The Skyborne of World of Warcraft: Forever descend from Highborne rebels who rose against Prince Tortheldrin of Eldre’Thalas, Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield said at the World of Warcraft: Forever Found Photographs panel at BlizzCon 2026. They fought his plan to draw ever more demonic energy, but Greenfield called it “a Pyrrhic victory”: the rebellion was defeated and the survivors fled Kalimdor by sea.
With Tortheldrin’s fleet close behind, they struck a bargain with wind spirits on an undiscovered island, who lifted a large part of it into the sky and anchored it in Skywall. Greenfield said they call themselves the Hidden People.
Now the wind spirits are gone and the island is failing. The Windshapers, its shamanistic spiritual leaders, side with the Horde, and only Windshaper Skyborne can be Shaman. The High Order, descended from Highborne magisters, see the spirits’ departure as a chance at independence; they side with the Alliance, and only they can be Mages. Both can play Warriors, Druids, Hunters, and Rogues.
A third group, a cult of Al’Akir the Windlord, has used the crisis to “seize control of a large portion of the island.” Its name was spoken, not shown on a slide.
Greenfield said Zephras Isle is self-contained: “You aren’t going to go here every week to raid or to farm materials.” The segment closed on Chris Metzen’s original sketch of the island’s map.