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

[Ferlion]

Is that not just referring to the fight against Arthas the first time around? If they just said fuck it and resolved that off screen though that would be one of the bigger "holy shit what is wrong with you" story moments through out all of WoW to me.

If you listen to the on approach events, it rules that out.

*Henry Garrick says: Do you really think we can trust them, mother?
Captain Garrick says: I fought alongside many honorable Horde in the scourge invasions, Warlord Grimaxe included.*

[Izalla]

Elun'ahir is undoubtedly somewhere we haven't been yet. And contextually it was the first world tree on Azeroth. People are saying Sholazar & Ungoro simply because they're lush with flora, but that's not how world trees work; an area doesn't need a world tree to have dense natural plantlife, just look at Draenor.

Un'Goro was brought up because of the Nightmare version with the world tree. It had nothing to do with being lush, and the crater part was an afterthought. Sholazar was only suggested after that and no one mentioned it being lush as the reason for that area either.

[Ersula]

I feel like Un'goro is pretty likely.. Correct me if I'm wrong but in the Emerald Nightmare there was a nightmare world tree with Il'gynoth in Ungoro crater right?

Il'gynoth is growing in a tree but there's nothing that indicates that's a world tree. For one it's way too small. That his body was somehow formed from a corrupted world tree is just an out-of-pocket headcanon. Un'goro has a miniature volcano in the middle of it: You wouldn't want to plant a world tree there.

Welp, you have a series of arguments in favor of Un'goro being Elun'ahir:

- You have a quite big titan portal that connects Sholazar to Un'goro.
- Il'gynoth is inside a withered world tree in the Emerald Nightmare, which is in Un'goro.
- Freya wouldn't want to plant the rogue seed near Ulduar, she'd want to plant it far from the other watchers.
- When Aman'thul found about Elun'ahir, and rooted it out, it likely caused the eruption of the volcano in Un'goro.

- Because Sholazar, Vale of Eternal Blossoms & Un'goro were sites Freya experimented with the magic of the Well of Eternity
- There's no lore calling it a world tree. As far as we know it's just a tree.
- Uldum is right next to Un'goro and If I'm not mistaken, its even older than Ulduar
- That's not how volcanos work

[Darkarath]

It excites me to see some people arguing about Northrend for 11.0. As I stated before, I think that it would make a lot of sense and it ties well with Titans, Keepers, Dragons, Decay (Scourge), Void (Azjol-Nerub)...

It would be absolutely awesome if they revamp Northrend for 11.0 and Kalimdor and The Eastern Kingdoms for 12.0.

[Wangming]

Dunno man a lot of people had issues with the concept, myself included. And it ultimately ended up being cheap nostalgia bait and milking of old popular characters.

For me the good part in WoD was all the system updates. For all the shit it screw up, it also came with a lot of updates that were needed for the longevity of the game. As well as the model update for the races

[PotHockets]

If you listen to the on approach events, it rules that out.

Thanks, I hate it.

I really dont like how they've handled the time skip at all. I'm glad they at least tried but it feels so off to me but maybe that's just me.

[pacotaco]

It would be absolutely unhinged if they did an expansion pre-timeskip covering what happened in Northrend during the events of Shadowlands and beyond.

That makes no sense. Why skip that time just to go back right away?

They could use that time period to do stand-alone games like Riot does.

[Raetary]

Ok so the blizzcon set looks like at the very least we get some earth stuff

The one platform looked waaaaaayyyyyyy too SL for me but could be a titan style Decoration as well

It's just the Corridor of time decor, themed after the temporal conflux.

[Woggmer]

Welp, you have a series of arguments in favor of Un'goro being Elun'ahir:

- You have a quite big titan portal that connects Sholazar to Un'goro.
- Il'gynoth is inside a withered world tree in the Emerald Nightmare, which is in Un'goro.
- Freya wouldn't want to plant the rogue seed near Ulduar, she'd want to plant it far from the other watchers.
- When Aman'thul found about Elun'ahir, and rooted it out, it likely caused the eruption of the volcano in Un'goro.
- This story written by Prophet Skeram that can be found ingame:

The war continued but the will of the great leader was sapped. The whole of Silithus was soon engulfed by the Silithid and their Qiraji hosts. The Night Elf army was pushed back through Un'Goro, to the borders of the Tanaris desert. Something in Un'Goro prevented the Qiraji from being able to take the land. I do not quite understand this word but I believe it to mean 'God Lands.' It is stated that they could not 'take the God Lands.' This coincides with theories of Un'Goro being the home of the Titans when they inhabited Kalimdor. Perhaps Aman'thul himself watched over 'The God Lands.'

You also have to consider that the Primalists attacked Un'goro as well, unlike other pre-launch event where an external force attacked a city or towns, in DF they focused primarily on areas where there are no people or that many civilizations around.

[ro9ue]

How do you want Blizzard to handle the potential reveal of Elune?
<snip>
While part of me wants to figure her out, simply because she's still such a puzzle while many of the other cosmic forces have been laid bare, another part also wants her to remain a mystery. Perhaps at least knowing her true cosmic affiliation would be enough, for example if she's of Life or Light, and whether she is the literal moon or not.

Obviously Elune is related to the moon, probably imprisoned in it, but going deeper my opinion is that she is the most prominent of many who are combining cosmic powers into something greater than the sum of its parts. I look at all existing cosmic forces as narrow minded extremists, Void = Old Gods, Arcane = Titans, Fel = Legion, etc, In DF, they introduced "Cosmic" damage which is Arcane, Holy (Light), Nature (Life), Shadow (Void). And I don't think that's a coincidence that Elune would probably be exactly that.

Elune is associated with cosmic spells, moonkin, Arcane, Life, Silver moonlight, Priestesses of the Moon, Night Warrior and shadow/eclipse stuff.

I wouldn't bring this up if I didn't think there was a decent overlap of fanbases, but for those familiar with Magic the Gathering - the game started out with 5 mana types, all of which had their own flavors and vibes. If you think about the current cosmic forces as mana colors, you definitely get a specific philosophy from each: Fel, Void, Shadow, Death, Life, Light.

Eventually Magic explored gold cards, which is a combination of any or all of the mana colors. I think this is a good direction for WoW to go in for more nuanced villains. My guess is Elune is looking to basically combine all of the cosmic forces into 1, and maybe she thought Azeroth's world soul could be the first entity that embodied all 6. But the singular cosmic forces united against her since they all want her off the table, and would rather war it out to win Azeroth over just for themselves.

The cosmological chart is kind of a limiting hierarchy of villain philosophies. Example: Ok we beat old gods, whats above them? Void lords. Ok we beat void lords? What's above them? Instead you can simply look at cosmic forces as mana types, and each individual entity we encounter could use one or more of these and have their own individual intent and philosophy they want to exert on the universe.

[Well Done Steak]

It's just the Corridor of time decor, themed after the temporal conflux.

Yrel coming back via bronze magic for light v void confirmed??

[Raetary]

Obviously Elune is related to the moon, probably imprisoned in it

Elune has influence across the universe, and she is direct control over Azeroths moons.

Her being imprisoned makes no sense.

[ro9ue]

Elune has influence across the universe, and she is direct control over Azeroths moons.

Her being imprisoned makes no sense.

She has only been able to do small things and has never made an appearance no matter what was going on. That's what makes me think she is imprisoned or being limited in some way.

[pacotaco]

What coincidences? That it's a crater?

Scholazar is also a crater, has rivers feeding into the middle, and is overseen by Freya as commanded by Eonar.

If anything Un'goro is the one that is a reach.

- It's a crater.
- It has a world tree in the Emerald Dream (Il'gynoth is parasitizing it)
- It has a Titan outpost in the north side accessible from a titan gate in Sholazar, supposedly for Freya to keep an eye on it.
- It has alien fauna and flora for that part of the world (it's surrounded by deserts).

[Izalla]

Il'gynoth is growing in a tree but there's nothing that indicates that's a world tree. For one it's way too small. That his body was somehow formed from a corrupted world tree is just an out-of-pocket headcanon. Un'goro has a miniature volcano in the middle of it: You wouldn't want to plant a world tree there.
- Because Sholazar, Vale of Eternal Blossoms & Un'goro were sites Freya experimented with the magic of the Well of Eternity
- There's no lore calling it a world tree. As far as we know it's just a tree.
- Uldum is right next to Un'goro and If I'm not mistaken, its even older than Ulduar
- That's not how volcanos work

Literally calls it a world tree in the dungeon adventure guide

[Hitei]

- It's a crater.
- It has a world tree in the Emerald Dream (Il'gynoth is parasitizing it)
- It has a Titan outpost in the north side accessible from a titan gate in Sholazar, supposedly for Freya to keep an eye on it.
- It has alien fauna and flora for that part of the world (it's surrounded by deserts).

The world tree shouldn't be in a crater, it made the crater when it was torn out. The titan outpost in Un'goro is chiefly Khaz'goroth's which doesn't make any sense with Eonar trying to keep it secret. It has "alien fauna and flora" because it is a known titan experimental facility. And why would she have planted a tree in the middle of a desert?

[pacotaco]

Il'gynoth is growing in a tree but there's nothing that indicates that's a world tree.

It literally says it in the Adventure Guide:
Lodged in the hollows of a now-decrepit world tree, Il'gynoth is a manifestation of the horrors that lie at the heart of the Nightmare. It is a mass of corruption - a thing that should not be. Its tendrils seep through the ground, emerging in countless horrifying eyestalks and limbs.

[Azalar]

Il'gynoth is growing in a tree but there's nothing that indicates that's a world tree. For one it's way too small. That his body was somehow formed from a corrupted world tree is just an out-of-pocket headcanon. Un'goro has a miniature volcano in the middle of it: You wouldn't want to plant a world tree there.
- Because Sholazar, Vale of Eternal Blossoms & Un'goro were sites Freya experimented with the magic of the Well of Eternity
- There's no lore calling it a world tree. As far as we know it's just a tree.
- Uldum is right next to Un'goro and If I'm not mistaken, its even older than Ulduar
- That's not how volcanos work

Uhhh, the first line of the Il'gynoth's journal entry says that he is "lodged in the hollows of a now-decrepit world tree." This is data.

God knows about the Halls of Origination, tbh. It doesn't go against the argument because we don't know how Aman'thul found out about the tree anyway.

Of course it's not how volcanos work, it's not even a natural volcano. The book of Elun'ahir claims the roots dug very deep into the planet, if you violently uproot such a tree it'd be easy to explain the volcano. The sword in Silithus caused plenty of Azerite wounds all across the world, compared to that, the tiny volcano of Un'goro is quite unspectacular if you ask me.

Now this is speculation, but the arguments are there. It's not just some random headcanon. I may be wrong as well and I'm totally okay with it given that case, but since the arguments in favor of Elun'ahir being somewhere else are weak, I'm inclined to believe that Elun'ahir is or was in Un'goro.

[PotHockets]

The world tree shouldn't be in a crater, it made the crater when it was torn out. The titan outpost in Un'goro is chiefly Khaz'goroth's which doesn't make any sense with Eonar trying to keep it secret. It has "alien fauna and flora" because it is a known titan experimental facility. And why would she have planted a tree in the middle of a desert?

Don't the world trees terraform the local environment to an extent? Might have shoved one in the desert to see what happens.

[Azalar]

Don't the world trees terraform the local environment to an extent? Might have shoved one in the desert to see what happens.

Then we'd get the world cactus.