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World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a fantasy-set pay-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment that is one of the most popularly played online games by furries and non-furries alike.

World of Warcraft and furry

The game, while focused on a few main main plots, such as the conflict between the Horde and the Alliance and the demonic Burning Legion that wishes to eradicate all life, features several races and characters of furry interest. Four playable races feature anthropomorphic features:

• Pandaren, a race of chubby anthropomophic pandas.
• Worgen, werewolves with the ability to (and the option to not) transform between their wolf and human forms.
• Draenei, a race of alien beings that feature several animal traits, such as digitigrade legs, hooves, horns, and tails.
• Tauren, anthropomorphic cattle that greatly resemble Minotaurs. These Tauren hold a lot of totem spiritualism that is similar to some furry spirituality.

All races come with themed voice taunts and emotes, for example /silly will make the character say a randomly selected joke. As a worgen player you have the chance to say "Are you into...furries?".

A Night Elf Druid and the various forms he can assume.

The Tauren, Night Elves (another Alliance race), Worgen (Alliance, in Cataclysm) and Trolls (Horde, in Cataclysm) may choose Druid as their character class. As a Druid, a character learns the ability to morph into several different animal forms:

• Bear, which imitates the Warrior class by using Rage instead of Mana to power abilities.
• Sea lion / Orca, which allows the Druid the travel to travel swiftly and breathe underwater (called Aquatic Form in game)
• Cat, which imitates the Rogue class by using Energy instead of mana, as well as combo points and stealth.
• Stag / Cheetah, which increases the Druid's movement speed but limiting the player's actions (called Travel Form in game)
• Raven, which allows the druid to fly (called Flight Form in game)

Additionally, Druids who choose to specialize in balance are able to transform into a Moonkin, a owl-bear-stag hybrid, and Druids who specialize restoration are able to transform into a treant (called Tree of Life Form in game). All forms but travel, aquatic, and tree of life vary between Tauren and Night Elves. In bear form, Night elves retain their purple hue (particularly in their face) and long elf ears, while Tauren are brown and still have their horns. In moonkin form, the differences are basically the same as bear form, except Night Elves receive antlers. The differences for cat form are more extreme: Taurens become lions with horns (the model is almost identical to the manticore-like wyverns in the game), and Night Elves become panthers with their long elf ears. For flight form, Night Elves are black while Tauren are brown. Tauren are bigger than Night Elves in bear, moonkin, and cat form.

Another character class available to several races in the game is the Hunter, who has the ability to take one or more of many of the beasts in the game as a combat pet (but the Hunter may only have one pet out at a time). Among the numerous beasts who can be charmed and trained in this manner are bears, felines, and wolves. Hunters have the option to name their pet as they wish, and must feed the pet periodically in order to keep it "happy", increasing its damage. If a pet is neglected it will become sad, and deal reduced damage, and if neglected enough it may abandon the player altogether. The food the pet will eat depends on its species, although meat is a common diet among pets.

Shamans within the game hold a spiritual bond with wolves (especially the orcs), and players who choose to be the Shaman class acquire the spell Ghost Wolf, which, as the name implies, transforms the character into a spectral wolf until canceled, increasing their movement speed but limiting the actions the character can perform, almost exactly like travel form for Druids.

Anthropomorphism in World of Warcraft

In terms of non-playable races, the game actually holds a surprising amount of anthropomorphics:

• Arakkoa (Avian)
• Centaur (See Keepers of the Grove)
• Drakonid
• Furbolg (Bear-like creatures)
• Gnoll
• Harpy (Creatures with bird-like traits)
• Kobold
• Keepers of the Grove and Dryads
• Makrura
• Murloc (Fish-like creatures)
• Naga (Eel-like creatures)
• Nerubian
• Owlkin
• Qiraji
• Quilboar
• Satyr
• Taunka (Bison-like creatures)
• Tuskarr (Walrus-like creatures)
• Wolvar (Wolverine-like creatures)

Other non-anthropomorphic races of interest:

• Dragon
• Chimera
• Gryphon
• Hippogryph
• Manticore
• Wyvern

Reverse fursona

The red dragon Korialstrasz from the Warcraft lore and his persona Krasus, a high elf mage.

On an interesting note, mature and powerful dragons in World of Warcraft often assume a humanoid form, that being their persona. The dragons do this while mingling among the mortals in order to avoid attention. Like fursonas, the persona of each dragon is unique and personal, going beyond being just a simple disguise.

Examples of dragons and their personas are:

• Korialstrasz - Krasus (high elf)
• Kalecgos - Kalec (half-elf)
• Mordenaku - Mordenai (blood elf)
• Nefarian - Lord Victor Nefarius (human)
• Onyxia - Lady Katrana Prestor (human)
• Vaelastrasz - Vaelan (human)
• Deathwing - (Undead)
• Malygos - (high-elf)

Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman

Some other noteworthy anthropomorphic uses in World of Warcraft are a few select bosses in the raid dungeons of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman. In Zul'Gurub, a few bosses will invoke their Primal God during the encounter, transforming the boss into an anthropomorphic version of the animal that their respective Primal God represents. Zul'Aman is similar, but the bosses are always in the anthropomorphic form.

Hakkar the Soulflayer, wind serpent blood god and final boss of Zul'Gurub.

The bosses and the animals they represent are the following:

• Zul'Gurub
  • High Priestess Jeklik - Bat
  • High Priest Venoxis - Snake
  • High Priestess Mar'li - Spider
  • High Priest Thekal - Tiger
  • High Priestess Arlokk - Panther
• Zul'Aman
  • Nalorakk - Bear
  • Akil'zon - Eagle
  • Jan'alai - Dragonhawk
  • Halazzi - Lynx

Furry or furry-friendly guilds

• Arisen (inactive)
• Doomed Kitties (inactive)
• Furries and Friends
• Invaders of the Pass
• Legion of the Claws
• Order of the Claws
• Order of the Fang (inactive)
• Pandaria Brewing Company
• Paw and Hoof
• Seekers of Truth (inactive)
• Yiffstar Knights

See also

• World of Warcraft on Wikipedia
• #Furry WoW

External links

• World of Warcraft official website
• Wowpedia - World of Warcraft wiki
• Furries Of World Of Warcraft on LiveJournal
• Blizz Furries on LiveJournal