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

[Cheezits]

I don't think Eversong, Zul'aman Woods and Ghostlands can carry an expansion launch regardless of how big they are.

[Enrif]

it is fascinating how many people just can't imagine a full blown expansion just in Quel'thalas, and need to extend it into lordaeron or even half of the eastern kingdoms.

It is so easy. Scale is whack anyways, as Kul'tiras and Gilneas should be about the same size in the lore, yet Kul'Tiras is obviously blown to a much more representative size, while gilneas is locked in the smaller scale Eastern Kingdoms.

With Quel'thalas currently not be connected to the Eastern Kingdoms, but its own map, they can scale Quel'thalas to the size of the dragon isles without issues.

The zones itself are also clear: Eversong Woods, Ghostlands, Zul'Aman, Isle of Quel'danas. Exactly 4. Three of which were already established in TBC and Zul'aman should be a zone.

Also, with a theme of Elven unification we can look at a few things.

The Night Elves had a outpost on the small island of Shalandis Isle to the west, and the Naga were on the Isle of Quel'danas. If we spin this further, Night Elf on an isle, Naga on an Isle, we could see the return of a (under)water zone stretching east of Quel'danas, that incorporated that night elf outpost and brings the Naga into the elven Unification plotline.
This could give an alternative 4th zone if the Ghostlands will be part of the Zul'aman or Eversong zone, or split between the two.

And while some naga are there for patch 11.0.7 we still have to see where Azhara will pop up again, and the story of Midnight would be the perfect place.

Edit: And i can already see a nice plotline. The representatives of the elves gather for a meeting, Lor'themar for the Blood Elves, Thalisra for the Nightborne, Shandris for the Night Elves, and Umbric for the Void Elves. And when Azhara makes her entrance, she can gloat at Shandris (with a new model hopefully) as she is in no way able to replace Tyrande and Malfurion, then at Lor'themar who, in all but name, has usurped the Throne of Silvermoon, at Thalisra for abandoning their glorious past, and at Umbric for not seeing the true power of the Void.

Yet what i can't envision is, if Azhara would be a wary ally like Sylvanas in the past, or be a enemy again.

I think it would be more interesting for the future for her to by "allied" in some way. Making also room for playable Naga and a Class based on Nagas, like the Sea Witch.

[Dracullus]

it is fascinating how many people just can't imagine a full blown expansion just in Quel'thalas, and need to extend it into lordaeron or even half of the eastern kingdoms.

People just want get back to OG zones really bad, so they invent reasons why we should go to Plaguelands or even further.

In reality I think Quel'Thalas was picked for "revamp" because it's on separate map from rest of EK. Imagine issues if they have to resize some EK zones, glue it to rest without loading screen and somehow preserve older version.

Now they just put old Quel'Thalas behind portal somewhere (could be even Zidormi, she would serve as portal instead of usual phase change), new one will be on separate map and portal/tunnel from Eastern Plaguelands will lead there. And if we will have EK revamp in the future, they can just build on existing Midnight map.

And yeah, it's stupid to say something has not enough potential. Once again people treat it like real world, not something that is limited only by devs imagination. Quel Thalas could have even entire new zone like Highmountain/Stormheim for Broken Isles.

[Raetary]

Discussing scale is pointless, as this is a video game and Blizzard can scale, add to or divide anything they want, however they want it.

I think they'll unify Quel'thalas and add surrounding zones, as per Blizzards own comments, they don't seem to intend to change the regions scale too much.
And they don't have to, as Eversong + Ghostlands is comparable to a modern zone in area size anyway.

it is fascinating how many people just can't imagine a full blown expansion just in Quel'thalas, and need to extend it into lordaeron or even half of the eastern kingdoms.

Probably because Quel'thalas is inseperable from the Human Kingdoms and the Forsaken, as their history is deeply intertwined and has visible consequences like half of Quel'thalas' land being dead and having a giant scar running through it, all the way to the Sunwell Plateau.

You cannot tackle the elves without involving the humans, especially when the big theme here is a clash between the Light and the Dark and one of the bigger cultures that just got introduced is a half-elven empire tying back to the alliance between the Elves and Humans back in the day, that came packaged with an end times prophecy involving the very conflict that happens in Midnight.

Involving Surrounding Lordaeron goes without saying, just how involving the Amani goes without saying.

[Sondrelk]

If Blizzard can create 4 massive zones out of thin air, what makes some of you guys think that they can't take two already existing zones, (three if you count Quel'Danas) split them into however many sections they want, and expand them in whatever way they want? They already have lots of the work done for them already.

Obviously doing that would be easy if the main guiding principle was to only use Eversong, Ghostlands, and Isle of Quel'danas.
The issue with that thinking is that there are plenty of stuff that exists in Quel'thalas that also exists just outside it. As mentioned. You could make Ghostlands a unique zone by playing on the Scourge elements. But why wouldn't you then just go to the Plaguelands, which have a much stronger Scourge theme, more nostalgia, and which is literally right next to the Ghostlands.
Same with Northeron instead of Lordaeron. Or going purely Zul'aman, rather than also incorporate places like Jintha'alor.

Quel'thalas on its own is not broad enough to encompass an entire expansion launch worth of content in a natural way. You have to incorporate other themes, like the Scourge, or Forsaken, or Arathi Empire, or anything like that. And all of those very strong Blood Elf related themes already has existing zones right next to Quel'thalas, with heavy nostalgia behind it, and all wrapped up in a neat package that is the perfect size for an expansion.

Are we after all going to argue that Sylvanas is NOT relevant to the Blood Elves? Or that the Arathi Empire stated several times to be destined to fight in the final battle against the void is NOT going to be a presence at all in Midnight?

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People just want get back to OG zones really bad, so they invent reasons why we should go to Plaguelands or even further.

In reality I think Quel'Thalas was picked for "revamp" because it's on separate map from rest of EK. Imagine issues if they have to resize some EK zones, glue it to rest without loading screen and somehow preserve older version.

Now they just put old Quel'Thalas behind portal somewhere (could be even Zidormi, she would serve as portal instead of usual phase change), new one will be on separate map and portal/tunnel from Eastern Plaguelands will lead there. And if we will have EK revamp in the future, they can just build on existing Midnight map.

And yeah, it's stupid to say something has not enough potential. Once again people treat it like real world, not something that is limited only by devs imagination. Quel Thalas could have even entire new zone like Highmountain/Stormheim for Broken Isles.

Alternatively they picked Quel'thalas because they wanted to have a Void themed story with Xal'atath. And the Sunwell is absolutely spot on in terms of theming.

The argument that it's behind a loading screen seems silly to me when making only those three zones larger would be incredibly jarring either way.
It really wouldn't matter at that point if they made the zones larger and incorporated them into EK proper at that point. The only difference is that one makes it feel like the portal is a sheet making device, and the other would make the EK map look kinda weird.

[Joshuaj]

No clue why some people here want to make an Expansion smaller than it should be already .... QT can carry it's own Expansion (hell, for me, TBC was basically more about QT than shitty Outlands anyways), no need to also cram Lordaeron in it (which again, also can carry it's own story arc with ease). It's almost as bad as the idea of wasting Avaloren or Tel Abim on a single patch ... do you guys want WoW to last for another 20 years or being killed off because they run out of zones to visit?

There are a lot of expansion ideas that can last over 20 years. Northern EK being revamped wouldn't automatically waste many years worth of ideas. That's a bit silly.

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it is fascinating how many people just can't imagine a full blown expansion just in Quel'thalas, and need to extend it into lordaeron or even half of the eastern kingdoms.

It is so easy. Scale is whack anyways, as Kul'tiras and Gilneas should be about the same size in the lore, yet Kul'Tiras is obviously blown to a much more representative size, while gilneas is locked in the smaller scale Eastern Kingdoms.

With Quel'thalas currently not be connected to the Eastern Kingdoms, but its own map, they can scale Quel'thalas to the size of the dragon isles without issues.

The zones itself are also clear: Eversong Woods, Ghostlands, Zul'Aman, Isle of Quel'danas. Exactly 4. Three of which were already established in TBC and Zul'aman should be a zone.

Also, with a theme of Elven unification we can look at a few things.

The Night Elves had a outpost on the small island of Shalandis Isle to the west, and the Naga were on the Isle of Quel'danas. If we spin this further, Night Elf on an isle, Naga on an Isle, we could see the return of a (under)water zone stretching east of Quel'danas, that incorporated that night elf outpost and brings the Naga into the elven Unification plotline.
This could give an alternative 4th zone if the Ghostlands will be part of the Zul'aman or Eversong zone, or split between the two.

And while some naga are there for patch 11.0.7 we still have to see where Azhara will pop up again, and the story of Midnight would be the perfect place.

Edit: And i can already see a nice plotline. The representatives of the elves gather for a meeting, Lor'themar for the Blood Elves, Thalisra for the Nightborne, Shandris for the Night Elves, and Umbric for the Void Elves. And when Azhara makes her entrance, she can gloat at Shandris (with a new model hopefully) as she is in no way able to replace Tyrande and Malfurion, then at Lor'themar who, in all but name, has usurped the Throne of Silvermoon, at Thalisra for abandoning their glorious past, and at Umbric for not seeing the true power of the Void.

Yet what i can't envision is, if Azhara would be a wary ally like Sylvanas in the past, or be a enemy again.

I think it would be more interesting for the future for her to by "allied" in some way. Making also room for playable Naga and a Class based on Nagas, like the Sea Witch.

Because Northern EK provides a lot of story potential for the Light? Midnight isn't just about the elves, it's also about Light and Shadow's conflict on Azeroth.

[Sondrelk]

There are a lot of expansion ideas that can last over 20 years. Northern EK being revamped wouldn't automatically waste many years worth of ideas. That's a bit silly.

Also, arguing for not using Lordaeron because you are championing a Lordaeron themed expansion for the 24.0 patch is very dumb.

[Enrif]

Seems people still don't get how Blizzard design zones 20 years later.

Let's take DF for instance. It has themes for the blue dragon and Tuskar, but we don't get back to Northrend for it, it is there in its own zone. The Elves have a theme going on in a patch, and we don't put the tree in Ashenvale,Darkshore or Hyjal, but on the Dragon Isles.

Now TWW, we have a lot of important lore for dwarves, but we don't go to Khaz Modan, it has imprtant lore for humans in the Arathi, but we don't go for the Arathi Highlands.

And Midnight will be the same.

Important light story? Sunwell, the biggest source of light in the eastern kingdoms. There is no need for Lordaeron.

Important undead story? Deathholm and Ghostlands. No need to muddle that with plaguelands which have their own stories separate from that area.

Important troll story? Zul'aman, no need to expendt to Jin'tha Alor.

There is no reason to expand beyond Quel'thalas outside of scope creep.

All the stories important for the expansion are there in Quel'thalas.

[Sondrelk]

Seems people still don't get how Blizzard design zones 20 years later.

Let's take DF for instance. It has themes for the blue dragon and Tuskar, but we don't get back to Northrend for it, it is there in its own zone. The Elves have a theme going on in a patch, and we don't put the tree in Ashenvale,Darkshore or Hyjal, but on the Dragon Isles.

Now TWW, we have a lot of important lore for dwarves, but we don't go to Khaz Modan, it has imprtant lore for humans in the Arathi, but we don't go for the Arathi Highlands.

And Midnight will be the same.

Important light story? Sunwell, the biggest source of light in the eastern kingdoms. There is no need for Lordaeron.

Important undead story? Deathholm and Ghostlands. No need to muddle that with plaguelands which have their own stories separate from that area.

Important troll story? Zul'aman, no need to expendt to Jin'tha Alor.

There is no reason to expand beyond Quel'thalas outside of scope creep.

All the stories important for the expansion are there in Quel'thalas.

We don't go there because the zones are really far away. It's a bit of a different situation when the new zone you are making has an existing zone with the same theme right next to it.

And besides. Midnight will be a revamp regardless. The argument isn't that we will go back to old zones rather than completely new ones. It's arguing between whether it makes more sense to reuse existing zones with thematic relevance and close proximity, or whether it's better to be rigid on just remaking two and a half existing zones, even as the themes present could be better explored by reusing neighbouring zones and making Quel'thalas more focused on elves specifically.

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Obviously, if the argument is that the expansion that is billed as a return to Quel'thalas, and which will likely deal with blood elf history will not reuse Lordaeron when players want it, it's right there,and it's hugely relevant to at least two main storylines. Then there isn't really a lot that can be argued.

The developers proudly talked about Midnight as a world revamp. I doubt they would miss out on the easy brownie points by not remaking such an iconic location as the Plaguelands just because it's more human themed, rather than purely Blood Elf themed like Ghostlands.

[Joshuaj]

Seems people still don't get how Blizzard design zones 20 years later.

Let's take DF for instance. It has themes for the blue dragon and Tuskar, but we don't get back to Northrend for it, it is there in its own zone. The Elves have a theme going on in a patch, and we don't put the tree in Ashenvale,Darkshore or Hyjal, but on the Dragon Isles.

Now TWW, we have a lot of important lore for dwarves, but we don't go to Khaz Modan, it has imprtant lore for humans in the Arathi, but we don't go for the Arathi Highlands.

And Midnight will be the same.

Important light story? Sunwell, the biggest source of light in the eastern kingdoms. There is no need for Lordaeron.

Important undead story? Deathholm and Ghostlands. No need to muddle that with plaguelands which have their own stories separate from that area.

Important troll story? Zul'aman, no need to expendt to Jin'tha Alor.

There is no reason to expand beyond Quel'thalas outside of scope creep.

All the stories important for the expansion are there in Quel'thalas.

I would normally agree, but unlike the Dragon Isles, Kalimdor, and Northrend...

QUEL'THALAS IS RIGHT NEXT TO THE PLAGUELANDS AND THE LORDAERON AREA

[Ersula]

I would normally agree, but unlike the Dragon Isles, Kalimdor, and Northrend...

QUEL'THALAS IS RIGHT NEXT TO THE PLAGUELANDS AND THE LORDAERON AREA

Exactly. The lore has never actually established the boarders for where exactly "Tirisfal," "Quel'thalas" and "Lordaeron" ends. What the elves consider Quel'thalas & what the humans consider Lordaeron probably has a lot of overlap. For exampe the basis of Sylvanas & Nathanos relationship is about how Human Rangers & Elf Rangers were patrolling the same region.

[Joshuaj]

We don't go there because the zones are really far away. It's a bit of a different situation when the new zone you are making has an existing zone with the same theme right next to it.

And besides. Midnight will be a revamp regardless. The argument isn't that we will go back to old zones rather than completely new ones. It's arguing between whether it makes more sense to reuse existing zones with thematic relevance and close proximity, or whether it's better to be rigid on just remaking two and a half existing zones, even as the themes present could be better explored by reusing neighbouring zones and making Quel'thalas more focused on elves specifically.

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Obviously, if the argument is that the expansion that is billed as a return to Quel'thalas, and which will likely deal with blood elf history will not reuse Lordaeron when players want it, it's right there,and it's hugely relevant to at least two main storylines. Then there isn't really a lot that can be argued.

The developers proudly talked about Midnight as a world revamp. I doubt they would miss out on the easy brownie points by not remaking such an iconic location as the Plaguelands just because it's more human themed, rather than purely Blood Elf themed like Ghostlands.

Even if you want to argue the different racial themes, extra human focus wouldn't take away from the main Elf focus.

I mean, look at TWW. We have 3 major races in play for this expac (prior to patches, I mean): The Earthern, the Arathi, and the Nerubians.

Midnight could quite literally be: Humans, Elves, and Trolls. Elves for Quel'thalas, Humans for the Lordaeron stuff, and Trolls for Zul'Aman and the Amani region.

For patch content, that's when I'd use the Isle of Quel'danas (12.1) and the Ruins of K'aresh (12.2).

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Exactly. The lore has never actually established the boarders for where exactly "Tirisfal," "Quel'thalas" and "Lordaeron" ends. What the elves consider Quel'thalas & what the humans consider Lordaeron probably has a lot of overlap. For exampe the basis of Sylvanas & Nathanos relationship is about how Human Rangers & Elf Rangers were patrolling the same region.

Tbf here, I think we know exactly what Blizzard means by "Quel'thalas", but my argument is that I don't think it'll be the main focus of Midnight. Heck, idk if Blizzard said they'll only be revamping Quel'thalas. Ik they talked about there being 4 zones, but idk if they said they were only focusing on the stuff north of Eastern Plaguelands or?

It is possible they did and I just forgot though.

[Enrif]

We don't go there because the zones are really far away. It's a bit of a different situation when the new zone you are making has an existing zone with the same theme right next to it.

And besides. Midnight will be a revamp regardless. The argument isn't that we will go back to old zones rather than completely new ones. It's arguing between whether it makes more sense to reuse existing zones with thematic relevance and close proximity, or whether it's better to be rigid on just remaking two and a half existing zones, even as the themes present could be better explored by reusing neighbouring zones and making Quel'thalas more focused on elves specifically.

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Obviously, if the argument is that the expansion that is billed as a return to Quel'thalas, and which will likely deal with blood elf history will not reuse Lordaeron when players want it, it's right there,and it's hugely relevant to at least two main storylines. Then there isn't really a lot that can be argued.

The developers proudly talked about Midnight as a world revamp. I doubt they would miss out on the easy brownie points by not remaking such an iconic location as the Plaguelands just because it's more human themed, rather than purely Blood Elf themed like Ghostlands.

What do you think happens after TLT? Where will go next? The Arathi Empire is teased and will likely not end as a patch zone for Midnight. So it is one of the most likely destinations to go to. And to what area do they have the biggest connection? The eastern kingdoms. But oh wait, they are already revamped in Midnight, can't revamp them again so soon.

Any type of further encroachment on the eastern kingdoms will make further development, when they really matter, harder, just to farm a few brownie points when they are not needed.

Also, the Eastern Kingdoms (and Kalimdor), aren't that big compared to the new expansion zones, but would be huge past a revamp. It makes sense that blizzard goes with areas (Quel'thals/Northrend) that are completely cut of to revamp first. Quel'thalas is in size similar to other Eastern Kingdom zones and a perfect testing bed to see if they can scaleup and modernize old zones in a time frame fit for a expansion. Northrend is a fair bit bigger, so that is the next step. After that, the next logic step, assuming revamp is their goal, comes Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. And even here would be the question if they could do them at the same time, or would need a expansion each.

Anything past Quel'thalas would interfere with future plans, for not much gain. And it would be horrendous to have a quarter or even half of the eastern kingdom be blocked of in a new map while the rest is in the old map. That issue doesn't exist for Quel'Thalas as it sits already in its own map.

[Joshuaj]

If Blizzard can create 4 massive zones out of thin air, what makes some of you guys think that they can't take two already existing zones, (three if you count Quel'Danas) split them into however many sections they want, and expand them in whatever way they want? They already have lots of the work done for them already.

Because imo, that'd waste a bunch of story potential regarding the Light for the Lordaeron region. Also, I do think the Isle of Quel'danas is gonna be saved for 12.1 (Basically, attribute it to Midnight's version of the Broken Shore).

[Enrif]

I would normally agree, but unlike the Dragon Isles, Kalimdor, and Northrend...

QUEL'THALAS IS RIGHT NEXT TO THE PLAGUELANDS AND THE LORDAERON AREA

Answer me this. Did the Quel'thalas change when Cata happend?

[Joshuaj]

What do you think happens after TLT? Where will go next? The Arathi Empire is teased and will likely not end as a patch zone for Midnight. So it is one of the most likely destinations to go to. And to what area do they have the biggest connection? The eastern kingdoms. But oh wait, they are already revamped in Midnight, can't revamp them again so soon.

Any type of further encroachment on the eastern kingdoms will make further development, when they really matter, harder, just to farm a few brownie points when they are not needed.

Also, the Eastern Kingdoms (and Kalimdor), aren't that big compared to the new expansion zones, but would be huge past a revamp. It makes sense that blizzard goes with areas (Quel'thals/Northrend) that are completely cut of to revamp first. Quel'thalas is in size similar to other Eastern Kingdom zones and a perfect testing bed to see if they can scaleup and modernize old zones in a time frame fit for a expansion. Northrend is a fair bit bigger, so that is the next step. After that, the next logic step, assuming revamp is their goal, comes Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. And even here would be the question if they could do them at the same time, or would need a expansion each.

Anything past Quel'thalas would interfere with future plans, for not much gain. And it would be horrendous to have a quarter or even half of the eastern kingdom be blocked of in a new map while the rest is in the old map. That issue doesn't exist for Quel'Thalas as it sits already in its own map.

Do you think they'll revamp the Northern Eastern Kingdoms while they're doing Avaloren? Cause, while there is a possibility there, wouldn't it also make sense to revamp Northern EK now, alongside Quel'thalas?

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Answer me this. Did the Quel'thalas change when Cata happend?

The only reason they didn't revamp Quel'thalas was because they didn't know how to properly do that at the time. Had they been given the technology to revamp Quel'thalas during Cata, they would've done so. Pretty sure this was talked about by the Devs.

[Enrif]

Do you think they'll revamp the Northern Eastern Kingdoms while they're doing Avaloren? Cause, while there is a possibility there, wouldn't it also make sense to revamp Northern EK now, alongside Quel'thalas?

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The only reason they didn't revamp Quel'thalas was because they didn't know how to properly do that at the time. Had they been given the technology to revamp Quel'thalas during Cata, they would've done so. Pretty sure this was talked about by the Devs.

Norhtern EK is too big an area and would highly delude the themes of the expansion Light(sunwell! not lordaeron) and elves.

Avaloren will likely be it's own expansion, and i think it will happen after TLT but before a EK revamp, to incorporate whatever story happens in the Arathi Empire, to effect the Arathi Highlands area, as it is one of the most barren areas of the EKs, and would massively benefit from a more explored Arathi concept.

[Joshuaj]

Norhtern EK is too big an area and would highly delude the themes of the expansion Light(sunwell! not lordaeron) and elves.

Avaloren will likely be it's own expansion, and i think it will happen after TLT but before a EK revamp, to incorporate whatever story happens in the Arathi Empire, to effect the Arathi Highlands area, as it is one of the most barren areas of the EKs, and would massively benefit from a more explored Arathi concept.

The War Within isn't JUST about the Nerubians. What makes you think Midnight will be just about the Elves and the Sunwell?

There can be side plots and other stories throughout the expansion, though ultimately they would lead back to the main plot. Just have the Humans at Lordaeron battle eachother for a bit, only to try and come to an understanding, with them ultimately becoming a singular, Light-alligned faction building up to 12.1.

That way, for 12.1, which I believe to be focused at the Isle of Quel'danas, you would have the unified Elves, the Amani Trolls, and the united Human Light faction going up against the forces of the Void at the Sunwell.

And then for 12.2, you'd have the ruins of K'aresh, us facing off against either Dimensius or (imo) the Worldsoul of K'aresh, and us seeing a proper Light Vs Shadow war being waged in the background.

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Also, too big an area? I mean, considering Blizzard is revamping Northrend in TLT, I wouldn't consider Northern EK to be "too big" at all.

[Sondrelk]

Norhtern EK is too big an area and would highly delude the themes of the expansion Light(sunwell! not lordaeron) and elves.

Avaloren will likely be it's own expansion, and i think it will happen after TLT but before a EK revamp, to incorporate whatever story happens in the Arathi Empire, to effect the Arathi Highlands area, as it is one of the most barren areas of the EKs, and would massively benefit from a more explored Arathi concept.

How is it too big an area? Arathi Highlands and upwards is almost exactly the same size as the Dragon Isles.
If you then combine some of the zones with a similar theme like the Plaguelands into one, or the Forsaken levelling zones into Lordaeron. Then you end up with an expansion launch sized parcel of content with four distinct zones. Of which only the Hinterlands/Arathi Highlands is a bit more on the vague side compared to Lordaeron and Plaguelands in terms of immediate relevance to Quel'thalas.

And besides. Why wouldn't Blizzard take the time now that we are going to spend time in Quel'thalas fighting the void to touch on the Arathi and build up to Avaloren? We know the Arathi are half elves. And we know that the Hallowfall expedition is going to be important for the fight against the void.
Why would we not focus on that story thread by bringing in stuff like the Forsaken, who are already relevant due to Sylvanas?

[Enrif]

The War Within isn't JUST about the Nerubians. What makes you think Midnight will be just about the Elves and the Sunwell?

There can be side plots and other stories throughout the expansion, though ultimately they would lead back to the main plot. Just have the Humans at Lordaeron battle eachother for a bit, only to try and come to an understanding, with them ultimately becoming a singular, Light-alligned faction building up to 12.1.

That way, for 12.1, which I believe to be focused at the Isle of Quel'danas, you would have the unified Elves, the Amani Trolls, and the united Human Light faction going up against the forces of the Void at the Sunwell.

And then for 12.2, you'd have the ruins of K'aresh, us facing off against either Dimensius or (imo) the Worldsoul of K'aresh, and us seeing a proper Light Vs Shadow war being waged in the background.

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Also, too big an area? I mean, considering Blizzard is revamping Northrend in TLT, I wouldn't consider Northern EK to be "too big" at all.

The War Within is not the Nerbuian expansion. It is the underground expansion, and it delivers with that in being mostly set underground. Completely different to compare. More apt would be Shadowlands or Dragonflight, which all contained their major stories in the major theme of the expansion, Death and Dragons. For Midnight it is Elves, Light and Shadow.

Your human plotline doesn't make sense. As there is no human faction in Lordaeron. The Forsaken are there. And the forsaken have no beef with the humans anymore, only the scarlet crusade. A light human based story line would be out of touch for lordaeron. Even for the plaguelands as the Argent Crusade isn't a human faction.