Gamespy has various videos of important places in Wrath of the Lich King that have not been shown before such as the Sholazar Basin and Zul’Drak. There are videos of Borean Tundra, Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord and a Vehicle Combat. You can watch the videos here.
Gamespy also opened a Wrath of the Lich King portal with various links to content such as interviews, previews, screenshots, etc.
Brief Description
FLYING COMBAT
The Vehicle Combat video is short but it let’s you grasp the idea of how certain quests in Northrend will be. The bombing quest in Ogri’la (Blade’s Edge Mountains) was just practice. This time around air combat is introduced in full swing by using your Wyvern (Horde) or Gyrocopter (Alliance) to shoot at flying enemies such as Gargoyles. You can jump down with a parachute if things go bad. Are we looking here at the future of PvP? Drools!
THE BOREAN TUNDRA
The Borean Tundra video is beautiful. The environment is so colorful, different and alien to anything we have seen before in World of Warcraft. On the sea you see orcas swimming around and not quietly friendly. We see a Tuskarr village briefly, an Alliance Fortress on an Isle by the coast with a lighthouse not far away. A farm with robotic scarecrows that resemble Westfall with more vivid colors and textures. The camera shifts to see the exterior of an orc fortress. The interior of the orc fortress has giant orc statue different to the one in Shattered Halls. Anyone would say the orcs are preparing for war … the interior looks like a forge with goblins roaming around, or working on machinery and robots. A tauren hammering on an anvil and various orc NPCs working. In the frozen wastelands we see blue dragons, blue dragonkin and blue drakonids … but wait, is that a human warlock running among the camp? Did the Scourge manage to bend the blue dragonflight to their will? The interior of what looks like a dungeon looks pretty with variants of blue shades on iced walls and runed grounds. Another scene shows living iced Treants and Ancient Tree Protectors among crystal-like trees with intense colors. This is definitely a dungeon. Probably the Nexus. You can see human warlocks with two felhunters patroling inside a cave tunnel among blue dragonkin, drakonids and drakes. There is another area in this video that looks like a mix of Shimmering Flats and Silithus with some extra features. Geysers (Hot Springs) everywhere and many water ponds with what looks like Gnomish buildings and excavation gear. The gear and pipes seem to be syphoning the water from these ponds. This place makes no sense. The only thing that comes to mind is a dried out portion of the sea. Or what was once frozen wastelands has been melted down. You can see coral-like formations near the geysers. The video ends showing a huge Undead Scourge city with abominations guarding the entrances, and warlocks casting on a Crypt Lord.
THE DRAGONBLIGHT
The Dragonblight video shows different locations that contrast among each other: green areas with vegetation, frozen wastelands, Undead Scourge inhabited locations with blight and toxic mists, and alien landscapes. First we see a Undead Scourge inhabited area: A building made of wood and bones sitting on the border of a waterfall. Warlocks casting redish spells into what looks like flying gargoyles. The ambient hues are suffocating with a dirty mist. The camera shifts to show for first time a Nerubian with a long crested head. The camera shifts to what looks like a Temple with ruins all across the landscape fallen into a deep crater. From the view you can see Cult of the Damned Human Warlocks casting purplish spells at the building. The landscape is a deep dark purple, with snow. The mist is purple too. The camera shifts again to show more temple scenery and far more Human Warlocks casting—but now we see an interesting creature … it looks exactly like Vexallus from the Halls of Theory of the Magister’s Terrace in the Sunwell Isle. There is another cave area that reminds me of Onyxia’s Lair, at least the entrance has that unique look with the fang-like gate opening—but no dragon is shown. Lot of lava stuff. Another scene shows a paradise-like ambient contrasting with the other icy-locations. This scene shows a giant dragon skeleton half-buried in the ground and ponds, with a huge greenish statue. If you have seen the Emerald Dream videos—that you shouldn’t have seen ya’know—this statue is the same seen in the Emerald Dream which is from Titans origin. Another scene shows a frozen cave with Frost Mountain giants. In an outdoors area, you see a human cathedral at the top of a cliff. Then a Undead Scourge village with a floating Necropolis, Frost Wyrms flying above, and some new Scourge construct-monsters.
GRIZZLY HILLS
Grizzly Hills look like a huge forest similar to what Silverpine Forest would have looked like. Giant and thick trees, dark redish brown ground. The Human settlements show logging activity. The port has many naval fleet boats—unlike the transport boats, these are the Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness typical Battleship, and one in particular looks like a South Seas boat with the red and black stripes on the sail. The camera shifts to another scene that is quietly interesting … and hard to describe. You have seen images before of a huge fallen tree, but you haven’t seen the trunk. There is a huge tree trunk, inside it is a big village of huts, and at the center of the trunk a small pond. The ambient looks eerie. Who lives in this village … umm … trunk? Hmm. On another Grizzly Hills scene we finally see the Dwarves fortress Thor Modan. These were Dwarves who came with Arthas to Northrend. They created their own fortress after Arthas abandoned his Alliance crew at the Howling Fjord and dedicated to seek more clues about their ancestry and the Titans. There is gonna be some juicy Explorer’s League quests I suppose. Thor Modan looks really neat and detailed with gray iron walls and columns. I will really want to level up my Draenei Paladin alt to explore this place.
SHOLAZAR BASIN
When the video started, I thought for a brief second I was back at my home: Puerto Rico. I was born in New York, but grew up there almost half my life. You are welcomed in the video to a verdant paradise with coconut trees and what resemble a plantain tree. Those are the smaller trees, dwarfed by taller trees. Rivers and waterfalls, a few hotsprings here and there. Explorer League tents in the jungle. And on another area, there is a full swing excavation site with yellow crystals, more tents and gear.
ZUL’DRAK
Zul’Drak is breath-taking. The capital city of the Drakkari Troll tribe: Gun’Drak, is immense. It is not as simple looking as Zul’Aman or Zul’Gurub. This is an advanced civilization. This is the Creme of the Troll cities. According to the World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery book, this city is ruled by Frost King Malakk (male Drakkari troll witch doctor). A sight that makes me ponder … in one of the terraces there is a flying serpent skeleton very alive and moving … could it be Hakkar the Soulflayer? There are many troll temples in different areas it seems. The video shows the same kind of buildings in different climates. One is on ice land, the other one on warmer land. One of these buildings at the beginning of the video seems to be Drak’Tharon Keep—there you may see abominations, a Lich and the buffed up Hulk-like Trolls. Drak’Tharon used to be a troll city, but the Undead Scourge took possession of the place. Where did I find the names of all these places and people? You are behind in lore … get the WoW RPG: Lands of Mystery. It was released on 2006.
