WoW’s Concept Maps
Goblins first became a playable race in 2010 with the Cataclysm expansion, but Blizzard had always planned for them to be a major group on Azeroth even before the game entered full development. Back in 1999, when the world of Azeroth was just sketches, Chris Metzen created maps like these detailing their ideas for the world beyond the human kingdoms of Warcraft I and II.
While it is a very early draft, you can spot many familiar locations on these maps, from the continents of Northrend and Kalimdor to places we similarly wouldn’t see in the game for decades like the Tomb of Sargeras. In this iteration, it seems like Undermine was intended to be a portion of Kalimdor that had survived the collapse of the Well of Eternity, as a continent around the same scale as Northrend.
This next map features locations and continental shapes closer to the ones we’re familiar with like Mulgore and Durotar on Kalimdor or the Maelstrom at the center of the world, and again features Undermine as a prominent continent, this time as the premiere transport hub between each continent.
This last map showcases a closer look at the original plans for the continent of Undermine, as a lush forest island littered with familiar goblin amenities like port hubs and resort beaches. Blizzard clearly had large-scale plans for the goblin capitol even in the last millennium, but they unfortunately didn’t pan out.
According to John Staats, the first 3D Level Designer on World of Warcraft who was responsible for nearly all of the dungeons we know and love from the classic game, the decision to cut Undermine and player goblins came down to a lack of unique goblin-themed assets to build such a crazy hub, and the race was instead relegated to neutral non-player factions with major roles in hubs like Ratchet, Booty Bay, and Gadgetzan.
The History of Undermine
While the physical location of Undermine may have been cut from WoW, its influence on goblin lore certainly wasn’t, especially in the wake of their addition to the Horde roster in Cataclysm. Undermine, and the isle of Kezan that it sits under, has had a central place in goblin story dating back to their origins as a society.
We know the goblins of today as eccentric and highly intelligent tinkers, but before their modern society they had a much different place on Azeroth. Originating from experiments with the highly potent ore known as Kaja’mite, goblins are the creations of the titan keeper Mimiron. While the ore granted them their intellect, the Sundering saw them cut off from the ore and isolated between islands. They would eventually coalesce onto the island nation of Kezan, but due to their isolation, the goblins slowly forgot about Kaja’mite and the boons it offered them.
Ancestral goblins, as seen in Hearthstone.
That would change when their island was found by the Zandalari trolls thousands of years later. Having heard of Kaja’mite, the trolls came to Kezan in search of the rare mineral and its unique properties, and found the island rich in ore veins and scarcely populated by goblin tribes. While the two groups would avoid each other for centuries, interacting only in cases of rare employment, the Zandalari eventually found an unimaginably massive deposit of Kaja’mite buried underneath the island.
In an effort to expedite their access to the ore, the Zandalari enslaved the local goblins, forcing them to mine the Kaja’mite for them under brutal working conditions. For thousands of years they suffered under the yoke of the trolls, digging a massive cavern deep below the island in the process, but it was the very ore that once created them that would be their salvation. In the process of excavating Kaja’mite, the lingering dust was breathed in by the goblin slaves, reawakening their long-lost heights of intelligence.
Using their newly found genius to create weapons and machinery in secret, the goblins suddenly attacked their troll overseers, overwhelming them immediately and freeing their island from tyranny. In the wake of their liberation, however, they turned their weapons on each other in a mad scramble for power, forming Cartels admist the chaos to unify their strengths.
Eventually, the goblins would see that outright warfare resulted in no clear winner, and instead brokered truces between their Cartels. Instead, their war would happen on an economic stage, building wealth and power in their newly liberated homeland. Among their settlements was the very cavern that they had been forced to excavate, which they populated and turned into the vast city of Undermine.
From there, the goblin Cartels spread their wealth beyond Kezan into the far reaches of Azeroth, all eager to corner a market for themselves, but even with the destruction of the island nation above in the wake of the Cataclysm, Undermine remained the hub of goblin ingenuity and trade for years to come — including the upcoming patch zone.
Undermine in 11.1
All the aforementioned lore has informed goblin culture and their place in Azeroth, but Undermine has never truly acted as a prominent location in World of Warcraft, thanks to its absence from the game. Now, in patch 11.1, that’s finally changing, with Undermine acting as the titular new zone for our next adventure in Azeroth’s subterranean depths.
From what we currently know, Undermine will serve as the hub for four main goblin cartels: the Bilgewater, the Steamwheedle, the Blackwater, and the Venture Co. The Bilgewater are well known as the Horde’s premiere goblin faction who allied with them during the Cataclysm, and the Steamwheedle are likewise present throughout WoW as the owners of neutral hubs such as Gadgetzan and Ratchet.
The Blackwater are a newly formed cartel however, made up of the pirates that oversee Booty Bay who have seemingly declared independence from the Steamwheedle. Likewise, while the Venture Co have a long history throughout WoW, they have historically been enemies to the player faction, so their role as a friendly faction is a new dynamic. All four have experienced major changes in recent years, from new leadership to new independence, and it will be exciting to see how those dynamics play a role in our eventual fight against Gallywix in the Liberation of Undermine.
The four renown sub-factions in Undermine.
We also see some hints at the implementation of Undermine’s original purpose as a transport hub in some of the reveal footage for the zone. In one corner of the map, there is a drill station with five exit tunnels, and in other sections of the footage, we see new subzones in the Ringing Deeps and Zuldazar.
While far from confirmed, this may mean we have three other drill tunnels yet to be revealed across Azeroth. Locations like Booty Bay, Bilgewater Harbor, and Gadgetzan seem like ideal locations for these tunnels, given their importance to the main goblin cartels, but we’ll have to wait and see just how expansive this tunnel system ends up being in patch 11.1.
About The Author
