Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Revamp Man]

Considering everything Void related has talked about "nothingness", the Old Gods are considered to be "avatars of non-existence", and the fact the First Ones' thoughts encompass both everything and nothing (This in regards to "the Light" and "the Dark" btw), I'd like to think that maybe the 7th power isn't nothingness, and that nothingness is attributed most with the force of Shadow.

I'm torn on the true identity of the 7th
Nothing makes sense because it wants absolute destroyed and eradication of everything

But Reality is 100% a possibility as well and the whole "Azeroth is a titan that is protected until she wakes up" doesn't make much sense when you take into account the Titans trying to order it and literally every other force trying to influence it makes me think Azeroth is something more...plus the map

[Dismayxz]

second list is generated with AI.
Some of them are very nice, like The void's embrace for example

I can't not see Apocalypse as just.. a step up from Cataclysm maybe? The Black Empire is just.. straight as it gets. SoA is again.. Shattering, Cataclysm..?

The Void's Embrace sounds interesting enough while being relatively clear, it kind of takes the obvious concept but it sounds applicable.

Harbringers of Doom was another one, since it doesn't even specify a force, it just refers to people without affiliation, with a clear purpose and goal without locking down an overall theme.

Both of these are the good ones in that lineup.

[Nightshade711]

I'd still like to give him the benefit of the doubt, considering he's not exactly been super on the nose. I think everything said about the context of the ai images he and wowexdev both posted, did not have to be said in the first place, if it was just going for a cheap leak. Guy's gone on record often enough saying that he does get more fun or fun in general out of a good leak season and leaving people wondering about the legit leaks he's posted. The AI images wrapped as 'hints' more or less would be in-line whilst immediately taking the big topic of the images being AI out of the picture, by simply .. coming right out and saying it or 50/50ing it from their own perspective.

If it weren’t for the datamining I might a bit more skeptical now, but it lines up.

My theory is that, if the dungeon is still planned to be made/added, that it’ll introduce it to us for next expansion. (Prepatch dungeon OR 10.2.5/7 epilogue dungeon).

The boss names being “Light Knight”, “Dimension Breaker”, and “The Devourer” point to it obviously light vs void.
Don’t see why the “Light Knight” would be hostile to us during a void invasion, it’d probably try and help us. Maybe it’s a healing boss like in the BfA snake dungeon?

[ImTheMizAwesome]

you mean blizzard release something "by mistake" as usual (creating hype and free marketing) ?

Anything new would be nice.

I hope we won't stay on algarian stormrider until blizzcon.

[Dismayxz]

If it weren’t for the datamining I might a bit more skeptical now, but it lines up.

My theory is that, if the dungeon is still planned to be made/added, that it’ll introduce it to us for next expansion. (Prepatch dungeon OR 10.2.5/7 epilogue dungeon).

The boss names being “Light Knight”, “Dimension Breaker”, and “The Devourer” point to it obviously light vs void.
Don’t see why the “Light Knight” would be hostile to us during a void invasion, it’d probably try and help us. Maybe it’s a healing boss like in the BfA snake dungeon?

Honestly, they might just be working names/prototype names. Light Knight just is too generic in general. Dimension Breaker and "The Devourer" (outside of the literal 'the') are too, but both of those names could still work in the context of what they are probably going to be (Dimension Breaker probably being something void-related, maybe akin to what Dimensius was in Netherstorm, before we had more context on "Void Lords", just a very powerful Void Walker/evolution of them). The Devourer could just be exactly what it says it is. A Devourer that deserves a 'the' in front of their name, with them expanding on the Devourers from their Shadowlands context. And then the Light Knight is going to be a named character that, yeah.. we either fight for some reason or simply heal Valithria-style. I can see that.

Edit: What if Light Knight is literally just a prototype/working name for Turalyon and he's helping us fight the other two, which is why the "Light Knight" encounter might not be directly against said "Light Knight", but either primarily a Valithria situation or some other type of support fight.

The line up in general makes me go back to the AI images a lot anyways. One of them, the wider shot of this Void-Knight type person's back, turned to us, had these lumbering blue creatures in it. I mean, honestly, that's just what I would expect out of AI Art given the SL Devourer prompt, if anything. It doesn't have to be a failure of coming up with Void Beings or something. We know nothing but potential hints or non-hints, at best, in this context. For all we know they could turn the Light vs Void situation around into a theme of the Devourers breaking into reality, causing havoc for everyone, in which case it would be absolutely in everyone's best interests to deal with that first. Taking the Light and the Void as stand-ins for Alliance and Horde. It'd be in line with current writing, frankly. All goody-two-shoes, light-hearted, but with something to fill that faction war void, by having two enemies fight eachother, then come together against a common foe, only to fight again later. And being friendly with BOTH the light and void would presumably offer us deeper glimpses into how those Cosmic Forces may work internally, compared to just fighting them and having second-hand information. Especially because an Expansion like that would HAVE to have Alleria and Turalyon playing their roles, which are both already poster children for "the light and void can work together!". They'd absolutely HAVE to have reasons for both the Lightforged and the Void Elves to not be put into positions where they are actively set against the forces that fundamentally fuel a lot of what they are, on a bigger scale at least, rather than just taking out little void crony #1 and #3.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I mean we have the 04 World of Warcraft Azeroth shirt, but apparently for you guys having an anniversary in late 2024 means you celebrate in 2023 for some reason.

Wasn't vanilla released in 2004? I guess jersey 04 could just mean 2004.

[Samin]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...1-0-Titanforge

Titanforge

This one deserves a bit of credit, as I think it pitched the idea of Stormriding before we even had the datamined Heroic edition mount.

Edit: also before Keyboardturn on Twitter started tweeting mysterious gryphon textures etc.

The western Storms and whatlies beyond became popular at least since that Nightsquall book from the Forbidden Reach. Then there was also the eastward nudge of Kalimdor. The Algarian Stormrider was really just the cherry on top.

[Wangming]

all the names so far are disappointing

need something like

The Black Empire

The Slack Ampire

- - - Updated - - -

Honestly, they might just be working names/prototype names. Light Knight just is too generic in general.

Yes that sounds like a placeholder. Or how NPC escorts show up for other players. You have Turalyon, they have Light Knight.

Or it's really just a mistake and the counterpart is Heavy Knight

Reminds me of my time at the hospital with a viral infection. I had a whole as jug of tea for myself, regularly refilled. Sweet was written on it. I thought that's their nickname for me untill I got a roommate who got bitter tea.

[PotHockets]

I mean we have the 04 World of Warcraft Azeroth shirt, but apparently for you guys having an anniversary in late 2024 means you celebrate in 2023 for some reason.

Because they want to hype the anniversary expansion I genuinely dont get why you have such a hard time with this concept it has to be intentional

[Joszef Kiprich]

Because they want to hype the anniversary expansion I genuinely dont get why you have such a hard time with this concept it has to be intentional

It's not like it's almost 2024 anyway....

[PotHockets]

Its 04. The year WoW came out. That's it. That's all there is to it.

And if you wanna go beyond that it's probably also a play on "For Azeroth!"

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I'm torn on the true identity of the 7th
Nothing makes sense because it wants absolute destroyed and eradication of everything

But Reality is 100% a possibility as well and the whole "Azeroth is a titan that is protected until she wakes up" doesn't make much sense when you take into account the Titans trying to order it and literally every other force trying to influence it makes me think Azeroth is something more...plus the map

My pet theory is that the ultimate plan of the First Ones was to "rebirth" themselves into existence. The titans carry this mandate subconsciously, ordering the cosmos in an echo of what the FO did, looking for that perfect World Soul, one that survives and adapts to the influence of every cosmic force, thus becoming a First One rather than a Titan upon birth.

(maybe World Souls aren't even "order" aligned while inside their planet, but the Titans influence them too much so they never reach their full potential. Maybe a World Soul such as Azeroth is destined to become a first one, or maybe is a "make your own destiny" sort of deal, and surviving through all of these cosmic tribulations is what has made her the most powerful World Soul, thus a First One reborn)

[Lahis]

Hehe, I'm not the one having a hard time with it. You do realise the anniversary is 1+ year away? It doesn't begin on January 1st, and never has. There will even be another BlizzCon before it takes place.

Now, I fully agree that they might use one of this year's announcements as a nudge to 2004. For example Classic+, or 11.0 that goes back to the roots of what made Vanilla special (world remade, old school characters and plot lines, etc.). But what that would entail is that the shirt is, in fact, a hint towards the announcement, and not simply a "lul 2004 was 20 years ago next year" kind of thing. That would be like selling Christmas decorations in January.

So you think they will reveal the next expansion in 2024 Blizzcon? And this year we will have just 10.2 stuff?

Next year's expansion is the 20th anniversary expansion, there is no way they won't reveal in this Blizzcon, ergo the 20th anniversary will get soft start now.

Big party can be next year, but they just have to acknowledge it now.

[Bwgmon]

Hehe, I'm not the one having a hard time with it. You do realise the anniversary is 1+ year away? It doesn't begin on January 1st, and never has. There will even be another BlizzCon before it takes place.

Now, I fully agree that they might use one of this year's announcements as a nudge to 2004. For example Classic+, or 11.0 that goes back to the roots of what made Vanilla special (world remade, old school characters and plot lines, etc.). But what that would entail is that the shirt is, in fact, a hint towards the announcement, and not simply a "lul 2004 was 20 years ago next year" kind of thing. That would be like selling Christmas decorations in January.

They're not selling the shirts with an 04 on them because 2004 will be 20 years ago next year, they're selling shirts with 04 on them because 2004 is when World of Warcraft started.

This is like getting huffy over people selling shirts with "1776" on them around July 4th because it's not anywhere near the year 2076. It doesn't need to be a significant milestone to call back to something.

EDIT: I also figured it'd go without saying, but the shirt in question is also a hockey jersey, and "nerd jerseys" always use a number that refers to something significant in the series in place of the player number, because it's an incredibly easy thing to come up with.

[Catastrophy349]

So you think they will reveal the next expansion in 2024 Blizzcon? And this year we will have just 10.2 stuff?

Next year's expansion is the 20th anniversary expansion, there is no way they won't reveal in this Blizzcon, ergo the 20th anniversary will get soft start now.

Big party can be next year, but they just have to acknowledge it now.

Agreed. It's not complicated. Let's continue with the "mental gymnastics" for what the "04 t-shirt" means!

[PotHockets]

So you think they will reveal the next expansion in 2024 Blizzcon? And this year we will have just 10.2 stuff?

Next year's expansion is the 20th anniversary expansion, there is no way they won't reveal in this Blizzcon, ergo the 20th anniversary will get soft start now.

Big party can be next year, but they just have to acknowledge it now.

I wouldn't even be surprised if we get a whole year of anniversary stuff starting in January and culminating around Blizzcon with some big thing for players as a thank you for 20 years.

Its just so silly to think this isnt the anniversary announcement just because its future content.

[Leowyld]

Problem is, the shirts for OW and D both show their most recent games. Not just random fun facts about them. Which means this shirt is potentially a teaser.

But Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are not being announced at this BlizzCon, they already exist. What number *should* they have used for World of Warcraft? Its title doesn't have one.

[Bwgmon]

Problem is, the shirts for OW and D both show their most recent games. Not just random fun facts about them. Which means this shirt is potentially a teaser.

Diablo and Overwatch are series with numbered entries, the number of the entry is significant, and both are also released products. World of Warcraft opts for subtitles for expansions instead, and they don't use expansion numbers in an official capacity beyond, like, patch notes, meaning there's no "World of Warcraft 11" for them to pull from if they went that route. Plus, since 11.0 isn't officially announced, a "Warcraft 11" jersey would kind of give things away.

[Catastrophy349]

Problem is, the shirts for OW and D both show their most recent games. Not just random fun facts about them. Which means this shirt is potentially a teaser.

Whether the "04" is a teaser for "Warcraft 4", anniversary of "World of Warcraft (2004)," or something entirely different, the good news is the fact that we are just 13 days away from BlizzCon. It's the perfect time for speculation, "leaks," and pure fun!

[GhostFish]

If it weren’t for the datamining I might a bit more skeptical now, but it lines up.

My theory is that, if the dungeon is still planned to be made/added, that it’ll introduce it to us for next expansion. (Prepatch dungeon OR 10.2.5/7 epilogue dungeon).

The boss names being “Light Knight”, “Dimension Breaker”, and “The Devourer” point to it obviously light vs void.
Don’t see why the “Light Knight” would be hostile to us during a void invasion, it’d probably try and help us. Maybe it’s a healing boss like in the BfA snake dungeon?

Big speculative ifs here, but if those are codenames and if those are placeholder models then Light Knight could be Turalyon because of the obvious lack of anything else to identify him with.

The Devourer could be Alleria, because she ate a naaru.

Dimension Breaker could be Sylvanas, because she shattered the veil.

Or it could be none of the above because there is nothing to go off of. There's really no reason to assume any of the names or models are fixed or associated with anything we've seen. But it's fun to speculate.