Azshara Crater
For almost twenty years a whole battleground has been hidden inside the World of Warcraft game files. Its working name was PVPZone02; players called it Azshara Crater. Both factions already had their entrances in southern Azshara, the map was built, and then it was never switched on.
A battleground built and shelved
Azshara Crater was meant to be a large battleground in the style of Alterac Valley. The map has been in the game files since the 0.5.3 alpha, and Blizzard first mentioned it around patch 1.3 in March 2005. Out in the open world everything was ready: the Alliance entrance was a cave on the southern side of Forlorn Ridge, and the Horde entrance a cave on the northern side, each with banners and a guarded path leading up to it. Both caves simply led nowhere.
What was inside
Explorers who loaded the map in viewers or reached it through the terrain found three distinct parts:
- The first held the only entrance anyone found, and a fortified camp that oddly mixed orc and night elf buildings, a hint that both factions were meant to fight side by side against a third enemy.
- The central part was dotted with furbolg camps and had a small cave in one side.
- The last part opened behind a gate flanked by two huge dragon statues, with a large purple Highborne building surrounded by ruins, much like the naga temples elsewhere in Azshara.
Why it never opened
At BlizzCon 2007 the developers explained that getting Alterac Valley right came first, and Jeff Kaplan confirmed that Azshara Crater would not be part of Wrath of the Lich King. At BlizzCon 2011 it was one of three battleground ideas considered for Mists of Pandaria; the other two were picked. Cataclysm then settled it: the entrance caves and the ridge itself were removed, and goblins strip-mined the land above the crater. The battleground's terrain is still in the game files.
Will it ever come back?
Perhaps. At BlizzCon 2026, while presenting World of Warcraft: Forever, the new version of original Azeroth that launches on 4 November 2026, Josh Greenfield hinted that Azshara has "a crater-sized hole" the team might fill one day. It is a tease, not an announcement: the only new battleground confirmed for Forever's launch is the Darkspear Islands.
In WoW Classic the pre-Cataclysm Azshara is back, entrance caves included, and explorers still find ways over the mountains into the empty battleground. Going out of bounds breaks the terms of use, so watch rather than try:
From the archive
What players were saying in 2005 and 2006, as collected by the original Lost WOW:
There is an Alliance cave and a Horde cave on opposite sides of Forlorn Ridge, so that is the most likely home for the new battleground, and it sits conveniently close to both flight masters.
LordWolfx on Thottbot
We have no new battlegrounds planned for the near future. We have to be careful not to split the PvP population too thin. That doesn't mean we aren't thinking about what a new battleground could look like, but I wouldn't expect one any time soon.
Caydiem, Blizzard community manager, 20 January 2006
Mira Duskwood is the pen name of the Lost WOW editorial team. Mira writes the secret walkthroughs and the history of the lost areas, and keeps them up to date when a patch changes something.
- How this page was made. Every step was checked against at least two independent sources (Warcraft Wiki, Wowhead and Icy Veins), and against the patch notes for anything that changed over time.
- Last updated . When a patch moves a step or breaks a puzzle, the page is corrected and the date changes.
- Spotted a mistake? Tell us and it gets fixed. Read the editorial policy.
Videos
More videos of the same place from YouTube, old and new.
