Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Khaza-R]

The Arathi worship the Flame, not the Sun. The Sun/Star symbolism plus the light coloration makes me think it will end up being An'she she's tied to.

Oh wait... maybe it is a Star after all.

https://www.wowhead.com/item=204465/...he-silent-star

This is true but the sun is definitely tied to the Sacred Flame and their background. Not just from the actual descriptions of it, but the temple itself is very likely some link between Azeroth and An'she.

"The princess now wielded her fire as a sword and shield. With her gleaming armor and blazing weapons, it was if Craishae commanded the power of the sun itself"

[Cheezits]

This is true but the sun is definitely tied to the Sacred Flame and their background. Not just from the actual descriptions of it, but the temple itself is very likely some link between Azeroth and An'she.

"The princess now wielded her fire as a sword and shield. With her gleaming armor and blazing weapons, it was if Craishae commanded the power of the sun itself"

Huh, never knew that. Maybe we really are going into a Moon vs Sun war after this saga, with the Arathi serving An'she and us serving Elune.

And Denathrius is there somehow. Oh actually that would explain Azshara.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

I am beyond hyped for both the new Midnight Xal'atath scene along with Hearthstone's new expansion featuring a way stronger Deathwing as well as 6 heralds which have each gain a major powerup. Even Herald Ragnaros is already stronger than Argus, Jailor, and Dimensius. So many cool stuff coming from Blizz right now with Midnight being one of the better expansions and Hearthstone having the best expansion so far.

I feel like this is going to make Xal'atath into a villain that isn't pure evil but wants to strengthen the Void to prepare for something. While the Jailor was similar but Xal'atath's motives would be better and way more expanded compared to the Jailor plus Xal'atath is way smarter and stronger than the Jailor ever was. Hopefully Xal'atath join us as a uneasy ally in The Last Titan but dies in the process this time to hype up the truth big bad in TLT. Xal\atath was absolutely badass in the new scene today.

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I found out what this is from: Hearthstone. Basically four of the heads are the default dragonriding mount heads, which I think is something Blizz would definitely do if he appeared ingame.

https://i.redd.it/86eb8xhkaiig1.png

Can't wait, I love his new design and hope to see it in game. Feel like he will show up in The Last Titan since that's where he's sealed. I imagine a epic colossal kaiju clash between the great Galakrond and Chromatus, two giant powerful villains that is more powerful than all bosses in WoW so far. But even those two will be nothing compared to the true big bad in The Last Titan whoever it is.

[Joshuaj]

In your example of Greek myth there was often a cost and it was usually done by like demigods or those blessed by gods.

This cheapens death which cheapens the cost of evil and devalues any development in world building.

Edit--

After looking into this more deeply I was wrong about the proliferation and redact my statement.

Costs like that exist in WoW as well. The only reason it didn't exist in Shadowlands was because the literal machine of death broke...

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I felt it is VERY reminiscent of the Hallowfall Arathi's symbolism. Which makes me wonder if Xal is from alternate timeline Arathi or from the Arathi that the expedition left behind, and which ended up losing to the Void. Would also explain why she insisted on an Elf replacement body...

It could be like a Void Sun (Maybe a Dark Naaru reference or a Light and Shadow cycle reference) or the glow of Void energy (Which, in a lot of cases, shines like a sun, especially with Cosmic Void energy). Either way, I don't think it's linked to a goddess who's basically confirmed to be of Life, or a god who may be of either Light or Life (Depends on how they reveal An'she's true nature).

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If anything, I think the implication is that, like the K'areshi, they flew a bit too close to the sun, and they were devoured by Dimensius as a result. Though, unlike Xal'atath's people, the K'areshi managed to escape being devoured VIA the Ravel and their stuff.

[Cheezits]

Xal's whole persona makes a lot more sense if she came from a Light-based society that was completely and utterly obliterated by the Void- kind of similar to Midnight's base story. She has seen the Void has more potential to be powerful and the Light has some hangups that leads to it being smacked around... likely its connection to the Titans and its fixation on a singular timeline, plus whatever causes Lightblindness which makes its champions fight each other. Maybe that is the 'deal' the enemy of all made, whoever it may be, which has the Titans and Light empower one another. It only works in one timeline, and that timeline is ours.

So Xal is snuffing out an annoying pest to better the timeline and does not believe the player character timeline is the fabled singular timeline both the Light and Titans were going for. Iridikron implied the Titans were obsessed with a singular timeline.

It's a weird meta idea that the game's timeline is the only one. It makes sense to us, because it's a videogame, but the characters in the story have no reason to believe that's the case. Unless there's a swerve somewhere and we are in the WRONG timeline and need to change to another. This has been explored in several pieces of media lately.

[Hitei]

I am talking about characters on the key art advertised as main characters of the expansion not even appearing past the opening of it and the biggest military superpowers in the world shown rallying their forces against Xal'atath one minute and then shown doing nothing but taking it easy and talking about how lovely peace is while Xal'atath is still actively attacking the world and one of their own capital cities the next minute and your response was to go "well I didn't see Chen Stormstout doing much in MoP!"

Gina isn't on the MoP box, Chen is. Chen who spends the entire first part of the expansion doing almost nothing, fighting once (after spending his time trying to get a brewery back in working order while the Sha, Mantid, Mogu and Yaungol are running rampant), then makes a guest appearances in 5.3 for 10 seconds before he and the august celestials go have a casual hangout on Timeless Isle while Garrosh strip mines the most sacred valley on the continent. Where was Chen in MSV? The fight against the Mantid? The Isle of Thunder? The Siege of Ogrimmar?

Remember when the Argents mobilized and then decided to take a break and build an entire venue to host a jousting tournament, complete with refreshment stands, merchant stalls and food vendors in a supposedly hostile landscape surrounded by an enemy that does not sleep or rest or ever relent? And when the Kirin Tor did not bother helping with anything after their fight against the Blues? And when Sylvanas and Jaina just didn't show up in ICC and Alexstrasza and the red flight for some reason decided it was cool to just not help at all in facing the Lich King? And an entire wing of the final raid tier was dedicated to Futurama jokes and giant undead dogs wearing pink bows.

Wow, I sure do wish Holly would stop ruining the gravitas of threats with her totally new and never seen before coziness.

[DenPhoenix]

Hmm, thinking about scene of Xal’atath’s past in new animation, for some reason an analogy with Star Wars KOTOR came into my head — like Xal’atath being a reflection of Visas Marr, the only one left of the miraluka race after Darth Nihilus drained Life and Force from her planet.

[Joshuaj]

Xal's whole persona makes a lot more sense if she came from a Light-based society that was completely and utterly obliterated by the Void- kind of similar to Midnight's base story. She has seen the Void has more potential to be powerful and the Light has some hangups that leads to it being smacked around... likely its connection to the Titans and its fixation on a singular timeline, plus whatever causes Lightblindness which makes its champions fight each other. Maybe that is the 'deal' the enemy of all made, whoever it may be, which has the Titans and Light empower one another. It only works in one timeline, and that timeline is ours.

So Xal is snuffing out an annoying pest to better the timeline and does not believe the player character timeline is the fabled singular timeline both the Light and Titans were going for. Iridikron implied the Titans were obsessed with a singular timeline.

It's a weird meta idea that the game's timeline is the only one. It makes sense to us, because it's a videogame, but the characters in the story have no reason to believe that's the case. Unless there's a swerve somewhere and we are in the WRONG timeline and need to change to another. This has been explored in several pieces of media lately.

I really do wonder what the actual hell rules over the Light, cause they or it needs to lock tf in

[Boomer Thor]

First time a cinematic actually like impacted my enjoyment of the game.

In the negative.

yeah I literally just feel like not bad but like nothing good for retail or wow atm.

Never expected that to happen

Like the story is just awful and tbh its a shame you have to play through the story that is just getting worse. And Xalatath turn more into this "Void Zovaal" by the day. Outside of the origin story its just basically more of the same. "Only -I- can protect you from what.... is.... to.... come!" I hope-... actually I dont Warcraft as an IP is unsalvagable in its current form unless of course they were to retcon it or like make a multiverse thing where maybe a proper timeline set for R rated stuff or something coz in its current form and timeline its just well... you all know the answer deep in your heart.

Personally I think the biggest issue with the story isnt exclusive to warcraft but its an overarching problem due to how the story of all of their relevant ips are just... Bad (looking at Starcraft, diablo and overwatch).

Like there is an undeniable lack of good writing across the company. I dont know if it is a policy of only hiring the worst writers possible or if it is like something that happens inside the company. I can only speculate but its useless speculation (albeit kinda fun).

On a different note: I am kinda surprised at the fact people are ACTIVELY enjoying this garbage story and ACTUALLY ENJOYING the Cosmic focus they have had in the story. I legit miss WoD and MoP days when they werent the focus (especially void stuff)

Had blizzard been reasonable they would keep the Cosmic stuff related to the actual COSMOS (space, stars, planets etc) not cosmic magic forces. Also Void Fatigue is REAL. I am actively more curious about the other forces (especially chaos, like is the burning legion a small part or a larger part, could be kinda neat to actually see that side of things. Like is sargeras part of the Cosmic leaders of the chaos pantheon or whatever?

I am curious but I know that whatever comes out of the latrines at blizzard will be shit.

[Capivara]

I’m actually really curious about that sun-shaped necklace she wears during the flashbacks — I hope they properly unveil her past and about her race and world. Maybe it’s some kind of religion connected to the Sun-Light?

That's exactly the impression I got. The medallion, the golden face paint, the yellow robes (hard to tell with the lighting), combined with the description of the sun being consumed/turned when K'aresh was taken. I feel like she was in a sun cult and willingly turned when the sun was darkened. Maybe An'she is her true goal and the worldsoul is just a step in her plan rather than her true end goal.

isn't the medalion really like the new Radiant/Shining Vestment of the Heavens? maybe they worshiped both, sun and moon.

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Huh, never knew that. Maybe we really are going into a Moon vs Sun war after this saga, with the Arathi serving An'she and us serving Elune.

And Denathrius is there somehow. Oh actually that would explain Azshara.

Denathrius would IMO be a new leader for the scattered legion armys

[Jaggler]

isn't the medalion really like the new Radiant/Shining Vestment of the Heavens? maybe they worshiped both, sun and moon.

Not really, they had very "wavy" rays, this one's are really straight.

[Lady Atia]

You know, there's a reason why people who believe in the afterlife still think it's evil to kill and that mortal life is precious.

Basically, it doesn't matter where anyone respawns. She still ruined lives. And so does Xal'atath. Or any of the bad guys, regardless of what their intentions are.

I mean, according to the ethic of ultimate ends, as long as she believed to act in a moral manner (which she did), she didn't do anything wrong.

Similary, if Xal's actions are for the greater good of either the universe, or more likely the void, from her PoV she isn't "evil" like the (fucking boring) Fyrrak was.

And the video literally showed the same concept the shadowlands used - it literally showed that "dying" didn't really matter to Xal, she just respawned as a void entity anyways.

Of course, we the heroes, don't want to be perma banned into the shlands or respawn as void/fel/light blob, but that's a different matter haha.

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It's literally the Orzhov symbol from Mtg.... somebody is obsessed with mtg at blizzard. Calia is just a carbon copy of Teysa
The plan was also to repop everyone back to life as well. Would have been dumb to kill everyone just to create a new reality with no living people in it.

Yeah. And even if you have to sacrifice 10 people to be grinded into soul ash, as long as you save everyone else in the universe it would still be moraly the right thing to do (if you couldn't save them otherwise because the 7th force would literally wipe out everyone anyways).

That's what the whole "night elves soul sacrificed themselves for Amirdrassil" showed aswell. The only difference is that the night elves were asked this time.

[Kiivar86]

In your example of Greek myth there was often a cost and it was usually done by like demigods or those blessed by gods.

This cheapens death which cheapens the cost of evil and devalues any development in world building.

Edit--

After looking into this more deeply I was wrong about the proliferation and redact my statement.

Yeah and apparently we're seemingly blessed by the First Ones, so what's the deal?

And then the others who come with us either were stuck there for a time (thus having a cost) or it was difficult to get there (i.e. us taking Arator to the Maw). So again, I don't see the complaint making sense.

[Ersula]

People are really overthinking the "upstart goddess" line. People are thinking there's something nefarious about it; but really its that Elune is basically the only Titan-analog who has a religion based around her. None of the other titan-like beings are called gods or have religions based around them, besides maybe Tyr. A monotheistic religion is considered antiquated to any of the planets covered in this setting.

[Nibelheimy]

I really liked the animation. Salhadaar ripping the void walker open was cool. Xal'atath jumpscare was cool, they should do more of scary Xal like the Ansurek short too.

I definatley think the fight is set in blades edge. If its supposed to be anywhere in particular of note.

The impression I got from the cinematic on watching, which may be completely wrong. Is that she embraced the void at her death, with the tentacles reaching down as some sort of saviour imagery while her eyes turn from golden to purple. Her turning to Ash is reminiscent of what the light did in Revendreth from memory at least.

I kinda get the feeling her home world/civilisation was obliterated by light, and she embraced the void in her final mortal moments, but who knows if we'll ever know for sure.

If it was to be the light that did that, is it punishment like Revendreth? Domination Like AU Draenor and Yrel? Or maybe just the natural end result of a world that is fully light controlled? A large leap to make from a short with one character with golden eyes, face paint and a star/sun pendant. But interesting nonetheless.

Also an interesting comparison to be made with the Azshara animated short. Two characters deaths intervened by void interference. One old god, one void. Both enlisted in service after. Although Azshara with a physical transformation which we know the old gods can do, and the void with a metaphysical one. Presumably turning Xal into the purple blob.

[Dvalin]

I really liked the animation. Salhadaar ripping the void walker open was cool. Xal'atath jumpscare was cool, they should do more of scary Xal like the Ansurek short too.

I definatley think the fight is set in blades edge. If its supposed to be anywhere in particular of note.

The impression I got from the cinematic on watching, which may be completely wrong. Is that she embraced the void at her death, with the tentacles reaching down as some sort of saviour imagery while her eyes turn from golden to purple. Her turning to Ash is reminiscent of what the light did in Revendreth from memory at least.

I kinda get the feeling her home world/civilisation was obliterated by light, and she embraced the void in her final mortal moments, but who knows if we'll ever know for sure.

If it was to be the light that did that, is it punishment like Revendreth? Domination Like AU Draenor and Yrel? Or maybe just the natural end result of a world that is fully light controlled? A large leap to make from a short with one character with golden eyes, face paint and a star/sun pendant. But interesting nonetheless.

Also an interesting comparison to be made with the Azshara animated short. Two characters deaths intervened by void interference. One old god, one void. Both enlisted in service after. Although Azshara with a physical transformation which we know the old gods can do, and the void with a metaphysical one. Presumably turning Xal into the purple blob.

The fight is in the Voidstorm.

[Nymrohd]

Saladbar is the best part of the cinematic easily.

[Joshuaj]

People are really overthinking the "upstart goddess" line. People are thinking there's something nefarious about it; but really its that Elune is basically the only Titan-analog who has a religion based around her. None of the other titan-like beings are called gods or have religions based around them, besides maybe Tyr. A monotheistic religion is considered antiquated to any of the planets covered in this setting.

Yeah, it's most likely that Elune is simply one of the few divine beings in WoW that wants to have followers, worshippers, etc.

Honestly wouldn't be shocked if she ends up having an obsession with popularity lmao

[huth]

Yeah and apparently we're seemingly blessed by the First Ones, so what's the deal?

And then the others who come with us either were stuck there for a time (thus having a cost) or it was difficult to get there (i.e. us taking Arator to the Maw). So again, I don't see the complaint making sense.

Let's not forget that tearing open the veil did have a cost; just not one paid by us personally. And even then it still required magic to actually go there. It's not like we could just wander in willy-nilly.

[Joshuaj]

Yeah and apparently we're seemingly blessed by the First Ones, so what's the deal?

And then the others who come with us either were stuck there for a time (thus having a cost) or it was difficult to get there (i.e. us taking Arator to the Maw). So again, I don't see the complaint making sense.

The mortals are probably not blessed by the 6, especially since we're deemed as aberrations by the Automa.

Though, I wouldn't be surprised if Azeroth has some fundamental connection to the Progenitors. Heck, this might apply to all the Worldsouls, not just Azeroth.

After all, one of the theories regarding the 7th Power is that it's what the worldsouls truly are.

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Let's not forget that tearing open the veil did have a cost; just not one paid by us personally. And even then it still required magic to actually go there. It's not like we could just wander in willy-nilly.

Yep. People forget that we needed the shattered Helm of Domination + a magic ritual spell in order to properly transport a small army to the Maw.