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

[Xilurm]

My hope is that Avaloren is this massive continent where WoW can have a proper reset after the WSS.

When TWW comes out, when you start a new character your levelling progression is like this:

Exile's Reach: LVL 1-10
Dragon Isles: LVL 10-70
Khaz Algar: LVL 70-80

After that, with Midnight you should reach 90, and with TLT you should reach 100. I think it would be better for the game if they kept the progression like this until the end of the WSS. That would mean they'd have to keep the Dragon Isles as the first place you go to after the first 10 levels. DF sort of acts like a prologue to the WSS anyway so I don't think this is a bad idea.

If they decide to replace the Dragon Isles with Khaz Algar as the first place characters go to after Midnight releases I think that will hurt the narrative they are trying to build. Even more so if they replace Khaz Algar with the Midnight zones after TLT comes out.

After the WSS they can use Avaloren to "reset" the game. Squish the levels back to 60 (ideally I wouldn't want that because I like seeing number go up) because having it go above 100 again might be daunting to some players, especially new ones.

Avaloren could be so big that every race can have it's own little starting zone/outpost. The Holy Empire of Arathor doesn't have to span the entire continent. The Zandalari and Kul Tirans each had a small island and even they had issues there, it shouldn't be out of the question that a massive landmass like that is diverse with different cultures that have opposite ideals and especially different biomes.

I think this is better than having a messy narrative like we do now. You don't really know what's even happening when you are levelling. One of the things I dislike so much in ESO and why I didn't keep playing that game is because nothing makes sense, and it legit feels like you need to consult a guide to know where to go chronologically to understand anything. Guild Wars 2's narrative is way better, and FFXIV's is the best example, although the latter can be quite extreme and limiting for people that don't care about that stuff.

[Dracullus]

My hope is that Avaloren is this massive continent where WoW can have a proper reset after the WSS.

When TWW comes out, when you start a new character your levelling progression is like this:

Exile's Reach: LVL 1-10
Dragon Isles: LVL 10-70
Khaz Algar: LVL 70-80

After that, with Midnight you should reach 90, and with TLT you should reach 100. I think it would be better for the game if they kept the progression like this until the end of the WSS. That would mean they'd have to keep the Dragon Isles as the first place you go to after the first 10 levels. DF sort of acts like a prologue to the WSS anyway so I don't think this is a bad idea.

I hope in 12.0 it will be like that:
Exile's Reach: 1-10
Dragon Isles 10-70
Khaz Algar: 35-80
Quel Thalas: 80-90

And in 13.0:
ER: 1-10
DI: 10-70
KA: 35-80
QT: 60-90
Northrend: 90-100

Hard to say what should happen after squish, but most likely we will be in weird spot for single expansion and then whatever intro to next saga will become entry expansion. I don't think they are crazy enough to squish all people to like 10 level. Also it will be like 10 years after ER debut, so would be nice to have it updated as well.

[Xilurm]

I hope in 12.0 it will be like that:
Exile's Reach: 1-10
Dragon Isles 10-70
Khaz Algar: 35-80
Quel Thalas: 80-90

And in 13.0:
ER: 1-10
DI: 10-70
KA: 35-80
QT: 60-90
Northrend: 90-100

Yeah exactly. That's such a good levelling and narrative progression path. You even get the small details like having the NPC's you meet in Exile's Reach as your followers in the DF dungeons (unsure if they will keep the same npc's for TWW). I hope they are smart about it and keep it like this instead of changing the "starting" expansion.

Right now it's a complete mess. And while Chromie Time is a fun implementation, it's so bad for the narrative. Granted new players can't even choose it but still. Shadowlands was skipped as a starting expansion because it's a convoluted mess, and a really weird introduction to WoW in the first place. BFA is just bad in terms of levelling. DF is a good choice, I just hope they keep it moving forward.

As for a squish after, I don't know. But there's so many things they can do. Do they keep going from 100 to 110 and so on? Do they put new characters into the WSS even after it ends and a new one begins? I don't doubt they don't even know what to do yet. Maybe after TWW finishes and they got a team working on the expansion after TLT.

[Jolly Roger]

Maybe Orwenya is the one?

If she's a "guardian of Elun'Ahir", she could probably be called a vassal of life. A servant of Elune, Eonar, and Freya.

She doesn't seem very treacherous, though. Maybe it's just in the eyes of the Old Gods.

Worth remembering that "eyes of green" could simply mean jealous, and doesn't have to describe a physical attribute.

green eyes

"on the hour of her third death she will usher in our coming"
already has 2 deaths according to her lines

"her heart is a crater and we have filled it"
the void is slowly ruining her relationships

bois Alleria is gonna be Illidan 2.0

[Nathanyel]

Thrall is really super imposed on that cover. But so far Thrall has not that much of an impact in TWW. Perhaps this will change in the last zone and patch content?

Likely, but Thrall is also the literal poster child of the Warcraft franchise.

On this art of short stories, faerin looks soo bad.

All of them are done in a particular artstyle, so not sure why you single her out. Most well-intentioned explanation would be that this is only the second rendition of her we've seen after the datamined model.

[Arator] have 0 reasons even to be here, much like live in Silvermoon. Or he is now full neutral Knight of Silver Hand and hold 0 bonds with Alliance. I dunno, that is strange.

He's half Elf, but not a Void user, that alone would explain his presence in Silvermoon during peace times.

And yes, organisations that were already rather neutral, like the Silver Hand, would probably use the peace to distance themselves further from direct alignment with either faction, even if just to be able to stay out of another war.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

All of them are done in a particular artstyle, so not sure why you single her out. Most well-intentioned explanation would be that this is only the second rendition of her we've seen after the datamined model.

Well i said in other comment that overall this art looks like 5 different art styles or artists based on good point made by someone on twt.
Like compare the weird goblin face from that official art to other artist on twitter that made art of her.

EDIT: Still it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, it's just an artwork, but just for the sake of responding to yesterday ol' news. Much more exciting things are coming today US and tomorrow for EU.

https://twitter.com/AlmaSigridis/sta...58625586577889

[Worldshaper]

green eyes

"on the hour of her third death she will usher in our coming"
already has 2 deaths according to her lines

"her heart is a crater and we have filled it"
the void is slowly ruining her relationships

bois Alleria is gonna be Illidan 2.0

The whispers had several red herrings, though.

Azeroth has also been described as having died twice too. Can't remember where, but it was Xal'atath saying something like: "The Sundering, the Scouring, this world has seen so much upheaval".

[Lahis]

After the WSS they can use Avaloren to "reset" the game. Squish the levels back to 60 (ideally I wouldn't want that because I like seeing number go up) because having it go above 100 again might be daunting to some players, especially new ones.

There will be a level squish simply because of the talent point bloat. By level 100 we will have even 31/30/30 talent points. With level squish they can consolidate the talent trees into more manageable format again and doing clean halving from 100 to 50 in 14.0 prepatch makes most sense.

[Eldryth]

The whispers had several red herrings, though.

Azeroth has also been described as having died twice too. Can't remember where, but it was Xal'atath saying something like: "The Sundering, the Scouring, this world has seen so much upheaval".

I feel like those messages shouldn't all be true in the first place, it'd be missing the whole point of the Void if they are. "The Void seeks every possible path and sees them all as truth." Or, in other words, it doesn't actually know the future- it just sees countless possibilities that could lead them to victory. Why should all of them even occur in our timeline?

With that said, I'm fairly certain that "At the hour of her third death, she will usher in our coming," refers to Xal'atath at this point.
1st death- when she lost her original body and became the knife we know.
2nd death- when we sacrificed her power to deal with Sargeras's sword.
3rd death (speculation)- we will kill her at the end of TWW, but she manages to cause the true Hour of Twilight leading into the Void invasion in Midnight. I expect that her death will be part of her plan, but it's possible that we'll just be too late to stop her.

[BaumanKing]

Is there even a mention of the gender of this new Emperor of Men? You all think it's a man, but maybe it's a woman. Like Azshara.

[Eldryth]

Is there even a mention of the gender of this new Emperor of Men? You all think it's a man, but maybe it's a woman. Like Azshara.

I've seen a few mentions of an Emperor (not Empress) in screenshots. But the Hallowfall Arathi have been cut off from their Empire for the past 15 years, so there could be a successor ruling by now for all we know. But I really don't see them being ruled by Azshara in secret though, she should have her own thing.

[Nymrohd]

He's half Elf, but not a Void user, that alone would explain his presence in Silvermoon during peace times.

In older lore when we see high elves interact with half elves, there is a clear distaste. They used to be extremely xenophobic. I suppose after having the Horde in and out of their city for more than a decade enough of them have gotten over themselves.

- - - Updated - - -

I've seen a few mentions of an Emperor (not Empress) in screenshots. But the Hallowfall Arathi have been cut off from their Empire for the past 15 years, so there could be a successor ruling by now for all we know. But I really don't see them being ruled by Azshara in secret though, she should have her own thing.

It's not uncommon for certain titles to not be gendered. The Emperor could still be female.

[Worldshaper]

I feel like those messages shouldn't all be true in the first place, it'd be missing the whole point of the Void if they are. "The Void seeks every possible path and sees them all as truth." Or, in other words, it doesn't actually know the future- it just sees countless possibilities that could lead them to victory. Why should all of them even occur in our timeline?

With that said, I'm fairly certain that "At the hour of her third death, she will usher in our coming," refers to Xal'atath at this point.
1st death- when she lost her original body and became the knife we know.
2nd death- when we sacrificed her power to deal with Sargeras's sword.
3rd death (speculation)- we will kill her at the end of TWW, but she manages to cause the true Hour of Twilight leading into the Void invasion in Midnight. I expect that her death will be part of her plan, but it's possible that we'll just be too late to stop her.

The third death thing is anybody's guess right now. There are about 5 or more equally plausible scenarios, and people tend to pick the one they prefer. For a while, many were convinced it was about Sylvanas. Then Azeroth. Then Jaina. Then Alleria. And so on.

I think every single whisper has been true, actually. Some are yet to play out.

But even many we previously thought meant nothing, ended up fitting BfA and Shadowlands.

Some even fit Dragonflight.

[Lahis]

Is there even a mention of the gender of this new Emperor of Men? You all think it's a man, but maybe it's a woman. Like Azshara.

Emperor is gendered term and refers to a man.

A woman would be Empress.

[BaumanKing]

Emperor is gendered term and refers to a man.

A woman would be Empress.

Tbf a woman can be a king, not a queen. Like The Woman King. So I guess the same situation could happen here too. We don't know.

[Super Dickmann]

An Emperor is male.

Also, Blizzard didn't forget this, it's in plain text:

[Merryck]

This emperor thinks he's Velen. You will never be the prophet, bozo.

[Xilurm]

Emperor is gendered term and refers to a man.

A woman would be Empress.

Still waiting on them to fix the "High Priestess" title.

[Santandame]

This emperor thinks he's Velen. You will never be the prophet, bozo.

The Emperor likely has no idea who Velen even is.

[Varodoc]

So the Emperor is the new Jailer?

"The Jailer is Arthas "No the Jailer is Yogg-Saron "No the Jailer is the Primus"

The Emperor is Azshara? Any other theories?

My theory: the Emperor is a time-travelling Arthas who founded an entire empire to abort the Scourge from ever happening. Emperor = Arthas, you heard it here first.