Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Eldryth]

How’s this idea grab you - we fail to prevent corruption this time. Xal destroys the Worldcore, halting the Ordering process and exposing it to the Black Blood. The Blood allows the Void to get a foothold on the now unprotected Worldsoul, setting up a full on Void invasion for Midnight.

I expect that at the end of TWW, we'll see Xal'atath cause the true Hour of Twilight, in whatever form that takes. Mostly because I can't shake the feeling that Midnight seems like a deliberate play on that name- the Hour of Twilight is a prophecied event where the Old Gods return and conquer the world, but twilight can also mean the last moments before night (or dawn, but that doesn't really fit here). In that sense, Midnight seems to be what comes after Twilight.

The Void gets a massive victory, the Worldcore is destroyed (this much at least seems sure to happen by TLT to draw the Titans back, whether the Worldsoul within it gets corrupted or not), and in Midnight we're making our last stand against the invasion.

I know a lot of people expect the Sunwell to be corrupted into the Void's invasion portal, but I think it'll be more interesting if we're protecting the Sunwell and losing it is an absolute defeat condition for us. I'm hoping for a situation where the Worldsoul is corrupted at the end of TWW, and the Light of the Sunwell is the only thing that can purify Azeroth so all hope is lost if the Void takes it. And, once we succeed in stopping the Void and cleansing the Worldsoul, the Titans show up to try and get their agenda for it back on track.

[Samin]

Amirdrassil didn’t bridge the gap at all to TWW. 11.2 can be a more self-contained story, and 11.2.5/7 will be used to set up Midnight

Amirdrassil, in particular the blessing at the end of the raid, is an important event in relation to the world soul saga, it's a precursor to the Radiant Song. Both are a sign that the World Core is failing and allowing Azeroth's influence to reach further either because of deterioration (with or without external influenc) or because Azeroth is getting too strong. This makes it a connection between DF and TWW/WSS. I hope Amirdrassil and it's connection to Azeroth will be explored further when we go to the Rootlands.

I could actually see us only getting to the World core proper in TLT. It seems less and less likely to me that we will physically go there in TWW.

[Nymrohd]

What if we need the Naaru core in the Sunwell to fully rejuvenate so it can blow up and remove the Void Corruption like T'uure did? We know T'uure was strong enough to banish a manifested Dimensius

[Al Gorefiend]

I hope there is an Oceans 11-esque caper for getting into the casino.

[Cheezits]

Amirdrassil, in particular the blessing at the end of the raid, is an important event in relation to the world soul saga, it's a precursor to the Radiant Song. Both are a sign that the World Core is failing and allowing Azeroth's influence to reach further either because of deterioration (with or without external influenc) or because Azeroth is getting too strong. This makes it a connection between DF and TWW/WSS. I hope Amirdrassil and it's connection to Azeroth will be explored further when we go to the Rootlands.

I could actually see us only getting to the World core proper in TLT. It seems less and less likely to me that we will physically go there in TWW.

I think the world core could have an entrance in the Rootlands, this may actually tie back to Amirdrassil and Azeroth now being able to influence things through the world trees.

There's the fact that it likely is the roots of Elun'ahir, a nerubian text hints at a giant flower somewhere, and there's an area there called "the cradle". There may be a magic growth there that Azeroth can use, and subsequently a way to reverse it and get to Azeroth herself.

If that's the case it kind of retroactively makes Fyrakk more of a threat than we once thought: he could've potentially corrupted Azeroth.

[Joshuaj]

How’s this idea grab you - we fail to prevent corruption this time. Xal destroys the Worldcore, halting the Ordering process and exposing it to the Black Blood. The Blood allows the Void to get a foothold on the now unprotected Worldsoul, setting up a full on Void invasion for Midnight.

I'd have to ask how the Sunwell would fall into play here.

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What if we need the Naaru core in the Sunwell to fully rejuvenate so it can blow up and remove the Void Corruption like T'uure did? We know T'uure was strong enough to banish a manifested Dimensius

How strong was that manifestation though?

[milkmustache]

Amirdrassil didn’t bridge the gap at all to TWW. 11.2 can be a more self-contained story, and 11.2.5/7 will be used to set up Midnight

You're right, but I think there's ample reason to assume it should be different this time around with the emphasis they're putting on these 3 expansions as a saga. I think it's completely in line for them to be interlinked just a bit further; but you're right, presedence from Dragonflight implies that we'll see that link in the 11.2.5/7 storylines.

I'd suggest we may even see it a bit sooner. Iridikron delivering the Dark Heart to Xal'atath happened in 10.1.5's megadungeon... I think it's entirely possible that 11.1.5's Nightfall will do the same.

I've been insistent in the notion that we are missing a huge factor of Midnight in TWW, and that's the presence of the Light. Well, the presence of the Light's acknowledgement in world. There's been a lot of theorizing about what Beledar is, but as far as our characters and the others around us know, these crystals, songs, etc., are all coming directly from Azeroth. In any normal expansion, I think it would be completely reasonable to assume that Silvermoon would just call upon our aid and we'd move there for the next round of quests and raids, but I think there will be far more of a bridge here. That being said, Metzen's delivery of Midnight was us "joining the forces of the Light to banish the Shadow forever", when as of now we hardly have anything Light involved in the story... this isn't just joining a new faction or culture in fighting an evil as in most other expansions, but this is (as of now) an entire reframe of the conflict on a cosmic scale. Our entire framing of it is the Void making a gambit for Azeroth's worldsoul which has up until now been safeguarded by numerous Titan installations. Where and when does the Light become the rallying banner of the battle?

It's entirely possible that the full Midnight announcement comes around at Gamescom and they've altered courses a bit and have much less of a focus on the Light, but everything in the current story is pointing to something missing. And I'm not saying that's a fault of the writing, I'm saying that there is a huge reveal that we are bound to stumble upon that I do not think will be saved for a 11.2.5/7 patch.

[Limayria]

You're right, but I think there's ample reason to assume it should be different this time around with the emphasis they're putting on these 3 expansions as a saga. I think it's completely in line for them to be interlinked just a bit further; but you're right, presedence from Dragonflight implies that we'll see that link in the 11.2.5/7 storylines.

I'd suggest we may even see it a bit sooner. Iridikron delivering the Dark Heart to Xal'atath happened in 10.1.5's megadungeon... I think it's entirely possible that 11.1.5's Nightfall will do the same.

I've been insistent in the notion that we are missing a huge factor of Midnight in TWW, and that's the presence of the Light. Well, the presence of the Light's acknowledgement in world. There's been a lot of theorizing about what Beledar is, but as far as our characters and the others around us know, these crystals, songs, etc., are all coming directly from Azeroth. In any normal expansion, I think it would be completely reasonable to assume that Silvermoon would just call upon our aid and we'd move there for the next round of quests and raids, but I think there will be far more of a bridge here. That being said, Metzen's delivery of Midnight was us "joining the forces of the Light to banish the Shadow forever", when as of now we hardly have anything Light involved in the story... this isn't just joining a new faction or culture in fighting an evil as in most other expansions, but this is (as of now) an entire reframe of the conflict on a cosmic scale. Our entire framing of it is the Void making a gambit for Azeroth's worldsoul which has up until now been safeguarded by numerous Titan installations. Where and when does the Light become the rallying banner of the battle?

It's entirely possible that the full Midnight announcement comes around at Gamescom and they've altered courses a bit and have much less of a focus on the Light, but everything in the current story is pointing to something missing. And I'm not saying that's a fault of the writing, I'm saying that there is a huge reveal that we are bound to stumble upon that I do not think will be saved for a 11.2.5/7 patch.

I mean the arthai are a light worshiping empire, I have kinda been leaning more towards that midnight might be more of a play on words than we're expecting, with us finishing off the void between the leveling campaign and the first raid (or raids? I could see us getting two raids for first tier maybe with ZA as one and sunwell as one) and then the expansion transitioning into us having to hold off the light from claiming the now exposed world soul

This theory also kinda lays with the idea that there's going to be at least one boss in TWW representing life coming for the world soul because that would put us at the end of might night having staved off

Void (xal/old gods)
Death (jailer)
Fel (sargey)
Light (potential midnight twist)
Life (potential 11.2 raid boss or bosses, maybe something with those botani that escapes to azeroth? Or something about the hanihar)

Setting up for TLT to be us fighting off the last force in "order" which would help put a neat bow on the last decade or so of wow from legion -> TLT and giving us room for another expansion of pretty major changes and potential a true new era of wow as game play system wise the "classic era" does basically stay the same until legions launch with the massive amount of spec reworks, the addition m+ and the great vault, the addition of world quest and outdoor content functioning as a legitimate game play pillar so on and so forth

And most of the expansions following have been refinement on those ideas or expansions upon them, even delves are centered by blizzard as an expansion of the outdoor content pillar

[Raetary]

I think Xal will succeed in deactivating/weakening/destroying the World Core, but still fail an attempt at corrupting the World Soul.

Which naturally leaves the Soul vulnerable, so she pivots to corrupting the Sunwell to prepare for a full Void invasion.

[Civciv]

Did the Worldcore prevent Azeroth from spinning, so Kalimdor was always on the side facing away from An'she, while Avaloren faces towards him and was bathed in light?

lmaoooooooooo

[Lorca]

I hope that I am not the only one that finds annoying the fact that they didn't add any new customization options for Goblins in a Goblin themed patch in Undermine......

[Joshuaj]

I hope that I am not the only one that finds annoying the fact that they didn't add any new customization options for Goblins in a Goblin themed patch in Undermine......

Tbf here, we don't know about this yet. Even if there wasn't, what options did you want to see?

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It's not that big of a stretch, even if I was just spitballing.

These dudes shaped Kalimdor and built a machine around the world's core. One of them plunged a sword the size of a mountain into the planet. There's no doubt in my mind they could prevent Azeroth's spin if they saw a need for it.

I mean, sure, but I don't think your theory is the case, nor do I think it'd benefit the Titans if they did mess with Azeroth's axis rotation.

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Heck, Azeroth also seemingly goes through seasons and years, so where the planet's facing is very clearly not altered that much, if at all lol.

[Raetary]

It's not that big of a stretch, even if I was just spitballing.

It's an insane stretch that only works if you ignore literally all lore and its chronology.

[Joshuaj]

We're still on the "Elune is a Light Being" fan narrative? Seriously?

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Also, it is possible the forces took influence on Azeroth in different ways without the need of the Titans. The Titans aren't responsible for everything folks.

[Wyrt]

We're still on the "Elune is a Light Being" fan narrative? Seriously?

All her abilities being part of the Life class should be a big enough hint of where she is on the cosmology chart.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

4d metabrain take: Elune's cosmic alignment is weird because the entire cosmic chart was a bad attempt to hamfist a compartmentalized magic system on a setting that previously used a flexible soft magic system.

[Joshuaj]

*shrug*

The Light wants to spread and protect Life. It wants Order because that seems to rhyme with the Light: harmony.

Shadow wants Death (it consumes souls, remember). It also wants Disorder because it sees all possibilities.

So Elune being of Light somehow wouldn't surprise me.

You're thinking within the Dark Beyonds rules. Think outside of that realm please.

[Raetary]

Elune is flat out stated to be a Life Pantheon member by both the Primus and Firim, in- and outside the game.
All of her involvement in recent developments have also been exclusive to Life related events.

The arguing about her abilities are meaningless as we can only deduce things from their visuals and in-game spell schools, the former of which means nothing and has never been consistent, and the latter is purely a game mechanic.

On top of that, Blizzards recent addition of the Arathi cosmology just throw the whole pendulum back to a more open ended magic system with magical energies actively mixing with each other.

So even if Elunes powers have some Light elements to them, it doesn't change her status as a Life goddess.

Just like Sacred Flame is a Light symbol, despite it being an elemental and Arcane flame.
Or how the Titans specialize in different types of magic, but remain beings of Order.
Or how all the SL residents use different powers in different afterlives, but Anima remains their main foundation.

[Joshuaj]

I wouldn't be so certain.

The Night Warrior, the Embrace, all those Balance Druids invoking celestial powers rather than Life magic whenever they represent Elune,

You act like Life magic is limited to "trees and leaves n shit", but that's not how it works. Also, her being linked to the Moon and lunar events just means Life has a lot of celestial based magics. It's also likely Elune represents the lunar aspects of Life, which makes sense considering her natural connection to the Dream, her lunar based abilities (Especially when wielding light, arcane, and shadow magics), the Tears of Elune representing the DREAM of what Azeroth could be, etc.

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Also, we don't know the name of the Life Pantheon. It's highly possibly the Life Pantheon's name is called "The Celestials".

[Hitei]

I wouldn't be so certain.

The Night Warrior, the Embrace, all those Balance Druids invoking celestial powers rather than Life magic whenever they represent Elune,

I mean, it's not some nebulous "celestial power" that can be argued is secretly Light in cosmic form. It's Astral magic, a nature+arcane hybridized school.

I never got the "Elune is Light" argument to begin with. She's literally a night goddess. Her people are called the NIGHT Elves and the cats she mutated are called NIGHTsabers, and her champion is the NIGHT Warrior, and every time she directly manifests her power on Azeroth, the light of the sun is eclipsed by the moon, shrouding the landscape in darkness. She is closer to being Void pantheon than Light, the cosmic faction that we know for a fact (confirmed on both sides of the war in question) zealously, obsessively rejects anything to do with darkness or shadow as abhorrent. Her being a Light being makes no sense. The Light absolutely detests anything even leaning in the direction of the Void and Elune's whole gimmick is darkness and night.

But even the Void pantheon line of reasoning doesn't make much sense when we have someone who was created alongside her sister stating that she is the Life counterpart to WQ's Death, and when we know that she got Eonar in trouble by giving her Life stuff.