Character

Character refers to an interactive representation of a game persona. Characters may be controlled by players (player characters or PCs) or by the game (non-player characters or NPCs). In World of Warcraft, the term 'character' is mainly used to refer to a player character, also known as an avatar or toon.

The maximum number of characters per user account is 50. Players used to have a limit to the amount of characters per realm but can now create their 50 characters all on one realm if they wish.

Characteristics include: class, race, faction, talents, profession, and equipment.

Character selection screen
At the Character Selection screen, you can make a new character, choose a character to play, change your current realm, access tech support, and adjust your account settings.

Clicking the Create New Character button takes you to the character creation screen, where you can generate a character to play in the game.
 * Create New Character

The right side of the Character Selection screen lists any characters you have created. If you haven’t yet made any characters, this area is blank. You can have up to 50 characters, which is the account limit, with no character slot limit per realm for the modern game, but a maximum of 10 characters per WoW Classic realm, with no overlap or regard with the character limits between the modern game and WoW Classic.

Each character entry shows the character's name, level, current location, and rest state. Clicking on a character displays it in the center of your screen.

To delete a character, select that character and then press the Delete Character button. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Click the Okay button to permanently erase that character.
 * Delete Character

Realms are discrete game worlds. You can interact with all the players in your realm, but originally not with players in other realms, this was changed with cross-realm technology released with the pre-expansion patch for Mists of Pandaria. When you first play World of Warcraft, your realm will be pre-selected for you.
 * Change Realm

If you wish to play in a different realm, press the Change Realm button. A list appears showing all available realms and the current number of players in each realm. Click on the realm you want to join, and press the Okay button.

Creating characters
New characters can be created from the character selection screen by clicking the Create A New Character button, which will open the character creation screen. When choosing a new server for the first time, the player is automatically taken to the character creation screen.

The character creation screen allows the player to choose a race, gender, and class for their new character. Note that the race and class choices are essentially permanent, and once the character is created cannot be changed in-game. A character's race can be changed through a paid service outside the game itself, namely the Race Change, but it is not possible to change an existing character's class by any means.

Once the race, class, and gender are chosen, the player can then customize several aspects of their character's appearance, including their face, hair, skin color and race-specific options such as horns, tusks, and tentacles. Each of these features can be adjusted individually, or the player can try random combinations through the Randomize button. All of these features and the gender can later be changed by visiting a barbershop in-game.

Finally, the player must choose a name for their character. The Randomize button can be used to generate random names, in keeping with the race and gender chosen. The choice of the name is permanent unless the paid Name Change service is used.

Once the player is happy with all of their selections, the character itself is created, and immediately becomes available for play. New characters normally start at level 1, except for allied races (which start at level 10), and hero classes (which depending on race start at level 8 or level 10). The starting location, gear, and inventory of each character are determined by its faction, race and class.

On public test realms and during beta testing, players may be able to create template characters through a special button from the character selection screen.

Deleting characters
Characters can be deleted from the character selection screen, with the player required to manually type "DELETE" in order to confirm the action. Once deleted, the character will no longer be shown or be available for play.

Character deletion is permanent, and deleting a character will cause all gear and items to be lost. However, the Undelete Character feature can allow players to restore certain deleted characters.

Restoring deleted characters
Coming with patch 6.0.2, the Restore Deleted Character option allows the player to restore deleted characters, with a few limitations.


 * Undeleted characters will be restored with all items, gear, enchantments, and gems intact.
 * Players can use the undeletion service a maximum of once every 30 days.
 * If the player wishes to restore a character whose name matches one of their current characters on the same realm, the current character must first be renamed, transferred or deleted before the deleted character can be restored.

Whether a character is available for undeletion depends on its level and the amount of time that has elapsed since it was deleted.
 * Eligibility


 * Characters under level 10 and death knights at level 55 are not eligible to be undeleted
 * Characters between level 10 and level 29 will be eligible for 90 days after deletion
 * Characters between level 30 and 49 will be eligible for 120 days after deletion
 * Deleted characters at level 50 and above (level 56 and above for death knights) will always be eligible for undeletion

Moving characters
The following text is from the Worldofwarcraft.com Changing Realms/Character Move page (part of "Account Management"):


 * "Below you will see a listing of all characters associated with your account, across all realms. If one or more of your characters are eligible to move, this page will allow you to move those characters to a predetermined low population realm. Please note that only characters on high population realms are eligible for transfer. To see what realms are currently high population, check the Realm Status page. Also note that you will not be able to explicitly choose which realm you'd like to move to. Instead, the new realm is determined automatically and displayed in the "Destination Realm" column below. For answers to common questions, please check out our Character Move F.A.Q."

"Character Migration" in the Terms of Use
The following text is from the Blizzard Terms of Use for WoW (WoW_TOU_enNA_20050505, May 5, 2005 version):


 * 4. Character Migration.


 * Blizzard may, in its sole and absolute discretion, offer certain users the opportunity to move characters from a heavily populated "Character Migration" server to a server designated by Blizzard as a "Target Server." If you are offered the opportunity to migrate a character, please note the following:


 * A character that is a "guild master" cannot be migrated to a Target Server.
 * You must have less than ten (10) characters on the Target Server in order to migrate a character to the Target Server.
 * Character migrations can only occur when the account that you utilize to play World of Warcraft is not in use.
 * You cannot migrate a character to a Target Server if the name of the character is already in use on the Target Server.
 * If a character of the same name already exists on the Target Server, you will be given an opportunity to rename character as part of the Character Migration process. As always, the name must adhere to the naming conventions stated herein.
 * In-game mail sent by or in transit to the character that you intend to migrate will not be migrated to a Target Server.
 * All player auctions involving the character that you intend to migrate will be canceled and the item, deposit, and the high bid returned to the bidder upon character migration. The item you placed for sale, or your "high bid," will appear in that character's mail when it reaches the Target Server. Note that Blizzard will not be responsible for the loss of in-game funds or items due to the character migration of either a "buyer" or "seller" to an auction house transaction.
 * A target character's friends list will not transfer to a Target Server.
 * A target character's guild affiliation will not transfer to a Target Server.
 * A target character's ignore list will not transfer to a Target Server.