Speculation on Dungeons!

We've gotten a fairly decent explanation of the two upcoming raids with 6.0. Highmaul will be the Karazhan/Mogu'shan Vaults entry-level raid, and will presumably have us toppling the last remnant of the Ogre Empire, at least on the familiar continent (then again, they might save the true last bastion of the Ogres for the second tier, though I'm hoping they go a little farther outside the box.) Meanwhile, Blackrock Foundry is going to be in Gorgrond and see us taking down the Iron Horde's industrial base along with Blackhand, who in this universe is never Warchief.

But what of dungeons? We've heard a few snippets about them, but some remain a bit mysterious. Let's go through and imagine what we might find there.

Bloodmaul Slag Mines:

I believe this dungeon will be in Frostfire Ridge, as the Horde starting zone seems to be largely concerned with pushing the Ogres out of there to get a foothold among the Frostwolf Clan. BSM (tricky acronym there...) will probably be our main "Ogre dungeon." This is the one dungeon that was previewed at Blizzcon, and appears to involve freeing slaves in the mines and killing the Ogre oppressors.

Blackrock Depot:

Judging from the name, I'd guess this is going to be in Gorgrond, and I imagine that it will be a highly industrial area, linked somewhat to Blackrock Foundry. One can probably assume that we will be engaging the Iron Horde directly here, further taking down their industrial capabilities.

Auchindoun:

This will be a single dungeon, as opposed to the four wings in BC (they seem to have moved away from the "Winged Dungeon" idea. Is that why we've had so few dungeons the last couple expansions? Because frankly, if it meant having more dungeons, I wouldn't mind seeing them using shared art assets.) It appears that in any timeline, the Auchenai Priests go crazy. But is this the result of a dark-cycle Naaru, or is it the work of the Burning Legion? Well, the darkened Naaru was injured before the timeline split, so it's definitely in there, but I believe that they've said we're going to be dealing with a demonic presence here. Ooh! Is it anyone we know/have killed? Anyway, it'll be cool to see the vast Necropolis/Funerary Temple before it got blown to smithereens.

Arrakoa Spires:

Well that's right in the name, isn't it? Clearly this will be the Arrakoa Dungeon in Spires of Arrak. We don't yet really know what the deal with the Arrakoa is. We know that pre-Portalpocalypse (really? spell check is ok with that?) the Arrakoa were/will be able to fly. The Arrakoa seem to worship the sun (in a creepy kill-people-with-giant-lenses-as-a-sacrifice kind of way,) but there's always been a hint that they might be involved with the Old Gods. While I'd be happy to take a break from the Old Gods, I'm also curious about their fabled "Dark Raven." I'm sure the dungeon itself will have us killing off their High Priest or something. Given their geographical isolation, this might be the most climactic confrontation we have with the Arrakoa, so expect their biggest leader as the end boss - if not Anzu himself.

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds:

This will be the Ner'zhul dungeon. While it's slightly disappointing that the would-be Lich King is only going to be a 5-man boss, on the other hand it's clear that he never really goes beyond Elder Shaman in this timeline. Ner'zhul will be the main antagonist of Shadowmoon Valley, the Alliance starting area. As it turns out, it seems that Ner'zhul had some ability to speak to the dead, and perhaps draw on their power. So maybe the Lich King's necromancy was not entirely due to Kil'jaeden's imbuing him with power. If there's going to be any sort of undead enemy to face in this expansion, it'll be here... well, and Auchindoun. Huh. Two of these dungeons are basically graveyards.

Iron Barracks:

This doesn't hint much at what it is, but I imagine that the Iron Barracks is going to be some central location for the Iron Horde. Given that this is a Hellscream-founded Horde, I think it's likely we'll find it in Nagrand. Perhaps it'll be in what in our timeline is Garadar. If Blackrock Depot focuses more on the industrial Blackrock Clan, expect this to be full of frontline soldiers of the Warsong Clan.

Upper Blackrock Spire:

Ok, the big question I have is how this will be separated. While UBRS and LBRS have always been separated by convention rather than by any physical barrier, it's clear that we'll need a new instance portal for UBRS. The question that then raises is: if it gets a new portal, that presumably leaves the old instance open. So then, I wonder, are they going to go out of their way to close off the old Upper Blackrock Spire? I'm not terribly optimistic about this, but I think it would be wonderful if they would leave the current "Blackrock Spire" instance untouched, and then simply add the new UBRS. Yes, the architecture and pathways might be the same (though given the Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery revamps, they might change,) but they would be two separate instances.

While I love the revamps, one does lose something from the game by replacing it with the new. Sometimes it works out fine, but sometimes,  you take the one Worgen-themed dungeon and remove all the Worgen from it.

Plus, there's the whole fact that the entrance to Blackwing Lair is in UBRS (though they might just make the "attunement" automatic.)

But then, if the revamped UBRS is a wholly separate instance, why not call it something else? Also, Jeez are there a lot of instances in Blackrock Mountain!

Further Dungeons:

We have yet to find out a lot of the future plot line of Warlords of Draenor, so it might be early to speculate on added dungeons later in the expansion. We know that Faralohn will be added probably in 6.1 or so. Right now, it looks like there aren't any dungeons in Tanaan Jungle. I know we'll be heading into Tanaan first, but I imagine that we'll return to it in the course of leveling up, since the initial invasion seems to be more of a starting experience meant to get us to Shadowmoon/Frostfire.

I imagine we'll see a greater demonic presence as the expansion goes on. We don't really know what Gul'dan is up to, but you can be very certain it won't be anything good. I could also imagine that we might at some point have to deal with the Infinite Dragonflight, though whether that takes the form of a dungeon or a raid (or both, or neither) is totally up in the air.