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| Val'sharah | Stormheim | Azsuna | Highmountain | |
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Highmountain
Julian: The Highmountain mountain peak that you see onscreen here is easily one of the single largest mountain peaks in all of Azeroth, and the Highmountain range that surrounds this massive mountain is full of untamed wild, deep canyons, fertile valleys, and goes all the way out to icy peaks.
Here is a look at the in-game map for Highmountain. You can see it is kinda central to the continent all the way in the far north.
The peaks and valleys of the Highmountain range have been the domain of three ancient tauren clans for milenia, and the clans that live here are actually the direct descendants of the tauren that fought in the War of the Ancients.
United for many years, the three clans: Rivermane, Skyhorn, and Bloodtotem have lived in peace for the last several generations, and through very recently when the cave-dwelling Drogbar have risen up and stolen their most sacred artifact. This has fractured the unity of the tauren clans, and the Trogbar has seized the opportunity to strike at the Tauren in an attempt to claim all the Tauren territories for themselves, and to rule all of Highmountain.
The Drogbar are a cave-dwelling culture that was once enslaved to the great dragon aspect Neltharion. They are a shamanistic race with great elemental control over earth magics; and their strong, brutish appearance kinda hides their cleverness and their deep attunement to the land.
We are going to meet a large variety of Trogbar throughout Highmountain. This is a look at one of the Trogbar chieftain. You are going to cross paths with this guy several times; and ultimately you are going to kinda come into contact with him in a dungeon, Neltharion’s lair.
This is another type of Trogbar. These guys are a little bit more dominative, a little bit smaller than their bigger, bullier brothers and sisters; but they are no less dangerous. These guys in particular are skillful, shamanistic warriors.
The Highmountain range is infested with all sorts of territorial creatures. Like these brand-new Alpine harpies here; and the creatures that you find in Highmountain (like these harpies) have grown more aggressive and larger than their cousins you may have found elsewhere on Azeroth.
Highmountain is rich with wild natural beauty, all manner of beautiful creatures graze the fields. Like these awesome moose here. Cousin to the highmountain tauren, and their cute little babies. Or cubs, I should say.
Here is a look at the Highmountain tauren themselves. You can obviously see that their most distinctive feature are these antler-like horns that they sport. The female’s are a little bit more petite. They have a range of different horns; but if you take a look at the male here, you can see that his horns, his antlers are inscribed and decorated; and they do this to define and designate a particular clan affiliation or even a rank within a particular clan.
Now let’s take a look at some of the awesomeness of Highmountain.
Creating the World: Highmountain
Let’s talk about Highmountain. Absolutely, one of my favorite zones. When we started working on Highmountain, we were greatly influenced by the Swiss Alps and Yosemite, but not just for the zone itself, but for the Tauren, as well; because we wanted to advance the Tauren culture.
But not too much that it became unrecognizable from their traditional tribal look that we really all love. So we also wanted to do a traditional pine forest, but we didn’t want it to be so typical.
So we explored some different shapes in their canopy, and their unique silhouettes for their trunk, and we came up with this piece. This piece became our foundation. From here, we can start to build pieces that will go along with the zone. We have the trees, we have the sky, we can even think about how to incorporate other creatures into this zone.
Look at these great concepts for the Tauren. These are awesome. Working on the zones, someone said that this working here was like the best harmoney they felt between the design team and the art team, much like the harmony between the tauren themselves, and we thought that was really cool.
It was really fun working on this zone. Some zones have everything come together as it did with Highmountain.
So let’s take a look at a really cool video that showcases our latest version of Highmountain.
| Browse these pages: | Backstory Overview | Cinematic and Storytelling | Demon Hunter Intro | The Broken Isles |
| Val'sharah | Stormheim | Azsuna | Highmountain | |
| Suramar | End-Game Systems | Dungeons & Raids |
