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

[Viridiel]

You could just make it about setting up new necromancers who have set up shop in Straholme or something. Some vague threat like Decatriarch Wratheye that leaves at the end and is avaialble to be used for whatever future content when you need something scourge themed.

Not what you meant, but I was just about to bring up the fact that according to the cosmological chart, what you get when you combine Death and Void is Decay. Wratheye herself could genuinely be involved. I can't see her being a serious threat, but I could see there being a connection via the Amani. Decay is something I associate heavily with forest trolls, and it would be nice to properly explore the connections between the various "dark" forms of Nature magic--decay, blood, venom, etc.

I really think Stratholme would be a good way to plant some seeds for TLT. There could easily be a dungeon entrance at the back of Deathholme that takes us through to at least a part of Stratholme, demonstrating that someone is leading the Scourge again and they're even more coordinated than they were before Arthas died. We don't necessarily need to go to the Plaguelands or the rest of Lordaeron, though it's a genuine option.

[Dracullus]

...I completely forgot about Scholomance. This would make a LOT of sense considering they randomly introduced a simulacrum version of Kel'Thuzad so shortly after wasting him.

No, it really doesn't. Metzen said 3 things about Midnight: final clash with Void, bringing Elves together and Quel'Thalas/Sunwell. Meanwhile this forum dreams of Scourge expansion in Lordaeron and call concept of High/Blood Elf expansion boring. If that isn't setting yourself up for huge disappointment, I don't know what is.

[Sondrelk]

No, it really doesn't. Metzen said 3 things about Midnight: final clash with Void, bringing Elves together and Quel'Thalas/Sunwell. Meanwhile this forum dreams of Scourge expansion in Lordaeron and call concept of High/Blood Elf expansion boring. If that isn't setting yourself up for huge disappointment, I don't know what is.

I don't see why a Northern EK with Void as the primary threat, Elves as the primary questgivers, and Scourge, Amani, and Arathi/Scarlet Crusade as the individual zone antagonists makes less sense than the expansion that requires scaling up two vanilla sized zones by at least 5 times.

The threats i mentioned are the ones most likely to be in Midnight anyways, even if it was just Quel'thalas. All that changes by making the expansion Northern EK is that we get more iconic zones.

[Dvalin]

I don't see why a Northern EK with Void as the primary threat, Elves as the primary questgivers, and Scourge, Amani, and Arathi/Scarlet Crusade as the individual zone antagonists makes less sense than the expansion that requires scaling up two vanilla sized zones by at least 5 times.

The threats i mentioned are the ones most likely to be in Midnight anyways, even if it was just Quel'thalas. All that changes by making the expansion Northern EK is that we get more iconic zones.

It makes less sense, as the developers have said the following during the reveal/in interviews:
- We'll be explicitly returning to Quel'thalas.
- We'll see 4 zones at launch, etc. The same standard as tWW.
- The upcoming zones will be a 'revisited' version; Familiar, but more zoomed-in, to make room for 'sub'-cultures and the like. And also updated in size to properly support exploration and Dragonflying.

This implies we'll see Quel'thalas, not the rest of Lordaeron.

But regarding enemies: We obviously won't just deal with the Void and its minions. Some Amani warbands are definitely a good option, as well as Scourge warlords from Deatholme. People should just look at past expansions' zones and dungeons to get a good feeling about the variety the developers usually want to pursue.

But Scholomance? Kel'thuzad? The Scarlet Crusade? The Arathi Empire? Nah, not seeing that happen. The latter is also more fitting for a post-Worldsoulsaga expansion, as they've just been seeded in the lore.

[Melorandor]

I will be honest, I don't want Midnight expanded into Lordaeron, and prefer it be focused on Quel'thalas and Elves.

I'd rather see an expansion like Midnight focused on Lordaeron in the near future however.

[Sondrelk]

I will be honest, I don't want Midnight expanded into Lordaeron, and prefer it be focused on Quel'thalas and Elves.

I'd rather see an expansion like Midnight focused on Lordaeron in the near future however.

It would certainly be better. But it's also a massive reach to assume we will get all the old iconic zones revisited within our lifetimes. Even more so if we assume each zone is scaled up to a similar size required to make Quel'thalas work as a single expansion.

I would love nothing more than a Lordaeron focused expansion. I am just not sure I am willing to wait until 2040 to get it. Even more so when the Arathi will be long past by then.
Right now is the best time to have a Northern EK expansion.

[Dvalin]

It would certainly be better. But it's also a massive reach to assume we will get all the old iconic zones revisited within our lifetimes. Even more so if we assume each zone is scaled up to a similar size required to make Quel'thalas work as a single expansion.

I would love nothing more than a Lordaeron focused expansion. I am just not sure I am willing to wait until 2040 to get it. Even more so when the Arathi will be long past by then.
Right now is the best time to have a Northern EK expansion.

But that isn't coming; They haven't announced such a thing. Nothing has been said about some kind of multi-expansion rework of the old world. Just that we return to two specific places, updated and all that, namely Quel'thalas and Northrend.

[Sondrelk]

But that isn't coming; They haven't announced such a thing. Nothing has been said about some kind of multi-expansion rework of the old world. Just that we return to two specific places, updated and all that, namely Quel'thalas and Northrend.

They said we are returning to Quel'thalas and Ulduar. For some reason assuming Ulduar actually means Northrend is all good. But assuming Quel'thalas means the surrounding zones as well is a complete reach. Never got that...

Regardless. It's more about Quel'thalas itself not having enough content at the moment to warrant a full expansion. And if you want to expand, then you have the Amani, Scourge, and Arathi as the obvious candidates. All of whom have perfect zones just outside Quel'thalas.

Also, expanding Quel'thalas means it almost certainly won't be seamless with the rest of EK. Which nullifies one of the big draws with remaking it at all. One of the big ones that players have wanted since TBC.
Maybe it's a small niggle for some, but it is valid to point out that it will make Quel'thalas completely incongruous with the surrounding zones.

[Dracullus]

It would certainly be better. But it's also a massive reach to assume we will get all the old iconic zones revisited within our lifetimes. Even more so if we assume each zone is scaled up to a similar size required to make Quel'thalas work as a single expansion.

I would love nothing more than a Lordaeron focused expansion. I am just not sure I am willing to wait until 2040 to get it. Even more so when the Arathi will be long past by then.
Right now is the best time to have a Northern EK expansion.

You made many assumptions to convince yourself Northern EK expansion is only good choice for 12.0.

No, if 'classic' EK revamp will be separate route, they don't have to split it into 10 expansion, 2 would be fine (imo split on Thandol Span would be perfect), 3 would be plenty. Now add (pretty optimistic, I know) that expansion length is 19 months (no 2.6 in roadmap suggest this as goal for TWW). This way 3rd 'classic' expac would come in 2032. Of course it's made up scenario, just like yours "I won't see end of this in my lifetime", but at least I base it on something.

I won't stop you from dreaming that Midnight will be something more they announced on Blizzcon, we are speculating so anything is possible. I have just one request - please don't spam this thread how dissapointing it is that Midnight is exactly same thing they already announced.

By the way, outside main zones, I think there is big chance that Orgrimmar and Stormwind will be revamped along with neighbourhoods.

They said we are returning to Quel'thalas and Ulduar. For some reason assuming Ulduar actually means Northrend is all good. But assuming Quel'thalas means the surrounding zones as well is a complete reach. Never got that...

"In this chapter, you will again be returning to the Old World, but this time to the wintry lands of Northrend" - actual quote from Metzen.

[Dvalin]

They said we are returning to Quel'thalas and Ulduar. For some reason assuming Ulduar actually means Northrend is all good. But assuming Quel'thalas means the surrounding zones as well is a complete reach. Never got that...

Regardless. It's more about Quel'thalas itself not having enough content at the moment to warrant a full expansion. And if you want to expand, then you have the Amani, Scourge, and Arathi as the obvious candidates. All of whom have perfect zones just outside Quel'thalas.

Also, expanding Quel'thalas means it almost certainly won't be seamless with the rest of EK. Which nullifies one of the big draws with remaking it at all. One of the big ones that players have wanted since TBC.
Maybe it's a small niggle for some, but it is valid to point out that it will make Quel'thalas completely incongruous with the surrounding zones.

Metzen on Midnight: 'In this expansion you'll be returning to the old world, to the fabled lands of Quel'thalas...'
Doesn't sound like Lordaeron to me.

Metzen on the Last Titan: 'In this chapter you'll again be returning to the old world. This time, to the wintery lands of Northrend. And there, at Ulduar, you'll bear witness to the return of the Titans.'

As has been told in interviews, they're upscaling the zones. They'll be more detailled and larger than their 2005 versions. For obvious reasons. So, encountering the Amani and the Scourge as secondary antagonists (after the Void and its minions) is indeed reasonable. But probably within the confines of a Quel'thalas sub-continent. And, yeah, it will probably stay incongruous with the older zones to its south.

[Ersula]

Metzen on Midnight: 'In this expansion you'll be returning to the old world, to the fabled lands of Quel'thalas...'
Doesn't sound like Lordaeron to me.

Yes, but in promoting TWW they didn't say we'd be visiting Undermine either, even though that's the first thing people jumped to when proposing an underground expansion. Same with Legion & Argus. The issue here being if you were to re-attach Silvermoon to the rest of the world map some of Lordaeron would also have to be altered. If that's not a pretense to update lordaeron I don't know what is.

- - - Updated - - -

As has been told in interviews, they're upscaling the zones. They'll be more detailled and larger than their 2005 versions.

They said they'd be "expanding" on Quelthalas. That doesn't necessarily mean making the existing lands bigger. (Again, how the hell do you make the Eversong region physically bigger while also attaching it to the existing Lordaeron?) It's more likely they mean adding new (Island) zones to the west, north and east of Silvermoon.

[Dvalin]

Yes, but in promoting TWW they didn't say we'd be visiting Undermine either, even though that's the first thing people jumped to when proposing an underground expansion. Same with Legion & Argus. The issue here being if you were to re-attach Silvermoon to the rest of the world map some of Lordaeron would also have to be altered. If that's not a pretense to update lordaeron I don't know what is.

- - - Updated - - -

They said they'd be "expanding" on Quelthalas. That doesn't necessarily mean making the existing lands bigger. (Again, how the hell do you make the Eversong region physically bigger while also attaching it to the existing Lordaeron?) It's more likely they mean adding new (Island) zones to the west, north and east of Silvermoon.

I'll be reposting the quote from the interview again:
"We’re giving our world builders some free rein to expand. Those areas may be geographically larger than they were. That’ll give them more opportunities to introduce some of the smaller points of interest where you’ll have a culture or a local tribe and give them the ability to have storylines that center on that. We don’t want people to feel like, oh, wait a minute, it’s that same place I know. It’s gonna feel like the same place; it’s just that it is literally going to be a little bit larger than what you’ve experienced. Flight being much more accessible, we need to have a larger landmass for people to be able to explore.”


Anyway, I'm talking content at launch. Not patch-content. Undermine fits the War Within theme, and a Light/Void 'zone' could be the one for Midnight (maybe even Ka'resh, if we don't visit it in 11.2). Also, the border between a hypothetical (new) Quel'thalas and (old) Lordaeron is not an issue invisible walls/mountains can't fix. Such a version of Quel'thalas would function the same as the myriad of island-continents we've been given over the years.

[Ersula]

I'll be reposting the quote from the interview again:
"We’re giving our world builders some free rein to expand. Those areas may be geographically larger than they were. That’ll give them more opportunities to introduce some of the smaller points of interest where you’ll have a culture or a local tribe and give them the ability to have storylines that center on that. We don’t want people to feel like, oh, wait a minute, it’s that same place I know. It’s gonna feel like the same place; it’s just that it is literally going to be a little bit larger than what you’ve experienced. Flight being much more accessible, we need to have a larger landmass for people to be able to explore.”.

You just said they'd be upscaling the entire zone, which is stupid and not what the above quote describes. Moving a few coastlines & adding islands is still more likely based on what they said.

And nobody was saying a Lordaeron revamp would be coming at launch. Everyone's been proposing it as patch zone content, because they love patch zones for some insufferable reason.

[Dvalin]

You just said they'd be upscaling the entire zone, which is stupid and not what the above quote describes. Moving a few coastlines & adding islands is still more likely based on what they said.

And nobody was saying a Lordaeron revamp would be coming at launch. Everyone's been proposing it as patch zone content, because they love patch zones for some insufferable reason.

What the devs in the interview mention is actual upscaling/the enlarging of zones. I mean, we read the same bit of text, didn't we? Saw the same interviews with the devs, and the same announcements?

Not sure about your second point, too. Plenty of people are (falsely) expecting a Northern EK revamp. That's not patch-content.

[Joshuaj]

I don't think it's entirely unfair to assume people want at least the Plaguelands updated, especially since the expansion itself is about the Void's invasion on Azeroth + the Light's battle with the Void.

- - - Updated - - -

I'll be reposting the quote from the interview again:
"We’re giving our world builders some free rein to expand. Those areas may be geographically larger than they were. That’ll give them more opportunities to introduce some of the smaller points of interest where you’ll have a culture or a local tribe and give them the ability to have storylines that center on that. We don’t want people to feel like, oh, wait a minute, it’s that same place I know. It’s gonna feel like the same place; it’s just that it is literally going to be a little bit larger than what you’ve experienced. Flight being much more accessible, we need to have a larger landmass for people to be able to explore.”


Anyway, I'm talking content at launch. Not patch-content. Undermine fits the War Within theme, and a Light/Void 'zone' could be the one for Midnight (maybe even Ka'resh, if we don't visit it in 11.2). Also, the border between a hypothetical (new) Quel'thalas and (old) Lordaeron is not an issue invisible walls/mountains can't fix. Such a version of Quel'thalas would function the same as the myriad of island-continents we've been given over the years.

I'm gonna keep it 100 with y'all: Please maybe expect a Naga based zone off the coasts of Quel'thalas for 12.1 lol, cause y'all know damn well that might happen.

[Melorandor]

It would certainly be better. But it's also a massive reach to assume we will get all the old iconic zones revisited within our lifetimes. Even more so if we assume each zone is scaled up to a similar size required to make Quel'thalas work as a single expansion.

I would love nothing more than a Lordaeron focused expansion. I am just not sure I am willing to wait until 2040 to get it. Even more so when the Arathi will be long past by then.
Right now is the best time to have a Northern EK expansion.

I think it might be sooner than realized. I think there will be some not so major but not really minor re visitation to Lordaeron during The Last Titan, and maybe Midnight.

I think in Midnight we will probably some stuff happen to the EPL.

[Dvalin]

I don't think it's entirely unfair to assume people want at least the Plaguelands updated, especially since the expansion itself is about the Void's invasion on Azeroth + the Light's battle with the Void.

- - - Updated - - -



I'm gonna keep it 100 with y'all: Please maybe expect a Naga based zone off the coasts of Quel'thalas for 12.1 lol, cause y'all know damn well that might happen.

With Azshara aligning herself with the Void, we might indeed see her during Midnight. Though I don't think the Naga are one of the 'Elven clans' mentioned by Metzen. I think the more 'traditional' elves were meant (Quel'dorei, Sin'dorei, Kal'dorei, Ren'dorei and Shal'dorei).

[Joshuaj]

With Azshara aligning herself with the Void, we might indeed see her during Midnight. Though I don't think the Naga are one of the 'Elven clans' mentioned by Metzen. I think the more 'traditional' elves were meant (Quel'dorei, Sin'dorei, Kal'dorei, Ren'dorei and Shal'dorei).

I think 12.0 will primarily focus on uniting the Elves once more, with 12.1 being focused on the Naga, and 12.2 being focused on the final battle of Renilash.

[Dracullus]

With Azshara aligning herself with the Void, we might indeed see her during Midnight. Though I don't think the Naga are one of the 'Elven clans' mentioned by Metzen. I think the more 'traditional' elves were meant (Quel'dorei, Sin'dorei, Kal'dorei, Ren'dorei and Shal'dorei).

I think 'scattered elven clans' mentioned by Metzen are just Blood/High/Void Elves (+ maybe some Dark Rangers if Sylvanas will be back) and whole plot will be simply their return to Silvermoon. Night Elves and Nightborne already have their homes.

By the way, where you expect next neighborhoods? If my theory that it will come with Orgrimmar/Stormwind revamp is correct, imo we should first look at places with modern capitals. Obviously neutral Silvermoon (both for High and Blood Elves) is certain in Midnight, imo next could be Goblins (Undermine central station has even unused metro line for that) and Night Elves (Amirdrassil).

Undead/Worgen/Tauren/Draenei definitely needs city revamp, Wandering Isle for Pandaren is little bit better, not sure if Dwarves/Gnomes will be covered by Stormwind or separate thing. And before them we probably see at least 1 neutral in Northrend.

[Worldshaper]

Well I've looked into the West Studio concept art some more. In fact, I've mapped them all out in a document in order to identify themes and patterns.

Category 1 - Coreways and Doorways

• Three images.
• Two of these images depict four different takes on doorways or entrances into mountains or down into the ground.
• These four doorways/entrances share deep similarities with the Arathi (knightly towers around a pit whose walls are lined with bricks or stone), the Earthen (the Coreway specifically), the Nerubians (a crude cave entrance unfit for humanoids, covered with webs), and a fourth race (magical mushroom portal to presumably the Haranir).
• The third image depicts a few different things, but seemingly secret entrances in motion. One displays a pool of water inside an underground chamber, with the water moving out of the way to reveal a black orb. Could be an early take on the Dark Heart perhaps, not sure. The second displays a doorway with intricate locking mechanisms and inscribed with runes. The third shows a triangle-shaped wall with a circular doorway that opens up.

Category 2 - Sector AR-938 Fissures

• This category of images contains 4 images.
• They each show a different type of massive entrance into the earth from above. Different variants.
• Version 1 is sort of an old mine with jagged cliffs shaped by mining presumably. Version 2 shows sort of an opening between two cliffsides in a mountain. Version 3 is a swirling vortex in the ocean, similar to the Maelstrom. Version 4 is more of what you'd expect when you hear "rift". It's a huge gash in the earth, in the middle of a river. Energy emanates out from it, upwards.
• So clearly, this shows that they were toying with the idea of Sector AR-938 and its anomalous fissure that the Earthen detected and built Khaz Algar around.

Category 3 - Exploring Entrances with "Axe Dude"

• There's a large category of images that all depict a silhouette of a little dude wielding an axe. In each image, he is standing in a vast landscape, looking at a massive cave entrance. Unlike Category 1 and 2, these feel more like regular old cave entrances into the side of a wall, but in different styles.
• Some are more crystaline, some look like sandstone in a desert with natural holes appearing to form the entrance (bug's nest kinda thing), some are more rocky, some are in water, some are even portals opening inside a tree, or in the ground.
• These images clearly just play with different ideas of how to enter different caves (zones) inside Khaz Algar. Among them we find the different races' visual themes: crystals for Hallowfall, the tree for "Rootlands", the bug's nests and swirling dark pit in the ground for Azj-Kahet, and the more rocky ones for the Earthen zones.

Category 4 - "Axe Dude" Ventures Through Khaz Algar

• These images use the same silhouette of an axe-wielding dude from the previous category. But in these images (about 24 of them), he is instead seen exploring different types of areas underground.
• The areas have these general themes: Roman-like viaducts, bridges, towers and staircases (presumably Earthen), more naturally fomed underground caves with crystals, some type of fluid forming rivers, waterfalls and even floating blobs, various crystaline tunnels, an open space with Hallowfall-like clouds and castles, and then lastly a dark space near water (making boats and airships a necessity) featuring hands and the eye of a Titan-like female character.
• So to summarise, it looks like this dude first ventured through an Earthen-like area, then an Arathi-like area, and also an area seemingly filled with Black Blood.

Category 5 - Exploring Fungi with "Orc"

• These images (10 in total) all feature the silhouette of an orcish adventurer. All he's doing is standing in, and looking at, different landscapes filled with fungi.
• Curiously, one of the images show him inside a crystal-powered baloon, flying inside a large cave towards a cave entrance. This cave entrance has Earthen or Arathi themed towers outside of it. Around the cave there is a massive skeleton of some type of beast lodged in the cave wall. There also seems to be an airborne stream of some type of energy moving either into the next cave through the entrance, or out from it. This flow of energy could be interpreted as different things, from Black Blood to swarms of locusts, or something else entirely. But curiously, the basket of the baloon he's riding in gives off some type of static charge when it touches this flow.
• My take: the orc symbolises somebody traveling into an early take on the "rootlands," e.g. a fungal-themed area, which he then explores.

Category 6 - Finding Dead Gods with "Generic Adventurer Guy"

• This one is interesting to say the least. Every image, about 14 of them, uses the silhouette of a dude wielding a sword. But he's sort of hastily drawn, so he lacks distinguishing features. The only thing you can clearly tell is that it's the same dude on all of these images.
• What this guy does is literally just travel through a landscape of dead gargantuan creatures, whose appearances range all the way from giant snakes or dinosaurs to Old Gods and other eldritch beings. Notably, all the ones he encounters are dead. Some long dead, some recently and dripping with blood.
• There are also some images that show this guy traveling through a landscape, which basically has three styles: Earthen-like massive bridges and stairways, including one that really looks like a labyrinth, towers filled with glowing crystals, and then lastly some some of landscapr featuring huge plants and waterfalls. This last scene looks more natural.
• My take: This guy seems to be travelling into Khaz Algar, finding the corpses of Old Gods and similar creatures strewn everywhere.

Category 7 - Exploring the Holy City with the "Swordsman"

• There seem to be as few as four images in this category, but they are some of the most detailed among all of them.
• What they show is a regal looking swordsman in a cape, exploring a vast cave with a crystaline cieling and with a human-themed city settings (clock tower, watch towers, bridges, and so on) whose walls are inscribed with glowing runes.
• There's also two images with what looks like the same swirling mass of energy I described in category 5, looking like it is destroying towers chaotically. Some kind of destructive, evil force that wants to tear down this holy city.
• My take: this is basically an early Hallowfall concept.

Category 8 - Epic moments with "Tyrael"

• These 7 images all use the silhouette of a dude who looks a bit like Tyrael in Diablo 3, after he fell to Sanctuary.
• He is seen looking at different chambers, that all look very epic and important.
• One shows a massive sword and helmet of what was once presumably a Titan or something similar. One shows the skeleton of a massive beast, lodged in a cave wall as it eats the skeleton of another ancient beast. A third shows rivers of some type of liquid, with a black orb floating mid-air. The next one shows a lake surrounded by bones, with something going on in the middle causing the water to erupt. The next one shows a labyrinthine chamber with cracks forming in the floor to create a circular pattern, with a liquid like lava or something glowing from between the cracks. Then we have a rocky pathway being destroyed, leading to stony towers further ahead. All around the character we see lava or some other type of liquid floating up in the air from below. Lastly, one image shows a ritual chamber filled with crytals that emit light, and some type of platform where people in robes carry out a ritual.
• This category is a bit harder to interpret, but I get the feeling that they simply wanted a bunch of epic scenes inspired by a few core concepts, such as "ancient Titans", "Lightsworn acolytes", "dead gargantuans", and so on.

Category 9 - Overgrown

• This category is literally just two images, using the same silhouette of a dude with a sword. He's looking at two different underground chambers, one o which looks like it was once inhabited by Earthen, and they're both overgrown by strange plants and fungi.

Category 10 - "Pinhead" in the Dungeon

• This category uses the silhouette of a dude with a very small and narrow head. He wields a sword, which sometimes looks like a kris.
• The 4 images basically show him arriving at some type of dungeon. First he sees a central and very large pillar inside some type of settlement. On top of the pillar is a massive crystal with an Old God in it.
• Then we see him inside a room that looks like it is inside the pillar. Basically just mushrooms growing on the walls and lianas hanging from the roof. It looks a bit like light is coming in from above.
• The next image we see him inside another chamber, with massive cracks forming in the floor with smoke and fire, and a huge demonic and protruding from the cracks.
• Another image shows him inside a similar room. Only this time, there are black pillars inscribed with glowing lines and runes. Through some type of portal mid-air, a massive tentacle appears and begins tearing the pillars down.
• The final image shows him inside a huge room, looking at an absolutely massive Old God-like creature. Tentacles everywhere. It's not entirely clear if the creature is living or dead,

Category 11 - Other

• This is basically just a category of images I haven't been able to clearly categorise. Mostly because the characters shown in them don't super clearly resemble the other ones that I've seen in most of the other images. But I could be wrong. Sometimes one of them might just be drawn slightly different.
• Either way, these images (about 30-40 of them) depic different scenes, but man of them look very epic and important.
• One group of them show the massive skeleton of an ancient beast, possibly of Old God origin based on its many tendrils and eye sockets.
• One group of images show vast hallways and chambers that look important. Sort of raid instance levels of important. I guess you could say they look a bit like what I would imagine a Titan-forged raid would look like.
• Several images feature Hallowfall-esque themes, with castles and crystals in a large cave, an underground ocean with a notable crystal nearby, clouds, and so on.
• Some images show fairly generic looking underground chambers that look like they've been inhabited at some point. But it's hard to tell what theme they have.
• Lots of black orbs, planet-like spheres seemingly being destroyed by the magical energy flow I mentioned earlier, and so on.
• Also more Old God-like beings, some dead and some encased in crystals.

TL;DR

Again, to me is abundantly clear that at the very least, these themes were clearly established already with these images:

• Holy underground human city (Arathi/Hallowfall)
• Roman or Titan-like ancient stonework and hallways à la Khazad Dum (Earthen)
• Mushrooms and fungi (pretty prevalent in the Freysworn theme, featured in several delves and very common down in Azj-Kahet and around the entrance to "Rootlands". While we don't really see the Haranir styled huts (giant leaves), that might just be because they hadn't developed their concept very much at the time. One of the gateways I mentioned earlier is clearly very mushroom-themed so it does feel like they had something in mind at least.
• Old God-like creatures, both dead, living, and trapped in crystal.
• Spheres: black spheres, crystal spheres, and planet-like spheres.
• Some type of hidden Titan-presence, given the massive sword and helmet, and the glimpses of some type of gargantuan female down below.
• A type of fluid, as well as an airborne type of energy flow, both of which seem destructive, and feel very reminiscent of Black Blood.

As such, we are faced with a choice.

Either:

A - we believe Blizzard is completely incompetent and void of any creative inspiration themselves, so they literally built an entire expansion and the next 10 years of lore based on concept art some third party studio made.

B - we believe that Blizzard had an early idea in mind of what the underground expansion would entail, but they needed help envisioning these environments and landscapes. So they hired West Studio, gave them a bunch of loose prompts, and then used some of their work in-game (however losely).

Personally I believe in B, because it is the only choice that makes sense to me.

From this follows that we need to take all of these concept art pieces seriously. The known themes of Earthen, Nerubians, the remnants of the Old Gods, and the Hallowfall Arathi have all played out already. The Titan bits might simply be our Worldsoul story. But we are yet to find out if there will be a pivot to the other themes found in these images:

• "Mushrooms" (a.k.a. the "Rootlands", Haranir and Freysworn).
• Undersea and/or some type of "below Hallowfall" story.
• Some type of unexpected return of Old Gods, perhaps involving the crystals, Black Blood, etc.
• The Earthen theme progressing into an Uldaz raid perhaps, which might feature a ton of hidden secrets and evils lurking.

One fun theory I have is that the images could literally show the other Old Gods, dead. With Y'shaarj being the skeleton since it seems to match a bit with images we have of him, and then the 5th Old God being whatever is trapped down there.

I also wonder what all those spheres are about, and if they have some connection to either the Dark Heart, the worldsoul, or what we've all assumed is K'aresh in the cutscene from Undermine(d).

It'll be fun to hear what they have going on over the next few weeks, that's for sure!