Published Nov 12, 2026, 8:03 AM EST

Oli Welsh has been covering the business and culture of video games for two decades. He started out writing for Edge and other publications (specializing in MMOs and Blizzard, as cover for his World of Warcraft playtime) before joining Eurogamer, where he worked for 14 years as reviews editor, deputy editor, and editor-in-chief; Eurogamer won many Games Media Awards during his tenure. At Polygon, he writes about film and TV as well as games, and provides news, analysis, and criticism on the entertainment we love and the industries that make it, all from his home in London. He loves role-playing, racing, puzzles, tactics, exploration, storytelling, Nintendo, mysteries, spies, fantasy, reality, cars, and classic cinema. He wanted to be a movie critic when he grew up, and now he’s definitely grown up, and occasionally is one. He considers this a win.

The Ancient Heirloom ring, awarded to every Skyborne character, is part of a massive quest chain players are still solving

A preening male blue elf Image: Blizzard Entertainment

If you start a Skyborne character in World of Warcraft: Forever — one of the blue sky elves unlocked by purchasing a DLC pack — you're awarded an item called the Ancient Heirloom very early on in the game. This ring can be equipped, but it has no stats and no apparent purpose. It's odd to receive a ring at a low level, because these items aren't usually found until later in the game; when I received one during the beta test, I figured it was just there to add a bit of flavor to the new race and didn't give it a second thought.

How wrong I was. It turns out that the ring is an instrumental part of WoW: Forever's first big secret: a huge, game-spanning questline that players have yet to see to its conclusion.

WoW Forever's Skyborne ring hides a big quest chain

Known as the Dawn Waker Secret, the sequence was discovered by the WoW Secret Finding community on Discord, and there's a step-by-step rundown available on Wowhead. It begins at level 1 on Zephras Isle, the starting zone of the Skyborne, and extends beyond level 40 (so far). If you don't have access to the Skyborne, it's still possible to travel to Zephras Isle and find the ring lying around in a building.

The questline involves finding a special torch on the body of a guard in Duskwood, using this to uncover an ancient sword hilt on Zephras Isle, forging the hilt into a fancy sword, purifying a water globe, and much more, as you tour various spots in the game with significance to Warcraft's most ancient elven lore, including the new Mount Hyjal high-level zone. The Ancient Heirloom ring is important, because it must be equipped for the player to see and interact with elven spirits crucial to the quest, or to reveal ancient elven vaults.

So far, the trail of breadcrumbs ends with a character called Prince Tortheldrin (an ancient, cruel elven prince), who's to be found hanging out in the Dire Maul dungeon. The Prince's dialogue suggests players will need to reach Honored reputation with the Shen'dralar faction in order to hear more.

The sequence seems to revolve around two legendary blades, Eluvi'ana (the sword discovered on Zephras Isle) and Eluvi'tor. Perhaps one of these — or both, in upgraded form — will be the chain's ultimate reward. Whatever happens, it's a great way to tie the Skyborne into the history of Warcraft's Highborne elves, and to pay off a pointless-seeming quest reward from WoW: Forever's earliest moments.