The new expansion announcement of World of Warcraft: Battle of Azeroth revealed awesome details about the next chapter in the history of Azeroth, but it also left many unknown mysteries in its wake.

Alex Afrasiabi dropped a mega bomb on our collective minds with the following statement: “Now some of you might be asking: Hey, Alex. Why would the Alliance attack the Undercity? It is a good question. It is a good question. Here is a better question: why would the Horde burn down Teldrassil? Did Teldrassil fall first, and lead to the attack of Undercity; or was the burning of Teldrassil a response to the bold Alliance attack on Lordaeron? You will find out. Think about this: the stage is set for an Alliance-controlled Eastern Kingdoms, and a Horde-controlled Kalimdor with one great big sea separating the two continents — which leads us to our search for allies.” — reference: BlizzCon 2017 World of Warcraft: What’s Next Panel Transcript (page 1)

 

The implications of Alex’s statement are mind-blowing, and complex in so many different ways. Spawns more questions than answers, and leaves many of those existing questions unanswered. Unknown mysteries.

Here is what I mean, and hopefully you will understand what his words entail.

 

Teldrassil

What we know: Teldrassil will be burned down. Alliance-only Eastern Kingdoms

What we don’t know: Will the Night Elf be attacked and cornered to the point of mass-exodus to the Eastern Kingdoms?

For an ancient and proud race who has lived and protected Kalimdor for thousands of years, a retreat, leaving their territories behind to the Horde sounds impossible. But if this is the direction the story is going to, where would the Night Elves of Darnassus flee to? Would they merely flee to Ashenvale and fortify its borders? Well, that wouldn’t exactly be a Horde-only Kalimdor if the story was going in that direction.

 

I could see the Night Elves still having a presence in Ashenvale for that Warsong Gulch battleground to continue, but not a new city in Ashenvale to replace Darnassus. That would contradict Alex’s statement about a Horde-only Kalimdor, as well as a Alliance-only Eastern Kingdoms without Night Elves.

So Occam’s Razor: The Night Elves of Teldrassil will flee to the Eastern Kingdoms to be refugees among allies.

So the question needs to cross your mind. Where will the Night Elf city be built at to replace Darnassus? If the Pandaren haven’t gotten their own district in Stormwind, I don’t see a Night Elf district either. What makes sense for a civilization that has lived among nature guided by allies in the Emerald Dream is therefore to relocate to a region of the Eastern Kingdoms that has a gateway into the Emerald Dream.

That leaves two top candidates among a plethora of 24 Eastern Kingdoms regions: Hinterlands and Duskwood.

Both zones have lush forests, and both have a gateway into the Emerald Dream: Seranade, and Twilight Grove.

This immediately makes you wonder. Will these areas be completely redone to fit a city? Technically, those areas need an update because the Emerald Nightmare was defeated, so those areas could well be updated with new content.

But then you would ask yourself: Wait, but what about low-level players who had quests in those areas?

Well, let me leave you with a response from Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) during our BlizzCon 2017 interview that is going to jaw-drop you:

    So they mentioned the Burning of Teldrassil, and the Assault on Undercity. Even a potential Horde-only Kalimdor and Alliance-only Eastern Kingdoms. So what does that kinda mean for the existing Night Elf and the Undead cities? Anything you can talk about that?

    Jeremy: Similar to the story, looking of other quests that you see in World of Warcraft, you can still level up in the initial Night Elf starting zone: Teldrassil. Same with the Horde starting in Tirisfal Glades: the Undercity. Once you get to that point in the story, that is when the story changes.

    Once you hit max level, you go through the story experience, then the world is forever changed for you. So your answer is that new phase version of the world where Teldrassil is on fire, and the Undercity is taken by the Horde (EDIT: Not sure if he meant Alliance); and then where we go from there, you will have to see in the expansion.

     

Now that you read what Jeremy said — wait a minute: In Battle for Azeroth, I can start a level 1 Undead character, start in Deathknell, move down to the Undercity and progress my level 1-110 story with my Horde city in Undercity, and the moment I accept the Battle for Azeroth quest, magically Undercity is now Alliance territory.

Did you just pondered what I am pondering? Phase technology coming to Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms? The only one time Phasing occurred in the old world was Mount Hyjal during Cataclysm. Remember when that zone was ablaze, then Cenarius restored its lush forests? Outside that, we haven’t really seen much phasing in the old world except for maybe the pre-expansion invasions.

So if we just got a confirmed Undercity and Teldrassil level 1-110 unchanged cities with phase technology switching to a burned Teldrassil and a (potentially) Alliance-occupied Lordaeron castle after accepting the first Battle for Azeroth quest at level 110 — then it is implied that after you accept the Battle for Azeroth quest at level 110 the Phase Technology switches to now show the new replacement cities for Darnassus in the Eastern Kingdoms, and the replacement city for the Forsaken in Kalimdor.

It sounds like a stretch, but if you read into the response, this thought crossing your mind makes perfect sense — even if it was not confirmed to be the case.

Can Twilight Grove or Seradane be the new city of the Night Elves? Considering the Emerald Nightmare was cleansed and vanquished in Val’sharah — an update of these two zones is plausible. Low level quests there shouldn’t be a conflict if they are in a alternate phased Serenade and Twilight Grove for low-level players, while the level 110 players who accepted the Battle for Azeroth quest would have a phased version with a majestic elven city.

 

Again this new Night Elf city and its location hasn’t been confirmed (to my knowledge). We will have to wait and see.

 

Exodar

What we know: Though Alex Afrasiabi coined the term Horde-only Kalimdor during the Opening Ceremony, he later responded during the World of Warcraft Q&A panel that the Exodar remains Alliance-controlled as the last bastion of the Alliance upon Kalimdor.

However, the Exodar might join the Battle for Azeroth war in the future. It’s difficult to read through the cracks to figure out what that means beyond Patch 8.0. Will the Draenei be forced out of Kalimdor later on as the Horde closes in to surround them via Warfront, or will they stay in Kalimdor indefinitely? We’ll have to wait and see, but for the meantime the draenei are staying.

 

NEXT: EASTERN KINGDOMS CITIES

 

Post-BlizzCon 2017 The Unknown Mysteries of Battle for Azeroth
1. Kalimdor Cities2. Eastern Kingdoms Cities3. Battle for Azeroth: Mysteries4. Battle for Azeroth: End Game

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BlizzCon 2019 Panel Transcripts