The Alliance is one of the major factions in the Warcraft universe.

In World of Warcraft the playable races of the Alliance include Humans of Stormwind, Dwarves of Ironforge, Gnomes of Gnomeregan, and Night Elves of Teldrassil. The Draenei of Exodar became members of the Alliance in the first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

Although only five playable alliance factions are present in World of Warcraft and its expansion, the Alliance encompasses a number of more factions or nations in the Warcraft universe. Many of them are represented by NPCs in World of Warcraft who are friendly to alliance players and hostile to horde players. They include the besieged nation of Stromgarde, the island nation of Kul Tiras, the children of Cenarius, the Kirin Tor, and the remaining human settlements of Lordaeron. There are at least two factions that had historical ties with the Alliance and are still hostile the Horde, but are not part of the current alliance. They are the Wildhammer Dwarves and the nation of Gilneas. The remaining High Elves are allied with the Alliance in World of Warcraft, and are repulsed by their Blood Elf brethren who joined the Horde in Burning Crusade.

The Blood Elves (or Sin’dorei, in their own tongue- translated to “Children of the Blood”) are a faction of the former High Elf (Quel’dorei in Thalassian “Children of the Sun”) race in the Warcraft Universe.

The Blood Elves are a faction of the remnants of the High Elves who survived the destruction of Quel’Thalas by The Scourge. They style themselves as Blood Elves in remembrance of their slaughtered brethren. At first they remained loyal to the failing Alliance in Lordaeron and its racist human commander in the region, Grand Marshal Garithos, who despised all non-human races. Despite the obvious talent of their leader, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider, Garithos saw the Blood Elves as expendable and repeatedly assigned them impossible missions, ordering them to hold off major Undead assaults without any support from Human or Dwarven troops. Garithos hoped to use these battles as a way to gradually kill off the Blood Elves while also taking care of the main threat posed by The Scourge.

During one such hopeless battle against the Undead near Dalaran, a desperate Kael was approached by a contingent of Naga, a serpentine race descended from the Night Elves, and their general, the Sea Witch Lady Vashj. Vashj offered Kael the assistance of her forces and advised him to abandon the failing Alliance. Kael refused at first but was eventually forced to accept Vashj’s offer in order to win the battle and save his people.

Garithos discovered this ruse and used the event as an excuse to exterminate the Blood Elves. Along with his brethren, Kael was thrown into the underground dungeons of Dalaran to await execution. The night before the execution, however, Kael was rescued by Vashj, who had infiltrated the dungeons through the sewers. Together, they freed Kael’s people, overcame the jailors, and escaped through the same magical portal Kel’Thuzad used to summon Archimonde to Azeroth. And there they came to land on the shattered world called Outland, formerly the Orcish homeworld of Draenor.

Here, Vashj revealed to Kael a startling truth: like the Naga, he and his people were terminally addicted to magic that they had once wielded so effortlessly. The High Elves had drawn their power from the mystical Sunwell in Quel’Thalas for millennia. But once it was consumed by the Scourge, they had been left with nothing to sate their thirst for the arcane. Vashj promised him a solution if they could find her master, the renegade demon hunter, now part demon himself, Illidan Stormrage.

Three days into their march through Outland and other places, they came across a Night Elven stronghold and discovered that Illidan had been captured by the Barrow Deeps Warden, Maiev Shadowsong, who had been hunting him relentlessly since his escape from Kalimdor. The Blood Elf and Naga forces rescued Illidan from the Night Elves who had taken him captive.

Once free, Illidan told Kael that his people’s addiction could not be cured but it could be fed and promised the Blood Elves enough magic — from demonic sources — to satisfy them if they would help him conquer Outland. The shattered world would serve as a new home for the Blood Elves and a refuge for Illidan and his Naga after failing to destroy the Frozen Throne. Ironically, the Blood Elves had contributed greatly to this failure, when earlier, at Dalaran, they had helped the Night Elves under Maiev and Malfurion Stormrage disrupt a spell that Illidan was casting to melt the glaciers of Northrend, the Arctic stronghold of the Scourge. With no choice, Kael and his people pledged their loyalty to Illidan in the hopes of their survival.

Illidan taught Kael and the Blood Elves how to draw magic from demons to satisfy their addiction. Illidan, the Blood Elves, and the Naga, then liberated “the Broken” of the Draenei, exiled remnants of the Eredar race who had been twisted by demons and hunted almost to extinction by the Fel Orcs under the rule of Magtheridon, a Pit Lord who had ruled Outland since the closing of the Dark Portal. After closing the dimensional gates from which Magtheridon summoned demons from the Twisting Nether to bolster his forces, the three commanders, assisted by Draenei under the elder seer Akama, stormed Magtheridon’s stronghold in the Black Citadel and took it by force.

Moments after the citadel fell, Kil’jaeden, the Burning Legion’s last great demonlord and Illidan’s new master, appeared. Furious over Illidan’s earlier failure to destroy the Frozen Throne, Kil’jaeden was bemused that Illidan was foolish enough to try and hide from him in Outland. Illidan claimed he came to Outland to bolster his forces. Kil’Jaeden saw promise in Illidan’s new followers and decided to give him one last chance.

Under Illidan’s leadership, the Blood Elves and Naga then travelled to Northrend, where they ultimately failed in their mission to destroy the Frozen Throne and were defeated by Arthas and the Undead Scourge. The Blood Elves and Vashj’s Naga retreated back to Outland with Illidan where they established permanent settlements.

The remaining Blood Elves on Azeroth have reconstructed much of the forests of Quel’Thalas. They have turned to the Horde to help them find their way to Outland where they can once again be united with their leader Prince Kael’thas.

After the War of the Ancients, the new night elf civilization banished those responsible for the Legion’s invasion. For their part, the highborne (as they were now called) did not hesitate to leave their brethren behind in search of a new home where they could practice their magic without persecution or restraint. The highborne soon arrived on the shores of what would eventually become Lordaeron. At first the elves settled in what would become the Tirisfal Glades but after a few years many of them started to go mad. Because of this, the elves decided to leave, speculating that something evil slept under this part of the world. They then travelled through the heavily forested lands of north eastern Lordaeron until they discovered a powerful ley configuration. However, the Amani Empire was heavily settled in the area and refused the elves entrance into their lands; the elves responded by attacking them with their arcane magic. Thwarted for the time being, the Amani pulled back to their capital city.

The elves soon constructed the magical Sunwell, whose scintillating waters were the very same as that of the Well of Eternity. From the sunwell, the highborne drew their magical powers. The highborne elves renamed themselves the Quel’dorei (or “high elves”), and the civilization they established was called Quel’Thalas.

When the Amani trolls recovered enough to attack the high elves, they found them to be too well entrenched in their newly claimed lands. Thus, the Amani and the Quel’dorei began a never-ending war over the trolls’ ancestral lands. The high elves and the forest trolls would forever be mortal enemies.

Mur’guls are a barely-humanoid race of fish-like creatures from the Warcraft series of computer games. They appear to be a primitive sub-species of Murlocs which had been corrupted by the explosion of the World Tree, similar to the Naga who had once been Elves. While their uncorrupted brethren are often evil enough, Mur’gul are far more so. Mur’guls wear skull like helms and wield shield with a skull theme. They fight with the same weapons as murlocs. In Warcraft 3 they tend to be higher level creeps than murlocs.

Prior to the events of The Frozen Throne, Murlocs themselves had less pronounced fins. This was presumably caused by the explosion of the World Tree, as that was the cause of the Mur’gul’s creation.

Some skeletons are animated through necromancy. Most skeletons are raised from battlefields and thus are often seen still clothed in rotting garments and rusting armor. Some skeletons still fight with the weapons they died clutching. Others, specifically created only by the most advanced necromancers are able to cast magical spells. Whatever they attack with skeletons are basically mindless automatons who are either directly controlled, or made to follow a specific order from their creator. If sufficiently damaged, the magic holding their bones together will dissipate, and they will crumple lifelessly to the ground.

Some skeletons, however, actually seems to possess some kind of intelligence, like Mordresh Fire Eye, found in Razorfen Downs. He can be seen talking to and encouraging his brethren, holding a speech about how the undead Scourge will consume the whole of Kalimdor.

In addition to the skeletons described here, some others may be other types of undead that are simply very old and all their flesh has rotted away, leaving nothing but bones.