WoW: Forever reimagines Vanilla. We kept it.

What WoW: Forever is, in Blizzard's own words

Blizzard announced it at BlizzCon in September 2026: new and expanded zones (Zephras Isle, Riverglades, Mount Hyjal), more than 1,000 new quests, a new race called the Skyborne, new pairings such as the Forsaken Paladin and the Dwarf Shaman, revamps to all classes and specialisations, an account-wide Legacy system, camping, and upgraded lighting. It is included with an active World of Warcraft subscription; the launch packs are optional extras. That is a new game built on the old world, and for many players it will be exactly right. It is also, by design, not the Vanilla of 2006.

Elwynn: Vanilla as it was, and it stays that way

Elwynn is our museum realm. The original talents, the original items, the original 40-man raids. No new race, no reworked classes, no transmog, no custom content, and no plan to add any. One deliberate exception: the two factions can chat, group and run dungeons together, so a small community can actually play. It costs nothing. No subscription, no shop, nothing for sale.

• The Elwynn realm
• What authentic Vanilla means here

Barrens: the players vote on the changes

On Barrens, our progressive realm, changes are put to a vote. The first round decided three that are now live: a respec costs one gold, you can learn a third profession, and guilds can take both factions. The realm climbs from Classic to The Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King, and the whole server crosses each level gate on the same day. Every three days it switches between peace and open-world war. Groups, chat, the auction house and mail work across factions. A warden at every open dungeon lends you a tank, a healer or a spellcaster played by the server, and Warsong Gulch fills up with server characters when players are short.

• The Barrens realm
• The vote and its results

A small server with faces

Stonetavern is small on purpose. The people who run it answer the tickets, write the changelog and publish every rule. If something breaks, you talk to a person who can fix it, not to a queue.

• The changelog
• The rules

You don't have to pick only one

Plenty of players will try Forever in November. Our client installs into its own folder, next to anything else on the same PC, and runs without a subscription. Stonetavern is a non-commercial fan project and has no connection to Blizzard Entertainment.

• Why we sell nothing