A massive World Tree grown by the Circle of the Ancients, Teldrassil is both island and living city. Darnassus rests among its highest boughs. The canopy creates perpetual twilight and the luminescent flora replaces sunlight. The tree was grown without the blessing of the dragon Aspects — a fact that gnaws at the elder druids.

Threats: Corrupted furbolg in the interior, harpy nests in the higher branches, satyrs pushing inward from corrupted zones. The campaign begins here.

A cold, rain-swept stretch of coastline where winds blow in off the ocean and the rocky beaches offer little comfort. Old night elf ruins stand on the cliffs. The village of Auberdine provides a trading post and boat connections. The land is inhospitable but the sea routes are essential.

Threats: Murlocs in the coastal shallows, naga offshore, restless undead in some ruins. The road south to Ashenvale passes through here.

Ancient trees older than most civilizations, their trunks wider than houses, their canopy blocking all but filtered green light. Bears, great cats and living ancients move through the undergrowth. Night elf Sentinels patrol the main roads. The Horde has established outposts in the eastern reaches, and tension runs high wherever the two factions share roads.

Threats: Horde patrols in the east, satyr incursions from the north near Felwood, naga along the river, the occasional corrupted ancient. The trees themselves are watchful — don’t start fires.

A land of perpetual summer twilight and sapphire moonwells, the Moonglade is where night elf druids gather, rest and commune with nature. The city of Nighthaven sits within it. The Barrow Dens — the underground chambers where druids slept for millennia — honeycomb the earth beneath. This is sacred ground. Violence here is deeply unwelcome.

Threats: Crazed furbolg have invaded the outer edges. Satyrs press in from the western approaches. The Barrow Dens hold things that were sealed away for good reasons.

Once a wooded paradise, Felwood was cursed ten thousand years ago and the corruption has never lifted. The trees are grey and rigid. The animals are mad and fearless. Satyrs hold court near tainted moonwells. The undead and demons who survived the Third War fled here. The Shadow Council — orc warlocks loyal to the Burning Legion — hides somewhere in the deep tangles.

Threats: Corrupted ancients, satyrs (organized and purposeful), demons, possessed furbolg, the Shadow Council. Environmental corruption deals 1 Stamina damage per hour without protection. Alliance heroes make regular strikes here — almost none succeed fully.

Two grey peaks rise above the surrounding forests. The Well of Eternity is buried here. Nordrassil, the World Tree, stands over it — blackened and wounded from the sacrifice that destroyed Archimonde. Divine magic saturates the entire region. Animals here are more intelligent than anywhere else on the continent. The site is not open to casual visitors.

Threats: Demon stragglers still roam the lower slopes. The ground itself reacts to fel magic. The tree’s guardians — including surviving ancients — do not welcome intrusion.

Once quilboar territory, Durotar is now the heartland of the new Horde. Rocky, dry and marginally more fertile than the Barrens to the south. Orgrimmar — Thrall’s warrior city — dominates the north. The land is being tamed, but centaur and quilboar still press at the borders. Alliance characters entering Durotar without diplomatic clearance will be attacked on sight.

Threats: Orc patrols throughout. Centaur and quilboar raids in the outer regions. Renegade orc warlocks operate in the deep wilderness.

A vast, dry savannah crisscrossed by trade routes. Dust devils, canyons and thunder lizards. The Gold Road brings merchants across the continent and goblin Ratchet on the eastern coast is the primary neutral trading hub — goblins enforce neutrality at gunpoint. An Ironforge dwarf dig site at Bael Modan has become a fortified outpost in Horde territory, which keeps everyone tense.

Threats: Centaur raids, quilboar ambushes, lions, thunder lizards. Horde patrols on the main roads. The Gold Road itself is relatively safe — leaving it is not.

The great mesa-land of the tauren, Mulgore is a sweeping grassland of gentle hills and warm winds. Thunder Bluff — the tauren capital — rises on enormous mesa platforms connected by rope bridges. The land has a peace to it that Durotar lacks. The tauren are welcoming to honorable visitors of any faction.

Threats: Quillboar press from the east. Centaur remain a persistent concern on the border. Within the heartland, the greatest danger is getting lost.

A hot, fetid swampland fed by underground springs. Mosquitoes, alligators, murlocs. The southern end — called Wyrmbog — is thick with black dragons. Theramore Isle is accessible by boat from the eastern coast — the Alliance’s primary foothold in Kalimdor, still rebuilding after the Horde assault that followed Admiral Proudmoore’s attack on Durotar.

Threats: Black dragons in Wyrmbog, murlocs throughout, alligators, the ever-present humidity causing fatigue on long marches. Horde skirmishers probe the borders regularly.

Craggy rock faces and stormy skies as far as the eye can see. Five centaur tribes strike from individual strongholds and allow no other race to survive in their territory. The great fortress of Maraudon occasionally hosts all five tribes together — when that happens, nothing nearby lives. Do not enter Desolace without a specific objective and an exit plan.

Threats: Centaur patrols everywhere. Demons in the coastal areas. No healing resources. No safe camps.

Innumerable sandstone spires thrust up from salt flats. Goblins have constructed bridges across the peaks, allowing travelers to cross without touching the ground. The center holds a lake ten times saltier than any ocean. Oil has been found in the Scorched Basin — goblins are drilling, which means everything is for sale and nothing is stable.

Threats: Centaur warbands on the flats, scorpions, the occasional desperate merchant. The goblin bridges are maintained — mostly.

Beneath the shattered ruins of Lordaeron’s capital city, the Forsaken have carved their empire. Dark corridors, plague vats, the hum of dark alchemy and the shuffling of undead workers. Sylvanas Windrunner rules from the throne room. The Forsaken conduct experiments here that the Horde officially does not endorse.

Threats: Forsaken guards, experimental undead in the lower levels, Scourge probing the outer walls, the ever-present smell of plague chemicals.

Once a great human city. Arthas slaughtered its grain-plague-infected citizens and left the ruins for the undead. Kel’Thuzad raised necromantic structures among the human ruins and controls this place as a Scourge stronghold. A necropolis floats above it. Do not go here without extraordinary preparation and a very good reason.

Threats: Undead of every type, necromancers, the phylactery-protected Kel’Thuzad himself at the center. One of the most dangerous locations accessible to mid-level characters.

The great mages of the Kirin Tor have sealed Dalaran beneath an opaque blue magical dome. No spell or physical means can penetrate it from outside. Archmages patrol the perimeter. The dome itself is powerful enough to destroy creatures that approach too closely. Whatever they are working on inside has not been announced.

Threats: Getting in without being invited. The protective field. Whatever they’re building.

A blackened land of ghosts. The Sunwell — source of high elven power — was defiled by Arthas when he raised Kel’Thuzad. The high elves who survived renamed themselves Blood Elves and now desperately seek alternative magical sources. The land is beautiful in a ruined, melancholy way. Forest trolls press south from Zul’Aman trying to reclaim old territory.

Threats: Scourge remnants, aggressive forest trolls from Zul’Aman, desperate Blood Elves who may be hostile to non-elves, the tainted Sunwell itself — proximity causes madness in those sensitive to arcane magic.