The Emerald Dream is a realm of life and wonderment that every World of Warcraft fan has known about for decades now. Players have seen glimpses of this dream world in quests and instances in the past, but they have only ever seen corners of the storied plane. But now, World of Warcraft is making the Emerald Dream a reality in Patch 10.2, Guardians of the Dream, by making it into a full-fledged zone.
Game ZXC spoke with World of Warcraft associate design director Maria Hamilton and game designer Laura Spreitzer about designing the Emerald Dream in Patch 10.2. The otherworldly plane is closely tied with dreams and magic, so it was important to them to make sure it felt strange and whimsical, even if the story unfolding across the zone is serious. The developers shared what it was like balancing these two opposing tones in the patch.
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How World of Warcraft Put the 'Dream' in Emerald Dream
The Emerald Dream is a realm in World of Warcraft with a close connection to Druids and nature. It has been described as a blueprint of Azeroth, a place where people go when they dream, and even an afterlife of sorts to some creatures. As a dreamlike world of magic and mystery, Spreitzer and the other developers went out of their way to ensure the zone had an otherworldly feel to it.
“My absolute favorite part about it is what we can do to make this place weird. It’s a dream! It’s a reflection of Azeroth, but it’s also this weird dreamy place, so… a lot of time was spent where I stopped and was like ‘Okay this is good, but what can we do to make it weirder?’”
Though the Emerald Dream is steeped in Azeroth’s history, it had to feel different, too. World of Warcraft did this by injecting oddities and whimsy across the zone. “We ended up with the fish that are flying through the sky,” Spreitzer explained, “and you see little things like little magic flying octopi that look like they’re just fragments of dream floating through the air.” From "sleepwalking" as a spirit to helping a dreamlike fish transform into a dragon after swimming up a series of waterfalls, the Emerald Dream is full of wonders for WoW fans to discover.
Spreitzer used one of the more unique rare spawns as an example. The encounter involves a child who has manifested in the Emerald Dream while sleeping–something budding Druids in World of Warcraft can do. “[The child] spawns some monkeys, some crocolisks, and then some dinner tables so you can have a food fight because they think they’re just having a fun dream, and that you’re all just figments of the dream,” Spreitzer explained. “Eventually, they spawn this big rare elite monster to be like ‘Oh, you guys are so cool! I bet you could fight a cool monster. Let me dream up a cool monster for you to fight!’” Rather than just a normal boss fight, the heroes of Azeroth can play through a child’s fantasies in a unique encounter.
Hamilton explained the whimsy found in the zone is the culmination of creativity from every part of the team. “They really were imagining - and probably have been imagining–some of those spaces [in the Emerald Dream] for a very long time,” she said. The developers have been dreaming about the Emerald Dream as long as players have, so being able to finally use all of their crazy ideas seems to have created something truly wonderful.
Guardians of the Dream is Getting Serious for Dragonflight
Whimsy aside, the main story of Guardians of the Dream is quite serious. “We’re telling a pretty serious story,” Hamilton said, “This is a significant threat.” With Fyrakk seeking to corrupt Amirdrassil–the World Tree that is not only being grown as a new home for the Night Elves, but also as a locus of power for the Dragonflights–the stakes for Patch 10.2 are high.
This made the fun and whimsy of the mythical realm all the more important. “Being able to have that whimsy, that sort of light-hearted weirdness to balance out the mood when you’re in the zone–because the Emerald Dream should have that - was delightful,” Hamilton explained. The campaign, as well as the local stories riddled throughout the Emerald Dream, will strive to balance the serious story beats with enough levity to keep players coming back for more.
One way it is doing this is by pulling in NPCs from across World of Warcraft’s history. Players can expect to meet familiar Wild Gods like Goldrinn and Aviana, along with new Loa like the mercurial Q’onzu–one of Hamilton’s new favorite characters. Unlikely duos like Shandris and Lillian Voss will team up to protect the World Tree, while other quests will delve into the close ties between characters like Ysera and Alexstrasza. Players can even expect to see NPCs from Ardenweald appear, thanks to the connection between it and the Emerald Dream.
“We definitely wanted to show that everybody is coming in, everybody is helping, to protect Amirdrassil. Getting this World Tree is so important to the denizens of many realms, All across Azeroth and into the Shadowlands and Ardenweald. Having them come here to help is just another way of being able to show that.”
It’s all hands on deck in Guardians of the Dream, and it sounds like World of Warcraft’s story is coming to a major climax. Whether fans prefer serious stories, whimsical ones, or a mixture of both, Guardians of the Dream will hopefully have something for everyone once it arrives on November 7.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.