Skyborne faction and classes in WoW: Forever

Windshaper or High Order: the faction choice

Skyborne are a new playable race arriving with WoW: Forever, first revealed at BlizzCon 2026. At character creation you choose Horde or Alliance, and that single pick decides your Skyborne's caster class. Horde-aligned Windshapers follow elemental traditions and can become Shaman. Alliance-aligned High Order follow an arcane legacy and can become Mages.

Both sides can also be Warriors, Hunters, Rogues, and Druids, with Druid forms made just for the race. No other playable race in WoW: Forever gets this exact faction split; it is unique to the Skyborne.

Blizzard calls the Skyborne a new playable elven race, and the lore ties both factions back to the shen'dorei high elves. Windshapers descend from the first shen'dorei to receive the wind spirits' gift of elemental skysight, and a new generation has come to find out what happened to their missing elemental mentors. High Order descend from the Highborne scholars of Eldre'Thalas, and after the wind spirits vanished from the isle, they turned back to arcane study so the shen'dorei could survive without their elemental patrons.

How do Skyborne racials work?

Every Skyborne gets Walk on Air, a 10 second downward glide that works like a built-in slow fall. Windshapers add Skysight, an Elemental Blessing that raises run speed by 10 percent. High Order add Read Ley Line, which activates a ley line for 100 percent increased health and mana regeneration.

Both factions also get two passives: Wind Blessed, 1 percent increased melee, ranged, and spellcasting haste, and Elemental Insight, 5 percent increased damage to elementals. These are the racial traits Blizzard published in its own character creation post; numbers can still change before launch.

Zephras Isle and the Skyborne Druid forms

Skyborne start on Zephras Isle, Blizzard's elemental, skybound starting zone that runs from level 1 to 12. It blends the Classic Warcraft look with architecture inspired by Skywall.

Skyborne Druids get new shapeshift forms built for the race, separate from the existing Tauren and Night Elf forms. A BlizzCon 2026 preview showed Bear, Cat, Moonkin, and a Travel form shaped like a bird. WoW: Forever has no flying mounts, so the bird form is still ground-bound movement speed, not flight.

How to unlock the Skyborne race

Skyborne access does not come with a standard WoW: Forever subscription. Blizzard's own shop listing is explicit about it: the Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle starting questline require the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition, bought as a pre-purchase on the Battle.net Shop.

The Skyborne Heroic Pack ($29.99) is the entry point: the Skyborne race and Zephras Isle, Early Name Reservation, the Cerulean Prideclaw ground mount (you still buy the riding skill in-game), a transmog set, a toy, housing decor for modern WoW, and one Invite-A-Friend code. The Skyborne Epic Pack ($59.99) adds everything in the Heroic Pack plus beta access, which has been running since 17 September, 30 days of game time at launch, more cosmetics and pets, and two more Invite-A-Friend codes. The limited-time Warcraft Forever Collection ($79.99) adds Warcraft III: Reforged and its Forsaken Kingdom campaign on top of that. A $150 Collector's Edition from the Blizzard Gear Store carries the same Warcraft Forever Collection code, plus physical collectibles, so it unlocks Skyborne access too.

Wowdee will turn the faction pick into a short checklist: Windshaper or High Order, the classes and forms that follow, and whether your edition actually covers Zephras Isle before you hit create.