Reasons pointing toward Time travel expansion?

[seni]

Just looking for evidence and clues that point to what the next expansion may be about.


Chris Metzen said we would see Alleria and Turalyon next expansion. We either will see them in the present, or in the past.
Rob Pardo signed on for one of the Designer positions for the next expansion, the last he worked on was The Burning Crusade as Lead Designer, it would make sense to bring him back on as a Designer for another Legion expansion.
Wrathion's vision of the fallen titan, and of his plan to unite Azeroth before the Legion comes.
The Blank Scroll short story pointing toward another Legion invasion and a Naga incursion.


What else is there to support and refute this claim? Not looking for opinions on whether it would be a good expansion or not, just looking for foreshadowing and concrete evidence/links from official sources!

[Jokubas]

Do you want loose ends/unanswered questions that might hint at any theme or just time travel?

I'm going to list some things from each, but I'm forgetful right now so forgive me if some of my lists are bare. It doesn't mean that ones I remembered more hints for are more likely. On that note, I'm probably going to edit this post if I remember something else.

For time travel, we have the fact that 5.4 promoted the Timewalkers from an excuse for the card game to explore past Warcraft games to full canon:

• We have the fact that a new type of "Timewalker" instance was added in the 5.4 files, but is not currently announced as a feature.
• The Timeless Isle, despite being off the coast of Pandaria, really came out of left field for both the audience and the characters. It doesn't seem to currently be particularly relevant to the Pandaria plot, but Kairoz is having you do stuff on the island in order to research what he fears might become an upcoming calamity.

For Burning Legion, we have:

• Wrathion warning of an upcoming reckoning with an image of Azeroth being attacked by what appeared to be infernals.
• The Blank Scroll short story showing that if Garrosh wins, the Burning Legion would be ready to sweep over what's left.

For Azshara:
(Note: We have no idea what Azshara thinks of the Legion after she failed to finish summoning them during the War of the Ancients. Regardless, considering the Tomb of Sargeras is on an island under naga control, Azshara could easily be connected to or lead into a Legion expansion.)

• Mentions of horrors rising from the sea after Garrosh's victory in the Blank Scroll story.
• The massive loose ends from Cataclysm.
• The fact that she's one of the last remaining, established major villains.

For Emerald Dream:
(Note: The fact that the Emerald Nightmare and Azshara are both connected to N'Zoth, and Xavius has worked for both, means these two themes could very well be in the same expansion.)

• There are three mounts that are all heavily night elf/Emerald Dream themed and have nothing to do with this expansion. Two have yet to be made available. The third is a refer-a-friend mount so obviously it's not from the next expansion, but it could be foreshadowing considering the mounts all share a theme distinct from this expansion.

Other:

• Varian has vowed to clear the plague in Gilneas and resettle it, while Sylvanas, right next door, has outright stated that she will not follow Vol'jin.
• The Kor'kron that were watching the Undercity to make sure Sylvanas will not try anything have been killed.
• Blizzard has mentioned that various factions have noticed that Sylvanas is becoming more and more like the Lich King every day.

Things I intentionally left out:

• Alleria and Turalyon's Return - We may very well need them to confront what's coming next expansion, but no one ever said what that was. Alleria and Turalyon are heroes of one major thing: fighting the Horde during the Second War. They went missing under circumstances we're still not aware of sometime between Warcraft II and Burning Crusade. We have no proof they even fought any major Legion force outside of demons summoned by the Horde. All we know is that they're heroes. They could be helping us with pretty much anything. Their mysterious disappearance could have been because we go back in time and bring them forward because of something that happens soon, they could have entered a portal that took them under the seas of Azeroth, or they really could have taken the fight to the Legion in the Nether and Argus. We have no idea at the moment.

[Arbs]

Do you want loose ends/unanswered questions that might hint at any theme or just time travel?

I'm going to list some things from each, but I'm forgetful right now so forgive me if some of my lists are bare. It doesn't mean that ones I remembered more hints for are more likely.

For time travel, we have the fact that 5.4 promoted the Timewalkers from an excuse for the card game to explore past Warcraft games to full canon:

• We have the fact that a new type of "Timewalker" instance was added in the 5.4 files, but is not currently announced as a feature.
• The Timeless Isle, despite being off the coast of Pandaria, really came out of left field for both the audience and the characters. It doesn't seem to currently be particularly relevant to the Pandaria plot, but Kairoz is having you do stuff on the island in order to research what he fears might become an upcoming calamity.

For Burning Legion, we have:

• Wrathion warning of an upcoming reckoning with an image of Azeroth being attacked by what appeared to be infernals.
• The Blank Scroll short story showing that if Garrosh wins, the Burning Legion would be ready to sweep over what's left.

For Azshara:

• Mentions of horrors rising from the sea after Garrosh's victory in the Blank Scroll story.
• The massive loose ends from Cataclysm.
• The fact that she's one of the last remaining, established major villains.

Other:

• Varian has vowed to clear the plague in Gilneas and resettle it, while Sylvanas, right next door, has outright stated that she will not follow Vol'jin.
• The Kor'kron that were watching the Undercity to make sure Sylvanas will not try anything have been killed.
• Blizzard has mentioned that various factions have noticed that Sylvanas is becoming more and more like the Lich King every day.

Things I intentionally left out:

• Alleria and Turalyon's Return - We may very well need them to confront what's coming next expansion, but no one ever said what that was. Alleria and Turalyon are heroes of one major thing: fighting the Horde during the Second War. They went missing under circumstances we're still not aware of sometime between Warcraft II and Burning Crusade. We have no proof they even fought any major Legion force outside of demons summoned by the Horde. All we know is that they're heroes. They could be helping us with pretty much anything. Their mysterious disappearance could have been because we go back in time and bring them forward because of something that happens soon, they could have entered a portal that took them under the seas of Azeroth, or they really could have taken the fight to the Legion in the Nether and Argus. We have no idea at the moment.

I missed the part about Sylvanas not following Vol'jin can you point to where it is I would love to read it.
Also this was a great post for bringing everything together.

[Jokubas]

I can't find the thread where people were posting screenshots of it (so I might be somewhat misremembering it), but it's the dialogue Sylvanas has for Horde players after defeating Garrosh.

[Arbs]

I can't find the thread where people were posting screenshots of it (so I might be somewhat misremembering it), but it's the dialogue Sylvanas has for Horde players after defeating Garrosh.

ok thank you

[Mormolyce]

Chris Metzen said we would see Alleria and Turalyon next expansion. We either will see them in the present, or in the past.

*Maybe

Rob Pardo signed on for one of the Designer positions for the next expansion, the last he worked on was The Burning Crusade as Lead Designer, it would make sense to bring him back on as a Designer for another Legion expansion.

That's not how that works.

Wrathion's vision of the fallen titan, and of his plan to unite Azeroth before the Legion comes.

That final titan thing was gibberish. His plans are for the distant future as far as we know.

The Blank Scroll short story pointing toward another Legion invasion and a Naga incursion.

No.

What else is there to support and refute this claim? Not looking for opinions on whether it would be a good expansion or not, just looking for foreshadowing and concrete evidence/links from official sources!

There is no evidence or foreshadowing. If Blizzard wanted you to know, they would tell you. They may not even have decided what the next expansion would be when they wrote a lot of that stuff.

It could be ANYTHING. Wait for Blizzcon.

[Jokubas]

Well, I know a lot of my points happened way too early to have been intentionally referencing the upcoming expansion, but some of these things are still loose ends. Unless the next expansion comes out of left field like Mists of Pandaria (which would probably be a really bad idea to do twice in a row), the next expansion is probably going to follow up on something we know about, we just don't know which one of those things it is.

[Mormolyce]

I can't find the thread where people were posting screenshots of it (so I might be somewhat misremembering it), but it's the dialogue Sylvanas has for Horde players after defeating Garrosh.

Also, if you talk to Lor'themar, he implies that he is concerned about Sylvanas as well.

To be fair she DID threaten to raise him as a zombie several times on the beaches of Durotar :P

I dunno, this would hardly be the first dangling plot thread Blizzard has left alone for an expansion or more (where the hell is Magatha Grimtotem for example?), but I tend to think that these implications about Sylvanas and Lordaeron/Gilneas are the freshest "leads" we have.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, I know a lot of my points happened way too early to have been intentionally referencing the upcoming expansion, but some of these things are still loose ends. Unless the next expansion comes out of left field like Mists of Pandaria (which would probably be a really bad idea to do twice in a row), the next expansion is probably going to follow up on something we know about, we just don't know which one of those things it is.

I tend to think that that is PROBABLY the case. If I had to bet I'd probably put my money on some kind of Legion involvement next expansion, not sure in what way. But it's no sure thing, hell Blizzard got halfway through making an expansion then changed their minds to make MoP. That could happen again!