Typically, the main point of speculation in any expansion has been who the villain will be. There's a good reason for this, given that the villain often defines the rest of the expansion. Perhaps never was this more the case than the Lich King, who brought with him the clear and obvious move to Northrend and the introduction of WoW's first new class to be introduced after Vanilla: the Death Knight.
However, one of the problems with WoW is that the planet Azeroth is fairly well-defined. We began with the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, with an understanding that Northrend was up... north, and that Outland was accessible via the Dark Portal.
The past two expansions have dealt with that in different ways. Deathwing was always a prime possibility for a villain who could carry an entire expansion, but unlike Arthas and Illidan, he didn't have an entire continent that seemed to be his domain. For that reason, Cataclysm focused on "the Old World," essentially bringing the conflict to us.
Mists of Pandaria started without a clear villain, though we did know that Garrosh would eventually claim that role. However, in Mists, Blizzard kind of worked backward, first establishing the new playable race (and class) and then establishing their homeland. The Pandaren were always in this strange limbo between being canon and apocryphal, but the background that they had played with actually wound up making it into the game proper, from their love of beer to the badass Shado-Pan.
So what locations remain unexplored? Certainly, some might simply be invented, but let's take a look at places we could find ourselves in the future.
Other Parts of Outland:
Outland was shattered into pieces when Ner'zhul opened all those portals. It certainly stands to reason that there could be as-yet unexplored parts of the world. Yet what might we find there? Frankly, we only got a little of what Draenor was like pre-Burning Legion, and most of the important locations, such as Hellfire Citadel and the Black Temple have already been explored. The only missing location we had heard about beforehand was the island where Deathwing had Adamantite plates installed (before upgrading to Elementium as seen in the Cataclysm cinematic.)
Ny'alotha:
We've only heard whispers of this place, like from the Puzzle-Box of Yogg-Saron. Here's the thing, of the four Old Gods we've been able to name, two have been defeated by Azeroth's champions, one was killed by the Mogu ages ago, and the other remains at large. Where is N'zoth? What might Ny'alotha look like? I can imagine it being a strange and unsettling ruin of a city, perhaps deep under the ocean, ready to rise.
The Emerald Dream:
Man, this is the classic "why haven't we done this yet" place. On one hand, we've heard about it for years and know that there's a threat there in the Nightmare (which is either connected to Xavius, N'zoth, or both.) On the other hand, the Dream seems to be, by definition, just wilderness. It might be hard to make an entire expansion based on a place with no people.
Argus:
The Alliance has three major groups of exiles among its ranks. The Gnomes have re-taken parts of their city, but thankfully they have close friends and allies less than a mile away in Ironforge, so they're in decent shape. The Worgen (and human Gilneans) lost their country when it was ravaged by the Cataclysm and plagued by the Forsaken, but they are chomping at the bit to take it back. But then there are the Draenei, whose name literally means "exiled ones." The Draenei have been fleeing the Burning Legion for 25,000 years old - and they are long-lived enough to have remembered all those millennia on the run. The Draenei culture, which has existed probably longer than almost every other culture in Azeroth's history (the Trolls might have them beat) is built around the defeat of the Burning Legion and the liberation of Argus. We even know the name of their capital city, Mac'aree.
The Old World:
Oh yes, did you think I would leave this out? Now granted, I doubt we're going to see another expansion that does not introduce a new continent - Cataclysm was enough. Yet we do seem to keep coming back. Hell, the current expansion is about a pristine, exotic new land, but the end has us charging into one of the player factions' biggest cities.
There's still some unfinished business in the Old World. I think we can expect to deal with some of that in the future, even if it does not strictly have us questing in new zones through the old continents. I think we can expect to keep seeing scenarios and events that will take us back to these old locales.
Or at least we had better. I want to liberate Gilneas, dammit!
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