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

[Cheezits]

How much of the storytelling in 11.0's zones is going to consist of "Meet the good Earthen/Arathi/Nerubians, help them fight the bad Earthen/Arathi/Nerubians", and what are the odds that we ever see those groups again after TWW? I'll throw out a hot take and say this is a similar phenomenon to how borrowed power played out: spending most of an expansion reinventing the wheel before throwing it out and doing it all over again. That's time that could have been spent working on the main plot and avoiding scenarios like where Vyranoth switching sides feels completely hollow because she literally does nothing while with the Primalists, she doesn't even appear in-game outside of cutscenes until 10.2.

Arathi are a crapshoot but Nerubians and Earthen have to appear again because TLT is all about them.

[Makabreska]

The think is, Wrathion stopped being that in BfA already. So he very much backslided into MoP Wrathion in the early DF quests.

Dude believed to be the last child of Neltharion around, so he was 100% sure Aspect mantle will be his. And suddenly and for the first time this full of himself guy had a legit competition. That's how his regression could be easily explained.

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Arathi are a crapshoot but Nerubians and Earthen have to appear again because TLT is all about them.

Wut? How do we know this?

[Khaza-R]

Wut? How do we know this?

Earthen have 3 different zones dedicated to their factions. Nerubians have a Suramar style city as endgame. They are both definitely the major focus in TWW. At least for the initial launch

[Nibelheimy]

Dude believed to be the last child of Neltharion around, so he was 100% sure Aspect mantle will be his. And suddenly and for the first time this full of himself guy had a legit competition. That's how his regression could be easily explained.

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Wut? How do we know this?

There were different groups of both Earthern and Nerubians in Northrend, they're assuming we'll meet both again. Not explicitly confirmed to what extent we're getting Northrend however. So we may not.

[Cheezits]

Wut? How do we know this?

It isn't confirmed for TLT, but the races of Northrend post timeskip (barring any crazy timeskip or future lore) are Tuskarr, Earthen, Nerubians and Vrykul. We have already met new Tuskarr and we will be meeting new Earthen and Nerubians. So all three will likely play a part in TLT when we see their relatives (and they are located close by).

It is part of the reason I am kind of confused how they will make TLT distinctive when it reuses so many aesthetics and races from DF and TWW. That's including the keeper stuff and dragon stuff from DF that will undoubtedly be used in Dragonblight and Ulduar.

[Jolly Roger]

Not sure what about his character was destroyed. Should he keep being an immature prick who always thinks he knows best and causes a lot of collateral damage? He was still one of the main NPCs of expansion, even if he didn't end up an Aspect, so dunno what's the issue here.

The issue is he was a child suddenly
Compared to 8.3 where we saw he was actually carrying out a secret mission to fight nzoth
Then in the first zone "I'm an army"

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Why because he shows up on that tacky loading screen?

Krexus would have a word.

And the pins in the collector's edition
The ones of the aspects
The one that had wrathion

And the "choose your side" story

[Cheezits]

And the "choose your side" story

That was a hint that he wasn't going to be aspect because it would mean everyone that didn't choose him is a loser.

[Kiivar86]

It isn't confirmed for TLT, but the races of Northrend post timeskip (barring any crazy timeskip or future lore) are Tuskarr, Earthen, Nerubians and Vrykul. We have already met new Tuskarr and we will be meeting new Earthen and Nerubians. So all three will likely play a part in TLT when we see their relatives (and they are located close by).

It is part of the reason I am kind of confused how they will make TLT distinctive when it reuses so many aesthetics and races from DF and TWW. That's including the keeper stuff and dragon stuff from DF that will undoubtedly be used in Dragonblight and Ulduar.

I will be sad if the frost dwarves don't show up too. They were at least remembered and showed up in the exploring Azeroth book thing so that's something.

[Jolly Roger]

That was a hint that he wasn't going to be aspect because it would mean everyone that didn't choose him is a loser.

So they made the aspect pins with only 4 aspects?

[Reive]

I don't even like DF's story and I can't agree with all of these.

Fyrakk as a throw away. Not really sure where people expected his story to go other than be plot fodder.
Murozond was already done. The DF story is just unnecessary if nothing else. Although I didn't think the story was bad at all.
Gilneas I agree was just sad. They promised conflict would still in the story and then just hand-waived it way in the same expansion
The Sabellion / Wrathion thing was bound to end in disappointment one way or another. Granted they took the most boring approach but just making Wrathion, a child, an Aspect also would of just felt like fan service

fyrakk didn't even get a death cutscene, and he was the final villain of the expansion. instead we got that pretty cringe speech about family and friendship

murozond was not done. we closed the loop in cata, but nozdormu was still fated to become murozond. it was supposed to be a tragic story. instead nozdormu was outshined by chromie in his own storyline

ironically, gilneas is the only one i can "defend". it was released too late, when blizzard had already moved away from faction conflict. should have been released in bfa

you don't want to make wrathion an aspect? fine, just don't make him act like an idiot to justify ebyssian as aspect

[johnnyd2]

fyrakk didn't even get a death cutscene, and he was the final villain of the expansion. instead we got that pretty cringe speech about family and friendship

murozond was not done. we closed the loop in cata, but nozdormu was still fated to become murozond. it was supposed to be a tragic story. instead nozdormu was outshined by chromie in his own storyline

ironically, gilneas is the only one i can "defend". it was released too late, when blizzard had already moved away from faction conflict. should have been released in bfa

you don't want to make wrathion an aspect? fine, just don't make him act like an idiot to justify ebyssian as aspect

Yeah.... the flanderization of Chromie really is a detriment to the story. And it screwed over Murozond and the Infinites as whole too X_X
also salty that we didnt get to fight either Murozond OR Galakrond in DOTI. or somewhere else.

[Auxis]

Maybe it's a case of Sentinel was a placeholder name? Because it IS very race specific - granted the Sunspot pally spec is race specific name wise (sunwalkers).

[Chickat]

I'm still confused about the new black aspect
Dude was literally absent for 99% of the story

So wasnt everyone else? Wrathion has been around more sure, but he hasnt exactly been around a ton. Seb has been absent since TBC. Ebonhorn has been around during DF as much as those two. I think hes a good fit.

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Earthen have 3 different zones dedicated to their factions. Nerubians have a Suramar style city as endgame. They are both definitely the major focus in TWW. At least for the initial launch

Im guessing the 3 raids will be

11.0-Nerubian City
11.1-This is the hardest to guess with no info. Could be a threat we don't know about yet. Might be a breather fun zone and raid like Isle of Thunder.
11.2-Defence of Azeroth raid. Defending Azeroths soul from the Nerubians and the Void.

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Haven't been around in months. Any recent stirring of Alpha?

[Chickat]

Imagine a plot twist.

11.0 is the Nerubian raid. We learn Xal'atath is harvesting Old God blood for her nefarious plans.

11.1 is Avaloren, as we realise they're fanatics and the leaders of the Arathi are psychos draining light from the innocent crystal, or forcing it to remain in it light form to sustain themselves, when it's really meant to enter its shadowy form as part of its natural cycle.

11.2 is Uldaz, a giant Titan stasis prison where the worldsoul is. Different Earthen and Titanforged are essentially Aman'Thul's secret special forces, making sure the worldsoul stays in stasis.

Dealing with the void in 11.0 and having titan enemies during the final patch would be an interesting twist. I also like the Avaloren raid. The Arathi architecture is really cool. It would be a mix between Scarlet Monastery and Nathria.

[Woggmer]

fyrakk didn't even get a death cutscene, and he was the final villain of the expansion. instead we got that pretty cringe speech about family and friendship

murozond was not done. we closed the loop in cata, but nozdormu was still fated to become murozond. it was supposed to be a tragic story. instead nozdormu was outshined by chromie in his own storyline

ironically, gilneas is the only one i can "defend". it was released too late, when blizzard had already moved away from faction conflict. should have been released in bfa

you don't want to make wrathion an aspect? fine, just don't make him act like an idiot to justify ebyssian as aspect

Which makes me think that Dawn of the Infinites was supposed to be the true ending to DF.
They still could've worked in Amirdrassil, but have DotI AFTER the events of Amirdrassil where the Aspects got their powers back. However, with Norzdomu having his power back, the more susceptible and closer he gets to turning into Murozond. And instead of making it a megadungeon, they could've made it into a full on raid.. but they probably didn't have enough time to line it up in time for Blizzcon to announce the World Soul Saga.

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Yeah.... the flanderization of Chromie really is a detriment to the story. And it screwed over Murozond and the Infinites as whole too X_X
also salty that we didnt get to fight either Murozond OR Galakrond in DOTI. or somewhere else.

So here's a fun fact, the initial concept of the Incarnates prior to DF's launch was that they were supposed to be the "Children of Galakrond" with the whole point that dragons were the most dominant force in all of Azeroth, but this was changed and never referenced again in later interviews.
I'm not sure why they changed it, but if I had to guess (and this is only a guess) it could be related to the idea that Galakrond's whole deal was that he gained power and mutation through cannibalizing his own kind.. they probably didn't want the next set of villains to be cannibal dragons and instead make them into elemental dragons that infused people with elements.

[Chickat]

What do you think about my potential feature list of the other 2 WSS expansions?

Midnight will have something like.
New allied races High elf, Forrest Troll, Broken, Mok'nathol
New Neutral Races: Naga and Ethereal.
New Feature: Player Housing.
New Profession- Carpentry with log cutting mini prof baked in.


The Last Titan Features:
New races: Vrykul and Tuskarr.
New class: Artificer based on Titan tech. Basically titan themed tinker.
New feature: Guild Castles. Plays off of the Player housing tech.
Guild system overhaul.
New account wide non combat progression system: Path of the Titans.

[Seasz]

Still can't believe they wasted the name "Uldorus" on useless Tyrhold.

[Nymrohd]

Still can't believe they wasted the name "Uldorus" on useless Tyrhold.

What I don'tr get there is that we already got a similarly named facility in Antorus. And Antorus was the facility directly around the world soul of Argus. Keeping the naming scheme consistent and using it for a similar facility would have made more sense imo.

[KayRule]

Imagine a plot twist.

11.0 is the Nerubian raid. We learn Xal'atath is harvesting Old God blood for her nefarious plans.

11.1 is Avaloren, as we realise they're fanatics and the leaders of the Arathi are psychos draining light from the innocent crystal, or forcing it to remain in it light form to sustain themselves, when it's really meant to enter its shadowy form as part of its natural cycle.

11.2 is Uldaz, a giant Titan stasis prison where the worldsoul is. Different Earthen and Titanforged are essentially Aman'Thul's secret special forces, making sure the worldsoul stays in stasis.

Avaloren will not be patch content. It's future future expac content, beyond Worldsoul Saga.

I don't know why every time this obvious setup stuff happens everyone wants it to be content patch'd and swept away. People in these threads did the same thing with Dragon Isles for 3 years.

We're going to keep getting seeds of lore for Avaloren over the next 3 expansions, so when we finally go there it's not a giant asspull like it would be right this minute.

[Darkarath]

Yeah and we know that Avaloren was north of Northrend or at least close to it, so it will make sense to keep building it and go there after TLT.

Pretty sure that Avaloren is going to span multiple expansions, although it is a risky bet, as players might want to go back to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms after the events of the Worldsoul Saga.

Chances are that another world changing event happens in Midnight or in TLT. 2-3 expansions in Avaloren and then go back to rediscover the old continents could be cool. By then we will be almost 60 years old