The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Makorus]

Yes, because you need to make the player care about the place where we're going.



You got Thrall on the MoP key art because putting Chen on it would be a dead giveaway, and Chen had a connection to Thrall via their first encounter and Chen being a champion of the Horde. Which leads me to believe that the true nature of 11.0 is also going to be a major group of characters that would also be a dead giveaway if they were on the key art, yet are related to Thrall via the lore.

Okay, so you admit that Thrall might not have anything at all with the expansion, and might just be featured because 1.) he is the quintessential WoW character and 2.) Metzen is back?

Good.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

no to k'aresh simply because - fuck purple and fuck the ballas too.

[Wangming]

K'aresh are none of these things. Ethereals are barely present as anything but transmog vendors, and the location itself was only given to give some sligth backstory ot the Ethereals in TBC.

My main problem with them is that they don't have a recognizable face. Would we really have them as a prominent race for an expansion and have them involved in most of the cutscenes?

[pacotaco]

I want the entire expansion to be in the water, but not underwater.

Every zone is a reef/shallows/flooded, so that your character is always knee deep in water but never swimming.

Except if you're a gnome, then you'll always be diving.

[ercarp]

no to k'aresh simply because - fuck purple and fuck the ballas too.

People thought a Legion expansion would be just more neon green everywhere (which everyone was sick of by the end of WoD), but it ended up having surprisingly little of it. When we think of K'aresh, we tend to think of a Netherstorm-esque purple space zone, but if Blizzard ends up using it as the setting for an expansion, I think they would want it to have more variety in aesthetics.

[Sondrelk]

People thought a Legion expansion would be just more neon green everywhere (which everyone was sick of by the end of WoD), but it ended up having surprisingly little of it. When we think of K'aresh, we tend to think of a Netherstorm-esque purple space zone, but if Blizzard ends up using it as the setting for an expansion, I think they would want it to have more variety in aesthetics.

So have little of the recognizable imagery we would expect from Ethereals, and instead depend entirely on a place we don't know, filled with people we don't have any investment in.

This is why it's better to have it as a patch at most. Instead of diluting the already anemic concept further by stretching it into a full expansion, have us go there once and use all the great ideas in one great zone rather than five mediocre ones.

Trying to stretch a concept leaves us with Shadowlands. An expansion of very interesting concept art, but very little player engagement.

[Hitei]

My main problem with them is that they don't have a recognizable face. Would we really have them as a prominent race for an expansion and have them involved in most of the cutscenes?

I've seen people bring this up before and it's never not silly. Not having a face means nothing.

[Teriz]

Okay, so you admit that Thrall might not have anything at all with the expansion, and might just be featured because 1.) he is the quintessential WoW character and 2.) Metzen is back?

Good.

Here's Thrall having "nothing to do with MoP":

Landfall
Thrall, having finished his job at the Maelstrom, he wanted to resign from the politics and train young shaman in Durotar and live in peace with his beloved Aggra and their newborn son Durak.[12] He was soon roped into Garrosh's conflict after the Warchief attempts (and fails) to murder Vol'jin. Narrowly surviving the attempt on his life with the help of Chen Stormstout and Horde heroes, Vol'jin has them contact Thrall and save the Echo Isles from Garrosh's tyranny. Thrall leaves to do so, reiterating what his vision of the Horde—when it was simply an idea in the desert of Durotar—had first entailed.

Thrall finds the isles under martial law, the Darkspear rounded up by Thrall's very own Kor'kron. After relieving the isles of their control, Thrall ponders how best to deal with Garrosh, concluding that simply challenging him for the right to the Horde would be ill-advised at this point. Instead, he takes up leadership of the isles in the Darkspear heroes' absence and plans to confer with Vol'jin before making any rash moves.

Escalation
Following Vol'jin's return to Durotar, Thrall journeys to Sen'jin Village to reunite with his old friend and Chen Stormstout‎. It is there where Vol'jin openly begins the Darkspear Rebellion and the forces of Sen'jin are aided by Horde heroes when the village comes under Kor'kron attack. During the attack, Thrall and Chen worked side by side against the Kor'kron, as the heroes help push back the invaders. With Sen'jin Village secure, Vol'jin proposes an attack on Razor Hill that is briefly halted when the shadow hunter objects to Thrall's plan to journey to Orgrimmar. While understanding Vol'jin worries that Hellscream's forces would kill him if he entered, Thrall is adamant about finding dissidents against his successor in Orgrimmar. After asking Vol'jin to look after his mate and son should anything happen to him, Thrall journeys to Orgrimmar.

Siege of Orgrimmar
Thrall alongside Varok reached the gate to Orgrimmar only to be stopped by the Kor'kron guard and Nazgrim. Nazgrim sent the Kor'kron away and allowed Thrall and Varok to enter but he had no guarantees for their safety. They entered the Underhold (probably learning about it from Eitrigg) where they faced the mantid. Varok was badly hurt and urged on Thrall to continue. Thrall entered a throne room in the Underhold and confronted Garrosh, who explained that his dark shaman had corrupted the land, making it impossible for Thrall to call upon the spirits. Thrall engaged Garrosh in melee combat but was soundly defeated. Garrosh himself was subsequently defeated by adventurers.

Thrall attempted to execute Garrosh with the Doomhammer, but he was stopped by Varian Wrynn, who argued that Garrosh's punishment was not for Thrall alone to decide. Taran Zhu said Garrosh should stand trial in Pandaria. Varian and Thrall agreed and stood down. After Garrosh was led away in chains, Vol'jin told Thrall that the Horde needed its true Warchief back. After pointing out that it was Vol'jin who held the Horde together and preserved its honor, Thrall knelt before Vol'jin and pledged to follow his leadership.

After the siege ended, Thrall intervened so that Garrosh's remaining arcweaver mages were not executed for treason. He saw potential in orcs able to wield the arcane, an area where the Alliance and their Kirin Tor have always been dominant.[92]

He had a big role in War Crimes as well.

[Hitei]

So have little of the recognizable imagery we would expect from Ethereals, and instead depend entirely on a place we don't know, filled with people we don't have any investment in.

This is why it's better to have it as a patch at most. Instead of diluting the already anemic concept further by stretching it into a full expansion, have us go there once and use all the great ideas in one great zone rather than five mediocre ones.

Trying to stretch a concept leaves us with Shadowlands. An expansion of very interesting concept art, but very little player engagement.

I don't think there's anything to stretch here. Ethereals are like Pandaren. They are a very strong aesthetic with a very strong cultural background that has gone mostly un-tapped, and an enviornment/biome association that remains one of the least utilized.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

People thought a Legion expansion would be just more neon green everywhere (which everyone was sick of by the end of WoD), but it ended up having surprisingly little of it. When we think of K'aresh, we tend to think of a Netherstorm-esque purple space zone, but if Blizzard ends up using it as the setting for an expansion, I think they would want it to have more variety in aesthetics.

i dunno, i was never hiper crazy about old gods aesthetics, ethereals that look like toilet paper stands that you can buy in IKEA and also at the same time my least favorite color is purple.
Even if half of the zones would have that theme plus half of raid sets/cosmetics being voidy or old gody just makes me puke.

I don't have any made up facts to belittle the chances of it happening and importancy of old gods etc, besides my personal feeling - fuck purple.

[Hitei]

i dunno, i was never hiper crazy about old gods aesthetics, ethereals that look like toilet paper stands that you can buy in IKEA and also at the same time my least favorite color is purple.
Even if half of the zones would have that theme plus half of raid sets/cosmetics being voidy or old gody just makes me puke.

I don't have any made up facts to belittle the chances of it happening and importancy of old gods etc, besides my personal thing - fuck purple.

Based on current visual direction, it'd really be more blue than purple.

[pacotaco]

By the way, did we discuss the Kobold with the candle at any greater length? The one Towellie posted a while back, I mean.

Because this video from a couple of years back reminded me of a Kobold quest chain in Highmountain, in which they essentially use their candles to ward off Old Gods and their minions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzepiG51LSk

That particular quest chain might've just been a way for Blizzard to expand on that lore for the future. But as the video explains, Kobols all over Azeroth might have kept up that behaviourism since ages past, even if most of them aren't even threatened by the Old Gods anymore (depending on where they live). It's just what they do, keep the candles lit.

Th part about Draenor makes me think; could be that there really was an Old God in Draenor and was killed by a Night Warrior? That would explain the permanent night In Shadowmoon Valley, exactly like happened in Darkshore when Tyrande made the ritual.

[Wangming]

I've seen people bring this up before and it's never not silly. Not having a face means nothing.

Will you say that after every second quest has a five-minute scene of ethereals talking about their feelings with no facial expressions and a monotone voice?

[Azalar]

Will you say that after every second quest has a five-minute scene of ethereals talking about their feelings with no facial expressions and a monotone voice?

It matters little in quests because most you have is text and various NPC animations, but where it'd be indeed boggling would be in cinematics and closeups I guess.

[Teriz]

I've seen people bring this up before and it's never not silly. Not having a face means nothing.

Not having an Ethereal that anyone gives two poops about means quite a lot.

[Hitei]

Will you say that after every second quest has a five-minute scene of ethereals talking about their feelings with no facial expressions and a monotone voice?

Yes? Do you not remember who one of the most well received characters of Shadowlands was?
Or who the absolutely best received character in BfA was?

People have no problem with faceless characters. That's why Master Chief, Samus and Vivi were wildly popular. To begin with, IGC characters facial animations are easily the weakest part. No one is writing home about Alexstrasza's facial expressions, and no one remembers the Wrath Gate cutscene because Bolvar's facial expressions were so good (let alone Putress, Saurfang and Arthas, all three of whom are masked).

Realistically you can do nearly as much expressiveness in head wrapping movement and body language as you can with wow's regular facial rigs--but people aren't super invested in how realistic or expressive the facial expressions in a video game are. Voice acting is the biggest factor, and then writing and then the general vibe of whatever the cutscene is.

[Nymrohd]

People thought a Legion expansion would be just more neon green everywhere (which everyone was sick of by the end of WoD), but it ended up having surprisingly little of it. When we think of K'aresh, we tend to think of a Netherstorm-esque purple space zone, but if Blizzard ends up using it as the setting for an expansion, I think they would want it to have more variety in aesthetics.

And Legion solved this by bringing the Highmountain, Suramar, Ravencrest and the Moonguard as well as the Tomb of Sargeras (who we knew about) plus an elf/nightmare/dream zone and a vrykul zone, rounding things out with some demons spread everywhere and a few blue dragons.

I have no idea what K'aresh would bring. My personal idea would be to use K'aresh as the center of a great trading network that visits multiple planets.

[Makorus]

Here's Thrall having "nothing to do with MoP":



He had a big role in War Crimes as well.

5.1 didn't come out until late November.

So him being on the keyart for Blizzcon 2011 was supposed to hint at content from after 2012. Interesting

[Nyel]

Why the hell did this thread get 30 new pages over night

[bruxx]

My main problem with them is that they don't have a recognizable face. Would we really have them as a prominent race for an expansion and have them involved in most of the cutscenes?

tbf, not having a face is almost a plus with those awkward cinematic animations with the jaws flapping around like chewing gum. There could still be easily identifiable factors such as energy types inside the bandages, bandage color, armor/decoration and I remember this nice concept where they wore masks