Many people are confused by the primary steps of the character creation process in World of Warcraft. This simple primer takes you through two decisions that most define your World of Warcraft character.
There are two factions in World of Warcraft, the Alliance and the Horde. In story terms the alliance is peaceful and is usually defending itself from the Horde races, while the Horde is chaotic and usually aims at destroying the Alliance races. Of course, as many of the Alliance raids are pre-emptive strikes the boundary is very blurred, and the basic result is that both factions go around slaughtering whatever they can catch(hey - it's a combat game...).
The Alliance Races consist of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes. Added to the usual cast of good guys is the Draenei(the Burning Crusade Expansion is needed). The Horde consists of Orcs, Tauren(kind of like minotaurs), Undead and Trolls. The Burning Crusade adds a fifth race - the Blood Elves.
Either faction can play the primary classes of Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior. The Horde has access to the Shaman class and the Alliance access to the paladin class. As of the Burning Crusade expansion, the faction specific classes have been mixed up - with the new races getting access to the opposite factions limited class. Draenei can play as either paladin's or Shamans and the Blood Elves can play as Paladin's.
Class selection is limited by race as follows:
The Alliance
Humans: Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
Night Elf: Druid, Hunter, Priest, Rogue, Warrior.
Gnome: Mage, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
Dwarf: Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warrior.
Draenei: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warrior.
The Horde
Troll: Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior.
Tauren: Druid, Hunter, Shaman, , Warrior.
Orcs: Hunter, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.
Undead: Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
Blood Elves: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock.
Every race and class has it's own characteristics and abilities, and how you select your character will play a huge part in how you play the game.