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

[Khaza-R]

Orweyna's friend mentions "the Cradle" in the cinematic where he leaves. That's all we know.

Sounds more like a raid tbh. But who knows, I guess that could be it.

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Crazy how according to this thread, all zones could be grey blobs because casuals apparently don't give a shit about anything lmao.

I wonder why 7.3 is one of the most fondly remembered patches... hmm...

Personally I agree with you that people try to dismiss casual's interest too much but was Argus fondly remembered?

It certainly felt epic to go there and Antorus was fun. But I've never seen many people praising the zone design of Argus.

[Darkarath]

Personally I agree with you that people try to dismiss casual's interest too much but was Argus fondly remembered?

It certainly felt epic to go there and Antorus was fun. But I've never seen many people praising the zone design of Argus

IMO it is fair to say that Argus is fondly remembered. Was the best thing ever? No.

Legion did one thing better than any other expansion. It felt truly epic, which is why players tend to overlook its mistakes.

Don't get me wrong. Its the best WoW expansion, but at least for me, that main reason for that was the theme and epicness, not the content.

[Auxis]

Considering Rootlands are above Ringing Deeps - it seems logical. Another ways are tunnel above Waterworks and tunnel above Azj'Kahet. Multiple entrances are quite welcome.

Are they? Aren't the presumed Rootlands where the giant roots are coming out of the ceiling/walls which is on the west end of Hallowfall, while Ringing Deeps is on the opposite side of Hallowfall?

[Ersula]

Orweyna's friend mentions "the Cradle" in the cinematic where he leaves. That's all we know.

The speculation feels less directed than usual because of the Saga of three expansions. For all we know Rootlands & The Coreway are going to be locations in the other two expansions.

[Dracullus]

Probably the biggest thing against roolands being 11.2 is that we haven't even had a name drop for this supposed zone.

Pretty much every modern end game zone has been hinted at in-game by now. So this would definitley be a first if it just pops out of nowhere.

Worldcore was mentioned.

[Cheezits]

Between the info in the files, Orweyna's presence in Launch and Undermine campaign and her being in the cinematic, there is no denying that Rootlands was in the early phases of TWW. However we don't know if it got shifted due to Metzen coming on.

If any patch could be changed by him it was probably the last patch, as it was likely that Undermine was already being worked on when he came in.

[Joshuaj]

It's a little too obvious. It works, but I would prefer it in TWW so the finale of Midnight is not a rehash and is instead somewhere unexpected.

We do not know that Karesh is a stronghold of the void so we don't know if that's where we would even go to put a stop to the invasion.

I mean, if it's not K'aresh, then Midnight is still gonna likely end at somewhere major in terms of the Void.

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I genuinely just don't want to see K'aresh in Midnight. I rather they have a concise product rather than jumping all over the place in a expansion where cohesion would actually be a good idea. We need more structured products at this point, this whole bounce here and there continuously makes the product less engaging to consume because its' always just jumping from A to C rather than A to B.

I'd rather a wholly different concept happen like the assumed Renilash than K'aresh being squeezed into one of the Two Major Patches for the Midnight expansion.

Who's to say K'aresh won't be part of the Renilash conflict?

Renilash might primarily take place on Azeroth, but the final battleground might end up being off world.

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Between the info in the files, Orweyna's presence in Launch and Undermine campaign and her being in the cinematic, there is no denying that Rootlands was in the early phases of TWW. However we don't know if it got shifted due to Metzen coming on.

If any patch could be changed by him it was probably the last patch, as it was likely that Undermine was already being worked on when he came in.

I think y'all are overhyping just how much Metzen changed regarding story. Metzen joined in when TWW was getting its initial stuff going, and even then, TWW wasn't "TWW" yet. Metzen's additions + the change of making the next 3 expacs an entire saga helped shape TWW into the expansion we see today.

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The fact Orwenya's story involves the Worldsoul implies her arc was made with this saga in mind.

[Cheezits]

I think y'all are overhyping just how much Metzen changed regarding story. Metzen joined in when TWW was getting its initial stuff going, and even then, TWW wasn't "TWW" yet. Metzen's additions + the change of making the next 3 expacs an entire saga helped shape TWW into the expansion we see today.

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The fact Orwenya's story involves the Worldsoul implies her arc was made with this saga in mind.

Orweyna's story is tied to the Worldsoul. Her being in the cinematic as well as Rootlands in the mapfiles implies she was planned to be tied to TWW.

She can still easily be brought back for any expac that takes us to the core directly.

[Eldryth]

I definitely get the impression that Orwenya is sticking around. She's been serving as the closest thing we have to Azeroth's voice and her arc seems centered on that.

But whether we go to her home anytime soon is another question entirely. I fully expected it up until that really blunt K'aresh tease, but now, it seems like Orwenya leaving her people is a longer-term plotline than I thought, and we might not see other Haranir until a future expansion. Maybe that cutscene in 11.1 is where Metzen's story diverged from the original plans.

[Lady Atia]

I definitely get the impression that Orwenya is sticking around. She's been serving as the closest thing we have to Azeroth's voice and her arc seems centered on that.

But whether we go to her home anytime soon is another question entirely. I fully expected it up until that really blunt K'aresh tease, but now, it seems like Orwenya leaving her people is a longer-term plotline than I thought, and we might not see other Haranir until a future expansion. Maybe that cutscene in 11.1 is where Metzen's story diverged from the original plans.

I mean, in theory going back to the rootlands and the coreway for the finale of the saga would end where it all started, basically it's like poetry... it rhymes. That said, I still expect to get rootlands as some kind of catch up island for TWW, iirc the dev map wasn't really thaaaat huge anyways.

[Khaza-R]

I think y'all are overhyping just how much Metzen changed regarding story. Metzen joined in when TWW was getting its initial stuff going, and even then, TWW wasn't "TWW" yet. Metzen's additions + the change of making the next 3 expacs an entire saga helped shape TWW into the expansion we see today.

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The fact Orwenya's story involves the Worldsoul implies her arc was made with this saga in mind.

Really remains to be seen. But so far, 11.1.5 doesn't really seem to support there is strong follow through for the 11.0 story.

Nightfall appears to just be a scenario that was probably intended for 11.0.5 but was pushed back due to the anniversary.

Really nothing about Orwenya's story is linked to the WSS other than her hearing Azeroth's voice. But if that's the case then BfA needs to be tied to it as well since that's what that entire expansion was about. She definitley could of just been some na'vi ripoff that was forced into the story because the cinematic with her was already done.

[Makorus]

Sounds more like a raid tbh. But who knows, I guess that could be it.

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Personally I agree with you that people try to dismiss casual's interest too much but was Argus fondly remembered?

It certainly felt epic to go there and Antorus was fun. But I've never seen many people praising the zone design of Argus.

That's my point though. Casuals care more about the feel of a zone rather than the content/zone design, which is why it would be absolutely crazy to pivot from Karesh/Void Place to Rootlands even though they teased (arguably more) Karesh/Void Place

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Between the info in the files, Orweyna's presence in Launch and Undermine campaign and her being in the cinematic, there is no denying that Rootlands was in the early phases of TWW. However we don't know if it got shifted due to Metzen coming on.

If any patch could be changed by him it was probably the last patch, as it was likely that Undermine was already being worked on when he came in.

Rootlands literally was on the Alpha map, and internally, there is a zone missing between Hallowfall and Azjkahet (Isle of Dorn is Z1, RD is Z2, Hallowfall is Z3 and Azjkahet is Z5). Rootlands was labelled as Z4 on the old map.

[Dvalin]

Something as big and 'void-y' as K'aresh would be weird to have in a non-Midnight expansion like The War Within. Which theme is all about underground zones thus far.

The impact Metzen has had on the story is also very much open to speculation, as we have no clue whatsoever except for the part that they were working on TWW for 10 months when he came back. I doubt the Haronir would've been fleshed-out the way we see them in-game in such a short time. 10 Months feel like barely-out-of-concept-phase to me.

So, something like the World-Core as a zone, or Rootlands/the Cradle wouldn't be out of the question just yet. Those could still very well give us a big Ethereal presence and a nice way into Midnight.

[Cheezits]

Rootlands literally was on the Alpha map, and internally, there is a zone missing between Hallowfall and Azjkahet (Isle of Dorn is Z1, RD is Z2, Hallowfall is Z3 and Azjkahet is Z5). Rootlands was labelled as Z4 on the old map.

Yeah, that's why I mentioned the internal stuff.

[Nightshade711]

I can’t find it - but wasn’t there a shot of Orweyna by the world soul (or what was presumed to be the world soul) in one of the recent patch trailers?

Though I don’t think that’s happened in-game yet.

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Nvm I found it - was for going to Undermine.


It would be weird for there to be no real payoff for her or the Harronir/rootlands arc this xpac, but who knows.

[allegrian]

I just feel that whatever they were going to do in TWW was dropped, so bye bye haranir and rootlands. I hope midnight and TLT feel cohesive and they don't change direction mid expansion

[Hitei]

I just feel that whatever they were going to do in TWW was dropped, so bye bye haranir and rootlands.

But it very objectively wasn't. We literally had them doubling down on her relevancy THIS PATCH. There was no reason to put her into Undermine'd if they were cutting the storyline.

I also feel the need to point out yet again, that 11.1.5 triples down on it, because they tied the Visions re-hash system explicitly to how players need to prepare for coming battles and the mind-warping properties of Black Blood by looking out how during the Ny'alotha event Wrathion and MOTHER worked to counter N'zoth's visions. Again, why bring this up if they are pivoting to K'aresh? Why make a new system about the Black Blood and building resistance to it if we're not gonna be even on the same planet as Black Blood in 4 months?

I hope midnight and TLT feel cohesive and they don't change direction mid expansion

...by completely Khaz Algar to instead have an alien planet patch?

[allegrian]

But it very objectively wasn't. We literally had them doubling down on her relevancy THIS PATCH. There was no reason to put her into Undermine'd if they were cutting the storyline.

I also feel the need to point out yet again, that 11.1.5 triples down on it, because they tied the Visions re-hash system explicitly to how players need to prepare for coming battles and the mind-warping properties of Black Blood by looking out how during the Ny'alotha event Wrathion and MOTHER worked to counter N'zoth's visions. Again, why bring this up if they are pivoting to K'aresh?


...by completely Khaz Algar to instead have an alien planet patch?

I think they put her in undermine to make her feel somewhat relevant after ther base patch introduction considering they are dropping her patch. This way it doesn't feel as wasted, I mean she was in the cgi trailer...

[Hitei]

I think they put her in undermine to make her feel somewhat relevant after ther base patch introduction considering they are dropping her patch. This way it doesn't feel as wasted, I mean she was in the cgi trailer...

Because she is one of the major characters of the expansion. If they were cutting her, why would they keep reinforcing the idea that she is important? That is just setting it up to feel like even more of a "waste".

If they are dropping her patch, why are we preparing to face her enemy in 11.1.5 and not doing shit involving Ethereals?

[MCMLXXXII]

It's not unlike Blizzard to scratch ideas or leave open plot endings. They sped things up, so Rootlands missing might just be Farahlon 2.0