Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Nightshade711]

That shadowy gryphon isn’t the heroic mount.

You don’t know that, & you’ll definitely be disappointed when it is.

It’s more likely an air elemental mount, since there are air elementals called Stormriders near the storm peaks in Northrend near Ulduar (a possible connection to Khaz Algar). Further in dwarven culture, “Storm Rider” pertains to the rider, not the gryphon.

Your logic astounds me. We’ve got:
1. Gryphons getting dragonriding animations despite no known new gryphon mounts that use them.
2. A new gryphon mount texture added in the patch with the anims.
3. New race called “storm rider”
4. A mount called “Algarian Stormrider” being discovered as the preorder bonus in the same patch.
5. Knowing that Khaz Algar is a dwarf place, AND knowing that dwarf culture links the name “stormrider” with gryphons and dwarves….

But none of that is relevant and it’s an elemental mount because of… thrall?
(Despite elementals not having dragonriding anims and the fact that we know dragonriding is going to be carried forward & brought to the rest of the game)

- - - Updated - - -

You do understand that if that’s the heroic mount for 11.0 that would be one of the biggest encryption screw ups Blizzard has ever done right?

Which is why it isn’t.

Riiiight… because a mount that could be only he related to a zone (like the dread raven mount) is a bigger screw-up than:
The entire map to Kul Tiras being datamined on items named “Kul Tiras Outdoor” during Legion… or “Dragonflight” being datamined before the announcement… or the “Emerald Dream Zone” items datamined in 10.1… the list goes on for probably every single expansion.

Hell, even in SL we basically knew what all of the rewards were for preordering DF were.
We knew they were an emerald dragon, a baby Drakonid pet using the Vulpera skeleton, and 5 back pieces.

[Reive]

Doesn't Dragonflight have the most retaining players out of every WoW expac so far?

that means crap tbh. if you have less players to lose than you're more likely to retain more. at certain point, those who are left are the most dedicated ones who are probably never going to quit the game.

[Woggmer]

They did. The Lifelands have a lot of lore coverage: It's called the emerald dream. Note how on the cosmology chart the Emerald dream is in the same position relative to the Life Sphere as the Shadowlands is to the Death Sphere. Unless you're saying the Shadowlands & Deathlands are two different places in which case there is no hope for you.

It's less that and more like, we should've gone to the Life Lands first and slowly accept the idea that there is other realms within different cosmic planes. The Emerald Dream being the easiest to dive further into this...

The Shadowlands didn't ease people into the idea and it was "This is the Afterlife, The Jailer is the true mastermind, Everything was his fault, accept it" we're forced to suspend our disbelief and be forced to accept whats in front of us rather than have it make sense to us in a palatable way.

In short: The Life Lands should've been the appetizer and the Shadowlands being the main course.

[Berkilak]

More like the Dragonmaw have no real reason for yellow eyes and gray skin so they haven't touched them since Cata.

Or WoD, forgot about that.

They have a dedicated questions in Dragonflight and are integral to the Orc heritage quests. The only expansion they’ve been entirely absent from was Shadowlands. An absence that can only be considered in their favour.

[milkmustache]

You do understand that if that’s the heroic mount for 11.0 that would be one of the biggest encryption screw ups Blizzard has ever done right?

Which is why it isn’t.

Sure, it's a big screw up.

You don't know it for fact. Stop speaking in certainty when there is none. It's reductive to discussion and speculation. That's all I'm trying to say, there's no need to be a consistent stoppage in the conversation.

[Therougetitan]

You do understand that if that’s the heroic mount for 11.0 that would be one of the biggest encryption screw ups Blizzard has ever done right?

Which is why it isn’t.

Because Blizzard has never had encrypted things be seen early. It is super weird to try to put forward a fact based on some a factor that can prove unreliable. Zero logic.

[Nightshade711]

Sure, it's a big screw up.

Tbh it’s not anywhere near the worst screwup blizzard has done with encryption. They’ve gotten better over the years.

[Hitei]

Sure, it's a big screw up.

You don't know it for fact. Stop speaking in certainty when there is none. It's reductive to discussion and speculation. That's all I'm trying to say, there's no need to be a consistent stoppage in the conversation.

's not really all that big compared to datamining pre-BfA announcement revealing that the mounts were a sea-themed horse and a raptor, or even the DF mount being a green drake.

If anything it's significantly smaller since having the texture doesn't really give us any answers, just more questions.

Definitely nowhere near the actual large fuck-ups, like putting worgen and goblin hallow's end masks into a build.

[milkmustache]

Definitely nowhere near the actual large fuck-ups, like putting worgen and goblin hallow's end masks into a build.

I always thought that was intentional! Was that really a mistake??

[Dismayxz]

I think the people hyping classic & blackpilling retail forgot its the same subscription figure.
They did. The Lifelands have a lot of lore coverage: It's called the emerald dream. Note how on the cosmology chart the Emerald dream is in the same position relative to the Life Sphere as the Shadowlands is to the Death Sphere. Unless you're saying the Shadowlands & Deathlands are two different places in which case there is no hope for you.

Whether I call them Lifelands or the Emerald Dream, doesn't matter to me nor does that .. change what I said? Little airheaded and egdy, are we? I very much think that the Emerald Dream/Life Sphere being first would've done a better setup for future Cosmology shit, such as the Shadowlands we instead ended up getting. I agree with him on that and .. nothing you've brought up even challenges that oppinion nor does it change it.. at all? But I am glad that in your very (to me) relevant (lol /s) oppinion, we should adhere to anything the cosmology chart says with absolute, religious certainty. No comment on that last line, just take your medication, problem solved.

[Marlamin]

You do understand that if that’s the heroic mount for 11.0 that would be one of the biggest encryption screw ups Blizzard has ever done right?

Which is why it isn’t.

Haha, hardly one of the biggest. I wish.

[Nightshade711]

If anything it's significantly smaller since having the texture doesn't really give us any answers, just more questions.

I mean even knowing that it’s most likely a gryphon and that could be the texture doesn’t help predict what the expansion could be outside of what one of the zones (or central hubs) could be.

[huth]

's not really all that big compared to datamining pre-BfA announcement revealing that the mounts were a sea-themed horse and a raptor, or even the DF mount being a green drake.

If anything it's significantly smaller since having the texture doesn't really give us any answers, just more questions.

Definitely nowhere near the actual large fuck-ups, like putting worgen and goblin hallow's end masks into a build.

Didn't Marlamin say the texture is from some other mount? This thread is getting awfully difficult to follow so close to BlizzCon.

[Dismayxz]

You do understand that if that’s the heroic mount for 11.0 that would be one of the biggest encryption screw ups Blizzard has ever done right?

Which is why it isn’t.

Like they haven't had big encryption OR datamining screw-ups before. Almost like it's become a tradition they have made jokes about at reveals before.

[Hitei]

I always thought that was intentional! Was that really a mistake??

Well they followed it up by immediately adding a bunch of fake NPC race masks to try and play it off as not being related to playable characters so...

[ro9ue]

Doesn't Dragonflight have the most retaining players out of every WoW expac so far?

That's just spin. If you have expansion after expansion spiking up millions of players at release, but always have a steep drop off in a month, you aren't going to talk about retention. DF being post SL and not really having that hype of a trailer probably meant the spike was much lower, but since you didn't see a huge % drop, you can now boast about a higher retention rate because you didn't have that many players who returned in the first place.

[Marlamin]

Didn't Marlamin say the texture is from some other mount? This thread is getting awfully difficult to follow so close to BlizzCon.

I'm not able to tie it to any of the encrypted mounts nor is it close to any of the other encrypted mount files, so it's a solid "no pointers either way".

[Ersula]

I wouldn't really use that. Assuming those spheres were HEAVILY limited in info by beings of Order, I would argue the Shadowlands sphere and the Emerald Dream sphere were more like veils to the actual Domains, rather than the Domains themselves.

If the Shadowlands are afterlives & Zereth Mortis a First One designation of extracting world souls, what purpose would further Death realms even serve? Why assume the outer spheres are physical places at all? If they're not purely conceptual I doubt even brilliant minds could even conceive of them, probably anyone who saw it would be driven to complete madness.

[Villager720]

Well they followed it up by immediately adding a bunch of fake NPC race masks to try and play it off as not being related to playable characters so...

The grainy female ogre mask pulled from obscure art was *chef’s kiss*

[Ferlion]

So back to expansion things.

We have a bit of an interesting thing here. Traditionally, we think of the Old Gods as the primary antagonist to the Titans. The Void the one that causes issues. We've all assumed that Iridikron is going to do some void stuff. In addition, we assume that Avaloren heretics are void or Black Empire worshippers.

But, I mean... That doesn't really fit, right?

Avaloren is a clear reference to Avalon. Which is the realm of Fae and Fairies. In addition, most Old God forces we've seen so far don't really seem to be the type to fight each other until they turn on each other, which is their nature. Beyond that, the bit of the Green Dragon making a new home and a clutch of young ALSO tends to imply something other than the Void.

I think Avaloren is going to be adherents of life more than void, and we're going to see some really crazy stuff.