Meet the Skyborne: Zephras Isle, wind spirits and thousands of customization options

Blizzard has published the full introduction to WoW Forever’s new race. If you have been arguing about whether the game needed another elf, this is the post that explains what they actually are.

Who the Skyborne are

The Skyborne call themselves the shen’dorei, the hidden people. Thousands of years ago a group of Highborne exiles made a pact with elemental wind spirits and built a civilization inside Skywall, one of the elemental planes. They have been there ever since, which is why the modern game has never mentioned them.

You arrive at the worst possible moment. The wind spirits that protected the island are gone, ancient structures are failing, communities are cut off from each other, and the Skyborne cannot agree on what to do next.

Zephras Isle: levels 1 to 12

Zephras Isle is a new starting zone covering levels 1 to 12, built to mix classic Warcraft looks with elemental architecture. It is also where the split between the two Skyborne groups plays out, and you choose your side at character creation:

• Windshapers go to the Horde. They descend from the first shen’dorei to receive the wind spirits’ gift of skysight, and they want the spirits found and their old way of life restored. They can be Shaman.
• High Order go to the Alliance. They descend from the Highborne scholars of Eldre’Thalas, and after the spirits vanished they concluded that depending on the elements left their people vulnerable. They want the lost arcane knowledge back so the shen’dorei can stand alone. They can be Mage.

Both can also play Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid, with druid forms made specifically for the race.

That is a rare thing in WoW: one race, one starting zone, and a genuine argument inside it that decides your faction.

Customization, in detail

Blizzard listed the options, and there are a lot. Body Type 1 has ten faces, nine skin colours from sky blue through light and darker tones, twenty-one hairstyles, eleven hair colours, three ear lengths, nine eye colours, four eyebrow styles, thirteen facial hair options, eyesight choices, feather colours including feathers worn in the hair, four face tattoos in two colours, and two body tattoo sets called Zephyr and Wayfinder.

Body Type 2 has ten faces, twenty-five hairstyles, ten hair colours, nine eye colours, three ear lengths, four eyebrow styles, six earring styles, silver or gold jewellery, plus the same feather, tattoo and eyesight options.

Add it up and there are thousands of combinations. If you change your mind later, the barber shops in the cities will redo it for a fee. The race also has its own /dance and a set of new emotes.

The part players are still arguing about

None of this touches the two complaints from the beta: the $29.99 price attached to the race, and racial traits that testers called too weak. Blizzard’s separate race and class post says some racials have been updated, without saying which. We will compare them in the races section as soon as the next build lands.

If you are starting a Skyborne in the beta, the Zephras Isle route and the dungeon quest prep for Hall of Thanes are the fastest way through the first twelve levels.