WoW Forever Gave Every Race Four Racials. Tauren now grow herbs anyone can gather, Undead eat corpses to heal, and the $30 Skyborne glide through the air for ten seconds.

What Happened

Blizzard gave every race in WoW Forever exactly two active and two passive racial traits, and put its one new race behind a $29.99 pack.

Four traits per race

• November 4 launch. WoW Forever, the expanded rebuild of the original 2004 World of Warcraft from Blizzard, the studio behind it, launches November 4, 2026.
• The official post. On September 22 Blizzard published Create the Hero You Want to Be in World of Warcraft: Forever, listing every race, class and racial trait.
• Two plus two. Every race, including the Skyborne, the one new race in Forever, now has exactly two active racial abilities and two passives.
• Why they changed. Blizzard says some traits were updated "to better support the expanded class options and give each race a stronger sense of identity."

Traits that describe a people

• Tauren grow herbs. Tauren, the bull-headed Horde race, keep War Stomp, a two-second stun, and gain Cultivation: "Grow bonus herbs that don't require herbalism to gather."
• Undead eat corpses. Undead, the playable risen dead, keep Cannibalize: "Consume corpses to regenerate 35% Health and Mana over time."
• Gnomes get Eureka!. Eureka! cuts the cost of a Gnome's next three spells and adds 10% to their damage or healing.
• Orcs and Night Elves. Orcs pair Blood Fury with a new trait, Shatter Curse. Night Elves get Elune's Light and Shadowmeld.

New pairings and a paid race

• New class options. Orc Mages, Troll Warlocks, Undead Paladins, Human Hunters, Gnome Priests and Dwarf Shamans are all playable in Forever.
• The Skyborne. The Skyborne come in two branches: Horde Windshapers, who can be Shamans, and Alliance High Order, who can be Mages.
• Walk on Air. Both Skyborne branches share Walk on Air, a 10-second downward glide.
• It costs $29.99. The Skyborne unlock through the $29.99 Skyborne Heroic Pack.

Racials for Runeterra: Kin and Homeland

Speculative, and ours: Runeterra sorts its peoples by where they come from, so a Riot MMO version of racials would likely split into kin and homeland.

Why region comes first

• Riot sorts by region. Legends of Runeterra, Riot's card game, builds every deck from regions, and Teamfight Tactics files region and species traits alike under "origins."
• Species cross borders. Yordles, small magical folk from Bandle City, their hidden spirit-realm town, turn up everywhere: the champions Poppy, Kled, Heimerdinger and Ziggs each serve a different nation.
• Two halves, one budget. Keep Blizzard's four slots but split them: your kin (species) grants one active and one passive, your homeland (region) grants the other two.

Homeland traits

• Demacia. The knightly kingdom that outlaws magic. Passive Petricite-Tempered: take less magic damage, from its magic-dampening stone. Active Rally: nearby allies attack faster for six seconds, its card-game signature.
• The Demacian mage. A Demacian mage swaps Petricite-Tempered for Hidden Gift: guards and patrols do not notice you casting.
• Noxus. Noxus, the conquering empire. Passive Strength Above All: beating a higher-level enemy stacks bonus damage. Active Enlist the Beaten: a defeated humanoid fights for you briefly, as Noxus absorbs peoples it conquers.
• Ionia. Ionia, the spirit-haunted island nation. Passive First Lands: see spirits and spirit-realm paths other players cannot. Active Elusive: for four seconds, nothing can block or body-block you.
• Freljord. The Freljord, the frozen tribal north. Passive Winter-Hardened: immune to the cold that drains others in the snowfields. Active Frostbite: a target deals half damage for three seconds, its card-game keyword.
• True Ice stays rare. True Ice, the Freljord's deadliest magic, obeys only the Iceborn bloodline. It fits a late quest reward, never a pick at character creation.
• Piltover. Piltover, the rich city of inventors. Passive Merchant Clan: lower vendor and trade fees, from the clans that run it. Active Hextech Tinker: drop a pocket workbench and repair or craft anywhere.
• Zaun. Zaun, the polluted undercity below Piltover. Passive Grew Up in the Gray: resist poison and toxic zones, after a life breathing its smog. Active Chem-Surge: a stimulant grants speed and damage, then a crash.
• Shurima. Shurima, the desert of a fallen empire. Passive Sun-Blessed: faster regeneration in daylight, for the Sun Disc that crowned its emperors. Active Buried Empire: sense nearby ruins and dig up relics for your party.
• Bilgewater. Bilgewater, the lawless pirate port. Passive Plunder: extra gold from enemies you finish, its card-game keyword. Active Deep Breath: swim fast and breathe underwater for thirty seconds, fitting a town that hunts sea monsters.
• Targon. Targon, the sacred mountain range. Solari sun-worshippers empower a fight's first ability; Lunari moon-worshippers empower every ability after it, echoing the card game's Daybreak and Nightfall.
• Targon's passive. Mountain-Born: less fall damage and no thin-air penalty, for a people raised on the slopes of Mount Targon.
• Ixtal. Ixtal, the secluded jungle of elemental mages. Passive Elemental Birthright: choose an element at creation. Active Raise the Earth: pull up a short stone wall.

Kin traits

• Human. Humans are the one people found in every region, so they trade a kin active for a second homeland passive: think Riven, a Noxian soldier who made her life in Ionia.
• Yordle passive. Glamour: yordles wear a natural glamour that makes most humans see a short, odd person, so guards and humanoid enemies notice you later.
• Yordle active. Bandle Door: open a portal home to Bandle City, the yordles' spirit-realm city. The catch is canon too: those portals shift, so where you come back out is not guaranteed.
• Vastaya passive. Vastaya, the part-animal peoples, would pick a tribe: Lhotlan (Xayah and Rakan's bird-folk) glide, Marai (Nami's sea-folk) breathe underwater, Kiilash (Rengar's hunters) track prey.
• Vastaya active. Wild Kinship: calm a hostile beast for ten seconds, because vastayan magic is innate and tied to their animal nature.
• The free glide. A Lhotlan glide is the Skyborne's paid trait, earned by choosing a kin instead of buying a $29.99 pack.
• Minotaur, maybe. Alistar's people guarded the mountain trade routes to Zaun. Unbreakable Will, named for his ultimate, breaks every stun once; Barrier Guard toughens you while escorting.

Every name above is invented by RuneGrove; the lore each one leans on is not. Combine the halves and a yordle from Noxus plays differently from a yordle from Piltover, which is the whole point.

What This Means for the Riot MMO

Riot has never said what a player picks at character creation, and Blizzard just published one complete answer.

• Riot hasn't said. Riot has never said what a player picks at character creation in its MMO, or whether origin carries abilities at all.
• Same budget everywhere. Two actives and two passives per race keeps every origin distinct without making one of them the correct pick.
• Utility counts. Cultivation matters outside combat: a Tauren feeds the herb market without training the profession.
• Kits tell the story. An Undead eating a corpse to heal says who the Undead are faster than any quest text.
• The paid race. Blizzard charging $29.99 for a race is a precedent Riot, a studio that sells skins, will be asked about.

Our read. Riot should copy the four-slot budget, split it between kin and homeland, and skip the price tag. The split fits a world where Kled and Heimerdinger share a species and nothing else. Selling a race is different from selling a skin: the Skyborne glide is a gameplay trait, and in an MMO that reads as paying for power. We made the wider case in the six things Riot should take from WoW Forever.

Riot's own people are playing this game: co-founder Marc Merrill found its hidden serpent form, and Riot MMO engineer Orlando Salvatore joked the beta emptied his town.

Your Take

Reported from Blizzard Entertainment and corroborating coverage. The MMO read is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.