Stepping back through the portal with us

[Northem]

We are talking about a 35 year difference here. What happens to all the people? Do they stay old or will they become young again? All the social implications like when people chose diffrent mates (the other-draenor already went quite a bit off the rails, to say the least) and now remember both of them? Dead people suddenly walking the world again? A merging seems highly unlikely, at least one that happens willingly, besides this being quite a cop-out of the whole time travel desaster.

In theory "the copies" of Draenor would experience an advance of 35 years to fit our timeline, which is the "good one", or maybe it could be a partial mix, I don't know...

Anyway, can you think in other solutions? How can we "bring" Draenor to our dimension?

After all...

Let’s see, the next expansion (or expansions if Blizzard decides to dedicate more expansions to this alternative Draenor) will elapse as follows (correct me if I'm wrong):

Shortly before the invasion of the Iron Horde, Khadgar (the Gandalf of WoW) returns from Outland to warn Azeroth that something is going wrong with the Dark Portal: is turning red, indicating that an invasion on a large scale is approaching.

Azeroth leaders decide then to form a small expedition and send it through the reddish Dark Portal to an alternate Draenor with a mission of no return: delay/prevent the invasion in a suicide mission.

This expedition is formed (for now) by: Khadgar as the neutral guide, a small contingent of the Horde led by Thrall, a small contingent of the Alliance led by Maraad and our beloved character.

Our mission in the first instance will be to destroy/sabotage the Dark Portal on the alternate Draenor side to avoid the upcoming invasion to Azeroth, but also leaving us all trapped there with no way back to Azeroth.

Then we will have to split up and seek alliances on our own. The Horde will find the Frostwolf Clan led by the very same Durotan in Ridge Frostfire, while the Alliance will find the draenei led by the “younger” Prophet Velen in Shadowmoon Valley.

After helping our respective "new" allies, we will face a lot of enemies over the course of a series of patches or expansions: Garrosh, the Ogre Empire, the Arakkoa, the Warlords of Draenor and their Iron Horde, Gul’dan, etc...

At the end of the expansion (or several expansions ...) we will have ended up with all our enemies and defeated a powerful enemy, probably related to the Burning Legion of that alternative dimension (i.e. the final boss of the expansion / expansions).

Once finished our work, we momentarily will reactivate the Dark Portal of Draenor so that we can finally return to our real Azeroth… to never return.

Once we are gone, the forces of Draenor will destroy their side of the Dark Portal to avoid future problems, cutting the bond of union between our two dimensions and leaving the Dark Portal from our dimension linked to Outland, as it was before and always has been.

And so, we will no longer know anything about that alternative Draenor never ever…

In short, all this would confirm my idea that the next expansion (or expansions) will be pure filler, as (leaving aside the gameplay) our trip to this alternative Draenor will have none impact on our dimension (on our Azeroth nor on our Outland).

[Northem]

Exactly, the lack of other solutions corroborates my thesis: the only solution so we can keep the alternative Draenor with us is:

merging the two dimensions

[Cosmic Janitor]

Exactly, the lack of other solutions corroborates my thesis: the only solution so we can keep the alternative Draenor with us is:

merging the two dimensions

Umm what? I'm just replying because I can't let it stand that you might think I actually agree with you. The thread vanished from the front page, so I simply forgot about it and I also despise people who write in colored text,so I certainly wasn't going to keep an eye on it. Anyway, regarding your "brilliant" thesis:

Merging will never happen, it simply makes no sense to the plot. Just takin the doubles would even be a less contrived way than actually merging them. Why would we need to keep the alternate draenor in the first place? For all we know alternate timelines exist ad infinitum out there. They don't have to cease existing just cause. For the ingame narrative other-Draenor is not important at all, they could just say that with the next expansion or the expansion afterwards the gate colapsed and we tankfully all made it out just in time, along with everyone that was somewhat important. Actually to not fuck up their story completly I imagine the forces guarding the gate will even be instructed to not let anyone through there at all, neither from their side nor from our side. All the bad shit, in form of Gul'dan or the other orcs is most likely something no one wants in our timeline. For all we know the gate might actually close behind us and only a gamey-device like a bronze dragon might sent us back and forth between dimensions. The whole thing with the dark portal wasn't properly explained anyway, what happens to our current connection to outland? Will all of them just be lost? There are still quite a few soldirs stationed there. We simply don't know enough about the whole plot of us going there, we only know the corner stones of:
1.) Garrosh escapes.
2.) Garrosh wants to attack us fromthe past with his iron horde.
3.) We go to a past draenor at some point in time.
4.) Thrall, Maraad, Kadghar will be our guides.
We have no clue how the invasion will happen, we have no clue about the actual devices that cause the time travel bs, we have no clue where our stepping through the portal will actually bring us time-wise and we have no clue how the story will unfold from there.

While the actual resolution will be interesting, I give your random merging thesis a next to no chance of actually happening. That being said, metzen's fanfic writers (and his own fanfic writing) dissapointed me in the past before (or actually more on a regular basis)... so I guess who knows.

[Northem]

Hmm interesting thoughts...

In that case, the alternative Draenor is doomed to disappear when we finish our adventures there? What is the real reason for Blizzard "brings us" Draenor (and everything in it)? Just spending one or several filler expansions there?

I do not know .. I would be more be satisfied if we could keep the entire Draenor with us at our dimension ...

[Cosmic Janitor]

Hmm interesting thoughts...

In that case, the alternative Draenor is doomed to disappear when we finish our adventures there? What is the real reason for Blizzard "brings us" Draenor (and everything in it)? Just spending one or several filler expansions there?

I do not know .. I would be more be satisfied if we could keep the entire Draenor with us at our dimension ...

Well it can hardly be argued that bringing back the whole of "Friends - the badass orcish times" cast was because the story needed to go backwards 35 years. They certainly did it because they wanted some - at least partly - established characters back in their plot. They also claim they wanted to show this world, but they could have opened a portal to any other world for that matter, so I don't think this is a particularly strong reason.

While the term filler might sound insulting here, I guess this is pretty much what the majority of it will be. For the current development ingame pandaria wasn't exactly needed either. The wandering isles pandaren could have joined our faction still and garrosh going full blown tyrannical dictator and being dethroned at the end could have happend under any other expansion theme as well. The character growth of a few leader characters (even though growth is a stretch for anyone besides voljin and varian and maybe the side cast of anduin and lorthemar) is hardly worth noting, and the the supposed growth of our characters is as always artificial as best (we don't exist in lore, period, hence I wasn't expecting much of it anyway).

Who is to say that we need every single orc and draenei from Draenor? Maybe it will be only a few, like this Yriel (?) that the Alliance is supposed to get. Maybe it will only be Thrall resolving his daddy issues once and for all and becoming the über-father of all orcs once again. Maybe it will serve as a future plot to actually defeat at least one legion out there, without ending one of the central plots of the warcraft universe? Maybe they want to top something like what we've seen in the valley this time and actually tear a planet like Draenor appart for good? Maybe it was a marketing driven descision to bring back the savage bad-assery of previous times, or maybe it wasn't with that in mind at all.

Given how they admited that pandaria wasn't something they planned for ages but was actually more of a spontaneous descision, I wouldn't put too much weight into a supposedly higher meaning. Personally I would really enjoy a little talk with someone like Dave Kosak under 4 eyes and grill him for how they actually handle things, because frankly, I've seen multi billion dollar tech companies work internally like little kids on a playground, I'd hardly be surprised if a somewhat artistically driven company like blizzard wouldn't think everything through all the time. Thats just me being jaded though, I guess.

Anyway, until we see a few more certain plot points during the beta I don't see any point in speculating too much. Though you are right, they somehow will have to resolve it or at least give a satisfying explanation. If we just go to the next expansion after WoD and we are simply supposed to not mention it anymore, I will be dissapointed. Though I already said that I wouldn't believe that even someone like Metzen would come up with a time travel - alternate dimension storyline, back when the first few bits of infos were released. Let's just say I've been wrong before, maybe they will actually merge it. I don't see a new for something as drastic as that, but who knows, maybe Metzen does think it needs to happen as well.

If you actually bothered to read that far, I also like to apologize for beeing a tad bit too harsh in my previous post. After reading it once again I find that I should have worded a few pieces alot less agressive.

[Northem]

Well it can hardly be argued that bringing back the whole of "Friends - the badass orcish times" cast was because the story needed to go backwards 35 years. They certainly did it because they wanted some - at least partly - established characters back in their plot. They also claim they wanted to show this world, but they could have opened a portal to any other world for that matter, so I don't think this is a particularly strong reason.

While the term filler might sound insulting here, I guess this is pretty much what the majority of it will be. For the current development ingame pandaria wasn't exactly needed either. The wandering isles pandaren could have joined our faction still and garrosh going full blown tyrannical dictator and being dethroned at the end could have happend under any other expansion theme as well. The character growth of a few leader characters (even though growth is a stretch for anyone besides voljin and varian and maybe the side cast of anduin and lorthemar) is hardly worth noting, and the the supposed growth of our characters is as always artificial as best (we don't exist in lore, period, hence I wasn't expecting much of it anyway).

Who is to say that we need every single orc and draenei from Draenor? Maybe it will be only a few, like this Yriel (?) that the Alliance is supposed to get. Maybe it will only be Thrall resolving his daddy issues once and for all and becoming the über-father of all orcs once again. Maybe it will serve as a future plot to actually defeat at least one legion out there, without ending one of the central plots of the warcraft universe? Maybe they want to top something like what we've seen in the valley this time and actually tear a planet like Draenor appart for good? Maybe it was a marketing driven descision to bring back the savage bad-assery of previous times, or maybe it wasn't with that in mind at all.

Given how they admited that pandaria wasn't something they planned for ages but was actually more of a spontaneous descision, I wouldn't put too much weight into a supposedly higher meaning. Personally I would really enjoy a little talk with someone like Dave Kosak under 4 eyes and grill him for how they actually handle things, because frankly, I've seen multi billion dollar tech companies work internally like little kids on a playground, I'd hardly be surprised if a somewhat artistically driven company like blizzard wouldn't think everything through all the time. Thats just me being jaded though, I guess.

When I refer to that "I wish we could bring the alternative Draenor to our dimension" I say that because:

• I want the orcs and draenei have a home, an ancestral home; and that they could make up new lands and new people.
• I want that many of the heroes who died in the past (the vast majority of the Horde) could "resurrect" and create new stories in the present.
• I wish we could delve into the history of many races, and maybe one day make them playable (the ogres for the Horde and the arakkoa for the Alliance).
• I wish I had a new planet to explore and get lost... with starting zones for new races, low level areas, new capitals, etc ...
• ...

Ultimately, I want to bring back Draenor! (truly, not just anecdotally as seems that this filler expansion is going to do...)

Anyway, until we see a few more certain plot points during the beta I don't see any point in speculating too much. Though you are right, they somehow will have to resolve it or at least give a satisfying explanation. If we just go to the next expansion after WoD and we are simply supposed to not mention it anymore, I will be dissapointed. Though I already said that I wouldn't believe that even someone like Metzen would come up with a time travel - alternate dimension storyline, back when the first few bits of infos were released. Let's just say I've been wrong before, maybe they will actually merge it. I don't see a new for something as drastic as that, but who knows, maybe Metzen does think it needs to happen as well.

Yes, hopefully Blizzard gives the face and explain all this mess in a way that pleases everyone. Maybe it's still early, I do not know, what I do know is that I do not trust Blizzard at all, as they are able to create big problems (lorewise speaking).

If you actually bothered to read that far, I also like to apologize for beeing a tad bit too harsh in my previous post. After reading it once again I find that I should have worded a few pieces alot less agressive.

Do not worry, I'm used to be despised and mistreated publicly on these forums, so nothing happens...
And by the way sorry for the delay to answer.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Filler expansion........


Just like Cataclysm was filler ._.

[Northem]

Filler expansion........


Just like Cataclysm was filler ._.

Cataclysm changed the entire world permanently (to worse, but this is another topic), while WoD pretends simply add mobs to kill to level to 100..

[Namtarts117]

WTB Grom Hellscream in our timeline again!