The Stormwind Vault
Across the canals from the Stockade stands a second prison that looks almost exactly like it, except that it sits in the middle of the water. Since 2004 its portcullis has stayed shut. This is the Vault.
The prison for what iron can't hold
According to the Warcraft roleplaying book Lands of Conflict, the building in the water really is the Vault. The Stockade holds ordinary criminals; the Vault was meant for rogue mages, warlocks, ogre magi, demons and anyone else too dangerous for chains and bars. In the game there was a placeholder: an instance whirlpool behind a gate, guarded by two Stormwind soldiers. Rumour had it that some heroes of the Second War were locked up inside.
What happened to it
Nothing, officially. The Vault has never opened in the main game, in Classic or in any of its seasons, and its gate is still closed today. Warcraft Wiki notes that the idea of a high-security prison instance resurfaced years later in Wrath of the Lich King as the Violet Hold in Dalaran. Some fan-run private servers have built their own Vault dungeon, but that is their invention, not Blizzard's.
From the archive
The Vault is a prison in Stormwind, built to hold the most dangerous beings imaginable: demons, rogue mages, necromancers, and anyone or anything that manacles and iron bars could not contain.
WoWWiki, 2006
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