing others magic (Mana Tap).
High Elves that are left deal with there addiction through meditation, and are against the ways the Blood Elves and their addictive practices.
Highborne, (like the ones rejoining the Night Elves from Dire Maul), still use Arcane magic, but are still Night Elves.

I doubt the Night Elves came from the trolls based on the celestial statues found in Ulduar, HoS, HoL, and VoA showing Night Elves, Trolls, and Tauren. This suggests that these were the races that were the mortal races indeginous to Azeroth.

[Stormfist_NL]

To start this off.... wowwiki! it's great for all lore related questions,
That said, some races just don't have their histories revealed. I'll add a little side-info in paranthesis which is speculation/alleged information.

Original Species:
# Elementals (Fire, Water (Frost), Wind, Earth)
# (Proto) Dragons
# Old Gods [Speculated not being indigenous to Azeroth]

Arrival of & Shaping by the Titans:
# (Mecha) Gnomes
# Earthern 0.9 (Troggs), the dwarf alpha-forms... the dim-witted older brother of the dwarf... Eathern Experiment #1... failed miserably.
# Earthern 1.0 (Dwarves)
# Earthern 2.0 (part giant, part earthern)
# Tol'Vir
# Dragons, they shaped the 5 aspects first, after the behemoth Galakrond, and created a small portion of additional dragons (the dragon flights) to aid the aspects in their tasks
# Giants, just as dragons; several different species (colours) to perform different tasks
# Titanic Watchers & Sentinels

The creation of Ulduar, the stockade for YoggSaron, the Death God:
# Iron Dwarves
# Iron Vrykul
# Iron Giants
... servants immune to the curse of flesh

Somewhere in between:
# Tauren/Taunka (Cow evolved into Tauren, Taunka may be some kind of super-cow, indigenous to northrend variety or a type of ancestor all together (the missing link between cow & tauren!))
# Trolls
# Night Elves [Speculated to come from Trolls that went too close to the well of eternity]
-> Satyr, by demon influence
-> Naga, sundering, a whisper from the depths helped them evolve swiftly into a serpent-like, water adapt beings
-> High Elves (Quel'Dorei), banished for them continuing the use of magic after the demons came to azeroth because of it & nearly destroyed the world
# Silithid -> Aqir (C'thun's doing)

Curse of Flesh:
# Earthern 0.9 -> Troggs (transform)
# Earthern 1.0 -> Dwarves (transform)
# Earthern 2.0 -> Vrykul (transform)
# Mecha Gnomes -> Gnomes (transform)
# Tol'vir -> Obsidian Destroyers (transform)

Prior to Warcraft 1:
# Vrykul -> Human (gave birth to...)
# Vrykul -> Kvaldir (evolve/transform)
# Aqir -> Aqir & Nerubians (after the Trolls wars, evolve)
-> Some Aqir -> Qiraji (transformed/evolved by C'thun's hand/tentacle)
-> Qiraji in turn create Anubisaths & Horusath
# Goblins
# Worgen, Night Elves stuck in a humanoid-wolf form. Evolves to be a disease that turns the afflicted humanoid into something 'different', a worgen-<insert species>
# Demons, the invasion prior to the sundering left many demons behind on Azeroth

Warcraft 1:
# Orcs, from Draenor
# Ogre's from Draenor
# Mok'nathal from Draenor (Half Orc/Half Ogre)
# Half Orc/Half Draenei (Garona)

Warcraft 3:
# Scourge, mindless undead (Ghouls, Geists, Abominations, Frostwyrms, Banshee's... the works!)
# Forsaken, sentient undead (mostly still humanoid, we would call them zombie's I guess)
# Most High Elves in turn became Blood Elves (Sin'Dorei) due to their magic addiction

World of Warcraft:
# Draenei, from Draenor
# Val'kyr, Risen Vrykul, made by the Lich King
# San'Layn, Undead Blood Elves in the service of the Lich King
# Some Blood Elves in turn have been known to grow into Fel Elves by consuming Demonic Energy
# Chromatic Dragons (mixed blood of red/green/bronze/black/blue), Infinite Dragons (corrupted Bronze?), Twilight Dragons (Black/Nether-cross breed), Iron Proto Dragons, Nether Dragons (Transformed Black dragons, stem from WC2 days, but didn't come to Azeroth until The Burning Crusade went on)

SOMEWHERE WE DON'T KNOW:
# Primal Gods (sentient beast gods worshipped by trolls, older then trolls)
# Beasts (probably most animals predate trolls)
# Eternals (super-beasts, friends of & examples to the Night Elves, probably are a bit younger than dragons, but older then night elves)
# Ancients; beasts, trees, demi-gods, different types, different era's. Most predating the War of the Ancients and the Sundering.
# Keepers (Cenarion & his marry band of henchmen, between the sundering & the titans arrival), among his descendants are the Centaurs, Nymphs, Faeri Dragons & Dryads
# Sentient Beasts (Furbolgs (bear), Quilboar (boar), Harpy (elf/hawk? betrayers of the Highbourne?), Pandaran (pandabear), Tuskarr (Sealions), Wolvar (wolves), Gnolls (Hyena's), Centaur (Stag/god/Earth Elemental)), Kobolds (Rats?), Murlocs (Fish))
# Silithid, before C'thun had his fun with them, they were simple insects
# Faceless One's, in all their shapes/sizes/forms. Speculation on them is rather minimal, but they are all probably shapen by the Old Gods.... from what? Raw materials? Intergalactic Ooze? Transformed beings from the elemental plains? or from deep within the earth?

Edit;
Elves seem to be an issue hehe...
1. ??? quote from WoW-website (kudo's to ct67) "UNKNOWN NOCTURNAL HUMANOIDS, UNDER INFLUENCE OF THE WELL OF ETERNITY" --> Night Elves (Kal'Dorei)
2. Species: Night Elves
Elite group within the society, that abundantly uses arcane magic: Highbourne (Queen Azshara, Sunstrider Dynasty, Illidan)
3. Demonic Invasion, summoning Sargeras through the Well of Eternity... Xavius (right hand of the Queen) get's empowered by demonic influence to be the first of the Satyr
4. Queen Azshara and most of her followers fall into the ocean when the sundering happens, they hear whispers from the sea and the force behind the whispers also, at the mere cost of their allegiance, transforms them into water-adapt creatures, the serpent-like Naga.
5. The Night Elf society rejects arcane magic and focusses on the combat (sentinels, rangers), Elune (priests) & druidism (druids). The few practitioners of arcane magic are banished from their society, they were either secluded in Dire Maul (where a secret splinter faction of Azshara's dark-deeds servants remained), known as the Shen'Dralar (in their Eldre'thalas region) OR left the mega-continent of Kalimdor to the east, where they landed on the shores of Tirisfal, trecked east & found Quel'thalas. They were later known as the Quel'Dorei, Childeren of the Sun, High Elves, "Childeren of Nobility"
6. THIS SENTENSE CONTAINS SPOILERS! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!6. To battle the world's evils, some druids delfed into the ferocious power of the wolf, attaining a humanoid/wolf hybrid form of immense rage and strength. Some were unable to control these powers and they got lost in their power, forever remaining the Worgen-Druids of the Scythe, their essence is infectious and can afflict other races aswell, losing themselves under certain circumstances to the wolf-within. Over time I think that the Worgen disease has earned it's right as one of the Night Elves' societies offsprings.
7. Most of the High Elf society has grown so addicted to magic that come the The Frozen Throne adventures they christen themselves the "Sin'Dorei" or Blood Elves
8. In outland some of Kael'thas' forces are granted access to Demonic energies and thus malformed into the evil "Fel Elves"
8. The risen High/Blood Elves are now known as the San'Layn faction, vampiric servants of the Lich King

[Deleted]

There is no answer to the trolls vs elves debate, as the last line of http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...ightelves.html puts it:

Without additional data, there is little point in debating the merits of this controversial theory. No doubt it will remain a matter of contention for years to come.

[Sylreick]

Don't think it was stated before, but apparently humans have been around since the Great Sundering. According to http://www.wowwiki.com/Azotha. Apparently these Azotha people were the descendants of the vrykul before they became humans.

[Eternal Champion]

It is not proven that Night Elves evolved from Trolls. That is only an assumption.

[Sauredfangs]

Practically every race that the titans didnt create



Edit:

This may include

Trolls
Furbolgs
Taurens
Old Gods
Elementals
Old God Minions(facelessones,qiraj,etc..)
Murlocs
Gnolls
Moonkins
Beast
Magnataur
Yeti

and much much more...

[Odayaka]

The titans also made Giants to help shape the earth and seas.

But one theory suggests that Night Elves were once Trolls that got too close to the Well of Eternity and were morphed by its magics. The Night Elves maintain that they are actually the children of Elune, but that is up to your own interpretation.

The High Elves and Blood Elves were once the Highborne race of Night Elves. They were the upper class of Night Elves that practiced arcane magic and were closest to Queen Azshara. When the Well imploded, the Highborne that weren't transformed into Naga or killed during the sundering, were banished from Night Elven society and founded the High Elven society in Quel'Thalas. Being away from the magics of the Well of Eternity changed their bodies over time, to smaller, pinker elves. The Blood Elves are still part of the High Elf race, but allied differently. They are elves that sought the Fel magics to quench their thirst for magic.

As for Humans, it was theorized that the children of the Vrykul that were born "weak and ugly" as a side-effect of the Curse of Flesh became the Azotha, primitive humans. They then became humans over time.

Hope that helps a little.