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

[Harbour]

If it's SoA?

Shit, Orcs Again

[Catastrophy349]

With fewer than 9 days to go, people are beginning to lose their minds! We must speculate to restore our sanity!

[PotHockets]

Reading through this thread slowly as hell, has anything relevant come from this yet, or just another toss in the bin?

About as likely as any of other random comment leaks

[Izalla]

It's actually been de-debunked due to two very important details:

1. Diablo IV datamined patch notes on Wowhead showing the name Torajan was renamed to Nahantu, the name used in the leak. This was a huge point of contention for people due to Nahantu not being a zone that existed in the game's lore prior to the leak saying so.

2. A Diablo IV dev saying (a while ago, I presume) that the new class would be something "never seen before" in Diablo. Seems consistent with the idea of whatever "Spiritborn" is.

Admittedly I don't actually know much about Diablo personally but after talking to people more qualified than myself, they seem to think the leak is still worth considering. It's still possible it was made up, but I wouldn't toss it in the bin just yet.

Oh shit this is big. I'm surprised I missed that. Was it not discussed at length in this thread yet?

[Rathwell]

I don't know. I think anyone would be able to tell Avaloren is the name of a place. It's not like the majority of WoW players knew Outland used to be called Draenor when WoD released, only people who closely followed the lore did.

Draenor had come up quite a lot by that point though. I mean, we even had the Draen-ei playable race from there, and we'd played through Outlands, and the whole "We named him Dranosh. It means "heart of Draenor in Orcish" etc. I don't think you really needed to be a lore geek to be aware of Draenor by the time of WoD

Pandaria was probably the only other "Location in expansion title" that came a bit out of left field

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Fixed the top left corner for you:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/dQBJFDw.png[IMG]

Not going to lie, I legitimately forgot that Teldrassil's sorta gone. Oops.

[Grazrug]

I neglected to write any sort of justification for my zones and went straight for the crayons

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I mean, Darkshore, Felwoods, Ashenvale, and I'd argue even Feralas are pretty Elf dominanted zones already in the game. All I really gave them was Stonetalon/Desolace, which are still zones with a noticeable elf presence

Don't hate the map maker, hate the game

That is more zones then every other race has. It's enough to Limit them to northern Kalimdor.

[Leowyld]

I don't think we heard the word Draenor used that often in Outland - if it was, most people don't read quest text. And I also don't think your average player puts a lot of thought into the etymology of race names.

Edit P.S.: It's a moot point, anyway. If it is Storms of Avaloren or Shadows of Avaloren or Shores of Avaloren, it will be clear Avaloren is a place name. Same with Algar. The context is intuitive.

[Grazrug]

Draenor had come up quite a lot by that point though. I mean, we even had the Draen-ei playable race from there, and we'd played through Outlands, and the whole "We named him Dranosh. It means "heart of Draenor in Orcish" etc. I don't think you really needed to be a lore geek to be aware of Draenor by the time of WoD

Pandaria was probably the only other "Location in expansion title" that came a bit out of left field

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Not going to lie, I legitimately forgot that Teldrassil's sorta gone. Oops.

The Orcs should have given the world it's Name not some alien refugees

[J Street]

About as likely as any of other random comment leaks

Fair enough, just looking for something to latch onto and get invested in, trying to join the hype train with y'all

[Paula Deen]

I am really excited for 10.2, I think that is the first really good patch cinematic showcasing a villain since maybe...8.2?

[PotHockets]

Fair enough, just looking for something to latch onto and get invested in, trying to join the hype train with y'all

To that one's credit. Unlike all the others it's at least written like someone who had access to the Blizzcon demo might explain it. Although if they actually have access to the demo idk why they would stick with the abbreviation SoA.

[Bossmonkey]

Ooh I like this idea. I would love for it to have Skies of Arcadia vibes

Yeah, that was my thought as well. That game was awesome.

Flying island chains hidden in storms, maybe the whole place is partially shifted into the elemental air plane?

[Catastrophy349]

I am really excited for 10.2, I think that is the first really good patch cinematic showcasing a villain since maybe...8.2?

Yeah, if the story of 10.2 is anything even close to what that cinematic gave us (in terms of vibe and feel), I am sold! Looking forward to the raid ending and MSQ!

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Yeah, that was my thought as well. That game was awesome.

Flying island chains hidden in storms, maybe the whole place is partially shifted into the elemental air plane?

I certainly would prefer a "sky expansion" over (pun intended) an "underground expansion."

[Ashapls]

Going back to the SoA acronym: how About Seeds of Amirdrassil?

World revamp where the new world tree causes more change than anticipated, echoing the story of Amanthul ripping Ghanir because it’s “too chaotic”.

10.2.5/.7 can have story beats which feed this change. This will all be just 11.0 stuff which Iridikron/Xalatath being the main antagonists deeper into the expac.

Just a thought… seems like bringing a new world tree from a seed of the shadowlands would dictate some larger side effects.

Then again there’s a giant sword in Silithus still so meh.

EDIT: guess I should read the thread first lol

I thought of an SoA finally that makes sense.

"Surge of Amirdrassil"

Expansion is about the world tree surging throughout the entire world. Replenishing life & revitalizing the earth, the awakening of the tree has caused an uproar amongst the elementals, which has as well caused much mayhem across all of Azeroth.

[Catastrophy349]

World of Warcraft: Still on Azeroth

[Kiivar86]

Flying island chain idea amuses me as that was one of the top ideas people had for the Dragon Isles, as I recall.

[J Street]

To that one's credit. Unlike all the others it's at least written like someone who had access to the Blizzcon demo might explain it. Although if they actually have access to the demo idk why they would stick with the abbreviation SoA.

Does the zone name he gave have any current wow lore relevance? You're right about the abbreviation though, unless the demo doesn't have the title in it, but who knows

[Bossmonkey]

Shit, Orcs Again

Better than the old Blizz favorite of troll raids

[Rathwell]

That is more zones then every other race has. It's enough to Limit them to northern Kalimdor.

Yeah, but WoW isn't really balanced on how many zones a race gets, is it? I'd wager more lore-based. Nelves are pretty entrenched on the western side of Kalimdor, and humans in the Eastern Kingdoms. I mean, as it is at the moment, humans have more zones in Eastern Kingdom than Night Elves have in Kalimdor, with Elwynn, Duskwood, Westfall, Redridge, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, and perhaps arguably both the Plaguelands (on the Alliance side of stories) Alterac Mountains, and Gilneas having human-dominated lore (although Gilneas is kind of its own Worgen-y stories now I suppose)

Can't really give away zones to races that don't really have a presence there. Would be kind of odd to be telling Tauren stories in Redridge, or have a Dwarf-focused Feralas. Humans are probably always going to be a bit overrepresented in EK and Elves are going to be a bit overrepresented in Kalimdor

[Grazrug]

Yeah, but WoW isn't really balanced on how many zones a race gets, is it? I'd wager more lore-based. Nelves are pretty entrenched on the western side of Kalimdor, and humans in the Eastern Kingdoms. I mean, as it is at the moment, humans have more zones in Eastern Kingdom than Night Elves have in Kalimdor, with Elwynn, Duskwood, Westfall, Redridge, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, and perhaps arguably both the Plaguelands (on the Alliance side of stories) Alterac Mountains, and Gilneas having human-dominated lore (although Gilneas is kind of its own Worgen-y stories now I suppose)

Can't really give away zones to races that don't really have a presence there. Would be kind of odd to be telling Tauren stories in Redridge, or have a Dwarf-focused Feralas. Humans are probably always going to be a bit overrepresented in EK and Elves are going to be a bit overrepresented in Kalimdor

Which is bad for a two faction game. You can't Just Lock out 50% of all players out of regional stories. That's why originally Stormwind was the last remaining human nation.