The Abandoned WoW Dungeon

The Abandoned WoW Dungeon
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In WoW there are many examples of unreleased content, however one of the most infamous examples is known as Karazhan Crypts which has a creepy atmosphere. In this video we explore this fascinating abandoned raid.
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[@vaulty]

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[@Blue.Diesel]

Thanks for pushing something else than restedXP. Those guys are like a maffia within the scene and will attack any competitor.

[@foxdavion6865]

There were actually a total of 3 unfinished abandoned Dungeons/Raids from WoW back in 2004/2006 era. Two were added later, one in Burning Crusade and the other in Cataclysm. I've talked to ex-devs who worked on WoW at the time this "zone" was being conceptualised and the truth is WoW's early development was a mess of conflicting ideas combined with stubbon short sighted lead developers. Everyone was doing their own thing and then got together at the end of each day to look at each others thing. A bunch of guys had one idea, a bunch of guys had another idea and most ideas got rejected by the leads, including all the good ones. When WoW released, it had a central direction set, but all those mish mash of ideas made it to some extent into the retail release mostly by accident due to oversight and time constraints. This "zone" was one of those abandoned ideas; The solution by the leads, "oh just gate it off" as opposed to deleting it because it managed to stay in the files and the game world right up until release and the leads actually forgot it was there. So yeah, WoW had the same messy development that Witcher 3 had. This "dungeon" was a product of a small group of devs who liked putting in lairs within the game, or subdungeon zones in the open world which then connected to an actual dungeon in game sometimes, sort of elite mob roaming zones with world spawning loot chests for anyone brave enough to venture into the location to retrieve the goodies. Most of it ended up in retail, but after a couple of years the devs realised it was not a good idea because bots and high level players constantly went into these zones and took the loot and simply sold it on the auction house, so in response instead of doing the intelligent thing, which would be to set the loot to soul bind on pick up, they just removed it from the game entirely. A few months after release the devs decided they would use the zone as the elite mob area entrance for Karazhan, but Karazhan got put on the backburner as other raids took priority. This was meant to be one of those lairs which would then connect to Karazhan, so it was the pre-raid lair zone. Since Kara was pushed back to Burning Crusade, the zone instead got gated off. In the time period between then and Burning Crusade, a new development team took over WoW and decided to implement direct entrances to raids and dungeons, removing the pre-dungeon elite zones from Burning Crusade and later down the road to remove them from the main game as well.

[@fatihzirek7440]

This is really good insight.

[@jeffparker4840]

We held private cross faction fight clubs in the Crypts. You go to the room with the sand piles and 1v1 to the death in there. Had healers and what not for rezzes.. big ole time.

[@envyhysteria]

That is fucking cool!

[@jeffparker4840]

It was pretty cool to have 100 flagged players in such a small place and have an organized event. People would bet on the duels.. XD@@envyhysteria

[@ayrtkl0l]

sounds very fun to me @@jeffparker4840

[@nakfoor1846]

That seems like a really obscure place to do that.

[@VicenteRaiol]

I've been going through old zones and that creepy vibe is somethign thaat the game really is missing these days.

[@TheTripol]

Dno, haven't played retail in 5 years, since start BFA. The game just missing something, looks cartoonish, only playing classic nowdays.

[@princezuko179]

Well, what about drustvar in bfa for example? Or Maldraxxus from sl. There‘s literal body horror in both zones

[@gonzido2]

Lot of the creepiness stems from the loneliness of these zone, It wouldn't be half as creepy if it was filled with mobs, it's the liminal space factor that makes it eerie.

[@VicenteRaiol]

@@gonzido2 I'm pretty sure the mobs helped too xD

[@MrToastmaster2009]

In the Lore Medivh killed a lot of people who visited Karazhan as the Wizard went mad. So, I am thinking this Raid would be where you faced these murdered individuals Ghosts as well as some of Medivh's Demons if you will.

[@ChairmanMeow1]

I mean they kind of already put that into Karazhan, the entire first section is undead guests of the tower.

[@sponsoresTanaris]

It was before the Plague?

[@liamm8518]

Explored this place as a child! Happy to see a re-exploration that isn't on bandicam or Fraps LOL

[@Rakoah]

but let's be real, the best pvp compilation videos were all shot on bandicam and fraps!

[@liamm8518]

yeah and they had like breaking benjamin music LMAO@@Rakoah

[@Rakoah]

"let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, LET THE BODIES HIT THE... FLOOOOOOOOR!!!!" @@liamm8518

[@ronaldwoofer5024]

u have any xfire vids of it saved ? what was your username?

[@Rakoah]

DUDE I was literally just talking about Xfire to some of my guildies just the other day. XFire was so fucking cool back in the day!! Low Key wish it was still around, even tho Discord & Steam pretty much is Xfire but better. The 2000-2010 era of gaming was fucking phenomenal @@ronaldwoofer5024

[@SeanCC]

A lot of the design elements in this are shared with Sunken Temple, Scholomance and Naxxramas. The rooms with gates. The pits/holes you can drop down to lower levels with. The lore behind the Upside Down Sinners is literally it's a direct reference to Big Trouble in Little China, specifically a section of the film where two characters find themselves in the "Hell of the Upside Down Sinners" with bodies held underwater by chains, exactly like this. WoW devs put references to their favorite films, books, comics, etc. all over WoW. In a very real way so much of WoW is like if Tarantino made a game where he could construct it out of his favorite fantasy and movie references. But I'm actually kinda surprised you didn't show perhaps the most notorious visual in the zone. Not the Upside Down Sinners, the giant secret smiley face. Though it's not part of the hidden dungeon, it just goes to show the devs were really putting their creepy hats on when they did this whole zone: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mafdh6B6ndx0ick

[@subaruuuu1]

Gives me ps1 Tomb Raider vibes, I was a happy kid.

[@bigmac8574]

The upside down sinners room is a tribute to the movie big trouble in little china, directed by John Carpenter. Great movie.

[@jedibasschoke8909]

I was just about to write this myself. It’s another nod to big trouble in little China along with the 6 demon bag trinket

[@bigmac8574]

@@jedibasschoke8909 yeah, right. Forgot about that one😀

[@caihundrel]

thats Karazhan Crypts - an existing dungeon one Turtle Wow server - the real Vanilla Plus server

[@Medjj24]

Turtle wow.. you mean the most corrupt pserver?

[@BigT5]

Do you know there's smiley face under the Karazhan instance left by wow designers?

[@retrorewind6042]

Having to come down here for the Lucid Nightmare quest turn in was such a liminal and interesting experience

[@Raphxx59]

The only reason I'm leveling on SoD is just to see if they will really make a Karazhan Crypts raid as we saw in the teaser.

[@Dremag_Gaming]

I remember pre event Legion, some thought they would use it. due to them changing the first room and adding some newer things in it and blocked the path leading down with a "troll" gate. But instead, they just added to the tower for artifacts. I think about 2 or 4 years later. They would use the first room but you couldn't go down the path as the wall is still block and the hole that was in the first room also got blocked. What gets me is the stuff that's been unused in the game, Azshara BG, would get removed but yet this place remained in the game all this time. It's like they want to fully use it but cant think of what to use it for. Also some were able to get into it via the mammoth mount trick. (I just use my hunter's eagle eye to have a look around)

[@eyevou]

could be interesting for SoD to actually make use of this area.

[@immich73]

Just play turtle wow

[@el3ndir97]

Imagine if they would go creative instead of just replacing bosses in old dungeons and calling them raids How about classic era Grim batol in wetlands ??

[@immich73]

​@@el3ndir97 turtle wow is doing grim batol raid too

[@eyevou]

@@el3ndir97 They can't really do that with classic because they don't have terrain for that zone until cata. :(

[@MrMhtmht]

Just one thing where I have to correct you: Vanilla was around 2005 so around 5-8 years ago max

[@Kagmar]

🤣

[@jonathandonley3299]

I see what you did there. Hey, don't forget to take your medications before bed tonight. ;) (I never forget to take mine...)

[@WOWGeorge]

join turtle wow. it has been released there as classic+ content! server is amazing

[@Drimirin]

Yeah, no thanks. Last time I played on a private server Blizzard hit me with a DMCA warning.

[@WOWGeorge]

@@Drimirin screenshot or never happened

[@mrfool21]

@@Drimirin You're either lying or just mis-informed. Blizzard can't do anything to you for playing on a private server. There's even folks that stream popular private servers such as Ascension and TurtleWoW without any worry. You're missing out on truly amazing experiences by limiting yourself to Blizzard's version(s) of the game.

[@BaconMaken]

​@@DrimirinHow in the world did Blizzard even find out you were on a private server? I played on a private MoP server when I was waiting for Shadowlands to be over. I used a completely separate email and login from what I use for retail WoW. I'm the most paranoid person I know about my stuff getting hacked or breaking Blizz ToS. And even I was totally chill when it came to playing on a private server.

[@myidolgwen359]

your voice combined with the delivery "yes... very spooky atmosphere" has me dying to see a playermade machinima of ghost hunters type parody exploit of this place. i can just imagine a paranormal surveying party descending the crypts "did you hear that? yes.... very spooky. we will now attempt to commune with any spirits here by rattling these here chains"

[@STCloud-xg6zc]

bro it's not abandoned.. that's my home.. I'm just to poor for furniture..

[@xeroxzamg7503]

This is prob the best video from him in a long time

[@BaconMaken]

I had no idea all of this was beyond the gate at Karazhan. Liminal space enjoyer's dream right here.

[@chestrockwell7023]

You can die faster if you take your gear off 😆🤘

[@nakfoor1846]

Top 5 (accessible) secrets in Vanilla WoW imo: 1. Hyjial 2. Karazhan Crypt 3. Caverns of Time 4. Old Ironforge 5. Shatterspear Village

[@yerocastrocontabilidad]

You can do it all exept old ironforge in a few months in turtle wow

[@davidrockefeller2007]

What is old iron forge? Is that the top part on the mountain?

[@nakfoor1846]

@@davidrockefeller2007 behind the door in the ironforge throne room is a huge cave. That's old ironforge.

[@xSweetDee]

the WoW backrooms xD

[@morvis110]

Wow. I had no idea this exists in World of Warcraft. Huge thanks. I actually have private wow server (not public, just for vpn connections) and I will use this as custom dungeon lol. I just checked this place on my wotlk client. This trick can no longer happen on wrath of the lich king there is an invisible wall which goes on few metters, but I tried to use .tele crypt command and it worked! This teleport is actually there. So really excited thanks again and I hope this will make it to season of discovery.

[@trinexx2600]

You can actually run this dungeon on Turtle WoW just like you would any other dungeon :D it drops really great loot even at max level!

[@ernandalcolmo7250]

what I miss about wow is medieval and creepy vibes. Its all magical, glitter, and shiny. It's quite annoying. Started after legion with all that green fel destruction BS.

[@chickensauna]

If it becomes a part of SoD then perhaps it's revisited in retail again at some point, with xalatath being around in SoD & this area being showcased in a slide show for SoD, not to mention the Lucid nightmare mount you get from there in retail so maybe some activity is going down in the crypts for TWW 😮

[@eggdog3147]

I feel like this is a bold claim to say it was supposed to be a "raid" or a "dungeon".... when we honestly don't know what it was supposed to be. It was never confirmed this area meant to be a dungeon or a raid. A blue post confirmed that there were areas that were made that just were never used during the development process of the game and that was normal.

[@tyopsie]

Its not even "bold" lol. Like you said just like any game during development they may or may not use a part of the server map. But its obviously has a layout, gates, rooms. So its either a unused zone, dungeon, or raid. Not really a mystery. So not "bold"

[@eggdog3147]

@@tyopsie It's bold because there's literally no confirmation at all this was meant to be anything, so you're just making up what you think it is. The most we ever got was Johnathan Staats saying it was a possible questing area but was scraped due to being unneeded. Not even a dungeon or raid or or a separate zone. So both you and OP are not only wrong, but you just boldly stated what you **thought** it was without ever looking at the history behind this area. I don't go around labeling stuff that has no labels lol.

[@tyopsie]

@@eggdog3147 when did I label it?? I simply stated general game development knowledge. Obviously we dont have kara until TBC. Its general game development knowledge at this point. You literally just stated the history of how the dev said it was a "possible" quesing zone. Get over yourself lmao.

[@aronsandler8143]

@@tyopsieBut it wasn't instanced

[@eggdog3147]

@tyopsie OP labelled it by just claiming it's supposed to be a dungeon or a raid. Did you not agree with him by stating how it was "obvious" it has a layout of a "unused zone, dungeon, or raid?" (Your words) I pointed out how both of your assumptions were wrong. Don't get pissy about it. I simply stated it's just bold to make assumptions on things we have little to no information on. Not sure why you disagree with this sentiment?

[@iraf.official]

😎😎😎👌

[@iraf.official]

😎😎😎😎

[@iraf.official]

2024

[@Izelor]

The old graphics are much better for these kind of settings. They have very few details so your brain fills the rest, making the entire experience much scarier.

[@peterfarkas3731]

come the turtle wow here not empty :D

[@rx-heaven]

you meant raid. it was suppose to be part of kara as a raid but was to big in scope so the reeled it back... come on bro you should know this

[@Fishdogpigsquirrel]

I remember fucking around in this zone back in the day on moon guard with my RP buddy. Shit got so intense it was so fuckin cool

[@GailsonPvPwtf]

This place holds a lot of easy gear on hardcore realms.

[@kirby4815162342]

This is someone who gets his information from Reddit. Not an inkling of a clue what he’s talking about lmao

[@mitrooper]

Guess you have never seen Big Trouble in Little China 3:13.

[@TronixGuy93]

I feel lucky to have been able to experience "The hermits hole" during extremely early dev phase.

[@davidrockefeller2007]

What was that

[@TronixGuy93]

@@davidrockefeller2007 Just that, an Instance. It was linked to the hermit via a quest. The boss in there was to be a big skeletal thing. It also had some puzzle aspects to it but those ideas were abandoned and the R&D's who had the original idea are long gone so whatever they intend on doing to it won't likely have much to do with that.

[@fuckyachickenstrips]

Broke the invisible wall for this place during MOP while using the xmog yak/tundra mammoth with some friends. My absolute favorite part was getting to the bottom in the crypts and turning up the game sounds to hear the earie heartbeat of what was assumed to be Azeroth herself or another old god trapped below. Was super fun to bring my raid group into as well after a night of progression as our 25 man group roamed the forgotten rooms for hours.

[@Jediwarlock]

Always love seeing vids about this spot... hopeful it will make a comeback in SoD! :D

[@Shiirow]

I look forward to the masses of disappointment when modern WoW developers finish this.

[@eggdog3147]

The current retail version of the game uses this area for the Lucid Nightmare mount since 7.3.0. Pretty sure there are no future developments for this area since there's already strong acknowledgement for this area, a usage for it as well, and there's been no updates to it since then. It sounds finished to me.

[@stuartnewman6968]

Like it or not the origonal version of wow, had far mo character and imagination tue the rest of the entire game put togethor. I am guessing the morheim effect

[@bigbaba1111]

I was never there. Thanks for the guided tour::)

[@todahsalaam8538]

Isn't the room with the drowned convicts part of Scholomance or Stratholm?

[@royavalentine6719]

I wish there were more undead theme dungeons

[@jockofocker59]

No, need more troll dungeons

[@royavalentine6719]

@jockofocker59 that too!

[@SeanCC]

@@jockofocker59 okay, how about undead troll dungeons ;)

[@carlthegamer9215]

Blood for the blood god!@@SeanCC

[@cramit79]

When you mention the scale, what would you compare it to in size?

[@steveafc39]

Go play Turtle WoW, Karazhan Crypts fully operational!

[@jerm7151]

Those “un-textured skeletons “ are burnt. In a tomb of cremation.

[@horyss5496]

You can run karazhan on Turtle WoW ! Come play we need more tank warriors !

[@Firzj]

I used this dungeon as a hub zone on my private fan server. NPCs, traders, training dummy, waypoints etc. 😎

[@Stewpendas]

What if blizz gonna make this dungeons open next phases 🤔🤔

[@yerocastrocontabilidad]

You can playbthis dungeon and others in turtle wow

[@Raintiger88]

Haven't been there in a long time. You make me want to go again.

[@illchamo4697]

hey, is your account still scamming other people?

[@masonmcconnell9375]

looks like this is a dungeon this could do for sod ?? or a level 60 raid ?

[@michixlol]

I love how serious they took the lore of wow back then. But took a very different path with retail what was really disappointing to me.

[@J_KhayGaming]

inb4 blizz decides to use it for Season of Unused Dungeons

[@CedesBinz]

I think i was there to get a Horse Oo Can that be?

[@corus2960]

go play turtle wow! its rocking there! ;)

[@optimize-b7z]

Asmongold already made a video like this...

[@tmwk__]

Way back in 2006, a buddy and I went down there one night. I was an Orc Shaman and he was an Undead Warlock. We were shocked when TBC came out and they did nothing with it. And even though I haven't played WoW since 2008, I'm surprised to see that it's still not anything.

[@naturestudies8040]

Its going to be a raid in the later phases of SoD spoiler alert

[@Redstripe921]

In turtle wow they made this into a dungeon

[@zyrabell69]

Nice video, I'm a Loremaster for each expansion and really enjoy seeing places like this!

[@isaacandrade3783]

The upside down room would have made sense for Medivh since he was sargaras’ baby/himself. He had dark side to him along with the kind. Khadgar was very fond of him at the end when Medivh slayed Monroe it broke the human heart he had while he enjoyed it. A very enigmatic person

[@volkyte2628]

In turtle wow that zone is a 5 man dungeon🙂

[@MpMMowersMpM]

Looks a bit like Scholomance

[@michaelbecker9075]

You’re still around !! 😊

[@mgaming7]

This looks like an EQ dungeon. Maybe back before the release they had plans for a more grim dark game settings.

[@FlFisher966]

In turtle wow, it is playable

[@xamurai00]

3:40 Drinking any of that water kill you faster than any boss wipe

[@dieterbohlen1572]

Exists in Turtle WoW :-)

[@paint1220]

play turtle wow bro its done

[@lynxharpthorn7764]

Turtle-wow has this as a lvl 60 dungeon. Some nice lvl 60 blues in here.

[@Scabbalate]

4:30 looks a bit like Scholomance, the first "real" room after entrance an the bridge - wihtout water of course.

[@Celexanomnom]

😂😂😂 I’ve been in there. It’s wild

[@SopieMunky]

Not me just running this dungeon on the daily on private servers. 😂

[@DanielAnicSaz]

Why?

[@Pablochette98]

Thanks for the video internet explorer

[@parkergordon2391]

Maybe itll be a new dungeon/raid in SOD or the rumored azeroth revamp with the new Xal'atath lore

[@maraNathan82]

The upside down sewers(hell) is a reference to Big Trouble in Little China!

[@josephbanet5410]

Can you still explore this in retail?

[@eggdog3147]

Yes, it's opened and you don't have to ghost hop to explore this area. It has a usage as well, as the area is the final part of obtaining the Lucid Nightmare mount.

[@josephbanet5410]

@@eggdog3147 neat! I’ll have to check it out.

[@xLarsson1996x]

Gonna be really interesting to see what they decide to do to this place and if any of the boss emotes can give us some lore on what happened there.

[@RockHardTrucker]

Looking at the artwork it seems this was a placeholder for many other places.

[@jomiles3605]

WoW backrooms?

[@Luke.Skywodka]

Has an ex developer ever spoken about this place?

[@TheBaldr]

They have used this area in retail from time to time for things.

[@c.ladimore1237]

i remember ghost walking into in vanilla. really interested into what it actually gets used for

[@DragonProtector]

so what about retial?

[@kay6730]

This is used in Legion if im not mistaken for DK quest

[@jakethesnake2655]

If only discovery would use it

[@fangoffenris31]

there was a quest there if i remember correct, u had to go down there fighting a monster to get a key or something, it was early back when kara was in the making, cant remember the q tho

[@Rameus]

Fingers crossed they use this area in SoD

[@GrubbsandWyrm]

The upside down sinners is a nod to big trouble in little china

[@Markus-x5k]

Played it on Turtle WoW - had a lot of fun.

[@danludvigsen1974]

looks a lot like sunken temple.

[@ilyasofronova6497]

It works the same in retail

[@holyapple9145]

This will be truly when classic plus starts!

[@heinkoelen]

new raid zone for SOD later