Hall of Thanes and new dungeons

Eastern Kingdoms keys

Hall of Thanes is the Ironforge dungeon, literally beneath the city. If you have ever stared at the Great Forge and wondered what the dwarves keep under the mountain, this is the named answer in What’s Next. It is a launch dungeon, not a December raid, and it is the namesake this page uses in search because it is the most specific of the nine.

Ruins of Lordaeron is the Forsaken reclaim. City of Dalaran is still in the Eastern Kingdoms in this telling, with “strange magical trouble” as the only official hook. Whelgar’s upper site sits above the familiar Wetlands dig. Together those four are the eastern half of the nine-name list: city undercity, ruins, floating city, and excavation.

No first-party source publishes trash lists, timers, or itemization for these four, so the board stops at locale and hook. Filter by Eastern Kingdoms to hide Kalimdor and sea entries when you are planning an Alliance-side tour of the new instances.

Those nine names are enough to plan a first lockout tour: eastern cities and digs first, then Dustwallow, Un’Goro, the coast, and the two unnamed holds. Keep Hyjal Summit off that list until 9 December. What’s Next prints the nine in one panel pass and does not add a tenth name.

Kalimdor, coast, and the rest of the nine

Alcaz Prison is the Dustwallow name, which is why the Dustwallow still sits on this page. Shaper’s Terrace is Un’Goro titan work. Blackmaw Hold is listed as Kalimdor-adjacent with an unsettling corruption hook and no finer locale in the public notes, so the locale field stays Unknown rather than a guessed forest.

The Drowned City is coastal: naga and pirates. Krol’dok Stronghold is named among the nine without a published locale, so the continent field stays Azeroth instead of forcing Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms. Unknown is an honest field, not a missing row.

All nine are tagged new-at-launch. December’s Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps are raids on the roadmap, not members of this nine. If a later patch adds more dungeons, they will get their own dated notes; they are not silently folded into this list.

How to use this list before launch

Treat the nine names as a packing list, not a strategy guide. You can filter by continent when you are choosing where to park a character. You can filter by locale when you already know you want Ironforge, Dustwallow, or Un’Goro. You can leave tier on new-at-launch because every sealed record uses that value.

Pair the list with the Azeroth board. Alcaz is why Dustwallow’s hub still matters. Shaper’s Terrace is why Un’Goro is not only a vanilla leveling memory. Hall of Thanes is why Ironforge is more than a bank city. Ruins of Lordaeron is why Forsaken identity still has a physical destination on this branch.

When Blizzard publishes bosses, lockouts, or Mythic-style tags, those fields can grow. Until then, a short page of real names beats a fake walkthrough. Open What’s Next if you want the panel wording that named all nine in one pass.

Pack the nine names before you log in: Hall of Thanes under Ironforge, Ruins of Lordaeron, Whelgar’s upper Wetlands site, City of Dalaran, Blackmaw Hold, the Drowned City, Krol’dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison in Dustwallow, and Shaper’s Terrace in Un’Goro. Those are the launch instances What’s Next actually printed. Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps wait until 9 December and live on the roadmap instead.