Friendly reminder.
The Book of Disorder
A story of the destructive capabilities of Fel magic, exemplified by the Burning Legion. Travel where Sargeras' forces has laid waste to entire worlds, and forced survivors in exile.
Meet Illidan, Khadgar, Archimonde, Kil'jaeden, Velen, Gul'dan, Sargeras, Turalyon, Alleria, and many more, as you travel to Outland, Draenor, and Argus in this interstellar adventure. See for yourself the damage wrought by Sargeras in The Burning Crusade, before unraveling its mysteries in Warlords of Draenor, and finally stopping the infernal onslaught for good in Legion. Save the world-soul from destruction!
The Book of Death
A story of Death, betrayal, and vengeance. The tragic tale of how a young Prince of Lordaeron became the pawn of forces unseen, how the great cycle of Life and Death was upset and countless souls done unjustice by the Jailer.
Meet Arthas, Bolvar, Uther, Sylvanas, Jaina, Zovaal and many others, as you explore the lands of the living and the dead. Travel to the frozen wastes of Northrend and stop the Scourge in Wrath of the Lich King, step closer to the past and relive old wounds in lands where the veil between life and death is thinner, as the false Warchief Sylvanas reaps countless souls for the Maw, before finally entering the realms of Death in Shadowlands, where you must stop the Jailer's campaign and restore the Cycle. Save the world-soul from being used to end reality!
The Book of Shadow
A story of how the Void reaches its shadowy tendrils across Azeroth, seeding corruption and destabilising the order created by the Titans, from the elemental planes to the Emerald Dream and everything in-between.
Meet people like the Dragon Aspects, Thrall, the Elemental Lords, the Old Gods, and Queen Azshara, in this world-shattering saga of cosmic proportion. Help the Earthen Ring, Thrall, and the Aspects destroy Deathwing in Cataclysm, and deal with the fallen Earth-warder's legacy and reempower the Aspects in Drahonflight, before finally destroying the last Old God and preventing the Hour of Twilight for good in "11.0". Save the world-soul from being consumed by Shadow!
Mists of Pandaria? I guess we'll see what happens in 12.0!
It just seems to me that we have three large mounts potentially incoming, logically speaking:
1. The Algarian Stomrider, as part of the Heroic/Epic edition CE for 11.0
2. The Blizzcon mount
Given the nearly identical armor to the Snowstorm bear mount from the "celebration packs" alongside Blizzcon 2021, I feel like it's very safe to assume that the ice/snow elemental mount seen on the "and more to be revealed" picture is probably this. It is typical Blizzcon aesthetic (snow and ice) and it has the same style of armor as a previous event mount.
3. A hypothetical retail mount for (pre)purchasing Cata Classic epic edition.
If this exists, a wind elemental seems a strong hypothetical ocontender. This is the expansion with Skywall and Vortex Pinnacle, it's divergent in thematic enough that there isn't an easy go to like with Wrath and the bone/tuskarr, and Deathwing is already used, so what's left is some sort of Twilight's Hammer mount and pet. Seems like.
Do you have a read on the exact number of currently encrypted mounts?
This:
Bolded doesn't really make any sense imo. The new DK intro is specifically dissociated from any specific plot such that any race can be slotted into it because they're just freshly raised heroes sent out to defend Azeroth from "a time of great destruction [lying] on the horizon". Plenty of Dracthyr have died, both Sundered Flame and friendly, there's nothing stopping them from being raised and put in that new intro.World Soul:
-Avaloren is the "Bermuda Triangle" of Azeroth.
-Each zone has a surface half and an underground half. Underground is not like Zaralek, there are many different biomes like Journey to the Center of the Earth.
-Player housing ONLY in Avaloren. Different professions make different furniture and decorations via work order system.
-Some classes get new support specs like Bard Rogue and Gladiator Warrior, which uses shouts and banners to "hype up the crowd (raid)."
-Pre-order bonus unlocks all classes for dracthyr in future patch (10.2.7) except DK and DH. They start in Exile's Reach.
-Undermine Dungeon with Gallywix is in the pre-expansion event.
-Besides Algar dwarves there's a human kingdom with similar origins.
-There's also a race of ant people called myrmid/myrmin (not sure of the spelling). There are good black ants we ally with and evil fire ants who are the first raid.
This is some super cool detective work, thank you for sharing! This is the side of datamining I can't get enough of, teasers to fuel speculation but not give the game away.
Now to go delve down some etymology rabbitholes trying to pin something that could be both ancient/of a former time ('fyrn') and wind elemental-related, because clearly I'm not doing anything productive today. Storm dragons would be too obvious, surely...
No worries, this is the stuff I enjoy doing as well. I prefer it the same, some hints/pointers but no spoilers of the end result.
- - - Updated - - -
It's the database entries that likely just hook up these: https://twitter.com/MrGMYT/status/1637037078864175104
Only issue with the Bermuda leak for me is that Bard Rogue just doesn't make sense in regards to fantasy or mechanics. How does a Bard work with Energy and Combo Points? Where do you even pick your instrument? Why is a bard poisoning its weapons, shadowstepping, drinking tea mid-song and using Echoing Reprimands?
"We will soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four."
— G.K. Chesterton, 1926
The frozen Mind cracks between the mineral staves which close upon it. The fault lies with your mouldy systems, your logic of 2 + 2 = 4.
— Antonin Artaud, 1956
Change combo point visuals to music notes, make a harp purely aesthetic rather than gear (aka pistol shot) and use a bow or something to attack. Then lean into the knavish theme for a bard re: poisons to distinguish from ffxiv, and heck, drink tea to soothe your throat from too much singing.
I'm not saying any of that is a good idea, and chances are the Bermuda thing isn't legit, but the devs could easily make the bard/rogue thing work if they wanted to force it.
None of those things are out of whack with a theoretical bard identity. Bards exist in wow, but they are not a cohesive class the way that say, Demon Hunters are. Which is how lots of classes were before being classes, honestly. I assume your issue here is thinking of bards from some specific other source? Another MMO or something?
While optimally bards in PF/D&D are high control spell casters, if you're not powergaming, it's normal for bard characters to toe the line with rogues/thieves. They're often depicted as wink wink suave charmers who get in trouble and frequently dip into the gish swashbuckler aesthetic.
Mana and energy are just a system like any other system and at some point or other, nearly every class has had a combo point system.
So instead of keeping up SnD, you're using 5 CP to keep up a "Song of Alacrity" aura on your party and instead of rupture you're throwing some Murmur's echo on a target to briefly duplicate spells. Drinking tea mid strummed song is significantly more believable than drinking tea in the middle of an active melee fight, and Echoing Reprimand is called that because it's based on the Kyrian sound-based anima magic.
Doesn't necessarily have to be a melee class either. Would be easy enough to give it access to ranged weapons and operate from a distance, or even make it int-based and a manaless caster, because it's not like most caster DPS specs have an actually limited mana pool these days.
Just because classes have access to class skills for a certain role or talents that are good for other specs doesn't mean they're directly obligated to use them at all times. Balance druids walk around with shred and have access to the critical combo point generating talent Primal Fury, and Elemental shamans still have primal strike , but aren't actively using them.