Pandarens

 

                           

Pandaren

 Couched in myth and legend, the enigmatic pandaren have long been a mystery to the other races of Azeroth. Pandaren who follow the Path of the Huojin believe that in the pursuit of a greater good, inaction is the only wrong. The Huojin believe that morals and ideals are not absolute, but change with circumstances, and as such they are naturally drawn to the pragmatic Horde.

The enigmatic pandaren [pænˈdɑɹən] are one of the most elusive races of Azeroth. Hailing from Pandaria and the Wandering Isle, they are humanoid pandas with a great love of nature and strong ales.

Long ago, the pandaren were the slaves of a cruel race of powerful warlords known as the mogu, until they successfully staged a revolution alongside several other slave races, establishing their own empire in the process. During the Great Sundering, the last pandaren emperor sealed their homeland away behind a veil of mist, hiding Pandaria from the outside world and leaving their culture to flourish free of influences from the outside world.

A second civilization of pandaren dwells on the back of the giant turtle known as Shen-zin Su, who travels around Azeroth's seas. Millennia after the Sundering, a pandaren by the name of Liu Lang set out to explore the world on Shen-zin Su, returning each year to Pandaria to pick up more adventurers to join him on the back of his ever-growing companion. Eventually, the turtle grew large enough for entire buildings and towns to be constructed upon his back, and the pandaren began referring to him as the "Wandering Isle". 

Shortly after the Cataclysm ravaged Azeroth, the protective mists surrounding Pandaria dissipated, and before long, Alliance and Horde warships arrived on the continent, causing the native pandaren to become involved in the conflict between the two factions. Around roughly the same time, an Alliance gunship carrying Horde prisoners crashed into the side of the Wandering Isle, and shortly thereafter pandaren followers of the Tushui and Huojin disciplines decided to leave their home to swear allegiance to the Alliance High King and Horde warchief, respectively.

While the race was first introduced with Chen Stormstout in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the pandaren made their first major appearance in World of Warcraft as a playable race with the fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria.

 

History

the exact origins of the pandaren remain a mystery. Brann Bronzebeard speculates that they are descended from an unknown Ancient Guardian. If the pandaren's own tales are to be trusted, they were around before both the kaldorei and furbolgs.^[5] Some druids say pandaren and raccoons are distant cousins, but never when a pandaren can hear them.^[6]

While the pandaren are predominantly a peace-loving race, their history is marked with turmoil and strife.^[7] The pandaren were among the races who settled in the lands surrounding the Vale of Eternal Blossoms roughly 15,000 years before the First War. Thanks to their wise and peaceful nature, they forged a strong bond with four Wild Gods who dwelled in the area — Chi-Ji, Niuzao, Xuen and Yu'lon. Referring to the Wild Gods as the "August Celestials", the pandaren formed a system of worship around the four, and in turn, the Celestials granted the pandaren knowledge and helped them hone their ties to philosophy and nature.^[8] Even in the ages before the old empire, there is evidence that the pandaren love of learning had created epic poems, agriculture, and medicine.^[2]