Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[allegrian]

Anything know about what Dynamic Ground mounts actually do? If it's like its equivalent in Guild Wars 2 it can go directly up & over any walls or obstacles.Still they would need someone to represent them in the Alliance or Horde. Every faction does this:

The Taoshi (Alliance Pandaren) Aysa Cloudsinger
The Houjin (Horde Pandaren) Ji Firepaw
Obsidian Warders (Alliance Drakthyr) Azurathel
Dark Talon (Horde Drakthyr) Cindrethresh
Silver Covenant (Alliance Kirin Tor) Vareesa Windrunner
Sunreavers (Horde Kirin Tor) Aethas Sunreaver

Also note each of these faction leaders are color coded blue for alliance & red for horde. So keep your eyes out for a blue earthen npc.

But those examples are all politically affiliated with either factions or simply live in that factions territory/city, while now with neutral AR that are their own neutral faction and kingdom they can go with individual heroes joining either group, which makes sense as there's no political stuff behind it. This helps making earthen their own faction whenever they appear and don't need to be tossed into the horde or alliance unlike zandalar and nightborne, whose stories are now forever in the context of the horde faction.

[Ersula]

forget what the others said. This 100% looks like bronze time magic. And it kind of makes sense given what we know about the Arathi and the crystal so far.
The arathi supposedly only arrived rather "recently", and they appeared there by mysterious means, while also having a lot of half-elves? This could mean they are actually from the future, when humans and thalassian elves are friends again, or are directly back from the time of the troll wars, and behind the deal between humans and elves and teaching magic, there was also a more close cultural exchange.

You're forgetting that "recently" to the Earthen of Dorn could be up to 10,000 years. Also if the crystal has something to do with time magic that doesn't mean the people living in Harrowfal do. They barely understand the crystal structure. If it really is a ship of some kind its more likely whoever is in it is time traveling, not the people who live below it.

But those examples are all politically affiliated with either factions, while now with neutral AR that are their own neutral faction they can go with individual heroes joining either group, which makes sense as there's no political stuff behind it. This helps making earthen their own faction whenever they appear and don't need to be tossed into the horde or alliance unlike zandalar and nightborne, whose stories are now forever in the context of the horde faction.

How does that not apply to Drakthyr? They also joined these factions post-faction-conflict. But blizzard still gave them their own specific horde/alliance subfaction & leader.

[Nightshade711]

Looks like we might be able to get Brinthe’s back piece thing, there’s this icon in the files that matches it:

inv_cape_special_brinthe_d

[Enrif]

You're forgetting that "recently" to the Earthen of Dorn could be up to 10,000 years. Also if the crystal has something to do with time magic that doesn't mean the people living in Harrowfal do. They barely understand the crystal structure. If it really is a ship of some kind its more likely whoever is in it is time traveling, not the people who live below it.

The term "recently" was not used as a POV of the earhten, it was said during the blizzcon panel. And i never said, that the arathi use the time magic. but that time magic might be the reason they are here, and why it would make sense with the strange shifting of the crystal. For all we know, any of the arathi could be an bronze dragon. And considering that dragons most often choose elven and human visages... and one of the current aspects, Kalec, has a half-elven visage. Might all be coincidence. But i doubt it.

- - - Updated - - -

Looks like we might be able to get Brinthe’s back piece thing, there’s this icon in the files that matches it:

inv_cape_special_brinthe_d

Perhaps a renown reward?

[Nightshade711]

Perhaps a renown reward?

That would be nice imo. Might be one of the few times I’d actually grind out renown for something if it’s the case.

[Ersula]

Looks like we might be able to get Brinthe’s back piece thing, there’s this icon in the files that matches it:

Deeply sad that them giving us a customization option usually means we're not getting it in the form of a class or allied race.

The term "recently" was not used as a POV of the earhten, it was said during the blizzcon panel.

The phrase they used was "relatively recently," which just means of all the races in the Isle of Dorne, they just moved in last. Which matches the assumed timeline, that these humans came here around the same time the other Arathi were founding Stormwind, Gilneas & Lordaeron, as well as them co-mingling with high elves....about 1000 years ago.

[Enrif]

Deeply sad that them giving us a customization option usually means we're not getting it in the form of a class or allied race.
The phrase they used was "relatively recently," which just means of all the races in the Isle of Dorne, they just moved in last. Which matches the assumed timeline, that these humans came here around the same time the other Arathi were founding Stormwind, Gilneas & Lordaeron, as well as them co-mingling with high elves....about 1000 years ago.

except it was also said that their appearance there was "mysterious". Nothing mysterious in just shipping over there. Much more mysterious: suddenly being there, no one knows how or why. Teleportation, Naaru space shipt, time travel. All is on the table.

[Raetary]

The term "recently" was not used as a POV of the earhten, it was said during the blizzcon panel.

What they said was "relatively recently".

Which is correct when you take a look at wows timeline.
The Arathi empire was established roughly 2,8k years, it expanded about a 100 years later and then splintered around 1,2k years ago.

Meaning Hallowfall is between 2,7-1,2k years old, which is a relatively recent period of time.

except it was also said that their appearance there was "mysterious". Nothing mysterious in just shipping over there. Much more mysterious: suddenly being there, no one knows how or why. Teleportation, Naaru space shipt, time travel. All is on the table.

"they arrived relatively recently and through somewhat mysterious circumstances... mysterious mostly because i can't say anything more because of spoilers, but not like spooky mysterious but the other kind"

This is what Maria said at Blizzcon.

I dunno about you, but that statement doesn't scream "time travelling Naaru spaceship and teleporting human kingdoms" to me, but rather they unconventionally popped up down there, (Since they couldn't have just strolled down the Coreway, i'm theorizing it happened via the underground sea) and then established themselves.

Nothing about the crystal effect indicates that it's chronomancy. (if anything, the fact that it doesn't shower sand all over the place and that it slowly purifies the crystal rather than instantly changing the timeline very much indicates that it is not some time traveller shenanigan.)
The swirly effect is literally just golden, and no shit at that, as its a giant Light crystal!

[Nymrohd]

The other requirements seem to be basically get to max level and finish the max level campaign - dont think that will have much bearing on the Earthen story since every lose end and major problem they have is basically resolved after leveling.. Im assuming the United We Stand campaign will be about taking the fight to Xal'atath and the spiders with all the allies we made through the leveling experience so I dont imagine that will have any major story bits dealing with Earthen society

But the end of the day I think its pretty safe to say based on everything else that no entire group or faction of Earthen will straight up leave Khaz Algar and officially join a faction under one fo the main leaders, that def aint happening.

I'd still assume there will be a questline about it at max level.

[allegrian]

You're forgetting that "recently" to the Earthen of Dorn could be up to 10,000 years. Also if the crystal has something to do with time magic that doesn't mean the people living in Harrowfal do. They barely understand the crystal structure. If it really is a ship of some kind its more likely whoever is in it is time traveling, not the people who live below it.How does that not apply to Drakthyr? They also joined these factions post-faction-conflict. But blizzard still gave them their own specific horde/alliance subfaction & leader.

Because they basically don't have a home so they just go get their foster faction of choice. Even then the dracthyr leaders are a non-factor, even less than the playable pandaren ones. As both neutral races have those "faction rep leaders" that are non-characters (hell, they are ven color coded for the faction for no reason), uninteresting and do nothing, it's better to just make the playable neutral races individuals that join either faction out of choice but still are part of their respective neutral kingdoms in-universe where they have their neutral leaders that are allowed to actually be leaders.

Im very disappointed with dracthyr not having any meaningful lore, worldbuilding or a place to call their home. Their are literally an artificial race with no lore or culture, super boring for me.

[Enrif]

I dunno about you, but that statement doesn't scream "time travelling Naaru spaceship and teleporting human kingdoms" to me, but rather they unconventionally popped up down there, (Since they couldn't have just strolled down the Coreway, i'm theorizing it happened via the underground sea) and then established themselves.

I think we have very different interpretations what mysterious means.

[Raetary]

Locks get both a robe as well as a pants variant for their tier set.

I hope that standard is applied to all robe sets.

[Makorus]

Im very disappointed with dracthyr not having any meaningful lore, worldbuilding or a place to call their home. Their are literally an artificial race with no lore or culture, super boring for me.

This is such a weird take because Dracthyr got so much world-building and lore ???

I guess a lot of it is from Dracthyr-exclusive quests, but even outside of that, there are so many small quests that really flesh out Dracthyr culture and society.

[allegrian]

This is such a weird take because Dracthyr got so much world-building and lore ???

I guess a lot of it is from Dracthyr-exclusive quests, but even outside of that, there are so many small quests that really flesh out Dracthyr culture and society.

You can't compare them to kul tirans, zandalari, or the upcoming earthen, which are much more fleshed out. Dracthyr's lore is barebones by design, they have no history or culture nor their own kingdom. They are worse than void elves as those at least have their high elf/blood elf backstory. They also have no leader with custom models or story relevancy and I guess they'll be as prominent as pandaren post mop or less.

[Makorus]

You can't compare them to kul tirans, zandalari, or the upcoming earthen, which are much more fleshed out. Dracthyr's lore is barebones by design, they have no history or culture nor their own kingdom. They are worse than void elves as those at least have their high elf/blood elf backstory. They also have no leader with custom models or story relevancy and I guess they'll be as prominent as pandaren post mop or less.

Dracthyr got actual development unlike Kul'tirans or Zandalari, who aside from a leadership change stayed completely static. Just because something doesn't have a history doesn't mean something can't be fleshed out lmao.

And yeah, they are gonna be just as prominent as any race that's not Elf/Orc. When did you see Zandalari or Kul'tirans be relevant recently? Even then, we literally have datamined Dracthyr.

[allegrian]

Dracthyr got actual development unlike Kul'tirans or Zandalari, who aside from a leadership change stayed completely static. Just because something doesn't have a history doesn't mean something can't be fleshed out lmao.

And yeah, they are gonna be just as prominent as any race that's not Elf/Orc. When did you see Zandalari or Kul'tirans be relevant recently? Even then, we literally have datamined Dracthyr.

Kul tiran and zandalari in the tyr group, kul tiran ship from sw to DF, Jaina, Talanji, kul tirans having 3 zones with distinct characters and cultures, kul tirans and zandalari having backstory since warcraft/vanilla, having their own kingdom and capital city and their own aesthetic instead of just copying the dragon aspect one.

[Nymrohd]

Btw with Elun'ahir likely happening so soon after DF, I know thing Avaloren may also happen during TWW. I honestly thought it'd be after but I would not be surprised to see it happen much sooner now. Sounds like a waste to me but hey.

[Enrif]

Btw with Elun'ahir likely happening so soon after DF, I know thing Avaloren may also happen during TWW. I honestly thought it'd be after but I would not be surprised to see it happen much sooner now. Sounds like a waste to me but hey.

I'm not sure on that yet. Perhaps in context with the Arathi. but it could be something held of until TLL. Though, Nightsquall is also still a mystery, which could turn up in Midnight.

[Dracullus]

Looks like they are merging "this week in wow" with "blues news" articles (as recap, not teaser) and put everything on Friday. Happened twice already.

[Makorus]

Kul tiran and zandalari in the tyr group, kul tiran ship from sw to DF, Jaina, Talanji, kul tirans having 3 zones with distinct characters and cultures, kul tirans and zandalari having backstory since warcraft/vanilla, having their own kingdom and capital city and their own aesthetic instead of just copying the dragon aspect one.

That's not Kul'tiran/Zandalari being relevant, that's just them being there.

There was no development after the initial 8.0 experience.