Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Raetary]

I just wish Blizzard would stop being so scared from giving her any characterization and start making her interact with us.

We never get the visions, it's always somebody else.
We never hear her voice, we are just being told what she says.
The 2 times she appeared in game, in the Magni and Orweyna cinematic, our characters don't actually witness her talking, she's only affecting the main cinematic subject, who then relays that information to us.

Idk how Blizzard intends us to form any tangible connection to her, when all they ever do is dangle her 5 feet away from us.

[Thros]

K'aresh was wholly incapacitated during the Dimensius fight and wouldn't amount to much anyway, what with it being barely alive. Azeroth wasn't involved in that one. So i'm not sure what you're talking about here.

Azeroth is involved by our mere existence that we are more powerful than anything else, even the Ethereal mysterious notebook in K'aresh points that out.

[Limayria]

I just wish Blizzard would stop being so scared from giving her any characterization and start making her interact with us.

We never get the visions, it's always somebody else.
We never hear her voice, we are just being told what she says.
The 2 times she appeared in game, in the Magni and Orweyna cinematic, our characters don't actually witness her talking, she's only affecting the main cinematic subject, who then relays that information to us.

Idk how Blizzard intends us to form any tangible connection to her, when all they ever do is dangle her 5 feet away from us.

Yeah they want our connection to azeorth to feel like the wol and hydaelyn but it falls so flat because we never interact with her directly where as ff14 starts the whole thing with your "hear... Feel... Think" and really does a good job at making you feel like gods favorite princess


Its even more mystifying because there's a lot of really obvious hooks for azeorth speaking to us, like in the jailer fight getting whispers (like old God fights) but it's azeorth begging for you to save her, include a few different lines for different races. Like talking to the elves about how she's sorry for how they had to suffer because of her (and how everyone wants to destroy the world to get to her) or talking to orcs/Draenei about how she still sees them as her children despite being aliens etc

[GeometryWizard]

Azeroth being the only important thing in the entire universe only makes it very weird that the Burning Legion tried invading 10k years ago failed and then just didn't bother to really try again for another 10k years and that's already on top of the Dimensius being the last Void Lord retcon making Sargeras just look like a complete idiot instead of being pushed to darkness by an extreme solution for a real problem. IMO they keep playing chicken with this whole worldsoul plot because it feels like a definitive ending to a game that's supposed to keep receiving expansions and stories until the end of time so they're putting themselves in a corner with it

[Cheezits]

I just wish Blizzard would stop being so scared from giving her any characterization and start making her interact with us.

We never get the visions, it's always somebody else.
We never hear her voice, we are just being told what she says.
The 2 times she appeared in game, in the Magni and Orweyna cinematic, our characters don't actually witness her talking, she's only affecting the main cinematic subject, who then relays that information to us.

Idk how Blizzard intends us to form any tangible connection to her, when all they ever do is dangle her 5 feet away from us.

Because they are playing it the opposite of XIV where we the player character doesn't matter, just the people who happen to be around us. She is telling multiple people and isn't a personified character that knows us because Blizz is trying to balance between the people that want to be special and the people that want to be basic grunts.

Remember how people got sick of "Champion" and "Maw Walker"? Here we are. Just a (semi-special) grunt.

[Joshuaj]

"The player doesn't matter" is not the point. It's that multiple people are equally important to this story, and that includes the Player Characters.

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Also, we're still VERY much called "Champion", and we're still on the front-lines throughout much of the story. Hell, we were literally fighting Dimensius up-front lmao

[Viridiel]

Azeroth being the only important thing in the entire universe only makes it very weird that the Burning Legion tried invading 10k years ago failed and then just didn't bother to really try again for another 10k years and that's already on top of the Dimensius being the last Void Lord retcon making Sargeras just look like a complete idiot instead of being pushed to darkness by an extreme solution for a real problem. IMO they keep playing chicken with this whole worldsoul plot because it feels like a definitive ending to a game that's supposed to keep receiving expansions and stories until the end of time so they're putting themselves in a corner with it

I thought it was implied that it's because Sargeras saw Azeroth's worldsoul and became enamoured, developing a much more complicated relationship with her, or something like that. I prefer the nuance but I agree that Azeroth being the centre of the universe is silly and only harms her as a character.

[Khaza-R]

Azeroth being the only important thing in the entire universe only makes it very weird that the Burning Legion tried invading 10k years ago failed and then just didn't bother to really try again for another 10k years and that's already on top of the Dimensius being the last Void Lord retcon making Sargeras just look like a complete idiot instead of being pushed to darkness by an extreme solution for a real problem. IMO they keep playing chicken with this whole worldsoul plot because it feels like a definitive ending to a game that's supposed to keep receiving expansions and stories until the end of time so they're putting themselves in a corner with it

I would almost guarantee the WSS ends with her being put in a prolonged state of dormancy so they don't have to deal with again. Which begs the question of why are we even exploring these arcs if they just ultimately led us to return of the status quo.

[Sondrelk]

I would almost guarantee the WSS ends with her being put in a prolonged state of dormancy so they don't have to deal with again. Which begs the question of why are we even exploring these arcs if they just ultimately led us to return of the status quo.

Precisely because it would return us to the status quo.
Once you have opened Pandora's Box, you need to find a way to close it again eventually.

Once the possibility Azeroth would awaken came up, the game needed to explain why she wouldn't actually. Otherwise we would constantly be asking ourselves when it would actually be relevant to anything.

[Ersula]

I would almost guarantee the WSS ends with her being put in a prolonged state of dormancy so they don't have to deal with again. Which begs the question of why are we even exploring these arcs if they just ultimately led us to return of the status quo.

I think the actual change is that Titan stewardship of the planet is going to end. I mean it basically ended in Legion, but everything kept going back to the worldsoul & consequences of the Titan's actions in the subsequent expansions. Seems like the Titan's, their facilities & the old gods & the void lords will all be firmly left in the past after this Saga. Then we can focus on less-existential conflicts.

[Joshuaj]

I feel like the final boss of the Worldsoul Saga won't be Xal'atath or Iridikron...

Idk. I feel like Blizzard's gonna throw a curveball at us.

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Major stretch on my end, but what if the final boss of the Saga is a First One? Particularly Order itself?

Like maybe Azeroth's pain and voice awakens it, and it locks in to stop the Champions from ending the Manifold plan? Idk.

[Bozzoltank]

I feel like the final boss of the Worldsoul Saga won't be Xal'atath or Iridikron...

Idk. I feel like Blizzard's gonna throw a curveball at us.

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Major stretch on my end, but what if the final boss of the Saga is a First One? Particularly Order itself?

Like maybe Azeroth's pain and voice awakens it, and it locks in to stop the Champions from ending the Manifold plan? Idk.

They really can't throw a curveball at us for the final boss of a sage that spans three expansions, can they? I feel like the lukewarm reception to Fyrakk, Argus and the Jailer show as much. Even Dimensius, an old lore character and a contender for one of the greatest final bosses of all time (what a fight), received an "eh?" reception at best.

Xal'atath seems like an obvious pick. She was present throughout the entirety of Legion (from a priest's POV but still), had an interesting questline in BFA, and a key role in the Worldsoul Saga.

Idirikron, while cool, doesn't really have the final boss juice? We already fought the Earth-Warder (thrice), fought two of the four Primal Incarnates, so we've been there and done that.

Names like Aman'thul or Sargeras pop up, but the former is arguably just as well-known to the average playerbase as Dimensius, and the latter needs to be introduced sooner rather than later to avoid people calling his inclusion "last minute" or "lazy".

They HAVE to go out with a bang, because the recent string of final bosses of expansions have been disappointing (I love Dimensius, but his inclusion into The War Within's story was poor).

[Darkarath]

I think that we'll probably deal with Xal'athat in Midnight. Who's going to be the final boss if not her? A Prime Naaru to give us an opposite of Dimensius?

My bet for TLT still is Sargeras.

What I find interesting is that Iridikron didn't have a cameo in the underground expansion. Maybe in Midnight? It would be weird if we don't see him again until TLT. Especially since he smells of first raid tier final boss.

BTW, Roadmap today? I'm really interested in this one. I expect some surprises there.

[Nymrohd]

If Xal'atath ends up being the final encounter of the saga I will likely vomit when it is announced. They will have taken a story that could have made a 4 season expansion where something actually happens every patch and stretched it over 9-10 seasons over three years

[Bozzoltank]

I think that we'll probably deal with Xal'athat in Midnight. Who's going to be the final boss if not her? A Prime Naaru to give us an opposite of Dimensius?

My bet for TLT still is Sargeras.

What I find interesting is that Iridikron didn't have a cameo in the underground expansion. Maybe in Midnight? It would be weird if we don't see him again until TLT. Especially since he smells of first raid tier final boss.

BTW, Roadmap today? I'm really interested in this one. I expect some surprises there.

Sargeras would be the only logical choice for the final boss to end the Worldsoul Saga on, but I'd be lying if I didn't want them to save him for a proper Demon Saga spanning the Twisting Nether.

I hope they do the Roadmap today. I am dying to see what they have in store for us.

[Nymrohd]

Sargeras would be the only logical choice for the final boss to end the Worldsoul Saga on, but I'd be lying if I didn't want them to save him for a proper Demon Saga spanning the Twisting Nether.

I hope they do the Roadmap today. I am dying to see what they have in store for us.

Aman'thul is what makes the most sense given all the lore added since DF about the Pantheon. Sargeras actually makes little sense; he is a rebel to the Pantheon's plan and the issue IS that plan. Or at least it was in the story of TWW launch but completely abandoned together with the expansion race and the only time they seem to remember that plot was with Sylvanas in a blink and you'll miss it point of 11.2.7. No mention of that plot is around in Midnight, we can speculate the Pantheon is related to Al'nara due to the presence of a watcher down there but Order doesn't really fit the narrative when more time is spent on the Light than the Void which is supposed to be the main antagonist of the expac.
So yeah, Aman'thul would have made sense if they had stuck to a story and not went for this mash up.

[allegrian]

Whatever happens I think we can all agree that all the interesting stuff will happen in TLT whule TWW and Midnight are just padding/filler.

Metzen basically scratched the TWW main plot and resolution, left only the B plots, moved some leftovers to Midnight (Harandar) and moved/remade all the important and actual titan and world soul plot to TLT, filling TWW and midnight with a filler void waifu plot who may not even be relevant in TLT, or may not start doing actual important villain stuff until then.

If they want to make Xalatath interesting and threatening, they should make us defeat her elf form and then let her use a titan body or the world soul itself as her next form.

[Bozzoltank]

Aman'thul is what makes the most sense given all the lore added since DF about the Pantheon. Sargeras actually makes little sense; he is a rebel to the Pantheon's plan and the issue IS that plan. Or at least it was in the story of TWW launch but completely abandoned together with the expansion race and the only time they seem to remember that plot was with Sylvanas in a blink and you'll miss it point of 11.2.7. No mention of that plot is around in Midnight, we can speculate the Pantheon is related to Al'nara due to the presence of a watcher down there but Order doesn't really fit the narrative when more time is spent on the Light than the Void which is supposed to be the main antagonist of the expac.
So yeah, Aman'thul would have made sense if they had stuck to a story and not went for this mash up.

The fact they did MENTION the plan is telling, but it could be a big ol' nothing burger.

I do think that Aman'thul COULD be an interesting boss, but as you've said; he misses the build-up. Slight mentions just don't cut it, unfortunately.

Again, I want them to save Sargeras for a larger Burning Legion-themed expansion, because I do not think Legion did it justice at all.

[Nymrohd]

The fact they did MENTION the plan is telling, but it could be a big ol' nothing burger.

I do think that Aman'thul COULD be an interesting boss, but as you've said; he misses the build-up. Slight mentions just don't cut it, unfortunately.

Again, I want them to save Sargeras for a larger Burning Legion-themed expansion, because I do not think Legion did it justice at all.

The only things we know about TLT is that it is in Northrend and that it involves a Titan conspiracy. It really should not be about Xal in any way; the Void war is supposed to end with Midnight. And I agree I want Sargeras around though I think he shouldn't try the same plan again. I could see Sargeras trying to attack the Zereths directly.

[Limayria]

The fact they did MENTION the plan is telling, but it could be a big ol' nothing burger.

I do think that Aman'thul COULD be an interesting boss, but as you've said; he misses the build-up. Slight mentions just don't cut it, unfortunately.

Again, I want them to save Sargeras for a larger Burning Legion-themed expansion, because I do not think Legion did it justice at all.

I'd like to see our lead into a demon saga involving us finding out about several new demon factions that arose from the ashes of the legion, and us trying to make sure none of them get too powerful/too close to reforming the legion. With Sire Denathrus trying to reform the legion under his control via the dreadlords would be cool

would be especially cool if we got a lot of focus on the illidari doing like demon political assassination to keep the hordes angry at each other, basically the opposite of what we usually do in wow expacs recently, about helping groups of people overcome differences to come together.