The natural enemies of the Tauren, the centaur are a race of brutal, barbaric raiders indigenous to Kalimdor. In appearance they have the body of a horse and the torso of a human where the neck and head should be. Legends say they are the bastard offspring of Cenarius, a Night Elf demigod who also fathered the Keepers of the Grove and dryads. Whether or not this is true, it is certain that they are a vicious and war-like people, constantly raiding and terrorizing the settlements of the Barrens and attacking any travellers foolish enough to cross their path. The centaur have a savage and bloodthirsty nature and are wary of any person that is not a centaur; they especially hate the Tauren, and by extension, the Orcs.

These horse-men hail from Desolace in western-central Kalimdor, but tribes of them are spread throughout much of central Kalimdor, including the Barrens, Thousand Needles and Durotar. In the past they have ceaselessly terrorized the villages of the indigenous peoples, and have now extended their hatred to include the Orcs and Trolls of the Horde. The Tauren claim that the centaur have always existed to scourge the land. Legend holds that Zaetar, immortal son of Cenarius and the earth elemental princess, Theradras, sired the misbegotten centaur race. It is said that upon their emergence, the barbaric centaur turned on their father and killed him. Some believe that Theradras, in her grief, trapped Zaetar’s spirit within the winding caverns of Maraudon – using its energies for some malign purpose. The subterranean tunnels are populated by the vicious, long-dead ghosts of the Centaur Khans, as well as Theradras’ own raging, elemental minions.