Tauren ( playable ) The tauren of Thunder Bluff is a faction of tauren that start in Camp Narache of the Red Cloud Mesa , an area of rolling plains atop the high cliffs in southern Mulgore . They are the Horde tauren player race . As of the Cataclysm expansion , Tauren are the only playable race that has every Tank and every Healer class availiable to them . No other race , Horde or Alliance , can boast either . Though the noble tauren are peaceful in nature , the rites of the Great Hunt are venerated as the heart of their spiritual culture . Every tauren , warrior or otherwise , seeks identity both as a hunter and as a child of the Earth Mother . Having reached the age of maturity , you must test your skills in the wild and prove yourself in the Great Hunt . Background . For countless generations , the bestial tauren roamed the plains of the Barrens , hunted the mighty kodos , and sought the wisdom of their eternal goddess , the Earth Mother . Although split into different tribes , the tauren were united by a common enemy : the marauding centaur . These primitive horse - men terrorized central Kalimdor , leaving only death and suffering in their wake . Although the tauren tribes struggled valiantly for survival against their foes , the relentless centaur attacks continued . Over time , the centaur wiped out the area ’ s wild game , threatening starvation for the beleaguered tauren . Seeking aid against the centaur , the chieftain , Cairne Bloodhoof befriended Thrall and the other orcs , who had recently journeyed to Kalimdor . With the orcs ’ help , Cairne and his Bloodhoof tribe were able to drive back the centaur and claim the grasslands of Mulgore for their own . For the first time in hundreds of years , the tauren had a land to call their own . Upon the windswept mesa of Thunder Bluff , Cairne built a refuge for his people , where tauren of every tribe are welcome . Over time , the scattered tauren tribes united under Cairne ’ s rule . There were a few tribes who disagreed about the direction their new nation should take , but all agreed that Cairne was the wisest and best suited to lead them towards the future . Owing a blood - debt to the orcs for their assistance , the tauren joined Thrall on Mount Hyjal to defend Kalimdor from an invasion by the demonic Burning Legion . Following the Legion ’ s defeat , the tauren who helped defend Hyjal returned to their new home in Mulgore . Ruling from the majestic capital of Thunder Bluff , Cairne welcomed tauren of every tribe to this secure refuge . Many tauren who traveled to the capital were content with Cairne ’ s vision of a peaceful and harmonious future , but at least one tribe felt otherwise . The stern Grimtotem tribe looked upon Kalimdor ’ s other races as inferior and believed that its matriarch , Magatha , was the only one fit to rule the tauren . Although Magatha constantly disagreed with Cairne over the direction of their nation , the elder crone nonetheless coexisted alongside him in Thunder Bluff without major incident . The Grimtotem tribe did not , however , join the Horde along with Cairne and the tauren under his rule . Cataclysm . For years the tauren flourished throughout Mulgore , but tragedy befell the noble race following the campaign against the Lich King in Northrend . Believing that the reckless new warchief , Garrosh Hellscream , would lead the Horde to ruin , Cairne challenged the young upstart to a duel . The tauren high chieftain fought with a ferocity that belied his age , but an act of betrayal had sealed his fate before the battle had even begun . Unbeknownst to either of the duel ’ s combatants , Magatha had poisoned Garrosh ’ s blade . After Cairne was wounded by the tainted weapon during combat , he was immobilized by the poison , and Garrosh was able to slay him . Following the high chieftain ’ s death , Magatha ’ s Grimtotem agents stormed Thunder Bluff and seized the tauren capital as their own . They had also hoped to murder Cairne ’ s son , Baine , but the young tauren managed to elude his would - be assassins . After formulating a strategy to exact retribution upon Magatha , Baine launched a counterattack and wrested Thunder Bluff from the hands of the treacherous matriarch . Ultimately , rather than spill further blood , Baine banished Magatha and all other Grimtotem who still supported her from tauren lands . Despite the deadly encounter between Cairne and Garrosh , the tauren have not abandoned their place in the Horde . While many chaotic events have transpired in recent months , Baine has bravely taken up the mantle of tauren leadership and is now focused on ruling just as his wise and benevolent father would have . Starting info . Character size . The tauren character model is large . The beginning tauren character will not notice this ; everything is tauren sized , and is scaled to the tauren point of view . Later , when the character interacts with other races , the difference is evident . Occasionally , tight quarters will hamper a tauren character ' s movement . Racial traits . Reasons for racial traits . The tauren are some of the most physically imposing creatures to ever walk the earth . Classes . Tauren characters may play as druid s , hunter s , shaman s , warrior s , death knight s , paladin s , priest s , and monks . They were the only Horde race that could play as a druid , though as of Cataclysm , the troll race ( together with the worgen for the Alliance ) was allowed . They are the only Horde race that cannot have characters of the rogue class . The hypothetical tauren rogue is a common joke among Horde players . For the tauren , the rogue profession is an alien concept and therefore rare ( if not non - existent ) among its peoples . Renegade Grimtotem s possess the rogue and sorcerer class . Roleplaying a tauren . Tauren are a very tribal and ancestral people , so worship of spirits and ancestors would be part of the roleplaying . Also , their size usually makes them seem a bit more fearsome , though most tauren aren ' t going to attack a person without good reason . Tauren do not have much of an accent , so you can type out their speech as you would normally . Mounts . Because of their size , tauren used to have the most restricted selection of mount s of any race . Among the racial mount vendors , the tauren could only use the their own kodo and the orc ' s dire wolf . From the racial PvP mounts , they could also select the troll ' s raptor . Mounts beyond these must be hardier , because the ones available to the Horde can all bear a tauren . Oddly , the tauren had no restrictions on flying mounts . These restrictions were lifted in patch 3 . 0 . 8 .