SPOILERS Dragonflight Expac Lore Compilation

[Combatbutler]

So does anyone else find it strange that the Dragon Isles were specifically hid at the time of the Sundering despite the Dragons being involved in the events leading up to prior to it's occurrence and also that it didn't reappear when the elements resurged during Cata and/or Legion? Also is the 'Now' in the trailer referring to the 30 or so years ago when the 10'000 years of time passing from the sundering was accurate during Warcraft 3 or is it a different 10,000 year period to the 'Now' of the current expansion?

You expect such details from blizz? The sundering will always be 10k years ago even after a hundred years have passed XD

[Aucald]

So does anyone else find it strange that the Dragon Isles were specifically hid at the time of the Sundering despite the Dragons being involved in the events leading up to prior to it's occurrence and also that it didn't reappear when the elements resurged during Cata and/or Legion? Also is the 'Now' in the trailer referring to the 30 or so years ago when the 10'000 years of time passing from the sundering was accurate during Warcraft 3 or is it a different 10,000 year period to the 'Now' of the current expansion?

Presumably the why and when of the Dragon Isles being concealed will be an important part of the expansion's overall story-arc. As for the time frame question, I assume the "now" time frame is meant to be post-Shadowlands, as in the "now" of the time that the expansion hits Live servers ready to be played or maybe shortly before that, since the opening questline involves the Explorer's League and Reliquary agents making a beeline to the newly revealed landmass.

[Ximothy]

So does anyone else find it strange that the Dragon Isles were specifically hid at the time of the Sundering despite the Dragons being involved in the events leading up to prior to it's occurrence and also that it didn't reappear when the elements resurged during Cata and/or Legion? Also is the 'Now' in the trailer referring to the 30 or so years ago when the 10'000 years of time passing from the sundering was accurate during Warcraft 3 or is it a different 10,000 year period to the 'Now' of the current expansion?

It's now as in WoW. I doubt the War of the Ancients was exactly ten thousand years before the Dark Portal opened, it's always been an estimate. The Sundering has always been described as "ten thousand years ago" and never given an exact measure of time.

As for not being revealed by Cataclysm, it seems the orb thingy has to be active for the island to be reachable at all. This isn't the case for MoP where a shield was put over the island and it was broken by the Cataclysm, the Dragon Isles seemingly needs an active beacon for any one to reach it.

[Aucald]

You expect such details from blizz? The sundering will always be 10k years ago even after a hundred years have passed XD

Eh, once you reach 10K+ of something, you can generally stop with exacting numeric precision. "10,000 years ago" is a bit more dramatic and flows better than "10,034.8 years ago."

[Combatbutler]

Eh, once you reach 10K+ of something, you can generally stop with exacting numeric precision. "10,000 years ago" is a bit more dramatic and flows better than "10,034.8 years ago."

Just say after the Sundering, throwing 10k years every time doesn't make it more dramatic

[Skytotem]

I do like that it's the Reliquary and Explorer's League heading up the Alliance and Horde expeditions, but I hope that's not ALL there is, elves are ALREADY overrepresented, and having that exacerbated by the nelfs ties to green dragons, belfs ties to Reliquary, and the Dracthyr's pseudo-elf FF-AuRa forms are just... really going to soak the playerbase in even more elves.

Let's have the Zandalari dive into history! It's their whole thing from Vanilla and Wotlk! They're historians and Chroniclers!

[Ogren]

No worldbuilding for already existing playable races, just helping dragons who won't lift a finger to help them back in return. :/

[voidox]

as a random side note, I'm really not looking forward to Golden making Kalecgos and Jaina get back together in this xpac :/ really hope they don't do that cause boy that is one awful pairing since it's inception

[Aucald]

as a random side note, I'm really not looking forward to Golden making Kalecgos and Jaina get back together in this xpac :/ really hope they don't do that cause boy that is one awful pairing since it's inception

He's looking pretty good with the higher-res model, though:

[Ghanir]

He's looking pretty good with the higher-res model, though:

Something about his face... I dno

[Darknessvamp]

You expect such details from blizz? The sundering will always be 10k years ago even after a hundred years have passed XD

I mean generally mentioning a specific passage of time is to give the reader/viewer the means to identify chronology of a story which has been done in WoW before but I get what you mean in reference to current Blizzard's handling of time frames after Shadowlands.

Presumably the why and when of the Dragon Isles being concealed will be an important part of the expansion's overall story-arc. As for the time frame question, I assume the "now" time frame is meant to be post-Shadowlands, as in the "now" of the time that the expansion hits Live servers ready to be played or maybe shortly before that, since the opening questline involves the Explorer's League and Reliquary agents making a beeline to the newly revealed landmass.

Admittedly we haven't got much to go on yet what the overall arc is going to be but I should hope the event gets some form of proper exploration in-game and doesn't lead to another spectacle used to hype up the intro to the expansion that ends up essentially ignored until it's referenced in a vague throwaway line in a combat encounter of the final patch. True that's how the expansion starts but the trailer doesn't show us that which is why I'm wondering if the Dragon's returning after a elemental resurgence and world healing is in reference to an event in Warcraft 3 such as after Nordrassil fell or Shadowlands after Zovaal was stopped from Soul Grinding Azeroth.

It's now as in WoW. I doubt the War of the Ancients was exactly ten thousand years before the Dark Portal opened, it's always been an estimate. The Sundering has always been described as "ten thousand years ago" and never given an exact measure of time.

As for not being revealed by Cataclysm, it seems the orb thingy has to be active for the island to be reachable at all. This isn't the case for MoP where a shield was put over the island and it was broken by the Cataclysm, the Dragon Isles seemingly needs an active beacon for any one to reach it.

Granted it may be more of an approximation of time having passed rather than an actual tallied count of years (though Night Elves are literally that old and so could have kept the record to the date), it was first used in reference to the sundering to the chronolgy of the events of Warcraft 3 so it does present itself as a valid question to ask.

It was more in reference to the elemental resurgences which occurred in both those expansions which the Dragonflight trailer seemed to suggest was the supposed event to awaken the Watchers that guarded over the Dragon Isles who were supposed to reveal them when they occurred than Deathwing's rampage during Cataclysm. Basically I'm asking what elemental resurgence is happening that is of enough importance during the 'Now' time frame to trigger the (supposed) one surviving Watcher to awaken and fulfill the task of activating the Beacon when we have experienced them multiple times prior.

He's looking pretty good with the higher-res model, though:

-image snip-

Why does he look less human and more elvine now?

[Ogren]

He's a half-elf.

[Aucald]

Why does he look less human and more elvine now?

His humanoid form is a half-elf, but it's always used a human model in-game - this new model seems more fitting as its more between elf and human.

[Crillam]

Just say after the Sundering, throwing 10k years every time doesn't make it more dramatic

Not everyone knows that the Sundering was 10k years ago.

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Eh, once you reach 10K+ of something, you can generally stop with exacting numeric precision. "10,000 years ago" is a bit more dramatic and flows better than "10,034.8 years ago."

I think we should try it sometimes, to use the exact numbers. I myself is getting really tierd of the "65 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct". Start with exact numbers damnit!

[Nerovar]

I think that was intended to be a random watcher, perhaps Tyr's appointed overseer. Tyr died in the Eastern Kingdoms long ago, in the Tirisfal region (whose name is comes from the phrase "Tyr's Fall"). Unless they retcon the story, that is.

That would be unthinkable...

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Something about his face... I dno

Looks like an unholy fusion of Anduin and Khadgar.

[Aucald]

I think we should try it sometimes, to use the exact numbers. I myself is getting really tierd of the "65 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct". Start with exact numbers damnit!

Could take a note from the Halo Forerunners and just do everything in standard units. "315,569,520 seconds ago" flows right off the tongue.

[Darknessvamp]

His humanoid form is a half-elf, but it's always used a human model in-game - this new model seems more fitting as its more between elf and human.

Bit strange though considering most of his official art doesn't show him with promient elf like features aside from the ears usually and the new model's chin and nose feel off. The glowing eyes do fit the concept arts but I do miss the regular eyes he had on his more human like model as well as his regular uniform.

[Woggmer]

Ok, but what was jailers plan now? What was he fightinig against?

Based on what we learned, basically the First Ones created all of existence with different realms...but that these realms weren't designed to last this long in time. Whatever the Jailer learned, he must've thought that the entirety of existence has an end point, and he wanted to get to that end point quicker and reset everything so that reality could have a fresh start and be designed in his own manner... what the design he was hoping for is never explained.

That's just my guess on it.

[Mehrunes]

Blizzards narrative ;P

OT

Funny how it is now the time of the dragons, but never forget we shall step down and let the mortals take the reign just a couple of years prior

The Age of Mortals™ from Cata was already a retread of Age of Mortals from W3 so this is just par for the course.

He is too small, this is his hand

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tyr...and_of_Tyr.jpg

Also, as shown by that picture, the hand Tyr lost while fighting Galakrond (and replaced with a silver prosthetic that was then worshiped by humans) was his left hand. And the Watcher in the trailer has his left hand.

[Pendraeg]

And sadly the Dracthyr can only be a... human/elfish altform, rather than looking like other races, which is EXTREMELY lame.

I mean, it kinda makes sense.
What did you expect them to look like?
Draenei? Orc? Aliens.
Dwarf? Goblin? Gnome? Too small.
Worgen? Dragon werewolf?
Tauren? Dragon Minotaur?
Pandaren? ...lol
Troll....I can see that, maybe.
Did I miss any race?