Outland's Continuted Existence

[FunkyRaccoon]

There's been a lot of speculation lately about the next expansion being about the Burning Legion (which would be nice). It would be nice if they also, as the chatter suggests, redid Outland. But I see one logical problem there.

Outland should be dead and destroyed by now. The water is running off, the atmosphere should have been leaking away. It's been (lore-wise) how long since the campaign against Illidan there? Going through the Dark Portal now (assuming it is still supposed to actually be there) should result in a person finding themselves on a dead, airless rock.

I don't care how much magic was there. Nothing short of Titan magic could save that chunk of Draenor from eventually dying, and I wouldn't even count on that.

Of course, it might be fun to see Arrokoa refugees running about Org/SW. Maybe make them playable? But, ugh, Allies would get them, and Horde would probably get those godsawful ugly, brain-dead ogres.

[Deleted]

Well yeah actually, it's magic in short. Besides it's not like Draenor was only recently destroyed, it's been what 25 years? Why can't it hang on a little longer even if what you say is true? But yeah, WoW does not have to follow the lores of physics and Outland can retain it's atmosphere if it wants.

[Darknessvamp]

Hmm it never did occur to me that Outland was just floating in space untethered from a gravitational source and should technically dead. Though considering how much the legion is set up there and that legion fel magics are based off of Titan magic, there might be something to that as to why it is still hospitable. Either way, it's unlikely they would redo Outland as Blizzard claimed it takes more time to spruce up old content or change it than making new content does (plus so soon after Cata? I don't think so). And if any of the native races of Outland were made playable I'd say the Horde would get members of the Consortium (resettling Orgrimmar could be a lucrative deal) and the Alliance get Arrokoa (new Terrokar trees to replace the burnt park).

[Kaniinchen]

In the Thrall novel they mentioned something along the lines that the shamans/earthen ring and the elementals in Nagrand are keeping the continent from falling apart. Similar to what the Earthen Ring was doing at the Maelstrom.

Since Thrall went to Nagrand just before the Cataclysm, it seems that Outland is still there and doing ok.

[FunkyRaccoon]

When the Titans first came to Azeroth, was the planet just a dead rock, or were they capable of introducing an atmosphere? Or did it have one already? Also, the idea behind the Legion is that they like to destroy things; preserving an atmosphere on a mostly-destroyed planet just doesn't seem to be in their interests, especially since Illidan lost and Kil'Jaeden failed (and the Sunwell is on Azeroth, anyway - their real intended target.) Other than that, I don't see the Titans being involved anywhere in Outland; I think Draenor was probably a natural planet unless someone can point me to lore that says otherwise.

I can see the asteroid that is Outland retaining its water and atmosphere *for a while*; it would still have its own, albeit low, gravity field - but like the Moon and possibly Mars, it's too weak to hold on to its air for very long. And we do see the rivers just running off into space. This shouldn't be Discworld where, well, the entire planet is magic-based, and magic-made, so hey, endless springs of water from the Hub mountains, why not, it's a comedy anyway. It just meant that the entire Outland campaign was sort of time-based - everyone should have had to be in a rush to do things, and then get the hell back to Azeroth.

Of course, on the other hand, having Outland time-locked forever with that awful quest structure forever is a depressing thought. For one thing, what the heck happens to Nagrand quests halfway through? Was trying to do loremaster, and ran out of quests; so I have to go do all the other quests to find the one that takes me back to Nagrand. :P

[Deleted]

When the Titans first came to Azeroth, was the planet just a dead rock, or were they capable of introducing an atmosphere? Or did it have one already? Also, the idea behind the Legion is that they like to destroy things; preserving an atmosphere on a mostly-destroyed planet just doesn't seem to be in their interests, especially since Illidan lost and Kil'Jaeden failed (and the Sunwell is on Azeroth, anyway - their real intended target.) Other than that, I don't see the Titans being involved anywhere in Outland; I think Draenor was probably a natural planet unless someone can point me to lore that says otherwise.

I can see the asteroid that is Outland retaining its water and atmosphere *for a while*; it would still have its own, albeit low, gravity field - but like the Moon and possibly Mars, it's too weak to hold on to its air for very long. And we do see the rivers just running off into space. This shouldn't be Discworld where, well, the entire planet is magic-based, and magic-made, so hey, endless springs of water from the Hub mountains, why not, it's a comedy anyway. It just meant that the entire Outland campaign was sort of time-based - everyone should have had to be in a rush to do things, and then get the hell back to Azeroth.

Of course, on the other hand, having Outland time-locked forever with that awful quest structure forever is a depressing thought. For one thing, what the heck happens to Nagrand quests halfway through? Was trying to do loremaster, and ran out of quests; so I have to go do all the other quests to find the one that takes me back to Nagrand. :P

Draenor wasn't turned into Outland directly by the Legion though, it was wrecked by Ner'zhul. And then the Legion needed it as a base to launch an assault on Azeroth. And now a good deal of the Legion has been driven out so they're in no position to destroy it completely.

[Lord Pebbleton]

I wouldn't want it changed because memories and because visiting new places instead of updated ones is always better.

[FunkyRaccoon]

I'm not saying the Legion needs to do anything to destroy Outland; I'm saying they wouldn't be willing to maintain an atmosphere (especially if they have no more use for it). As for keeping druids and shamans enslaved forever, keeping the rock alive: It's like keeping a brain-dead, uncurable body on life-support forever - what's the point? The Dragonmaw obviously made it to Azeroth; at least some of the members of other races should have been able to make it to the Dark Portal before the air got too thin/they died of thirst, exposure, lack of pressure, etc.

At the very least, there should be some mention of the place (at least as an aside in story progression), instead of just forgetting about it, or assuming it's going to be the way it is, forever (that's fine in-game, but lorewise, meh.)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Lore wise, the laws of physics don't completely apply to the twist I nether (where Outland is). Draenor was sheltered apart a couple decades ago, and it was still (barely) alive when we got there 7 years ago. You'd think that after 27 years, the survivors would've rammed up all of the water left so that it doesn't fall off the edge, right?

Anyways, just about all of the bad guys in Outland are dead now, Illidian followers, feel orcs, evil ogres, legion remnants, etc. Considering that Outland is not such a nice place to live, I think all of the survivors moved to Azeroth now (through the dark portal). Only essential mmilitary bases would be kept, to keep an eye out for the Legion if they come by.

[Scayde]

Outland is actually floating about in the Twisting Nether (Warcraft's equivalent to the Astral Plane of DnD) and not in the Great Dark Beyond (Warcraft's outer space). The whole of that plane of existence is magical in nature and doesn't need to adhere to any laws of physics. Hell, it even rains in Zangarmarsh and there is not nearly enough water to allow for that. Outland will be around for a good long while and I'm sure we will eventually see a revamp to catch up with current lore.

[Doktor Faustus]

Please do not apply real physics to WoW, if the ruins of Draenor want to float around like they do, they can.

They could just ret-con some bullshit explanation for those who like questioning such trivial things.

[Deleted]

I don't have a source for this, but I'm pretty sure it was said that when you're in older zones, you've pretty much gone back in time. When you're in Pandaria, it's like Deathwing and the Lich King are dead. When you're in Northrend, the Shattering technically didn't happen and the only thing NPCs there are worried about is the Lich King, who is then still alive, while Illidan still isn't.

It's simply hard for Blizzard to reflect everything that happens in the lore into the game. Even if they did, they'd have to take away resources from somewhere else. Think about Cataclysm for a moment, people disregard is as the worst expansion. But as someone who has always enjoyed questing and actually bothered to go back to the old zones to see what's up, I can definitely say Cataclysm was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. The problem is that far too many resources went into revamping old zones, which eventually caused a not-too-great endgame.

So while I understand that Outland in the current time won't be anything like the Outland we see in-game, changing Outland in-game isn't as simple as it sounds.

[Ciddy]

All I know is that, for some fucking reason or another, Danath Trollbane is still hanging out there. I don't like that.

I'm thinking that maybe a level 90 quest could probably take us to Outland and find some portal to a Legion-controlled world that we have to assault. That might be fun. Outland is a beautiful area and is my favorite world in the game, but I don't want the next Legion expansion to just be BC 2.0 with recolored stuff in the same place. I'd rather quest in a new world with new models and stuff I haven't already seen before.