World of Warcraft takes place in Azeroth, a fictional world full of humans, elves, dwarves, and more. However, Azeroth is much older than the MMORPG itself. A fan has now rediscovered an ancient map and thrilled the community with it.
When is the first map from?
- While cleaning up, a user on Reddit found and posted the old Azeroth map from the manual of the strategy game “Warcraft: Orcs & Humans”.
- Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is the first part of the strategy game series and was released in 1994. WoW had its official release back in 2004. However, the map only shows the area around Elwynn, the starting zone for humans.
- By the way, the entire lore of World of Warcraft is based on the strategy games (and books), sometimes with minor deviations or changes (“retcons”). Much of it, however, is faithful to the original.
Everything is different today: Fans are amazed in the comments about how accurate the map of Azeroth was back then. This is due to the fact that the recently returned lore chief Chris Metzen has always put a lot of love into the world.
Nevertheless, there are a few differences between the Azeroth of back then and the one of today. Of course, the whole world is much bigger than the area shown, but even around Stormwind, some things are different today:
- Stonewind is now called Stormwind, is a bit further north, and is much larger in proportion – just like the forest of Elwynn itself, which now occupies the entire area.
- Westfall, recognizable by Moonbrook and the Deadmines, is now further west.
- The Duskwood is still a part of the forest of Elwynn in the old map, which is marked much smaller. The area can be recognized by the place “Grand Hamlet” (roughly: Big Hamlet, now Darkshire) and
- the Redridge Mountains are now located south of Blackrock and are significantly larger.
- The Black Marsh and the Swamps of Sorrows are further south, and the position of the Stoneard camp is different.
- Medivh’s Tower is now in its own area “Deadwind Pass”, which is completely missing from the old map.
Still, anyone who has played WoW and knows the areas can roughly find their way there. One user summarizes the impression as: “It looks so wrong and so accurate at the same time.”
Want more nostalgia? Here is the original cinematic trailer from the release of World of Warcraft:
Ulduar was supposed to be a continent? I need this!
In the comments, fans discuss what changes WoW has undergone during its development. It concerns issues like “The Lord of the Rings” as a model for some locations and discarded ideas.
The user TheWorclown writes that Ulduar was once supposed to be a whole continent. Later, in Wrath of the Lich King, it became merely a raid in a part of Northrend, so a fraction of the original plan.
Another fan would have liked to see Ulduar as a whole continent, but another one comments: Azjol-Nerub was once supposed to be an entire continent under Northrend. Wrath cut so much content, it’s unimaginable.
Others note that the original templates were indeed reused. In the Warcraft movie from 2016, which even excites non-players, for example, the distance between Goldshire and Stormwind is significantly larger. The journey is estimated at several days, while today it is a short ride.
Recently, WoW fans have often been reminiscing and digging up artifacts from the past. For example, one player rediscovered their original (and now outrageously expensive) Collector’s Edition of Vanilla and only discovered almost 20 years later that the installation CDs of World of Warcraft conceal a secret.
