So nobody ever spotted the Broken isles before?

[Orby]

I think the Broken Isle have been common knowledge, they were even mentioned in warcraft 2.

From what we know though is that most of it was submerged, I can guess that it just wasnt a place worth visiting for those on Azeroth. So most like the Tauren and the Shal'dorei (or nightborne) there went undiscovered because of it.

I am sure there are a lot of islands out there around the maelstrom people are aware of but just don't travel there.

[Daedius]

haven't yet found a source suggesting it was.

Them damn Pandas polluting other areas with their Mists...!

[Deleted]

So, Pandaria I can forgive, because from the routes observed over the years, there have never been boat routes that have gone over the southern seas allowing anyone to see the location of the island, and given it was covered in mist, it would have made it hard to spot even with a telescope. Same with Shen-zin Su, that she moves around the southern oceans.

But the broken isles, this is where it just makes no sense.



Given the boat routes of stormwind, northrend and orgrimmar go along the area of sea the isle is located, and that the isle isn't covered in mist or any other magics, why then had all boats just not seen it before?

if you look at the map with those routes
it does make you wonder if there are no continents on the other side of the planet we havent explored yet

i remember reading in the chronicles stating kalimdor was the main continent at the time (before sundering) i'm not 100% sure obviously but if they dont state there was only 1 then there could be many more more hiding somewhere.

who knows more castaway elfs that desided to go west into the unknown instead of east like the blood elfs

[Aucald]

I think this is what you would probably call a soft retcon - only a portion of the Broken Isles was raised by Gul'dan (the portion with the Tomb of Sargeras on it), while the rest was already above the waves. Despite interludes in WC3 with Maiev being amazed to see portions of Suramar once more, the story has been altered to facilitate the content for Legion and expand its history.

[Amnaught]

That doesn't hold up, because we knew northrend existed since WC3, it just wasn't on the map yet, but we have reference to it existing when npcs brought up the frozen north and all that, so yes, we knew northrend was there.

The Broken Isles were in Warcraft. Gul'Dan went to the Tomb of Sargeras, they just conveniently never mentioned where that was.

- - - Updated - - -

if you look at the map with those routes
it does make you wonder if there are no continents on the other side of the planet we havent explored yet

It's been stated that all attempts to explore West of Kalimdor and East of the Eastern Kingdoms have failed. It's impossible to go to the other side of Azeroth for some reason or another. My bet's on the fact that there's a continent back there as old as pre-Sundering Kalimdor. Because we can always use new continents!

[ChampionChains]

The broken Isles were never hidden. Every xpac isn't us going to a new, hidden place. Pandaria was the only place that was an unknown location. All the rest are places we know about but have no reason to venture there until some threat decides to set up shop in that locale. We visited northrend and the broken isles in WCIII. The wardens maintain a prison on the broken isles and likely come and go as needed. Nowhere does it say these areas were unknown. Of course we knew about them. This is the location of the tomb of sargeras which played a role in the second war and if I'm remembering correctly, we visited it in WCIII as well. Blizzard leaves them off the world map until we have a reason to venture there because it'd be dumb to put unexplorable landmasses into a live map which doesn't contain those landmasses.

[Aquinan]

They knew about it in Warcraft 3 xpack, so people probably did know about it, but it wasnt important till now.

[omeomorfismo]

when you are in the sea you can see in a radius of ~20 Km, so after a route is established is pretty difficult to discover newer lands.
even considering to want to see highmountain peak (conjecturing 8000 Km of altitude) you need a distance of less than ~340 Km and a super perfect crystalline atmosphere.
is perfectly normal and logical that without knowing the route for these isles you cant notice them..

[Al Gorefiend]

Broken Isles were there, always have been.

How many people are bewildered to see us in Broken Isles? None of them. They know what we are and where we come from because we've been in trade and and conversation with the denizens of Broken Isle forever. We, the heroes, have never been there in our journey until now.

Look how the Pandas reacted to seeing us. They were like "whoa what are you, where you come from??" And the Highmountain Tribe is all like "sup outsiders, long time no see".

[Al Gorefiend]

I kinda want to know why the Broken Isles are like a fraction of the size of Northrend, yet the surface area in-game feels comparable.

No space left unused. Kalimdor is ~30% unused space

[Dellis0991]

They knew the isles were there, they just didn't have a reason to go there. Same for Northrend, we didn't have a reason to go there it the lich king became a issue. Just like Kul Tiras and the southern isles we know they are there we just don't have any business or situation thats dire enough to visit those places.

The only thing that sunk was the tomb of Sargy, the rest has always been there....I can't remember but the blues have already mrention this before.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

We went to the tomb, but theres never been a mention of the island close to it, infact, heres the twist, in the novel where gul'dan takes a boat and several horde troops, and sails into the ocean, there is no mention of there being an island there,

How would that go though?
"We arrived at the Tomb of Sargeras. With powerful fel magic, I raised the tomb from the sea floor. Taking my troops, we headed inside to see what awaited us. Also, off in the distance there was another isle. We didn't go there."
Or in WC3 when we adventure there. "Quickly, into the tomb! Also mention the island over there! We're not going to it, and it has nothing to do with our mission, just pointing it out!"

[Dellis0991]

Broken Isles were there, always have been.

How many people are bewildered to see us in Broken Isles? None of them. They know what we are and where we come from because we've been in trade and and conversation with the denizens of Broken Isle forever. We, the heroes, have never been there in our journey until now.

Look how the Pandas reacted to seeing us. They were like "whoa what are you, where you come from??" And the Highmountain Tribe is all like "sup outsiders, long time no see".

^yup
10/characters is a pain in the ass.

[Lightwysh]

When you're level 60-90 and your sailing past an island with creatures 10+level higher than you, you don't stop the fucking boat.

[Dellis0991]

When you're level 60-90 and your sailing past an island with creatures 10+level higher than you, you don't stop the fucking boat.

Hero: Did that murloc just....did he just run his finger across his throat
Shipmate: Shhh...don't get any ideas....he will fuck you up.
Hero: What stop this ship! I'll show that little bastard who's top dog.
Shipmate: *points out the lvl 109 above the murloc*
Hero:......Captain speed up! lets get fuck outta here!!

[The5thVegetable]

It's not that nobody ever spotted it, just that nobody ever really gave a shit.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

I think the Broken Isle have been common knowledge, they were even mentioned in warcraft 2.

From what we know though is that most of it was submerged, I can guess that it just wasnt a place worth visiting for those on Azeroth. So most like the Tauren and the Shal'dorei (or nightborne) there went undiscovered because of it.

I am sure there are a lot of islands out there around the maelstrom people are aware of but just don't travel there.

They weren't discovered because they were made up for legion, they literally did not exist before legion. As far as we knew the broken isles were underwater and they were raised by our Gul'dan, but that was retconned. In other words, most of the legion lore was made up.

[LazarusLong]

I think this is what you would probably call a soft retcon - only a portion of the Broken Isles was raised by Gul'dan (the portion with the Tomb of Sargeras on it), while the rest was already above the waves. Despite interludes in WC3 with Maiev being amazed to see portions of Suramar once more, the story has been altered to facilitate the content for Legion and expand its history.

Suramar was shieleded though. In some sort of dimensional pocket - they had no idea the rest of the world still existed.

[Rend Blackhand]

First of all, I don't think the in game map should be taken as a perfect representation of the continent's sizes or distance between them.

Also, the Broken Isles were always there but nobody knew. They don't have google maps or sat ac on Azeroth, the night elves in Kalimdor thought that the rest of the world was destroyed and there was nothing left, Maiev only found them because she followed Illidan there. Illidan only knew they were there because he was told by Kil'Jaeden to go there.

Gul'Dan also saw the tomb of Sargeras and the broken isles in a vision. The small broken shore island itself was one he raised from the sea

[Orby]

They weren't discovered because they were made up for legion, they literally did not exist before legion. As far as we knew the broken isles were underwater and they were raised by our Gul'dan, but that was retconned. In other words, most of the legion lore was made up.

of course it was made up, I am just speculating lore-wise why they went undiscovered. "most of legion was made up" is a very weak lore answer.