Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[FossilFree]

This could possibly also explain Aman'thul's harsh reaction to the tree Eonar planted from G'harn. If the light has really suffocating influence, it could be his way of stifling any other form of influence.

It would be interesting to see if Elune is actually more about light or life. If she is really light, then where is the pantheon of life? Did it get snuffed out by order?

[Marlamin]

I don't know if it's any importance but didn't Scaleface say on his Twitter account to check trademarks soon?

They started doing trademarks on the day of the reveal a few expansions back (if they trademark it at all), but it's probably worth keeping an eye on, sure. Doesn't hurt!

Also, still not sure if wowexdev == Scaleface of if they're just friends.

[milkmustache]

It would be interesting to see if Elune is actually more about light or life. If she is really light, then where is the pantheon of life? Did it get snuffed out by order?

I can't help but feel that Elune is in a whole world of her own. I have no clue where she would align.

A lot of her magic is associated with light. She has presense over the Emerald Dream, ties to life. The Winter Queen is her sister, who is a "first one" of death. Maybe there's some ties to void with the moon magic, similar to how the Shadowmoon clan worshipped the moon and stars as a part of void?

Elune is a huge mystery still. I almost hope she's never revealed, because it's still really, really cool.

[Izalla]

They started doing trademarks on the day of the reveal a few expansions back (if they trademark it at all), but it's probably worth keeping an eye on, sure. Doesn't hurt!

Also, still not sure if wowexdev == Scaleface of if they're just friends.

When I was snooping scaleface's posts from the Dragonflight thread he referred to wowexdev as a completely different person than himself. So unless that was a ruse, they aren't the same person.

[Marlamin]

When I was snooping scaleface's posts from the Dragonflight thread he referred to wowexdev as a completely different person than himself. So unless that was a ruse, they aren't the same person.

Yeah, my memory is shit but I recall them being separate too with wowexdev having the wxd handle on MMO-C.

[Ferlion]

That's true. If order is actually the enemy of us all and has pulled the wool over our eyes, that line would make sense. The evidence has been stacking up for a while too, what with Odyn's shenanigans and all. You could even make an argument that King Mechagon's vision of mechanization is actually the true desire of the realm of order as well. They don't seem to like flesh very much. Even life is barely tolerated by the Titans (minus Eonar of course), like you said with the tree.

The enemy of all is very likely the unknown 7th force that the Jailer was trying to stop.

[Xilurm]

The enemy of all is very likely the unknown 7th force that the Jailer was trying to stop.

Not the void? It seems a bit weird that they'd send their Nathrezim to manipulate everyone to fight the void if we're supposed to be teamed up instead.

[lostsoup]

N'Zoth also warned us against the same force as the Jailer, so with both death and void being against it I think this new force fits the bill.

[Xilurm]

Them dreadlords seem pretty useless tbf.

[Chickat]

D4 on Steam, wondering how close we are to getting WoW on Steam as well... maybe with 11.0? It does support sub games but could go on it as free to play too.

Imo they should make it free to play till the previous xpac cap. So level cap of 80 in 11.0 with F2P till 70.

[Woke it Up]

So I'm not going to pretend to know titan stuff but the guy that's The Thunderer,
Lord of the Skies and the Roaring Oceans[1] golganneth seems to hit on a few of the themes?

[Viridiel]

I don't believe any of the actual titans use the Light, but many of the keepers do. We know that the keepers are fully individualised, so I wonder if it isn't something that they just decided to do on their own. The Prime Designate himself heavily utilises the Light and I believe is even referred to as a follower of the Light in a fairly recent lore book.

Also important to note that Chronicle was apparently a biased telling of creation by the titans' followers, not the titans themselves (I think). Chronicle places Light and Void as the most fundamental forces in the universe from which everything else comes, which is really confusing if it's meant to be titan propaganda. I wouldn't be surprised if the Light has infiltrated the keepers, especially considering it's otherwise apparently just left the world to be infested with Old Gods without a single care.

I think we'll find out with Tyr considering he's probably the heaviest actual user of the Light among the keepers.

[Chickat]

Firmly in my belief(hope) that this is the next expansion concept:

Avaloren - Five Zones

- A zone based on Camelot. Picture Toussaint from Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. Bright, colourful, a giant castle that takes up a large portion of the zone, with a section serving as the expansions main hub. Enchanted woods, mushroom forests, mystical lakes, fairy glades, hamlets & villages. Lots of life in the zone, festivals, tournaments and games taking place around. The folk that live here being some sort of human/elf hybrid who are very much formed around worshipping life and spirit, as well as the light. Knights, wizards, dragons, an offshoot of goblins that are more primitive than the playable kind, ogres in the hills raiding villages. Typical traditional fantasy zone. One of the expansions features will possibly even revolve around minigames or some sort of content involved with the tournaments and festivals.

- Khaz Algar which is essentially the Shattered Plains from Brandon Sanderson's the Stormlight Archive. A land ravaged by thunderstorms, deep fissures and ravines. Algarian cities littered within the fissures, as well as monstrous creatures. The Algarian's are mutated Dwarves and are linked to Xal'atath in some way. Xal'atath's corpse is present in this zone.

- A celtic/gaelic highlands zone. Some of the Algarian's have began to resist their void corruption and have moved away from Khaz Algar, and have evolved into something else - Halflings, durable, hardy folk. They'll be related to the pre-order mount and help us with pushing into Khaz Algar. Some of the Halflings have moved into the Camelot zone.

- A dark swamp zone akin to Velen and Crookback Bog from Witcher 3. This zone to play heavily into the more witchy side of Arthurian mythos. Lots of eldritch horror here, with some villages in the swamp that house peasants and common folk trying to survive as well as cults devoted to the dark arts. Evil creatures, ogres, witches, possibly even the drust. On the fringes of the swamp is an Old God fortress which serves as Xal's seat of power. Its surrounded by a large bramble/thorn forest with evil winged creatures prowling the skies. Evil, necromantic shadow figures are seen within the zone and inhabit catacombs beneath the swamp. An off shoot of Worgen live here that are more ferocious and monstrous than the regular Worgen and serve Xal'atath.

- An underground zone with a world tree growing inside. A vast cavernous zone teeming with spirit and life.

Major lore figures

Thrall, Magni, Jaina, Lor'themar, Tyr, Odyn, Vyranoth, Alexstrasza, Xal'atath, Iridikron.

Class Skins

New Specs, including Bard as a spec for Rogues. (Halflings playing a notable role in this)

A reiteration of Torghast but with a more diverse setting and better designed rewards and incentives attached.

New race customisation including Mok'nathal and Broken as toggles for Orcs and Draenei.

Shamans, Paladins, and Druids (sans Dracthyr) opened up for all races with unique aesthetics/forms.

This sounds really cool

[Swnem]

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

It's a completely meaningless metric.

If you have 100 players and retain 50%, you got 50 players.
If you have 10 players and retain 60% you got a better retention rate but only got 6 players which is much less than 50.

In short "rates and percents" are ways to manipulate numbers into a positive light.
Number of players is what gives the real picture and they don't share those cause they have declined substantially from back when they still revealed them.

But, that is what matters to us, players. For Blizz the revenue aka sub+ shop sales are what matters most.

[Magistrate]

I don't believe any of the actual titans use the Light, but many of the keepers do. We know that the keepers are fully individualised, so I wonder if it isn't something that they just decided to do on their own. The Prime Designate himself heavily utilises the Light and I believe is even referred to as a follower of the Light in a fairly recent lore book.

Also important to note that Chronicle was apparently a biased telling of creation by the titans' followers, not the titans themselves (I think). Chronicle places Light and Void as the most fundamental forces in the universe from which everything else comes, which is really confusing if it's meant to be titan propaganda. I wouldn't be surprised if the Light has infiltrated the keepers, especially considering it's otherwise apparently just left the world to be infested with Old Gods without a single care.

I think we'll find out with Tyr considering he's probably the heaviest actual user of the Light among the keepers.

The first chronicle was written before they decided to say it was all POV. The later ones feel like it from the way they're written. But the first one at least was a delivery on a promise I'm vaguely remembering from the time that it was an objective, reliable source of lore. That was the reason the series was so exciting at first, and then when it suited them they went the Titan POV route.

I maintain at least the first book can to some extent be taken more literally and you'll more than likely be right vs what followed. The second one didn't have that feeling either to me.

Remember they started coming out long before the cosmology changes that hit in Shadowlands. There were maybe some references that became more pronounced but it was really before the cosmology retcon/revamp.

Because of that, I believe we can trust in the cosmology aspects which were mostly laid down in the first one.

[huth]

Hold on, so I'm not allowed to use a decade-long precedent set by Blizzard themselves, and which we have no indication of having changed as of this moment... but you're allowed to just assume that he's on there as a figurehead for the franchise?

No. Which is why i don't.

[Raetary]

Has anyone else noticed that the Titans and their underlings always seem to use holy magic? They are supposed to be beings of order, but you never see them using arcane magic for anything.

It's not light, it's just Order.
Blizz just decided to make it yellow.

And they did, their machinery was explicitly powered ny arcane power since the chronicles revealed what the arcane was.

But that connection was more or less retconned.

[Palapop]

Part from new books added in 10.2 PTR:


Erinethria had flown to the far corners of Kalimdor and back. She had witnessed wondrous sights, and loved to share stories of them with her kin.
Yet there came a day when Erinethria felt she had seen all there was to see of the world. She grew bored. Restless.

Erinethria sought the wisdom of Keeper Tyr.
"Great keeper, is there any mystery left for me to discover? Any riddle yet to be solved?"
"Everything you need is here, child. What more could you want to see? What else could you seek to know?"

As the dragon's brow furrowed, a cool wind blew in from the west.
"The breeze, great keeper. I wish to see the place from whence the winds are born."
Tyr grew solemn. "Beyond the Storming Sea lies only ruin. Stay close to home. Stay close to kin." (so that land to the west of Kalimdor is no home for dragons)

Tyr's warning hung like a shadow over Erinethria's heart. It clashed again and again with her deep yearning for answers.
One bright morning, the green dragon bid farewell to her clutchmates.
"Fear not," she told them, "for I can fly higher than any storm. Faster than any thunder. And when I know from whence the west winds come. I shall return home and tell you all!"

And with that, Erinethria soared into the sky.
Moons passed. And still more. Yet brave Erinethria did not return.
Even Ysera woke from her dreaming to aid in the search. But there was no sign to be found.

Most believed that Erinethria was lost to the Storming Sea. That her mighty wings grew tired and torn by the harsh winds, and that she tumbled into the roiling waters.
But some greens claimed that they saw her in their dreams. That she reached a land beyond, where she raised a brood of her own. (Green dragons are present in that "Beyond the storming sea" zone, west from Kalimdor)










there are also many implications about Emerald Dream being something Titans don't adore that much. And that it might be connected to "other realms of life" at "far reaches of the Emerald Dream".

Interesting stuff tbh.

[flan1337]

ngl i miss the stormbreak leak - it was fun hopefully we get another one of those

[Palapop]

It's 99% something about storm/ing sea, new land (west from Kalimdor)... etc, etc, etc....

So far every bunch of "speculations/leaks" about upcoming expansions were at least right about THEME of next expansion.

- - - Updated - - -

Add: I can also see that "land beyond the storming sea" which is "unfriendly to dragon kin" could be heavily old God/void influenced.
And I could see Azshara going there for the "true source of power" once we freed her from Ny'Alotha.

Maybe she knew N'zoth would run away and won't allow us to kill him?

Who can know lands better beyond the storming sea than nagas who can travel all across the globe freely?