I admit, I've seen pictures of this part of the Black Temple well before Soundwave of Nazjatar sent in this screenshot. However, I'd always thoughtlessly presumed that the silvery orb in the sky overhead was the moon. After all, I'm used to seeing the moon in real life, and it seemed to be the most natural thing to sit in the sky above Illidan. But, as Soundwave points out -- that's no moon... it's Azeroth!
Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing
aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from
Around Azeroth.
Tags: around-azeroth, black-temple, illidan, world-of-warcraft, wow
Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth
Oct 3rd 2007 at 10:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ortai Oct 3rd 2007 10:21AM
That would mean that the outlands are in orbit around Az?
Todd Oct 3rd 2007 10:46AM
I've read the lore of Warcraft and I don't recall any mention that Draenei/Outland was in orbit, or hell, that close to Azeroth. Specifics never seemed to be given, but you would think that if Outland was that near to the major planet this fact would be mentioned. Is this for real?
ringu0 Oct 3rd 2007 10:48AM
WoWWiki mentions the Outland's moon in the following paragraph:
"It has a large moon called the Pale Lady by the orcs, and which can still be seen in the sky in Hellfire, Netherstorm, and Blade's Edge. The moon is now a duller brown color compared to its luminous white hue when Outland was Draenor."
http://www.wowwiki.com/Outland
Izbay Oct 3rd 2007 10:52AM
That just blew my mind o_o Don't do that to me man! Not now... *shudders*
Andelorn Oct 3rd 2007 10:52AM
As far as I knew, isn't Azeroth in the Great Dark (ie outer space) while Outland was blasted into the Twisting Nether (ether, not outer space)? What gave Soundwave the impression that this big white ball is the lush world of Azeroth, which should look rather like earth?
ringu0 Oct 3rd 2007 10:54AM
The following screenshot of the celestial body, unobstructed by clouds, does indeed resemble the map of Azeroth: http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Azerothshadowmoonvalley.JPG
cap Oct 3rd 2007 10:57AM
I admit that the land mass does resemble the area between Silverpine forest and Dun Morogh, but for one, Silverpine doesn't curl under as much as it does in that photo. And for two, I'm with these other guys.. I thought Outlands was nowhere near Azeroth?
Bill Oct 3rd 2007 10:58AM
Huh, that does look like Azeroth. If you look at full sized image and pull up a map of Azeroth you can see part of the Eastern Kingdoms.
Shadgalaul Oct 3rd 2007 11:05AM
Blew my mind... that is cool.
Andelorn Oct 3rd 2007 11:06AM
Er.
...
Nevermind. I should've actually looked at it, the whole thing, before commenting. The thumbnail looks very white, but yes I see it now that I've seen the full thing. /blush
Addie Oct 3rd 2007 11:14AM
Maybe it's art - something Illidan did to remind him of home?
Elizabeth Harper Oct 3rd 2007 11:23AM
Well, I posted this shot because it's the clearest image, but I have a couple of other shots of the same in my mailbox, one of which clearly shows the maelstrom between the continents. And check ringu0's linked screenshot above, which shows the "moon" unobstructed by clouds. Lore aside, that looks an awful lot like Azeroth.
Grajen Oct 3rd 2007 11:44AM
It is undoubtedly Azeroth, prolly something they added for fun and not for lore based reasons.
Zinoron Oct 3rd 2007 11:48AM
There can be several reasons why Azeroth can be seen from Shadowmoon Valley. One: that the destruction of Draenor send shards of it around Azeroth. Two: that being hurled into the nether that it apparently now exists in puts it at a nexus that now observes several regions of space that are bound up closely in the nether but not in actual space (like a 5th dimension sort of dealy). Three: there now actually exists a vast unnoticed portal above black temple that links to a region in space around Azeroth allowing one to see through this portal and back to Azeroth itself.
Baluki Oct 3rd 2007 12:18PM
Hmm. I don't know what to think about that. I guess it's possible that Azeroth and Draenor orbit the same sun (like Earth and Mars) but that possibility raises so many questions that I don't know where to start.
raverach Oct 3rd 2007 12:20PM
shouldn't you see the broken pieces of Outland in the sky from Azeroth then?
Wiegraf Oct 3rd 2007 1:41PM
It's a trap!
Kahja Oct 3rd 2007 2:23PM
Maybe it really is the Death Star... stranger things have happened in WoW...
Michel Oct 3rd 2007 3:33PM
it's a fantasy world
in fantasy world space is not void, maybe there are not nebula
gravity is not a physics law and so on
in fantasy world a shard of world can be near an other and not be destroyed...
in reality, if you could see the moon or , universe forbids, Mars, like that, in fact you couldn't : the whole life would be annihilated by the tremendous gravity and magnetic forces of the two MASSIVE object.
but, hopefully, our adventurous heroes live in a fantasy world. in fantasy world, space is a nether and dimensional travel just need to concentrate and recite dark secrets :)
(and in fantasy world, the gravity is perpendicular to the ground, wherever you go. , think about that, it blows the mind :) )
(seriously, I love than blizzard make that nice view, it's one of the reasons I like wow : it's very detailled. )
dekulink Oct 3rd 2007 9:10PM
That's... awesome.
The best easter egg in the game, in my opinion.