Near - human The near - humans of Draenor are an in - universe speculative race used by Garona and Medivh to interpret the former ' s non - orcish heritage . In " The Last Guardian " , Garona makes various statements that there was a different group of humans living on Draenor than those the orcs later discovered on Azeroth , who were possibly rendered extinct some time before . When first explaining this to Khadgar , Medivh surmised that her homeland had " humans , or near - humans , or at least had them within living memory . " Later on , Khadgar saw a vision of Gul ' dan ' s quarters on Draenor , in which he kept " preserved things , some of which might have once belonged to human or humanish creatures " inside one of the cabinets along his walls . They were similar enough physically , mentally , and culturally for them to give Garona insight on humans of Azeroth , discovered through the newly opened Dark Portal . Garona believed that she was half - orc and had half - human heritage from these Draenor - born humans . According to her , it was Medivh who " made [ her ] feel human . And [ she hadn ' t ] felt human in a long , long time . " She specifically stated that she was " of both Orc and Human lineage " and " neither . " Orcs only " [ saw ] the parts of [ her ] that [ were ] human ; " they said her " human hand " was " too slender to be really useful , [ did ] not [ have ] enough muscle to hold an ax or bash a skull in properly — too pale , too weak , and too ugly . " However , it was later confirmed that she is instead half - draenei , but was deceived by Gul ' dan to believe that she was half - human . Near - humans in other fiction . While no specific Warcraft definition has been given , in other fantasy and science fiction ( e . g . " Star Wars " and " Doctor Who " ) , " near - human " has meant a race that evolutionarily diverged from humans or converged into a species biologically related to humans . The term is often synonymous with " demi - human " ( referring to races like dwarves or elves ) or " metahuman " ( referring to humans with supernatural powers ) . As a result of this similarity , humans and near - humans are often genetically compatible and capable of crossbreeding . Indeed , the term may apply to half - breed or hybrid races of mixed ancestry with humans and other species . Continuity errors . The revelation of Garona ' s half - draenei heritage would not explain the Draenor near - humans in a satisfactory way . It does not take into account the contrasts made between Garona ' s appearance and that of other half - orc / half - draenei by Brann Bronzebeard , the visions of human - like preserved corpses seen by Khadgar , or the fact that since Draenei ( including Lost Ones and the Broken ) are not even remotely human physically , mentally , or culturally ( but perhaps spiritually ) , Garona wouldn ' t have been able to gain insight on humans from their more alien mindset . A possible explanation for the discontinuity would be that ( to explain her cultural insight ) Gul ' dan left her in the care of near - human slaves who indoctrinated her in their culture , and that ( to explain her human features ) Garona ' s mother was half - near - human / half - draenei ( which would make Maraad , a pure draenei , her half - uncle ) .