World of Warcraft Fan Discovers Unused Classic Assets in Season of Discovery Phase 3

gamerant.com:

World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery’s new Nightmare Incursions PvE event uses some old assets from the game’s original Emerald Dream zone idea. After nearly two decades, these old World of Warcraft items are finally getting the chance to see the light of day in Classic Season of Discovery Phase 3.

Phase 3 of WoW Classic Season of Discovery recently went live, adding all sorts of new secrets to the game. One of these new features is called Nightmare Incursions – a new repeatable world PvE event that ties into World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery Phase 3’s Sunken Temple raid, and is an excellent source of experience and gold for players as they level up.

While exploring the new Nightmare Incursions zones, some players have discovered throwbacks to World of Warcraft’s earliest days. WoW fan and content creator MrGM found a flower asset that was originally planned for World of Warcraft’s original canceled Emerald Dream zone. He captured a screenshot of an unused asset, seemingly used for the first time in almost 20 years, and shared it on his personal Twitter.

Originally, the Emerald Dream was supposed to be where characters went when they died in World of Warcraft. Players would meet NPCs who died in the lore and obtain special quests that could only be completed while dead. Later, rumors spread of the Emerald Dream being the subject of a patch or even an entire expansion, and tons of assets and even maps with named subzones were discovered that suggested a lot of work had gone into it. The idea was eventually scrapped, and though some of the assets were used in the Emerald Dragonshrine, Stormrage Barrow Dens, Emerald Dreamway, Emerald Nightmare, or the Emerald Dream zone from WoW Dragonflight Patch 10.2.5, some of them still had not found a home until now.

Needless to say, fans got a kick out of these old assets being used in the portal areas of the Nightmare Incursions event. Most agree it was one of World of Warcraft’s more clever recycled