Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Vakir]

"Metzen will remove all of Danuser's influence on the lore"

I remember when y'all said this, and I remember telling y'all it ain't happening. Look who's right again

Who is this mythical "ya'll?"

Anyway. People are prone to validation of being right "again" when they conveniently ignore every other time.

[Enrif]

Btw has anyone found any Nightborne in Silvermoon except for Thalyssra at the top tower?

Yes a very few are strewn across the city. It’s like 1 nightborn in 60 blood elves.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

As for Haranir and Harandar existing, Stickney used to write fanfics for this WoW fansite, Blizzplanet. Now she's the senior narrative designer on WoW, writing fanfics. That's all you need to know about WoW's writing and who gets to write for WoW

Stickney Also wrote the ultimate visual guide all the way back in 2013, you know right before Wod and it’s gaillion video views about how manly wow used to be?

It’s almost like these people have been working with/for blizzard for years on official media and you don’t just go from fanfic to senior out of no where.

https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com...e-visual-guide
https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/World_...e_Visual_Guide

[Xilurm]

There's still something "wrong" under Vordrassil (in Northrend), and it's the reason that it doesn't appear in Harandar.



Yogg comeback incoming?

Oh shit, the minion of the ultimate evil that died because we sneezed at it is coming back. I'm so scared. /s

Jokes aside though, writing like this which has always surrounded the old gods makes them sound that much more mysterious, menacing, and interesting.

[Super Dickmann]

And every time they cross the Amani pass they DO become quest mobs.

People compare the High Elves to colonizers or invades. They were neither. They were refugees. People expect grace for the Warsong because they could not know that those woods belonged to the Night Elves and those trees housed their wisps because they also were refugees and the Night Elves killed first and expected to not face resistance (though they lose my sympathy when they drink the fel cool-aid as soon as the battle turns against them). Heck people keep telling me here how the original Alliance should have granted land to the orcs instead of putting them in camps. Why are the High Elves never afforded the same sympathy?

Discourse on colonialism in a fantasy game exclusively about race wars, despite being far less relevant, somehow manage to beat the already subterranean levels of discussion on actual colonialism, which boils down to how my group's conquest is good, whereas yours is bad. As to why the Blood Elf-Amani feud got this treatment instead of any of the others? I can tell you one reason I definitely don't think plays a part, though really it should - the Amani are the original Warcraft trolls and Zul'jin the original Warcraft troll. All others spawned from his loins, to the point where Darkspear still mention him on-click like they did in WC3. TBC's approach to the Amani was complete ass, and much like with Kargath, it contributed to the situation we have now, where all prominent WC2 Alliance characters are alive and in main roles, while the only one who was even alive at that stage Horde-side, Eitrigg, is an aged later addition to the franchise, who's only purpose since his conception is to disavow that incarnation of his faction and help humans.

As for why it took off? One, it's actually in the MMO and was there in its most popular years, so everyone is aware of it. Humans took more of the Amani and Gurubashi empire holdings than elves did, but all this is historical fluff that the game barely brings up, so they're home free, whereas orcs and night elves did clash in the RTS, but those are both more recognized as a territorial dispute and both races are too far removed from any easy real life analogy, despite tortured attempts to do so. On the other hand, the high/blood elves despite a hookah here and there and a few recent recolors, can obviously be equated to whichever European you don't like, whereas the Amani can in turn be conceptualized as pretty much any established native american empire. This also makes it salient given what's ongoing in the Middle East and the general treatment on twitter. Something to be said about how different discourse would be if the Blood Elves were more obviously an Ottoman analogy, but I digress. Making your fantasy game a vessel for how things might be nicer is tempting to the writers, who are older liberals and generally not interested in penning the racial revenge fantasy their younger counterparts definitely would.

This is also why the story is doomed. The Amani, even if far toned down from the Aztecs, still tortured and ate their prisoners and made blood sacrifices to their gods, they didn't just operate dance studios and chill. They were engaged in a zero-sum war of conquest/extermination as well. They can't do so if your goal is to cast them as put-upon victims, nor can you have the sort of inter-tribal conflicts that contributed to the fall of their real world analogues. This means that for them to feature and for the story to turn out about world peace they have to disavow the very same characterization and prominence that introduced them to the franchise and made them popular enough to even get this treatment - i.e Zul'jin and everything pre-Midnight. The elves in turn have to be cast as merely ignorant, but ultimately well-meaning, rather than actively and existentially at odds with the Amani. Liadrin is a therapist to Zul'jarra and is just unaware of the tribes instead of say, doing like her assumed real world analogue and using tribal feuds to advance her aims.

The basic facts of irreconcilable group interests and war, that even in much more simpler terms the franchise understood in WC2 are inaccessible to the writing staff due to the out of story cultural purpose of the story, and thus so is the extremely obvious solution - both amani and elves are playable on opposite sides and kill each other alongside their respective allies. This same culture war point mean that people take positions like this to own the writers, despite it being counterproductive to their interests:

They should be quest mobs. I'll all for genociding the Amani. Best part of BC and Cataclysm.

Which was your favorite part, when Horde killed the OG troll character and his race on behalf of a meme human redneck character and a race that would be indistnguishable from high elves by expansion's end for the next twenty years? Or when Blizzard copy and pasted their own dungeon to skimp on costs?

[Reive]

Midnight's story is the biggest piece of garbage they've released since shadowlands. They didn't learn shit from that expansion

[Joshuaj]

Who is this mythical "ya'll?"

Anyway. People are prone to validation of being right "again" when they conveniently ignore every other time.

Define "every other time"

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Midnight's story is the biggest piece of garbage they've released since shadowlands. They didn't learn shit from that expansion

Oh brother...

[Reive]

Oh brother...

-butchered turalyon's character
-gave eitrigg danath's treatment
-made arator a complete moron
-all the characters feel like they've gone through a lobotomy
-the new race is basically cannibalizing the lore of nelves and trolls
-the usual sanitized dialogues
-so many spelling/lore mistakes that make you question if the story is being written by outsourced people or not

the list goes on. story is so bad even reddit is criticizing it. this was supposed to be "metzen's baby" and tbh i feel scammed

[Vakir]

? Reddit has always criticized the hell out of things. They certainly have cause to here, don't get me wrong.

[Joshuaj]

-butchered turalyon's character
-gave eitrigg danath's treatment
-made arator a complete moron
-all the characters feel like they've gone through a lobotomy
-the new race is basically cannibalizing the lore of nelves and trolls
-the usual sanitized dialogues
-so many spelling/lore mistakes that make you question if the story is being written by outsourced people or not

the list goes on. story is so bad even reddit is criticizing it. this was supposed to be "metzen's baby" and tbh i feel scammed

Maybe I'm missing something, but how did Etrigg go through a Danath ordeal? Cause he's in the Sons of Lothar now? Or?

Also, Arator isn't a moron, in fact he's one of the only mfs to see reason in the Eversong questline LMAO. Though, I haven't done his questline yet, so idk.

I will say this though, Turalyon being the way he is annoys the shit outta me. Like, they really need to fix that WC2 retcon, cause ik for a fact he was not rage-filled when battling Orgrim (The original story said the complete opposite, I think).

[Joszef Kiprich]

Lol even reddit...
Reddit always has been a cesspit

[Makabreska]

Lol even reddit...
Reddit always has been a cesspit

Yeee, especially when compared to MMO-C.

Peeps hating on Reddit always made me giggle, especially when it comes from those who would be downvoted to oblivion if they posted there what they post here.

[Joshuaj]

Lol even reddit...
Reddit always has been a cesspit

What about reddit?

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Did I miss something?

[Cheezits]

The hate on Haranir for "replacing" Tauren and Nelves is bizarre when neither was going to be relevant for Midnight or likely TLT anyway, outside of maybe questline with the Taunka and Furbolg. They are binned until a Kalimdor expansion.

[Joszef Kiprich]

What about reddit?

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Did I miss something?

It's about this:

the list goes on. story is so bad even reddit is criticizing it. this was supposed to be "metzen's baby" and tbh i feel scammed

[Nymrohd]

Wouldn't Azerite probably have the same effect as Alndust?

[Joshuaj]

Wouldn't Azerite probably have the same effect as Alndust?

All I know is that the icon is blue and it reminds me of the cosmic powers at the Heart of the Sepulcher. It's very unique, to say the least.

[Jaggler]

Wouldn't Azerite probably have the same effect as Alndust?

I'm pretty sure the implication is that Alndust is pretty much Azerite, just maybe in a less concentrated form?

[Joshuaj]

I'm pretty sure the implication is that Alndust is pretty much Azerite, just maybe in a less concentrated form?

Yeah, they seem to be one in the same. What the Haranir call Alndust is what we call Azerite.

At the very least, Azeroth and Aln'hara might share a connected meaning, when you think about the names and how one could interpret them.

Azeroth= "A Zeroth"

Aln= "All and Nothing"

Maybe I'm looking TOO into this, but there does seem to be a reason for why the First Ones wanted to hide her (Assuming they're not retconned in TLT ofc, which would be silly cause we saw the powers that shaped the cosmos at the Heart of the Sepulcher). The cradle seems to be a Life thing, while the Worldcore is an Order thing. One Progenitor wanted her to be safe and secure whilist keeping her spirit and dreams happy, while the other seemingly wanted to keep her safe and secure in a much more absolute manner, almost like a prison.

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This would make Elune's dynamic with the Titans much more unique, that's for sure, especially since she's all about lunar stuff and possibly dreams, and the cradle was where Azeroth's dreams came into being, etc.

[Super Dickmann]

The hate on Haranir for "replacing" Tauren and Nelves is bizarre when neither was going to be relevant for Midnight or likely TLT anyway, outside of maybe questline with the Taunka and Furbolg. They are binned until a Kalimdor expansion.

It's a moot point, as Tauren would not feature in this plot, which we can deduce by the fact that they haven't in every other story that fit this bill. Now, the story could have gone to Night Elves but if there's one thing we most definitely not need more of it's Night Elf content. Which we're getting anyway as they'll be supporting the fight with Xal, unlike the smelly Horde which we can't allow to pollute Arator's bizarre adventure.

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I'm pretty sure the implication is that Alndust is pretty much Azerite, just maybe in a less concentrated form?

Yeah, alndust, resonant crystals and so forth are just azerite in slightly different forms.