A different idea as to who the "Warlords" may be

[miffy23]

Disclaimer: this is an IDEA, not a theory or how I think it will actually happen. It is not a fleshed out idea for the expansion, due to obvious question marks (where do we level?), it's just a storyline I came up with that I like better than a possible full out time travel expansion.

So. I'm not liking what we heard so far. However, it got me thinking.
Despite everyone jumping on "Draenor" in the title, and thinking we're going back in time or visiting different parts of Outland, maybe you're all on the wrong track?

Here's what the supposed leak entailed:
- involves Grom as an antagonist
- heavy use of time travel

Here's what we heard last Blizzcon:
"Turalyon and Alleria are out there, and we'll need their help for what's to come"

5.4 patch then saw Garrosh being imprisoned and in visions, we see Anduin talking to Garrosh before finally witnessing the death of Soridormi, Nozdormu's mate, in the Caverns of Time, seemingly killed by the traitor in the Bronze Dragonflight.

I've been trying to think of a way this might all fit together without completely f-ing over the established lore, and here's what I propose atm:

Turalyon and Alleria are the actual "warlords of Draenor". Technically, they are warlords in the meaning of the word, military leaders, that invaded Draenor to stop the Horde, back in Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal. While one could argue that the term would certainly fit Orcish and Draenei chieftains of old Draenor better, it's technically correct.

So in this case, maybe we never even set a single foot on old Draenor, or any part of Outland. Maybe the protagonists are the "warlords", coming to warn us of X, and probably leading us to place y to fight or prepare, and whatnot.

But what of Grom being an antagonist? And the visions?

edit:
Alright, i'm gonna flesh this idea out a bit more.

Pre expansion:
Garrosh breaks out of his prison, aided by Wrathion disguised as Anduin. He guides him to the Caverns of Time, where Soridormi and Kayroz attempt to stop him. He kills Soridormi, Kayroz is powerless to stop Garrosh from stealing the Vision of Time FROM him, which we helped grow in power.
Garrosh jumps back in time and all hell breaks loose as the expansion hits.

Expansion:

Chaos everywhere, temporal fluxes twisting and warping areas of Azeroth, and amid all the chaos Velen and Anduin gather a band of heroes to try and talk to a distraught and nearly catatonic Nozdormu. After much prodding he reveals where Garrosh went, and we travel through the Caverns of Time to prevent Garrosh from accomplishing his goal: saving his father Grom from dying in his battle against Mannoroth and forming the True Horde with him during the days of the Reign of Chaos.
Multi-instance tier, with raids and 5 mans exploring the new timelines blown open and repairing the damage done to them. The main raid leads to the climactic battle between Thrall / Grom and Mannoroth, where we stop and finally kill the arriving Garrosh from saving his father, and either kill or watch Grom dying to reset the timeline.

Other instances might include an alternate Stratholme, and the Caverns of Time themself, that see the Bronze Dragonflight finally turn into the Infinite Dragonflight. Wrathion escapes the Horde and the Alliance's scrutiny, but continues to secretly enlist the help of us, the players.


After the dust has barely settled, Turalyon and Alleria arrive via the Dark Portal. They have been travelling and hopping along the Legion's path of destruction, gathering intelligence and trying to find their way back home. They arrive back on Azeroth in the nick of time, warning us of the impending assault by the Legion forces amassing on Argus. They rally what is left of the forces of Azeroth and sally forth through the Twisting Nether to take the fight to the Legion. As this rag-tag army leaves for near certain doom, Wrathion is seething - another one of his plots to protect his beloved Azeroth was foiled. So he looks for NEW allies to protect his world against the Legion. What better allies than those that wish to preserve and rule it themselves? As long as the planet is preserved, Wrathion may be fine with it - "there are limits to survival we are prepared to accept". (The Architect, The Matrix Reloaded) And so while we are busy on Argus or elsewhere, fighting the overwhelming forces of the Legion (and losing), Wrathion travels deep under the ocean waves, to seek those that would pay any price, and sacrifice anything, in order to defend their world, much like him. And Wrathion finds himself - a queen.

Panicked over our side losing the battle on foreign worlds, and filled with visions of a burning Azeroth, Wrathion in his desperation turns to the last remaining power he can find on Azeroth that he deems strong enough to hold off the fire, and so aids Azshara and her Naga (and by extension, N'zoth) in leading an assault on the surface world.

Meanwhile on Argus, we fight a nearly hopeless battle and several semi-important characters die off, Varian falls and Anduin takes up the crown. Against all hope, and with daring tactics we manage to hold back the Legion and drive them back to their strongholds, securing the portals that lead to our home.

Our band of heroes, having defeated all odds once more and kept the Legion forces at bay outside of Azeroth, return to a home in chaos with the former Highborne wreaking havoc on the land-dwellers. While guarding and watching the Legion forces while being helpless to prevent them from gathering anew, we must drive back the Naga and face Azshara along with a guilty and torn Wrathion. N'zoth is revealed to empower Azshara and influence Wrathion, and we must defeat the final "surviving" Old God once and for all.

Wrathion, realizing his error and that N'zoth would cause more harm than good to his beloved Azeroth, sacrifices himself to defeat the Old God, banishing his avatar along with the other 4. With his last words, he remembers the full vision Lei Shen's heart granted him - the Final, the last surviving Titan. and the key to defeating the Legion once and for all, rests within the core of Azeroth herself, waiting to be awakened.

So:
Time travel, but not based on it
Grom as antagonist, but not the "prime evil"
Legion, but no Draenor or Outland
Still fits most of the hints we got so far.

*leans back and drinks his own little mug of Kool-Aid*

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

The more I'm looking at these leaks the more it's starting to fall together that Time Travel is bogus.

*Time Travel can be a mistranslation of Time Walking. Timewalking being a feature shown on the front page a few days back that was level/ilevel scaling for old instances. It doesn't make heavy use of Time Traveling, it makes heavy use of (ie introducing) Timewalking as the big new feature.

*Grom is not Grommash Hellscream. Grom means the race of giants native to Draenor. Perhaps they have been corrupted by the Legion and are their new "Fel Orcs."

*The Chinese leak had a picture of 12 space suits, 1 of which didn't have a flag on it. 12 classes going into space, where 1 is new and not directly alligned with the factions. Demon Hunter with their own ebon blade-like faction.

[Arbs]

The more I'm looking at these leaks the more it's starting to fall together that Time Travel is bogus.

*Time Travel can be a mistranslation of Time Walking. Timewalking being a feature shown on the front page a few days back that was level/ilevel scaling for old instances. It doesn't make heavy use of Time Traveling, it makes heavy use of (ie introducing) Timewalking as the big new feature.

*Grom is actually Garrosh. The leaker didn't know who Garrosh was, so assumed it to be a renaming of Grommash. Simple google search would find tons of "Grom" companies in the world.

*The Chinese leak had a picture of 12 space suits, 1 of which didn't have a flag on it. 12 classes going into space, where 1 is new and not directly alligned with the factions. Demon Hunter with their own ebon blade-like faction.

Well Grommash is the long version of Grom, but most of know him as Grom. Just like Thrall is named Go'el, but we know him as Thrall.

[miffy23]

I'm actually rather happy with my little "Wrathion aids Azshara to protect Azeroth" twist, i'm rather liking the idea.
Wrathion in desperation back on Azeroth, turning to the unlikeliest of allies, while Anduin defeats the odds and leads the combined forces of Azeroth offworld.

- - - Updated - - -

The more I'm looking at these leaks the more it's starting to fall together that Time Travel is bogus.

*Time Travel can be a mistranslation of Time Walking. Timewalking being a feature shown on the front page a few days back that was level/ilevel scaling for old instances. It doesn't make heavy use of Time Traveling, it makes heavy use of (ie introducing) Timewalking as the big new feature.

*Grom is actually Garrosh. The leaker didn't know who Garrosh was, so assumed it to be a renaming of Grommash. Simple google search would find tons of "Grom" companies in the world.

*The Chinese leak had a picture of 12 space suits, 1 of which didn't have a flag on it. 12 classes going into space, where 1 is new and not directly alligned with the factions. Demon Hunter with their own ebon blade-like faction.

Totally agree with the first part, second part i dunno - many claim that "their sources" talked about Grommash months ago.
That last part about space suits - wtf? Never heard of this, seems like a bad troll too.

[Sierra85]

i thought we were the warlords. the player base. the heroes...

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

i thought we were the warlords. the player base. the heroes...

You kidding? It's always the bad guys in the title, not the heroes.

Burning Crusade
Wrath of the Lich King
Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria
Warlords of Draenor

Also I'm going to update my post in here because we've had new revelations about what Grom could mean.

[Deleted]

You kidding? It's always the bad guys in the title, not the heroes.

Burning Crusade
Wrath of the Lich King
Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria
Warlords of Draenor

Also I'm going to update my post in here because we've had new revelations about what Grom could mean.

You are on the right Track. Its following the Hearthstone Name Schema not the WoW one.

They could break it but i dont know.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

You are on the right Track. Its following the Hearthstone Name Schema not the WoW one.

They could break it but i dont know.

You can't claim Hearthstone has a naming scheme when it's only 1 title.

IMO it is closer to the MoP naming scheme of "<Noun> of <Possessor>"

The mists are owned by Pandaria, the warlords are owned by Draenor.

[lunchbox2042]

You are on the right Track. Its following the Hearthstone Name Schema not the WoW one.

They could break it but i dont know.

Why would the trademark a Hearthstone expansion when the game is still in beta?

[miffy23]

You kidding? It's always the bad guys in the title, not the heroes.

Burning Crusade
Wrath of the Lich King
Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria
Warlords of Draenor

Also I'm going to update my post in here because we've had new revelations about what Grom could mean.

Interesting on the Grom note...internal code for "Ogres"?
More likely though that it is simply a coincidence and Grommash actually means something along the lines of "giant warrior" or something generic like that.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Why would the trademark a Hearthstone expansion when the game is still in beta?

That too. Hearthstone boosters will likely come out much faster than WoW expansions, but they still wouldn't get up on stage and go "Hearthstone launches next May. Oh, and we have a booster to reveal, it's beta starts as soon as Hearthstone's ends."

- - - Updated - - -

Interesting on the Grom note...internal code for "Ogres"?
More likely though that it is simply a coincidence and Grommash actually means something along the lines of "giant warrior" or something generic like that.

Yeah.

The introduction of this other meaning for Grom suddenly changes a lot of what the leak talks about. And could explain why they would need to change the name, as it's not a character now but a whole species.

[miffy23]

That too. Hearthstone boosters will likely come out much faster than WoW expansions, but they still wouldn't get up on stage and go "Hearthstone launches next May. Oh, and we have a booster to reveal, it's beta starts as soon as Hearthstone's ends."

- - - Updated - - -



Yeah.

The introduction of this other meaning for Grom suddenly changes a lot of what the leak talks about. And could explain why they would need to change the name, as it's not a character now but a whole species.

I highly doubt a new race tho, what with the new race models and all that.

[Dracbane]

I highly doubt a new race tho, what with the new race models and all that.

Why would a native, nonplayable race interfere with the new race models for playable characters?(which are going to come out with the xpac, this has been stated several times.)

[miffy23]

Why would a native, nonplayable race interfere with the new race models for playable characters?(which are going to come out with the xpac, this has been stated several times.)

It wouldn't, necessarily. Just doesn't seem likely to me given the time and effort involved. Plus a new class seems more likely to me personally, whatever it may be.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

It wouldn't, necessarily. Just doesn't seem likely to me given the time and effort involved. Plus a new class seems more likely to me personally, whatever it may be.

Yeah my current bet is on 10 levels, Ogre for Horde, Arrakoa for Alliance, and Demon Hunter.

I mean let's face it, people are saying this is WC4 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Warcraft. Who's to say Blizz also won't do something huge to celebrate WoW's 10th? 10 levels, 2 races, and a class would be immediately the largest expansion to date.

[Ceethemage]

The more I'm looking at these leaks the more it's starting to fall together that Time Travel is bogus.

*Time Travel can be a mistranslation of Time Walking. Timewalking being a feature shown on the front page a few days back that was level/ilevel scaling for old instances. It doesn't make heavy use of Time Traveling, it makes heavy use of (ie introducing) Timewalking as the big new feature.

*Grom is not Grommash Hellscream. Grom means the race of giants native to Draenor. Perhaps they have been corrupted by the Legion and are their new "Fel Orcs."

*The Chinese leak had a picture of 12 space suits, 1 of which didn't have a flag on it. 12 classes going into space, where 1 is new and not directly alligned with the factions. Demon Hunter with their own ebon blade-like faction.

You bring a really good point

[The Kao]

maybe you're all on the wrong track?

We most certainly are. The current speculations with time travels and Grom being the baddie this time all stem from this one thread that showed up some days ago, naming the xpac "Warlords of Draenor". Nobody even got the idea that everything from this thread was made up as well by someone who wanted to back his information a bit. It's a bit like fortune telling - observe intently, cleverly place vague information and everybody will feed from your bowl.

And that's what we really have:
- A name that is might be fake as well until it gets confirmed, even though Boub believes in it.

If this name is the real thing, then it's probably safe to assume that Draenei have some major role in it.

However, it doesn't say it's taking place on Draenor, it doesn't say Legion, it doesn't say time travels or Grom, or anything, or that these couldn't still happen. It's all in the dark until Blizzcon, as always. Calm down.

[miffy23]

Alright, i'm gonna flesh this idea out a bit more.

Pre expansion:
Garrosh breaks out of his prison, aided by Wrathion disguised as Anduin. He guides him to the Caverns of Time, where Soridormi and Kayroz attempt to stop him. He kills Soridormi, Kayroz is powerless to stop Garrosh from stealing the Vision of Time FROM him, which we helped grow in power.
Garrosh jumps back in time and all hell breaks loose as the expansion hits.

Expansion:

Chaos everywhere, temporal fluxes twisting and warping areas of Azeroth, and amid all the chaos Velen and Anduin gather a band of heroes to try and talk to a distraught and nearly catatonic Nozdormu. After much prodding he reveals where Garrosh went, and we travel through the Caverns of Time to prevent Garrosh from accomplishing his goal: saving his father Grom from dying in his battle against Mannoroth and forming the True Horde with him during the days of the Reign of Chaos.
Multi-instance tier, with raids and 5 mans exploring the new timelines blown open and repairing the damage done to them. The main raid leads to the climactic battle between Thrall / Grom and Mannoroth, where we stop and finally kill the arriving Garrosh from saving his father, and either kill or watch Grom dying to reset the timeline.

Other instances might include an alternate Stratholme, and the Caverns of Time themself, that see the Bronze Dragonflight finally turn into the Infinite Dragonflight. Wrathion escapes the Horde and the Alliance's scrutiny, but continues to secretly enlist the help of us, the players.


After the dust has barely settled, Turalyon and Alleria arrive via the Dark Portal. They have been travelling and hopping along the Legion's path of destruction, gathering intelligence and trying to find their way back home. They arrive back on Azeroth in the nick of time, warning us of the impending assault by the Legion forces amassing on Argus. They rally what is left of the forces of Azeroth and sally forth through the Twisting Nether to take the fight to the Legion. As this rag-tag army leaves for near certain doom, Wrathion is seething - another one of his plots to protect his beloved Azeroth was foiled. So he looks for NEW allies to protect his world against the Legion. What better allies than those that wish to preserve and rule it themselves? As long as the planet is preserved, Wrathion may be fine with it - "there are limits to survival we are prepared to accept". (The Architect, The Matrix Reloaded) And so while we are busy on Argus or elsewhere, fighting the overwhelming forces of the Legion (and losing), Wrathion travels deep under the ocean waves, to seek those that would pay any price, and sacrifice anything, in order to defend their world, much like him. And Wrathion finds himself - a queen.

Panicked over our side losing the battle on foreign worlds, and filled with visions of a burning Azeroth, Wrathion in his desperation turns to the last remaining power he can find on Azeroth that he deems strong enough to hold off the fire, and so aids Azshara and her Naga (and by extension, N'zoth) in leading an assault on the surface world.

Meanwhile on Argus, we fight a nearly hopeless battle and several semi-important characters die off, Varian falls and Anduin takes up the crown. Against all hope, and with daring tactics we manage to hold back the Legion and drive them back to their strongholds, securing the portals that lead to our home.

Our band of heroes, having defeated all odds once more and kept the Legion forces at bay outside of Azeroth, return to a home in chaos with the former Highborne wreaking havoc on the land-dwellers. While guarding and watching the Legion forces while being helpless to prevent them from gathering anew, we must drive back the Naga and face Azshara along with a guilty and torn Wrathion. N'zoth is revealed to empower Azshara and influence Wrathion, and we must defeat the final "surviving" Old God once and for all.

Wrathion, realizing his error and that N'zoth would cause more harm than good to his beloved Azeroth, sacrifices himself to defeat the Old God, banishing his avatar along with the other 4. With his last words, he remembers the full vision Lei Shen's heart granted him - the Final, the last surviving Titan. and the key to defeating the Legion once and for all, rests within the core of Azeroth herself, waiting to be awakened.

[Sharuko]

^ Now that sounds awesome.

[Sageofthe10paths]

I feel like the more we talk about this the crazier our answers get lol. I have been playing around with this idea I had for awhile if they did a time travel expansion which they seem to be trying to do now (maybe). Originally I thought, before this Warlords of Draenor thing that what if the Infinite Dragonflight goes back in time to the 1st war and changes things terribly or even the 2nd war, and Alliance and Horde have to set the time line straight by fighting legendary characters in the lore. Some of which are "warlords" from the planet Draenor. This would also involve going to their planet and closing the Dark Portal among other things.

On second thought, nope still stupid, still doesn't make sense and would completely F up our time line. You see, when you go back in time, you present dies. Meaning you go to the past, you change things, that means the present you return to will be forever changed and different. If you go to the future and alter it, and then to back to your present that will remain the same. It's like Norzdormu said, time is like a web with tons of branching paths but one center that started everything. I can't seem to make any sense or find a real purpose to go back to WC1 or WC2 times and adventure around. Like what's so exciting about burning down Stormwind back in the day? What's so exciting about killing Gul'dan after be betrays Blackhand? It would be cool to meet Broxigar lol.