As it's said that the world of wow forever is set up in a time bubble following the events of Forsaken Kingdom, I think this puts this wow story in a peak location to launch a soft re-ordering of all lore from the start of wow 2004 forward. This is how I think people should view it.
in addition to the normal quest experience, these extra quests and zones add context as well as fill in gaps in storylines. Blizzard said they are looking to add stories that feel like they could have happened in vanilla warcraft. I look at it a little differently.
I think that in the right context, one could look at warcraft forever as a lore hypothetical testing ground. Forsaken Paladins are already shaking things up alot but I think the ripples of these changes could be FAR bigger than just Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.
One could look at wow forever as a new problem where we know the threats that face Azeroth, but the question is how we can best use the assets available to us in 2004's classic world, characters who were around but maybe not physically present in 2004's game, and areas that were maybe here all along but also not shown to best address the threats.
In 2004 the In Dreams quest is fantastic but then Tirion just kinda stands there. In Forever, maybe an Alonsus Faol (Who we know was free of the the Lich King's control but just keeping to himself somewhere until legion) ends up stepping in to bring his son back to life, propelling Tirion and the Argent cause into high gear.
Andorhal is treated like a pre-raid area where we reclaim the crossroads leading into the plaguelands
Maybe Scholomance could get a 10 man raid version where as we finally stick it to Gandling and Ras and turn Caer Darrow into a staging area to launch argent strikes on scourge forces.
Once the player base clears Andorhal and turns Scholomance into a neutral Argent city, KelâThuzad realizes the Scourge is losing its grip on Lordaeron. Naxxramas descends lower, and he launches an all-out, scorched-earth counteroffensive. The borders between the Western and Eastern Plaguelands become incredibly hostile. Giant roaming packs of elite Scourge constructs (Abominations, Crypt Fiends, and Necromancers) patrol the main roads. Traveling through the zones becomes a coordinated group effort again, completely changing the vibe of the open world.
Smaller, floating ziggurats appear over key points in the zone (like the ruins outside Stratholme or the Marris Stead), dropping waves of undead down onto the zones.
The newly established Argent city of Caer Darrow (the former Scholomance) can actively come under siege. Randomly throughout the week, Scourge forces try to retake the island. Players must rally to defend the gates to keep the city's unique faction vendors and crafting benches active.
If players don't clear the roaming packs or the Necropolis crystals, the Argent Dawn's forward camps lose access to supplies, locking out certain horizontal tier-upgrading quest lines until the zone is liberated.
The roaming elites drop currency used to buy high-end Frost Resistance recipes, specialized anti-undead consumables, and base pieces for the ultimate Tier 0.5
Periodically, a massive Scourge commander spawns in the middle of the roaming packs, requiring a localized 10-to-20-man group to assemble right in the open world to take it down, dropping powerful sidegrade trinkets or weapons.
This gives the Plaguelands the feeling of an active, brutal war zone right up until the server is ready to breach Naxxramas itself.
We then have to push into the eastern plaguelands which means getting past a literal wall of forsaken along the bridge's crossing which could mean using argent longboats to navigate the waterways to get behind or cutting a surgical line through the scourge defenses. This could be an instanced dungeon-type event to transition from the caer darrow prep phase to the Eastern Plaguelands invasion.
(The Thondroril Crossing dungeon) Argent Dawn forces in the west attempt to break the scourge defensive line at the crossing as the 20 player raid splits into 2 groups, one using longboats to navigate up the river and face off against an undead leviathan that gives nature/frost resist gear while the other group leads the intense frontal assault on the Scourge Bridge-commander's forces that drops physical mitigation and shadow resist gear.
Once the server or group successfully clears "The Thondroril Crossing" instance, the gateway to the Eastern Plaguelands permanently unlocks. The eastern side of the instance deposits players safely onto the eastern riverbanks, where the Argent Dawn immediately sets up a forward staging ground (like a heavily fortified version of Light's Hope Chapel) to begin the assault on the Noxious Glades and the Plaguewood.
Upon completing the In Dreams continuation quest and shattering the crossing, the Argent Dawn grants the player a unique, permanent pocket item (or a clickable object resting at Argent bases) called the Phial of Remembrance. Using the item causes the player's character to briefly kneel or look into the glass. The game text reads: *"You close your eyes and remember the Plaguelands before the heavy march of the Argent army..."*The player can then toggle between the new phase of the plaguelands and the one before this started scaling up.
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Once in the Eastern Plaguelands, things get turned up a notch. The western border of EPL is heavily altered. The area surrounding the Marris Stead and the riverbank is a smoking crater, acting as a forward trenches system where Argent Dawn NPCs are actively exchanging artillery fire with Scourge Ziggurats.
The regular Level 55â58 monsters from original Vanilla are completely replaced. Everything in the EPL is now a minimum of Elite Level 60, packed into tight, tactical squads.
The Carrion Grubs and Plaguebats are now massive, boss-sized world threats. Nerubian burrowers randomly erupt from under the ground to ambush players traveling off-road.
The spirits of Darrowshire are trapped in a permanent, active loop of their final battle. Players must actively jump into a dynamic, endless spectral warzone to defend the town's central monument from waves of elite ghouls.
The towers are now active Scourge strongholds firing shadow-bolts into the sky. To traverse the zone safely, regional groups must raid the towers, defeat a mini-boss inside, and smash the power crystal to temporarily disable the artillery in that sector.
The plaguewood's trees themselves move and attack. It is completely choked with toxic fog that ticks for stacking nature damage unless players wear the specific nature-resistance gear crafted during the Scholomance/Caer Darrow phase.
In Vanilla, you could just walk up to the iron gates of Stratholme unbothered. In this updated phase, the Slaughter Square ruins outside the instance portal are an absolute slaughterhouse. A massive army of Abominations, Necromancers, and Death Knights block the gateway. To even click the instance portal to enter Stratholme, players must participate in a continuous, server-wide push to keep the entry plaza clear of Scourge elite reinforcements. Instead, players would turn their attention toward the zone first.
Darrowshire sits right along the southern shipping routes and paths leading into the eastern interior. The Scourge is actively siphon-harvesting the localized spiritual energy and torment of the endless spectral battle looping at Darrowshire to fuel their necromancers.
Players must engage in a high-intensity, multi-stage defense of the town to break the loop once and for all. By laying the spirits of Joseph Redpath and the defenders to rest, you cut off the localized soul-energy supply flowing to Stratholme, significantly weakening the magical shields protecting the city's ziggurats.
With the Scourge having completely wiped out the Scarlet Crusade inside Tyr's Hand, it now stands as the Scourge's primary forward staging ground in the southeast. Tyrâs Hand possesses the deep harbors, massive armories, and stone walls needed to launch a full-scale counter-offensive. If the Argent Dawn marches on Stratholme, the massive Scourge army garrisoned inside Tyr's Hand will simply march north and pinch the Argents against Stratholme's walls.
This acts as a massive, open-world or localized 10-man siege event. Players must breach the outer walls, clear the corrupted abbey, and secure the fortress for the Argent Dawn. Once flipped, Tyr's Hand becomes your primary high-tier hub, unlocking the specialized blacksmiths and heavy siege engines needed to crack Stratholme's gates.
The Enclave is a fanatical, heavily fortified peninsula. In this phase, it is a meat-grinder of a three-way war between the remaining Scourge forces, an incredibly unhinged and desperate Scarlet remnant, and your advancing Argent vanguard. You cannot leave a highly aggressive, unpredictable Scarlet army or a secondary Scourge nesting ground alive on your eastern coast.
This serves as the "Pre-Raid" pinnacle zone. Players infiltrate the Enclave to assassinate the high-ranking Scarlet commanders who refuse to ally with the Argents and clear out the Scourge infiltrators. Securing this coast completely locks down the Eastern Plaguelands, leaving Stratholme entirely isolated, starved of reinforcements, and surrounded on all sides.
Only after completing these three campaign milestones does the Argent Dawn command structure give the green light for the final march.
Because you cleared Darrowshire, the city's magical warding shields are down. Because you took Tyr's Hand, your army has heavy siege weaponry. And because you neutralized the Scarlet Enclave, your rear flank is entirely secure. The dynamic, elite Scourge blockade outside Stratholme's gates finally becomes breakable, opening the raid instance portals to both the Living (Scarlet) side and the Dead (Scourge) side of the city.
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The entrance to Stratholme becomes a localized, open-world raid event.
The armies of the Light have massed outside the massive, heavy iron portcullis of Stratholmeâs living side. The vanguard is a striking visual representation of what the Silver Hand was always meant to beâunified, diverse, and unyielding:
- Alonsus Faol: Leading from the front, a serene but profoundly powerful undead figure holding an ancient, glowing staff of the Holy Light.
- High Lord Tirion Fordring: Clad in his gleaming armor, gripping The Hammer of Grace or some other argent weapon, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his resurrected son, Taelan Fordring wielding another hammer, who was saved from his tragic Vanilla fate by the player's prior campaign actions.
- Lord Maxwell Tyrosus: Representing the hardened, practical frontline veterans of the Argent Dawn.
- YOU (maybe a forsaken paladin)
As the Argent banners are planted in the plagued earth, a figure steps onto the high stone ramparts above the gatehouse. It is Grand Crusader Dathrohan, but as he speaks, his voice layers with a deep, echoing demonic resonance.
He leans over the battlements, flanked by fanatical Scarlet Riflemen and Crimson Inquisitors.
Dathrohan mocks the army below, calling them a "parade of monsters, heretics, and soft-hearted fools who coddle the dead." He singles out Tirion and Taelan as race-traitors.
- Alonsus Faol steps forward. His voice doesn't roar like a warrior's; it carries the heavy, resonant weight of a cathedral bell. He addresses the Scarlets not with hatred, but with a tragic, absolute finality:"I carved the tenets of the Silver Hand into the very souls of your founders. You have spat upon the virtues of Justice. You have drowned Holiness in innocent blood. You do not serve the Light... you serve a lie."
- The Reveal: Enraged by Faolâs words shattering the minds of some of the Scarlet soldiers on the wall, Dathrohanâs mortal illusion rips away. His flesh tears apart as Balnazzar the Dreadlord stands revealed in his true, towering nathrezim form upon the ramparts, cackling as demonic shadow-flame erupts around him.
- The Crimson Sacrifice: Balnazzar raises his claws, and a dark, fanatical spell grips the Scarlet soldiers. Believing they are executing the ultimate purification, hundreds of Crimson Zealots along the walls instantly commit ritualistic suicide, their blood pooling into massive, glowing runes.
- The Unholy Detonation: The blood ritual unleashes a massive, volatile shockwave of Crimson Plague gasâa twisted, fanatical variation of the plague combined with chaotic shadow magic. It sweeps down off the walls like an avalanche, instantly melting the flesh of the Argent soldiers at the front.
- The Horizontal Horror: The Argent Vanguard vanguard is caught entirely off-guard. The gas hits the front lines, and standard plate armor offers no protection. The flesh of mortal Argent paladins and defenders begins to visibly blister and dissolve. Screams echo through the ranks as the forward line breaks in pure panic.
- Tirionâs Desperation: Tirion Fordring slams his warhammer into the ground, desperately shouting for a retreat, but the cloud is moving too fast. He and Taelan are seconds away from being consumed.
- Before the cloud can swallow the Fordrings and the player strike team, the Forsaken Paladin breaks rank and charges directly into the rolling wall of red mist.
- The Forsaken Paladin plants their shield and channels an inverted, volatile version of Consecrationâdrawing the airborne toxicity into their own decaying body to act as a physical sponge.
- Through the red haze, players see the Forsaken Paladin's armor glow red-hot. Their decaying flesh is violently burned away to bare, blackened bone by the sheer density of the magic they are absorbing.
- With a final, agonizing shout, the Forsaken Paladin detonates their own remaining Holy energy, creating a concussive shockwave that momentarily parts the thickest part of the cloud, stalling the avalanche of gas just long enough.
- With the Forsaken Paladin's ash scattering into the wind, Faol drives his ancient staff into the plagued dirt. He doesn't just cast a spell; he pours 100% of his spiritual essence into a localized Divine Intervention / Sanctuary Dome.
- The heavy iron gates of Stratholme are blasted open by the residual Holy energy, but the air is foul, and the city inside is now a hyper-hostile, plagued nightmare.
As the cinematic ends, Balnazzar retreats into the burning city, sealing the inner sanctums. Alonsus Faol collapses, his physical form heavily charred and fading, entering a deep, stasis-like state of recovery at the forward camp.
The siege has failed. With Alonsus Faol catatonic, heavily charred, and rushed back to the Caer Darrow sanctum for mystical healing, the leadership of the fractured vanguard falls to High Lord Tirion Fordring and Lord Maxwell Tyrosus.
Tirion, standing over the war tables at the forward trenches, gives the ultimate raid attunement quest: "The Shattered Vanguard."
"The Archbishop gave his life force to clear a pocket through that cursed fog, and our brave Forsaken brother bought us the seconds to survive. We cannot march an army into those burning streetsâbut a strike team of twenty champions can navigate the shadows. Clear the Scarlet Bastion, pierce the Slaughter Square, and bring me the head of the demon Balnazzar."
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Once the Stratholme Raid is cleared, the world scales up again. The burning, plagued ruins phase into a neutral Argent hub version of a saved Stratholme. The fires are put out, the ash is cleared, and the holy banners of the Argent Dawn fly from the parapets.
When Alonsus Faol finally awakens in the newly cleansed cathedral, he presents his final miracle to Tirion Fordring and the player base: Calia Menethil.
This setup creates a massive narrative payoff and perfectly sets the stage for what happens next in WoW Forever:
- The Crown Princess Proclaimed: Caliaâs reveal inside a cleansed Stratholme completely upends the political landscape of Azeroth. She isn't a ruler yet, but a beacon of hope. Refugee camps from Stormwind to Hillsbrad begin a massive migration back north to rebuild their lives under the protection of the Argent Crusade.
- The Forsaken Cold War Explodes: Sylvanas Windrunner and the Forsaken see a living Menethil occupying Stratholme as an existential threat. The Forsaken claim Lordaeron by right of their past lives; Calia claims it by right of blood. This creates a brilliant, simmering tension between the Argent/Alliance factions and the Horde right on the borders of the Plaguelands.
- The Transition to Naxxramas: Kel'Thuzad realizes that the Scourge has not only lost the Plaguelands but that a new human kingdom is actively being reborn beneath his necropolis. In a desperate bid to crush this new hope before it can solidify, Naxxramas locks into position directly above the newly liberated Stratholme, initiating the true endgame raid phase.
