In the Swamp of Sorrows, there is a unique looking bridge that is located near Splinterspear Junction. Compared to the bridges in other neighboring countries (Duskwood, Elwynn Forest, Stranglethorn, etc), this one has an East Asian design to it. This is a photo of what I’m talking about:
https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/20747.jpg
The only two cultures that I know (feel free to correct me if there’s more!) that have East Asian influences in their architecture are the Night Elves and the Pandaren. Some people have speculated that this was constructed by Pandaren who came to the Swamp of Sorrows a long time ago. What are some other theories that you all have that could explain who built this?
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I think this is honestly just a case of asset reuse, but even if it has some deeper meaning, I think it might just be that someone built it to have an exotic theme. I have Asian styled bridges where I live in America, and I just assume they were built to resemble that style by people in America - it doesn’t necessarily have to mean that an Asian person came from an Asian country and built it.
It’s a nice find though, it looks nice.
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Originally that bridge was used in a riddle quest chain, so having a bridge stand out compared to others was needed.
So I wouldn’t go too deep into it. It was just something blizzard needed to stand out for the riddle quest back in vanilla.
https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=624/cortellos-riddle
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There also the dead turtles with pagodas on them. Quests indicate belong to the Naga but I find it hard to imagine the art designer was thinking about Naga and not the Pandaren when designing them since it doesn’t match Naga designs at all and more likely a quest designer just found the asset and BS a backstory for it during a quest.
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In Zangarmarsh and on Outland, the naga have similar structures. Naga is also the south (east) Asian word for snake creatures, and an Indian tribe.
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I know this post is old so forgive me for the necro.
Most of the comments were polite but kind of dismissive.
Allow me to post my thoughts.
I appreciate the op’s desire to dig a little deeper. World of Warcraft IS an MMPORPG after all. There are tiny Easter eggs found through out the gaming world that are put there by game developers to make the player wonder and to further immersion. If hindsight is really 20/20, then we can see the road that our beloved game took. Indeed, the pandaren visited our lands long before Mists was a thing. Doesnt anyone recall the crates of Pandaren ale that could be found in The Barrens way back in Vanilla wow?
My opinion is that a high percentage of player miss out on the bulk of the intended experience because of that race to max level and end game gear. I that hope the op still plays and finds this post. I would love to hear his or her opinion
-Khaz
Its more that, back in wow Vanilla, the only 2 races that were known to use turttles were goblins (in war2) and nagas (in war3) Pandarens were not mentioned to use turtles as far i know back then.
Also, i would not go as far as to say that it dont match naga designs as we know they were formely night elves, and in war3 night elves had an east asian style while naga also had a somewhat asian style too in war3.
When it comes to Vanilla, the only materials we can use for precedents are warcraft games, manuals and maybe some rpg books.
I don’t think they will reply to your post. They haven’t posted in 4 years, with this thread being the last time they posted.
It is kinda pointless to try and create a debate with posts that are years told. There is a very high chance you are talking to thin air.
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True, but actually…i did not see that the thread was 4y old 
i saw the thread was in the recent answered threads i assumed it was a new one
we dont know who originally built the dark portal maybe it was ancient aliens or pandas
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