Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Skildar]

I don't get the enthusiasm for Harronir. They have little to no customisation and look as bland as Djaradins...

[Super Dickmann]

I don't get the enthusiasm for Harronir. They have little to no customisation and look as bland as Djaradins...

They're cave night elves in an expansion where there was an initial, gnawing fear that there might be no night elves at all.

[Alanar]

Vrykul descended from titanforged peons as well, they just were taller.

Except Vrykul look way better and cooler.

[Skildar]

They're cave night elves in an expansion where there was an initial, gnawing fear that there might be no night elves at all.

And we all know that elves should be part of the story focus in every expansion...

[Auxis]

They're cave night elves in an expansion where there was an initial, gnawing fear that there might be no night elves at all.

Fear? I thought the collective WoW community was over night elves!

/s

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Also, aren't harronir theorized to have evolved from those quill bats?

[Super Dickmann]

And we all know that elves should be part of the story focus in every expansion...

Can you imagine an expansion without night elves?

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Also, aren't harronir theorized to have evolved from those quill bats?

Possible, honestly I wouldn't fully discount the troll angle even now. The vegetation lines up with old descriptions of trolls having moss or whatever on them and the bats could easily pass for a druid form. They could then be bat people on top of that, what with living in a cave.

[Darkarath]

TBH, considering that expansions are now going to only go up to the x.2.x patch series, having one of the big seasonal patches be dedicated to Goblins might spoil the expansion's narrative pacing unless we're given a really, and I mean REALLY good reason to fight Goblins instead of Xalatath.

I can see it working as a mini raid for 11.0.5

Undermine as a big underground zone could be sick. Imagine a Mechagon but full of Goblin and probably Voidy stuff. Sounds fun to me.

As for the reason to go there, it could be something as simple as Xal'athat needs to get to the World Soul, so she needs powerful machinery, and for the right price Gallywix will provide it, and we will deal with him, as he has been a loose end since BfA.

[Cherry123]

We don't know the context.

For all we know it could be a cinematic focused on Xal, with her manipulating Ansurek into betraying her mother.

I hope so 2.5D cinematics have always been a hype. The most hype was BFA and that’s where it all ended. Shadowland and DF were lame. The hated Sylvanas and everyone's favorite daughter of the seas remained the most hyped.

[Hitei]

Undermine as a big underground zone could be sick. Imagine a Mechagon but full of Goblin and probably Voidy stuff. Sounds fun to me.

As for the reason to go there, it could be something as simple as Xal'athat needs to get to the World Soul, so she needs powerful machinery, and for the right price Gallywix will provide it, and we will deal with him, as he has been a loose end since BfA.

Why would Xal'atath go to a goblin for transportation to the World Soul, when she could tap into the Void Ethereals, or the earth elemental Incarnate to do the job? Is her goal to also blow herself up on the way?

[Cherry123]

By the way, the spoilers that were released did not cause any hype. There are almost no people left interested in lore. If Blizzard realizes that people are not interested in their lore, they might abandon it. And we will just have gameplay without a narrative.

[Darkarath]

Why would Xal'atath go to a goblin for transportation to the World Soul, when she could tap into the Void Ethereals, or the earth elemental Incarnate to do the job? Is her goal to also blow herself up on the way?

To justify going to Undermine? People have wanted to go there forever now.

Or she might need some technology to bring Ethereals in big numbers from K'aresh. They can easily come up with any reason that they want without being too weird.

[Lady Atia]

I think that the most likely use of it is as a megadungeon. While patches like to go to islands, and I could see it being a mechagon styled addition in 11.1, actual raid tiers haven't really departed from the main storyline since, well... Trial of the Crusader? is really the only actual raid tier that departs from the main plot in the way Undermine would. So we're talking 15 years ago.

Even "side" raids in the past decade have been relegated to mini-raids like Trial of Valor.

But since Legion, megadungeons have taken up the role of offering a big set piece dungeon that is a bit more wacky and detached from the primary narrative. Karazhan, Mechagon, Veiled Market, and Dawn of the Infinite. Undermine slots well there. A large dungeon with all sorts of silly goblin and tinker and explosion bosses as a side adventure from the main plot but that might involve some minor tie in like the Dark Heart.

Throne of Thunder? Highmaul? Emerald Nightmare? Trial of Valor? All of these were side plots.

We can fight about BfA, since it had two storylines but you could argue BfD was also a side plot to the actualy old god sotry thread going on in every other raid.

Also, the icons are called goblinraid, not goblindungeon lol.

[Super Dickmann]

To justify going to Undermine? People have wanted to go there forever now.

Or she might need some technology to bring Ethereals in big numbers from K'aresh. They can easily come up with any reason that they want without being too weird.

They don't really have to connect the two. They just did an expansion where the second raid was a side-story, they could easily have the raid be about the Venture Co and the zone be Undermine and then continue the Xal'atath business in the megadungeon. Even more so since the entire sword/azerite plotline kicked off with goblins digging for azerite.

[Lady Atia]

They don't really have to connect the two. They just did an expansion where the second raid was a side-story, they could easily have the raid be about the Venture Co and the zone be Undermine and then continue the Xal'atath business in the megadungeon. Even more so since the entire sword/azerite plotline kicked off with goblins digging for azerite.

Also, if Gally is allied with Xal than it's no longer a side plot per se. Just a different setting which is something Blizzard likes to do in order to avoid fatigue after complains about Orcs and Demons in Mop/WoD and WoD/Legion.

[Nymrohd]

They don't really have to connect the two. They just did an expansion where the second raid was a side-story, they could easily have the raid be about the Venture Co and the zone be Undermine and then continue the Xal'atath business in the megadungeon. Even more so since the entire sword/azerite plotline kicked off with goblins digging for azerite.

We went to Zaralek in the course of the MAIN story, hunting Fyrakk who was the only Incarnate whose location we knew. Yes the raid itself was a side story but it was still the natural conclusion of Zaralek caverns, a location we visited as part of the main story.

Of course we can have mid patch content that is completely a side story; Mechagon was that. But Mechagon came together with Nazjatar.

[allegrian]

Do the leaks mention the silithus sword at all, or was it used just for marketing?

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We went to Zaralek in the course of the MAIN story, hunting Fyrakk who was the only Incarnate whose location we knew. Yes the raid itself was a side story but it was still the natural conclusion of Zaralek caverns, a location we visited as part of the main story.

Of course we can have mid patch content that is completely a side story; Mechagon was that. But Mechagon came together with Nazjatar.

Aberrus and sarkareth felt like complete filler but DF's story overall felt like a directionless mess with no clear theme.

-We start with raszageth and wanting to use titan powers/oathstones to get the aspect powers back, they male a big deal about getting Tyr to help with that.

-We drop the titan stuff to focus on the new incarnates and the aberrus side story and get ebyssian as aspect after having 0 buildup in the base patch.

-Bronze dragon stuff loosely linked to TWW which would have more interesting than aberrus as a main content patch + raid.

-We then put the SL and 10.0 side story at the forefront to given a new home to night elves, who had barely any presence in the previous patches. Then the aspects get their powers back randomly from the tree after having abandoned that subplot for 2 patches and the tyr story ends up feeling useless and abandoned.

I hope TWW doesn't feel that way with its content patches.

[Polybius]

Why would Xal'atath go to a goblin for transportation to the World Soul, when she could tap into the Void Ethereals, or the earth elemental Incarnate to do the job? Is her goal to also blow herself up on the way?

Big Undermine drills go brrt. Deathwing already tried that meanwhile Iridikron has his eyes set on the Titans.

[Super Dickmann]

We went to Zaralek in the course of the MAIN story, hunting Fyrakk who was the only Incarnate whose location we knew. Yes the raid itself was a side story but it was still the natural conclusion of Zaralek caverns, a location we visited as part of the main story.

Sure, but in Zaralek Fyrakk pisses off halfway through to do his thing. The raid itself has nothing to do with him or with the overarching Incarnate plot. You could easily do something similar with the goblin raid.

[Polybius]

Do the leaks mention the silithus sword at all, or was it used just for marketing?

It comes up in a storyline but nothing much happens. For now it's marketing the Worldsoul Saga.

[Super Dickmann]

Then the aspects get their powers back randomly from the tree after having abandoned that subplot for 2 patches and the tyr story ends up feeling useless and abandoned.

There are a lot of points to make against the DF story, chief of all that it's profoundly boring, but its basic gist is so by the book and basic that I struggle to get where these takes come from. The obvious arc of the story is that the dragons head to the isle to get their powers by fulfilling their Titan instructions while facing the baddies, who oppose them based on following those same instructions. The instructions don't work though and they instead go on their individual arcs (except Alex lol) and ultimately get their powers back from the planet instead of from an outside force, countering both the Incarnates' position that they're lackeys and showing a synthesis between getting your powers from the world like said Incarnates, but not being a dick. The Tyr plotline is an accompaniment to that, it's quixotic on purpose because neither he nor the Titans can magic their powers back, they've got to earn them and they do so by doing what they've summarily failed at throughout their entire screentime up to this point and actually beating the baddie.

Now you can argue this story is trite or that the Aspects and the Flights are dull, and you'd be correct, but it's structurally pretty transparent and the beats it hits are so telegraphed and clear that the NPCs literally finish each other's sentences communicating them - "The real powers were the friends we made along the way".