The moment it is set in
Forever takes place in the first year of World of Warcraft — the year of the original 2004 release — after the events of the Forsaken Kingdom campaign in Warcraft III: Reforged and before the opening of Molten Core. That places it after the founding of the Forsaken under Sylvanas and before the Firelord's raid, in the stretch where vanilla's own story was thinnest. Blizzard's framing is that Forever starts where the 2004 game did and then tells stories the modern game never explored, so what happens here does not need to line up with twenty years of later expansions, which is exactly what lets it put a Paladin in the Undercity.
What the new places mean
Mount Hyjal
Where Warcraft III ended: the World Tree, Archimonde's defeat, the sacrifice of the night elves' immortality. Vanilla locked the gate. Forever opens it and puts a 20-player raid on the summit.
Shen'dralas
A long-hidden place between Mulgore and Desolace, which Blizzard ties to the Shen'dralar, Eldre'Thalas, Dire Maul and the centaur tribes of the region. The Shen'dralar were the Highborne who stayed in Eldre'Thalas, the city vanilla showed you as Dire Maul; our reading is that a zone with their name is about what they have been doing since.
Dalaran in Alterac
In 2004 the ruined mage city sat under a violet dome in the Alterac Mountains, unenterable. In Forever the barrier that hid its restoration has fallen, and the city is a dungeon at level 28 to 33.
Alcaz Island
The island off Dustwallow that vanilla players swam to for years, convinced something was there. Now it holds a prison, and a dungeon.
The Skyborne
Blizzard's Meet the New Skyborne post of 22 September 2026: thousands of years ago a group of Highborne exiles made a pact with elemental wind spirits and built a civilization within Skywall, one of the elemental planes. The Horde's Windshaper Skyborne descend from the first shen'dorei high elves given the wind spirits' gift of elemental skysight; the Alliance's High Order from the ancient Highborne scholars of Eldre'Thalas. On Zephras Isle, where every Skyborne begins, the air spirits that protected the island have vanished and the Skyborne are divided over what comes next — the Windshapers want the spirits restored, the High Order want the arcane self-reliance they lost. Which faction yours joins is chosen at character creation. Who leads them, Blizzard has not said.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 15 September 2026 against the Warcraft Wiki and Blizzard Watch's BlizzCon coverage, and re-checked on 22 September 2026 against Blizzard's Meet the New Skyborne post, and on 22 October 2026 against Blizzard's Explore the New Dungeons post and its BlizzCon panel recaps, Icy Veins' WoW Forever overview, Blizzard Watch's article on how Forever fits the lore and the Warcraft Wiki's Ruins of Dalaran page. Where Shen'dralas lies is as Blizzard's panel recap and Icy Veins give it. The Warcraft III background is the series' own; the readings of what each new zone implies are ours, marked as such. What is still unverified has to be confirmed in-game. Still to confirm in-game.