So in the in-game lore, how many player "heros" are there?

[Hunterpower]

Is it merely just 1, you and the other players are just part of the online experience? or is it you plus all the raid members?
random thought that popped in my head and wondered if there was any thing on this

[Darsithis]

To me? Technically you are the only hero and everyone else is just helping you.

[LilSaihah]

Legendaries, as far as I know, happen in lore as they're done through quests. Thus, at most, there are 10 hero characters, one per legendary. To narrow this down, there has to be at least the following;

Legendary daggers: Rogue
Legendary bow: Hunter

We can ignore the legendary cape because everyone can get that.

After this, we get overlap, but I think we can get away with having a pretty short list of classes.

Rogue: Thunderfury, Glaives, Daggers
Hunter: Bow
Priest: Medivh's stick, Raggy's stick, Ulduar hammer
Warrior: Hand of Sulf, Shadowmourne

You could possibly give the bow to the Rogue, depending on how stingy you are. So at the end of the day, there are 3 or 4 "real" characters, depending on whether you give the bow to the Hunter.

[Dormie]

I don't think there are a set number. It's just a group of average Joes that help save the world. It's definitely more than one because NPCs refer to us as 'these' heroes.

[arcaneshot]

Scarab Lord is officially an Alliance character regardless of how many players and on which faction have it.

[NMX-]

You know how in Warcraft (rts games) where you'd have a hero unit with a special name? I think of us as special, named units in the game. I don't consider us necessarily named heroes in the overall Lore of WoW, but I like to consider us 1 step above npcs (created by barracks), 1 step below Thrall/Illidan/Sylvanas/Tyrande, etc.

Alliance Heroes, Horde Heroes, Adventurers pretty much

[The Madgod]

In my mind, there's probably hundreds. It wouldn't make sense to me that all of those named bosses were killed by the same group of people or that a smaller group of people were there to experience all of those events that we see as players. There's no official number though. We just know that the stuff we do, as far as canon lore is concerned, is done by unnamed adventurers and heroes of the Alliance and Horde.

[Belloc]

Legendaries, as far as I know, happen in lore as they're done through quests. Thus, at most, there are 10 hero characters, one per legendary. To narrow this down, there has to be at least the following;

Legendary daggers: Rogue
Legendary bow: Hunter

We can ignore the legendary cape because everyone can get that.

After this, we get overlap, but I think we can get away with having a pretty short list of classes.

Rogue: Thunderfury, Glaives, Daggers
Hunter: Bow
Priest: Medivh's stick, Raggy's stick, Ulduar hammer
Warrior: Hand of Sulf, Shadowmourne

You could possibly give the bow to the Rogue, depending on how stingy you are. So at the end of the day, there are 3 or 4 "real" characters, depending on whether you give the bow to the Hunter.

That... doesn't really make sense.

[roahn the warlock]

I would say there is at max 40, because you enter Wrath being a hero of the outlands wars, then you move from hero to champion of Arthas and are referred to as such as you quest, It kiiiinda resets in Wrath, because nobody knows who you are, but Varian/garrosh still refers to you as champions.

You are referenced by Anduin, Thrall, Varian, the quest givers in the beginning wrath quests, as a warlock you are referenced by Akama as having been there before. So it is assumed that your character is the chief slayer of all raid bosses

[Icaras]

Lore wise, I'm pretty sure the game consider the players character to be the main character and the one that did everything. Quests that refer to past actions are always directed at the player. So you generally won't see "Hey remember when you and all those random guys did that quest for me in Westfall?", but you are likely to see "Hey remember when YOU did that quest for me in Westfall?".

If there is a need for other players, quest and the like generally have you directed to "bring your friends", so in lore you could say "blah blah dungeonw as defeated by (the player's main character) and friends (IE: You matter, the friends don't. they were just some guys who helped you)

That said, blizz tends to keep any references to the players in lore super vague and we usually don't really crop up at all, so I wouldn't stress it too much.

[Immitis]

Is it merely just 1, you and the other players are just part of the online experience? or is it you plus all the raid members?
random thought that popped in my head and wondered if there was any thing on this

in raids? its typically 100 - a couple thousand.

in quests 1 - a handful

[Arkenaw]

None. It's just a gameplay thing.

[LilSaihah]

That... doesn't really make sense.

The events in legendary quests happened in lore. Someone had to have done them, if it wasn't your character. For example, Wrathion definitely hired a rogue to kill off other black dragons, so a rogue PC definitely exists, even if it isn't yours.

The lowest possible number of characters, while making sure that all of those lore events happen, is 3.

[Myrandron]

I see it as depends on the situation, where in the questing zones for the most part it's your the hero/adventurer and you are generally the sole hero, when it comes to daily hubs, dungeons, raids and such it's more generalized into heroes, multiple heroes from your faction coming together to accomplish some sort of goal. I know in the books whenever it's referenced any of the things such as Deathwings defeat along with a few other examples I can't remember at the moment as just a group of heroes.

[Bladeface]

The events in legendary quests happened in lore. Someone had to have done them, if it wasn't your character. For example, Wrathion definitely hired a rogue to kill off other black dragons, so a rogue PC definitely exists, even if it isn't yours.

The lowest possible number of characters, while making sure that all of those lore events happen, is 3.

yeah but lorewise all of the legendaries are similar in power regardless of their actual in game level so it doesnt make much sense to give a rogue 4 weapons lorewise

[Deleted]

...have you directed to "bring your friends", so in lore you could say "blah blah dungeonw as defeated by (the player's main character) and friends...

I have always thought that kinda comical... You are going to save the world and you need help so you will call to few drinking buddies. "Hello Bob, what are you doing today? Wanna kill one dragon? Small one."

Edit: There was some 60lvl hunter in LFD yesterday, having no gear except lvl1 ones... maybe it was one of those "friends".

[LilSaihah]

yeah but lorewise all of the legendaries are similar in power regardless of their actual in game level so it doesnt make much sense to give a rogue 4 weapons lorewise

Yeah, but it's not really possible to say whether it's much higher than that, so I gave the low estimate.

[KrazyK923]

We are part of like a veteran footsoldier force. We're kind of like an independent 7th Legion. Although not as many.

We've been present at basically every significant altercation helping the big named guys.

[Powerogue]

5-40, depending.

[Bretzel]

I think its generally just referred to as "a group of adventurers". Or "Horde/Alliance heroes". No emphasis on the number of heroes.

I would say I agree with this when it comes down to it. We are all known as adventurers/heroes/champions, and have always been present at major conflicts, as we are usually remembered or recognized for our previous actions. The MoP preview trailer is voiced from the PoV of an "adventurer", and referenced as we, so definitely a group and not an individual.

Look up "Adventurer" on WoWPedia.