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

[Eldryth]

Found a quest that reveals a bit about Xal'atath's plot that I haven't seen mentioned so far.

There's a few quests where Brann asks you to do a particular Delve to investigate Zek'vir. The last one I found reveals that Xal'atath gave him a special mission to erase the Worldsoul's memories. Definitely not the whole picture just yet, but this seems like an important piece of the puzzle. Erasing Azeroth's memories to trick her, or to weaken her resolve to resist corruption? Removing some Titan indoctrination she got from the Pantheon?

[Steampunkette]

My prediction for the patch content!

Post Launch: Rootlands.
We know that there's a "Fifth Map" that the Devs didn't put onto the Beta to avoid the massive Lore Spoilers they have for the game. I think it's the Rootlands. And I think the Rootlands are going to be revealed as a level 80+ zone in the continuing campaign once it's unlocked with full release. (Early Access can do all the current world-content, but can't continue the campaign at 80 because it's literally locked).

I think we're going to go into the Rootlands and learn about the Fifth Old God... And specifically how that Old God was altered by the power of Life.

In Hallowfall there's a cosmology book that talks about how "Pure Forces" don't really exist all that often. You get elementals, sure, but their power-source is perfectly happy to get corrupted into Shadowflame and stuff like the Twilight Hammer elementals. Or how the Sacred Flame exists as Holy and Elemental power together.

I think the roots that the Harronir work with are growing out of an Old God who bonded to Life and mellowed out to not be an evil jerk over the past (Insert BS long period of time exceeding 150,000 years) who instead works and lives alongside the Harronir/Dark Trolls that help and protect it. Big part of -why- they're so secretive is they know the Titans (And thus the Earthen) want to exterminate or imprison the last Old God who has been in hiding.

We find out the Harronir of the Rootlands have been trying to contain the Black Blood to protect their Old God against external forces that are trying to get as much of the stuff as possible... Leading to the first patch:

11.1: Undermine
Lots of Goblin stuff. But also more of the Harronir. Black Blood is super important to the ongoing storyline, including the Black Blood of the Fifth who is now 'corrupted' or 'purified' with Life. The Goblins of Undermine either want it, or have outright been using it just like they did with Kajamite. It becomes the new Saronite/Azerite of the expansion where you have people who get access to this powerful new resource and try to exploit it, only for bad stuff to happen because of it.

The Harronir are fighting a battle against the Goblins of the Undermine to try and stop them from getting more Black Blood. The Earthen, Arathi, and Nerubians join forces to try and stop the beginnings of a Void-Empowered Goblin Empire that Xalatath has -nothing- to do it. Seriously, you guys. She wasn't even involved! Honest! >.>

The big raid is a massive assault on the Undermine to take the corrupted goblins out of power so the normal goblins can go back to doing their thing.

11.2: Old God Corruption.
While we're dealing with Undermine, Xalatath's been working to try and corrupt the Fifth Old God with Black Blood and may have succeeded. We go "Deeper" into the Rootlands fighting against her work and save the Old God from being corrupted, though he is weakened. Our combined efforts force Xalatath to retreat into the Beledar which is revealed to be...

A Naaru ship. Possibly from Alter-Draenor. And there's a Naaru on board that's fighting against Black Blood to try and remain Light rather than Void. She's losing the fight. And the Radiant Song goes dark when Xalatath uses the Dark Heart on the Naaru.

Beledar Raid.

This saves Ka'resh for the Midnight expansion.

[Worldshaper]

So...

> General availability today at midnight.
> Season 1 begins on September 10 and is gradually unlocked over the next few weeks.
> Based on Dragonflight release cadence, 11.0.5 is likely around mid to late October, 11.0.7 around mid December, and 11.1 sometime in late January after Blizzard has returned from the Christmas break and had a little time to get back into it again.
> They mentioned a Warcraft Direct would happen sometime this year, so I'm assuming that's meant to replace BlizzCon a bit. If we assume 11.0.5 is mostly about systems updates, balance changes, and some quests to conclude the Azj-Kahet storyline, as well as possible Dracthyr class additions, then it'll likely just be announced as a blog post or video sometime in September. 11.0.7, however, will obviously set the stage for 11.1 somewhat, so it might need a more thorough introduction.
> I'm gonna go ahead and guess the Warcraft Direct is scheduled for November, and it'll celebrate Warcraft's anniversary, announce the new 2025 Roadmap, and give us a glimpse of 11.0.7 and 11.1. These two patches will take us to the mysterious location of Elun'Ahir's roots, and we'll get playable Haranir. It'll be a sort of follow-up to all the Black Blood of the Old Gods stuff, and it'll explain a bunch re: the evolution of life, the worldsoul, Freya, the role of world trees etc.
> 11.1.5, 11.1.7, and 11.2 will only be vaguely outlined. We'll have to wait until this spring to find out more, as they update the Roadmap during a Wowcast. These patches will further the Worldsoul Saga story, and will likely involve the Undermine, Silithus, etc. Finally we raid Uldaz near the Worldsoul, ending the Earthen storyline and finding out more about why Khaz Algar was so important, and watch as Xal'atath does her thing to bring about Midnight. All of this will take place over the spring and summer of 2025.
> In the Autumn of 2025 we'll get a few Remix-like events, before BlizzCon re-announces Midnight and its Spring 2026 release date.

[Nymrohd]

God imagine the page count when we get to The Last Titan

At some point, the forum will struggle severely with this thread. Not sure it is a good idea to keep it going for that long.

[Xilurm]

14:00

Bit info about how they're going to handle feedback when it comes to story. If people say they don't understand character motives they will make sure to go more in depth for content releases that come after. But when it comes to huge story key points they are pretty much set in stone for the entire saga.

[Nymrohd]

I was hoping that all the follower dungeons would function like the Rookery using custom NPCs that match the story. Sadly only the first dungeon gets that treatment. And in so many of them you do get the NPCs that WOULD make sense to talk while you are in the dungeon.

Especially when we get additional scenarios crafted for Ringing depths that both could have been replaced by a follower dungeon run with the right NPCs. You could have just had a Stonevault Run with Moira, Magni, Dagran and Brinthe to finish the zone. And one with the kobolds for Darkflame Cleft.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

14:00

Bit info about how they're going to handle feedback when it comes to story. If people say they don't understand character motives they will make sure to go more in depth for content releases that come after. But when it comes to huge story key points they are pretty much set in stone for the entire saga.

Yo, is Nobbel a 6'3" giga-Chad???

[huth]

I think the roots that the Harronir work with are growing out of an Old God who bonded to Life and mellowed out to not be an evil jerk over the past (Insert BS long period of time exceeding 150,000 years) who instead works and lives alongside the Harronir/Dark Trolls that help and protect it. Big part of -why- they're so secretive is they know the Titans (And thus the Earthen) want to exterminate or imprison the last Old God who has been in hiding.

So you completely forgot about Elun'ahir? It's pretty obvious what the roots are. It also explains neatly why they're secretive given Aman'thul's reaction to it.

[Steampunkette]

So you completely forgot about Elun'ahir? It's pretty obvious what the roots are. It also explains neatly why they're secretive given Aman'thul's reaction to it.

I'm aware they're the roots of the first world tree. I'm saying that's how the Life got into the Old God.

Possibly as a joint attempt by Eonnar and Elune to deal with the Old God threat before Aman'thul yanked the tree out in panic over what happened with Y'shaarj.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT! I almost killed Azeroth by killing Y'shaarj, the tree will kill her just as much when it spikes this one!"

That those two planted the world tree to try and kill this Old God and it turned him into a Void-Life entity that's not evil and is actively hiding.

Or maybe they did it to try and redeem him? Or maybe he turned against the other old gods or something? We do have the Lore that one got torn apart by the others and it could be this one. Maybe they didn't kill him and the tree saved him and made him good? Unclear, just the general vibe I'm getting from the situation.

[Dancaris]

"rootlands isnt real"

Not only that place. At least 2 places in Ringing Deep has invisible walls with roots and lights comes from them. Azj'Kahet have 2?
Another one is place where Fog Monsters go, same place.
Rootlands 100% new patch zone. But I hope we will see Kezan too, and not like megadungeon.

[huth]

I'm aware they're the roots of the first world tree. I'm saying that's how the Life got into the Old God.

Possibly as a joint attempt by Eonnar and Elune to deal with the Old God threat before Aman'thul yanked the tree out in panic over what happened with Y'shaarj.

That makes zero sense. To our current knowledge, the 5th was already dead before the Titans arrived. The others are accounted for. So you just invented a new 6th Old God and a different story for Elun'ahir that does not match the one we have.

[Steampunkette]

That makes zero sense. To our current knowledge, the 5th was already dead before the Titans arrived. The others are accounted for. So you just invented a new 6th Old God and a different story for Elun'ahir that does not match the one we have.

Key phrase, there:

"To our current knowledge"

Also the 6th Old God was G'huun.

Anyway. Yeah. I think the Fifth Old God is in the Rootlands which, as a zone, is probably gonna be called "Elun'ahir" or something similar. I think the Tree was either planted on him while he was alive or maybe into the remnants of him after he got torn apart by the other ones, but the specifics aren't the important thing. The important thing is that it carries on the "Two Forces Entity" theme we've been seeing for a long time and which has been written about and highlighted more recently.

Calia Menethil the Light-Undead, Lothraxion the Light-Demon, Yogg-Saron the Old God of Death, Eonnar the Titan of Life, Golganneth of Sea and Storms, Khazgoroth the Forger of Worlds. The Priory is full of Light-Created Undead because Light+Death=Undead just as surely as Void+Death does. Which Margrave Sindane explained in Shadowlands.

Even Sargeras the Fel-Titan. Order that embraced Chaos like a Naaru falling to the Void.

[Khaza-R]

Anyone know if the echoes event ends when TWW formally launches or is that 11 EST?

[Sondrelk]

Also the 6th Old God was G'huun.

We already know what G'huun is. It says so right in his encounter descrption.

"When the Titans experimented upon the Old Gods' need to corrupt they unexpectedly created G'huun."

[Ersula]

It would be pretty wild if Beledar had no connection to the Naaru. Both the speculation that it's a Naaru Ship or a Naaru shard of light have the most basis in the lore, both hailing from the Naaru or Holy cosmic force.

[Nymrohd]

It would be pretty wild if Beledar had no connection to the Naaru. Both the speculation that it's a Naaru Ship or a Naaru shard of light have the most basis in the lore, both hailing from the Naaru or Holy cosmic force.

I think it'd be nice if the Light was more than just the Naaru. Most of the other forces have some variety after all.

[Steampunkette]

We already know what G'huun is. It says so right in his encounter descrption.

"When the Titans experimented upon the Old Gods' need to corrupt they unexpectedly created G'huun."

Yeah. They unexpectedly created a sixth Old God. It's been confirmed at this point that he is the newest (and weakest) of the Old Gods.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

We already know what G'huun is. It says so right in his encounter descrption.

"When the Titans experimented upon the Old Gods' need to corrupt they unexpectedly created G'huun."

The point here is that we have new lore as of 2024. Volume 4 of the 'World of Warcraft Chronicle' says that, at the time of the Black Empire, there were 5 Old Gods. G'huun would not have been created at this time.

So, effectively, a total of 6.

Also... it's noted that the titans still imprisoned a total of 4. So, the mysterious 5th Old God was either killed or somehow disappeared. Or just went elsewhere in Azeroth... who knows?

[Ersula]

Yeah. They unexpectedly created a sixth Old God. It's been confirmed at this point that he is the newest (and weakest) of the Old Gods.

I don't think it's ever stated Ghuun is an Old God, besides a few Blood Trolls, its lack of worship makes it neither old nor a god. The closest the wow characters some to designating Ghuun is he was "like an old god."

I think between this & new information in the war within we're going to get some explaination that its the black blood itself that makes an old god. Ghuun was a leech infused with the Black Blood of the Old Gods as an experiment. Before they "tore her to pieces" her blood was taken from her and that Xalatath wants to infuse herself with that blood, making her an old god once again.

[Nymrohd]

The point here is that we have new lore as of 2024. Volume 4 of the 'World of Warcraft Chronicle' says that, at the time of the Black Empire, there were 5 Old Gods. G'huun would not have been created at this time.

So, effectively, a total of 6.

Also... it's noted that the titans still imprisoned a total of 4. So, the mysterious 5th Old God was either killed or somehow disappeared. Or just went elsewhere in Azeroth... who knows?

We would know that they wouldn't be on Kalimdor. We are given a map of Old God territories. Either they are dead and their territory taken by other Old Gods (perhaps what N'zoth and Y'shaarj were fighting over at the Broken Isles was that Old God and/or their territory) or they could have landed outside Kalimdor (e.g. in Avaloren)