With a recent tweet all but confirming that the Blizzard Gear leak for Hearthstone's next expansion is correct, we decided to delve into the history of the Badlands in World of Warcraft and see what hints we can pick up, to determine what we can expect from Showdown in the Badlands!

Before we delve into the zone itself, it is important that we know where to place it. The Badlands are found in what is known as the "Khaz Modan" region / subcontinent of the Eastern Kingdoms, which is the central chunk of the continent. You guessed it, there's lots of dwarves around these parts, hence their catchphrase "For Khaz Modan!"

Check the map below to see where the Badlands are (they're the area in the center of the continent that is highlighted in red). As a bonus, we've also pinned all the other Hearthstone expansions, adventures or mini-sets that took place in the Eastern Kingdoms!

Does not contain Return to Naxxramas, the mini-set for March of the Lich King as it took place in the same spot.
Does not include League of Explorers. One wing took place in The Ruined City somewhere in Stranglethorn Vale (where Rastakhan's Rumble takes place), and another wing took place in Uldaman, which is actually in north-western Badlands.

To the north, the Badlands lead into Loch Modan, a lush, peaceful little zone full of things to hunt and a totally-not-dangerous river to swim in - that was, until the Cataclysm destroyed the dam and most of the water flowed out! To the south, separated by a mountain range lie the Burning Steppes, and to the west there's the Searing Gorge, both rather scorched zones full of fiery things and Dark Iron dwarves.

Wait, There's How Many Badlands?

In order to properly speculate on what we might find in Hearthstone's next expansion, we need to understand the nature of some of World of Warcraft's zones. The same way Naxxramas, in WoW, was initially above the Eastern Plaguelands, then moved to Dragonblight in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion (it is this version of Naxx that is depicted in the Curse of Naxxramas, Hearthstone's first ever adventure), and somehow made its way above Silvermoon City in the March of the Lich King mini-set, so has WoW made use of the same space several times.

There's three points in the Badlands' history that could have served as potential inspiration for Showdown in the Badlands:

  • Badlands before Cataclysm (Badlands Classic)
  • The current iteration of Badlands (Badlands Cataclysm)
  • Badlands during the Dragonflight expansion pre-patch event and its new dungeon, Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr (Badlands Dragonflight)

To make it more clear where you would find these versions of the same zone today:

  • Badlands Classic can be experienced on any of the WoW Classic realms: Vanilla, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King
  • Badlands Cataclysm can be experienced on the retail version of WoW.
  • Badlands during the Dragonflight expansion pre-patch is a little less explorable. The event that took place in the zone is gone, but the new dungeon (the second Uldaman dungeon) can still be played through.

Alright, with this effort in categorization complete, we can take a look at each of these Badlands and see what they could have in store for us.

Badlands Classic

Badlands Classic is a nice chill place, if you don't mind the gnolls, the troggs, the dark iron dwarves (many of whom were still baddies at this time), the ogres, black dragons and a bunch of orcs. Not too bad, right? Factor in that the only things that actually grow here are tumbleweeds and you've got yourself a hidden gem of an Airbnb holiday set up.

Considering the expansion is setting up a showdown, having all these warring factions is already a great start. There's sure to be some dragon tribe cards at the very least! Here's a map of ol' Badlands:

Yeah, it's a lot of orange, but who doesn't like orange?

To the west lies Kargath, a Horde outpost. To the south-west, Dustbelch Grotto, an ogre mound. At the other end of the zone, Lethlor Ravine is patrolled by black dragons. Angor Fortress, up north, is a Dark Iron dwelling, and even further up we have Uldaman, a sprawling underground ruin of Titan origin that was previously visited by the League of Explorers but remains, otherwise, untouched in Hearthstone.

So the vibe is set: Dangerous factions in a dangerous wasteland. An underground cavern system housing even more dangerous things. Right in the middle of this powder-keg, an Undead couple (as pictured on the leaked t-shirt) just trying to grow some crops. Perfect flavor.

Here's the sort of beasts you can expect to find in the Badlands and, consequently, in a lot of Hearthstone cards of Rare rarity: Cheetahs! Coyotes! Earth elementals! Golems! Vultures and all the other folks we listed at the start of this section!

We couldn't just stop there, though. What really matters are the characters we may find printed on Hearthstone cards, and the Badlands is filled to the brim with notable faces. Here's a few:

  • Theldurin the Lost, a mad ex-member of the Twilight's Hammer who stole the Scroll of Myzrael to prevent the cult from freeing the even-more-insane elemental.
  • Martek the Exiled, an orc living in a destroyed camp that helps a gnome procure parts for a race car. He'll show up in our next section!

As a mini-set location, Uldaman is still rife with possibility for a second visit. Aside from even more troggs, there's also familiar faces such as :

  • Archaedas, who showed up in the League of Explorers adventure as a boss and was pretty tight buds with Tyr.
  • Ironaya, the only other notable titan construct in Uldaman, also pretty tight buds with Tyr.
  • Magregan Deepshadow, a Dark Iron dwarf with a cool name.
  • Baelog, Olaf and Eric "The Swift", the lost vikings that reference an ancient Blizzard game.

Badlands Cataclysm

Well, let's just say the Badlands received quite a bit more content with Cataclysm. Not only was it hit pretty hard by Deathwing's pre-expansion rampage, but it has quite a few more coherent, zone-long storylines taking place within!

First up, there's some new faces in the Badlands: Lots more gnomes, goblins and now blood elves as well! Everyone is here to either race or find some juicy ol' titan relics to take back home.

To the east, the two Fuselight encampments are home to lots and lots of goblins. Bloodwatcher Point in the center is a contested archeological dig, where the blood elf organization "The Reliquary" is investigating a newly uncovered titan tomb. Dragon's Mouth is a giant mess Deathwing made.

Now, you can expect most elements from Badlands Classic to still be present here. Really, it's more of the same mindless slaughter as in any other zone, but there's a few relevant story elements here, centered around notable characters:

  • Theldruin the Lost and Martek the Exiled, as well as Lucien Tosselwrench are now hanging out together at the Scar of the Worldbreaker, that ugly crevasse west of Bloodwatcher Point. They all tell their own tale of how they faced Deathwing when he came to unleash destruction upon the land.
  • Theldruid the Lost was minding his own business when Deathwing appeared. He punched his way through some rock elementals, then punched Deathwing in the face.
  • Lucien Tosselwrench used his world-shrinking device to "make the world smaller" until he reached the clouds to find Deathwring. He found him in the sun, grabbed him, and threw him to Kalimdor.
  • Martek the Exile explains: Blood was raining from the skies. He was showing his motorcycle to his fans when Deathwing appeared. He only had room to save one of his fans (which the player picks), and they started racing down the canyon, avoiding falling rocks. At the end of the canyon, he remembered his motorcycle could fly. The story is interrupted by the other two before we can hear how he beat Deathwing in a knife fight.
  • Rheastrasza, known in her goblin visage form as Rhea, is a red dragon who manages to purify one of Nyxondra's black dragon eggs. That egg would later hatch into Wrathion.
  • Nyxondra, a captured corrupted black dragon with... well, lots of eggs.
  • Velarok, an ancient black dragon that comes to help Nyxondra hunt down Rhea.
  • Deathwing, because we don't have enough versions of Deathwing in Hearthstone!
  • The lost vikings are now also present in the Badlands, not only in the Uldaman dungeon.

In terms of Uldaman, not much has changed, so the entry on the dungeon in the previous section is valid here as well!

Badlands Dragonflight

As mentioned earlier, there's two components to this version of the Badlands: the pre-Dragonflight world event and the new dungeon.

The world event, the "Primal Storms, took place in four zones across Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, including the Badlands. One type of elemental (air, earth, fire, wind) army would periodically take residence in any one zone, and players would kill a whole bunch of minions until the big elemental boss spawned. Aside from adding all the main kinds of elementals to the Badlands expansion theme speculation chart, the events also contained Primalists, followed of the ancient proto-dragons known as Primal Incarnates and the main villains of the Dragonflight expansion.

The Primalists are a new group of foes whose abilities are elemental in nature (lotsa' shamans) and are represented by a huge variety of faces: orcs, tauren, night elves, dwarves, draenei and vulpera to name a few. Their most notable member is probably Kurog Grimtotem, who is Lor'themar Theron and Thalyssra's wedding crasher in the short story "The Vow Eternal" and in general, a tauren that is not fun at parties. He is responsible for releasing Raszageth, the first Primal Incarnate foe players fight in Dragonflight.

Next up, let's take a look at Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr, the new version of the Uldaman dungeon that came out with Dragonflight's pre-release events. There's the usual stuff you'd expect (troggs), the return of the lost vikings, but also infinite dragonflight dragons? Yup, including a particularly handsome chrono-lord!

The dungeon explores a new section of Uldaman that was previously blocked off from the rest of the dungeon, and has players fighting to reach and grab the Discs of Tyr in time, before the infinite dragonflight gets their hands on them. Well, unfortunately, they do!

The only truly notable character in this new version of Uldaman is Chrono-Lord Deios, the fashionable infinite dragon we mentioned just a minute ago. He has the honor of being the end-boss of two dungeons in Dragonflight, for he escapes, Discs of Tyr in tow, at the end of this dungeon.

Official art for Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr. Cozy ancient halls.

The Badlands Multiverse Theory

As with all Hearthstone expansions, the development team is likely to not restrict their creativity within a single era of the Badlands. It's most likely elements of all three Badlands eras will be present in the upcoming expansion, whether in the main release itself or the mini-set.

If we were to guess, we reckon Badlands Cataclysm would most likely be the "main" Badlands they'll draw inspiration from, as it contains the most content, while trying to match it to the vibe of Badlands Classic, which brings that air of simplicity that the leaked t-shirt art gives off. We'll have to wait and see what future teasers and the expansion's trailer and reveal video will show us, but there's nothing stopping us from speculating in the meantime!

What do you think will be the main "chunk" of Badlands the expansion will focus on? What original Hearthstone story could the dev team spin from all the threads connecting Badlands through the eras? Let us know in the comments below!