What exactly is portraited in this unused map?

[Deleted]

What do you think. Outland? Draenor? Maybe Argus?
And how exactly would this piece together with the story of the Expansion?
Discuss.

[Aucald]

My first thought was Argus, but much of the map seems to echo Outland (1:02 was very evocative of the Throne of Kil'jaeden subzone). Could be some kind of future version of Outland, but I think this is more likely a sample of proposed Argus zone ambiance like the old "Deadmines Secret" was a proto-version of Outland.

[mingarrubia]

It looks like a scrapped scenario for an artifact questline (which maybe would have taken place in Argus?)

It's an interesting finding but I wouldn't read too much into it tbh

[derpkitteh]

at first i thought argus, but now i don't. the eredar are the privileged ruling elite of the legion. their planet would probably be like the dreadlord's planet was, entirely intact just dark and foreboding.

i'm scared that it's meant to be alternate draenor, that the legion came and fucked it inside out after we left. i hope that's not the case, cause i love draenor, it just had the misfortune of being part of a shitty expansion.

[Selastan]

Very early concept of Broken Shore IMO. With the draenei ruins and Auchindoun placeholders for elven ruins and the Tomb of Sargeras, respectively.

[Deleted]

It looks like a scrapped scenario for an artifact questline (which maybe would have taken place in Argus?)

That actually sounds very plausible. Maybe for some Demon Hunter Artifact, or maybe some Warlock artifact.(Havoc artifact especially, since that one takes place in Suramar and is visually very boring, considering it's the new flashy class)
And we even know that devs ran out of time and just put some artefacts in the same zone (like balance, unholy and affli are all in Kara).


And Yeah, it might have been a Broken Shore alternative, but it looks a little bit too much complete for the building to be placeholders. Just take a look at some Alpha maps to get a real idea of what a placeholder map looks like.

[Deleted]

I really hope we get to visit an area like this, post apocalyptic and shattered, like Outland's Hellfire Peninsula or Netherstorm were.
A vast, not over-crowded area that gives the feeling of death and destruction left behind by the Legion, and us finding shelter in some ruins along with some sad zombie-apocalypse music.

Or at least that's the feeling this area gives me, and it would be an amazing addition to the ever bright -yet brilliant- Broken Isles.

[KrazyK923]

It looks just like Elodor from Shadowmoon Valley in WoD. The first part, at least.

Maybe somehow Socrethar already returned and it was part of an artifact quest line?

Maybe one of them had us to go the alternate Draenor for something and they decided to just eliminate anything to do with WoD.

[Metallo]

There was news about the blizzard projects and there was mentioned to the blizzard is working very very ahead,maybe that shouldn't be a early stage/testing about the content/scenario(named when they started,) between legion and the next(which is highly possible is argus) where we visit argus when the draene's escapeing from there with their airship and we have to assist them and maybe showing it as a memory and ending with a line: now we return... etc and this way they connect it to our timeline?

[mistahwilshire]

Hayvens channel is great.

While it's fun to speculate, every expansion comes with a few of these (you can find a bunch more right there on that channel). It sucks that we'll never know.

[Frontenac]

That place has a Nagrand feel to it. Especially the trees.

[WolfRider]

Maybe one of the worlds where Draeneis escaped when they fled Argus and ended destroyed by Kil'Jaeden.

[Nalorakk]

Presumably Argus, if it is relevant. Maybe it's a planned area for 7.X dungeons, sort of like the ICC/End Time dungeons.

If it's not Argus, perhaps it may be an 'outpost' planet of sorts for the Army of the Light.

I feel like if it was Draenor or Outland, there would be a big emphasis on familiar landmarks being messed up / corrupted.

[Deleted]

It looks just like Elodor from Shadowmoon Valley in WoD. The first part, at least.

Maybe somehow Socrethar already returned and it was part of an artifact quest line?

Maybe one of them had us to go the alternate Draenor for something and they decided to just eliminate anything to do with WoD.

Just imagine how ironic it would be.
Everything we fought for in WoD, to save the Draenor from the same fate that met Outland. And In the end, it would be destroyed again, just for the Artifact quest chain


Also, when something like this appears in the game files, in 90% it is not ever featured in the final game. Examples might be the WoD Arenas, 3 arenas were created for WoD and not a single one was implemented, even they have fully functional maps in the game files.
So the theory of them working on a 7.X dungeons is not exactly right. If this was the case, we would see Karazhan or the Trial of Valor raid in these game files a long time ago.


Another theory of mine is that one team of developers got really zealous a created this "Argus" dungeon, just to later hear from their superiors that there will be a whole Argus expansion/patch.
We know that during the creation of Legion, Wow had a lot more people working on it and the devs had a more creative freedom.


Also, I read in the Youtube comments theories about it being a Caverns of Time dungeon, and I would love that... especially since they didn't add anything to Caverns since Cataclysm.

[shoc]

If I had to guess, it's an instance of Tanaan Jungle that has been utterly destroyed by the Legion, at least that's what Auchindoun as a backdrop object implies to me.

Not sure what kind of context it would make sense in though, maybe a vision of a destroyed Draenor?

Here's a scenario that I just made up that could make some sense, as absurd as it might sound:

We go back to Draenor to check in on Yrel and Grom: We zone in to Draenor and.... it's completely destroyed. The Legion swept in and blew the whole planet up while we weren't looking. We have to fight through some demons to rescue some survivors or something.

[Selastan]

If I had to guess, it's an instance of Tanaan Jungle that has been utterly destroyed by the Legion, at least that's what Auchindoun as a backdrop object implies to me.

Not sure what kind of context it would make sense in though, maybe a vision of a destroyed Draenor?

Here's a scenario that I just made up that could make some sense, as absurd as it might sound:

We go back to Draenor to check in on Yrel and Grom: We zone in to Draenor and.... it's completely destroyed. The Legion swept in and blew the whole planet up while we weren't looking. We have to fight through some demons to rescue some survivors or something.

Legion final boss is Grom! He was told we were the reason the Legion came to his land, and in return is willing to fight for them in order to get his revenge on us for starting it all! He fights alongside Jaina the Warlock (Felmoore?) and Wrathion.

[Bling]

Think this could have been a Farahlon dungeon before they scrapped an entire WoD content patch. I always believed that they were going to introduce the Legion there, but due to all the negative reviews of WoD they skipped it to get to Legion faster.

[Koryn123]

If I had to guess, it's an instance of Tanaan Jungle that has been utterly destroyed by the Legion, at least that's what Auchindoun as a backdrop object implies to me.

This is my favored explanation as well. Draenor is shattered, Auchindoun's chunk is relatively less damaged due to like Naaru or something protecting it from the fel corruption, and Auchindoun remains intact, and Yrel and the Draenei are hiding there, perhaps with the Iron Horde if they feel friendly enough with them yet.