Broken Isles are Legion's main problem

[Wilfire]

Legion is supposed to be the culmination of a 23 year long story. We are finally confronting the Burning Legion for the last time. The problem? All of the action is happening on some godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere. Yes, Blizzard tried to play up the important of Broken Isles, e.g. Suramar is an ancient elven city only second to Zin-Azshari in grandeur, Val'sharah is the birthplace of druidism, Highmountain houses Neltharion's lair, Stormheim is more or less the center of titanforged presence on Azeroth, Azsuna is kinda... meh? Broken Shore is implied to be one of the most important locations on Azeroth and even N'Zoth and Y'shaarj fought for control over it many years ago.

Up until Gamescon 2015 however Broken Isles were just a chain of islands with a couple of elven ruins. None of the new lore had any build up. If we look at Cataclysm (which had a similar theme to Legion), all of the zones had some kind of build up. People had been speculating about Uldum since day 1 of WoW, Hyjal was also an established location with important lore, and so was Grim Batol and by extension Twilight Highlands. Vash'jir didn't have any build up but then again it was one of the most controversial zones in WoW's history. The Elemental Planes felt epic for obvious reasons.

I think Legion would feel FAR better if all of the action took place in previously established locations or at the very least had more Legion-controlled zones. Why Blizzard didn't hint at Stormheim and Odyn during WotLK is beyond me and the same goes for all other zones as well, they had years to come up with some lore for them.

TL;DR: Broken Isles are important because... reasons? Doesn't seem convincing.

[micwini]

Legion is supposed to be the culmination of a 23 year long story. We are finally confronting the Burning Legion for the last time. The problem? All of the action is happening on some godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere. Yes, Blizzard tried to play up the important of Broken Isles, e.g. Suramar is an ancient elven city only second to Zin-Azshari in grandeur, Val'sharah is the birthplace of druidism, Highmountain houses Neltharion's lair, Stormheim is more or less the center of titanforged presence on Azeroth, Azsuna is kinda... meh? Broken Shore is implied to be one of the most important locations on Azeroth and even N'Zoth and Y'shaarj fought for control over it many years ago.

Up until Gamescon 2015 however Broken Isles were just a chain of islands with a couple of elven ruins. None of the new lore had any build up. If we look at Cataclysm (which had a similar theme to Legion), all of the zones had some kind of build up. People had been speculating about Uldum since day 1 of WoW, Hyjal was also an established location with important lore, and so was Grim Batol and by extension Twilight Highlands. Vash'jir didn't have any build up but then again it was one of the most controversial zones in WoW's history. The Elemental Planes felt epic for obvious reasons.

I think Legion would feel FAR better if all of the action took place in previously established locations or at the very least had more Legion-controlled zones. Why Blizzard didn't hint at Stormheim and Odyn during WotLK is beyond me and the same goes for all other zones as well, they had years to come up with some lore for them.

TL;DR: Broken Isles are important because... reasons?

Same here. It doesn't feel like "biggest invasion evur" because none of the old zones are involved. NPC's saying one line of text about it (e.g "twilights highlands under legion controll!!!!one1" isn't going to do it. Needs to be shown ingame even just putting down random mobs and structures would do it.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

The Broken Isles are important because of the Pillars of Creation and ToS, that simple.

[Wilfire]

The Broken Isles are important because of the Pillars of Creation and ToS, that simple.

That's the problem, it completely breaks suspension of disbelief because the Pillars of Creation had a grand total of zero mentions in the lore before. Stories for expansions are planned out years in advance of the expansions themselves being released, so why didn't they mention the Pillars before? WotLK was the perfect time to do it.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

That's the problem, it completely breaks suspension of disbelief because the Pillars of Creation had a grand total of zero mentions in the lore before. Stories for expansions are planned out years in advance of the expansions themselves being released, so why didn't they mention the Pillars before? WotLK was the perfect time to do it.

The Pillars of Creation likely wasn't even an idea in WotLK. Lore expands over time and you just gotta accept that.

[globenstine]

lol no. Legions main problems are rng leggos titanforge and AP. the lore is fine. plus no one said this would be the final time we deal with the legion.

[In Ogres We Trust]

lol no. Legions main problems are rng leggos titanforge and AP. the lore is fine. plus no one said this would be the final time we deal with the legion.

That's the entire point of this expansion, i.e. this is the final time that we'll deal with the Burning Legion.

[CrossNgen]

I don't think you need lore build up for a zone before it's reveal, because we've had pandaria and that didn't have any build up at all, yet it's place in the story remains grand and important, and it left a mark on the world as a whole.

Yet I don't like it when they decide to retcon a zone's lore just to add importance to it like they did with the BI, I feel like, just like with WoD and Draenor, we're not gonna see anything come up of the broken isles post Legion aside from the tomb and Argus, will we see the highmountain tauren out side of highmountain after legion? or what about the nightborne? will they start exploring the post-sundering world, or will they keep themselves behind the walls of suramar?

[Deleted]

Legion is supposed to be the culmination of a 23 year long story. We are finally confronting the Burning Legion for the last time. The problem? All of the action is happening on some godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, it's not like it has any significance to the Legion. Like you know the first invasion was fought in these lands, Blackrook Hold was invoived and all. And then the Avatar of Sargeras was buried in the Tomb of Sargeras. I mean it's totally disconnected from the Legion story. Also Argus, where we will be going, has nothing to do with the Legion.

[Deleted]

Yeah, it's not like it has any significance to the Legion. Like you know the first invasion was fought in these lands, Blackrook Hold was invoived and all. And then the Avatar of Sargeras was buried in the Tomb of Sargeras. I mean it's totally disconnected from the Legion story. Also Argus, where we will be going, has nothing to do with the Legion.

Except it's implied that Argus is the seat of power for the burning legion, but apart of that, sure.

[Shakou]

Legion is supposed to be the culmination of a 23 year long story. We are finally confronting the Burning Legion for the last time. The problem? All of the action is happening on some godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere.

I agree with this in part, but if you played more than just your toon you would see that there are indeed things happening all around the world. The problem is that all of the majority of this new content is only experienced if you play each class.

There should be far more happening all around the world, and as it is the threat does not feel credible, the expansion on the whole feels like less is happening in the world than even MOP and that shouldn't be the case. As for the rest of your post, absolutely not. It's perfectly fine that the Broken Isle's are the hub for most of the action happening currently in the game and it's more than adequately explained as to why.

Also The Broken Isle's and their importance totally did not just come out of nowhere, War of the Ancients is well established lore as is the Tomb of Sargeras, not at all surprising that these lands play a significant role in this expansion.

[JustRob]

Except it's implied that Argus is the seat of power for the burning legion, but apart of that, sure.

It's not implied, it is. In the cutscene with Kil'jaeden in 7.2 he flat out says he sacrificed his home world and we see an image of a Legion infested Argus.

[Shakou]

That's the entire point of this expansion, i.e. this is the final time that we'll deal with the Burning Legion.

This should be very obvious, but somehow for some people it's not.

[Deleted]

*Culmination of a 15 year old story, you mean.

[Arrowstormen]

Except it's implied that Argus is the seat of power for the burning legion, but apart of that, sure.

It's not implied, it is. In the cutscene with Kil'jaeden in 7.2 he flat out says he sacrificed his home world and we see an image of a Legion infested Argus.

It was sarcasm.


Broken Isles is obviously the heart of the invasion, since the demons are coming from the Tomb, and lorewise the invasions we saw in the pre-event are still happening, even though they aren't actually. The old world is stuck in Pre-MoP time anyway, so I don't care too much, and having invasions nobody would really be doing happening around the world would be pointless. It's a gameplay over lore situation.

[Shakou]

*Culmination of a 15 year old story, you mean.

Warcraft 1 was released 23 years ago.

[Kelathos]

The primary issue you describe can be explained as this. WoW is NOT a true MMORPG.

Not a living, persistent world. Cataclysm update aside... WoW's world does not change. Instead WoW is an online themepark game with a new set of rides every 2 years. Legion is the newest set of rides and none of the older rides, the "world", will reflect it because old rides generally sit and collect dust. Again, this is how WoW is not a living world. The static nature of the WoW formula where you might never again have a relevant storyline in Azeroth, Outland, Northrend, Cataclysm zones, Pandaria, Draenor, or Broken Isles GREATLY harms the narrative and nostalgia that would accompany natural storytelling.

With a static world we lose the "feel" of the world. We lose a compelling sense of place and belonging to WoW itself. For example, Suramar is a great place. You will never see it again. Let the implications of that sink in. WoW is great for what it is (online themepark) but that design has serious limitations.

[Gaidax]

TL;DR: Broken Isles are important because... reasons? Doesn't seem convincing.

Dunno, maybe because a bloody Tomb of Sargeras is there with its considerable power hidden inside which allowed Legion to frikkin' power Felstorm and open portal to Argus there enough for invasion force to slip through and rip Azeroth armies?

Tomb of Sargeras had no build up... kk bro. It really does not have anything there, right? Only some small stuff like unspeakable power hidden inside and a frikkin' restrained Avatar of Sargeras buried there, we hear all the way back from WII about.

I'm not even talking about N'zoth who is trapped around that area and undoubtedly all the mess there will lead to him fucking us over next expansion.

That's like the dumbest shit I heard so far, Broken Isles important because... gee I wonder why?

[Deleted]

It was sarcasm.


Broken Isles is obviously the heart of the invasion, since the demons are coming from the Tomb, and lorewise the invasions we saw in the pre-event are still happening, even though they aren't actually. The old world is stuck in Pre-MoP time anyway, so I don't care too much, and having invasions nobody would really be doing happening around the world would be pointless. It's a gameplay over lore situation.

It's anduin, nothing he says is sarcasm

[Wondercrab]

I think this is definitely a part of it. Legion being a Cataclysm-styled expansion would have been a lot more convincing story wise, but honestly I feel like Legion's main narrative problem is the Burning Legion themselves. They're just not a very compelling bunch of antagonists to build an entire expansion around. The most interesting part of their invasion is the way they've worked through other races like the Nightborne (who actually are interesting).

I think the Legion work as a looming intangible threat that show up every now and again to play moderate roles, but when you make them the central focus of the story it becomes glaringly apparent just how shallow they are. All of the Legion characters are just incredibly bland moustache-twirlers who all have the same basic motivation of "I'm evil, I'mma do evil things", and we dispatch them in such routine order that they never have any chance to grow beyond that (not that they show much potential for growth anyway). Beyond Kil'jaeden and Sargeras, the Legion doesn't really have any strongly defined characters associated with it, and they've barely done anything with those two big names to make them anything more than figureheads.

I feel like the Legion are really lacking in depth and personality because of this. It's really hard to get emotionally invested in your antagonists when they're all so disposable and one-note. The most interesting Burning Legion character we've seen was probably Varimathras, but that arc is long since over. Making Kil'jaeden a focal point and digging more into his backstory with Velen would've been an awesome way to flesh out this expansion's antagonists and get us to care about them, but beyond one cutscene it's looking like Kil'jaeden's main role is going to be as a mid-expansion raid boss.