Wandering Isle

The Wandering Isle is the starting area of the playable pandaren in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. The Isle is a massive island on the back of a giant turtle, known to the pandaren as Shen-zin Su, and inhabited by curious pandaren and/or their descendants who left their homeland of Pandaria centuries after the Great Sundering in order to discover the other lands and races of Azeroth; The Isle has been weaving about the world's oceans ever since.

After the destruction of the Peak of Serenity in Pandaria, the monks of the Order of the Broken Temple relocate to the Wandering Isle.

Descriptions from site

 * From the zone listing:
 * Separated from Pandaria for millennia, the Wandering Isle meanders the oceans of Azeroth. When the weather changes unexpectedly on the Isle and it begins erratically spiraling toward the Maelstrom, the elders at the Temple of Five Dawns request the aid of four elemental spirits to unravel the mystery. Heroes must figure out the cause of the land's illness before the entire island plunges into the abyss!


 * From the zone article
 * Liu Lang has passed on, but his followers still depart Pandaria's shores to see the world. The turtle has grown massive, the size of a small city. It’s here, on the "Wandering Isle" that young, eager Pandaren train and learn, engaging in mock combat against one another and mastering the tools and forms of martial arts.


 * Life on the Wandering Isle is pacific and enlightening until the day the Wandering Isle travels through the seas near Azeroth's Maelstrom. The ground becomes unstable, crops wilt, and Shen-zin Su seems to wobble in the ocean, drifting in an unsteady pattern that may be a death spiral.


 * As one of the most promising Pandaren wanderers, you'll uncover the true threat to the Wandering Isle. But the problem facing the great turtle has several potential solutions, and the students of the isle are split on how to handle it. Do they act immediately (but rashly) to save their home before all is lost? Do they deliberate, attempting to find a safer (but slower) way to heal the land and deal with the dangers in their midst?


 * Your decision will shape the future, and set the path of the Pandaren in a changed world.


 * From the information on the pandaren:


 * It is the rare pandaren indeed who sought a way beyond the mist. Generations ago, pandaren explorers began to gather on the back of a giant turtle: Shen-zin Su. The great sea turtle roamed Azeroth's oceans, perhaps the only contact pandaren had with the outside world. Eventually, they too lost contact with their mist-shrouded homeland.


 * Players who choose to create a pandaren character will start their journey on the back of Shen-zin Su. When the great turtle is threatened, and their whole wandering homeland is in jeopardy of being swallowed by the sea, players will have to accelerate their training and spring into action.


 * During their time on the turtle, players will first encounter the Alliance and Horde. Before they are finished, they'll have to make the most important decision of their lives: Which of the two factions will they support as they venture out to heal a world broken by the Cataclysm and threatened by a global war?

History
From Pandaren Starting Zone Cinematic


 * ''Though Pandaren live in harmony with their native land, wanderlust has gripped a small portion of their hearts for as long as they can remember. To satisfy that wanderlust, the ancient scholar Liu Lang set out long ago – on the back of a turtle – to explore the world he knew waited beyond Pandaria’s shores. Liu Lang made several return trips to his homeland, each time bringing with him stories of the wondrous things he’d seen; each time, Shen-zin Su, the turtle that carried Liu Lang through the waters, seemed to become larger and larger.


 * ''Liu Lang has passed on, but his followers still depart Pandaria's shores to see the world. The turtle has grown massive, the size of a small city. It’s here, on the "Wandering Isle" that young, eager Pandaren train and learn, engaging in mock combat against one another and mastering the tools and forms of martial arts.


 * ''Life on the Wandering Isle is pacific and enlightening until the day the Wandering Isle travels through the seas near Azeroth’s Maelstrom. The ground becomes unstable, crops wilt, and Shen-zin Su seems to wobble in the ocean, drifting in an unsteady pattern that may be a death spiral.


 * ''As one of the most promising Pandaren wanderers, you’ll uncover the true threat to the Wandering Isle. But the problem facing the great turtle has several potential solutions, and the students of the isle are split on how to handle it. Do they act immediately (but rashly) to save their home before all is lost? Do they deliberate, attempting to find a safer (but slower) way to heal the land and deal with the dangers in their midst?


 * ''Your decision will shape the future, and set the path of the Pandaren in a changed world.

Origins
The descendants of Liu Lang's followers, whom Shen-zin Su would dub the "grandchildren" of Liu Lang, still travel on the great turtle's shell to see the world. The turtle has continued to grow since Liu Lang's time to a truly massive size, supporting several villages, forest, and small mountain ranges. The settlers would appropriately call the sea turtle's shell the "Wandering Isle".

Ever since Wugou, the spirit of earth, fell asleep, the dirt of the Dai-Lo Farmstead started drying out and got harder and harder to get new seeds to sprout.

Some daring pandaren explorers such as Chen and Li Li Stormstout left the Isle to explore the greater world.

Mists of Pandaria
Shen-zin Su was originally swimming as usual in the seas, when the Alliance Skyseeker gunship crashed into his flank because of the thick mist. This injured the giant turtle and caused him to no longer swim straight,, and Shen-zin Su started being dragged toward the Maelstrom. The various inhabitants of the Isle felt the change, and populations who usually kept to themselves such as the local Amberleaf sprites and Fe-Feng tribe of hozen understood something bad was coming, so they started giving trouble to the local pandaren, notably by stealing their supplies.

Sensing that something was abnormal, Master Shang Xi gave his disciples the task to find and unite the four ancient elemental spirits, which would help the pandaren talk to Shen-zin Su, a feat not done in centuries.

Realizing that the source of Shen-zin Su's pain was the Skyseeker Master Shang Xi's disciples headed into the forbidden Pei-Wu Forest. There, the party helped triage members of the Horde and Alliance, as well as fend off the horrors from the depths of the Deepscale saurok. With the immediate threat taken care of, Ji Firepaw decided to blow up what was was left of the Skyseeker. Shockingly, this plan actually worked, to a point.

Legion
When the Burning Legion attacked the Peak of Serenity, the Wandering Isle happened to be traveling nearby. The monk Order of the Broken Temple settled at the Wandering Isle, particularly around the Temple of Five Dawns.

Regions adjacent to the Wandering Isle
Once characters leave the Wandering Isle, they are ineligible for a return journey. Non-Pandaren are prevented from ever entering the Island, much like the Lost Isles and Kezan were only part of the leveling experience of goblin characters.

Monks of all races later establish the Wandering Isle as their Class Hall for the Order of the Broken Temple. This version of the Isle exists in a separate phase, not interfering with the pandaren starting experience. Notably, the Wreck of the Skyseeker is absent from the new version of the map.

Quests
The Wandering Isle storyline is the pandaren level 1-10 starting experience. Freshly-created pandaren start out neutral, in their own instance. Once players reach the end of the chain, they will be forced to make a one-time-only decision as to which faction they wish to ally with, Alliance or Horde.

Resources

 * Peacebloom
 * Silverleaf
 * Earthroot
 * Copper Ore
 * Light Leather
 * Ruined Leather Scraps

Wild creatures

 * Armadillos
 * Cloud serpent
 * Cranes
 * Foxes
 * Moths
 * Rays
 * Sprites
 * Steam elementals
 * Tigers
 * Water striders