Riverglades, Hyjal, and Shen'dralas

New and reimagined regions

Riverglades is the Eastern Kingdoms headline. What’s Next places it as a new frontier with more than 150 quests across the mid-30s to mid-40s, built around rivers, grasslands, and trade routes rather than a recycled Tirisfal clone. If you are planning a first leveling route that is not Skyborne, this is the band where Forever adds a whole extra countryside instead of only lighting.

Mount Hyjal is the Kalimdor counterpart: a reimagined zone in the aftermath of Archimonde, including Darkwhisper Gorge, with a restoration story and a later Hyjal Summit raid on 9 December. Shen'dralas sits between Mulgore and Desolace and pulls the Shen’dralar, Eldre’Thalas, Dire Maul, and centaur tribes into a new outdoor adventure rather than leaving them as dungeon flavor.

Zephras Isle is listed here because it is geographically a Kalimdor / sky start, but it is pack-gated. Subscription characters will not begin there. Treat Zephras as a Skyborne chapter and treat Riverglades, Hyjal, and Shen'dralas as the 1–60 map everyone else shares. Dungeons that punch into these regions live on the dungeons page, including Alcaz Prison in Dustwallow and the Shaper’s Terrace in Un’Goro.

Lighting updates on classic ground

Forever does not reprint the 2004 lighting model and call it a feature. The hub and What’s Next name specific zones for rendering work: Ashenvale (moonlight through trees), Darkshore (mist over the waters), plus environment loops and stills for Felwood, the Barrens, Dustwallow Marsh, and Mulgore. Elwynn is named in the visual-presets discussion on the systems page.

Those updates are not new quest hubs by themselves. Ashenvale is still Ashenvale. The Barrens is still the Barrens. The value is that the 1–60 loop you already know is the loop Forever keeps, with modern lighting and HD or SD character models available as presets. If you came here looking for a Pandaria-style new continent, this page is the correction: original continents only.

Gallery stills on this board are the official hub crops that actually exist. Zones without a dedicated still show an official-image-unavailable card instead of a borrowed wiki screenshot. Open Gallery for the keyboard lightbox; filters keep Eastern Kingdoms (Riverglades) separate from Kalimdor and the sky isle.

How to pick a leveling path

If you own Heroic or higher and you want the new race, start on Zephras through level 12, then join the same outdoor map as everyone else. If you do not own a pack, skip Zephras and treat Hyjal, Shen'dralas, and Riverglades as the named new outdoor work, with classic zones filling the remaining bands under the no-scaling rule.

Riverglades is the only new region with a published quest count and level band (150-plus, mid-30s to mid-40s). Hyjal’s later raid is dated 9 December, so restoration play there is a launch-to-December story rather than a day-one raid lockout. Shen'dralas is the Mulgore–Desolace connector; Mulgore’s hub loop exists because that geography is now load-bearing.

Nine new dungeons sit under this map. They are not shown as extra zone cards here because they have their own list. From this page, follow Dungeons for Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Whelgar’s upper site, City of Dalaran, Blackmaw Hold, the Drowned City, Krol’dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison, and the Shaper’s Terrace.

Keep original continents in view when you plan a route: Riverglades for the mid-30s Eastern Kingdoms frontier, Hyjal for the restoration story that later becomes a December raid, and Shen'dralas for the Mulgore–Desolace gap. Lighting-update classics fill the rest of the 1–60 loop without pretending to be new continents.