Throughout the years, I have brought up this topic a few times (I can sense a few fans and developers rolling their eyes: “Here we go again!”). Hopefully, someone special heeds my call. A few developers follow me on Twitter.
Back at BlizzCon 2005, Chris Metzen mentioned plans for The Burning Crusade expansion that ultimately were canned. I don’t want to speculate too much about why those plans were canned, but in the present I know for certain a few things:
- At least two of the developers sitting on that BlizzCon 2005 panel are no longer employed by Blizzard Entertainment.
- Bob Kotick is no longer pulling strings at Blizzard Entertainment over creative directions.
- Kotick began talks with Vivendi in November 2006 and took over ownership of Blizzard Entertainment by July 2008.
- The Burning Crusade expansion launched earlier on January 16, 2007.
At some point between those dates, [the plan] was scrapped. The Burning Crusade’s creative direction and the original creative outline for future expansions took a different path. I don’t think Chris Metzen woke up one day after BlizzCon 2005 and said: “You know what? Let’s scrap the plan.” My guess is that someone or some people within the development team, or someone under Bob Kotick pushed to scrap [the plan] and go straight into what landed to be Wrath of the Lich King as the next expansion.
Without further ado, for those who didn’t attend or watch the BlizzCon 2005 livestream, let’s get into what those plans were.
I want Warcraft Classic+ to restore plans for Outland portals
In that BlizzCon 2005 World of Warcraft lore panel, Chris Metzen revealed [the plan] for The Burning Crusade end-game and obviously, content that would require a series of expansions:
“You have these gateways to other worlds that are now closed– and Illidan is pretty much the Don. He is in charge. He’s the man. He’s got the Naga and Blood Elves enforcers, and he’s got other agents to bear and pretty much controls current-date Outland — but these gateways that Illidan doesn’t want opened, they’re a conduit to fighting the Legion. The trick is, we’re going to go to Outland, and we’re going to reopen those damned gates — and through those gates, we’re gonna take the fight to the Legion’s doorstep because beyond Azeroth, the Burning Legion is attacking all of those planets.”
These portals were opened by the warlock Ner’zhul in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal*. Eventually, those portals tore the world of Draenor apart leaving chunks of the planet floating in the Twisting Nether.
The Burning Legion set foot on Outland and used these portals to conquer other worlds. Later, when Illidan and his enforcers landed in Outland, he closed those portals to isolate Outland from Legion reinforcements. This didn’t work as Kil’jaeden forced Illidan to serve.
The plan was for players to eventually open at least one of those portals and bring indiscriminate justice to the Burning Legion. There are currently around seven portals in Outland, so it’s not too far-fetched to think that each portal would eventually become a new expansion.
Now you can see the potential for World of Warcraft Classic+ if the developers decided to one day reinstate the original [plan].
Instead, under Bob Kotick and/or possibly some internal creative team clash, the plan was replaced by World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and then World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Now imagine if the developers restored Metzen’s original plan in World of Warcraft Classic+ — maybe not in the very first patch. Hear me out. But laying the groundwork that leads to a new Burning Crusade Classic+, and then we open the first portal in Outland to another planet. Next expansion, we open the second portal to another planet, and so on — as the original plan was meant to happen.
This could bring a lot of players back. We could finally see what those worlds were. Currently, in World of Warcraft: Midnight we learned that many of those Burning Legion races were formerly normal people transformed into demons. Like the Draenei who were turned into Man’ari eredars. Or Mag’har turned into green-skinned orcs. Or Night Elves turned into Satyrs.
Now those former Burning Legion’s demons have free will. This is telling, because if Classic+ brought back Metzen’s original plan, we would open the portals and help those rebel races fight back against the Burning Legion to take back their world.
The question would be how does restoring the original Outland portals plan affect the timeline? If you think about it, the Azeroth we are playing through World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King up to Midnight is the alternate timeline of what the original plan was.
Some events might happen differently or not at all in a timeline where the Outland portals are opened.
For example, if we had gone to Outland to open one or two portals instead of going to Northrend in Wrath of the Lich King, what could Arthas had done with that freedom and time? Would he have conquered Ulduar? What could have happened if Arthas allied with Yogg-Saron, or would he have fought him? Would Arthas have sought to ally with the Alliance and Horde to fight Yogg-Saron together, and then turn on us?
Would we learn more about Zovaal this early? Could Arthas be redeemed by breaking Zovaal’s domination over him?
Could the Cataclysm be prevented in that Classic+ timeline? Maybe a driving force, knowing about the alternate timeline that is our current one could be helping reshape the past: Medivh, a Bronze dragon, or someone else with knowledge about the past events.
We already get to experience each World of Warcraft expansion Classic version. But what if we could have a Classic+ that take us down the rabbit hole of an alternate path after the Naxxramas dungeon (Patch 1.11) that leads to the opening of the portals of Outland. No Wrath of the Lich King events after the Burning Crusade Classic+ but entering the portal to one of the Burning Legion worlds. Then another portal in the next expansion, and maybe an expansion in between doing local stuff in Azeroth, but then another portal world.
That would be far more interesting to me and engaging to explore a Classic+ that I have never experienced before, where the story goes a different way, there is new lore to learn, new races and new lands to fight in.
Outland Portals
There were at least seven portals planned, but only three of them made it into World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade before the plan was scrapped. These stand as a testament that the plan was already set in motion early in development.
The Twilight Ridge: This portal is located in the western edge of Nagrand. Surrounded by Deathshadow warlock orcs and ogres serving Reth’hedron the Subduer (a Man’ari Eredar). Coordinates: /way 8.38 43.36
Portal Clearing: This portal is located on the western edge of the Zangarmarsh zone, between Marshlight Lake and Sporeggar. In Nagrand, the demon hunter Altruis the Sufferer gives us a quest titled “Against All Odds” asking us to kill Xeleth, a demon observer that defected the Legion — now slumbering near the Portal Clearing. Coordinates: /way 16.30 40.56
Death’s Door: This portal is located between Thunderlord Stronghold and Vekhaar Stand in Blade’s Edge Mountain. The portal is heavily guarded by a ma’nari eredar named Baelmon the Hound-Master and a cadre of Burning Legion demons.
Coordinates: /way 63.82 58.86
It is unknown where the other four missing portals were meant to be located in the known Outland zones or in new zones floating nearby. I assume one could have been added later in Shadowmoon Valley, Terokkar Forest, and another in Netherstorm. But that would leave one more portal unaccounted for — which leads me to think Outland was meant to have a new zone in later patches or another expansion after the previous portals had been opened.
I encourage Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries to give Chris Metzen full freedom to drive his original plan into overdrive. Many new ideas may come out of brainstorming a new story. New experiences. A reboot, so to speak.
