Blizzard's Forever lore podcast: its own timeline, Forsaken Paladins, and a balance clamp

2026-11-12 · ForeverDB

Episode 7 of the WoW: Forever podcast is the lore episode, with Aggrend and lore lead Sean Copeland plus guests PlatinumWoW and Nobbel87. They explain that Forever's story is its own branching timeline split off from modern WoW, name the characters and places they want to use, and open with a short balance update. We checked the zones, factions and raids they mention against the Forever client.

This is an official World of Warcraft video, posted to Blizzard's YouTube channel on 12 November 2026. The lore and balance lines are Blizzard's own words, quoted from the podcast. The zone, faction, dungeon and raid facts come from the Forever client (build 1.60.1.70938) and the site's data. A lot of what the panel describes is story that isn't in the client, so it can't be checked yet.

The lore episode runs about 76 minutes. Host countdowntoclassic sits down with Senior Game Designer Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield, Lore Historian Lead Sean Copeland, and guests PlatinumWoW and Nobbel87. It opens with a few minutes of balance clarifications, then turns into a long chat about where Forever's story sits next to the rest of Warcraft, which old characters the team wants to pull off the shelf, and how they plan to tell it. Here's the substance, checked against our data.

The short version

• Forever's story is its own branching timeline, "its own own continuity very much so like Hearthstone is", not part of modern WoW's canon. The first plan was to fold it into the main timeline 20 years back, and they dropped it.
• Balance update: Horde character creation is clamped on most PvP realms (EU RP-PvP is Alliance creation instead) after the faction split hit the 55/45 upper limit. Making level-one alts doesn't move the balance.
• They want to avoid one big villain running the show "for years and years and years", and your character stays "a hero, not the hero". You can ignore the story and just play.
• The Skyborne zone, Riverglades, the High Order, Forsaken Paladins, Scarlet Monastery, Scarlet Enclave and Molten Core all get name-checked. The client already holds most of them as data.
• This also lists the characters they name that we have no data for yet (Tirion, Vol'jin, Pained, Cormac), and a couple of caption words that happen to match class spells.

Claim by claim

Zones, factions, dungeons and raids are from the client and site data. Characters the panel names aren't in our structured data yet, so those stay "cannot check".

The balance update

Before the lore chat, Aggrend cleared up a few things from the last day of blue posts. The headline is faction creation on PvP realms.

• Horde character creation is clamped on most PvP and RP-PvP realms; on EU RP-PvP it's Alliance creation that's locked instead. It's about keeping faction balance, with roughly a 10% delta allowed.
• Making level-one alts or trial characters doesn't skew the system; it looks at characters actually playing over time.
• Per-zone population is now tuned server-side. They dialled congestion down and will keep adjusting as players spread out and level up.

we've kind of hit that that sort of like 55 45 split uh from Horde to Alliance and that's that's the upper limit Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (2:47)

you can make a million level one characters and and it's not really going to impact anything Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (3:49)

One timeline, split off from modern WoW

Sean Copeland describes his job as the "park ranger of Warcraft", keeping the lore straight for Josh and the team. The big call they made early was to keep Forever's story separate from modern WoW's canon.

It needs to be its own own continuity very much so like Hearthstone is. Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (9:36)

Aggrend says the first idea was different, and they talked themselves out of it (he tells the story of deciding to split it with Chris Metzen at a food truck on campus).

the original plan was to go like 20 years back in time, make it part of the main continuity, and then see if you can make it fit with what you already told Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (10:34)

They point to Season of Discovery as the lesson: the Scarlet Monastery Mograine event was about Mograine's own arc rather than lining up with everything that came decades later. In Forever they're free of that, so a story can "make sense" in the moment without being locked to the future.

How they want to tell it

The storytelling philosophy is deliberately low-key: like original WoW, you can skip the story and just play.

Original WoW, you could kind of completely ignore the story, and that's actually okay. Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (27:11)

They're not rushing to add cutscenes. The model for a big lore beat is something like the Onyxia quest line (captioned "Onixia"), not a personal cutscene, and your character stays "a hero, not the hero". On villains, they want to dodge the one-big-bad-for-years trap.

we're going to try pretty hard to avoid having a central villain that is like the only thing that matters for years and years and years Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (31:39)

Original content is used as anchor points. Ragnaros is called out as "the first major raid boss we fight", and Molten Core is one they haven't reached yet.

Zones, factions and the Forsaken Paladins

Aggrend tells an anecdote about building the Skyborne zone and the faction-leader conversation when you leave it.

Whenever we were creating the Skyborn zone, the one of the things that you do when you leave the zone, sorry for spoilers, is you go and you talk to your the faction leaders for the faction you're joining Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (19:33)

On the Horde side that's Thrall, Sylvanas and Vol'jin; Aggrend points out that in original WoW Vol'jin (captioned "Vulg") had no gossip text at all, which is the kind of gap they like to fill. The Skyborne are the client's High Order, Highborne descendants out of Skywall. The "Undead Paladins" chapter covers the Forsaken Paladin story, built with the Warcraft 3 Forsaken Kingdom team.

you have to think that paladins would not be trusted by the Forsaken Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (24:24)

Sean says Cormac, from the Forsaken Paladin short story, got written into the game off the back of that story. Scarlet Enclave is confirmed to come back.

Scarlet Enclave will return. Ashbrer will return at some point. Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast, Episode 7 (22:46)

Characters they name

A lot of the episode is a wish list of characters the team wants to do something with. None of these are in our structured data yet, so we can't confirm what they'll do, but they're worth noting:

• Tirion Fordring (captioned "Tyrion", "Talon foring") in his hermit years, after being expelled from the Silver Hand, with a son who went Scarlet Crusader.
• Vol'jin, who gets something new to do after having no gossip text in the original game.
• Pained, Jaina's bodyguard, a deep cut Sean and Aggrend both want to use.
• Cormac (captioned "Cormarmac"), the Forsaken Paladin short-story character, already put in the game.
• Mograine and the Ashbringer (captioned "Ashbrer") arc, which returns with Scarlet Enclave.

Where the client and Blizzard differ

• Our dungeon data still labels Scarlet Enclave "Blizzard hasn't announced it for Forever" (it's a Season of Discovery raid sitting in the files). Aggrend now says it "will return", so that note is out of date and we'll update it.
• Nothing else the panel said about zones, factions or raids contradicts the client's data.
• The auto-captions mishear several names. The in-game and lore spellings are: Skyborne (captions "Skyborn"), Onyxia ("Onixia"), Mograine ("Mograin"), Ashbringer ("Ashbrer"), Vol'jin ("Vulg"), Cormac ("Cormarmac") and Tirion Fordring ("Tyrion", "Talon foring").

What we have, and what we don't

The client carries the zones, factions, dungeons and raids as data: names, maps and boss lists. It doesn't carry the lore itself, which is why most of this episode can't be verified from the client.

• Have: Riverglades and its lore page, the High Order, Scarlet Monastery, Scarlet Enclave and Molten Core with full boss lists, the Argent Dawn, and the Dark Portal and Outland as areas.
• Don't have: quest text, NPC gossip and story outcomes. Those live on the server and in the content pipeline, not in anything a player can read off the client.
• Don't have: structured entries for the characters they name (Tirion, Vol'jin, Pained, Cormac), so we can't show what they're up to yet.
• Can't test: whether the Dark Portal opens, or how a quest chain plays out, until the content goes live. The client only holds the pieces.

Ability names in the captions

YouTube's auto-captions throw up a few common words that double as class spells. The podcast doesn't discuss any of them as abilities; here's what the client actually holds, for the record.

• Vengeance Vengeance (Paladin): a Retribution talent you reach from level 30, +3% Physical and Holy damage for 30 sec after a non-periodic crit, stacking up to 5 times. The video's word is "compassion over vengeance".
• Darkness Darkness (Priest): a Shadow talent from level 35, up to +10% Shadow damage done.
• Feedback Feedback (Priest): trained at level 20; rank 5 (level 60) costs 230 mana instead of Classic Era's 580.
• Impact Impact (Mage): a Fire talent from level 15, up to a 10% chance to stun for 2 sec. The video's "no impact whatsoever" is about level-one alts.
• Blizzard Blizzard (Mage): trained at level 20; the client stores no damage number for it (the server works that out), so we can't check it. The "Blizzard" in the video is the studio.

More on our pages

• Paladin changes in the client and the Paladin talent calculator
• Priest changes in the client and the Priest talent calculator
• Mage changes in the client and the Mage talent calculator

Sources

• Turbo Nerds Lore-ing Out ft. @PlatinumWoW & @Nobbel87 | Episode 7 - The WoW: Forever Podcast (World of Warcraft, YouTube)
• WoW: Forever (official)
• Episode 7 on Spotify
• The Riverglades (ForeverDB)
• The Forsaken (ForeverDB)
• Scarlet Enclave (ForeverDB)