The Skyborne choose their side at character creation

Blizzard has published the details of the Skyborne, the new playable race in WoW Forever. The faction choice happens at character creation and decides one class: Horde Windshapers can be Shaman, Alliance High Order can be Mage. Both sides also play Druid, Hunter, Rogue and Warrior.

They start on Zephras Isle, a new experience for levels 1 to 12.

Where they come from

Thousands of years ago a group of Highborne exiles made a pact with elemental wind spirits and built a civilisation inside Skywall, one of the elemental planes. That civilisation is in crisis when you arrive. The wind spirits that protected the island have vanished, old structures are failing, communities are cut off and the Skyborne disagree about what comes next.

That disagreement is the faction split. The Horde-aligned Windshapers hold to the elemental traditions and want the spirits restored. The Alliance-aligned High Order, descended from the Highborne scholars of Eldre’Thalas, concluded that leaning on the spirits left them exposed and go back to the arcane instead.

The racials

Both sides share Walk on Air, which glides you downward through the air for 10 seconds, and two passives: Wind Blessed, 1 percent melee, ranged and spellcasting Haste, and Elemental Insight, 5 percent more damage to Elementals.

The fourth differs. Windshapers get Skysight, an Elemental Blessing that raises run speed by 10 percent. The High Order get Read Ley Line, which activates a ley line for 100 percent increased Health and Mana regeneration.

What you can change

Body type 1 carries ten faces, nine skin colours from sky blue through light and darker tones, 21 hairstyles, eleven hair colours, three ear lengths, nine eye colours and four eyebrow styles. Below that sit thirteen facial hair options, feather colours that can also run through the hair, four face tattoos and two tattoo colours.

There are new Skyborne Druid forms built for the race, and the Skyborne have a dance of their own.