Taldramir, the Whispering Wood is Forever's first legendary, and its quest is still sealed

On November 5 Blizzard released Forging Forever, a short video about the making of WoW Forever’s first legendary: Taldramir, the Whispering Wood. Blizzard credits Wētā with forging it, and the WoW Weekly roundup a day later points players toward “the legendary challenges that await”. It is the first time Blizzard has named a Forever legendary, and the word first suggests more will follow.

What Blizzard has not said is how you get it or when. The game files answer part of that.

The quest is in the client, but locked

We wrote about this chain back in September, when the beta client first showed it: a ritual that only starts once all six vessels are placed and the Bough of the World Tree is equipped. The trail runs through Moonglade’s Barrow Dens, a pylon puzzle tied to Un’Goro and Shen’dralas, a fel lab with a boss called the Master of Vessels, and Nordrassil.

The name fits: a “Whispering Wood” that comes out of a World Tree bough ritual. Blizzard has not connected the two, so treat that as our reading.

The community datamine of the launch client, 1.60.1.70790, shows where things stand now:

• The chain is encrypted. 949 records sit behind one encryption key that has not been shipped. Among them are 79 quests, 63 items and 53 spells. The game cannot read them until Blizzard sends the key.
• None of the quest items are live. The pylon pieces, the Nordrassil root cap, the seed pods, the Wind-Infused Bough and the rest are all marked as not in the live item list.
• The weapon is invisible. Nothing readable in the client is the legendary itself. The Bough of the World Tree exists only as an equipment slot that holds one item, and the item list for that slot is empty.
• There is a solo boss. Two tracking quests count solo encounters, and a screen effect and an area both name Archimonde’s Fall. The encounter data is encrypted too.

In short: Taldramir is built and shipped with the game, but switched off.

What this means for you

Nobody can start the Taldramir chain yet, and it does not help to stockpile anything for it: none of its items drop. When Blizzard unlocks it, it will most likely arrive with a news post rather than a patch, because the data is already on your disk.

Two details from the beta data are still worth keeping in mind:

• The Rousing Seed Pod from the chain raises the number of Artisan’s Tier crafted items you can equip from one to two. If that survives, the legendary chase also unlocks a permanent gear upgrade.
• The chain looks built for solo play: puzzles, conversations and solo encounters rather than a raid drop. That would make Taldramir the first legendary in the original Azeroth that a player without a raid team can chase.

We will cover the chain step by step in our secrets section once it opens.