The Burning Crusade Races

What new races are introduced in the expansion

The expansion introduced two new races to World of Warcraft: the draenei for the Alliance and the blood elves for the Horde.

What are the blood elves

No longer trusted by the Alliance, these former high elves have joined the Horde to hunt down the demons that destroyed their homeland of Quel'Thalas.

What are the draenei

Descended from the eredar, the same ancient race as Archimonde, leader of the Burning Legion's recently thwarted invasion of Azeroth, the draenei resisted the demonic forces that corrupted their brethren and fled their ancient homeworld, devoting themselves to ending the Legion's apocalyptic crusade.

Why did you decide to add the draenei as the new Alliance race

The draenei visited many worlds in their travels and explored much of the known cosmos on their quest to find safe harbor. During this exodus they befriended the enigmatic naaru - a race of beings with a deep affinity for the Holy Light of Creation that empowers the paladins of Azeroth. The naaru blessed the draenei with this power in an effort to help them in their struggle. This makes them a natural ally of the Alliance races who embrace this holy power.

In addition, the draenei hold no affinity for certain Horde races. They outright hate the orcs, who nearly drove the draenei to extinction in Outland. And more recently, the blood elves stole technology from the draenei and also sabotaged their dimensional ship, which crash landed on Azeroth.

Where did the draenei come from

The draenei's flight from the Legion eventually led them to a remote, peaceful world, which they named Draenor. In time, the draenei met and befriended the native orc clans that lived on this tranquil planet. For many years they lived peacefully with their shamanistic neighbors, until Kil'jaeden discovered their hiding place and corrupted the orcs, pitting them against the draenei. The orcs nearly eradicated the entire draenei race during the ensuing war. Recently, the surviving draenei fled Outland, and a small group of these refugees landed on Azeroth.