Outland

Outland is what is left of Draenor, the homeworld of the orcs and ogres and a refuge of the draenei. When the orc shaman Ner'zhul opened many portals at once to escape to other worlds, the planet was torn apart. The pieces were thrown partly into the Twisting Nether, and Outland has been slowly falling apart ever since.

The pit lord Magtheridon first ruled it for the Burning Legion. After the Third War Illidan Stormrage took his place and brought blood elves and naga with him. Years later Kazzak reopened the Dark Portal, and the Alliance and the Horde invaded Outland to stop the Legion, ending Illidan's rule at the Black Temple along the way.

Outland is the setting of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Players used to reach it through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands; since Warlords of Draenor it is reached through mage portals in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City.

• Patch 7.3.5 added level scaling to Outland; its zones then went up to level 80 instead of the original 70.
• Outland was first meant to ship with the original game; a single-zone version was built and then dropped.
• The first expansion was planned for the South Seas, but server limits made it hard to add zones to the old continents, so Outland, on a separate map, was used instead.

Outland has seven large zones that connect to each other but look very different. Shattrath City in Terokkar Forest is a sanctuary and the main hub.

• Hellfire Citadel: Hellfire Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Shattered Halls and Magtheridon's Lair.
• Coilfang Reservoir: Slave Pens, Underbog, Steamvault and Serpentshrine Cavern.
• Auchindoun: Mana-Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labyrinth.
• Tempest Keep: The Mechanar, The Botanica, The Arcatraz and The Eye.
• Also: Gruul's Lair and the Black Temple.

For player battles, Outland has the Eye of the Storm battleground in Netherstorm and the Ring of Trials and Circle of Blood arenas.