From a lore perspective, are Forsaken the only race that have shadow priests?
I like to learn the lore and such behind the classes I play, but from what I’ve found, for most races, “shadow priests” aren’t cannon. They’re just in the game because the race has priest as an available class, and spec isn’t restricted by race
So are Forsaken the only real shadow priests?
Pretty sure there are no shadow priests in lore. It just a damage spec they added for priests. They should make Anduin turn into a shadow priest to defeat Sylvanis or something. Would be awesome to see him lose it and pop shadowform and mindblast her into oblivion.
There was an SP in SW Cathedral’s basement back in vanilla so…
Having something in WoW doesn’t necessarily make it canon, so the Priest in Stormwind during vanilla doesn’t count. That being said, the cult of forgotten shadow is the only group im presently aware of for practicing “shadow priests”, but they were more important prior to all of the void class changes. They are more likely just darker priests and not void worshippers/void casters, but in lore, any void cultist could qualify as a modern day shadow priest in a mechanical sense.
Much like any mage/spell caster could technically delve deeper and darker into magics that would make what we would call a warlock, priest is technically no different. But if you’re looking for groups of shadow priests in name, that’s probably just Dark Iron Dwarves and Forsaken. Theoretically though, any priest could become a shadow priest, so it’s not as exclusive as it would appear. Societal morals are the limiting reactor here, and not skill.
The short answer is yes.
I recommend reading:
Spiritual Guidance: Of lore, the forsaken and shadow priests, by Fox Van Allen on Engadget, published on, 07.21.10.
He summarises a lot of the in game text in actual lorebooks and statements by NPCs regading the cult and the importance of it canonically to Forsaken society.
It’s genuinely an enjoyable read.
Thanks for the replies guys 
I always like to read the lore of classes and specs because it helps me to be more invested in the character I’m making
However, I’ve found that shadow really has no representation in game aside from the priest order hall. There’s very few quests, lore events,or even lore characters
Most stuff about us is old God related, which I feel was only connected to priests in legion
I kind of wish we had some in game representation like warlocks. It’s very cool how you can find their secret meetings and such in basements, or shadowy places. Like they have a secret cult in society that no one talks about or acknowledges, but it’s still there.
Shadow priests I feel, are only represented by the player. There’s no secret cult of shadows, or twilight cult, or anything.
Not even an Old God fan club…
It’s pretty disappointing because I feel like there’s so much lore behind shadow priests, and yet the game pretty much portrays them as non-existent
Shadow priest were common among the army of twilight hammer which was led by Benedictus.
Since twilight hammer was defeated, lore now is more related to void which shadow does not have any representation…
The closest shadow priest would be alleria and sylvannas
Neither Sylvanas or Alleria are priests. Both are rangers who augment their arrows and techniques with shadow magic.
What i dont understand is why do we keep killing the old gods anf their minions if we worship them? Warlocks dont worship the fell, they just enslave demons and borrow power from them. We legit get our power from the void, the old gods whispers drive us insane and give us power, yet we kill them. I think there needs to be a distinction between shadow and the void. I dont particularly like the idea or fantasy of worshiping the thing thats trying to destroy our planet and corrupt us all.
I don’t think all shadow priests worship the void or Old Gods. For the Tauren, you have An’she(sun/holy) and Mu’sha(moon/Elune). We can argue that Tauren Shadowpriests get their power from Mu’sha. Orcs, well there was the Shadowmoon Clan that delved into the stars as well as the void. We all know Orcs have ancestors that they worship and the Shadowmoon do seem to have a fascination with death and the darker parts of ancestral worship, so it’s possible that Orc priests gain their shadow powers from their ancestors.
Yet we all get the same tentacles when we go into void form.
We should receive some glyphs to custome the look
That’s game play mechanics. They can make different visuals for different races of shadow priests, but do you really think Blizzard is going to do that kind of work, even though it may not be much?
That would be like different races of druids getting different forms. WAY too much work amirite?
haha. At this point, I can never figure out why Blizzard does some things and doesn’t do others.
Not even Blizzard knows why it does what it does.
Tyrande is basically a shadow priest now… The name of the spec is not always the same name lore wise for example Tauren Paladins are called Sunwalkers. Blood Elve pallies are Blood Knights