Mount Hyjal, Dalaran and the Shen'dralas: the story side of Forever

The idea behind Forever's stories is called found photographs: things that feel like they happened during vanilla WoW, just out of frame. That means giving underused characters more to do, showing what important people were doing off-screen, opening places we could never get into, finishing local stories that were left hanging, and adding new mysteries instead of answering every old one. Big events are told from the ground, not as one long campaign with famous heroes out in front.

The new content falls into three groups. Anticipated is what players have wanted for years, like Mount Hyjal. New but familiar builds on people, conflicts and places already in Warcraft. Unexpected is brand new, like the Skyborne, and it's used sparingly so classic Azeroth still feels like classic Azeroth.

Mount Hyjal is a new high-level zone. It picks up after Archimonde's defeat: forests trying to heal, corruption that hasn't gone away, what the battle did to the Wild Gods, and what losing their immortality means for the night elves. There are new factions, reputations and enemies, solo and group content, the Hyjal Summit raid and an entrance to the Barrow Deeps. Anyone who wall-jumped out of Winterspring in 2005 just to look at an empty Nordrassil knows how long people have waited for this one.

South of Desolace, a new region called Shen'dralas digs into the Shen'dralar, Eldre'Thalas (the city we raid as Dire Maul), Prince Tortheldrin, and the Gelkis and Magram centaur. Its quests also give you new reasons to head back into older dungeons like Maraudon and Razorfen Downs.

Dalaran is shown in a state we almost never see. It has been rebuilt after its destruction in Warcraft III, it still stands in the Alterac Mountains instead of floating in the sky, and it was hidden behind a magical barrier. That barrier has now failed, so adventurers can finally walk into the restored city and find out why it's all going wrong.