Tyrande Whisperwind is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. First appearing in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, within the games, she is the chosen High Priestess of the goddess Elune, and along with her husband Malfurion Stormrage, the leader of the night elves. Tyrande also appears as a playable character in the crossover multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm. The character has received mostly positive critical reception from gamers, and is a popular character in Warcraft lore. She is voiced by Elisa Gabrielli.
Development
In an interview with World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria designer Dave Kosak, Kosak stated that "To speak about Tyrande specifically, we wanted to get back to her Warcraft III roots, in which she was very much gung-ho. So when we wanted to show Varian's development, we thought she'd be an interesting foil", referring to her appearance as a foil for Varian Wrynn in the "A Little Patience" scenario. In an interview with Christie Golden, writer of the Warcraft novel War Crimes, she mentioned that the book contains "a lot of" Tyrande, and "I can say we will see a lot of her and we will get inside her head for sure."
Appearances
Warcraft franchise
In the series, Tyrande Whisperwind, the High Priestess of Elune, is the current co-leader of the night elves (kaldorei), along with her husband Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage. Tyrande was born thousands of years ago and grew up in the company of Malfurion and Illidan Stormrage. She answered the call of the Sisters of Elune, followers of the night elves' Goddess of the Moon, and became a novice priestess, while the Stormrage brothers followed different paths. Their destinies merged anew when the Burning Legion arrived on Azeroth.
Tyrande and Malfurion grew close and battled against the invading demons together, but Illidan pursued a darker path, feigning allegiance to the Burning Legion and succumbing to the temptations of power. After the defeat of the Legion and the Sundering, Tyrande and Malfurion helped rebuild elven society; Illidan was imprisoned beneath Mount Hyjal. The couple could not remain together for long; soon after the night elves settled near Mount Hyjal, Malfurion and the other night elf druids were needed in the Emerald Dream. While Malfurion slept in the Dream, Tyrande commanded her people, forming the Sentinels—the night elven army—to guard their lands and allies.
During the Third War, Tyrande sent her Sentinels to deter the advances of the Horde in Kalimdor, but ultimately ended up working with them to battle the armies of the Burning Legion, an effort that also forced her to awaken the druids, including Malfurion, from the Emerald Dream. Their time together was cut short when the elder Stormrage suffered from the corruption of the Dream, but Tyrande joined her lover to defeat the menace, and they both returned to Azeroth, where they protected their people (and the other races of the Alliance) from the destruction caused by Deathwing and the advances of Garrosh Hellscream in Kalimdor.
Heroes of the Storm
Tyrande appears as a playable character in the crossover video game Heroes of the Storm. She is a ranged healer who helps her allies lockdown and finish off enemies. Her basic abilities include marking enemy targets, healing allies which can become more frequent with attacking enemies, as well as summoning owls to scout out enemy positions. "Starfall" is one of the two heroic abilities, which damages and slow enemies in an area. Second heroic ability is "Shadowstalk", which grants all allied heroes stealth for several seconds and heal them over time.
Other appearances
She also appears in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game as a collectible card. In Hearthstone, Tyrande Whisperwind is an alternate hero for the Priest class, who is optionally unlockable as a visual alteration for the default priest hero.