Familiar

Naleidea's magical familiar, a raven named Oliver.

Familiars are minions summoned by spellcasters. Either tamed creatures or magical beings, they are often seen in the services of conjurers, mages, hunters, warlocks, and shaman.

Background

Under Arc-Consul Velara's tutelage, the Consulate—an order of eredar magi—vastly expanded their ability to summon arcane creatures as familiars, which linger in Eredath's Conservatory of the Arcane to this day.

Conjurers are specialized in the school of conjuration which they use to notably summon and control elemental familiars.

Though most mages see elementals as unpredictable, frost mages have adopted water elementals as their magical familiar of choice for many centuries.

To prevent apprentices from secretly using elemental familiars to complete their chores, the Kirin Tor archmagi placed the ritual required to summon the creature across the pages of several spellbooks hidden throughout Dalaran.

NPCs

• Air Familiar
• Arcane Familiar (Talador)
• Arcane Familiar (Karazhan)
• Arcane Familiar (Mac'Aree)
• Arcane Familiar (Mac'Aree)
• Brilliant Familiar
• Burning Familiar
• Cabal Familiar
• Celestial Familiar
• Charging Familiar
• Conjured Familiar
• Curseformed Familiar
• Earthen Familiar
• Empowered Arcane Familiar
• Ever-burning Familiar
• Fel Familiar
• Felfire Familiar
• Fiery Familiar
• Fire Familiar
• Glacial Familiar
• Hatchling Familiar
• Hellfire Familiar
• Hexbound Familiar
• Icy Familiar
• Insidious Familiar
• Life-Pact Familiar
•   Mailemental <The Postmaster's Familiar>
• Manabound Familiar
• Odious Familiar
•   Oliver <Naleidea's Familiar>
• Phoenix Familiar
• Potent Familiar
• Raven Familiar
• Remembered Familiar
• Restless Arcane Familiar
•   Sagan <Ravandwyr's Familiar>
• Shadowflame Familiar
• Sidereal Familiar
• Smoldering Familiar
• Solar Familiar
• Unleashed Familiar
• Vile Familiar
• Water Familiar

Items

 [Kirin Tor Familiar]

•  [Arcane Familiar Stone]
•  [Familiar Stone]
•  [Feline Familiar]
•  [Fiery Familiar Stone]
•  [Glyph of Arcane Familiar]
•  [Icy Familiar Stone]
•  [Kirin Tor Familiar]
•  [Vulpine Familiar]

In the RPG

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

A familiar is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a mage. It is treated as a magical beast, and only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. All magi share certain traits, such having familiars, but some may not have one. Familiars are a valuable addition to a mage's skills. They allow them to be more aware of their surroundings and to perform minor espionage and other tasks. However, they can also be a danger — if their familiar is killed, they are in trouble. Some magi eschew familiars in favor of focusing more on their magic, channeling the energy they would be spending on their familiars into other endeavors. A raven familiar can speak one language of its master's choice as a supernatural ability.

High elf magi usually do not use familiars, as they consider it a distraction and prefer to focus on expanding their spell repertoires. Most nerubian seers have spider familiars. Mogul Razdunk's familiar is a toad named Bernard.