Exile's Reach

Not to be confused with Exile's Rise.

Exile's Reach
Level: 1 - 10
Loading screen
Capital(s)	Darkmaul Citadel
Races	Ogre Ogron  Quilboar Harpy  Murloc  Tortollan
Ruler(s)	Gor'groth
Affiliation	Darkmaul, Independent
Location	North Sea
PvP status	Contested territory

Stranded on Exile's Reach.

Veteran players can still start by choosing their old starting zone.

Exile's Reach is an uncharted island located within the North Sea which will serve as a level 1-10 starting zone in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. New World of Warcraft players will automatically start in Exile's Reach before moving to their faction's capital and entering Battle for Azeroth leveling content. Existing players starting new characters will be able to choose if they want to start in their race's regular starting zone or in Exile's Reach before moving on to 10-50 content. The story through the island culminates in a mini-dungeon of two bosses designed for 1 to 5 players, with scaling difficulty and no role requirements. Players can choose if they want to take on the challenge alone or with friends. Overall, the experience is intended to introduce new players to the world and the basics of the features seen later in the game.

Exile's Reach will not be available for allied race characters and death knights and demon hunters. Allied races will begin at level 10. Non-Allied race death knights and demon hunters will automatically begin at level 8 and play through their own starting experience before moving on around level 10.

History

At an unknown time but described as "long ago" by the vrykul Hjalmar, he was slain by the ogres who trapped his spirit here for daring to defy them.

The Horde and Alliance sent an expedition to the island, but it was never heard from again. Novice adventurers travel to the island as part of a bigger and stronger expeditionary force to find out what happened. As with many such journeys, the adventurers find themselves as part of a crew aboard a ship bound to their last known location. When things take a turn for the worse, they make landfall on the island of Exile's Reach, eventually discovering that the previous expedition was captured by an ogre necromancer who intends to sacrifice them to raise an undead dragon.

Geography

Exile's Reach is a small island part of an archipelago in the North Sea, located to the northeast of the Broken Isles—at a considerable distance off the coast of Stormheim—and in between Northrend and Lordaeron. The island has large mountains, vistas, waterfalls, dark forests, and a variety of familiar monsters. Ogre ruins dot the central area of the island.

The islands surrounding Exile's Reach have vrykul settlements and night elven ruins.

Maps and subregions

Map of Exile's Reach.

Darkmaul Citadel Darkmaul Plains Darkmaul Bridge Hrun's Barrow Killclaw's Lair Ogre Ruins Harpy Roost The Jagged Coast Abandoned Camp Murloc Hideaway Jrokgar's Coast The North Sea Quilboar Briarpatch

Dungeons

Instance name	Level range	Group size	Approximate run time
Darkmaul Citadel	10	5

Notes and trivia

• A hidden underwater cave can be found in the northern part of the river that goes through Exile's Reach. Three tortollans found here will transport you back to your camp.
• The ogre architecture on the island is distinctly Gorian, making it one of the very few places on Azeroth to use the imperial ogre craftsmanship, the other being ruins on the Seething Shore and on Un'gol Ruins.
• The island sits in the center of a large archipelago of unreachable islands, most of which are copy and pasted bits of terrain from the Stormheim zone.
• At BlizzCon 2019, death knights and demon hunters were originally stated to also start at level 1 on Exile's Reach with the option for veteran players of playing their original hero class starting experiences as an alternative.
• Each race has its own introductory statement during the cutscene of when the player is flying into their faction's capital cities.
  • Alliance Races
    • Humans:
    • Gnomes:
    • Night Elves: "As one of the ancient and elusive night elves, you have ventured forth from the sacred forests to aid your allies and protect the wilds."
    • Dwarves: "Representing the stout and enduring dwarves of Ironforge, you have emerged from the mountain and stand ready to face any challenge."
    • Draenei:
    • Worgen: "Though the worgen curse ravaged your home kingdom of Gilneas, you have mastered your feral rage as a weapon against your rivals."
    • Pandaren:
  • Horde Races
    • Orcs:
    • Trolls: "Renouncing the brutality of other troll tribes, you and your fellow Darkspear protect your allies with cunning ferocity."
    • Tauren:
    • Undead: "The undead Forsaken may be shunned by the living, but your people strive to rise above the ruins of the past and forge a new future."
    • Blood Elves:
    • Goblins: "As members of the Bilgewater Cartel, you and your fellow goblins have sided with the Horde for the promise of adventure... and profit!"
    • Pandaren:

Speculation

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

It might be or not the same archipelago that once featured on the world maps before Wrath of the Lich King.

Gallery

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  Exile's Reach location as shown for Alliance players as they depart the island to Stormwind.

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  The hidden underwater cave in the river.

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  East of Murloc Hideaway a skeleton of a mermaid?

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  Baby in a nest in Harpy Roost.

BlizzCon 2019

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  Exile's Reach as shown at BlizzCon 2019

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Patch changes

• Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Added.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB