Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Bald children in pop culture tend to be of higher importance, so she seems to've had a placement as a "chosen one" or as a higher enlightened one for whatever cult, religion or worship they as a species were practicing. It seems though that said worship failed and their God did not save them which may be part of explaining Xal'ataths "resentment" although this schisms with the whole "Wanting Azeroth's World Soul" thing unless again the World Soul as she learned about over time is her key to unlock her revenge on said God.

Again, skeptical. I just don't think Warcraft Teams Narrative Team thought of this that much. But, obviously since they are mostly just throwing mystery boxes at our feet we can play along even if it amounts to nothing.

I do think that's more likely than a collab, but also - is there any scenario in which even a willing collab with the Void doesn't look like that?

But then there's still the matter of how she went from being a mortal - presumably seen as nothing more than food - to being a member of the Void, much less its ostensible leader. I don't think we've seen any indication that things consumed by the Void retain their essence, much less overwrite the will/personality of that which consumed them.

Maybe her saying she was a mortal is a lie, or a half-truth. Maybe the Void tried to consume her but couldn't? I imagine this is stuff that's explored during Midnight, possibly into TLT even. Makes her feel more interesting than she had been, for me at least. She's been a mystery for too long, considering how prominent she's been.

I think getting your mortal flesh snuffed out and then somehow reconstructed into a void vessel is not something I consider as a collaboration. If that is what transpired considering she may be lying with her flashback and again a large swathes of time that explains this is not present as to how she became the Harbinger of Dimensius. So without the timeframe from her being snuffed out on her home planet to becoming the Harbinger of Dimensius means we remain contextless.

[Count Zero]

Yes? Just look at Alleria.

I went and re-watched the cinematic where she absorbs the Naaru - she certainly doesn't shrivel into a corpse, but it definitely doesn't look pleasant. Could be issues of different art styles / artistic flair/license. Like, in-game we don't see Xal being super creepy like she is in the cinematic with the upside-down jumpscare.

I'm not sure if we've seen it in game but Locus-Waker's girlfriend (implied to be her at least) turned into a void wraith in the K'aresh book, and now Xal is telling us this. I think if you get snuffed into Void you actually can become a sentient being again.

I wonder if there will be a twist where you actually can live on in the Void but the Light melts you down.

That does touch on the idea of how the Light is single-minded and the Void is open to all possibilities. Is it maybe souls can be reborn / unborn/ whatever into the Void, the same as mortals going to the Shadowlands when they die? Did she meddle with the Old Gods to regain a flesh form, since they were the initial way the Void interacted with our realm?

[Magistrate]

It definitely seemed clear to me that her soul or something was like "voidified" and left her mortal shell, when you see her empty eyesockets at the end.

Which makes sense with her jumping between inanimate objects and corpses ever since.

[Eldryth]

The Light and Titans both have one and only path that they see as correct (which may or may not be the same potential future). Maybe Xal'atath's home was destroyed by one of them, rather than the Void, for not fitting into their plans- which would make whatever the Void did to her in that video a twisted way of saving her rather than the cause of the destruction. That'd make Xal'atath's view on survival more understandable- making her Void (now that the Void Lords are gone) outcasts banding together and choosing a dark path to survive the other forces trying to destroy them- much like the Horde were at the start of WoW.

Given that we know that this story is leading towards a grand Titan conspiracy in a Titan-centric expansion, I'd guess that they were involved if the story goes that route- with the Titans turning on us just like they destroyed her world. Maybe Xal'atath's people were even destroyed for being "heretics" for worshipping a sun god rather than the Pantheon, which could tie in with An'she supposedly being important in TLT, and fit with Odyn's stance on Avaloren's heretics.


Of course, this is all assuming Xal'atath isn't just flat-out lying, but I think it's fair to assume there's at least some truth to it- even if it's just a misleading half-truth. That's the kind of deception Xal'atath tends to use, and it's far better for storytelling than having everything we learn here be fake.

[Cheezits]

Xal and Zovaal being ahead of the curve on the shit the Titans and Light are pulling is genuinely good storytelling- but it's not satisfying. Because how could we know? It makes sense to us lore autists, but most normal people aren't going to pick up on the funky bits of Shadowlands (borderline hidden lore that points to the Shadowlands as we know it being a Titan intervention) and onward. I don't think the "Tyrhold/Uldorus is forcefeeding compliance" bit was even in the game at all.

It's a good, genuinely curious plot. But they should make it overt instead of treating the playerbase with kids gloves because they think people will explode if it's revealed we were following the orders of bad guys all along. (Which is not what the Titans are doing, IMO. They aren't evil- they just think forced compliance is the best tract for peace. But most normal people will see their actions as cruel.)

The endgame for Azeroth is no kings- only man. Rejecting the influence of all the gods, be them Death, Void or Order. Freedom is hard to argue against. We just need to know what caused all these forces to be so assertive- and I hope to god its not some kind of Yuuzhan Vong equivalent.

I actually think Zovaal's story will be seen WAY more positively if it's revealed he knew the Titans concocted the Shadowlands for some kind of Titan experiment and just rebelled out of anger and feelings of injustice- but do we really need to have that reveal delayed by 6-8 years, when the titans aren't even around???

It's more likely the devs aren't even thinking of this- because they are just normal people. They love Warcraft, but they don't think about this game as much as we do. They just make a video game. They don't think about what makes a good story, they just want to feed their yaps.

ANYWAYS the tl;dr version is I think the WoW team has some great longterm plots in mind but they need to rethink what makes a satisfactory standalone expansion story, especially as Americans rethink the longevity of their luxuries.