The Drowned City

The city stands on Gillijim's Isle, in the sea southwest of Stranglethorn Vale. Blizzard made this island for the original game and removed it during the alpha, before the beta. Its name stayed on the empty sea, where Classic still shows it today, and the island still appears in the game's intro cinematic. In Forever the island is back, with a ruined troll city on it. No boat or flight path goes there yet.

On September 26, Rhysdog swam there from the Southern Savage Coast. He drowned once on the way, came back with a Soulstone, then walked the whole island. His video shows:

• A troll city in ruins, with nobody in it: paved squares, wide stairs, serpent statues, troll heads, coral and braziers of blue fire.
• Atal'Byzal, the part of the city under the sea: flooded halls he compares to the Sunken Temple.
• A pirate ship wrecked among the ruins.
• Sunken Hollow, a cave with a blue portal that does not work yet. Next to it, the game moves the chat to the channels of The Drowned City: the portal is most likely the way into the dungeon.

At BlizzCon, Blizzard presented ancient troll ruins off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale, long under the waves, that have suddenly risen out of the ocean. Trolls and naga are there, and a pirate ship has crashed into the place (What's Next panel, 23:31).

Item texts in the beta give the city its old name, “I'lalai the Drowned City”, a lost troll city. Four stone tablets, quest items you can read, tell its story:

1. The First Tablet of I'lalaiA Fate in Blood
2. The Second Tablet of I'lalaiThe First Tidebearer
3. The Third Tablet of I'lalaiThe Cracked and Cursed
4. The Fourth Tablet of I'lalaiLoa of the Lost

Two books gather their texts: Tale of I'lalai in Zandali, copied into modern Zandali by Kin'weelay, and Translated Tale of I'lalai, by Loremaster Dibbs. Kin'weelay is the troll scholar at Grom'gol Base Camp who already sends players to the Vile Reef for a tablet shard in Classic (The Vile Reef). The tablets' own words are not in the beta's files yet.

Other quest items point to quests around the city: Bundle of I'lalai Findings, I'lalai Fetish and Savage Coast Report Bundle. Wowhead's database also has By'zaali, “The Loa of Tides”. Only its name, close to Atal'Byzal, links it to the city for now.

Wowhead's Forever database has six creatures titled “Staging Area 1” to “Staging Area 6”, placeholder titles that look like the dungeon's boss slots:

Zul'Alai, in the first slot, is also the first boss players met at the BlizzCon demo: he goes into a rage near death and hits the whole group hard. Warcraft Tavern names a second boss from the demo, Zin'aka, a tank killer the database does not have.

The Legacy challenge counts the dungeon as done when creature 260274 dies, an id no database names yet. For Ruins of Lordaeron the same challenge counts Rath'mael, its last boss, so 260274 is probably the Drowned City's last boss.

On the way, the demo had makrura and small crabs first, then risen troll sentries, then naga in tight packs. The same database names Brinescale Priestess, Saltscale Muckdweller, Saltseer Manhunter, Deathless Sorcerer, Makrura Snapper, Chasm Crawler and Goaz Warder. Saltseer Manhunters drop Voodoo-Infused Artifact, a quest item that “seems to pull at the various conflicting magics within the Drowned City”.

Names, order and fights can still change before the dungeon opens.

Players ran the dungeon on the BlizzCon floor, before the beta:

• Preheat, raw footage of a whole run (52 minutes)
• JackedIQ (25 minutes)
• Slesh (12 minutes)

The dungeon's music is already in the game: four tracks by Derek Duke, for the trolls, the naga, the pirates and the bosses, put online by Wowhead.