Obsidian Sanctum *Lore nerd alert*

[Gamehenge]

I'm kind of confused tbh on why this raid exists. The wyrmrest accord clearly is at a tentative peace with the black dragons as shown by their ambassador at the top, who even though makes critical comments against the others, is maintaining said peace. So it seems rather odd then that the flights would let us skip on into the chamber of the aspects and then slaughter the guardian of one of the sanctums where the clutch of eggs lie. Indeed the guards in the chamber of aspects just watch us run right in there. Also blizzard seems to hint that we'll be killing a guardian of each flight. It seems rather odd that the flights would let us do this right under their noses. Especially since this is where their clutches of eggs lie, you know the whole future of their kind.

Seems rather out of place tbh. It's like "we will help you mortals in this fight against the blues, but in the mean time feel free to go slaughter our minions and children down below, they drop some shiny gloves." You think blizz just didn't have anymore ideas for a raid? Hopefully they will release some explanation for this, but so far the obsidian sanctum has no lore released and is the most least explained loot pinata of a raid in the game at the moment.

[Elementium]

I think they just wanted more interaction with the dragons. I doubt they're short on ideas for raids. I mean with CoT the possibilities are endless!

[Azstaru]

you do realise the eggs in there are netherwhelps not black dragons

[Cephas]

I always had similar feelings about raids like Gruul's.

"Well, he's a Dragon killer!"

And the dragons are bad too.

"But he manipulates the ogres!"

So? I'm their king now. Why exactly am I bothering the ugly who slobbers on me?

[Remesh]

Just because an ambassador is present doesn't mean 'peace in our times'. It merely indicates a messenger who communicates their official position. Politics and behind the scene wars/battles/fighting would continue as always.

Cephas, I thought the same thing about Gruul at first too but then got to thinking about it. From the Horde's perspective it does make sense to attack Gruul. As you mentioned, he manipulates the ogres who in turn attack the Mag'har and the orcs traditional ancestral lands. So killing Gruul would go one step to solving this problem for the orcs at least.

Also, this game is a bit more complicated than good versus evil. In a sense the Alliance and Horde are both empire building. Gruul got in the way of that. Gruul had to go.

[Hexxidecimal]

I always had similar feelings about raids like Gruul's.

"Well, he's a Dragon killer!"

And the dragons are bad too.

"But he manipulates the ogres!"

So? I'm their king now. Why exactly am I bothering the ugly who slobbers on me?

cause HE drops shiny legs~

[Mandible]

you do realise the eggs in there are netherwhelps not black dragons

Would still be nice with abit more reason to even enter the place - personally I didn't even know the instance was there till I stumbled upon it be accident.

[velourea]

because we want to fight dragons and don't care how we're gonna get to them

[kerwyn]

The black dragonflight (paticularly deathwing) is bent on world domination. With the exception of the black dragonflight no dragon in WoW is particulary 'evil' - they just don't give a shit about mortal races unless the whole world is in danger. After Day of the Dragon (pretty good book) Alexstraza vowed to protect the mortal races from harm which is why the other flights are fighting against the blues (well that, and malygos is crazy).

He watched most of the blue flight get annihilated during the war of the ancients and the blues only exist now because of some time travel tom-foolery. After the reignition of the sunwell Malygos decided that mortal spellcasters would destroy Azeroth and wanted to obliterate them all personally to protect the planet.


As for the black dragonflight, obsidian sanctum has no good reason to be a dungeon at the moment other than "deathwing is still a crazy fucker." They have however been smuggling netherwing eggs from outlands to azeroth for some time to rebuild the flight which had been practically destroyed by deathwing's insanity and the failure of his offspring, nefarian and onyxia.


Ulduar is the second raid dungeon in lich king, and the final boss is more than likely the Old God Yogg-Saron. There's still an unannounced dungeon before Icecrown Citadel and if it's not scourge related my guess is that we'll finally get to bring down Deathwing. Story wise, he'll probably take advantage of the war between the alliance, horde, and scourge as an opportunity to finally take control of azeroth.

[Erudus]

The black dragonflight (paticularly deathwing) is bent on world domination. With the exception of the black dragonflight no dragon in WoW is particulary 'evil' - they just don't give a shit about mortal races unless the whole world is in danger. After Day of the Dragon (pretty good book) Alexstraza vowed to protect the mortal races from harm which is why the other flights are fighting against the blues (well that, and malygos is crazy).

He watched most of the blue flight get annihilated during the war of the ancients and the blues only exist now because of some time travel tom-foolery. After the reignition of the sunwell Malygos decided that mortal spellcasters would destroy Azeroth and wanted to obliterate them all personally to protect the planet.


As for the black dragonflight, obsidian sanctum has no good reason to be a dungeon at the moment other than "deathwing is still a crazy fucker." They have however been smuggling netherwing eggs from outlands to azeroth for some time to rebuild the flight which had been practically destroyed by deathwing's insanity and the failure of his offspring, nefarian and onyxia.


Ulduar is the second raid dungeon in lich king, and the final boss is more than likely the Old God Yogg-Saron. There's still an unannounced dungeon before Icecrown Citadel and if it's not scourge related my guess is that we'll finally get to bring down Deathwing. Story wise, he'll probably take advantage of the war between the alliance, horde, and scourge as an opportunity to finally take control of azeroth.

Yogg-Saron lives beneath Voldrassil, which is evident with the whole Conquest Hold quest line, Ulduar is a Titan city, and imo is no way related to an "Old God" or "Faceless One".

[Warriorspwnwithhealer]

Well the titans were the ones that sealed away the old gods, and the vordrassil quest line just said a ancient evil lives below, maybe a old god, maybe not

[gherkin]

Gun'Drak has a raid zone line further north.
I would also expect another Sanctum to open up each major content patch.
Generally speaking, the expansion won't end until all the big baddies are dead.

So we have:
Kel'Thuzad*
Malygos*
Yogg Saron
Sanctum bosses (for whatever reason)*
Insane Trolls who killed their gods
Arthas
Scarlet Onlsaught

*Dealt with by the end of 3.0

We also know that blizzard has some large plans with COT, including the siege and destruction of outland. They have the hardware to do this instance now, and can assume the players do too (it was the pre-req for wotlk).

And there was that quest to deal with the Bronze Dragonflight - I'd expect something to get resolved here.

And what about Grim Batol? Might be a valid expansion as it ties in nicely with Sartharion and provides a "ZulAman"-esque location for an instance.

[Erudus]

Well the titans were the ones that sealed away the old gods, and the vordrassil quest line just said a ancient evil lives below, maybe a old god, maybe not

"Spirit of Ursoc says: I thank you all. The druids of old were wise to tear down Vordrassil, for its roots seep deep into the dwelling of an ancient evil. You know their kind as Old Gods. Beware Yogg-Saron, the beast with a thousand maws. His evil extends beyond Vordrassil's roots."

Taken from in game. I think i've proved my point!

[Erudus]

Someone also mentions Grim Batol... it could be where Deathiwing is being held... why else would the Red Dragonsflight be hostile?

[Devidose]

Yogg-Saron lives beneath Voldrassil, which is evident with the whole Conquest Hold quest line, Ulduar is a Titan city, and imo is no way related to an "Old God" or "Faceless One".

It's mentioned the final boss of the Halls Of Lightning, Loken, has been corrupted by Yogg-Saron, so he presence of the Old God at the end of Ulduar, is not so unlikely.

[Wazdakka]

I think the whole thing could do with some quest lead-in but there's some reasons for going down there.

Deathwing is alive, free and nowhere to be found. He's been taking Netherwing eggs, his own "children" infused with the Nether, and modifying them further to create Twilight Drakes. Twilight Dragons appear to be the replacement for his (and Nefarian's) Chromatic Dragon project for creating a meaner, more destructive soldier.
If this was ever actually stressed to the player, it would be ample explaination for going down there. Deathwing evidently believes that the Wyrmrest Accord will neither notice or suspect anything happening with the "sacred ground" of the Temple's Sanctuaries. Or perhaps he hopes the war with Malygos and the Lich King will distract the Accord long enough for his Twilight Drakes/Hatchlings to mature (Netherdragons reach maturation exceedingly quickly) and launch an assault directly from the basement.
There's also the fact that if any of the other flights took notice, they would want the player to enter the Sanctum and slay the egg's guardian, so they could spare the unhatched drakes and raise them properly, and terminate the "corrupted" Twilight Drakes already present before they get any bigger and pose serious issues.

Just a note, Gyth was the only Chromatic Drake to ever exist. You're told "no Chromatic drakes exist and we should pray none ever do". Sartharion has three Twilight Drakes already and is guarding a massive brood. He ranks as a serious threat.

So, yeah. Needs some explaining from NPCs but if you think on it, BAM, sound reasoning.