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

[huth]

So according to you, Tauren only have 3 customization options? Hair, Face and Accessories?

With that kind of argumentation, you could even justify saying ever race only has two customisation options. Body and accessories.

[Cheezits]

Caring about facial expressions is wild when I would bet most players wear a helmet at all times.

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Really excited to see that raid renown is planned to stick around. I think there's a lot of potential for "unlocking" things in future zones through the raid-imagine if you could turn multiple new zones into "cities" with amenities just by running the raid casually over the weeks. You could make your home base Undermine, or Rootlands, or Zul'aman etc. And free raid portals across Azeroth just by consistently raiding.

I hope they retroactively add a track to Nerub'ar as it would be nice to make the City of Threads a proper city and there are a lot of unused nerubian mounts in the files.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

He added in a bunch of older characters to the saga. Outside of that, and maybe a couple other things, he was basically chill with the narrative direction,

Metzen was the one who came up with the saga and says him self that things in TWW had to be repurposed for it, he wasn’t following the direction they already had planned.

[Cheezits]

Metzen was the one who came up with the saga and says him self that things in TWW had to be repurposed for it, he wasn’t following the direction they already had planned.

I think Metzen pivoted away from the Arathi Emperor being an immediate villain, and a continuation of the "complete creative freedom" vibe shown in SL/DF/TWW where most things are OC factions, and instead turned things back to OG Warcraft with TBC Dimensius/Elves and then Northrend plus a continuation of Legion's ending. For what it's worth I think the Arathi are a pretty clever OC idea and I would've been interested in what the original story would be, though it may have been as simple as "help good rebel Faerin beat bad Emperor". As the "OC World" Trio goes I think TWW is the strongest conceptually, and I'm not sure how much of that is Metzen and how much of it is WoW's newest creative team finally finding the right balance between new ideas and existing concepts in Warcraft.

I'm also curious if Undermine was always planned for this expansion. I can see it being a suggestion from oldheads post-Danuser but it's such a fan favorite that it may have been the one "throw them a bone" patch in the expansion as everything else takes place in new areas.

[username993720]

The emotions of your characters never show in cinematics anyway. We only see important NPCs. And Locus Walker was awesome in the cinematic he was in, without the need of a face

His voice, maybe.
You guys are making it easier for the developers. Next thing, they'd introduce a limbless playable race, so they wouldn't need to animate it much.

So according to you, Tauren only have 3 customization options? Hair, Face and Accessories?

I meant categories.
And it ain't that exciting to choose between bandages or glow as a race's main features.

[Cheezits]

His voice, maybe.
You guys are making it easier for the developers. Next thing, they'd introduce a limbless playable race, so they wouldn't need to animate it much.

You'll never guess one of the more popular fan picks for races: Naga.

Also one of the most popular race requests is literally just Giant Human so arguing about what should and shouldn't be playable these days is silly.

[Khaza-R]

I think Metzen pivoted away from the Arathi Emperor being an immediate villain, and a continuation of the "complete creative freedom" vibe shown in SL/DF/TWW where most things are OC factions, and instead turned things back to OG Warcraft with TBC Dimensius/Elves and then Northrend plus a continuation of Legion's ending. For what it's worth I think the Arathi are a pretty clever OC idea and I would've been interested in what the original story would be, though it may have been as simple as "help good rebel Faerin beat bad Emperor". As the "OC World" Trio goes I think TWW is the strongest conceptually, and I'm not sure how much of that is Metzen and how much of it is WoW's newest creative team finally finding the right balance between new ideas and existing concepts in Warcraft.

I'm also curious if Undermine was always planned for this expansion. I can see it being a suggestion from oldheads post-Danuser but it's such a fan favorite that it may have been the one "throw them a bone" patch in the expansion as everything else takes place in new areas.

Arathi remind me a bit of Stormcast Eternals from AoS. And Metzen apparently is a big fan of those. So I wouldn't be suprised if that's a bit of the inspiration.

His voice, maybe.
You guys are making it easier for the developers. Next thing, they'd introduce a limbless playable race, so they wouldn't need to animate it much.

You act as if you don't have 25 other choices to emote facial expressions with .

[username993720]

You act as if you don't have 25 other choices to emote facial expressions with .

They can look like these:

They have wrappings.

[Enrif]

They can look like these:

They have wrappings.

but ethereals have no bodies. they are energy

[Cheezits]

They can look like these:
They have wrappings.

The more you mess with the design of Ethereals the closer you get into running into an issue of "that's not what they looked like we don't want that" that has been seen with previous races (Nightborne, Velf, Mechagnomes, Dracthyr).

We're already seeing it to an extent with the new models having very tight wrappings instead of spread out and floating like the OG models (a sacrifice I think that was made with playability in mind, otherwise why change it?)

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I think Metzen pivoted away from the Arathi Emperor being an immediate villain, and a continuation of the "complete creative freedom" vibe shown in SL/DF/TWW where most things are OC factions,

ya I wouldn’t be surprised if metzen pushed back/to the side the Arathi for the WSS and the original plan would have been for us to go straight from TWW to them instead to build up more evil light stuff.

[Khaza-R]

They can look like these:

They have wrappings.

But why though.

Somethings are appealing because they're alien and different. Its like the whole, 2-legged Naga suggestion. Like they could do that but then its also takes away what made them unique the in first place.

[Cheezits]

ya I wouldn’t be surprised if metzen pushed back/to the side the Arathi for the WSS and the original plan would have been for us to go straight from TWW to them instead to build up more evil light stuff.

Very likely IMO considering both Elun'ahir and Avaloren were namedropped in DF, Avaloren was actually in DF's prepatch. Between the "heretics" angle and the naming scheme being medieval I think it's fairly likely that was the original idea on where the Arathi are from, though I do find it odd that they never once mention it in TWW (so maybe plans have changed and the devs are still deciding on where they came from).

Azshara was also being built up in DF so maybe she would've appeared much sooner as well.

[milkmustache]

ya I wouldn’t be surprised if metzen pushed back/to the side the Arathi for the WSS and the original plan would have been for us to go straight from TWW to them instead to build up more evil light stuff.

Which I think would be a great call. I think it's a good idea for us to have some allies in the Arathi, especially with the Hallowfall Expedition who may learn to understand our culture better than the greater Empire ever could. That way when we land on the shores of Avaloren our reception is completely in the air. I think they'll ultimately become an enemy faction that have some allies within, but for the time being we need to learn more of their culture, see more of their motivations, and eventually learn why they may be an enemy to us.

[Cheezits]

Which I think would be a great call. I think it's a good idea for us to have some allies in the Arathi, especially with the Hallowfall Expedition who may learn to understand our culture better than the greater Empire ever could. That way when we land on the shores of Avaloren our reception is completely in the air. I think they'll ultimately become an enemy faction that have some allies within, but for the time being we need to learn more of their culture, see more of their motivations, and eventually learn why they may be an enemy to us.

I do hope that story delay doesn't mean that the Arathi hog spotlight from existing characters and factions in Midnight/TLT. I can see them staying behind to guard Beledar for that very reason post-TWW, but maybe Kyron and Faerin come with us to help?

[milkmustache]

Azshara was also being built up in DF so maybe she would've appeared much sooner as well.

With this in mind, the subtle reveal on Siren Isle that the Arathi are familiar with the Naga is a pretty big one. Whatever the situation with the Storming Sea is clearly doesn't apply to underneath the waves, and it's entirely possible that Azshara has some motivations for the otherside of Azeroth that she only discovered recently. I do sort of get the feeling that Azshara and the Naga in totality may be pushed to an Avaloren saga depending on the resolution of her leave in BFA.

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I do hope that story delay doesn't mean that the Arathi hog spotlight from existing characters and factions in Midnight/TLT. I can see them staying behind to guard Beledar for that very reason post-TWW, but maybe Kyron and Faerin come with us to help?

I think Faerin will stick around and in turn the Arathi will have a bit of prominence but with somewhat of a background approach. They'll just be another faction in the mix of what seems to be a massive war upcoming in Midnight. I think that small groups will settle formerly plagued areas of Lordaeron, maybe interact with the Scarlets. Just enough to see there's obviously something developing until TLT where we maybe learn they are the heretics?

[Cheezits]

With this in mind, the subtle reveal on Siren Isle that the Arathi are familiar with the Naga is a pretty big one. Whatever the situation with the Storming Sea is clearly doesn't apply to underneath the waves, and it's entirely possible that Azshara has some motivations for the otherside of Azeroth that she only discovered recently. I do sort of get the feeling that Azshara and the Naga in totality may be pushed to an Avaloren saga depending on the resolution of her leave in BFA.

It does fit with the only "throne of power" we actually know of on Azeroth besides Stormwind's being in the Empire. Hoping they go with the dueling Azshara/Arathi empires vs Kalimdor/EK thing, it's too good to pass up.

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Another thread made me wonder: who will be the Delve companion for Midnight? I think Liadrin's daughter or the Farstrider guy are both solid options, though it could be Zekhan.

[Eldryth]

But why though.

Somethings are appealing because they're alien and different. Its like the whole, 2-legged Naga suggestion. Like they could do that but then its also takes away what made them unique the in first place.

Agreed. I don't care whether it's easy for the devs or a ton of work, a cool design is still a cool design.

[Nymrohd]

It does fit with the only "throne of power" we actually know of on Azeroth besides Stormwind's being in the Empire. Hoping they go with the dueling Azshara/Arathi empires vs Kalimdor/EK thing, it's too good to pass up.

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Another thread made me wonder: who will be the Delve companion for Midnight? I think Liadrin's daughter or the Farstrider guy are both solid options, though it could be Zekhan.

I'd expect the True Throne of Power to be something bigger than a throne of a kingdom on Azeroth. I would assume it is something on a cosmic level; the throne of an Eternal in one of the Zereth's, the Seat of the Pantheon itself or maybe even whatever Throne the First Ones held.

[Cheezits]

I'd expect the True Throne of Power to be something bigger than a throne of a kingdom on Azeroth. I would assume it is something on a cosmic level; the throne of an Eternal in one of the Zereth's, the Seat of the Pantheon itself or maybe even whatever Throne the First Ones held.

I feel like Azshara's obsession with ruling Azeroth will take priority over the cosmos or all of reality. She's petty like that.

Though if there is any Azeroth villain to become a reality-destroying threat it would be her over anyone else.