The Skyborne are the one new playable race in WoW Forever. Blizzard’s own posts describe them as “a new race of windswept elves.” They are neutral: a Skyborne character picks Alliance or Horde at character creation, and the class list depends on that pick (Blizzard: Deep Dive Panel Recap).
This page covers faction, classes, racial abilities, starting zone, lore, and how the race is unlocked. Class lists, racial abilities and race descriptions come from build 1.60.1.69913; the race records are High Order Skyborne and Windshaper Skyborne.
Faction and class access
Skyborne are choosable by both factions at character creation. Class access differs by faction (Blizzard: Deep Dive Panel Recap):
| Class | Alliance Skyborne | Horde Skyborne |
|---|---|---|
| Warrior | Yes | Yes |
| Hunter | Yes | Yes |
| Rogue | Yes | Yes |
| Druid | Yes | Yes |
| Mage | Yes | No |
| Shaman | No | Yes |
| Paladin | No | No |
| Priest | No | No |
| Warlock | No | No |
Build 1.60.1.69913 has the Skyborne as two race records, one per faction: High Order Skyborne (race 95, Alliance; languages Common and Darnassian) and Windshaper Skyborne (race 96, Horde; languages Darnassian and Orcish). Their class lists match the table above exactly. Across all ten playable races the beta build has all 16 announced new race-class combinations and no unannounced one; see Races.
Skyborne Druids get “new Skyborne druid forms” (Blizzard: Deep Dive Panel Recap).
Coming soon Skyborne druid form models. They are not mapped in our data yet.
Paladin, Priest and Warlock are not listed for either faction in Blizzard’s recap. Whether that is a permanent restriction or a launch-only one is not stated.
Racial abilities
Game data from build 1.60.1.69913: each Skyborne race record has four racial spells: one active ability of its own and three shared by both.
| Racial | High Order (Alliance) | Windshaper (Horde) | The game’s own words |
|---|---|---|---|
 Read Ley Line | Yes | No | Attempt to tap into the power of a nearby ley line, increasing Health and Mana regeneration by 100%. Lasts 15 sec if no ley line is nearby, and 15 min if one is found. |
 Skysight | No | Yes | Attempt to draw power from a convergence of elements, increasing movement and mounted movement speeds by 10%. Lasts 30 sec if no elemental convergence is nearby, and 15 min if one is found. |
 Walk on Air | Yes | Yes | Glide downward through the air for 10 sec while controlling your direction of travel. |
 Elemental Insight | Yes | Yes | Passive. Damage dealt versus Elementals increased by 5%. |
 Wind Blessed | Yes | Yes | Passive. Increases spellcasting, melee, and ranged Haste by 1%. |
Blizzard has not published the Skyborne racials in the posts reviewed for this page; the values are beta data and can change in any build.
Coming soon Base stats. This build has no base stats yet.
Starting zone: Zephras Isle
Skyborne start on Zephras Isle, a levels 1–12 zone. The zone’s story concerns the Skyborne’s protective elementals and pylons, which are failing (Blizzard: Found Photos Panel Recap).
Zephras Isle and the Skyborne race are part of the beta’s week 1 testable content, alongside Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, and all zone content to level 20 (Blizzard: Beta Now Live).
Design intent
According to the general community, the neutral design is meant to help reach “50/50 faction balance on most Forever servers”. Forever has no traditional named realms; players pick a ruleset (Normal, PvP, Roleplaying or Hardcore) at character creation (Blizzard: Deep Dive Panel Recap), so “servers” here means ruleset populations rather than individual realms.
Lore
Blizzard’s posts use only “Skyborne” and “windswept elves.” The more detailed lore below is from secondary outlets and from the race descriptions in the game.
According to the general community, the Skyborne are the “shen’dorei,” elves descended from Highborne exiles of Eldre’Thalas who made a pact with the elemental wind spirits of Skywall. According to the general community, the race’s design is credited to Chris Metzen.
The race descriptions in build 1.60.1.69913 use the same name. The High Order are described as “the descendants of the ancient Highborne scholars of Eldre’Thalas”, and the Windshapers as “the descendants of the first shen’dorei high elves to receive the wind spirits’ gift of elemental skysight”, called to Azeroth “from their home within Skywall”. The full text is on the two race pages.
The Eldre’Thalas link matches a confirmed zone: Shen’dralas, a new zone south of Desolace that connects to Eldre’Thalas (Blizzard: Found Photos Panel Recap). Whether Shen’dralas has Skyborne quest content is not stated.
Community backlash over “another elf race” exists, and the race has been called “controversial” in the community write-ups.
How the race is unlocked
Access to Forever itself is included with a WoW Subscription or Game Time (Blizzard: Pre-Purchase Upgrades). The Skyborne race is tied to the paid editions.
According to the general community, the race is unlocked by the Skyborne Heroic Pack at $29.99. The Skyborne Epic Pack ($59.99) and the Warcraft Forever Collection ($79.99) are the other two editions (Blizzard: Pre-Purchase Upgrades).
Note that the Heroic Pack does not include beta access; only the Epic Pack and the Collection do (Blizzard: Beta Now Live). See the Editions and Pricing guide.
Not yet known
- Base stats: this build has none yet.
- Mount type: not stated in any source reviewed.
- Whether the Skyborne class list changes after launch. The general community’s roadmap lists “2 new class/race combos” for Spring 2027 without naming them.
- Skyborne-specific class guides: none anywhere in the community as of 2026-09-17.
Changelog
2- Racial abilities, the two faction race records, class-list check and the game's own lore text added from the game data of build 1.60.1.69913; removed the placeholder notes.
- First version, written from the 2026-09-17/18 fact sheet.
