Dark Factions

Dark Factions is a source book for the World of Warcraft RPG. The book was released on May 14, 2008.

Book description[]

Crush the Alliance AND Horde!

Naga and satyrs stir in dark places. Goblins invent crazy devices. The Atal'ai summon a bloodthirsty god. Azeroth is home to more than just the Alliance and Horde.

Discover eight new races and fifteen factions. New game elements — classes, spells, technological devices, and the like — further enhance these characters.

Contains eight new races, including naga, pandaren and satyrs.
Contains nine prestige classes, including the brewmaster, death knight, and naga anomaly.
Includes variant classes, racial iconic classes, and creature classes, allowing you to play just the sort of character you want.
Brims with new feats, spells, magic items, technological devices, and other abilities and items to decimate your opponents.
Contains information on the fifteen factions unaffiliated with the Alliance or Horde, including their leaders and strategies, narrated by famed dwarven explorer Brann Bronzebeard.
Includes two adventures to challenge heroes of any affiliation.

Dark Factions is a supplement for the World of Warcraft Roleplaying game.

Interview[]

From...

BlizzPlanet Luke Johnson Q&A: World of Warcraft RPG: Horde Player Guide:

Dark Factions is unofficially subtitled the "Independent Player's Guide", because it's like the Alliance and Horde Player's Guides, but for independent factions and races...One of the races we cover is the pandaren. You'll see the pandaren written up as a new race, as well as at least one racial iconic class for them: the Wardancer. There's also a couple prestige classes designed with pandaren in mind. A Pandaren prestige class is the Brewmaster, based on the hero unit in Warcraft 3. The other one is called the Pandaren Transcendent. Here's a quote:
"These are the pandaren's ultimate heroes: Spiritual avatars capable of summoning vast storms of lighting, smashing mountains with their terrible fists, and breathing winds into existence."
By the way, I should mention that Dark Factions isn't quite set in stone; everything I mention about it could, theoretically, change.-Luke Johnson, 2006-11-08

Table of Contents[]

Listed below are articles confirmed to be in the book. (Note that some of the page numbers might be slightly off.)^[1]

Introduction 4
Chapter 1: New Races 6
Dragonspawn 6
Dwarf, Dark Iron 8
Murloc 10
Naga 12
Pandaren 15
Quilboar 17
Satyr 19
Tuskarr 21
Vital Statistics 24
Chapter 2: Class Options 25
Equipment 25
Variant Classes 26
Aquatic Druid 26
Druid of the Nightmare 26
Martial Enchanter 27
Dark Inscriber 27
Arcane Alchemist 28
Elementalist 29
Contender 30
Lone Wolf Runemaster 31
Dungeoneer 31
Aquatic shaman 32
Shadowmage 32
Racial Iconic Classes 32
Goblin Tinker 33
Naga Mage 34
Priestess of the Tides 34
Pandaren Wardancer 35
Quilboar Thornweaver 35
Satyr Hellcaller 37
Creature Classes 38
Dragon 39
Flamewaker 41
Nerubian 43
Sea Giant 46
Vital Statistics 48
Feats 50

Steam Armor Knack^[2]^{(MG 168)}

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes 54
Brewmaster 54
Death Knight 57
Dragonsworn 60
High Divinist 63
Naga Anomaly 66
Pandaren Transcendent 69
Scarlet Battle Mage XX
Scarlet Inquisitor XX
Subversive XX
Vindicator 81

Chapter 4: Magic 84
Independent Faiths 86
Azshara 86
Hakkar the Soulflayer 86
The Old Gods 88
Xavius 88
The Pantheon of the Zandalar Tribe 89
The Cult of the Damned 89
Spells 89
Arcanist Spell List 89
Mage Spell List 90
Necromancer Spell List 90
Healer Spell List 90
Druid Spell List 90
Priest Spell List 90
New Healer Domains 90
Spell Descriptions 91
New Magic Items 95

Mithril Spurs^[2]^{(MG 157)}

Armor 95
Rod 95
Wondrous Items 96
Set Items 98
Chapter 5: Technology 100
Races and Technology 100
Tech-Mods 101
Steam Armor Enhancements 103
Technological Devices 104
Chapter 6: History and Culture 112
Dark Iron Dwarf History 112
Dark Iron Dwarf Culture 113
Goblin History 114
Goblin Culture 115
Naga History 118
Naga Culture 119
Quilboar History 120
Quilboar Culture 121
Satyr History 121
Satyr Culture 122
Tuskarr History 122
Tuskarr Culture 123

Chapter 7: The Factions 124
The Argent Dawn 124
The Atal’ai and Hakkari 127
The Cenarion Circle 129
The Cult of the Damned 131
The Dark Horde 133
The Darkmoon Faire 136
The Defias Brotherhood 139
The Dragonflights 142
The Earthen Ring 148
The Explorers’ League 150
The Farstriders 152
The Scarlet Crusade 154
The Syndicate 158
The Thorium Brotherhood 160
The Twilight’s Hammer 162
The Zandalar Tribe 166
Chapter 8: Dark Warriors 169
Argent Dawn Forces 169
Atal’ai and Hakkari Forces 170
Cenarion Circle Forces 171
Cult of the Damned Forces 171
Dark Horde Forces 172
Dark Iron Dwarf Forces 173
Darkmoon Faire Forces 173
Defias Brotherhood Forces 174
Dragon Forces 175
Dragonspawn Forces 175
Earthen Ring Forces 177
Explorers’ League Forces 177
Farstrider Forces 178
Goblin Forces 178
Murloc Forces 180
Naga Forces 180
Pandaren Forces 181
Quilboar Forces 183
Satyr Forces 183
Scarlet Crusade Forces 184
Syndicate Forces 185
Thorium Brotherhood Forces 186
Tuskarr Forces 187
Twilight’s Hammer Forces 187
Zandalar Forces 188
Chapter 9: Creatures 190
Arachnathid 190

Arachnathid Earth-Borer^[2]^{(MG 209)}
Crystal Arachnathid^[2]^{(MG 209)}
Overlord Arachnathid^[2]^{(MG 210)}

Clockwerk Goblin 192
Couatl 193
Dragon, Chromatic 194

Chromatic Whelp
Chromatic Drake

Dragon Turtle 196
Hobgoblin 197
Makrura Prawn 198
Mur’gul 199
Nerubian 202

Nerubian worker
Nerubian spiderlord

Pandaren 204
Snap Dragon 205
Spiderling Swarm 206
Tube Wyrm 207
Tuskarr 207

Chapter 10: Adventures 209
Goldknuckle 209
The Lost Idol 217
Index of Tables
Table 1–1: Racial Ability Modifiers 6
Table 1–2: The Wyrmkin 8
Table 1–3: The Dark Iron Dwarf 10
Table 1–4: The Murloc 12
Table 1–5: The Naga 15
Table 1–6: The Pandaren 17
Table 1–7: The Quilboar 19
Table 1–8: The Satyr 21
Table 1–9: The Tuskarr 23
Table 1–10: Random Starting Ages 24
Table 1–11: Aging Effects 24
Table 1–12: Random Height and Weight 24
Table 2–1: Weapons 25
Table 2–2: The Red Dragon Whelp 41
Table 2–3: The Flamewaker 43
Table 2–4: The Nerubian 46
Table 2–5: The Sea Giant 48
Table 2–6: Random Starting Ages for Creature Classes 48
Table 2–7: Aging Effects for Creature Classes 49
Table 2–8: Random Height and Weight for Creature Classes 49
Table 2–9: Feats 50
Table 3–1: The Brewmaster (Brw) 56
Table 3–2: The Brewmaster’s Drunken Style 56
Table 3–3: The Death Knight (Dkn) 59
Table 3–4: The Dragonsworn (Dgs) 62
Table 3–5: High Divinist (Hdv) 65
Table 3–6: The Naga Anomaly (Nga) 69
Table 3–7: The Pandaren Transcendent (Pat) 71
Table 3–8: The Scarlet Battle Mage (Sbm) XX
Table 3–9: The Scarlet Inquisitor (Siq) XX
Table 3–10: The Subversive (Sbv) XX
Table 3–11: Subversive Spells XX
Table 3–12: The Vindicator (Vin) 82
Table 4–1: New Magic Armor 95
Table 4–2: New Rod 95
Table 4–3: New Wondrous Items 96
Table 5–1: New Tech-Mods 102
Table 5–2: New Steam Armor Enhancements 103
Table 5–3: New Technological Devices 104
Table 9–1: The Mur’gul 201

Mur'gul Necromancer

Monster Guide references[]

This is a list of things that differ from the index list. What exists below are material that may have been removed or moved to a future sourcebook.

Mur'gul^[2]^{(MG 5, 209)}

Mur'gul Shadowcaster (doesn't appear in Dark Factions, may have changed into the "mur'gul necromancer".)

Items

Chain Mail Barding of Speed^[2]^{(MG 157)}

Hinted at for future supplements;

Forgotten one (Found in a list of monsters in Monster Guide, a single reference in Dark Factions, removed from final product [1].)
Spell Breaker (class mentioned in Monster Guide^[2]^{(MG 65)})
Blood elf, Racial Levels: Unlike humans and some other races, blood elves can take a few levels in “blood elf” as a class to develop their racial qualities more fully. See a future supplement for this class.^[2]^{(MG 65)}

Missing information[]

This section concerns content that is potentially inaccurate.

This section represents info mentioned and given game but not seen in the book. Perhaps these were cut from the initial document [2], or planned to be included in a future book.

Faceless ones^[3]^{(DF #?)} (removed due to Wrath of the Lich King development, a single racial is mentioned in Dark Factions)
Pit lords (removed due to The Burning Crusade development)

A history of delays[]

According to comments by Luke Johnson the book was finished long before the release of Naxxrammas patch, and the release of the The Burning Crusade, but then delayed for a long period.[3]. Below is a history of those delays;

First announced; 06 Nov 2006
World of Warcraft: Dark Factions Copyright 2006, Blizzard Entertainment.^[2]^{(MG 2)}
World of Warcraft: Dark Factions Copyright 2007, Blizzard Entertainment.^[4]^{(HPG 2)}
World of Warcraft: Dark Factions Copyright 2008, Blizzard Entertainment.^[5]^{(MGWS 2)}
Released May 2008.

Media[]

Images[]

References[]

^ Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:49 am; Post subject: Dark Factions Table of Contents
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j MG, 168
^ DF, #
^ HPG, 2
^ MGWS, 2

External links[]

Scrolls of Lore Review of Dark Factions by Warlock

[1] Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:49 am; Post subject: Dark Factions Table of Contents

[MG-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j MG, 168

[DF-3] DF, #

[HPG-4] HPG, 2

[MGWS-5] MGWS, 2

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

WoWWiki

Dark Factions

Contents