Zephras Isle, Riverglades, and Mount Hyjal headline launch
BlueCommunityThree new or expanded regions lead the map: a Skyborne starting island, an Eastern Kingdoms frontier, and a recovering Hyjal.
This recap mixes Blue official Blizzard copy with Community demo notes and creator videos. Creator-cited lines sit in a warmer gold so community statements read apart from the recap. Sources at the bottom are split the same way.
The official Forever site leads with three zones. Zephras Isle is a floating starting experience for the Skyborne, levels 1–12, with architecture inspired by Skywall. Access to the race and this starting storyline requires the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition.
Riverglades is a sprawling Eastern Kingdoms landscape that shifts from lush hillsides to ruined keeps. Blizzard’s What’s Next panel placed more than 150 quests here in the mid-30s to mid-40s, with humans, orcs, and ogres on the frontier, a neutral goblin port with extra travel routes, and an ogre fortress dungeon meant as an alternative to repeating Scarlet Monastery. The story is living there, not saving Azeroth.
Mount Hyjal is being expanded into an endgame leveling zone after Archimonde’s defeat, with solo and group content, reputations, quests, and rewards. Threats old and new stalk the slopes. Hyjal Summit (20-player) sits here, and one of three Barrow Deeps raid entrances is also tied to the mountain.
Shen’dralas fills the gap between Mulgore and Desolace, tying the Shen’dralar, Dire Maul, and centaur tribes into a return visit for Maraudon and the Razorfen hills.
WillE’s panel recap places Riverglades against the Burning Steppes, Swamp of Sorrows, and Redridge, and calls it “a pretty enormous zone.” He states Hyjal is framed so that players go through Darkwhisper Gorge, and asks whether the elites on that road will be retuned. WillE, 2:11 WillE, 1:54
Slesh’s solo demo on Zephras names the starting city Valinar. He reached a Darnassus-style boat toward the mainland and hit an invisible wall. A dark forest on the island is called out for the updated lighting pass. Slesh, 3:19
MetaGoblin’s trailer breakdown shows a moving boat at the Southshore lighthouse, an aerial route toward Skyborne land with Dalaran in the distance, multiple transport lines leaving Zephras, and a Skyborne route visible from Mulgore. Those stills are trailer footage, not a published travel map. MetaGoblin, 0:20 MetaGoblin, 2:48 MetaGoblin, 5:44