Who are the raid bosses of World of Warcraft: Forever?

World of Warcraft: Forever is launching on November 4 with a 40-player Onyxia’s Lair raid as well as two brand new raids: Hyjal Summit (20-player) and the Barrow Deeps (10-player). While we know a little about the circumstances of these new instances, we did not hear much at BlizzCon regarding just who we would be fighting.

Luckily, I poked around in every menu while playing the Forever demo in the BlizzCon Media Village. With Legacy Challenges acting as a sort of achievements-with-benefits system, you can earn points for exploring zones and leveling up professions that can be spent on perks like faster flight path times or a higher chance to find rare materials when harvesting.

The Legacy Challenges for the raids list out the bosses that need to be defeated to earn them. While Onyxia seems to remain the sole boss of her lair, there are 21 new bosses found in the other two raids. Let’s take a look at their names and engage in our favorite pastime, wild speculation, to tide us over until we get properly introduced to the villains of Forever.

Mount Hyjal was perhaps the best candidate for a Forever zone in the category of “why couldn’t we go there in Classic?” With the Third War just having concluded in this timeline, we’ll explore the aftermath of Archimonde’s defeat and the effects on the world tree Nordrassil in the Hyjal Summit raid.

Bandalar – Right off the bat we find a name that we can trace back to Warcraft 3. Bandalar is the name of one of the Keepers of the Grove, who are the half-stag half-Night Elf protectors of forested areas and cute little bunnies.

Ancient of Decay – The Ancients are the gnarly, large-and-in-charge walking trees that also list “protecting nature” among their interests. We have had to fight several before in places where they have become corrupted, such as Dire Maul. Given the “decay” qualifier, I am guessing that this boss will resemble Treemouth, a corrupted ancient from the decay capital of Brackenwood Hollow.

Time-Lost Battalion – Whenever we run into folks from another era who have slipped into our present through the Timeways, they usually carry the label “time-lost.” A whole battalion in the Mount Hyjal region could be from the past, but I think it would fit with the time-bubble premise of Forever if a group of soldiers from the Cataclysm or Battle for Azeroth skirmishes slipped back from the future.

Sylvestris Dusksong – A search of the World of Warcraft history books didn’t turn up anything for this name, but “sylvestris” is a scientific name for a Scotch Pine tree. I’m going to predict that this in a Night Elf who isn’t happy with our presence on top of Mount Hyjal.

Old Gloomlurker – A close inspection of the Forever teaser photos reveals that there are creatures that resembles bog beasts and fen creepers shambling about the Mount Hyjal area. Looks like we’ll have to break out the fungicide in order to fend off a large, angry, mushroom-covered lurker.

Gharalis the Abyssal – I’ve spent enough transmog runs rushing around the Horde encampment in the Battle of Mount Hyjal raid in the Caverns of Time to be very familiar with the large number of infernals that came screaming down from the sky during the Third War. Maybe Gharalis got lost on the way to Azeroth from the Twisting Nether, or maybe his abyssal nature meant that he took longer to arrive than his speedier infernal cousins.

Kathris the Haunted – Another name that can be found in the Warcraft 3 logs: players could sometimes encounter a Priestess of the Moon named Kathris Starsong. The Starsong Night Elf clan has nearly a dozen members in the Azeroth directory, but it seems the Third War took a heavy toll on Kathris.

Anara Chillwind – With thirteen bosses, the Hyjal Summit raid could be a super-long uphill trek or it could be split into smaller groups of bosses by path or raid lockout. If so, you might encounter one former Priestess of the Moon at a time, as Anara Chillwind also rode her frostsaber into battle during the Third War.

Elder Minderel – You can find elders among every single race we’ve encountered on Azeroth, and the name Minderel did not come up in my research. It could be another Night Elf fallen to corruption, or it could be a wild card like a Fungarian.

Tracker Stillwind – There are several Stillwinds among the Night Elves of Azeroth, although none this far back in time or with a Hunter-type occupation. There is, however, one Tauren Stillwind hanging around a post-Cataclysm Barrens. Could one of his clan have tracked their way up to Mount Hyjal and become corrupted by what they found there?

Council of Thorns – There are several interesting possibilities that come to mind for a group of foes that would fit this moniker. Perhaps the most obvious stems from the Thorns Druid spell, with a final group of Night Elves nature protectors resisting our incursion towards the top of Mount Hyjal. I wouldn’t mind a bunch of angry little sprites at this point in the raid, formerly under the command of Cenarius but now just kind of furious at everything.

Nythus the Dreadmbound (sic) – “Dreadbound” is a possibility here but “Dreambound” is the more likely correct spelling in my opinion. This stems from the fact that dragon names have rules, green dragon names end in -a or -us, and any mention of green dragons usually ends with a trip into the Emerald Dream. Hopefully this is a friendly dragon that we have to wake up instead of another poor greenie corrupted with nightmare.

The Wild King – To speculate on the identity of the final boss of the Hyjal Summit raid, we need to consider that the last powerful enemy in an instance is usually the cause of all of the chaos and corruption within and around that instance. Which “King” could be responsible for all of the tumultuous happenings atop the mountain in Forever?

Malfurion Stormrage is the one who sealed Hyjal off after the Third War, but he’s never worn the title of king. Perhaps some other Night Elf Druid has taken the mantle of king after the horrors of the invasion during the Third War. I’ll leave you with one tinfoil hat idea: could Arthas Menethil, after being driven from Lordaeron, have made a pit stop in Kalimdor to stir up trouble atop Mount Hyjal? What artifact or power could he have been seeking beneath Nordrassil’s roots?

Now that we’ve scaled Mount Hyjal and cleared the area, it’s time to head underground to The Barrow Deeps. This is another location straight from Warcraft 3 where the Druids of the Claw have been slumbering. Illidan Stormrage was imprisoned within these barrows as punishment for creating another Well of Eternity.

Deepscar Matriarch – We haven’t run across a Deepscar tribe yet, but this is highly likely to be the leader of a group of corrupted Furlbogs. These furry friends love to inhabit the tunnels beneath this part of the continent, which are unfortunately great places to hang out if you want to be driven mad by nefarious forces.

Elder Tangleclaw – The Druids who slept beneath Nordrassil did so for thousands of years, and awoke thinking they were actually bears. It’s what happened to me when I woke up after two exhausting days of BlizzCon, and chances are that this Tangleclaw character will need some bashing to remember that he’s actually a Night Elf.

Khalith the Dreadspinner – When Malfurion and Tyrande ventured into the barrows to free Illidan, they encountered hideously colossal spiders transformed by demonic influence. The webs that feature in the official images of the raid make me certain that we’ll be fighting an eight-legged raid boss, and “Dreadspinner” seems like a perfect fit.

Well of Sorrow – Time to take a break after all that fighting and sit by a nice little fountain inside the Barrow Deeps. Oops, now you’re in a struggle for your very soul as the corrupted waters have forced you to relive your most traumatic memories. Time for a classic “boss fight against your own shadow/memories/emotions.”

Amethrax – This one is quite puzzling, since we don’t know of any more monster-y races to assign a raid boss. Could it be another powerful spider? I’m predicting that Khalith will actually be a Druid corrupted into spider form a la Elerethe Renferal from the Emerald Nightmare, making Amethrax a true spider foe (arachnophobia mode on!).

Del’lynar Songwood – Another fruitless search through the archives came up empty, with no other Songwoods known throughout our time on Azeroth. Since the barrows are full to the brim with sleeping Druids, there’s a decent chance this is one of the grumpiest.

Ravus and Darlissa – We’ve got to really stretch our imaginations to not simply assign the remainder of these names to Night Elves and call it a day. However, Tyrande did come across Goblin explosives left behind in the barrows in the deep past. Maybe some enterprising cartel members are scouting the area for minerals and aren’t eager to surrender their claim.

Sonya Darkhallow – One more dead end at the Azeroth census office leaves us with a second final raid boss we can’t pin down with any certainty. Could Sonya be a Druid? A Warden? A very lost Human Warlock? We’ll just have to wait until the launch of these raids in Forever to meet these villains and learn about their backstories.

That’s all we know for now, but with WoW: Forever launching in November, with a beta test starting September 17, we’ll know more about the raids — and the bosses — soon!