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

[Sondrelk]

Btw the Dawnbreaker may be the messiest dungeon I've ever done.

Once people learn where the lieutenants that buff the second boss are I imagine it will be easier.

At this point I think it's more to do with people not having a good grasp on the giant explosion you have to lift away from, and not really knowing where to land in Mereldar.

I really like the dungeon. I can see why people who don't like Dynamic flight would dislike it, byt this is more what I imagined back in DF with the Nokhud dungeon.
Constant movement. A couple of mechanics in the rights that require flying. And the actual airship that gives you a good view of the entire zone from the air.

That being said, this one is probably not becoming a favorite among the pug crowd before it's a good few weeks into the season.

[Nymrohd]

It's possible that the 5th Old God was torn apart like some of the Lore says. And the other Old Gods ate up his territory. It'd also fit that a badly wounded and greatly weakened Old God getting infused with Life would become something 'New'. (Or at least be an Old God of Life)

Azj'kahet is clearly built on top of Old God flesh. The final chamber in City of Echoes very much suggests it is the bleeding flesh of an Old God.

It's why I am so annoyed that they did not just use Qiraji and C'thun for this but I guess Spiders are such an easier theme than Scarabs.

[Sondrelk]

With how well-received TWW launch is, I hope that the strict theming of Undermine doesn't mess up reception.

It could be a very varied zone though. Maybe an emphasis on the Undersea?

Depends on how they do it I feel. Strictly Undermine might be too big a deviation. Though I still have faith in the concept of Rootlands with a large Goblin presence leading into a Goblin raid.

The Undersea I really hope leads to underneath Silithus. Hallowfall in general feels much more attuned to the Old God storylines, and the Undersea even more so with all the creepy stuff in it. The fact that it geographically leads directly to the south of Kalimdor, and the squid we rescue talks of the Old Gods being above the Undersea does lead me to believe that is where we are going.
Would give a good reason to have the airships as well beyond them just looking cool.

[huth]

It's possible that the 5th Old God was torn apart like some of the Lore says. And the other Old Gods ate up his territory. It'd also fit that a badly wounded and greatly weakened Old God getting infused with Life would become something 'New'. (Or at least be an Old God of Life)

That still doesn't make it anything more than your unsubstantiated headcanon though. That's not something you can base any meaningful guesses for TWW patches on.

[Sondrelk]

Azj'kahet is clearly built on top of Old God flesh. The final chamber in City of Echoes very much suggests it is the bleeding flesh of an Old God.

It's why I am so annoyed that they did not just use Qiraji and C'thun for this but I guess Spiders are such an easier theme than Scarabs.

I suppose they wanted Nerubians since they are both present in Northrend, and more obviously have a civilization that we can interact with. The Silithids always seemed a bit more animalistic, and act more like insects in general.

Still though. Crossed fingers for Silithus underground for 11.2.

[huth]

With how well-received TWW launch is, I hope that the strict theming of Undermine doesn't mess up reception.

It could be a very varied zone though. Maybe an emphasis on the Undersea?

Or it just doesn't feature at all. So far it's just wild guesses based on very flimsy evidence.

[Houle]

Azj'kahet is clearly built on top of Old God flesh. The final chamber in City of Echoes very much suggests it is the bleeding flesh of an Old God.

It's why I am so annoyed that they did not just use Qiraji and C'thun for this but I guess Spiders are such an easier theme than Scarabs.

Yeah the fact that C'thun is still so underused is pretty sad, especially since they had the perfetct setup to do something with him with the sword and azerite (but who knows, maybe itll happen yet).

N'zoth had an obviously large role, Y'shaarj had one in Pandaria (and was later retconned into being the most powerful of them anyway), and even Yogg was retroactively credited with a lot more stuff and influence (flesh, galakrond, opening the emerald dream for N'zoth, etc) than he originally had in WotLK.

C'thun is pretty much unchanged since classic.

[Steampunkette]

Azj'kahet is clearly built on top of Old God flesh. The final chamber in City of Echoes very much suggests it is the bleeding flesh of an Old God.

It's why I am so annoyed that they did not just use Qiraji and C'thun for this but I guess Spiders are such an easier theme than Scarabs.

I hadn't seen that, yet. That's awesome! I'm excited to get into it!

That still doesn't make it anything more than your unsubstantiated headcanon though. That's not something you can base any meaningful guesses for TWW patches on.

The guess is based on a bunch of stuff I've previously outlined, but yeah. It is an outright guess in a Speculation thread. Which is what the thread is for!

[Nymrohd]

I suppose they wanted Nerubians since they are both present in Northrend, and more obviously have a civilization that we can interact with. The Silithids always seemed a bit more animalistic, and act more like insects in general.

Still though. Crossed fingers for Silithus underground for 11.2.

The silithid are just beasts of burden. The qiraji are creatures like the Twin Emperors, Skeram or Sartura. You absolutely could make something using those.

- - - Updated - - -

I hadn't seen that, yet. That's awesome! I'm excited to get into it!

I think there is a good case to be made that the creature in the carving at the last room in City of Threads was that Old God. It does look more like an octopus but very different from N'zoth

[Ersula]

During the Outro of the Raid Fight with MOTHER in Uldiir Brann literally refers to G'huun as an Old God. Explicitly. "Why would the Titans keep an Old God alive?"

Because the answer was "He's not an old god. He's just some animal the Watchers did experiments on." Which is what you discover over the course of the Uldir raid.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Because the answer was "He's not an old god. He's just some animal the Watchers did experiments on." Which is what you discover over the course of the Uldir raid.

G'huun is in fact an artificial Old God created artificially and by accident.

[Enrif]

After doing nearly all sidequests in Hallowfall and reflecting over things that were said and i could read, i think i see the future of the story a bit.

The Arathi of Hallowfall will be allies, but their empire is nearly 100% certain to be a next big bad. But probably after the saga. There was some text and dialog that mentioned the Arathi of Hallowfall, the third fleet specifically, were send for the Renilash, the final confrontation between light and shadow. And from the wording it also sounds, they were expected to die there and there will be no reinforcements to aid them. This makes me highly suspect of a appearance of the empire during Midnight. They were basically a sucide squad sent. This is especially apparent from on of their books: The Song of Renilash:
https://www.wowhead.com/item=225215/...ng-of-renilash

The Song of Renilash
Chapter 11

15. The Arathi, guardians of the Sacred Flame, formed the Aegis shield, a constellation of courage against the encroaching darkness. Their resolve, a beacon in the night, as stars began to fade into shadow.
16. The Harbinger's forces, nightmares of legs and claws, spun from the loom of oblivion, skittered across the battlefield. Their movements, a grotesque dance, echoed the discordant rhythm of a world teetering on the brink.
17. The wall, built with the living rock of titans, bore the weight of the conflict. Each stone, a silent witness to the struggle, whispering tales of valor to the wind, stirring the spirits of warriors long gone.
18. The remains of gods, scattered across the battlefield, pulsed with an unseen light. Their echoes, a clarion call, stirred the Arathi, compelling them to fight, to kill for the world's dawn.
19. Amidst the chaos, the forgotten one cried, "When the last star fades, the emperor's crown will weigh heavy with the sins of a thousand years." The stalwart soldiers threw down their spears and wept tears of blood and burning anger.

This book is like many recently a very likely hint at whats to come, and i would spin each part like that:
15 - This details the arathi of Hallowfall as they arrived and build their city in Hallowfall.
16 - This is the current situation with Xal'atah using the neruber
17 - This relates to the Earthen, they are the "living rock of titans", walling of the depths of the coreway so nothing gets out.
18 - This one can have two reading, "remains of gods" can easily be associated with the old god blood and their remains, but then why would the Arathi consider that a "clarion call"? I think this relates to the Beledar. I think the Beledar, their "god" might be destroyed, most likely birthing a void entity (cue "Beledar" Raid)
19 - This could actually related to multiple things, the forgotten one could be the mysterious fifth old god, and that the emperors crown weighs heavy for the sins of a thousand years with the soldiers(the Arathi), throwing down their spears in tears and anger? A mayor betrayel by the emporer. What if the emporer is the fifth old god, but infused with light? Or rather, to quote a old whisper from Il'gynoth: [I]The golden one claims a vacant throne. The crown of light will bring only darkness.[/I]
Many people attributed that to Anduin or Turalyon. But it could be the Emperor?

If the empire arrives, it will be more then likely after midnight, but probably more likely after TLT. As the current issue of the empire are the storming winds that make traversing to our side of the world dangerous. Meanwhile in TLT we will "discover what those titan machines do", and i wouldn't be surprised if one these titan machines maintains these storms, which we will deactivate in TLT and make way for the Arathi invasion.

I think this will relate all to the later part of TWW, with the first part dealing with Nerubians, and then the old god blood in the rootlands where the goblins might help with machines(being the good guys for once in a instance), instead of nature magic. While we were occupied by that, Xal'atath has her true price in the Beledar.


The Beledar is highly likely to be the source of the radiant song AND azerite. But it is not Azeroth.
When we first arrive in Hallowfall Anduin flat out gets a radiant song vision from Beledar, in his words. He later on laments he doesn't know what to make out of the Beledar and wish Khadgar would be there to explain. Later in a quest, you collect crystal fragments which are used for one of the activities in Hallowfall, Anduin call it not quite Azerite, but something very similar.

I have some thoughts on this. Azerite is from Azeroth, AND from the Beledar. Azerite is two colored, blue, like arcane magic, which we know for a long time is Azeroths blood, it was arcane magic since the times of the old RPGs and the lore on Runemasters and Leywalkers. But Azerite is also golden. The golden part is NOT of azeroth, but of the Beledar, as it was during the "day of darkness" the day sargeras struck azeroth , that the Beledar for the first time went dark. We know from the naaru, if they are dying they turn into a void creature. The beledar is dying, that is why it's turning to dark again and again. Its blood, mixed with Azeroths and created what we know as Azerite.

This would also explain why we get the radiant song, even though we healed Azeroth during BfA. Azeroth is healed, but the Beledar, is not. But didn't Magni confirmed the song is from Azeroth? yesn't, he heard her at the start of TWW, yes, but got a shortcut out? This seems very strange. It is more likely that Magni got a overload of two voices, he heard Azeroth, as before, but during that moment he also got a scream of the Beledar, which knocked him out. And then was shown his destination of Khaz Algar, because it is the place were the Beledar can be reached from, not Azeroth, since we already had access to the chamber of the heart, which was very close to where Sargeras plunged his sword into, so why travel elsewhere?

And it makes far more sense that the radiant song comes from a light entity like Beledar, well, first the name: radiant and song, both attributes we know can be easily attributed to Naaru. Secondly, K'aresh had also a radiant song. And no, K'aresh did not had a world soul, or else Sargeras Crusade would have been in vain at that very moment, as his goal was to prevent any world soul to be corrupted by the void. And if a void lord is on a planet with a world soul, and "consumes" that planet, wouldn't that be the worst nightmare for Sargeras? So we can rule out that K'aresh had a world soul. What far more likely is, is that K''aresh, the thing inside it that gave the radiant song was something like the Beledar, a dying light entity. And we know from naaru what happens if a Naaru dies, they become dark naaru, and then finaly a void god. We have M'uru from BC to thank for that, and we know something else from M'uru. When a Naaru dies and becomes a void god its name changes to a name with -ius at the end, for M'uru became Entropius. And we know of two other void beings with a name that end on -ius, Invalidus, a void lord from AU dreanor, and Dimenius.

Which brings me to my last point. Dimenisus and Xal'atath. Building upon my above statements, we can conclude that K'aresh had something like the Beledar, which died and turned into Dimensius, now if he was a full void lord, a fragment or whatever else is still open. But Xal'atah was the herald of that, and she was a K'Areshi! If you look at Xal'ataths design for TWW there is a certain element in her outfit that seems ... odd. She has a very ornate outfit, a robe. But she has one element that might reveal her true form: Bandages. She has bandages around her hands and legs. Now, if you look up ethereals, many have upswept shoulders, like xal'atah has. This also collaborates Xal'Atahs connection to Ethereals. No other void user we faced before really had ethereals as allies. But during the harbinger pre-event quests, what allies did Xal'atath had? Old god minions like the N'raqi, Neruber, Mantis, or any other known void allies? No, she had the Shadowguard Ethereals on her back and call. Not because these are so big allies of the void forces, but because Xal'Atath is one of them. And who is among the first raid, while Xal'atath is holding the strings? Old god minions typical for the void? No, all nerubians (of different shapes), some old god blood, and a ethereal. This all would alos neatly explain why we don' know what Xal'ata looked like before she was in the dagger, she had no body, like the other Ethereals.

[Auxis]

I just got spoiled by the thumbnail and title of a wowhead video which randomly appeared on my YouTube homepage tonight despite it being uploaded when EA started...

fml

[Raetary]

Blizzard released the whole TWW soundtrack:

[huth]

The guess is based on a bunch of stuff I've previously outlined, but yeah. It is an outright guess in a Speculation thread. Which is what the thread is for!

No. This thread is for speculation. Which is guessing possible outcomes based on known information. Not for making shit up from nothing like you're doing.

You're not speculating, you're just posting your headcanon and making predictions based entirely on your own imagination.

[Khaza-R]

No. This thread is for speculation. Which is guessing possible outcomes based on known information. Not for making shit up from nothing like you're doing.

You're not speculating, you're just posting your headcanon and making predictions based entirely on your own imagination.

I didn't know we were gatekeeping what's speculation now.

[milkmustache]

With how well-received TWW launch is, I hope that the strict theming of Undermine doesn't mess up reception.

It could be a very varied zone though. Maybe an emphasis on the Undersea?

I think they'll be able to pull it off. One thing Blizzard has done lately is worldbuilding with multiple races. The kobolds (although occasionally silly) seem to mesh well with the Earthen, and the same for Goblins in the spots they pop up in. I expect Undermine to include a lot of smaller races, particularly our underground ones, in order to make it mesh well. It may not be a strictly goblin city, but I think it will be well done in a way that isn't too heavy handed.

I still expect Ethereals (possibly Shadowguard) to have a major presence there, which I think should make things interesting.

[Valysar]

What happened to Modera and co after Dalaran's destruction ?

[Cheezits]

There's a very interesting quest in the Isle of Dorne where you find a parchment hinting that the Earthen overthrew Dornic themselves, without any permission. It would be interesting if this is true and the events depicted in the Proscenium are propaganda, or a lie they made to convince themselves.

Also there's something secret inside the mountain.

[Sondrelk]

There's a very interesting quest in the Isle of Dorne where you find a parchment hinting that the Earthen overthrew Dornic themselves, without any permission. It would be interesting if this is true and the events depicted in the Proscenium are propaganda, or a lie they made to convince themselves.

It's very possible they don't remember. Or that the Awakening machine that regenerates their body was destroyed to hide this.

And yes, we are told straight up that they killed Dornic due his seemingly random acts of cruelty. Then similarly killed Galen when she grew suspicious.

Now, why Dornic was going around taking Earthen and seemingly killing them is something we don't know. Could have been due to Dornic just being cruel, or it could be due to whatever as yet unknown reason for the Earthen being at Khaz Algar.