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

[Kiivar86]

Also how old are Ethereals? They could be 100.000 years old for all that we know. Not just Locus Walker, but ALL Ethereals, because I'm guessing that they are unable to reproduce, and we have killed a few thousands already. Just how many of them were in K'aresh?

The boss entry for Soulbinder Naazindhri seems to imply that there's just still Ethereal souls out in the Twisting Nether just floating about:

Without Soulbinder Naazindhri, the immense army ofthe Shadowguard would not exist. Coaxing the souls of ethereals out of the Twisting Nether, the Soulbinder binds them in living silk and in purpose to serve the Shadowguard. While using the Shadowguard to defend herself, she also considers them her children. Slaying them will only focus her ire.

Could be many souls of those from K'aresh are still out there, I suppose.

[Hitei]

How? How it chased Locus Walker? Doesn't make much sense.

Why wouldn't it make sense? Void creatures and void wielding beings have always been able to open rifts and portals across long distances. It was just hanging out in Telogrus with the countless other void creatures, Locus-Walker was the one who felt it and decided to go pursue it.

[Cheezits]

I mean I am happy that we are kind of having a Argus situation here, but.. I feel like the fact no one internally recognize how much more interesting it'd be if we had some sort of handoff of the Dark Heart from Azir to Salhadaar and then the emergence of Dimensius himself being actually shown.

Spoilers but in 11.2 the campaign has a lot of assumptions that Salhadaar is dead, ie TBC, and it's supposed to be a reveal that he isn't right before the raid. While that kind of cinematic would be cool it would spoil the narrative they are going for. Maybe they'll still do something like that, as there currently isn't a patch opening cinematic.

[Darkarath]

Could be many souls of those from K'aresh are still out there, I suppose.

Or that they just return to the Twisting Nether when they die. I believe that it was confirmed that they don't go to the Shadowlands.

I mean the excuse that they are just millions of Ethereals souls in the space and that someone could grab them, wrap them, and make them fight for whatever cause is kind of lame.

I'm leaning towards not liking the short story. Explanations seem very vague.

"Reshii Ribbon have been with us for generations but we don't know shit about them".

"Reshii Ribbon make this and that because... Magic !"

[Merryck]

How does this compare to A Thousand Years of War? Because that audio novella was peak.

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Fuaarrkk man, they can't give the Ethereals this much lore and not make them playable.

[Nymrohd]

I've always thought Sylvanas looking like a sexy Drow with running mascara detracted from her character. She'd have been much cooler looking like an actual corpse.

As for Nathanos, he'd need a personality transplant to be something else than an elf's annoying simp, and thus wouldn't be Nathanos anymore. The expansion is likely to be so overloaded with characters as it is between the barrage of elves of a dozen flavors, and the Light adjacent characters, and the Void adjacent characters, and whatever new characters perhaps make their appearance, that I don't see a real reason for him to be back. Sylvanas might make it due to hype, she might have enough fans left. Close to nobody is hyped for Nathanos.

If she looked like this

it would have made so much more sense for the Forsaken to empathize with her and it would have made it feel less like a cult.

[Hitei]

Some kind of music themed class that blends bard, dancer and ??? if there's a third spec. Unsure what the third would be but a musical class would fit the overall Radiant Song theme. If Ethereals are playable it would fit them and it feels vaguely Elf-y for Midnight.

Or it's a a dancer class that makes music.

It'd just be Bard with a spec called spell-dancer. Just like Brewmaster was made a spec of a generalized "Monk" class. Dancing has been a normal bard subtype for decades.

[Darkarath]

It'd just be Bard with a spec called spell-dancer. Just like Brewmaster was made a spec of a generalized "Monk" class. Dancing has been a normal bard subtype for decades.

A Bard class would be peak. It also fits Midnight Elven theme quite well IMO. Also, any race could become one.

Would love to see it become a reality, but I don't believe that is that relevant in the story. Technomancer seems more important and I doubt that we are getting them as a class/spec.

[Nymrohd]

Ok the narration is solid but when he tries to do Alleria it's hilarious.

[Timester]

"Reshii Ribbon make this and that because... Magic !"

But it is literal magic, it's literally transforming the flesh into arcane energy. We already saw this with Khadgar and how he survived the Dark Heart consuming Dalaran.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Spoilers but in 11.2 the campaign has a lot of assumptions that Salhadaar is dead, ie TBC, and it's supposed to be a reveal that he isn't right before the raid. While that kind of cinematic would be cool it would spoil the narrative they are going for. Maybe they'll still do something like that, as there currently isn't a patch opening cinematic.

Oh okay that makes sense, still. I feel like this product needs to be tightened up more. Yes, its cool that you have a 1 hour and 30 minute audio novella but like.. Why is everything so backwards here, this is why I feel like the Patch Trailers suddenly being gone after they worked in Dragonflight only to then remove it because of the Fyrakk memes in 10.2 it just IDK.

Honestly, I have no idea what to make of the whole "Oh you see Azir at the end of the campaign and he's a Nexus-Prince" thing it just made me go "holy fuck, what is going on." I have to assume that something happened between Phase-thief Azir turning into Nexus-prince Azir.

I just don't know whats' going on anymore, its so headache inducing the way they write and structure at this point and at the same time its like I cannot know if they are serious about this story stuff or not. Its 'like completely impossible for me to make any estimation at this point where we are on the scale of "don't give a fuck" to "we really deeply care".

[Lady Atia]

How does this compare to A Thousand Years of War? Because that audio novella was peak.

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Fuaarrkk man, they can't give the Ethereals this much lore and not make them playable.

Funny enough, I think this novella has the same problem the Sylvanas novel back in Shadowlands had - it should have been the actual prequel novel for these Expansions instead of the shitty ones we got. I mean, better late than never and I get it, it would have spoiled Karesh but honestly, that wouldn't have been a bad thing if it hyped up TWW a lot more ....

I mean, we knew we fought fight Arthas in WotLK, we knew Deathwing was the end goal of Cataclysm and we knew Garrosh and the SoO was coming when MoP was announced. Everytime they try to "surprise" us it's never working as good as having a clear end goal for an Expansion to look forward to ...

Edit: Iirc "War of the Scaleborn" also got delayed because they seemed to be scared of the idea that the Primal Incarnates actually got buildup before we got introduced to them ingame ... and when it came out, again it was too late as this kind of teasing buildup only works BEFORE an expansion, not as something we experience ALONGSIDE the stuff it's building up too oO

Like, it would have been cool to read about that stuff during the prepatch only to than SEE it ingame during the next few months.

[Darkarath]

But it is literal magic, it's literally transforming the flesh into arcane energy. We already saw this with Khadgar and how he survived the Dark Heart consuming Dalaran.

Yeah with a little difference. Khadgar did it on purpose to survive. The Reshii Ribbons are presumably a pilar of Ethereal culture and they don't know anything about them, not even how they work, not even Locus Walker knew, and suddenly they start to transform the K'areshi for no reason? Just when they needed something to survive. How convenient.

I haven't look much into 11.2 story. I know that we will have our Reshii Ribbon and that there is some lore about them but I doubt that it would answer these questions in a satisfactory way.

[Cheezits]

So I checked the K'aresh zones and Ma’nussa, one of the two named areas of K'aresh and Locus-Walker's home, is not on the map. Maybe it's going to be a patch zone?

Interestingly enough, Ky'veza was the leader of Ma'nussa. There is also a diferently titled Ky'veza NPC without a model hooked up.

https://www.wowhead.com/ptr-2/npc=248134/kyveza

[Houle]

Funny enough, I think this novella has the same problem the Sylvanas novel back in Shadowlands had - it should have been the actual prequel novel for these Expansions instead of the shitty ones we got. I mean, better late than never and I get it, it would have spoiled Karesh but honestly, that wouldn't have been a bad thing if it hyped up TWW a lot more ....

I mean, we knew we fought fight Arthas in WotLK, we knew Deathwing was the end goal of Cataclysm and we knew Garrosh and the SoO was coming when MoP was announced. Everytime they try to "surprise" us it's never working as good as having a clear end goal for an Expansion to look forward to ...

The one exception being Zovaal in SL, bc that character was just so monumentally shit, spending an entire xpac of him going "All according to plaaaaaaaaan" just made people dislike him even more than they wouldve if he poppd out as a surprise.

[Merryck]

Is the music we're hearing in the background new?

[Cheezits]

Honestly, I have no idea what to make of the whole "Oh you see Azir at the end of the campaign and he's a Nexus-Prince" thing it just made me go "holy fuck, what is going on." I have to assume that something happened between Phase-thief Azir turning into Nexus-prince Azir.

I think the honest implication is Nexus-King Saldahaar gives out the Nexus-Prince and Nexus-Princess titles out like candy, to Kareshi who do things for him. The Nexus-Prince from Legion is mentioned here pre-princedom.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I think the honest implication is Nexus-King Saldahaar gives out the Nexus-Prince and Nexus-Princess titles out like candy, to Kareshi who do things for him. The Nexus-Prince from Legion is mentioned here pre-princedom.

I mean, I guess so. Still I just feel like there's so much more that can be done here than just letting this be a "oh NPC name changed I guess that explains what he got as a reward, cool.".

It just feels odd how regression is the name of the game when a more structured and more show don't tell will make people more interested and engaged to play the raid instead of it being a third party "Oh its a Void lord", "oh the guy who stole it got a title"., There's just this clear lack of basic structuring these days that just gives this really bad "Meh, who cares" attitude from all of this.

I just feel like more could have been done at this point and I just feel like this Novella could've been released after the patch because it seems to hint at other things that may or may not be further material. But, then again there's some of the writing that doesn't fit for that purpose either. Yep.

[Timester]

Yeah with a little difference. Khadgar did it on purpose to survive. The Reshii Ribbons are presumably a pilar of Ethereal culture and they don't know anything about them, not even how they work, not even Locus Walker knew, and suddenly they start to transform the K'areshi for no reason? Just when they needed something to survive. How convenient.

I haven't look much into 11.2 story. I know that we will have our Reshii Ribbon and that there is some lore about them but I doubt that it would answer these questions in a satisfactory way.

It's the same as the Ata'mal Crystals. They are given to the Draenei and became the center of their culture.

[Cheezits]

There's just this clear lack of basic structuring these days that just gives this really bad "Meh, who cares" attitude from all of this.

More like "what can we make on a new timetable because we scrapped the second half of this expansion". I think a 3-part novella on K'aresh is honestly more impressive than an Azir mustache twiddling scene like that bizarre Fyrakk scene before the Dream. But it's probably just a book vs cinematic/something 3D or visual because time and money is on a new expansion as opposed to the salvaged second half of an expac.

Remember, B*bby Kotick said Metzen came in and changed two expansion's worth of content because he thought it wasn't good enough. Everyone thought he was trolling but everything about 11.2 (and some of 11.1) align with this idea, especially when so little of TWW points to Quel'thalas.