World of Warcraft: Midnight

World of Warcraft: Midnight is the eleventh expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following The War Within. It was announced in August 2025,^[1] and released on March 2, 2026.^[2] It acts as the second part of the Worldsoul Saga trilogy of expansions led by Chris Metzen.^[3]

The primary setting for Midnight is the kingdom of Quel'Thalas, which is divided into two zones, Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman, with additional zones including Harandar and the Voidstorm, while the capital city of Silvermoon serves as the central hub for players. The narrative focuses on the conflict between the forces of Light and Void and continues directly from events depicted in The War Within, as the void entity Xal'atath leads an invasion that threatens to engulf Azeroth in darkness. Blizzard has described the expansion as a key chapter in a longer, interconnected storyline intended to unfold across multiple future expansions.^[4]

Midnight retains the core mechanics of World of Warcraft while introducing several new gameplay systems and updates, and raising the level cap to 90. The expansion adds a player housing feature that allows players to obtain and customize personal spaces within Azeroth using items earned through gameplay, professions, and achievements.^[2] The Prey system acts as a new open-world activity and is designed to provide more dynamic encounters and challenges.^[5] The expansion also expands endgame content through new Delves designed for solo and small-group play, additional dungeons and raids, and improvements to user-interface and quality-of-life systems intended to streamline player progression.^[6]

Having gained unprecedented power by defeating her former master,^[b] the Void entity Xal'atath summons the Voidstorm above the Isle of Quel'Danas and commands the Devouring Host, a vast army of Void creatures, to lay siege to the Sunwell, a fount of light magic sacred to the blood elves. Lor'themar Theron, regent lord of the blood elf kingdom of Quel'Thalas and one of the leaders of the Horde, commands the defense alongside Lady Liadrin, matriarch of the Blood Knights. They receive reinforcements from Turalyon, lord commander of the Alliance, who leads the Vanguard of the Light, a coalition of paladins and priests. Arator, Turalyon's half-elf son, helps Lor'themar evacuate civilians, but they are eventually overwhelmed and retreat. The Vanguard conducts a ritual to empower the Sunwell and channel a beam of light into the Voidstorm, temporarily ending Xal'atath's invasion. After regrouping in the blood elf capital of Silvermoon City, Lor'themar allows Turalyon and the Vanguard to remain as guests and continue maintaining the ritual at the Sunwell.

Arator learns that the Lightbloom, plant life infused with the Light, had begun growing across Eversong Woods and joins the haranir Orweyna to investigate. They find that the hostile wildlife from the Lightbloom was being led by the ruutani, a race native to Harandar, Orweyna's subterranean homeland. Orweyna continues gathering information while Arator seeks out the void elf Umbric, who was previously exiled from Quel'Thalas,^[c] to help stop the Voidstorm. They discover that the Twilight's Blade, cultists devoted to Xal'atath, had infiltrated the town of Tranquillien. Antenorian, the town's governor, is revealed to have allied with the cultists, who attack Tranquillien but are quickly repelled. Arator and Umbric then track down Antenorian and kill him to prevent the cultists from launching further attacks. While Umbric starts researching the Voidstorm, Arator joins Liadrin at a village overgrown with Lightbloom. They learn that the Amani trolls, the blood elves' ancient enemy, had begun harvesting the Lightbloom to create lightwood weaponry to use against the Twilight's Blade. Lor'themar and Turalyon arrive to force the Amani and their commander, Zul'jan, back to the border of Zul'Aman, home to the Amani Empire. Arator attempts to end the conflict peacefully, but is wounded by his light-enraged father during an attempt to kill Zul'jan.

Liadrin tries to ease tensions with Zul'jan until his sister Zul'jarra, chieftain of the Amani tribe, intervenes. She reluctantly allows Liadrin into Zul'Aman, where Mor'duun, leader of the Twilight's Blade, has invaded. Zul'jarra gathers the other chieftains to request their aid, but they all refuse. She agrees to partake in a series of trials to become the "Hash'ey" and gain the blessings of the four loa of Zul'Aman, who previously abandoned the Amani due to the treacherous deeds of Zul'jarra's grandfather.^[d] Not trusting the loa, Zul'jan refuses to aid his sister and believes that only lightwood weapons can help defeat the cultists and conquer the rest of Quel'Thalas. Liadrin joins Zul'jarra on her journey, where they pass the trials to gain the loa's blessings and earn the allegiance of the other tribes. With her new army assembled, Zul'jarra learns that Zul'jan defied her orders by attacking the cultists without her, resulting in heavy losses. Zul'jarra and Liadrin then lead the army into battle and kill Mor'duun, ending the Twilight's Blade incursion in Zul'Aman. While Zul'jarra is granted the title of "Hash'ey" for uniting her people, Zul'jan remains bitter that his plan failed.

Orweyna travels with Halduron Brightwing, ranger-general of the Farstriders, to Harandar, where the roots of the World Trees converge. She warns her people about the Lightbloom but is found guilty by the haranir elders for violating their isolationist traditions. The elder Hagar helps Orweyna atone, while the elder Ruia refuses to work with outsiders. Hagar brings Orweyna and Halduron to a peaceful ruutani village where they discover that the rare material Alndust, which they believed had been blessed by the haranir's goddess, can cure the ruutani of the Lightbloom. Orweyna then gathers more Alndust, distributes it among the ruutani, and prevents the roots of a World Tree from becoming corrupted. Orweyna returns to the surface, where the Lightbloom was spreading aggressively in Eversong, overwhelming Halduron and his forces. Ruia is revealed to have redirected the Lightbloom to Eversong as revenge after the Sunwell caused the Lightbloom to first appear in Harandar. Hagar helps stop Ruia, preventing the Lightbloom from spreading any further. Halduron brings Orweyna and Hagar to Silvermoon, where Lor'themar accepts the haranir as allies.

As tensions between the authoritarian Vanguard and Silvermoon's citizens intensify, Arator experiences a crisis of faith. He joins the undead priest Alonsus Faol, leader of the Conclave of priesthoods, on a journey across the Eastern Kingdoms to find relics imbued with the Light that can help maintain the ritual at the Sunwell. Along the way, Alonsus helps Arator acknowledge his complicated relationship with the Light. They eventually reach the site of a great battle, where Turalyon witnessed the death of Anduin Lothar, commander of the Alliance during the Second War.^[e] Understanding of his father's guilt, Arator repairs Turalyon's broken shield and returns to Silvermoon to reconcile with him. Although Turalyon refuses to accept his old shield, Arator keeps it to follow in his father's footsteps.

As the Sunwell begins to weaken, Umbric acquires a Void relic to open a portal into the Voidstorm. He leads an expeditionary force of void elves through the portal and is joined by Arator and Lothraxion, high commander of the Vanguard. Arator reunites with Alleria Windrunner, his mother, who previously accessed the Voidstorm during her hunt for Xal'atath.^[b] Alleria, Arator, and Lothraxion capture Decimus, one of several domanaar who act as generals of the Devouring Host. Decimus informs them that disabling key Nexus-Points will weaken the Voidstorm and that Nexus-King Salhadaar, leader of the Shadowguard ethereals, now reluctantly serves Xal'atath following his defeat.^[b] After reaching a Nexus-Point, Lothraxion attempts to free a captive naaru, an ancient race made of holy light. Salhadaar corrupts the naaru, and Alleria uses the essence of the dark naaru L'ura inside her^[c] to kill it, angering Lothraxion. Decimus explains that Terminas, the most powerful of the domanaar, possessed the Mantle of Predation that can shut down all the Nexus-Points simultaneously. He then seemingly betrays the others and allows Terminas to capture them, but the distraction allows Decimus to steal the Mantle before killing Terminas. Angered by Decimus' deception, Lothraxion goes to destroy a Nexus-Point himself, despite knowing that the resulting energy surge would obliterate Silvermoon. Alleria and Arator stop Lothraxion and reluctantly kill their former ally. Decimus uses the Mantle to disable the Nexus-Points, allowing Turalyon and the Vanguard to enter the weakened Voidstorm.

Alleria, Turalyon, and Arator join the Vanguard's assault on the Voidspire, Xal'atath's base of operations. They battle against the Devouring Host and kill Salhadaar, who Xal'atath had tortured after he turned against her, and are also forced to kill the remaining commanders of the Vanguard when they become "lightblinded" and attack their allies. Xal'atath is confronted at the summit of the Voidspire, where she infuses Alleria with a vast amount of Void energy, causing her to lash out at Turalyon and Arator. Alleria soon comes to her senses, but Xal'atath stabs her and releases the dark naaru L'ura, which fires a void beam into the Sunwell, corrupting it into the Darkwell. While Umbric portals Arator to safety, Alleria and Turalyon fall into the Darkwell, and Arator ponders whether his parents survived. The Devouring Host then swarms Quel'Danas, shrouding it in darkness and overwhelming the remainder of the Vanguard, leaving only a few survivors.

World of Warcraft: Midnight was officially revealed during Gamescom 2025 alongside a cinematic trailer and early gameplay footage.^[7] The expansion entered closed beta testing following its announcement, with access granted through invitations and select pre-purchase options. Developers stated that Midnight was designed to strengthen long-term narrative cohesion within the franchise while introducing systems that had been requested by players for many years.^[8]

Midnight received "generally favorable" reviews with a score of 82 on the review aggregation website Metacritic, based on 7 critic reviews.^[9] Review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received "strong" approval, being recommended by 67% of critics, based on 9 reviews.^[10]

• Official website