The Forsaken

Dead men and women of Lordaeron who woke from the Lich King's control and remembered who they were. Led by the banshee Sylvanas, the Forsaken hold the crypts under their fallen capital and trust nobody, not even the Horde. In Forever, some of them are even learning to call on the Light again.

A Forsaken paladin rendered from the WoW Forever client — A Forsaken paladin, new in Forever, rendered from the client's own model.

Lore name: Forsaken
Homeland: Tirisfal Glades and Silverpine Forest
Capital: Undercity
Leader: Sylvanas Windrunner (client)
Home faction: Undercity

What the client says

Undead (Horde)

Lore name: Forsaken. Languages: Orcish, Gutterspeak. Starts in Tirisfal Glades. Classes: Mage, Paladin (new in Forever), Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior. Racials: Cannibalize, Touch of the Grave, Underwater Breathing, Will of the Forsaken.

The client's character-creation text: Free of the Lich King's grasp, the Forsaken seek to overthrow his rule. Led by the banshee Sylvanas, they hunger for vengeance against the Scourge. Humans, too, have become the enemy, relentless in their drive to purge all undead from the land. The Forsaken care little even for their allies; to them the Horde is merely a tool that may further their dark schemes.

Who they are

The Forsaken were once the people of Lordaeron: farmers, soldiers, priests, nobles. The plague killed them and the Lich King raised them as his Scourge. When his grip weakened, some of them woke with their minds their own again, and their memories. They owe nothing to the living who fear them, and they hate the Scourge that used them.

Free of the Lich King's grasp, the Forsaken seek to overthrow his rule. Led by the banshee Sylvanas, they hunger for vengeance against the Scourge.
From the game client: Undead, the race description in the WoW Forever client

The client is blunt about their loyalties: the Horde is a tool to them. The Undercity faction text calls it a tenuous alliance.

The Forsaken care little even for their allies; to them the Horde is merely a tool that may further their dark schemes.
From the game client: Undead, the race description in the WoW Forever client

Warcraft background: In the Third War the Cult of the Damned spread a plague through Lordaeron's grain, and Prince Arthas, who had become the Lich King's death knight, killed his father and gave the kingdom to the Scourge. Sylvanas Windrunner, ranger-general of Quel'Thalas, was killed by Arthas and raised as a banshee. When the Lich King's power faltered, she broke free, gathered other free-willed undead and took the ruined capital for her Forsaken.

Homeland and capital

Undercity lies in the old crypts and sewers under the ruins of Lordaeron's capital in Tirisfal Glades. Above it, the Scarlet Crusade hunts undead and Forsaken apothecaries work on plagues of their own. Silverpine Forest runs south to the sealed Greymane Wall; beyond lie the Plaguelands, still held by the Scourge.

Hallow's End celebrates the break of the Forsaken from the Scourge.
From the game client: Hallow's End, the holiday description in the WoW Forever client

Allies and enemies

Allies, of a sort: the Horde, which gives the Forsaken protection and legitimacy.
Enemies: the Scourge and the Lich King; the Scarlet Crusade; the living of Lordaeron who want the undead purged; the Alliance.
Within: Forever's new Forsaken paladins, whom other Forsaken deeply mistrust (Blizzard).

Language and names

The Forsaken speak Orcish with the Horde and Gutterspeak among themselves: the client gives Gutterspeak to the undead only. Many Forsaken keep the names they had in life; some take grim new ones. Forever's second name is a natural place for the family name of the living person you were, or for a name you chose after death.

Notable figures

The client names Sylvanas Windrunner as the Forsaken's leader; Blizzard's beta notes call her Lady Sylvanas Windrunner and the "Dark Lady".

Racial abilities as flavour

Will of the Forsaken is the Forsaken's hard-won freedom of mind: charm, fear and sleep slide off them. Cannibalize is exactly what it sounds like; Underwater Breathing reminds you they don't need to breathe. Forever adds Touch of the Grave, draining life from the living. See Races.

In WoW Forever: Forsaken paladins

In WoW Forever: The Forsaken can now be Paladins, and Blizzard has given them a story. Their path begins right after the Warcraft III campaign Forsaken Kingdom, when these former paladins are mistrusted by other Forsaken and still learning to channel the Light in undeath. Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood of Tirisfal Glades is the centre of it, and at level 60 they have their own epic mount quest.

Whereas Alliance paladins claim their epic charger in the name of Redemption, the paladins of the Forsaken ride in the name of Retribution.
Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever Found Photos Panel Recap (Blizzard)

Forever also adds the Ruins of Lordaeron dungeon, in which the Forsaken fight to reclaim the ruins above their city, and a Forsaken Charger mount.

RP hooks and character ideas

A former knight of Lordaeron who woke in a grave and found that the Light still answers, and that nobody believes it.
A Forsaken paladin at Bandarion Keep, trying to earn the trust of a people who think the Light is their enemy's weapon.
An apothecary who is sure the Forsaken can outlast everyone, and has a plague to prove it.
A farmer's widow who died in the plague and now watches the living of Tirisfal from the other side.
A deathstalker loyal to the Dark Lady and suspicious of the Horde's other races.
A Forsaken who remembers a family in Stormwind and wonders whether to seek them out.