Pheonix_singing found Outland... and it's in South Carolina. Doing a little searching, I also found Durotan, Nagrand, Crossroads (oh man watch out for all the Chuck Norris jokes there), and Lakeshire. Unfortunately, Azeroth doesn't appear on Google Maps anywhere-- at least until they start mapping other planets. Until then, of course, MapWoW's got the monopoly.

I have to give it to Blizzard for their place names-- they're really, really good at coming up with names that sound real, but aren't. Stranglethorn Vale is a perfect name for the southern tip of the Eastern Kingdom, and Feralas and Desolace are perfect for their ambient locations as well, but none of those names directly refer to anything on a real map. And even Azeroth is a pretty epic sounding name that Blizzard (Metzen, probably) pulled out of thin air. Well, not completely thin air-- they did kind of nab it fromone of their first games, which was based in "Androth." But still.

And my favorite name from Warcraft isn't on any real map either-- it's Thousand Needles (or 1K Needles, as I like to call it). I don't know how a designer looked at the hundreds of plateaus south of the Barrens and decided to call it that, but I'm glad they did.

Tags: blackthorne, feralas, map, names, outland, southcarolina, thousandneedles

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Lore