WoW Forever has no realm list. When it launches on November 4, 2026, you pick a ruleset instead: Normal, PvP or Roleplaying, with Hardcore coming after launch. Each ruleset is one large world shared by everyone who picks it, characters get a two-part name that is unique in their region, and anyone who buys an upgrade can reserve names from October 27. Here is how it works, from Blizzard's Deep Dive panel and the beta client.
Four rulesets instead of realms
Where Classic asked you to pick one realm from a long list, the beta client's character screen now has a Ruleset tab, titled "Choose Your Gameplay Ruleset". Blizzard lists four:
- Normal: the baseline experience, built around cooperation. Fighting another player takes mutual consent.
- PvP: every trip into contested territory carries danger, and the client warns that you are almost always at risk of being attacked by the other faction.
- Roleplaying: for players who want to lean into the fantasy of Azeroth, with the strict naming conventions and behavior rules the client describes.
- Hardcore: available after launch, for the ultimate challenge. Death is permanent.
One big world per ruleset
Blizzard is clear that this is not one giant realm for everyone: each ruleset works as its own large ecosystem, and the client sums it up in one line, "You will only be able to interact with players who choose the same ruleset." You can group, run dungeons and raid with anyone on your ruleset, never across rulesets, and the beta client already refuses mail sent to another ruleset and guild invitations to characters playing under different rules. Horde and Alliance still can't group together.
In return, you should keep crossing the same names while leveling, the way you did on a realm, only at a much larger scale. You can also set a language preference to meet players who share it. On the PvP ruleset, Blizzard plans faction balance systems similar to the ones in Season of Discovery, and the beta client already holds the message for it: "This faction is currently unavailable on this ruleset due to population imbalance." The client also carries the message that you cannot have both a Horde and an Alliance character on the same PvP ruleset, the rule PvP realms had in Classic; Blizzard hasn't confirmed it for Forever.
Hardcore: after launch, with a way out
Hardcore won't be there on November 4. Blizzard's roadmap lists it among the updates that follow the new raids of December 9, with no date yet. It will be a fully enclosed ecosystem where death carries lasting consequences, but a character who dies can transfer to another ruleset, PvP included. The client's description puts it this way: "Dead characters may transfer to other rulesets to be resurrected."
Collections and Legacy Points are shared across your account on every ruleset except Hardcore. What you earn in Hardcore, whether progress, collections or rewards, can become available on the other rulesets, but nothing flows the other way, so Hardcore characters start from scratch. Our Legacy challenges guide explains how that tally works, and our Legacy challenges checklist lists every challenge.
Two-part names
Characters get two-part names, like a first and a last name. Names are unique per region rather than per realm, which leaves more room for original names: Blizzard's example is "Ana Forever". In the beta client's character creation, you type a Main Name, the one "shown most often across the game", and a Secondary Name, "used together with your Main Name to create your character's unique identity across the region". The two together make the Full Name.
Reserving names before launch
Early Name Reservation runs from October 27 to November 3, 2026 (PST) and comes with any upgrade: the Skyborne Heroic Pack, the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection. During that window you can create and customize up to three characters, and names are reserved first come, first served, with no guarantee of getting the one you want. What each pack includes is in our release date and beta guide, and the new race in our Skyborne guide.
Choosing your ruleset
- Agree on one with your friends and guild before you create characters, on October 27 with a reservation or at launch: groups, mail and guilds don't cross rulesets.
- Choose PvP only if you want world PvP, knowing that a faction can be closed to new characters when the population is unbalanced.
- If you're waiting for Hardcore, nothing you do on another ruleset carries into it, though what you earn there carries out.
Once you've picked, our leveling zones guide shows where to quest at each level.
