Shattrath City is a major hub city which was introduced in the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion pack. This city is located on the continent of Outland, in the Terokkar Forest zone. While all players of either Horde or Alliance are welcome in Shattrath City, the city is a combat-free zone. Players cannot engage in combat within the city limits, even if they are specifically “flagged” for combat. Within the city, there are transportation portals to each of the four capital cities for both Horde and Alliance. Players cannot access the opposing faction portals.

Shattrath City hosts a number of usual player amenities, such as banks, vendors and inns, but there is a glaring lack of class trainers or auction houses. Blizzard has acknowledged that this is a deliberate design decision, in order to disperse population density, and to encourage players to continue to interact with the “old world” of Azeroth. This is unlikely to change in the future. [2]

The city also has four separate factions, two of which are mutually exclusive to one another. The Shat’ari are the supernatural beings who reclaimed Shattrath City after it was abandoned by the Draenei. The Lower City faction is a collection of refugees who flocked to the city during the chaos caused by the Burning Legion. Both of these factions have their own respective reputation system and rewards system. Reputation for each is gained in the usual manner of completing quests or killing mobs in instances.

The other two factions, Scryer and Aldor, are diametrically opposed with one another. When a player chooses to join one of these factions, the player is immediately hostile to the opposing faction. This transcends the usual Horde versus Alliance factions, as any player may choose either faction. Players are encouraged to fully research the benefits for each faction. An incorrect choice may lead to limitations with profession development, or may lock players out of desirable rewards. A costly process is available for players who wish to change their factions. Each faction has it’s own reputation system, in which reputation gains for one faction is reflected with loss of reputation for the opposite factions; it is therefore impossible for a player to be anything other than neutral with both factions at the same time. One cannot be seek to be exalted with both factions at the same time. Players who have chosen their faction will be banished if they attempt to access the alternate factions special vendors. Both factions have dedicated areas in Shattrath City, with inns and vendors; there are also faction banks, but these are linked to the rest of the banks across the world. Reputation is earned by completing quests, killing specific mobs and turning in special tokens.