Mists of Pandaria Expansion Features/Welcome to Pandaria
This article is a copy of "Welcome to Pandaria" an official article by Blizzard Entertainment. It overviewed the zones added in Mists of Pandaria.
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Separated from Pandaria for centuries, the Wandering Isle meanders the oceans of Azeroth. When the weather changes unexpectedly on the Isle and it begins erratically spiraling toward the Maelstrom, the elders at the Temple of Five Dawns request the aid of four elemental spirits to unravel the mystery. Heroes must figure out the cause of the land's illness before the entire island plunges into the abyss!
The Wandering Isle
Level 1-10
Separated from Pandaria for millennia, the Wandering Isle meanders the oceans of Azeroth. When the weather changes unexpectedly on the Isle and it begins erratically spiraling toward the Maelstrom, the elders at the Temple of Five Dawns request the aid of four elemental spirits to unravel the mystery. Heroes must figure out the cause of the land's illness before the entire island plunges into the abyss!
Pandaren Racial Starting Zone
Though Pandaren live in harmony with their native land, wanderlust has gripped a small portion of their hearts for as long as they can remember. To satisfy that wanderlust, the ancient scholar Liu Lang set out long ago – on the back of a turtle – to explore the world he knew waited beyond Pandaria's shores. Liu Lang made several return trips to his homeland, each time bringing with him stories of the wondrous things he'd seen; each time, Shen-zin Su, the turtle that carried Liu Lang through the waters, seemed to become larger and larger.
Liu Lang has passed on, but his followers still depart Pandaria's shores to see the world. The turtle has grown massive, the size of a small city. It's here, on the "Wandering Isle" that young, eager Pandaren train and learn, engaging in mock combat against one another and mastering the tools and forms of martial arts.
Life on the Wandering Isle is pacific and enlightening until the day the Wandering Isle travels through the seas near Azeroth's Maelstrom. The ground becomes unstable, crops wilt, and Shen-zin Su seems to wobble in the ocean, drifting in an unsteady pattern that may be a death spiral.
As one of the most promising Pandaren wanderers, you'll uncover the true threat to the Wandering Isle. But the problem facing the great turtle has several potential solutions, and the students of the isle are split on how to handle it. Do they act immediately (but rashly) to save their home before all is lost? Do they deliberate, attempting to find a safer (but slower) way to heal the land and deal with the dangers in their midst?
Your decision will shape the future, and set the path of the Pandaren in a changed world.
The Jade Forest & Temple of the Jade Serpent
Level 85-86
After a devastating naval battle, survivors from both the Horde and Alliance wash up onto the tree-lined shores of the Jade Forest. Surrounded by wilderness, they must form alliances with the natives if they wish to survive. Along the way, they will meet the pandaren... along with some of the greater powers that protect and shape Pandaria.
After a naval battle between the Horde and the Alliance leaves the survivors stranded on the beaches of Pandaria, rescue parties of those factions' elite soldiers set out explore the mysterious, fog-shrouded island. You are among them.
As one of the first explorers to set foot on Pandaria, you'll begin your investigation in the midst of the emerald bamboo and coastal marsh of the Jade Forest, where two of Pandaria's most prominent races make their homes. The monkey-like Hozen and the Jinyu fish-people thrive near the rivers of the Jade Forest, and your first encounters with them are likely to be hostile. Yet, ultimately, your lack of allies and guidance in this unfamiliar land will make befriending the natives your only option.
Temple of the Jade Serpent
- Type: Dungeon
- Location: The Jade Forest
- Level bands: 85-86
- Bosses: 4
In the eastern heart of the Jade Forest, the races of Pandaria maintain a temple to the Jade Serpent, a venerable spirit of wisdom and foresight. Here, overlooking Pandaria's coast, the myriad races of the continent come to meditate for insight or peruse the living archives of the temple's library, where Pandaria's history is literally brought to life. The temple is particularly sacred to the fish-like Jinyu, who use its scrying pool to serve as their eyes and ears throughout the continent.
Valley of the Four Winds & Stormstout Brewery
Level 86-88
A tranquil plain of lush farmland, bordered by dense mysterious jungles along the south and impassible mountains to the north. The valley is considered the "breadbasket" of Pandaria, but the year's harvest is in jeopardy and a terrible malaise has overcome the pandaren that live along the coast. The valley is also the home of the legendary Stormstout Brewery, where Chen Stormstout and his niece Li Li hope to journey to discover the whereabouts of their long-lost ancestors.
In the golden and green fields of the Valley of the Four Winds, Pandaria sees to the hunger and thirst of its people. Sizeable corn and lotus crops are watered by ingenious agricultural advances and cared for by the Tillers, Pandaren farmers who feed a growing empire. Farms, ranches and marketplaces dot a land of rolling plains and vine-covered boughs.
It is here that Brewmaster Chen Stormstout arrives after a life spent traveling, first on the Wandering Isle and then throughout Kalimdor. Alongside Alliance and Horde explorers, he'll discover the ancestral home of the Stormstout for the first time, and strive to live up to his family's name and legacy of peerless brewing. But not all is idyllic within the Valley. The ravenous appetites of long-toothed Virmen and simian Hozen endanger crops and farmers alike…and threaten the entire continent with starvation. If you can stop these animalistic pillagers, you'll be able to grab a plow and a shovel and cultivate Pandaria's fallow farmlands once again. Meanwhile, as farmers worry over their harvests and the hunger in their bellies, the great wall built to keep the violent Mantid race out of the Valley begins to show its first cracks…
Stormstout Brewery
- Type: Dungeon
- Location: Valley of the Four Winds
- Level bands: 85-87
- Bosses: 3
For generations, the Stormstout Brewery has been a font of joy for the citizens of Pandaria, pumping out an endless-seeming supply of delicious and refined beverages without appearing to break stride. The Stormstout family has enjoyed and supported the Brewery's continued significance, and kept diligent watch over their recipes and the perfection of their stills – until today. In the absence of any more able Stormstout, management of the building has recently fallen to Uncle Gao Stormstout…to the detriment of everyone who has ever enjoyed a cold drink. On Gao's "watch," loathsome Virmen have broken through the brewery's massive oak doors and ravaged the Stormstout's stores of rice and barley; local Hozen have also begun cracking into casks left and right, spurring a destructive revel that threatens to devastate the Valley's supply. As if that weren't enough, the brew itself has begun to spoil – in the worst way possible.
Krasarang Wilds
Level 86-88
The Krasarang Wilds along Pandaria's southern coast conceal many ancient secrets of a lost dynasty that have drawn the attention of prophecy-seekers among the Alliance and Horde. The Wilds are also home to the vicious, domineering Mogu, and a more insidious danger still: the Sha of Despair is believed to have escaped from its bindings in the Temple of the Red Crane, and stifling gloom has begun to blanket the land in its path.
Kun-Lai Summit
Level 87-89
High atop the frigid northern peaks of the Kun-Lai Summit looms the Temple of the Tiger, an ancient training ground protected by an elite force of martial priests, along with the spirit of the White Tiger itself. Deeper into the mountains is the hideout of the Shado-pan: a mysterious order charged with protecting Pandaria from the dark things buried beneath its surface. When the isolated people of Kun-Lai are threatened by marauders from the west and a Zandalari troll menace invading its northern shores, they turn to the Alliance and Horde for help.
Townlong Steppes
Level 89-90
Separated from the rest of Pandaria by the Pandaren Wall, the rampaging mantid people of the Townlong Wastes[sic] devour everything in their path in order to build their own crystalline empire of ruthless warriors and scheming feudal lords. The pandaren are left reeling when the mantid's thousand-year cycle of aggression kicks off a hundred years too early and their greatest warriors burst through the Pandaren Wall. The beleaguered pandaren must now face the worst swarm in recorded history while trying to isolate the cause of the mantid's erratic behavior.
Dread Wastes
Level 89-90
Beyond the wall, in the dark heart of mantid territory, few pandaren dare to tread. It is here that the mantid empress holds court from her once-splendid palace. But a dark shadow has crept over the mantid race, and the behavior of the empress has grown erratic. Driven to madness by the Sha of Fear, the empress is breeding and unleashing an uncontrolled swarm that threatens to overwhelm the wall and engulf Pandaria. There is hope; even within the mantid race there are some who wish to see the Empress overthrown. Ending her reign will require breaching her palace stronghold, now known as the Heart of Fear.
Vale of Eternal Blossoms
Level 90
The ancient seat of the pandaren empire has been hidden for generations, shrouded in mists and walled-off by impassible mountains. The waters of the Vale are believed to have mystical powers... which has attracted the attention of ancient enemies as well as power-hungry factions within the Alliance and Horde. What secrets lie buried below this mystical font of power?
