Origins / Background
[Established Lore] What the game has always held to be true.
Origins
The tauren are a people of the plains. Before they had a city, they had the grass, the herds, and each other, and the kodo herds to hunt. The centaur drove them from their lands, and they lived as wanderers, always one step ahead of the next raid [WCIII].
What holds them together is the Earth Mother. The earth guides the tauren, and it speaks to them as they grow [Game · Quest: Call of Earth]. Everything else, the hunt, the elders, the totems, grows out of that.
The wandering ended when the Third War brought Thrall's orcs to the Barrens. The centaur marched on the tauren village, and Cairne Bloodhoof stood with Thrall to defend it [WCIII]. From that day on, the tauren and the Horde have been bound together.
The Tribes
The tauren are many tribes, and three of them matter most.
Bloodhoof:
- Led by: Cairne Bloodhoof, who united the tauren [WCIII]
- Baine Bloodhoof, Cairne's son, is chief of Bloodhoof Village [Game · Quest: Rites of the Earthmother]
- Lands: Thunder Bluff and Mulgore
Grimtotem:
- Notable: Magatha Grimtotem, elder of Thunder Bluff [Game · Quest: The Elder Crone]
- Grimtotem raiders in Feralas are hostile to the Alliance and the Horde alike [Game · Quest: Doling Justice]. Even the orcs call the clan evil [Game · Quest: A Grim Discovery].
Runetotem:
- Notable: Turak Runetotem, a druid of Thunder Bluff [Game · Quest: Aquatic Form]
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