The Unfinished Zone of Southern Silithus
The History of Mount Hyjal in Warcraft
During The Burning Crusade, players traveled back in time to the Third War through the Caverns of Time to assist in the Battle of Mount Hyjal. Players would traverse Mount Hyjal as they slayed armies of undead, demons, and eventually defeated Archimonde before he could destroy Nordrassil.
The skeleton of Archimonde located in the original Mount Hyjal - image credit to Warcraft Wiki
Then, in Cataclysm, players got to travel to its current iteration and assist the Cenarion Druids against the Firelord Ragnaros, where the zone would become the main focus of the game in patch 4.2.
A side-by-side comparison of the original Mount Hyjal raid map that was used in patch 2.1 compared to 4.0
However, Mount Hyjal was a fully designed zone that players could access in the original Classic Azeroth, which is what was used for the Burning Crusade raid zone. Until recently, players could only visit this zone in Classic by using a tricky and lengthy wall-jumping route from Winterspring. However, players who participated in Season of Discovery could travel to the original Mount Hyjal, as it was involved in the game's exclusive Legendary weapon quest chain for the Ashbringer!
Screenshots taken from Season of Discovery when venturing into Mount Hyjal during the Ashbringer Questchain
With all that being said, it begs the question to be asked: What were the original plans for this zone in World of Warcraft?
Mount Hyjal's Original Purpose
YouTuber, Turbotarzan, goes into great length about what Mount Hyjal's original intent could have been in World of Warcraft. It appears that this zone was intended to be not only an end-game zone, but an additional raid in WoW before patch 2.0!
In an interview with GameSpy from 2004, former developer Jeff Kaplan explains what Hyjal's original raid was meant to be:
This is an ultra high-level raid zone.... In fact, this is pretty much end-game content.... And the challenge here is to re-purify the Well of Eternity. In fact, as you travel through this area, you might even find a very familiar skeleton chained to a rock.
One of the original maps of Azeroth, showing Mount Hyjal as an accessible zone
Additional speculation about this zone suggests that Darkwhisper Gorge was intended to be a part of Classic's Mount Hyjal, and not Winterspring, as the World of Warcraft sourcebook, Lands of Mystery, describes it as such.
Excerpt from Lands of Mystery, describing Darkwhisper Gorge as a part of the Hyjal zone.
This World of Warcraft RPG sourcebook goes on to state that Hyjal would be littered with demons and inhabited by the Blue Dragonflight. Both demons and the Blue Dragonflight can be found in Winterspring, with the former in Darkwhisper Gorge, and the latter further north in the center of the zone.
We would also eventually see Darkwhisper Gorge become a part of Mount Hyjal in patch 4.0 of Cataclysm.
What Could Hyjal Become in Classic's Future?
With a lot of hype building around the potential release of Classic+, could we see this zone open as a part of pre-Cataclysm Azeroth? Would Hyjal become a new endgame zone, a raid, or perhaps something else?
A raid portal found in a cave in Darkwhisper Gorge, never accessible in World of Warcraft
Would you prefer to explore an open-world version of Hyjal, or a reimagined instanced raid, different from The Burning Crusade's version? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
