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

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Cosmic powers/threats are good when used with parsimony. The problem is Blizzard's storytelling has become mostly dependant on them

I personally just think they need to characterize stuff more but that costs money, so. Y'know. It unfortunately is a situation where characterization = higher cost = no go and we're kind of stuck in this quagmire where our A Plot just has these non descript, non characterized characters doing things that ultimately has zero context beyond background context for those who know everything.

There's a universe where Zovaals' character is actually far better if properly characterized even if his story would ultimately had to span more products than what was given. Doesn't mean I don't think that Shadowlands was doomed from the start and its larger scale context would have been impossible to fit into Shadowlands in the first place, but yeah they're just continuously using characters that at the end of the day lack characterization and context because of the cost burden and it ultimately leads to all these cosmic villains and the thingemajigs and other concepts to just feel excessively vapid as a means to move us to the next product.

[Joshuaj]

His actual statement was "as the forces of darkness close in around our previous world". Which is very generic. Idk how you can really discern a story direction from that. And quite honestly regardless of what direction 11.2 goes in, I am sure you can tie it back to that statement because its just incredibly vague to begin with.

"As the forces of darkness close in around our precious worldsoul" implies the Void wants to directly claim it. Xal'atath's whole schtick is that she wants the Worldsoul, and it's displayed VIA her darkness slowly encroaching around it.

I can't see the War Within not ending in us directly going to the Worldsoul to face Xal'atath or so.

[Tiradon]

I just saw the new patch news, and why the hell they time gated Horrific Visions? They then wonder why people unsub man...

[Khaza-R]

Somewhat unrelated but I think its cool they added living Voss to SoD

"As the forces of darkness close in around our precious worldsoul" implies the Void wants to directly claim it. Xal'atath's whole schtick is that she wants the Worldsoul, and it's displayed VIA her darkness slowly encroaching around it.

I can't see the War Within not ending in us directly going to the Worldsoul to face Xal'atath or so.

Again its a vague statement. Could be literal or not. I would not take it as an indication of anything.

[Telogrus]

I don’t think 11.2 will be Karesh, but for those who do, when will the Rootlands ever be featured in the game? It doesn’t fit in any expansion besides TWW, unless you think Blizz will turn it into an entire expansion (highly doubt)

[Khaza-R]

I don’t think 11.2 will be Karesh, but for those who do, when will the Rootlands ever be featured in the game? It doesn’t fit in any expansion besides TWW, unless you think Blizz will turn it into an entire expansion (highly doubt)

Same time as Faralohn and Thal'dranath

[Sondrelk]

I don’t think 11.2 will be Karesh, but for those who do, when will the Rootlands ever be featured in the game? It doesn’t fit in any expansion besides TWW, unless you think Blizz will turn it into an entire expansion (highly doubt)

At a stretch it could fit in TLT. Either for when we return to the World Soul at the very end of the expansion. Or less likely, just somewhere underground Northrend. With the explanation that that is how far away the Harranir travelled.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I don’t think 11.2 will be Karesh, but for those who do, when will the Rootlands ever be featured in the game? It doesn’t fit in any expansion besides TWW, unless you think Blizz will turn it into an entire expansion (highly doubt)

Rootlands into a World Soul equivalent raid, I suppose. I wouldn't be surprised if we get the most convoluted pretzel story because of the Saga and things are completely haphazardly placed in different order because it makes it seem like they know what they're doing.

I think if they do a K'aresh heel turn after the Undermine(d) epilogue then its fair to say they have no idea what they are doing.

[Cheezits]

At a stretch it could fit in TLT. Either for when we return to the World Soul at the very end of the expansion. Or less likely, just somewhere underground Northrend. With the explanation that that is how far away the Harranir travelled.

There is a very decent chance that Sholozar Basin was made by Elun'ahir getting yanked. It would explain Freya's involvement there at the very least.

[Merryck]

Same time as Faralohn and Thal'dranath

And Thros, Shadowlands.

[Lady Atia]

And Thros, Shadowlands.

Tbf, you can slot in Thros in any side patch and do a breather raid there. so nothing was lost there. If anything, having the Drust as enemies so close after BfA was weird anyways.

[Sondrelk]

Tbf, you can slot in Thros in any side patch and do a breather raid there. so nothing was lost there. If anything, having the Drust as enemies so close after BfA was weird anyways.

Made perfect sense during Shadowlands. An enemy that uses druidic death magic, attacking the zone all about rebirth.

[Cheezits]

I'm glad they saved the Drust for later as they are a very interesting faction and could be the ultimate foe against Elune and Life, if it's not the Gnolls themselves going crazy with decay.

They can also tie them into the Vrykul coming back in full force during TLT. Maybe confirm the Drust/Vrykul thing once and for all?

[Joshuaj]

I'm glad they saved the Drust for later as they are a very interesting faction and could be the ultimate foe against Elune and Life, if it's not the Gnolls themselves going crazy with decay.

They can also tie them into the Vrykul coming back in full force during TLT. Maybe confirm the Drust/Vrykul thing once and for all?

As cool as the Drust are, I want the enemy of Life to be some Transformers Beast Machines technological shit.

[Therougetitan]

The drust were wasted so much. They had light-blue death magic and their masks imbued with said magic had the ability to dominate the minds of those who wore it, sound familiar?. I do not understand how they did not tie them into the Jailer at all considering the emphasis on domination magic.

[Limayria]

The drust were wasted so much. They had light-blue death magic and their masks imbued with said magic had the ability to dominate the minds of those who wore it, sound familiar?. I do not understand how they did not tie them into the Jailer at all considering the emphasis on domination magic.

I wonder if they'll retroactively build on this when the drust show back up to try and add more context to the jailor

[milkmustache]

The drust were wasted so much. They had light-blue death magic and their masks imbued with said magic had the ability to dominate the minds of those who wore it, sound familiar?. I do not understand how they did not tie them into the Jailer at all considering the emphasis on domination magic.

Lol, I remember the speculation that the Jailer was Drust related due to the hole in his chest looking somewhat similar to some of the Drust bark aesthetics.

[Khaza-R]

Wasn't the Primus the one who created domination magic anyway? So wouldn't the link be between him and the Drust, not Zovaal.

Given the lack of any brokers, Cartel Xy, or Ven'ari in Undermine, I wouldn't expect Shadowlands updates anytime soon

[milkmustache]

Given the lack of any brokers, Cartel Xy, or Ven'ari in Undermine, I wouldn't expect Shadowlands updates anytime soon

This is my general feeling as well. Gallywix gave them a perfect opportunity to follow up on his interactions with the Brokers, who were one of the more enjoyed portions of Shadowlands. Blizzard deciding not to use that thread feels like a pretty decent indication that Shadowlands stuff isn't going to be relevant for a good long while.

And while I know there's a lot of speculation on the Ethereals relating to the Brokers, this is just speculation and theorizing based off of similar vibes. The displayed connection between this raid tier's final boss and the Brokers wasn't even picked up, so I can't imagine it'll be brought up for Ethereals.

[Khaza-R]

This is my general feeling as well. Gallywix gave them a perfect opportunity to follow up on his interactions with the Brokers, who were one of the more enjoyed portions of Shadowlands. Blizzard deciding not to use that thread feels like a pretty decent indication that Shadowlands stuff isn't going to be relevant for a good long while.

And while I know there's a lot of speculation on the Ethereals relating to the Brokers, this is just speculation and theorizing based off of similar vibes. The displayed connection between this raid tier's final boss and the Brokers wasn't even picked up, so I can't imagine it'll be brought up for Ethereals.

Unfortunate really. Tazavesh was one of the more fun pieces of lore from SL. Having some secret weapon Gallywix purchased from the Broker's as a deal would of been a perfect raid boss. So much so that them skipping it makes me think it was very intentional and not just a case of the devs forgetting about it.

Although I do really like the fan theory that he made some sort of deal with his afterlife. So I guess there's a sliver of a chance we could see some connection in the future.