No realms, rulesets instead
In the Forever deep dive, Blizzard announced that WoW: Forever is realmless. That does not mean everyone ends up on the same server, though. Instead you are grouped into one of several basic rulesets.
The rulesets:
- Normal
- PvP
- Roleplay
- Hardcore (arriving post-launch)
Collections and grouping rules
Collections and Legacy Points are shared across all rulesets except Hardcore.
There are still rules for grouping up:
- You cannot group with the opposing faction.
- You can only group with players of the same ruleset.
- Hardcore players have a completely closed ecosystem.
Each player also gets two names that uniquely identify them.
Original report: Wowhead