Murloc

The Murlocs are a fictional race of amphibious humanoids in the Warcraft Universe, created by Blizzard Entertainment. They are one of various independent, hostile species players of the Warcraft games encounter in the fictional world.

They strongly resemble the Deep Ones from H. P. Lovecraft's stories, and are one of numerous references to his work found throughout the games (including the malevolent Old Gods such as C'Thun).

While initially only a threat in the Eastern continent in Warcraft 3, they were also occasionally encountered on Kalimdor. Since the release of World of Warcraft they have become a fixture of the Warcraft universe and can be found throughout the game world.

Appearance
Murlocs have bulbous bodies, large mouths lined with sharp fangs, and slime-coated skin. They range in coloration from yellow to turquoise to darkish gray, and in height from 3-1/2 feet to 5 feet. They vocalize using distinctive nasal sounding grunts, gargles and warbles, which are typically represented in the game's text by onomatopoeia such as: "Rawgrlgrlgrlgrlgrrgle".

Society
Murloc culture is tribal in nature, and religion is generally dark. Habitations are generally small huts on stilts, with conical thatched roofs, huddled on beaches around a body of water. They reside along coastlines, lake shores and riverbeds, as well as in underwater ruins and in the vicinity of shipwrecks. Though murlocs sustain themselves as hunter gatherers, lacking any technology more advanced than hut-building, spears and fire, they have been seen taming crabs and other similar creatures as hunting companions.

Behavior
Murloc behavior toward other intelligent races in the Warcraft games is extremely unfriendly; they are highly territorial and attack just about anyone who approaches them or anyone who they encounter on their patrols. They are very quick, both on land and in the water and tend to rely on surprise and ambush when attacking other creatures. Murlocs make themselves a nuisance to Alliance and Horde characters alike, but they are not considered to be great threats due to their disorganized nature. The task of dealing with murlocs is left to the local authorities and garrisons as part of their normal operations. Murloc communities do however kill quite a number of hapless travelers and citizens of both major factions.

Local authorities keep the murloc populations at bay by regularly putting out bounties on murloc tribes that establish villages within their domain, usually asking for heads, fins, other body parts, or possessions as proof, and offering items or other monetary rewards as compensation. With a few exceptions, individual murlocs are small, weak, and unintelligent; as such, they are typically mediocre fighters. However, their tendencies to move in packs and to stay close to their villages make it very difficult to single out any one of them. By using the advantage in numbers, they can be very dangerous to bounty hunters who travel alone.

Subspecies: Mur'gul
Mur'guls are a barely-humanoid race of fish-like creatures from the Warcraft series of computer games. They appear to be a primitive sub-species of Murlocs which had been corrupted by the explosion of the World Tree, similar to the Naga who had once been Elves. While their uncorrupted brethren are often evil enough, Mur'gul are far more so. Mur'guls wear skull like helms and wield shield with a skull theme. They fight with the same weapons as murlocs. In Warcraft 3 they tend to be higher level creeps than murlocs.

Prior to the events of The Frozen Throne, Murlocs themselves had less pronounced fins. This was presumably caused by the explosion of the World Tree, as that was the cause of the Mur'gul's creation.

Notable Murlocs

*Murky: Murky is the Murloc pet given to gamers who attended the first BlizzCon Convention in Anaheim, California October 28-29 2005. Attendees were given a gift card with an authorization code to enter into a specially setup website. After doing so they were instructed to meet an in-game character who gave them their Murloc pet. Besides the trademark Murloc "Grrrrmalrrrrgrrahhhh" Murky has at least one other talent, which is dancing. In this, and in his appearance, he resembles Michigan J. Frog. There is also a pink version of Murky called Gurky.
*Lurky: Lurky is the Murloc pet given gamers who purchased the European collectors edition as "compensation for the inconvenience and delay"
*Mutanus: Mutanus the Devourer is a gigantic, mutated murloc residing in the bowels of the Wailing Caverns in the barrens of Kalimdor.
*Old Murk-Eye: Old Murk-Eye is the leader of the murlocs infesting Longshore in Westfall. He is responsible for leading the two murloc raids on the Longshore lighthouse, the second of which resulted in the deaths of the lighthouse keepers. He can be seen patrolling the stretch of beach near the lighthouse.
*Mmmrrrggglll: Mmmrrrggglll is the chieftain of the Grimscale Murlocs situated at both the Tranquil Shore and the Golden Strand.

"New Lore"
A new section of "Lore" was added to the main Blizzard site on the 22 Feb, 2006, and likely applies only to World of Warcraft and its expansion, The Burning Crusade. It seems to be inspired largely by the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and his fans, and hints at a sinister pre-history and heretofore unknown culture and purpose behind the actions of the Murlocs in the Warcraft universe. It lists a number of "new revelations" about the race, including the following:

"First, murlocs may not be as dumb as everyone thinks they are. Several clues point to the fact that their steady infiltration of the world's land masses may be a coordinated effort. Whether or not this enterprise has been undertaken strictly of their own accord is not yet known.

"Also, the murloc race may be far older than most believe. Several accounts and clues seem to substantiate this. In fact, it is now believed that murlocs (or, more appropriately, their ancestors) may even predate trolls. Of course these ancient murlocs lived in the oceans' depths and therefore were never known to the world's early land-dwelling races.

"In the last few years, the vile naga have begun reemerging from their watery abodes, causing historians to speculate that their migration may have triggered the murlocs' slow encroachment onto land. Some also guessed that the murlocs might be working in concert with the sinister amphibians.

"But perhaps the most startling revelation to come from recent intelligence-gathering efforts was this: the naga may not be the only nightmarish horrors lurking in the seemingly bottomless oceans of the world.

"Several indicators from the murlocs themselves point to the possibility that the fish-men are but worshipers or underlings of perhaps several deep-sea monstrosities that currently lie sleeping, or at least waiting, in the murky fathoms – and even more disturbing, that the murlocs' emergence is an indication of their incipient awakening.

"If that is the case, the mysterious and somewhat underestimated murlocs may be the world's first glimpse at something far more terrifying."

Other Media
Murloc RPG, a fangame created using Adobe Flash, was featured on World of Warcraft's site as a Community Spotlight item. The player assumes the role of a murloc named Murk who finds himself ultimately responsible for avenging an attack on his village by adventurers ( They are Draenei but still unknown to the murlocs ). An extended game, Murloc RPG: Stranglethorn Fever has been released ( on the home website only), but did not achieve Community Spotlight status.

The band "Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain" has released a song entitled "I am Murloc". It is a rock ballad of sorts featuring Murlocs, claiming their supremacy over the sea and land. The video, completely made using WoW machinima, has been praised for its effects and the high-quality production. The video for the track can be viewed on the official WoW European site, [http://www.wow-europe.com/en/downloads/movies.html# here]

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu