Abyssal Maw (instance)

The Abyssal Maw is a scrapped instance from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. The unused entrance hallway exists next to the Throne of the Tides.

Originally planned as a launch dungeon, it was first pushed back to patch 4.2 to release alongside the Firelands, then scrapped altogether to focus patch 4.2 entirely on the Firelands. The reasoning given at the time was that Throne of the Tides was a good ending to the Vashj'ir storyline.

However, fans have noted that it ends on a vague (and hard to see) cliffhanger where Ozumat kidnaps Neptulon. In regards to this at the BlizzCon 2011 World of Warcraft Lore and Story Q&A panel, Metzen proceeded to dodge the question with jokes about "Neptulon's tryst with Ozumat" and said that it was a hard question and that a "damn mess is what it was."

The fights would have taken place inside a third shelled demigod that had been corrupted by the naga. Ghostcrawler says that "It was three bosses inside Nespirah, with no unique art," though earlier previews described the dungeon as multiple raised underwater plateaus above a chasm.

The Abyssal maw dungeon was scrapped because the storyline and setting was not convincing and fitting.

While it was originally announced as a 5-man, later statements suggested it may have been changed to a raid before getting scrapped.

Ghostcrawler about the instance
Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, WoW's lead systems designer (at the time), talked about the Abyssal Maw during Blizzard's Cataclysm post-mortem blog series.

Speculation

 * Nar'jira might have been intended to appear here.