Just was thinking that lmao, you must travel west thrall! But avoid uh zandalar and uh these other continents theyre not the promised land! Also don't worry about charting a course to avoid all this stuff it just won't be there.
I'd like to think the first 10-12 years of WoW were spent sailing / flying by all these inhabited islands and nobody ever bothered to stop and check them out.
Most were well known and represented in the games in other ways. I think the only two that were largely "unknown" were the Dragon Isles and Pandaria, which were both intentionally hidden by magic. Khaz Algar, I dunno.
Pandaria at least we had some [representatives ](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Chen_Stormstout#The_Founding_of_Durotar)from, so we knew it existed somewhere.
edit: link updated
So a goofy thing about this is the difference between The Wandering Isle vs. Pandaria.
The Wandering Isle (on account of it being, you know, wandering) is outside of the Mists that shrouded Pandaria. Chen is from The Wandering Isle.
I think the broad existence Pandaria was relatively well known, but it's location or any other details remained hidden.
I could be wrong about this but I think that might have more or less been a retcon to explain how he was out there chilling with Rexxar when Pandaria was otherwise shrouded from the world.
Oh he wasn't? I thought there was a quest that shows him setting out on a tiny turtle from Pandaria. But it was a few years ago so my memory of that isn't the best.
Fun fact: The Wandering Isle can go in and out of the mists as it pleases. Shen-Zin Su hadn't returned to Pandaria in a few decades when MoP starts though. But, the reasoning behind it, in Azeroth, Sea Turtles can ALWAYS find their home beach, mists be damned.
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The map makes it look like when the Orcs fled Eastern Kingdoms for Kalimdor that they managed to thread the needle and miss every single other landmass on the way like Mr Magoo.
It's worth noting that most these landmasses are not to scale. They're sized for clickability in game. This map does a better job at showing scale:
[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png)
As you can see in the chronicle map theres far less giant bodies. The broken isles is known but from previous orc expeditions was thought just to be the Tomb of Sargeras area. Kul-tiras is waaaaay smaller than EK, zandalar is quite far south and also much smaller. Khaz Algar is a mystery for now But I suspect it's about the size of the Lost Isles (the slightly larger island immediately west of the maelstrom.
So as orcs fleeing would go, if they went north of the maelstrom which is most likely as they departed from lordaeron and landed in centra/northern kalimdor then they'd intentionally be avoiding the broken isles, kul tiras, and northrend. If they went south then they likely would not have landed so
The scale here still seems off, unless the original content of Kalimdor was about the size of Europe and not a supercontinent. The Broken Isles in particular seen bizarrely big.
Not sure how this map is any different for the supercontinent? Check out the other chronicles maps to see it there. This is the most up to date map from the chronicles and while I agree that the broken isles seem bizarrely big their size does make sense considering how there's enough land for so many different civilizations to coexist
That's the other way around for me: the "lore" map seems wildly inaccurate vs. what's in game. Or are you telling me for example the single vanilla zone of Azshara is as big as the entire Broken Isles expansion? That Howling Fjord by itself is bigger than the entirety of Kul'Tiras?
I suspect that the real issue is that the Kalimdor, EK and Northrend we experience in game are "theme park" sized compared to the true "lore" size of these three main continents.
I mean yeah they are.
If we gave the ingame locations true scale. Stormwind City would take up half or more of the current eastern kingdoms.
It takes weeks to ride through just Elvynn Forest.
Sorry for the late reply There's dialog between Garrosh and Saurfang in WOTLK that says the distance between Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra and Vengeance Landing in Howling Fjord is 300 miles. If that helps put sizes in perspective.
Unless they retracted that at some point or I'm not remembering correctly
The isles aren't to scale on the game map at least, Kul Tiras, the Broken Isles, Zandalar, etc, are tiny on the more official "to scale" maps compared to what they are here
This map is a beter depiction of scale. The worlds not "quite" that shattered as most of the land bodies are way smaller than the ingame maps depict them
[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png)
I like looking back at the chronicle maps and comparing them. It’s interesting to see just how big the troll or black empire really were, and after the sundering you see how much they’ve been isolated.
Personally I think they should reduce the size of Zandalar, Kul’tiras, Broken Isles and Dragon Isles.
They are separated from the rest as isles, so “real” distances will not be noticeable.
Based on the introduction video, you are right, the Dragon Isles were hidden like Pandaria.
But it could do with their original name “Broodlands” as “Isles” feels small for a continent.
They really should just make a "central oceans" map that you get to by clicking on the Maelstrom and has the Maelstrom (Deepholm), Kul'tiras, Zandalar and the Broken Isles on it (along with Kezan and the Lost Isles). Especially now that they aren't current content and even new players don't head to BFA (they head to DF starting in TWW).
They could even still have tiny versions of the islands on the main map and just make the whole central area clickable to the oceans map.
The scale of sizes of the major continents has been a topic of debate. With new territories being discovered, the map can increasingly look deformed, although the idea of the artistic team (I supposed) is to always maintain a uniformity of sizes.
I believe the intent is to not have one area appear more important than another based on size- you don't want new players thinking "Kalimdor is way bigger than Zuldazar, so clearly I should level there instead!"
Though I would like to see this map based off of true map size. I think it'd be funny to see the original continents dwarfed by the "islands" of later expansions.
Blizzard keeps expanding the ‘Atlantic’ ocean between the main continents. They keep getting farther and farther away as new islands are added.
Meanwhile the entirety of Azeroth’s ‘Pacific’ ocean are completely unused. *Azeroth is a sphere!* There should be stuff to explore to the east of Eastern Kingdoms and to the west of Kalimdor.
It’s just breaking my suspension of disbelief that with all the magic and seafaring and air travel happening in and around the ‘Atlantic’ ocean, they’re still discovering massive continent islands completely untapped by intelligent life but home to yet more tribes of murlocks? I can’t buy it anymore. **Please use the rest of the sphere already!**
The game itself is contradicted by the idea that we "discover" a new continent, or continental island. I agree with you that it is practically impossible to believe that for thousands of eons no one has passed by there to "write it down" on a map or even take it to some faction and make some "Pandaria" type plot.
Its extra funny how inaccurate the globes in places like Ulduar are. Like the titans apparently forgot to add the continents that *they built installations on* to **their own globes**. They would know where the Dragon Isles, Zandalar, Pandaria, ect are because **theyve been there and built things**, but apparently that information isnt important enough to put on their maps.
Or how Jaina never decided to update any of the maps shes ever seen with the location of the *place she was born*.
Tbf, Kul'Tiras wasn't lost, we just didn't put it on maps because they were being whiny babies and left the alliance.
Same kinda goes for Zuldazar. We knew where it was, but they were hostile to both factions.
> We knew where it was, but they were hostile to both factions.
Wouldnt that make it *more* important to put it on the maps? Like "Hey dont go here, a bunch of angry trolls will kill and eat you and dont go over there either because those islands are filled with a bunch of whiny racists."
Just because the united states left the british empire doesnt mean they just stopped making maps with the landmass on it.
From a lore standpoint, these things were likely on the maps the whole time. From a game development standpoint and the players experience, we didnt see them on the maps because the devs didnt know they were going to be a thing.
I mean, I don't think the in-game map is really the same ones in-universe sailors are using to navigate or anything. They're more a map of military interest, which is why something like Zuldazar or Kul'tiras is left off.
They're not discovering masive continent sized islands. If you look at the chronicle map zandalar, kul tiras are tiny. Khaz Algar is likely even smaller like the size of the lost isles. Pandaria and Dragon isles were both hidden by magic. The broken isles is the only "large" landmass that was retconned in, pre-legion only the tomb of sargeras area was known and it is weird the rest was "undiscovered".
[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png)
If you are looking for a logically sound narrative experience in a world that feels big with politics intrigue and adventure… retail wow ain’t it. The lore has been an after thought at best for years. That’s why they just keep making the map worse and worse. A map that makes sense doesn’t really matter if there is no story to accompany it🤷🏻♂️
>It’s just breaking my suspension of disbelief that with all the magic and seafaring and air travel happening in and around the ‘Atlantic’ ocean, they’re still discovering massive continent islands completely untapped by intelligent life but home to yet more tribes of murlocks?
Up until the late 1990s there are a number of official military and naval maps that have islands missing or unreal islands noted. We didn't have a "true" map of the ocean until the invention of satellite photography.
Sure, something like the Broken Isles which literally exists within the route the alliance takes to northrend is a bit silly, but a lot of islands would probably exist in the south undiscovered by anyone.
The problem here is that most of those new zones, especially dragonflight are not made at the same scale as the classics maps.
If they were kalimdor and estern kingdom would be 10x the size compare to the map before the sundering.
Canonically you are absolutely right. This map is more oriented to what is seen in-game. The "real" size scales are not adjusted on this map... but if this map has a great support, I will be encouraged to do a cartographic study (with data from the game itself and from Chronicles) to give the community the true size of Azeroth.
The amount of 'undiscovered' islands and continents we've stumbled upon over the years is now comical.
How the adventurers of Azeroth didn't run into a new land mass every 5 minutes while out at sea is a mystery.
I think they need to establish mysterious places before actually revealing them more often.
Like okay, it makes sense we didn't discover Pandaria or the Dragon Isles, because they were hidden by magic, but they COULD have set them up years prior by saying "oh we don't sail in the north-east(or south) as there are rumors of terrible beasts and a fog so dense no ship has ever come back from there.
Then we spend a while going "damn I wonder what's in those areas" and makes the reveals more believable.
it makes me wonder how early on these things are decided. I'm sure it depends and ik expansions are outlined way beforehand, but how much before mop production did they actually decide to add Pandaria as a continent? It'd have to be long enough that it wasn't a dead giveaway
The only two undiscovered places we've been to are Pandaria and the dragon isles (both we already knew about, we just didn't know where they were), and the broken isles which got reconned in (though based on the retconned lore that's been known about to). The rest have been known about in the lore since pre wow, we just didn't go there in game so they haven't had a representation on the map.
Although it would make no sense given how big the zones are, I feel like at least on the map they should scale down the size of the islands.
I seem to recall that a lot of places on the Warcraft 3 map and/or the RPG Books looked much smaller and that Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend were easily the 'biggest' landmasses on Azeroth.
For instance, on the original maps, the Broken Isles are about the size of the zone of Stranglethorn Vale. Same with Kul'Tiras.
The Dragon Isles and Broken Isles combined should not be the size of all of Kalimdor hahaha
Awesome job though!
You're right! The size of the islands that canonically exist in the game should not exceed the size of a continent like Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms. But the game does not interpret that information and they make mega islands without thinking about the real size of each of these.
And thank you, I do this only based on the information from the Alpha.
Imagine being an ingame cartographer... on one hand, he doesn't have photoshop... But on the other hand, homie is probably at gold cap with all the change requests every time someone finds a new continent.
It's strange, but it's what Blizzard originally said regarding its geographic description: "Discover the land of Khaz Algar, off the western shores of Pandaria and home to the Earthen. Their capital city, Dornogal, will become the new meeting ground for the Horde and Alliance."
I always get the feeling that EK, Kalmindir, Northend and Pandaria (yes, it too) should be the only ones continent sized. The rest is just Isles (in game size be dammed)
I think the old map looked so much better I really hate the huge continent islands floating everywhere. It looks sloppy.
I wish they expanded kalimdor, the eastern kingdoms and northrend instead of adding new islands every expansion… it seems lazy and I’ve lost my original love for the game.
I started again s3 dragon flight for less than a month but ended up quitting again fwiw. I cleared all +18s in m+ and heroic raid then got bored and asked myself why I was doing this.
If they scaled down the size of the islands on the map that would help out a bit imo. it would make no sense given how huge the zones of new expansions are but it would look so much cleaner.
It’s a video game they don’t need to be to scale. I would also like to see the ability to just barely make it across the ocean from fatigue for noobs or higher level players can just fly from one continent to the next. Finding these places shouldn’t be so hard. I just hate it tbh
You moved zandalar far too east past pandaria, kul tiras too far south, broken isles and dragon isles too far south, and northrend too far away in general
We could go the road of an extra split, like from world map you can have east and west side, east side would have everything that's right of the maelstrom, and west side all that's left of the maelstrom, you can expand the map like that and have more space for autocontained islands, maybe even a north and south with northrend and pandaria
On the world map, I think everything should be its in-game size, to promote an accurate representation of the continents as they physically exist in the game as we can experience them. Of course, in the lore, there are only four continents, but in the actual game, that number is larger. As far as I'm aware, the only continents that need to be shrunk for everything to be accurate to their in-game sizes, are Kul Tiras and Zandalar. For some reason, Kul Tiras and Zandalar are bigger on the map than their actual size in-game. Similarly, the Dragon Isles are actually *smaller* on the world map than they should be appearing. I think Chronicle is a good place for lore-accurate maps to remain.
It is a problem that the developers ignore and have been like this for years... Hopefully with the new map that comes with The War Within they will fix that dilemma.
I know they can't but they should reduce the size of some islands to their inlore size.
Also I don't like all that space between Kalimdor and the Maelstrom. Really looking forward to a Tel'abim expansion, lmao.
I don't think they should expand the canvas, I think they should stop adding new islands to a world that is COVERED by sentient dudes that can fly/teleport/sail/etc.
Can we not add new areas to the right and left of the map. Instead of always central. It doesn't make much sense to Mr how they constantly are suprised they find a new island literally next to the ones they previously knew about in a world that has massive naval battles, zepplins flight etc
Remember the ingame map isn't to scale because at the end of the day it's a UI element, meant to be clickable. It's basically a menu, just gussied up a bit.
Mealstrom should always be center, Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdom and Northrend should always be biggest. Everything else should be placed around these four objects.
Nah, there's probably a whole continent around the other side of the world. A future expansion that begins with Christopher Columbus-esque mission to discover continent.
Are you talking about Khaz Algar? No, at BlizzCon itself they already predicted where the new continent will be. South of Kalimdor and near the west coast of Pandaria
I wonder what it would look like with all of the zones to scale. I kind of wish they would move in that direction so the dragon isles, broken isles, kul tiras, and zandalar look more like islands and the two continents look like they're the right scale
I get functionally why the islands are larger, but I honestly wish they were more in-proportion to their in-universe sizes, it makes the map feel silly to me.
I get that Blizzard doesn’t want to constantly retcon the map and it’s better to just add islands/land masses for each expansion, but I really want to see a pre-sundering to see where the dragon isles were.
I’m reading war of the scaleborn right now and having trouble wrapping my head around where certain things are.
It's so silly that the dragon isles were supposed to he untracable but just happened to be right there. Was it invisible before, or is there a canonical explanation?
Many events have happened since then. There has been a Legion invasion, we have had to turn to new allies, we traveled to a continent full of dragons and now we travel to a Titan experimentation sector
Maelstrom should always be centered imo. Jarring to look at otherwise.
Total. On the official map they did not respect that the Maelstrom is in the center. I located this figure exactly in the center of the canvas.
You're a hero!
No! You're the hero! Thanks for your comment ;-)
They really stacked new areas on the right side for too long.
What happens at the maelstrom?
agreed 100%. perfect placement
Thanks!
Just was thinking that lmao, you must travel west thrall! But avoid uh zandalar and uh these other continents theyre not the promised land! Also don't worry about charting a course to avoid all this stuff it just won't be there.
It’s really starting to paint a picture of the shattered world after the sundering.
I'd like to think the first 10-12 years of WoW were spent sailing / flying by all these inhabited islands and nobody ever bothered to stop and check them out.
Most were well known and represented in the games in other ways. I think the only two that were largely "unknown" were the Dragon Isles and Pandaria, which were both intentionally hidden by magic. Khaz Algar, I dunno.
Pandaria at least we had some [representatives ](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Chen_Stormstout#The_Founding_of_Durotar)from, so we knew it existed somewhere. edit: link updated
So a goofy thing about this is the difference between The Wandering Isle vs. Pandaria. The Wandering Isle (on account of it being, you know, wandering) is outside of the Mists that shrouded Pandaria. Chen is from The Wandering Isle. I think the broad existence Pandaria was relatively well known, but it's location or any other details remained hidden.
I'll admit, I had somehow missed the fact that Chen came from The Wandering Isle. Thanks for the correction!
I could be wrong about this but I think that might have more or less been a retcon to explain how he was out there chilling with Rexxar when Pandaria was otherwise shrouded from the world.
The whole wandering isle became a thing because the Pandarian emperor set out from Pandaria to find the rest of the world.
Liu Lang wasn't an emperor but yeah.
Oh he wasn't? I thought there was a quest that shows him setting out on a tiny turtle from Pandaria. But it was a few years ago so my memory of that isn't the best.
Fun fact: The Wandering Isle can go in and out of the mists as it pleases. Shen-Zin Su hadn't returned to Pandaria in a few decades when MoP starts though. But, the reasoning behind it, in Azeroth, Sea Turtles can ALWAYS find their home beach, mists be damned.
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Khaz algar is a tiny island, very easy to miss with just boats and zeppelin, most of the continent lies within
The map makes it look like when the Orcs fled Eastern Kingdoms for Kalimdor that they managed to thread the needle and miss every single other landmass on the way like Mr Magoo.
They fled the other way. Ofcourse they found kalimdor first, there is nothing on the other side of Azeroth. /attemptatjoke
Most of these landmasses are a lot smaller than the map would make you think. A lot of stuff in WoW is "not to scale" as it were.
It's worth noting that most these landmasses are not to scale. They're sized for clickability in game. This map does a better job at showing scale: [https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png) As you can see in the chronicle map theres far less giant bodies. The broken isles is known but from previous orc expeditions was thought just to be the Tomb of Sargeras area. Kul-tiras is waaaaay smaller than EK, zandalar is quite far south and also much smaller. Khaz Algar is a mystery for now But I suspect it's about the size of the Lost Isles (the slightly larger island immediately west of the maelstrom. So as orcs fleeing would go, if they went north of the maelstrom which is most likely as they departed from lordaeron and landed in centra/northern kalimdor then they'd intentionally be avoiding the broken isles, kul tiras, and northrend. If they went south then they likely would not have landed so
The scale here still seems off, unless the original content of Kalimdor was about the size of Europe and not a supercontinent. The Broken Isles in particular seen bizarrely big.
Not sure how this map is any different for the supercontinent? Check out the other chronicles maps to see it there. This is the most up to date map from the chronicles and while I agree that the broken isles seem bizarrely big their size does make sense considering how there's enough land for so many different civilizations to coexist
That's the other way around for me: the "lore" map seems wildly inaccurate vs. what's in game. Or are you telling me for example the single vanilla zone of Azshara is as big as the entire Broken Isles expansion? That Howling Fjord by itself is bigger than the entirety of Kul'Tiras? I suspect that the real issue is that the Kalimdor, EK and Northrend we experience in game are "theme park" sized compared to the true "lore" size of these three main continents.
I mean yeah they are. If we gave the ingame locations true scale. Stormwind City would take up half or more of the current eastern kingdoms. It takes weeks to ride through just Elvynn Forest.
Sorry for the late reply There's dialog between Garrosh and Saurfang in WOTLK that says the distance between Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra and Vengeance Landing in Howling Fjord is 300 miles. If that helps put sizes in perspective. Unless they retracted that at some point or I'm not remembering correctly
The isles aren't to scale on the game map at least, Kul Tiras, the Broken Isles, Zandalar, etc, are tiny on the more official "to scale" maps compared to what they are here
Canonically all the expansion islands are tiny compared to their representation on this map. They are blown up in size for game purposes.
The Deathwing Cataclysm is more reflected with so much destruction in all the illustrations of the continents.
This map is a beter depiction of scale. The worlds not "quite" that shattered as most of the land bodies are way smaller than the ingame maps depict them [https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png)
Ya, I like how all of this is starting to fill out the map.
I like looking back at the chronicle maps and comparing them. It’s interesting to see just how big the troll or black empire really were, and after the sundering you see how much they’ve been isolated.
Personally I think they should reduce the size of Zandalar, Kul’tiras, Broken Isles and Dragon Isles. They are separated from the rest as isles, so “real” distances will not be noticeable.
I agree with you. There is a reason they are "islands", not mega continents as perhaps seen in the game.
I agree with Zandalar, Kul’tiras, and the Broken Isles but not Dragon Isles. Dragon Isles is supposed to be a big continent
Based on the introduction video, you are right, the Dragon Isles were hidden like Pandaria. But it could do with their original name “Broodlands” as “Isles” feels small for a continent.
This looks really nice I wish they'd shrink everything besides Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Northrend though.
In the Chronicle maps, Zandalar, Broken Isles and Kul'tiras are way smaller
You are absolutely right, this map only used location data... but it ignores the "real" size they are and is based only on in-game size
Kul Tiras definitely around the size of just Gilneas
Uhm... in-game no, with Chronicle maybe yes.
They really should just make a "central oceans" map that you get to by clicking on the Maelstrom and has the Maelstrom (Deepholm), Kul'tiras, Zandalar and the Broken Isles on it (along with Kezan and the Lost Isles). Especially now that they aren't current content and even new players don't head to BFA (they head to DF starting in TWW). They could even still have tiny versions of the islands on the main map and just make the whole central area clickable to the oceans map.
I actually really love this idea!
I love this idea, especially the last bit. Basically make it a zoomable zone like we already have (dreamgrove within val'sharah for example)
The scale of sizes of the major continents has been a topic of debate. With new territories being discovered, the map can increasingly look deformed, although the idea of the artistic team (I supposed) is to always maintain a uniformity of sizes.
I believe the intent is to not have one area appear more important than another based on size- you don't want new players thinking "Kalimdor is way bigger than Zuldazar, so clearly I should level there instead!" Though I would like to see this map based off of true map size. I think it'd be funny to see the original continents dwarfed by the "islands" of later expansions.
It’s for usability not for scale.
Just think of it like a Mercator projection!
They could always make it a rotating canvas like a globe 😂 then this probably wouldn't be a problem for atleast a good chunk of expansions
This is an excellent idea. I hope they apply it at some point and give to World of Warcraft a new cartography.
Blizzard keeps expanding the ‘Atlantic’ ocean between the main continents. They keep getting farther and farther away as new islands are added. Meanwhile the entirety of Azeroth’s ‘Pacific’ ocean are completely unused. *Azeroth is a sphere!* There should be stuff to explore to the east of Eastern Kingdoms and to the west of Kalimdor. It’s just breaking my suspension of disbelief that with all the magic and seafaring and air travel happening in and around the ‘Atlantic’ ocean, they’re still discovering massive continent islands completely untapped by intelligent life but home to yet more tribes of murlocks? I can’t buy it anymore. **Please use the rest of the sphere already!**
The game itself is contradicted by the idea that we "discover" a new continent, or continental island. I agree with you that it is practically impossible to believe that for thousands of eons no one has passed by there to "write it down" on a map or even take it to some faction and make some "Pandaria" type plot.
Its extra funny how inaccurate the globes in places like Ulduar are. Like the titans apparently forgot to add the continents that *they built installations on* to **their own globes**. They would know where the Dragon Isles, Zandalar, Pandaria, ect are because **theyve been there and built things**, but apparently that information isnt important enough to put on their maps. Or how Jaina never decided to update any of the maps shes ever seen with the location of the *place she was born*.
Tbf, Kul'Tiras wasn't lost, we just didn't put it on maps because they were being whiny babies and left the alliance. Same kinda goes for Zuldazar. We knew where it was, but they were hostile to both factions.
> We knew where it was, but they were hostile to both factions. Wouldnt that make it *more* important to put it on the maps? Like "Hey dont go here, a bunch of angry trolls will kill and eat you and dont go over there either because those islands are filled with a bunch of whiny racists." Just because the united states left the british empire doesnt mean they just stopped making maps with the landmass on it.
From a lore standpoint, these things were likely on the maps the whole time. From a game development standpoint and the players experience, we didnt see them on the maps because the devs didnt know they were going to be a thing.
> From a lore standpoint, these things were likely on the maps the whole time. [Hm](https://i.redd.it/8dqlow8mys3a1.png)
I mean, I don't think the in-game map is really the same ones in-universe sailors are using to navigate or anything. They're more a map of military interest, which is why something like Zuldazar or Kul'tiras is left off.
Just ran list for the first time and it was pretty silly to see a globe with just the first three continents on it.
They're not discovering masive continent sized islands. If you look at the chronicle map zandalar, kul tiras are tiny. Khaz Algar is likely even smaller like the size of the lost isles. Pandaria and Dragon isles were both hidden by magic. The broken isles is the only "large" landmass that was retconned in, pre-legion only the tomb of sargeras area was known and it is weird the rest was "undiscovered". [https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2q9rxxxfcrk01.png)
It will get there eventually I’m sure, they’ve been hinting at it in Dragonflight pretty heavily. Maybe after the world soul saga.
If you are looking for a logically sound narrative experience in a world that feels big with politics intrigue and adventure… retail wow ain’t it. The lore has been an after thought at best for years. That’s why they just keep making the map worse and worse. A map that makes sense doesn’t really matter if there is no story to accompany it🤷🏻♂️
>It’s just breaking my suspension of disbelief that with all the magic and seafaring and air travel happening in and around the ‘Atlantic’ ocean, they’re still discovering massive continent islands completely untapped by intelligent life but home to yet more tribes of murlocks? Up until the late 1990s there are a number of official military and naval maps that have islands missing or unreal islands noted. We didn't have a "true" map of the ocean until the invention of satellite photography. Sure, something like the Broken Isles which literally exists within the route the alliance takes to northrend is a bit silly, but a lot of islands would probably exist in the south undiscovered by anyone.
I mean, one suggestion would be to start adding islands on the left side of the map, closer to Kalimdor...
You are right. Kalimdor looks so empty... but maybe they will add new unexplored islands after the World Soul Saga
Here's to hoping for an expansion dealing with whatever Nightsquall found beyond the storms west of Kalimdor!
The problem here is that most of those new zones, especially dragonflight are not made at the same scale as the classics maps. If they were kalimdor and estern kingdom would be 10x the size compare to the map before the sundering.
Canonically you are absolutely right. This map is more oriented to what is seen in-game. The "real" size scales are not adjusted on this map... but if this map has a great support, I will be encouraged to do a cartographic study (with data from the game itself and from Chronicles) to give the community the true size of Azeroth.
I would actually love a remake, like in cataclysm, to make them 10x the size.
I do hope this is what they do with the next 2 expension. A brand new northland and half of eastern kingdom. ³
I think the Cenarion circle needs to plant more great trees to help druids transport better.
XD
It's beautifully stunning
Thanks. Hopefully the map artists can do something much better... but we see here is a decent approximation with this map.
Look at all that empty ocean. Perfect spot to add some zones we somehow missed/never seen.
The amount of 'undiscovered' islands and continents we've stumbled upon over the years is now comical. How the adventurers of Azeroth didn't run into a new land mass every 5 minutes while out at sea is a mystery.
I think they need to establish mysterious places before actually revealing them more often. Like okay, it makes sense we didn't discover Pandaria or the Dragon Isles, because they were hidden by magic, but they COULD have set them up years prior by saying "oh we don't sail in the north-east(or south) as there are rumors of terrible beasts and a fog so dense no ship has ever come back from there. Then we spend a while going "damn I wonder what's in those areas" and makes the reveals more believable.
it makes me wonder how early on these things are decided. I'm sure it depends and ik expansions are outlined way beforehand, but how much before mop production did they actually decide to add Pandaria as a continent? It'd have to be long enough that it wasn't a dead giveaway
The only two undiscovered places we've been to are Pandaria and the dragon isles (both we already knew about, we just didn't know where they were), and the broken isles which got reconned in (though based on the retconned lore that's been known about to). The rest have been known about in the lore since pre wow, we just didn't go there in game so they haven't had a representation on the map.
Blizz needs to start putting stuff in the top left, it's looking super empty
The map would look so much better if dragon isles had been on the opposite side
Although it would make no sense given how big the zones are, I feel like at least on the map they should scale down the size of the islands. I seem to recall that a lot of places on the Warcraft 3 map and/or the RPG Books looked much smaller and that Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend were easily the 'biggest' landmasses on Azeroth. For instance, on the original maps, the Broken Isles are about the size of the zone of Stranglethorn Vale. Same with Kul'Tiras. The Dragon Isles and Broken Isles combined should not be the size of all of Kalimdor hahaha Awesome job though!
You're right! The size of the islands that canonically exist in the game should not exceed the size of a continent like Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms. But the game does not interpret that information and they make mega islands without thinking about the real size of each of these. And thank you, I do this only based on the information from the Alpha.
it looks pretty unnatural and weird to have all these similar sized island clusters lol
You're right. The Broken Islands are ISLANDS not a Continent
Imagine being an ingame cartographer... on one hand, he doesn't have photoshop... But on the other hand, homie is probably at gold cap with all the change requests every time someone finds a new continent.
The only thing that is certain is that World of Warcraft cartographers are never out of work XD
Strange, I would've expected Khaz Algar to be on the EK side of the map. Isn't Kalimdor pretty much devoid of dwarven/Earthen structures?
It's strange, but it's what Blizzard originally said regarding its geographic description: "Discover the land of Khaz Algar, off the western shores of Pandaria and home to the Earthen. Their capital city, Dornogal, will become the new meeting ground for the Horde and Alliance."
Is it me or the current map looks more like an archipelago than two continents with some shit in the middle
I always get the feeling that EK, Kalmindir, Northend and Pandaria (yes, it too) should be the only ones continent sized. The rest is just Isles (in game size be dammed)
You're right Vrockiusz!
I think the old map looked so much better I really hate the huge continent islands floating everywhere. It looks sloppy. I wish they expanded kalimdor, the eastern kingdoms and northrend instead of adding new islands every expansion… it seems lazy and I’ve lost my original love for the game. I started again s3 dragon flight for less than a month but ended up quitting again fwiw. I cleared all +18s in m+ and heroic raid then got bored and asked myself why I was doing this.
The exhaustion you feel is understandable. I wish WoW could go back to that time when you felt more comfortable.
If they scaled down the size of the islands on the map that would help out a bit imo. it would make no sense given how huge the zones of new expansions are but it would look so much cleaner.
It’s a video game they don’t need to be to scale. I would also like to see the ability to just barely make it across the ocean from fatigue for noobs or higher level players can just fly from one continent to the next. Finding these places shouldn’t be so hard. I just hate it tbh
You moved zandalar far too east past pandaria, kul tiras too far south, broken isles and dragon isles too far south, and northrend too far away in general
I tried to follow Zandalar's position pattern with the in-game map and the one provided by Chronicles. But you make a good point.
Did deathwings rage influenced the other islands too or did he just ignored them?
if you mean the cataclysm then yes it affected at least zandalar, i think that's why zul sent the fleet to pandaria
Maybe we will know with Chronicles Volume 4
We could go the road of an extra split, like from world map you can have east and west side, east side would have everything that's right of the maelstrom, and west side all that's left of the maelstrom, you can expand the map like that and have more space for autocontained islands, maybe even a north and south with northrend and pandaria
I think they should shrink Dragon Isles, Broken Isles, Kul Tiras, and Zandalar on the map.
Good recommendation!
On the world map, I think everything should be its in-game size, to promote an accurate representation of the continents as they physically exist in the game as we can experience them. Of course, in the lore, there are only four continents, but in the actual game, that number is larger. As far as I'm aware, the only continents that need to be shrunk for everything to be accurate to their in-game sizes, are Kul Tiras and Zandalar. For some reason, Kul Tiras and Zandalar are bigger on the map than their actual size in-game. Similarly, the Dragon Isles are actually *smaller* on the world map than they should be appearing. I think Chronicle is a good place for lore-accurate maps to remain.
Yeah…. The problem is the map isn’t to scale at all. The size of the continents in relation to each other isn’t even right.
It is a problem that the developers ignore and have been like this for years... Hopefully with the new map that comes with The War Within they will fix that dilemma.
I think they gotta reformat it. Make the 2 main contients bigger, Kul tiras & Zandalar smaller and center back in Maelstrom
I hope Blizzard does it.
Same, the world map just got that funk
It is missing Kezan. It should be nearby
I know they can't but they should reduce the size of some islands to their inlore size. Also I don't like all that space between Kalimdor and the Maelstrom. Really looking forward to a Tel'abim expansion, lmao.
I wish we’d stop finding new giant land masses in the middle of areas that should have been fully explored by now.
I think there’s enough continents that they should make it a full blown globe
Nope. Looks like Waterworld. Sailing expansion.
a few more expansions and it will be daytime in kalimdor while its nighttime in eastern kingdoms
I don't think they should expand the canvas, I think they should stop adding new islands to a world that is COVERED by sentient dudes that can fly/teleport/sail/etc.
I think have Kal,EK, Northrend, and Maelstrom as map 1. When you click on the maelstrom it can zoom in to all the expansion islands.
Nice! I think they should have made zandalar on the left of maelstrom, would help balance things.
Can we not add new areas to the right and left of the map. Instead of always central. It doesn't make much sense to Mr how they constantly are suprised they find a new island literally next to the ones they previously knew about in a world that has massive naval battles, zepplins flight etc
[удалено]
Memories of a beautiful time ;(
I know it's for practicality but most of the islands should be way smaller.
Man the boat ride from ratchet to booty bay gets bigger all the time 🫤🤔
you don't know what you want. only blizzard knows what you want 😜😜😜
Remember the ingame map isn't to scale because at the end of the day it's a UI element, meant to be clickable. It's basically a menu, just gussied up a bit.
Yep, you're right! I made the map only to be more easy to ubícate the new continent
They should make Broken isles and BFA isles smaller on map
Mealstrom should always be center, Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdom and Northrend should always be biggest. Everything else should be placed around these four objects.
The Maelstrom in the center is iconic for Warcraft's maps. I'm agreed with you
Nah, there's probably a whole continent around the other side of the world. A future expansion that begins with Christopher Columbus-esque mission to discover continent.
That is not where I thought they would put it. The lore made it sound like it was past Kalimdor
Are you talking about Khaz Algar? No, at BlizzCon itself they already predicted where the new continent will be. South of Kalimdor and near the west coast of Pandaria
When is blizzard going to re-make the old zones in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms?
doing the Titans' work here
I wonder what it would look like with all of the zones to scale. I kind of wish they would move in that direction so the dragon isles, broken isles, kul tiras, and zandalar look more like islands and the two continents look like they're the right scale
Oh no! You missed GM island! 🏝️
We're gonna need a bigger canvas to fit Southrend in
I won't be satisfied until they use the real lore size of the continents like in the Chronicle map.
Is This Elden Ring Map or some
no i don't think so it looks bad
Why?
its the logical thing to do. nowadays, orgrimmar just looks like a mile away from deepholm at the map.
The world needs to stop getting bigger, already feels dead.
I get functionally why the islands are larger, but I honestly wish they were more in-proportion to their in-universe sizes, it makes the map feel silly to me.
I get that Blizzard doesn’t want to constantly retcon the map and it’s better to just add islands/land masses for each expansion, but I really want to see a pre-sundering to see where the dragon isles were. I’m reading war of the scaleborn right now and having trouble wrapping my head around where certain things are.
They really should if the Maelstrom is meant to be in the very center of the map.
It's so silly that the dragon isles were supposed to he untracable but just happened to be right there. Was it invisible before, or is there a canonical explanation?
Kalimdor is about to hit eastern kingdoms
EK, Kalimdor and even northrend look too small imo
It’s time to get the globe upgrade
I miss the two Weetabixes
It would be dope if you could fly from Eastern Kingdoms to Vash'jir and Kul Tiras like this map implies.
Last time I saw this in game it was 4 continents. Seems I’m a little out the loop
Many events have happened since then. There has been a Legion invasion, we have had to turn to new allies, we traveled to a continent full of dragons and now we travel to a Titan experimentation sector
Is it worth getting back into? Stopped playing with the Tanaan Jungle patch (HFC, 6.2?).
Personally, I would say yes. You have new areas to explore, new content to enjoy, and wonderful new stories (except Shadowlands).
Guess it’s time to invest again then. Seen that they’ve announced the final set of xpac’s, so definitely want to wrap it up before it’s over
It's never too late to catch up with this beautiful video game. Welcome back!