| 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 |
Suramar
Julian: Our mission to finally fight the Burning Legion would ultimately lead us all here to Suramar; and with all the lands of the Suramar zone that were hit pretty hard by the Sundering, the capital city of ancient Suramar itself stands not only intact, but remains a thriving elven metropolis.
Here is a look at the in-game map.
It is central to the continent, and it connects all the zones of the Broken Isles, although one in fact; and you might notice there is a pre-massive city down there in the southeast.
While the lands of Suramar were hammered by the Sundering, the city itself was protected and saved by defensive spells cast by the combined might of the city’s most powerful mages; and to do this they harnessed the power of the pure arcane well within the grand palace of Suramar.
They were able to create a massive shield dome that protected the city, and has stayed in place for ten thousand years, and they have kept it up for ten thousand years because they believe that the outside world was completely obliterated; and that was remain out there was overrun with demons.
So the elves within Suramar city became dependant on the energies of the well, and now completely reliant on it as a source of living-energy; and the well itself has now become an abused and corrupted power source that’s now known as the Nightwell; and the Nightwell shrouds the city of Suramar in perpetual darkness.
The elves in Suramar city are no longer true night elves. They have evolved into a unique elven species now known as the Nightborne; and given little choice, the Nightborne leader Elisunde has now brought down the shield, forged a pact with Gul’dan, and opened the gates of Suramar city to the Legion. Now the concept you see onscreen here, some early concept work for the nightborne elves, they are regal and highly intelligent, and master arcanists. Able to conjure all manner of weaponry, and armor at will.
This is just an early sneak peek at some of the nightborne elves in-game.
This is an array of the male.
This is a look at some of the female, and you can see even in their clothing, some of the conjured elements of their abilities.
Within nighborne society, crimes are punished with exile from the city. An exile is never a good thing for anyone, but for a nightborne elf it’s particularly terrifying. Cut off from the city and the nourishment of the Nightwell, they suffer this terrible physical withdrawal, and the concept image you see onscreen here, is for a faction that lives outside the city — known as the nightfallen.
Here is a look at some of the nightfallen characters you will meet in the Suramar zone.
If any nightfallen is unable to find any form of arcane substenance they regress even further to a state known as withered; and once a nightfallen becomes withered, there is no going back. They become truly bestial creatures. You are going to find the ravenous withered lurking all throughout the dark places of Suramar.
Creating the World: Suramar
Julian: Let’s take a look at what we’ve got for Suramar.
Gary: Real quick. Right away with Suramar, we wanted everything to be unique about the zone right down to the trees, and the plants, and the buildings. So we came across this style of doing these sweeping arching shapes just like the art styles you were seeing in the ancient night elf buildings.
Take a look at these cool colors: magentas, oranges, yellows, these pale blues.
We took all those colors and threw them into these two concepts. These two pieces were our foundation pieces for the zone. Crazy, wonderful colors we have here. This is amazing. We all love this look.
With ancient night elves, you have to remember that current night elves are druidic. These ancient night elves are arcane based, and all the magics nor the wonder of their empire is lost in an instant.
I want to talk about one thing really quick about what Julian said about the size and the scale of Suramar city. This is one of the most ambitious projects that this team has ever done. We are talking about an entirely playable night elf metropolis where you can explore every inch of this huge city.
SO we are all really proud and really happy with what we have done with Suramar. That the zone is still a working progress.
As a matter of fact, if we weren’t here at BlizzCon, we would be at work right now playing Overwatch and working on Suramar. We really want to show you everything, but it’s still a working progress. So I am going to show you what we have. So here is the latst version of Suramar.
Okay, real quick. This is one more zone we haven’t talked about: Thal’dranath. We are still working on that zone, and it will be coming soon — much like what we did with Tanaan Jungle. Alright, moving along, this is what you all have been waiting for. We are here to tell you everything about Legion, and I mean, everything. Here is our own beloved Ion Hazzikostas.
| 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 |
