Forever's story starts in Year 1, before Kazzak reopened the Dark Portal

Where on the Warcraft timeline does Forever sit? Blizzard's return guide for WoW Forever, published on 29 October, answers that in its first section, "Where Your Story Begins".

Forever begins in the early "Year 1" period of original World of Warcraft. The guide fixes that point with two markers: it comes before Kazzak reopened the Dark Portal, and before later journeys to places like Northrend reshaped the timeline.

The same passage explains why the anchor matters. Forever is built from the original level 1–60 world, and the guide says it expands events, characters and locations that "exist—or could have existed" within that foundational era. Blizzard presents this as room to delve into previously undeveloped areas, experience new tales and "travel roads yet untaken". In other words, new material is framed as something that could have happened in that early world, not as a replay of what came later.

The guide is just as clear by what it leaves out. It doesn't turn "Year 1" into a calendar date, mention a level-cap plan or say in what order later events might arrive. What it does give lore readers is a starting line, and a sense of what kind of story fits on this side of it.