Steve Danuser confirms a Dragonflight Timeskip

[Ludek]

I don't mind timeskip, for me it's actually too small.

Like the big problem with story timeline in WoW is that Azeroth exists for millenia - we got the Old God / Titan stuff, then long long nothing, War of the Ancients, then 10k years of some random wars and skirmishes here and there, 3 de facto World Wars in a span of 20 years... and then 5-6 world/universe ending threats in another 20 years...

When you need pump content for your players in a 2 year circle, it starts to get silly with the amount of apocalypses happening right after another.

[Bullfred]

"We have an internal timeline for lore!"
'can we see it?'
"... No."

[Hitei]

"We have an internal timeline for lore!"
'can we see it?'
"... No."

Just another thing for people to bitch about if they decide to shift an event.

[Ringthane]

"We have an internal timeline for lore!"
'can we see it?'
"... No."

Hence...

Internal.

[Stickiler]

Aye so it was a 5 year timeskip, this was rumoured as far back as SL release and they made a massive stink that there was no timeskip, now look, exactly 5 years as the rumour said.

I'm shocked, are you shocked?

Except it's not a 5 year timeskip, it's a 3 year timeskip, 2 years has passed while we're in shadowlands.

[Azadina]

Whoopdidoo all of 3 years? It's way too short to make any meaningful difference. Not that I really expected anything good from mr. Sylvanuser.

[Trunks2017]

what i wanna know is what is the average lifespan of every race.

[SinR]

Groovy, I guess.

Its kinda nice to think that the World has had a chance to kinda chill after like 15 years straight of things happening.

[Unholyground]

what i wanna know is what is the average lifespan of every race.

Elves live a long ass time, the rest of the playable races are pretty close to eachother.

[ThatsOurEric]

I too would have liked a longer skip but the issue is NPC and Player character aging out of being able to fight range.

Well IIRC, the whole point of Shadowlands was that time there worked differently than outside in the mortal world. So you
could have had a long time skip, and our characters would still be young when they returned since within the Shadowlands,
the adventures probably took place over the course or what, several weeks or so, meanwhile outside in Azeroth, time has
advanced several years.

Hence why there'd be a lot of shake ups within the factions since major Horde and Alliance leaders weren't there and were
gone for so long. It'd show why Anduin would say, not be able to regain his throne or be favored back since he was gone so
long, as well as say, the Horde being in slight disarray since two of it's major counsels (Thrall and Baine) weren't there to
help guide them.

There's honestly a lot they could do, and the only reason why they won't/can't is because of a severe lack in writing talent
(lord knows Shadowlands proved that) as well as a lack in courage (and just being incapable) to take such a major step
forward like that.

[Xilurm]

what i wanna know is what is the average lifespan of every race.

Elves live a long ass time, the rest of the playable races are pretty close to eachother.

Draenei live more than 13.000 years. Some say they might be immortal.

Pandaren and Tauren are more than 100.

Human more than 100.

High Elves and Blood Elves can be up to several thousand years old.

Probably same for Night Elves now that they've lost their immortality around 20 years ago.

[lordjust]

Aye so it was a 5 year timeskip, this was rumoured as far back as SL release and they made a massive stink that there was no timeskip, now look, exactly 5 years as the rumour said.

I'm shocked, are you shocked?

The rumour wasn't 5 years. In legion we have the DK campaign where we ressurect a DK that died while we attacked ICC back in wotlk and told us that he was in the shadowlands and felt like only a couple of weeks or month had passed and in the introduction quest of SL Jaina says she feels like an eternity passed. Ion said that time in the shadowlands works like in a dream.

The rumour was that time in the maw is faster and everywhere else in the shadowlands slower so after the 2 years we spent in the shadowlands something like 25+ years should've passed on Azeroth based on the timeframe that was given in the DK quest.

Now we know time works exactly like everywhere else. We went in for 2 years (like every expansion) and only 2 years passed on Azeroth. So just like in a dream the flow of time is constant but can feel differently. You go to bed and a split second later you wake up but 6h have passed for you or you have a dream and feel like you've spent a day in your dream but it's still only 6h you've slept.

I don't like it, especially with the timeskip only being 3 years. At start of the DF alpha character dialogue suggested a 8 year skip (10 years after BFA) which would set up more possibilities. We know that Turalyon ist fighting in the plaguelands against the undead that roam the planet without a lich king and that he and his lightforged made progress. We know from the kyrian campaign that the undead were as close as redridge mountains and probably were pushed back by Turalyon and his lightforged. If they choose to add something about Turalyon and his crusade to push back the undead, it all has to fit in the 3 year timeskip.

[cocomen2]

What about the big freaking sword in the planet which is what killed it in the first place.

But more simply, not sure about you, but every toon I know is a Murder Hobo and just lives in a tarven till they go out to kill something. So normal lives Bliz?

Sargeras called, he gonna come in 2026 to take it back, so don't even try to ruin that majestic piece of art that you arrogantly named as mere "sword" while its gigantic lever to move plot.

[Super Dickmann]

Mostly pointless, for reasons Danuser even obliquely acknowledges. If they want to do world changes only in-game then any longer period would become incongruous with the lack of changes to the setting, but having such a short time means it's only good to age up some characters, otherwise moot. Salandria and Thrall's kids are the likeliest culprit. But given how chummy absolutely everyone in the expedition acts when they were killing each other just a couple years ago, it's too short a period. Should've bitten the bullet and kicked it up more years and put out free clarifying stories on the site like with Cataclysm, Steve.

While we're on that point, the official WoW timeline is an incomprehensible shambles.

[Venziir]

That's neat. However SL took 2 years? That seems very, very odd.

[THEORACLE64]

That's neat. However SL took 2 years? That seems very, very odd.

Not really. They’ve hinted quite a few times that time moves differently in the Shadowlands - so although that entire storyline occurred over 2 years on Azeroth it may have felt less in the Shadowlands.

[BaumanKing]

So Turalyon rules the kingdom much longer than Anduin. That's interesting. And Anduin is now 24 years old. The "boy-king" no more, I guess.

[MrLachyG]

So I guess my characters are homeless for three years, with nothing to do. Not like they would take the time to Build A House somewhere, to: settle down, retire, show off trophies, etc. Shame there wasn't an in-game reason to add a feature like player housing.

that's not necessarily the case... could be that there are quests in game which have the Night Elves settling somewhere else for now

[Venziir]

Not really. They’ve hinted quite a few times that time moves differently in the Shadowlands - so although that entire storyline occurred over 2 years on Azeroth it may have felt less in the Shadowlands.

Ah right, I'd forgotten about that tidbit.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I too would have liked a longer skip but the issue is NPC and Player character aging out of being able to fight range.

How old is too old to fight? There were historically some pretty old Roman generals who did fight on the battlefield, not to mention old knights who fought in the middle ages.

Honestly I don't like how disruptive this is for roleplayers.

I can understand if a player prefers for their character to be extremely young, in their teens or twenties. If a player character was at least 20 when they began in Vanilla (year 25), then they would be at least 35 in Dragonflight (year 40), 5 years away from entering into middle-age. If you have played a second generation character that came into the story later on, like a Pandaren or an allied race, then the player character could still be extremely young, but ofcourse that character would have missed out on at least half of the story which would be incongruous with how the player character is treated in WoW (it makes little sense for a Wandering Pandaren who had no prior military experience when they joined one year ago to be handpicked by High King/Warchief as the leading general on Draenor in WoD).

It doesn't matter if it's 1, 5, 10, 100 years time skip. The story will still be shit, it's nowadays Blizzard after all.

Also this.

So I guess my characters are homeless for three years, with nothing to do. Not like they would take the time to Build A House somewhere, to: settle down, retire, show off trophies, etc. Shame there wasn't an in-game reason to add a feature like player housing.

By this point, the player character should be one of the most famous people in the world, like the Warrior of Light from FF14 but 10x over given that the WoL saved multiple continents and worlds. He should be able to settle almost anywhere.

I'd like to imagine that my character retired to his farm at Halfhill in Pandaria. Maybe he shows up at the garrison every now and then (has someone has become the garrison commander? Am I an honorary commander now?).

I really hope this is true, it annoys me when the story is told in other mediums instead of within the game.
Books should only be used to expand on the story.

Guess what.

Dragonflight is getting a book!

Just another thing for people to bitch about if they decide to shift an event.

Maybe Blizzard should hire writers who can actually plan ahead and stick to the plan.

- - - Updated - - -

Not really. They’ve hinted quite a few times that time moves differently in the Shadowlands - so although that entire storyline occurred over 2 years on Azeroth it may have felt less in the Shadowlands.

I get the feeling that the stories of WoD and Shadowlands took place over a very short period of time, like maybe weeks to a few months at most. You and a handful of characters are going on a journey with a handful of objectives. You're not really burdened by logistics or the need to wait for your leaders to decide what to do next after a patch.

Most WoW expansions feel like they would have taken place over at least a couple of years. You have several different military campaigns that happen, and then more campaigns that happen in the patch content that would have had to have lots of time occur for the Horde/Alliance leadership to decide what to do next, military planners to get everything organized, asset buildup, logistics of intercontinental travel, and then the actual deployment. In Cata, there is no way that a Horde character could participate in the Stonetalon campaign AND the Barrens campaign AND Sylvanas' invasion of Gilneas AND Garrosh's invasion of the Twilight Highlands AND the Vash'jr campaign, AND the events at Mount Hyjal, let alone everything else that happened.