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Scattered throughout the Gnomeregan dungeon are collectible punch cards, each stamped with a string of binary code. Decode them and you'll find a set of silly, lore-flavoured in-jokes, including one that simply reads 'if you can read this, you're standing too close.'
Swim out into Bittertide Lake in Sholazar Basin and you'll find a tiny island with a hatch set into the ground. A plaque beside it reads a string of numbers that's a cheeky one-digit-higher twist on the famous recurring sequence from the TV show Lost.
The underwater stretch of the Deeprun Tram, which links Stormwind and Ironforge, occasionally has visitors: a Loch Ness-style sea serpent, a huge basking shark, the odd diver, and a chest that spawns and vanishes without explanation.
Beneath the iconic wizard's tower of Karazhan, the developers hid a giant smiley face in the terrain. It's normally buried, but relogging near the tower or clipping through rubble at the right spot reveals it grinning back up at you.
Stratholme is the site of one of Warcraft's darkest moments, where Arthas Menethil purged the city's population. Some of the ghostly former citizens who still wander the ruins will respond if you use the /dance or /rude emotes on them.
Far off the southeastern coast of Tanaris, past the point where fatigue starts to set in, lies the ruin of an abandoned gnomish settlement resting underwater. It's Azeroth's own little Atlantis, and its full story has never been told in-game.
Goldshire is one of the first towns Alliance players ever see, but around 6am server time it briefly turns sinister: six children spawn, walk in a tight pentagram formation, and head upstairs in a nearby house, with unsettling sound cues if you follow them.
Robin Williams was reportedly a keen Alliance player. After his death in 2014, Blizzard added a quiet tribute on an island off the southern coast of Talador: rub the Ever-Burning Lamp there and one of his most famous characters appears.
In the Canal District of Stormwind runs a flower shop owned by a man named Bernard Gump, a florist with an unmistakable nod in his name to Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump. A second, older reference (a long-missing character called Gubber Blump) predates him.
In Stormsong Valley you can find NPCs named Severus the Outcast, Harald the Scarred, Ranald Flamehair, and Herme the Wise, a playful stand-in for Severus Snape and the Harry Potter trio, part of a wider scattering of wizarding-world nods across the game.
