Dragonflight 10.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Berkilak]

Not healthy romance, but the War of the Ancients only happened because Azshara wanted to marry Sargeras. Sargeras himself wanted to... do things to Azeroth.

WarCraft has always been character driven. And characters love. It’s a huge motivation for the vast majority of characters to the point that it’s absence as a motivation of some sort is often a plot point unto itself.

There are nations and armies and war in the setting, but the focus has always been more personal than that. I swear, some people just read a wiki summary of the story and think that’s an equivalent experience to actually going through it with the characters as written.

[Santandame]

Why are you derailing the thread on purpose? People were finally talking about the topic of this thread, and now it's back for a ride...
It was interesting to read speculations. Thank you.

This.

It’s frustrating to come into this thread, seeing a few new pages of discussion and getting excited to see discussion and speculation on upcoming content and instead you’re met with discussion about romance in the story, mainly past romances.

Guys take it to the Lore sub-forum ffs, it’s getting very tiresome now.

The actual talking points of speculation for upcoming content such as Avaloren, revamped roles, future Aspects etc has largely been ignored the past few pages (aside from a couple of responses) in favour for discussing irrelevant shit once again.

[Marlamin]

This.

It’s frustrating to come into this thread, seeing a few new pages of discussion and getting excited to see discussion and speculation on upcoming content and instead you’re met with discussion about romance in the story, mainly past romances.

Guys take it to the Lore sub-forum ffs, it’s getting very tiresome now.

The actual talking points of speculation for upcoming content such as Avaloren, revamped roles, future Aspects etc has largely been ignored the past few pages (aside from a couple of responses) in favour for discussing irrelevant shit once again.

Pretty much. There's so many hooks/teases in Dragonflight that are worth delving into yet we still seem to spiral into some obscure/irrelevant topic with a few people (and usually the same ones) going back and forth. Lore discussion should be limited to story speculation on a surface level of future patches/expansions without going into long tangents about deep WoW history (or even more irrelevant stuff like opinions on character sexualities/romances, wth).

In case people forgot;

This thread is not intended for endless and largely circular debates about points of Warcraft lore - it's to discuss future Dragonflight and WoW patches or expansions. If you have a topic of lore you want to discuss more thoroughly, then use the Lore subforum devoted to conversations of those types. So let's drop the rolling back-and-forth about BFA and Zul and focus instead on upcoming material for Dragonflight and further.

Here's some currently ongoing speculation relevant to the thread;

• Are we getting the questline that leads to the leaked PTR cinematic after next reset/with the start of season 2?
• 10.1.5 PTR is being actively prepared and could hit as soon as next week.
• Dragonflight is apparently around to stay; how are they going to solve compatibility with older zones/mounts?
• New area names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren.
• How the teased future patch content (Evil Chromie, Muruzond, Galakrond) could fit in a larger storyline and maybe, if Rokman's speculation ends up correct, even cause time-travel shenanigans between mainline WoW/classic and maybe even a change of the post-classic timeline?
• Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

...and I'm sure there's more stuff that I can't recall right now that I missed in that list.

And remember, if you feel like all of these have already been discussed enough, it's also okay NOT to post if there's nothing new to dive into.

[Cheezits]

The tree thing is interesting as there probably is a tree questline that appears post-raid: it was leaked that Merithra appears at the Seat of the Aspects in Aspect-size, at some point in 10.1.

This means there are 3 storylines that are possibly encrypted: the tree, Kalecgos and the blue (confirmed to still be happening, Kalec's hologram is in Niffen and Valdrakken), and the Tyr continuation. So that's pretty cool.

[Nymrohd]

The tree thing is interesting as there probably is a tree questline that appears post-raid: it was leaked that Merithra appears at the Seat of the Aspects in Aspect-size, at some point in 10.1.

This means there are 3 storylines that are possibly encrypted: the tree, Kalecgos and the blue (confirmed to still be happening, Kalec's hologram is in Niffen and Valdrakken), and the Tyr continuation. So that's pretty cool.

Kalecgos in Loamm is there to give the quests for Fyrakk I think. But that is irrrelevant anyhow; we know we are getting a Blue Flight story because we explicitly were told so. A few people here are convinced it has to do with Vakthros. While I would LOVE for it to take us off the Dragon Isles to a graphically updated Coldarra (pretty much every object and texture they need to upgrade has been upgraded in Azure Span and the dungeon already) I doubt it will happen; we are supposed to get additional world content in 10.1.5 which I expect will be some weekly world quest building on whatever questline we get.
We also have reasons to believe Netherdrakes will be involved. One of my disappointments when Kalec called for family to join him is that Tyri was nowhere to be seen and I think neither was Haleh or Azuregos; instead we got the Broken Isles blue dragons. I would hope the rest of the blue flight cast makes an appearance (plus Jorad Mace?) and with Tyri there is also a good chance we will see some Nether dragons joining as well. Neltharaku would make a cool Aspect, just saying.

- - - Updated - - -

Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

I'm so torn about this. On one hand, I'd love for us to get a second chance at a South Seas expansion with proper sailing. Heck they could even just grab Island Expeditions as they were and bring them back only with better gameplay than the stupid timed mode we got before. We still have Kezan and Tel'abim and they could even go so far as to connect the area to Southern Kalimdor (updated Gadzatan as a capital? Yes please)
But we just had BfA. It is too soon.

[Cheezits]

I would much rather Islands like Tel'Abim, Avaloren(dependant on size) and Kezan be used as the "extra areas" for a Cataclysm 2 than another island-themed expansion. Two of the places I just listed are "unopened" parts of Azeroth, similar to how Cata revealed some locked off places like Gilneas and Uldum, and it would be nice if we went to places like that in an expansion that is all about Azeroth in general.

Khaz Algar could work as a new place, Zul'Dare could work as another old place as well.

[Fahrad Wagner]

This is a franchise about war, not romance. Romance has never - and should never - be a story point in Warcraft.

This is one of the most absurd thing I have ever read on those forums. As if war and romance were exclusive... I agree romance should not be forced in any storyline if it doesn't belong there, but to say it doesn't belong in a universe revolving around war is one-dimensional at best. The problem is not romance, it's how it's done: in Warcraft's case, it's often been done quite poorly. Like many other things...

Malf/Tyrande/Illidan
Kalecgos and Jaina
Arthas and Jaina
Thrall and Aggra
Moira and Thaurissan
Varian and Tiffin
Alleria and Turalyon
Nathanos and Sylvanas

Like, i agree that they should put less focus on it as those relationships are never actually compelling nor interesting.
But pretending romance has never been a story point is laughably wrong

This.

I would much rather Islands like Tel'Abim, Avaloren(dependant on size) and Kezan be used as the "extra areas" for a Cataclysm 2 than another island-themed expansion. Two of the places I just listed are "unopened" parts of Azeroth, similar to how Cata revealed some locked off places like Gilneas and Uldum, and it would be nice if we went to places like that in an expansion that is all about Azeroth in general.

Khaz Algar could work as a new place, Zul'Dare could work as another old place as well.

I don't know if we'll ever get a Cataclysm 2 tbh, I would either see a world revamp or those zones as new zones for a new expansion, both all that once sounds even more insanely ambitious. Don't get me wrong, it'd be awesome, but I don't see it happening-

In case people forgot;

Here's some currently ongoing speculation relevant to the thread;

• Are we getting the questline that leads to the leaked PTR cinematic after next reset/with the start of season 2?
• 10.1.5 PTR is being actively prepared and could hit as soon as next week.
• Dragonflight is apparently around to stay; how are they going to solve compatibility with older zones/mounts?
• New zone names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren.
• How the teased future patch content (Evil Chromie, Muruzond, Galakrond) could fit in a larger storyline and maybe, if Rokman's speculation ends up correct, even cause time-travel shenanigans between mainline WoW/classic and maybe even a change of the post-classic timeline?
• Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

...and I'm sure there's more stuff that I can't recall right now that I missed in that list.

And remember, if you feel like all of these have already been discussed enough, it's also okay NOT to post if there's nothing new to dive into.

At this point I'm betting on a proper South Seas expansion, but it could be anything else really. We know nothing about Avaloren, and that makes it a very strong contender as well, as it would give the creative team carte blanche to come up with whatever they think is cool. I suppose by 10.3 we'll have a clearer view of what the future holds, I wonder if Blizzcon will be about 10.3 only or if it will introduce the new expansion as well.

[Lady Atia]

Pretty much. There's so many hooks/teases in Dragonflight that are worth delving into yet we still seem to spiral into some obscure/irrelevant topic with a few people (and usually the same ones) going back and forth. Lore discussion should be limited to story speculation on a surface level of future patches/expansions without going into long tangents about deep WoW history (or even more irrelevant stuff like opinions on character sexualities/romances, wth).

In case people forgot;



Here's some currently ongoing speculation relevant to the thread;

• Are we getting the questline that leads to the leaked PTR cinematic after next reset/with the start of season 2?
• 10.1.5 PTR is being actively prepared and could hit as soon as next week.
• Dragonflight is apparently around to stay; how are they going to solve compatibility with older zones/mounts?
• New zone names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren.
• How the teased future patch content (Evil Chromie, Muruzond, Galakrond) could fit in a larger storyline and maybe, if Rokman's speculation ends up correct, even cause time-travel shenanigans between mainline WoW/classic and maybe even a change of the post-classic timeline?
• Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

...and I'm sure there's more stuff that I can't recall right now that I missed in that list.

And remember, if you feel like all of these have already been discussed enough, it's also okay NOT to post if there's nothing new to dive into.

To add to that:

- Leaked/datamined hidden Evoker legendary
- Datamined Grotto Netherdrake Dragonriding mount (monthly trading post reward)
- them talking about adding new specs in the future as an expansion feature

[Marlamin]

To add to that:

- Leaked/datamined hidden Evoker legendary
- Datamined Grotto Netherdrake Dragonriding mount (monthly trading post reward)

Datamining? What's that?

[Santandame]

Pretty much. There's so many hooks/teases in Dragonflight that are worth delving into yet we still seem to spiral into some obscure/irrelevant topic with a few people (and usually the same ones) going back and forth. Lore discussion should be limited to story speculation on a surface level of future patches/expansions without going into long tangents about deep WoW history (or even more irrelevant stuff like opinions on character sexualities/romances, wth).

In case people forgot;



Here's some currently ongoing speculation relevant to the thread;

• Are we getting the questline that leads to the leaked PTR cinematic after next reset/with the start of season 2?
• 10.1.5 PTR is being actively prepared and could hit as soon as next week.
• Dragonflight is apparently around to stay; how are they going to solve compatibility with older zones/mounts?
• New zone names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren.
• How the teased future patch content (Evil Chromie, Muruzond, Galakrond) could fit in a larger storyline and maybe, if Rokman's speculation ends up correct, even cause time-travel shenanigans between mainline WoW/classic and maybe even a change of the post-classic timeline?
• Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

...and I'm sure there's more stuff that I can't recall right now that I missed in that list.

And remember, if you feel like all of these have already been discussed enough, it's also okay NOT to post if there's nothing new to dive into.

I love the idea of Bronze shenanigans in his expansion altering the classic timeline, creating new content expansions for classic instead of continuing on through past expansions. That’s exactly the kind of game changing announcement I could see happening at Blizzcon.

A South Seas expansion could definitely be on the cards, with the Tel’Abim, Nightsquall and Naga references in DF. Admittedly I think there’s enough legs in Tel’Abim to make it a full fledged expansion though along the lines of some fantasy books such as City of Brass, Master of Djinn and The Stardust Thief. I think an expansion focusing on Arabic themes and mythology/fantasy with Djinn and Ifrit as the primary antagonists could be an excellent expansion, which would feel both fresh and also give us MoP vibes. An exotic new lane to explore, befriending the locals, learning the lore of the land, whilst an ancient evil lurks in the background.

If it’s just a South Seas expansion, then I imagine it’ll be the often predicted - Tel’Abim; Plunder Isle, Ogrezonia, Hiji etc islands. Undermine I see fitting in here too but again, much like Tel’Abim, it could easily carry its own expansion. I’d be pretty content with that. I don’t see the Naga fitting in here as often predicted as I’m pretty sure Azshara has bigger fish to fry at this point. Whether that be freeing Sargeras or trying to return to Ancient Kalimdor and Zin-Azshari to prevent the Sundering and her curse. We don’t know enough about Nightsquall yet so they could easily be written to be a formidable villain that could carry an expansion, as long as the writing is decent. An extremely large pirate fleet with supernatural powers like Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean, controlling enormous sea monsters and the power to control the tides could be a huge threat.

Avaloren is definitely being set up for the other side of Azeroth. I can’t ever see is getting a revamp but I do believe Avaloren could serve that purpose in a sense, as well as appease the “WoW 2” crowd. It could serve as a soft reboot of the game introducing us to a supercontinent with a plethora of zones to rival the original EK and Kalimdor. New races, new classes, a shakeup of current roles snd features, all the while keeping what we currently have.

Zaralek Caverns for sure feels like a precursor to a true underground expansion, with Blizzard testing out both how a potential underground expansion would look and feel, as well as how it’s received by the player base. Khaz Algar would be present here and to get some new dwarven content as well as offshoot races such as chaos dwarves is long overdue.

In regards to future DF content. Why do so many think that the Blue dragon flight story will revolve around Vakthros? I just checked it out in game and it doesn’t seem very big. Just like every other tower dotted about the Azure Span. Isn’t it more likely if we do get a big Blue flight storyline/piece of content that it takes us elsewhere such as Coldarra(as already theorised) or maybe even a hidden chamber/zone beneath Mazthoril in Winterspring?

[Hugnomo]

It might be a little too optimistic for this forum, but regardless of what the next expansion is, WoW's dev team always manages to sell me on them, even if the themes, at face value, don't particularly interest me. A South Seas expansion, at face value, doesn't really excite me. But I don't know anything about Avaloren, about what "lies beyond the waves" of Kalimdor, etc. It's totally new lore so they can go whatever direction they want. That prospect for me is super exciting, there's something really cool about a complete surprise, since we've grown used to having a very clear idea of what expansions were going to look like based on warcraft 3.

Personaly, my idea for it would be:
- Considering that the known Azeroth continents have been ordered by the titans and are deeply influenced by them, what would a continent look like where the void civilizations managed to thrive? Could we get a glimpse into a void society that dispells titan propaganda? Humanizing and exploring perspectives from stereotypical fantasy monsters has been a staple of Warcraft.
Could we get Naga or K'thir playable races considering Azshara is coming back into the fold? I mean Maritime expansion and Azshara/Naga definitely go together (even though we already had that in BFA). And I mean, the vanilla dragon isles that were never released was a huge octopus old god temple. That theme wasn't tapped in dragonflight, so maybe in the next one? Also, this could be an opportunity to meet an Ogre empire that formed in these continents after their crossing into Azeroth, they're a seafaring people after all.

- The idea of a new type of naval mount that revolutionizes movement like dragon riding could be amazing. I absolutely loved to just sail about in Zelda Wind Waker, finding treasures and islands. Could even customize our ship like dragon customization.

- Meeting unkown Old Gods like Xal's true form. Meeting void lords.

And regardless of expansion, a concept I'd like to see is class skins, a little bit like echo fighters in smash bros. A concept that, gameplay wise, maintains the same number of classes, since creating and balancing new classes is a huge endeavor. But allows for more diverse class fantasies, even new ones, to exist. For example, I feel like druids could definitely be a base for a tinker skin, with robotic "forms" for the different specializations. And it'd be a cool way to give druids to races like gnomes and goblins.
I'd love to see new spell effects, new spell names, etc.
This could be used to bring us:
- Shadowhunters;
- Dark rangers;
- Night warriors;
- Witch doctors;
- Bards;
- Sunwalkers;
- Necromancer;
- Tinker;
- Warden;
- Blademaster;

And I'm sure there's more!
I don't know, I love wow's spell animations and effects. It'd be so cool to have the ability to play these specific classes, at least aesthetics wise.

[Nightshade711]

And regardless of expansion, a concept I'd like to see is class skins, a little bit like echo fighters in smash bros. A concept that, gameplay wise, maintains the same number of classes, since creating and balancing new classes is a huge endeavor. But allows for more diverse class fantasies, even new ones, to exist. For example, I feel like druids could definitely be a base for a tinker skin, with robotic "forms" for the different specializations. And it'd be a cool way to give druids to races like gnomes and goblins.
I'd love to see new spell effects, new spell names, etc.
This could be used to bring us:
- Shadowhunters;
- Dark rangers;
- Night warriors;
- Witch doctors;
- Bards;
- Sunwalkers;
- Necromancer;
- Tinker;
- Warden;
- Blademaster;

And I'm sure there's more!
I don't know, I love wow's spell animations and effects. It'd be so cool to have the ability to play these specific classes, at least aesthetics wise.

I like the idea of class skins, but Tinkers being a Druid skin would be a little bit of a stretch imo.

[huth]

Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

My vote is sky islands with sky pirates and "Dragon"riding with sky-sailing ships. Zero sense, all fun.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

My vote is sky islands with sky pirates and "Dragon"riding with sky-sailing ships. Zero sense, all fun.

Sounds absurd..... so long it feels like WoW. Sure why not.



*Still salty about no underground expansion*

[MKG]

Thats 100% true. Everything else is good idea

[huth]

Sounds absurd..... so long it feels like WoW. Sure why not.

I'd go with a framing story akin to those three guys in the Badlands in Cataclysm (i.e. technically the expansion starts after all of it happened, with your character possibly not entirely sober, relating its events to Relevant Lore Character X). If a little less clear on whether we actually did any of that stuff. And of course you get to keep all the mounts and Dragonsailing ships.

[Black Rider]

Pretty much. There's so many hooks/teases in Dragonflight that are worth delving into yet we still seem to spiral into some obscure/irrelevant topic with a few people (and usually the same ones) going back and forth. Lore discussion should be limited to story speculation on a surface level of future patches/expansions without going into long tangents about deep WoW history (or even more irrelevant stuff like opinions on character sexualities/romances, wth).

In case people forgot;



Here's some currently ongoing speculation relevant to the thread;

• Are we getting the questline that leads to the leaked PTR cinematic after next reset/with the start of season 2?
• 10.1.5 PTR is being actively prepared and could hit as soon as next week.
• Dragonflight is apparently around to stay; how are they going to solve compatibility with older zones/mounts?
• New zone names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren.
• How the teased future patch content (Evil Chromie, Muruzond, Galakrond) could fit in a larger storyline and maybe, if Rokman's speculation ends up correct, even cause time-travel shenanigans between mainline WoW/classic and maybe even a change of the post-classic timeline?
• Dread Admiral Nightsquall is building a large pirate fleet that now also contains the Irontide who showed up in Forbidden Reach bringing with them more Tel Abim/banana (omg old fake leak confirmed) references. South Seas expansion? Dragonriding tech but sailing? Hmm!

...and I'm sure there's more stuff that I can't recall right now that I missed in that list.

And remember, if you feel like all of these have already been discussed enough, it's also okay NOT to post if there's nothing new to dive into.

New zone names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren. - are these classified as zones? Or it could be small part of the zone, like Crossroad for The Barrens.
Yay for the pirate themes

[Alanar]

This.

It’s frustrating to come into this thread, seeing a few new pages of discussion and getting excited to see discussion and speculation on upcoming content and instead you’re met with discussion about romance in the story, mainly past romances.

Guys take it to the Lore sub-forum ffs, it’s getting very tiresome now.

The actual talking points of speculation for upcoming content such as Avaloren, revamped roles, future Aspects etc has largely been ignored the past few pages (aside from a couple of responses) in favour for discussing irrelevant shit once again.

Agree, we usually see the same people go back and forth.
Its getting annoying I agree.

Back to speculation.

[Marlamin]

New zone names that popped up in Dragonflight; Khaz Algar, Avaloren. - are these classified as zones? Or it could be small part of the zone, like Crossroad for The Barrens.
Yay for the pirate themes

Yeah, probably better named as "areas" as zones implies a certain size. I do feel like they both 'sound' like zone sized areas.

[Black Rider]

Yeah, probably better named as "areas" as zones implies a certain size. I do feel like they both 'sound' like zone sized areas.

Cool.
Thanks!
Any dungeon hints in DF files?