RavenCraft, the Turtle WoW 1.18.1 continuation run by former project contributors, announced on October 18 2026 that it is moving to a 1.14 client. The announcement was posted to the project's Discord and cross-posted to r/wowservers by u/thrashp4nda, the account that has carried RavenCraft announcements since its August launch. We read it the following day.
What carries over
The post is explicit that nothing is being reset: "All your accounts, characters and progress will carry over to 1.14." It also promises that every piece of custom Turtle WoW content moves with them, which matters for a realm whose whole value proposition is the fan-made Mysteries of Azeroth expansion, including its playable High Elves and Goblins and its custom zones, dungeons and raids.
What changes
The stated wins are engine headroom and control of the client:
- Enhanced visuals and atmospheric effects, with the original textures intact, plus dynamic weather and evolving lighting.
- A new official cross-platform launcher for Windows, Linux and Steam Deck, described as running natively with no Wine required. That replaces IchaLaunch, the open-source launcher our starter guide currently lists, and it is a real change for Linux and Steam Deck players who have been running the 1.18.1 client through compatibility layers.
- The project says the newer client gives it more memory, a more powerful engine and better support for custom content, so it can build new areas, creatures, dungeons and quests faster.
The launch event
The migration is being framed as a release event called Delving the Core, with exclusive rewards including the Gilnean Raven companion and 300 Raven Coins. The project says the full event details will come with the release announcement, so no date for the switch has been published yet.
What we are reporting, and what we are not
We have one source for this: the project's own announcement. ravencraft.io does not mention the migration. Its page metadata still lists the old client lineage (1.16.0 through 1.17, and the Beyond the Greymane Wall naming), it has no news page at all, and download.ravencraft.io/IchaLaunch.exe still resolves, so the launcher swap has not happened on the site yet. Until a date and a download exist, this is a stated plan from the operator, not a change we can verify by reading the realm's own pages.
That is also why our tracker entry keeps the Vanilla+ tag and stays where it is. The client is moving; the content identity and the Mysteries of Azeroth name are not. We will re-read the site when the release lands and report the launcher, the client build and the download then. Anyone who wants to be early should watch the project's Discord rather than the website.