World of Warcraft fans have created a cyberpunk utopia for goblins

The most stunning part of World of WarcraftThe game is constantly expanding. The lore tells us that new continents appear regularly from the mists. They are added to the map, and become hubs of adventure. The game gives the player a sense that anything is possible. There are no limitations, since continents could appear out of nowhere.

It is especially important to remember this when creating fan tools such as Epsilon. Instead of giving the fans a way to play World of Warcraft, Epsilon gives fans access to many of the MMO’s assets, character models, and environments, so they can create their own worlds. Others like to build on Azeroth’s existing story. Caleb is one World of Warcraft A fan, Kitche Goldwatt who portrays the Gnome Kitche Goldwatt has dedicated nearly two years to creating an amazing cyberpunk town that’s unlike anything else. Warcraft. His city is a kind of haven for gnomes and goblins, two races that don’t tend to be as popular among fans.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Kitche Goldwatt

Fission Heights can be used as a setting for a complex role-playing adventure. Fission Heights was originally a huge goblin power station, which grew into a vibrant city. “Something that I really wanted to create was a full urban sprawl, with buildings that you could actually go inside with full interiors,” Caleb said in a call with Polygon. “I’ve had so much help from friends, figuring out what kind of stores we think live in the city. What kind of places are people shopping at in a cyberpunk world?”

Fission Heights offers a wide range of choices. The pandaren run a hibachi grill restaurant, there’s a tattoo parlor, and there are plenty of shady little shops where one can bargain over contraband. The scene would be almost idyllic if it weren’t for the undead Scourge pounding on the doors.

“I — along with a lot of other people who are part of the project — share the point of view that WoW’s goblins, while fascinating in some parts, have really been done dirty by the lack of depth given to them,” Caleb said. “When you think of WoW’s goblins, you think of greed and destruction to the environment. We wanted to pull away from the identity that Blizzard has thrust upon goblins and figure out a way to tell a story with goblins as empathetic, deeply individual people with aspirations beyond accruing wealth.”

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Kitche Goldwatt

Fission Heights represents a goblin’s attempt to construct a utopia, where anyone is welcome. Obviously, it’s not a perfect solution, and one of the main thrusts of the Epsilon phase that contains Fission Heights is that players have to face off against antagonists inside the city to protect it from the threats outside its walls.

The player spawns in a subway station; in-character, they’ve just arrived, and emerge onto the crowded main street. Fission Heights has phase rules, and players can brush up their local etiquette by doing out-of character stuff. But the game is meant to be played like a huge story-based role-playing game. The first campaign, Lockdown City, will start after players have explored the city for about a week. With the undead threat too large to ignore, the city’s leaders quarantine everyone to one district in the hopes of saving the rest of their settlement.

It’s quite a city to protect too, with almost 30,000 individual objects pulled from the base game and rearranged into a goblin take on Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City. “There isn’t another platform that can handle as much weight as Epsilon does,” says Caleb. “A big thing about this project is accepting that I could wake up tomorrow and Epsilon could be gone. That’s an uncertainty I’ve learned to live with and appreciate. I live more thoroughly in the now, and how I can help people enjoy the game a little bit more.”

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Kitche Goldwatt

This isn’t your typical World of WarcraftExperience and takes liberties World of Warcraft’s canon to tell the best possible story. (The phase’s creators “try as best as [they] can to keep the city’s history based in what is canon in World of Warcraft,” said Caleb.) “The campaign starts in the aftermath of Battle for Azeroth’s Mechagon zone, and the nefarious Frilzon corporation has sunk its talons deep in Fission Heights as new tech filters into the world.

The Fission Heights Discord is where players can sign up to be part of this Epsilon Phase. While all races of Azeroth are welcome, the vast majority of applicants are goblins and gnomes — two races that haven’t received as much love from Blizzard as orcs and elves. It’s fascinating seeing fans come together to create an alternate take on such a well-loved world.