Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Santandame]

I think Xal isn't the fifth Old God. However she is very tied to roots like the mystery OG was in Chronicles and we don't have a name or hint towards the fifth besides possibly the Ancient One from Hearthstone.

Per Blizz not being subtle, she is probably the fifth OG, but I would rather her just be a very skilled and powerful agent of the Void Lords who got stuffed into the dagger by the OGs so that she couldn't report back to the Lords about the Black Empire.

Maybe because Azeroth inspires freedom, the Black Empire became a rebel kingdom that was going against the wishes of the Void Lords? This could set up a potential N'zoth (remnant) vs Xal story in Midnight.

That would be my wish for N’Zoth if he’s a feature going forward. I’d like to see him as a character who rejects the initial mission of consuming Azeroth’s World Soul due to his time on Azeroth and forming a taste for more mortal desires. He doesn’t care about furthering the Void’s needs, he cares about his needs. I’d like to see him actually be fearful of the Void Lords and want to hide out on Azeroth from them, albeit in a position of power over the residents. Give him a more human model, have him engage in carnal sins, living lavishly over his subjects etc. Ostensibly he’s our enemy but we’d be forced to work together against mutual threats if the need arises. I’d like to see him similar to Ba’al the system lord from Stargate SG:1, if we have any fans of that show here.

[Ersula]

Spoiler Alert:

Xalatath is not an Old God. Alleria confirms it during TWW questing.

I wouldn't put them past rationalizing that as "She isn't an old god at the moment, she's a blood elf" or "Alleria's just wrong."

[huth]

Huh... I didn't see a Spoiler option. Thank you!

For some reason there's no button for it.

[Eldryth]

That would be my wish for N’Zoth if he’s a feature going forward. I’d like to see him as a character who rejects the initial mission of consuming Azeroth’s World Soul due to his time on Azeroth and forming a taste for more mortal desires. He doesn’t care about furthering the Void’s needs, he cares about his needs. I’d like to see him actually be fearful of the Void Lords and want to hide out on Azeroth from them, albeit in a position of power over the residents. Give him a more human model, have him engage in carnal sins, living lavishly over his subjects etc. Ostensibly he’s our enemy but we’d be forced to work together against mutual threats if the need arises. I’d like to see him similar to Ba’al the system lord from Stargate SG:1, if we have any fans of that show here.

That sounds a lot more interesting than the N'Zoth we had before, and kind of hard to reconcile with what he's done in past. Like the Cataclysm, how would this N'Zoth benefit from trying to destroy the world? On the other hand, he have that strange reaction to us in the time travel quest and Wrathion stabbing him with Xal'atath's knife was never explained, so maybe this was all a stable time loop he orchestrated to fake his own death? If so, hopefully it culminated with him betraying the Void and siding with us in Midnight.

That's also the same kind of role I had hoped Azshara would fill after BFA. Doesn't really make sense for her to side with the Void again after being forced to serve it for 10,000 years and getting tortured by it at the end. She should be an untrustworthy ally for a while (and maybe betray us eventually, but as the main antagonist of her expansion instead of a minion).

As for Xal'atath, maybe she started as an Old God but was elevated to a higher status by Dimensius? Basically being chosen over the other Old Gods to become the Harbinger (and was given her staff along with that duty like the lore for it suggests), only to be betrayed and sealed away by her now-subordinates.

[Auxis]

The Nerubians are descendants from the Aqir.

They are historically (and by creation) tied to the Black Empire, it's just an old mural depicting some event from back then.
Azj'kahet is not a fresh empire either, it's millenia old.

It's also not an image of N'zoth, we don't know who that is but its likely Old God #5.
Maybe even Xal herself.

I'm more curious about what that crystal thing in the mural is than the identity of the eldritch monstrosity. It appears important, it's quite literally the centerpiece of the mural - it has lines of light which lead the eye to it, plus it's extremely brightly coloured compared to everything else.
It's too decorated to be the Beledar IMO, given it's the only prominant crystal we have seen so far. It could be a case of creative liberty by a nerubian to make it look.. well, more nerubian, but that begs the question as to whether the Beledar could be in a shadow state that far back in time, as IIRC it's only started to shift regularly in recent years according to the Arathi.

Plus Xal crawls out of a portal that appeared directly over it in the short we just got.
It feels important.

[The-Shan]

By the way, maybe we will be getting an AR for each cosmic force?

Order- Earthen
Life- Harronir

Then there are others around that fit the pattern:

Light- Arathi
Void- Ascended Nerubians
Death- Kobyss (necromancy powers)

Fel is the one that's a bit of a tossup, but thought it was interesting there is a race that slots into each category.

I seriously doubt arathi will be an AR, more likely they'll just give the ears to humans

[Mekkle]

I seriously doubt arathi will be an AR, more likely they'll just give the ears to humans

im pretty sure that was datamined too

[Ersula]

I seriously doubt arathi will be an AR, more likely they'll just give the ears to humans

Didn't they already say before the beta that they were giving it to humans as character customization? Or is it like profession equipment transmog where they just forgot?

These arathi definitely won't be allied races simply because besides the ears, they use stormwind & Kirin Tor human models. It would be even more pointless than giving us even more dwarves & elf allied races.

[Khaza-R]

By the way, maybe we will be getting an AR for each cosmic force?

Order- Earthen
Life- Harronir

Then there are others around that fit the pattern:

Light- Arathi
Void- Ascended Nerubians
Death- Kobyss (necromancy powers)

Fel is the one that's a bit of a tossup, but thought it was interesting there is a race that slots into each category.

They sort of feel more like factions to me reminiscent of WarCraft 3. It would be fun if they were setting them up for a post WSS story to become the dominant forces that inherent the mantle from the Horde and Alliance.

Humans -> Arathi Empire
Horde -> Titanforged
Undead -> Void Servants
Night Elf -> Root People

[Thomir]

They sort of feel more like factions to me reminiscent of WarCraft 3. It would be fun if they were setting them up for a post WSS story to become the dominant forces that inherent the mantle from the Horde and Alliance.

Humans -> Arathi Empire
Horde -> Titanforged
Undead -> Void Servants
Night Elf -> Root People

Why would Horde be Titanforged

[Khaza-R]

Why would Horde be Titanforged

They aren't. Just saying Titanforge would occupy the space they previously took. And while they both seemingly unrelated. In reality they're both faction larged defined by their level of technology or lack their of.

[Cheezits]

They aren't. Just saying Titanforge would occupy the space they previously took. And while they both seemingly unrelated. In reality they're both faction larged defined by their level of technology or lack their of.

That's why I think Horde Earthen are underrated. Finally a Titanforge option for them, and one that chooses Horde WITH knowledge of their origin.

[Viridiel]

I'm more curious about what that crystal thing in the mural is than the identity of the eldritch monstrosity. It appears important, it's quite literally the centerpiece of the mural - it has lines of light which lead the eye to it, plus it's extremely brightly coloured compared to everything else.
It's too decorated to be the Beledar IMO, given it's the only prominant crystal we have seen so far. It could be a case of creative liberty by a nerubian to make it look.. well, more nerubian, but that begs the question as to whether the Beledar could be in a shadow state that far back in time, as IIRC it's only started to shift regularly in recent years according to the Arathi.

Plus Xal crawls out of a portal that appeared directly over it in the short we just got.
It feels important.

I'm certain it's a container of Black Blood. The "black" blood is actually the exact same colour as the container in-game (bright pink) and looks similar enough to the other containers of Black Blood.

I think it's a prophecy of Xal'atath coming to enslave the Nerubians with the promise of evolution. Xal'atath doesn't currently look like a giant tentacle monster and there's a distinct lack of N'raqi, but perhaps the prophecy hasn't been fully realised yet.

[Scyth]

I actually think, or rather at least that's what I want it to be lol, Xal's real form won't be a tentacle-ish being. Everything we have seen of her so far has been focused on this new cosmic Void thing Blizz has started to push, which makes me think she will be different to the Old Gods and a lot of the NPCs associated with them.

Just wishful thinking mostly though as I don't really like how the Old Gods look.

[Joshuaj]

I actually think, or rather at least that's what I want it to be lol, Xal's real form won't be a tentacle-ish being. Everything we have seen of her so far has been focused on this new cosmic Void thing Blizz has started to push, which makes me think she will be different to the Old Gods and a lot of the NPCs associated with them.

Just wishful thinking mostly though as I don't really like how the Old Gods look.

The Old Gods are basically just WoW's version of the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft. They look monstrous because the Old Ones are monstrous looking.

It is possible that the Void Lords will have a similar design to the Outer Gods from Lovecraft as well, if we take these factors into account.

[Hitei]

im pretty sure that was datamined too

The datamining here was just that the options are attached to humans. This doesn't really mean much, since races also sometimes get customization to facilitate NPCs. Like how playable Earthen "have" void skin and horn options that aren't actually playable Earthen options, they are for the Skardyn NPCs. Ditto (druid of the) flame Night Elves, Fel Orcs, etc.

Didn't they already say before the beta that they were giving it to humans as character customization?

Did they? AFAIK, this was just wowhead being typical wowhead; posting a clickbaity article based on datamined stuff without bothering to actually think through the likely context.

[Foolicious]

I don't think there are 5 Old Gods, however I do believe Chronicle may have pinned Xal as one of them for the sake of simplicity + the fact that mortals can't distinguish shit for nothin!

Reasonable assumption. Xal told us back in legion that the titans didn't understand the void so its not too far fetched to think that they made mistakes when writing chronicles.

[Santandame]

If Blizzard really want to get pedantic, can't they just say G'huun is the fifth Old God?

[SkyTides]

I would like for Xal to be something different to the old gods. And its the impression Blizz have been showing us so far. She seems the only one able to 'house' herself in various bodies or objects, and being called the Harbinger sets her apart from the others.
There must surely be more to the void than the Void Lords we know nothing about, and their minions to corrupt a world soul.

That would make mystery mural boy the 5th old god who was devoured...or maybe he was ascended to be the harbinger by the crystal sent from the void?

Are we likely to get another 'warbringer' animation this week?

[Nathanyel]

I don't think it'll be retconned, but Shadowlands was conspicuously completely omitted from the "Story so far" cinematic. Seems pretty irrelevant.

People keep saying that, usually as a way to dunk on SL, but was it, really? They could've just said "Anduin was tortured", which was the only relevant bit necessary to get into the TWW story and characters, but the opening events of SL were explicitly mentioned, even the Jailer was shown despite people claiming that he was omitted.

By the way, maybe we will be getting an AR for each cosmic force?
[...]
Death- Kobyss (necromancy powers)

Didn't play that far in the Beta, but the Kobyss rather strike me as Void-corrupted Murlocs, this article states they use Void-based abilities.
They're also way too antagonistic to be playable, and imagine the reaction if we got playable "Void Murlocs" before playable Murlocs.