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

[ChairmanKaga]

To be fair, it does look like an orc with the bone structure of the Laughin Orc Mask.

Now I'm wondering what those masks come from. They aren't Orgon skulls.

[Sondrelk]

Well, that Kaldorei Heritage Quest was certainly one of the quests of all time.

To be fair, it does contain a lot of typical Night Elf flavour. The face marking ritual. Fighting the Legion. Maiev. A Highborne Mage. Felwood adventures in a barrow.

But the scope was way smaller than I had imagined.

Tends to be the case with heritage questlines. You would never fit everything worth mentioning about a race, from lore to iconic questlines and locations all in one convenient package.

Hopefully we eventually get a world revamp so we can actually get the lore bit of said races, seeing as the heritage quests usually focus on iconic questlines. Like humans killing bandits in Westfall, or Forsaken commiting warcrimes.

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Now I'm wondering what those masks come from. They aren't Orgon skulls.

There was a weird bug in Gorgrond that I believe looked like that. Presumably a developer never figured out whether it should be an orc skull, or a bug facial exoskeleton.

[Teriz]

Somehow this image feels legit for me. Either this or guy behind leak is really smart, many people after work with image would put elaborate 2 page summary of fake expansion as "leak".

Definitely first person look like Orc, likely twisted in some way. Background of course is much more interesting.

It looks like a twisted Orc to me as well. The question is in current WoW, where would a twisted Orc be coming from? Further, a twisted orc with grey skin and yellowish eyes?



Just putting it out there....

[ChairmanKaga]

There was a weird bug in Gorgrond that I believe looked like that. Presumably a developer never figured out whether it should be an orc skull, or a bug facial exoskeleton.

I thought the Grinning Skull Reaver mount was just supposed to be a WoD Ravager with the skull mask stuck on it. ie the skull is from something else.

[Ersula]

It looks like a twisted Orc to me as well. The question is in current WoW, where would a twisted Orc be coming from? Further, a twisted orc with grey skin and yellowish eyes?

You mean grey skin & glowing orange eyes? Lots of orcs have those.

I feel that if it was a real leak for the purpose of hype then there would be at least one thing that is immediately apparent as something we know. And nothing in this picture fits that bill. The Orc or whatever in the front doesn't even look like a WoW orc, and the humanoid in the background isn't clearly anyone either.

I mean it was posted directly to this forum. If its some sort of false flag leak that Blizzard posted intentionally they would want it to be ambiguous. If it were a fake creation or a rogue leaker, it would make something easily identifiable.

[Sondrelk]

You mean grey skin & glowing orange eyes? Lots of orcs have those.I mean it was posted directly to this forum. If its some sort of false flag leak that Blizzard posted intentionally they would want it to be ambiguous. If it were a fake creation or a rogue leaker, it would make something easily identifiable.

I don't think they would want it to be that ambiguous. Especially not for a first proper leak.

Start us out with something specific to debate, then add in the weird stuff that we have no idea about.

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I thought the Grinning Skull Reaver mount was just supposed to be a WoD Ravager with the skull mask stuck on it. ie the skull is from something else.

[img]

So it is. Been so long since WoD that I actually forgot what it looked like.
I guess it's just the skull of weird Grognosh Bonespurs.

[Mecheon]

Well, that Kaldorei Heritage Quest was certainly one of the quests of all time.

To be fair, it does contain a lot of typical Night Elf flavour. The face marking ritual. Fighting the Legion. Maiev. A Highborne Mage. Felwood adventures in a barrow.

But the scope was way smaller than I had imagined.

I kind of rate it on par with the gnome quest or the like. Just "Yup, here's an adventure that kind of ties into things". Nowhere near the highs of the human or orc ones, but hardly the worst thing ever or the like. Also turned "Wonder woman reference" quest from Vanilla into a more serious thing is def interesting

It looks like a twisted Orc to me as well. The question is in current WoW, where would a twisted Orc be coming from? Further, a twisted orc with grey skin and yellowish eyes?

Lightforged aren't really 'twisted' though and Lightforged don't have 'yellow-ish' eyes, we can see from Turalyon that its just flat out yellow. And, well, could be lighting but those eyes look red if anything. Plus, the more iconic Lightforged colour schemes tend to be white and yellow, if he was supposed to be a Lightforged it'd be going along that I feel

I'm erring on the side of 'unrelated image being presented as an orc' given that it looks a bit too 'generic spooky demon', and it'd hardly be the first time we had fake screenshots being presented early. Don't forget that whole ghost navy in Stormwind Harbor

[Teriz]

You mean grey skin & glowing orange eyes? Lots of orcs have those.

They look a bit too warped to be Dragonmaw, but I take your point.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Since when does the Light cause you to become twisted and ugly? Past evidence suggests it makes you look more regal and pure.

Teriz likes to twist things for whatever narrative he seems to have. So grain of salt.

[Teriz]

Since when does the Light cause you to become twisted and ugly? Past evidence suggests it makes you look more regal and pure.

If we're dealing with the light as an antagonistic force, and we're dealing with malevolent Naaru, it stands to reason that the Light as a cosmic force can twist people just like fel, void, or order can. Why couldn't it?

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Lightforged aren't really 'twisted' though and Lightforged don't have 'yellow-ish' eyes, we can see from Turalyon that it's just flat out yellow. And, well, could be lighting but those eyes look red if anything. Plus, the more iconic Lightforged colour schemes tend to be white and yellow, if he was supposed to be a Lightforged it'd be going along that I feel

Well yeah I'm not saying the Lightforged are as twisted as the "orc" in that supposed leak, but it wouldn't take much for Blizzard to simply state that the Lightforged were in the beginning stages of being twisted and the Lightbound are in a more completely twisted state due to the influence of the Naaru that controls them. Again, if it's a Lightbound invasion, we're in uncharted territory in terms of the light being an evil force. The closest we ever got to that was the Scarlet Crusade.

As for the difference in color, CGI vs. ingame graphics.

And yes, I'm fully aware this image could be completely fake as well.

[huth]

Well yeah I'm not saying the Lightforged are as twisted as the "orc" in that supposed leak, but it wouldn't take much for Blizzard to simply state that the Lightforged were in the beginning stages of being twisted and the Lightbound are in a more completely twisted state due to the influence of the Naaru that controls them. Again, if it's a Lightbound invasion, we're in uncharted territory in terms of the light being an evil force. The closest we ever got to that was the Scarlet Crusade.

Doesn't change the fundamental issue. The Light does the pretty and regal aesthetic regardless of whether it is good or evil. Something twisted like that would fit better with Death, Disorder or Void.

[Mecheon]

If we're dealing with the light as an antagonistic force, and we're dealing with malevolent Naaru, it stands to reason that the Light as a cosmic force can twist people just like fel, void, or order can. Why couldn't it?

Because the Light's visual design doesn't turn people into slathering monsters.

If the Light were warping people, I'd be expecting less "Spooky zombie orc, indistinquishable from a mid-tier Diablo enemy" and more "Sin eater", if you know your FFXIV, for the simple fact they'd want to visually show its the Light doing this. If it just looks like a zombie, then that's bad visual design

[DiscipleofCazicThule]

The leak doesn't look like a Warcraft orc. It looks a lot like an Age of Sigmar Orruk Kruleboy to me though.

[Teriz]

Doesn't change the fundamental issue. The Light does the pretty and regal aesthetic regardless of whether it is good or evil. Something twisted like that would fit better with Death, Disorder or Void.

Because the Light's visual design doesn't turn people into slathering monsters.

As far as we know.....

Also CGI orcs are pretty ugly to begin with;

[Nebron]

IF this is real, those could very possibly be Lightbound Orcs. Fel and Void warps the appearance of people, why couldn't the light do so as well? It also sort of matches what fans have speculated Lightbound orcs to look like.

To be honest I see absolutely no resemblence to anything I have seen that is somehow bound to Light force. In fact, as far as I recall, everything that has some connection to light is precisely opposite to void/ fel. It’s never warped or malformed, but rather uplifted, pristine, clean and anything else that goes with a classic understanding of sacred.
Of course, you can assume it might be the lightbound aesthetics, but I see zero reason to take that stance.

On the other hand, the character is pretty much an orc. Greenish skin, strong facial features, massive jawline, orcish teeth. What’s off for sure are the long, probably pointy ears. In fact, if any force that is established in WoW, had anything to do with that, it would be the Fel, since this characters looks like soul-sucked Durotan in Warcraft movie.

Also, it has a red glow in it’s eyes which also suggests fel’s stuff.

But it’s nowhere near the lightbound, and for sure not to state it’s very possible

[Cheezits]

If it's not fake, I think it's pretty clearly some new race related to Orcs. This would relate to how Avaloren/new stuff is supposedly to the Far West (aka close to Kalimdor) and how Thrall will probably be a main character.

[Revamp Man]

I do think they will give us some detail about what comes after 10.2 other than the expansion reveal, at blizzcon. They're not ever going to make a fully rendered cinematic for a patch, that's an expansion-only thing.

That being said, the Nelf Heritage armor has an in-game cutscene that looks like one of the pre-rendered machinema cutscenes. It was really good. 11.0 is going to be really impressive.

• Calia is not a commoner, she was the Princess of Lordaeron. Bolvar is from a Noble Stormwind family. We know from Jaina's backstory that the Human Kingdom leaders would have parties every year where they all intermingled. What she looks like now doesn't matter if she introduces herself as "Calia Menethil" which she does.
• That's not how Bolvar described his wife's death.
• Bolvar calls her his wife, telling us they were married. Calia specifically states they were not married.
• Calia is told her husband & child died in a scourge attack but at no point were Bolvar & Taelia declared missing in action or dead, whereas Calia used this to fake her death. Meanwile Bolvar is so famous he became the High Regent of the Alliance in Varian's absence. So who told her they were dead? If someone did it would be promptly debunked by a second opinion.

Oh wow so you are just choosing to be argumentative

Calia lied to her husband about her identity

Both families are presumed dead pretty sure missing persons wasn't exactly on the case

[Teriz]

To be honest I see absolutely no resemblence to anything I have seen that is somehow bound to Light force. In fact, as far as I recall, everything that has some connection to light is precisely opposite to void/ fel. It’s never warped or malformed, but rather uplifted, pristine, clean and anything else that goes with a classic understanding of sacred.
Of course, you can assume it might be the lightbound aesthetics, but I see zero reason to take that stance.

On the other hand, the character is pretty much an orc. Greenish skin, strong facial features, massive jawline, orcish teeth. What’s off for sure are the long, probably pointy ears. In fact, if any force that is established in WoW, had anything to do with that, it would be the Fel, since this characters looks like soul-sucked Durotan in Warcraft movie.

Also, it has a red glow in it’s eyes which also suggests fel’s stuff.

But it’s nowhere near the lightbound, and for sure not to state it’s very possible

Again, compared to standard Draenor Orcs;



That warped looking orc is an improvement.



Also Orcs were already twisted by fel, and they never looked like that. This is clearly a different cosmic force twisting their appearance.

If that image is legit of course.

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If it's not fake, I think it's pretty clearly some new race related to Orcs. This would relate to how Avaloren/new stuff is supposedly to the Far West (aka close to Kalimdor) and how Thrall will probably be a main character.

Orcs aren't native to Azeroth though. They're essentially aliens from Draenor. Why would there be a new race of Orcs on a lost continent?

If we're being real here, there's really only one place where a new variety of orcs could come from.

[Mecheon]

As far as we know.....

Also CGI orcs are pretty ugly to begin with;

Why would the design be basically a zombie though? From just a visual level, you want to make things visually distinct so you know what you're up against, and WoW's always been good at that. Even in Shadowlands, everything we went up against had a very distinctive visual flair to it that immediately made it clear what you were up against. Maw enemies had different visual looks than Forsworn ones despite those two starting as allies

Here's the thing, you want to sell people on "Here's this new exciting thing happening and its Different". Heck, let's bring up Sin Eaters even, we're talking about light magic corrupting things.

Here's how we first saw what a Sin Eater be. They are blatently Different enemies from the usual stuff you fight and have a clear visual design to them, looking like living marble statues. Then later you get to see someone turned into a Sin Eater in a flat out horror scene to really press home how wrong the things are. But all through, they have a distinctive visual design. When you fight a Sin Eater, be it from a bear or a bird or anything, you know its a Sin Eater, even if its something as weird as a giant cube

WoW is good at the 'things being linked by a consistent visual design', they're not going to give up on decades of 'Here's what the Light looks like on things'

[Gurahk]

That's not what an orc looks like, at all.