Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit: Forever's first two new raids

Forever launches its raid game with two new raids, and both are about the night elves.

Barrow Deeps is a huge network of sacred night elf barrow dens with entrances far apart from each other. Mount Hyjal is one of three, and Blackmaw Hold in Azshara seems to lead toward another. The night elves keep their most dangerous prisoners down there, and a famous demon hunter was once locked inside. I don't think anyone needs a hint about who that was. Corruption is spreading through the complex, and even the night elves' allies aren't normally allowed in. It's a 10-player raid.

Hyjal Summit is the bigger one, a 20-player raid across snowy peaks, old elven ruins and rivers, with ghosts from the Third War still around. It deals with what came after Malfurion gave up the source of night elf immortality to defeat Archimonde. Something is now draining power from the land around the summit, and the raid looks connected to Forever's first new legendary.

If you raided in The Burning Crusade, don't picture the Caverns of Time version. This is the mountain itself, in the years right after the battle, not a trip back in time to fight it again.

The new raids unlock on Dec 9, 2026, about five weeks after launch, and Onyxia's Lair opens the same day as a 40-player raid. The rest of the original raids exist, but they haven't opened yet at the point in history where Forever starts. A revamped iconic raid is also on the roadmap for later.