Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Murlocos]

Chronicle Volume 4 just showed up on Amazon. Covers MoP through SL with a release date of July 16th.

[Super Dickmann]

Chronicle Volume 4 just showed up on Amazon. Covers MoP through SL with a release date of July 16th.

Finally, new Bald Man content. I've craved it so.

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Still "just the Titan POV," I wonder?

Makes no difference, Chronicle was retconned less than a year after release with its take on the Titans. If something doesn't suit the writers going forward it'll get retconned.

[Raetary]

Chronicle Volume 4 just showed up on Amazon. Covers MoP through SL with a release date of July 16th.

Quite surprised that they are continuing with the series.

[Cheezits]

The WoW books must do really well for Blizz to keep making them despite the controversies.

[Merryck]

Why didn't Vyranoth just kill Iridikron? She must be dozens of times stronger than him with the Aspect power stacked on top of Incarnate power.

[Sondrelk]

Finally, new Bald Man content. I've craved it so.

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Makes no difference, Chronicle was retconned less than a year after release with its take on the Titans. If something doesn't suit the writers going forward it'll get retconned.

If nothing else it should be a decent enough guide into the kind of story likely being told in the World Soul Saga. Titans perspective or not, it should be valid for at least the next three expansions.

[Varodoc]

Looks like one of Metzen's first acts since his grand return is rectifying the terrible mistake: "Chronicles are irrelevant as they are just the Titans' diary."

It will be interesting to see how Metzen handles the BfA-SL plot arc, since he wasn't there for that mess.

Had Metzen been in the team back then, that mess probably would have been averted in the first place. All direction and logic was lost when Metzen left.

Let's see if Metzen can try to make sense of Afrasiabi AND DANUSER's clusterfuck.

[Super Dickmann]

Looks like one of Metzen's first acts since his grand return is rectifying the terrible mistake: "Chronicles are irrelevant as they are just the Titans' diary."

It will be interesting to see how Metzen handles the BfA-SL plot arc, since he wasn't there for that mess.

Had Metzen been in the team back then, that mess probably would have been averted in the first place. All direction and logic was lost when Metzen left.

Let's see if Metzen can try to make sense of Afrasiabi AND DANUSER's clusterfuck.

You've taken an uncontroversial track, the only ones who think Metzen is only marginally less of a hack than the current writers and has many of his foibles be imitated by those who came after are people like me, for maximum controversy you should've become an Alex appreciator or a Danuser dickrider.

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If nothing else it should be a decent enough guide into the kind of story likely being told in the World Soul Saga. Titans perspective or not, it should be valid for at least the next three expansions.

Yes, the direction and tone of the book on plot beats helps figure where the plot goes next, see how Chronicle 3 was a build-up to BFA and a hackjob of Cataclysm in how it discussed the blood elves joining the Horde or the invasion of Gilneas. BTS and the Dragonflight book are outliers in how they don't really speak to the tone/direction of the product they go with.

[Murlocos]

Yes, the direction and tone of the book on plot beats helps figure where the plot goes next, see how Chronicle 3 was a build-up to BFA and a hackjob of Cataclysm in how it discussed the blood elves joining the Horde or the invasion of Gilneas. BTS and the Dragonflight book are outliers in how they don't really speak to the tone/direction of the product they go with.

BTS was Christie Golden's long-term play in deciding Anduin should be the main character of WoW and introducing her new OC Poochie the Pallid Lady, the totally cool hip new undead princess who's beloved by all the good guys and envied by all the baddies (she is much more popular than that icky Sylvanas because she's so nice; more like the Dork Lady, am I right?) It's masterful stuff, and I can only conclude Danuser accepted to have Nathanos get axed out of pure respect for Golden's planning.

[Varodoc]

Hell, the Worldsoul Saga was most likely planned before Metzen rejoined.

No, you are wrong. Metzen spearheads the development of the Worldsoul saga. The Worldsoul saga is his creation, as was the RTS Warcraft Trilogy, before the meddlesome MMO team ruined his Original vision with nonsense like Evil Badass Forsaken and High Elves in the Horde that was not in the Source Material (RTS series, primarily Warcraft III).

Chronicles Volume IV is obviously meant to set the stage for the Worldsoul saga, Metzen's Creation.

This is the first step to realign the Warcraft franchise with Metzen (its Lore Creator)'s Original vision.

[hattahat]

Hell, the Worldsoul Saga was most likely planned before Metzen rejoined.

Well, Scaleface already told us that the Underworld and Light vs. Void expansions were planned before Shadowlands came out. I know a lot of people see things like the story and plot of Metzen and Danger as dichotomous... but it's more reasonable to say that the truth is far from that. That's just how I see it.

[Woggmer]

Some of y'all will find a way to paint Turalyon the villain if an NPC says he likes warm bread.

He's not inherently evil like the Scarlet Crusade, but rather people are expecting him to be the next Yrel. Not in the sense that he'll outcast himself and his closest compatriots and friends in service to the Light, but that he's going to make people worship the Light... like it or not.

OR... there's also the possibility that he's become so popular with the masses that they would rather have him be King than Anduin and creates some kind of schism between him and Anduin over who's more deserving to rule Stormwind and the Alliance.
(But considering how the other story beats in DF were cut-and-dry endings, I don't believe Blizz is gonna pull something like that because it'd be easier just to have him step down and give the throne back to Anduin without much fuss.)

[Murlocos]

I'm waiting until at least TWW alpha to see if there's some meaningful change in how the story is being handled or if it's just a redux of DF which was a stealth redux of SL. I'll wait to crown Metzen as the savior for if and when he actually demonstrates it.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I definitely am seeing the paralell of the Community going "Guys Dragonflight is Danuser's baby" and now seeing the "Guys The War Within is Metzen's baby" shtick.

I am definitely withholding any judgment on The War Within until the Expansions ending has been announced via a Augment Rune being datamined on a vendor for a general autopsy centered on if The War Within was a success and where the reasons may lie for why it succeeded or failed.

I am moreso thinking failure is attached to the Executive Teams decisionmaking and the way their content plan has been obfuscated towards the fanbase than anything on the Dev Team itself or the Narrative Team for the Saga if it is to occur in the current.

2 Major Patches and 7 Minor Patches (if that is what it will be during the Saga) is just going to be weird with the Major Patch momentum of the story being a 1 and done narrative thread until a abrupt finish in X.2.

Turning Metzen into a martyr is one of the dumbest paths this community can go in regards to if The War Within turns out to be SL/DF redux or worse and Ion's shrinkflation deflection was actually just that deflection with more sinister implications while the "Narrative focus" was in fact never more than a marketing blip for the masses to consume.

Anyways, looking forward to Chroncicles Vol 4! At least they can't cut a book.

[Nymrohd]

Lol ESO is adding Class Skins.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I just don't think Class Skins were ever going to be a thing due to the fact that we've been stuck in the "PVP Clarity" quagmire with the Team being stubborn on holding that position forever and reinstating thats their stance very recently.

It's just the whole feedback against their position being "Just add a Toggle for Transmog (Transmogging "Cloth on a Warrior" (example))/Class Skin SFX" has been rejected due to the fact that it obviously in their mind creates Game Dev issues that could have Pandora's Box level implications even if it isn't very relevant to the enduser since we already opened Pandora's Box with the initial Transmog implementation in Cataclysm.

[Dracullus]

Make sense that MoP-SL is Volume IV. Volume V will be likely whole Worldsoul Saga, and DF is prologue of that.

[Cheezits]

The reason they probably aren't doing class skins is because they don't think a new expansion with little-to-no gameplay changes would do or sell well, regardless if that's the truth. If class skins were the focus for classes they probably wouldn't also add regular talents.

That or they have shifted away from non-shop/trading post cosmetic dev time, which is why we still aren't getting any customizations for races.

Or they think its only something nerds care about. Which may be true. Maybe casuals would just laugh if "paladins but they use white light" was a box feature even if Nelf nerds would cream themselves over it?

[Merryck]

I hope they give a face to the in-universe author of Chronicles. It must be a constellar, maybe even Algalon?

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Make sense that MoP-SL is Volume IV. Volume V will be likely whole Worldsoul Saga, and DF is prologue of that.

That would be awkward if the Titans are the penultimate antagonist of the World Soul Saga.

[Varodoc]

I hope they give a face to the in-universe author of Chronicles. It must be a constellar, maybe even Algalon?

I hope they don't, and I hope Metzen backtracks hard on Danuser's attempt to downgrade his Creation from an Omniscient lore compendium to just an in-universe diary of the Titans.

Especially since many parts of the Chronicles are detailed accounts of a person's psyche that a Constellar wouldn't know about. How does a Constellar know what was going through Lich King Arthas' mind or what Illidan was thinking?