At Gamescom Opening Night Live, we just got a look at the opening cinematic for the next World of Warcraft expansion: Midnight. And with it, we got a taste of what to expect at the focal point of the expansion’s start: Quel’Thalas, and the Blood Elf city of Silvermoon.
If you’re a WoW veteran, you probably know Quel’Thalas. It was introduced to World of Warcraft in the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, alongside the introduction of the Blood Elves. Currently in the game, in consists of Silvermoon City and the surrounding Eversong Woods, as well as the northern Isle of Quel’Danas and The Ghostlands to the south. Though it’s largely populated by Blood Elves, it’s also home to Zul’Aman, the home of the Amani Trolls. As it stands now, Silvermoon and everything to the south serves as a starting zone for low-level Blood Elves (though it’s also largely been made obsolete due to the addition of the ubiquitous new player experience, Exile’s Reach), while Quel’Danas was an endgame zone in patch 2.4 that’s largely useless now if you don’t have a very specific reason to be there.
All that is about to change. As we saw in the cinematic, Midnight opens with void menace and total baddie Xal’atath attacking the Sunwell, a magical power fountain in Quel’Danas that’s sacred to the Blood Elves. We’re headed there at the start of Midnight to defend it (alongside the thankfully-not-dead Blood Elf leader, Lor’themar Theron), which means that whole area is getting an overhaul. Midnight starts with four zones: a reworked Eversong Woods (which also seems like it will include at least some of Ghostlands), a reworked Zul’Aman (now upgraded from a raid to a full zone), and two new areas: the rootlands of Harandar, and Voidstorm, which seems to be located in a different world entirely. Players will start in Eversong Woods and end in Voidstorm, with Zul’Aman and Harandar able to be done interchangeably.
Apologies to the Draenei, though. Burning Crusade’s equivalent Alliance class starting zones, Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isle, and the Draenei hub The Exodar, don’t appear to be getting any special treatment.
Unlike recent expansions, Midnight will open with not one, but three raids: The Voidspire (six bosses), The Dreamrift (one boss), and March on Quel’Danas (two bosses). World of Warcraft hasn’t had multiple raids running at once for several expansions now, so having three at once at launch is a big deal. The expansion also launches with eight new dungeons (including a reworked Magister’s Terrace), seven new delves, and a new PvP battleground. There’s also a brand new feature called “Prey” where players hunt powerful targets across different world zones, with the potential to be ambushed while on the hunt.
As for characters, we’re not getting any brand new classes. A new allied race, Haranir, will be available, alongside a new mid-range Demon Hunter specialization and Void Elves now also able to become Demon Hunters. There are also some overhauls to the new player experience including new story mode raids for Dragonflight and some other catch-up features. And they’re simplifying skyriding, including (thank goodness) getting rid of the vigor bar.
Finally, the biggest and most exciting feature of Midnight is one we already know about: player housing. We’ve already heard and seen a lot about what to expect from housing, but Blizzard has re-confirmed that we’re getting fully customizable player homes, with 3D placement tools, dyes to recolor furniture, all sorts of decor items available to be earned through all different kinds of content, and private and public neighborhoods. No fighting over plots like in Final Fantasy 14, either!
We’re expecting to hear more details about what we’ll see in Midnight throughout Gamescom, so stay tuned to IGN for more on World of Warcraft’s latest. Midnight launches in 2026. You can catch up on everything announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
