Emerald Dream (unreleased)



Emerald Dream is a zone that has been in the game files since early development, but which was never never finished or released. The aesthetics of the zone are fairly unique, and while several assets were reused in the Emerald Dragonshrine, Stormrage Barrow Dens, Emerald Dreamway, and the Emerald Nightmare instance, many have not been seen elsewhere.

Development
According to Mark Kern, the Emerald Dream was originally planned to be the place where player characters went upon dying in World of Warcraft. Once there, they could meet characters who had died in the lore and who would give quests that could only be completed in the Emerald Dream. Players could either find a spirit guide to bring them back to the real world or stay in the Dream and complete quests.

Rumors dating back to the early development phase of World of Warcraft in 2003 suggest that the Emerald Dream was later planned to be added in an 'at that time' future patch or expansion pack as an endgame zone or as a new continent. Newer speculation suggests that the Emerald Dream was originally intended to be an endgame instance, but got scrapped because Blizzard wanted it to be the main theme of an expansion. Tigole stated in late May 2007 that Blizzard had "actually done a lot of work on the Emerald Dream but we scrapped what we had for bigger, grander plans."

Blizzard quotes
Back before World of Warcraft's closed beta phase, Tigole mentioned interesting details about the Emerald Dream, that seem to support the idea that it would be released.

Tigole on Sat, 06 Dec 2003 06:01:04 PST Actually, we have some pretty cool stuff planned for druids. They will definitely have a link to the Emerald Dream. There's also a zone on the way to the peak of Mount Hyjal called Moonglade that will be very core to druid characters. Our *master of Warcraft lore*, Chris Metzen, is never short on ideas when it comes to the druid class. I was running around the Emerald Dream last Thursday... you guys are in for a treat. The level designers are doing a killer job.

Tigole on Sat, 06 Dec 2003 22:01:05 PST The Emerald Dream is shaping up to be extremely cool. We don't want to preview any of that content yet as it is *endgame* and we want some surprises for players. [...] The zone is massive and beautiful. And once the content team is done with it, it will be exceedingly challenging >=]

Nethaera on Wed, 06 Sep 2006 08:19:20 As for the Emerald Dream, there are no plans for anything as of yet but it is a consideration for the future. The Emerald Dream opens up a lot of different opportunities and the Burning Crusade is definitely not going to be the last of the expansion packs. There are many different places and storylines that can be pursued. The story is going to keep growing and as it does so, people will get to experience it.

Chris Metzen, November 2013 at BlizzCon (interview with South Korean videocast PlayersCut) The Emerald Dream is a nice idea and the team has talked about making it into an expansion many times. Building an entire expansion worth of zones around a green lush forest theme would get very boring, so the Emerald Dream would be better used as raid, dungeon, or a subzone, not an entire expansion.

Subzones

 * Emerald Forest
 * The Verdant Fields