WoW: Echoes from the past - Blizzard shows first drafts of Azeroth

14 April 2022

Have you ever wondered what the map of Azeroth originally looked like? That is, long before Blizzard was working on Warcraft 3 or even planning the alpha phase of WoW. A few days ago, Blizzard published on the official Twitter channel the drawings of Chris Metzen, the co-creator of the great Warcraft universe. The first image from the distant year 1999 shows the original version of the continents of Azeroth.

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The maps of Azeroth from the Warcraft strategy games were very vague and the developers changed them several times over time. That's why a new map was needed for WoW. On the first draft of the map we can see how small the world turned out to be in the beginning. Besides, Azeroth was just a name for the southern part of the eastern continent. So the developers only decided later that the name would better fit the game world itself.

Chris Metzen's sketch, however, only served as the basis for a much larger concept. Azeroth simply needed more space so that players could discover as many new things as possible. We should also not forget that in recent years many more new land masses have been discovered around the two major continents. This important point certainly played a very important role in the final version of the map of Azeroth.

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Another image shows one of the first concepts for the dwarves of WoW. The sketch was the basis for the dwarf hunter seen in the first trailer for World of Warcraft with his faithful bear. The developers significantly reduced Chris' first sketches because details like the snowshoes were difficult to represent in the game at the time. The dwarf guardian, on the other hand, the graphics team was able to implement quite easily.

But there's also the cool drawing of two pandas by Samwise Didier, WoW's senior art director. The fluffy pandas started as an April Fool's joke in 1999 and moulted into a playable race with Mists of Pandaria.

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Finally, Blizzard shows us a screenshot showing the interface from the pre-alpha phase of World of Warcraft. At the very beginning, the developers experimented with the game characters from Warcraft 3, but later they decided to use a new and unique graphic style.

How did you like this little journey back in time to the origins of World of Warcraft (buy now €14.99 )

? What do you think of the map and Chris Metzen's sketches? Should Sam's Pandaren have been in the game earlier? Write us your opinion in the comments.Support buffed - it only takes a minute. Thank you!

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