How to start the Shadowlands questline and get to Oribos in World of Warcraft

While World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion may be over and the player base is firmly rooted in the Dragon Isles, there are still some reasons to head back to the Shadowlands and catch up on content you may have missed. If you’re looking to complete some transmog runs, grind out reputation, or add an old mount from the expansion to your collection, you’ll have to make sure that you’ve completed the Shadowlands introductory quests. 

Players cannot access the Shadowlands (or any portals to their capital city, Oribos) unless they’ve completed the introductory quests of the expansion. Thankfully, if you’re looking to unlock the zones of the Shadowlands on an alternate character, you’ll be able to skip the Shadowlands introduction and head right to Oribos. Still, you’ll need to pick up a short quest chain that allows you to do so in your faction’s capital city. 

Here’s how to start the Shadowlands main quest and get yourself to Oribos in World of Warcraft. 

Where to find Darion Mograine and start the Shadowlands intro

Alliance players can go straight to Stormwind Keep, where Darion Mograine will be waiting for you to give you the quest “Shadowlands: A Chilling Summons,” while Horde players will be able to pick up the quest from Mograine outside Grommash Hold in Orgimmar’s Valley of Strength. 

After accepting this quest, you’ll have the option to either replay the introduction to the Shadowlands expansion that takes place in the Maw, or you can head directly to Oribos and skip the introduction altogether, so long as you’ve already completed the quest on another character. We recommend skipping the introduction if you’ve done it already since the experience that it yields isn’t enough to justify the time investment attached to it while leveling. If you haven’t done the Shadowlands introductory quests on any of your characters, you won’t have access to the skip. 

Related: Which Chromie timeline is the fastest for leveling in World of Warcraft?

If you’re leveling a fresh character, you can always head to Chromie in either the Stormwind or Orgrimmar Embassy (depending on your faction) and choose “The Realms of Death” as the timeline you wish to experience while leveling. 

After you’ve hit max-level and wrapped up the leveling process, you’ll always be free to return to the Shadowlands, assuming you’ve unlocked portals to Oribos via the expansion’s introductory questline.