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

[Vakir]

Going through blood ties at the moment, there’s a mention of Illidan destroying Xera and Tyrulion attacking him, it’s mentioned to be Righteous adrenaline fueled wrath at the thought that Illidan had just doomed there cause.

So much better then the light blinded nonsense there playing with in the beta and leaves the full weight on his own feelings.

Having recently gone through the Arator questline on Beta, the description has changed and is much more vague on the Turalyon cutscene at the Burning Steppes.

It says that he reacted in Light fueled rage, but not a lot about any rampage of any orcs in his path, and the turn-in text makes it more about his problem being the unresolved grief of Lothar dying and his initial reaction to it being an indication of how badly it hit him.

The jury is still out, they may have still wildly bungled things, but this part, at least, also seems to convey ownership and actually reflecting normal responses without the excuses or character assassination of the original BtDP depiction.

Arator still stinks, of course.

[milkmustache]

Honestly, no, considering how much they continue to use Shadowlands to the point they will probably make it a big factor of TLT.

I am willing to eat my hat however if they tie her into the First Flame/Sacred Flame storyline using Lordaeron, as she shockingly would be an interesting fit given her nature and her beating back the Lightblinded/Arathi/Red Dawn could offer a good redemption story for her.

I'm honestly surprised that the plot from Priory never crossed over with Calia. It would have been a great usage of it, because the whole lead up to Priory & the dungeon story was great and may have opened some doors for her to find more depth.

Sidenote; "My first... defeat..." being a character's dying dialogue is fucking sick. The two Braunpyke brothers had a really engaging plot, with the Priory and light-raised undead doing a wonderful job at painting a portrait of societal grief. Hallowfall truly is a great showing of worldbuilding IMO, and I'm glad they're continuing to lean on the Arathi in Midnight. For all speculation on a possible Light raid, I hope some of their more zealous play a pivotal role in the coming patches.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Is the book out yet oO?

Audio version came out today which is what I always go for, I’d assume digital is as well.

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Arator still stinks, of course.

So far the book hasn’t been helping his case given it starts out with him Anakin esc bemoaning about not being made a lord of the silver hand.

Also his title is a prophecy which is likely gonna be dumb.

[Vakir]

So far the book hasn’t been helping his case given it starts out with him Anakin esc bemoaning about not being made a lord of the silver hand.

He's not made a Lord of the Silver Hand? That's outrageous! It's unfair!

Can't wait to kill Bruce Springsteen to cap off the Lightblind threat.

[Nymrohd]

I think killing Calia in a book would be a massive waste

I also think the Arathi Highlands meeting could easily have been an in game scenario though. Then you'd introduce Calia during a questline leading up to said scenario where she would die (priest players and people who check lore would already know she is back but give her a questline, maybe a timegated thing so you get to quest with her across 2-3 weeks))

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Also his title is a prophecy which is likely gonna be dumb.

You know what would "save" Arator. He dies redeeming the Darkwell or to stop whatever Xal'atath will end up doing which will very likely involve the Naaru and/or the Plane of Light itself. I can only dream. The Child of Light and Shadow or whatever X'era was calling him might have been crucial for the Void-Light fight instead of the Fel one and Arator sacrifices himself to save the literal Light leaving Turalyon and Alleria heartbroken and both of them retire after.

[Hearthfinder]

The TBC announcement brings back such fond memories. Ah, to be ~20 years old again and no-life Vanilla, TBC and WotLK midnight launch with your friends after standing in queue for hours to get a copy of the game.

That Blood Elf vs. Draenei artwork (fighting in Outland with billowing cloaks) is just something. It reminds you of that magical feeling you used to get from Blizzard and their games. Just pure passion, quality, polish, community, and fun. I miss those days.

I wonder if Midnight's release will capture anything like that.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

You know what would "save" Arator. He dies redeeming the Darkwell. I can only dream.

Ok that would be a use of it I could get behind let him do a Wod Velan esc sacrifice after realizing he’s a dumb ass and the light isn’t just about swinging hammers.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

Just out of curiosity, what mmorpgs have you played ?

Elder Scrolls Online, Blade and Soul, Tera Online, Rohan Online, World of Warcraft, Black Desert Online, Torchlight Infinite.

Calm down now. I don't think either deserve best ongoing game atm. NMS for the win

WoW:The Last Titan, GTA VI, Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 5, and Witcher 4 > all games and genres.

[Hitei]

Your describing some one pushing her….

I'm not. A person off-handedly going "do we actually want to kill this/these character(s)?" is not pushing that character. It is probably something that has been said about every single notable character they have ever killed off or framed as an an antagonistic encounter. Someone said it about Azshara, someone said it about Bwonsamdi, someone said it about Denathrius, and the Incarnates, and Vanessa VanCleef, and Xavius, and Cho'gall, Gallywix, Tirion, Cordana Felsong, etc. etc.

Alleria is an example of a character being pushed.
Thrall was an example in the early expansions.
Anduin's increasing central figure role from MoP to SL was an example
Saurfang was an example.

Voss, a no-name character involved in multiple quest zones in Cata, then class hall stuff, then inexplicably suddenly a high up operative in the faction she disavowed under leadership she previously hated and by the end of that same expansion, the de facto leader, is close to an example.

Calia is a relatively minor character important in one book and the expansion related to it, who then shows up in brief in content explicitly related to her domain. She's not more pushed than like, Thalyssra or Liadrin, or Jaina, who also sort of only shows up when the circumstances make sense.


Pushing has to involve, well pushing. The character showing up where they don't really make sense but the story writes them in. Like Alleria, Thalassian Third War hero and anti-Legion fighter waging a comsic battle against Ethereals and showing up to stalk Nerubian kingdoms. Or Thrall being a fill-in for dragon aspects and kind of out of nowhere being framed like the shaman equivalent of Malfurion, or Anduin being the Alliance's high leader while surrounded by faction leaders more qualified to occupy that role and an Arthas parallel.

Calia not being permanently killed and then showing up for stuff directly related to her entire character (i.e. Forsaken, the undead people of Lordaeron, when she is the dead crown princess of Lordaeron whose brother did that to them) is not an example of a character being pushed.

[Vakir]

I wonder if Midnight's release will capture anything like that.

None have since Cata at the very, very latest.

WoW as a mass cultural touchstone isn't a thing since.

Honestly, neither are lowercase-M midnight software releases.

WoW:The Last Titan, GTA VI, Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 5, and Witcher 4 > all games and genres.

Oh.

I see, we're dealing with a clown.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

The TBC announcement brings back such fond memories. Ah, to be ~20 years old again and no-life Vanilla, TBC and WotLK midnight launch with your friends after standing in queue for hours to get a copy of the game.

That Blood Elf vs. Draenei artwork (fighting in Outland with billowing cloaks) is just something. It reminds you of that magical feeling you used to get from Blizzard and their games. Just pure passion, quality, polish, community, and fun. I miss those days.

I wonder if Midnight's release will capture anything like that.

The Amani stuff is going to hype the hell out of a lot of folks for sure.

"De Amani never give up! We never forget! We never die. Dis is our land. You wanna stay, you stay here forever!"

[Super Dickmann]

The main best-case use for Calia would have been as the face of living Lordaeron reclamation. A patsy for your choice of the Alliance, the Scarlets or both to advance the longest lasting Forsaken antagonist.

In her current incarnation, she’s luckily not the instrument to rewrite the undead any further, the way her wretched story in the BTS-BfA stretch went, mostly just a husk used to resolve their plot lines so Blizzard don’t have to put in any disgusting zombies in their stories about friendship, see the godawful Gilneas reclamation.

[rainhard]

I think this is all interesting but widely off topic

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Btw, think it is kind of lazy how Harandar and the Voidstorm have the same ore with Quel'thalas.

Sounds very offputting but what can you do, they took the void ore and sloppily pasted it in TWW in a near unfinished state..

[Raetary]

Speaking of Calia, i wonder if they'll ever bring up her daughter and husband ever again.

Remember the Scarlet pamphlets talking about them pretending to have her heir?
Nothing ever came of it.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

Calia is a relatively minor character important in one book and the expansion related to it, who then shows up in brief in content explicitly related to her domain. She's not more pushed than like, Thalyssra or Liadrin, or Jaina, who also sort of only shows up when the circumstances make sense.

Honestly I wouldn't mind her actually gaining a bigger role and lead the Forsaken. Like you said, she's actually related to the royal family of the Kingdom so it'll make sense for her to lead the Forsaken as former Lordaeron citizens. The Alliance and Horde war should be long over by now as we work together to defend Azeroth from evil forces.

[rainhard]

How is FFXIV still getting nominated for best ongoing game? Its recent expansion was so poorly received. And the hype FFXIV gained from the Shadowlands disaster has long faded. Let it be known, FFXIV succeeds only when WoW fails. It cannot stand on its own two legs.

I always found that weird considering how big wow was and is, it still never showed up in those awards, i guess either because it is hard to pick up or because of the general negative perception of the game in media, but hey i mean at least we dont see destiny 2 there anymore so they obviously change them xd.

[Super Dickmann]

Speaking of Calia, i wonder if they'll ever bring up her daughter and husband ever again.

Remember the Scarlet pamphlets talking about them pretending to have her heir?
Nothing ever came of it.

Calia being as popular among Forsaken fans as contracting chronic crotch rot has meant that any of her actual planned plot (her missing family, Saa’ra guiding her through her visions/bad prophetic dreams, her actual proactive wish to rule, her specific type of Light undeath and so on) have been cut, but she herself hasn’t turned evil or fallen down a hole like Med’an. So she just floats about, vaguely helpful and without any story of her own, mostly there, again, to end ongoing Forsaken plots.

They even took the piss out of this in the anniversary where Voss, the de facto leader and a character who actually has been with the Forsaken for a decade and a half now, and obviously previously set up to be Calia’s footstool only manages a “She’s friends with the Alliance” when required to describe her function.

[Zardas]

Elder Scrolls Online, Blade and Soul, Tera Online, Rohan Online, World of Warcraft, Black Desert Online, Torchlight Infinite.

So you're judging FF14 while having never played it ?

WoW:The Last Titan, GTA VI, Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 5, and Witcher 4 > all games and genres.

I guess that's my bad for ever taking you seriously.

[Super Dickmann]

Knowing she wasn’t a Golden throw away like say the goblin and gnome that the wow team picked up and instead the team it self changed the novels plans to set her up really raises the question of who was actually pushing her and why she’s flip flopped in being the sylvanas replacement.

My best wild guess would be that Metzen was around for the first idea draft where she was going to die, Alex changed it cause he didn’t like sylvanas, then Steve left to pick up the pieces reintroduces the council idea as he didn’t want to replace sylvanas.

I’m inclined to believe the last one as we know the last thing Metzen seriously worked on was the BFA cinematic, which is pretty heavily cast as a proactive Alliance move on Lordaeron, motivated by taking Lordaeron and Calia’s death would work as a casus belli alongside azerite, which is very important in the book as a motivator and irrelevant in the game where all events are caused by Sylvanas’s commitment to eating babies.

[Vakir]

They even took the piss out of this in the anniversary where Voss, the de facto leader and a character who actually has been with the Forsaken for a decade and a half now, and obviously previously set up to be Calia’s footstool only manages a “She’s friends with the Alliance” when required to describe her function.

Even when playing an Alliance character, I don't want to claim her. Still feel active revulsion. She's like show-Euron Greyjoy walking in looking like she's in the wrong story every time.