For those of us who got into Warcraft lore through WoW, looking back at what the world used to be like can be shocking. Kurdran of Aegwynn stunned the WoW Forums with a map of the Azeroth of twelve years ago.

Not too many people are still able to play Warcraft I, so it was nice to see how the map originally looked. It looks vaguely like the middle of the Eastern Kingdoms today, with Stonard, Stonewind/Stormwind, the Deadmines, Moonbrook and Northshire Abbey in roughly the same places as they are in WoW. Rockard and Temple of the Damned have disappeared off the face of the planet, and "Orc Camp", "Medivh Tower", and "Grand Hamlet" turned into Grom'Gol, Karazhan and Darkshire.

I also enjoyed looking at this map from Warcraft II. Apparently Azeroth has been undergoing some strange tides, because a lot of the land that would make up Silverpine Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills and Arathi Highlands seems to be underwater. Kul Tiras, as shown on these maps, seems to have disappeared in WoW, and the Dark Portal migrates south every new game.

Checking out these maps makes me realize how tough it must be for the designers to reconcile the previous Warcraft geography with WoW. Now that Azeroth has gone from a place of isolated campaigns to a huge world you can run across, they had to retrofit all the lore locations into an accessible, unified form. Making Outlands must have been a big relief in comparison.

What do you think about how Azeroth has changed? What locations from previous Warcraft games would you like to see in WoW?

I enjoyed checking out this old intro from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and I hope you will too. Isn't it amazing how much this world has grown up? This is from over 10 years ago! Those orcs look a little different (and I have no idea where that armor drops, not to mention that gigantic shoulders have apparently grown a lot more fashionable since then), but those are our Zepplins for sure. And the Horde flag!

So earlier today I finally decided to leave the confines of Hellfire Peninsula (I haven't even come close to finishing all the quests there-- Outland is just plain packed with things to collect and kill) and check out the rest of the continent for myself. I did a quick loop around Zangarmarsh and then headed for my favorite zone so far, Nagrand, to see the PVP town of Halaa, and then, on my way back to Terokkar Forest and Shattrath, I noticed a familiar looking camp on the side of the road. I pulled up, shocked, and sure enough, it was my old friend Hemet Nesingwary! The master hunter (and quest giver) actually recognized me when I talked to him from our time together back in STV (apparently he's left his son in charge back there), and said he'd come through the portal and leveled up to 70 in the blink of an eye, just to see how the hunting is here in Outland.

Likewise, while I haven't seen him yet, I hear Rexxar, the questgiver in the Horde Onyxia quest chain who used to be in Desolace, now resides at a settlement in Blade's Edge Mountains. Maybe I just don't know how much WoW has affected me, but seeing Hemet in Nagrand was like seeing an old friend, and I know when I see Rexxar I'll have to give him a /nod or even a /wave as well.

And the self-referential stuff goes back even farther than WoW's Azeroth-- the Unyielding Vengeful Knights and Footmen in the Expedition Armory in Hellfire Peninsula are right out of Warcraft II, and the first time I went to Shattrath to do the little tour quest, I was too agog at the scenery to realize the questgiver I was clicking through was none other than Khadgar-- THE Khadgar! As in, the one standing with the rest of the statues in Stormwind!

I love Blizzard's references to pop culture and the real world. And yes, it's nerdy, but I think that I love their self-referential lore stuff even more-- it's awesome to see the story of these characters play out before our eyes. Seen any other familiar faces in Outland yet?