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

[Sondrelk]

Here's the gist of it, since some of you might just have woken up or joined the conversation about the underground (we discussed it a bunch about 12 hours ago).

The Harbinger and Iridikron want to reach the core of the world, possibly to claim the world-soul. They might go through the Wound in Silithus. Players, however, could perhaps go via the Undermine. Our destination is basically the Underdark, or some type of Journey to the Center of the Earth kind of deal. A vast world inside Azeroth.

It should feel good to be there, not like Zarelek Cavern. So there might be tons of Azerite or something to light up the cave, and breathe life into plants and animals.

Part of why I struggle to see this happening is that you would need it to be caves, or there is no point. And if you make it into caves then you are really limiting yourself to a specific theme.
You could have a Jules Verne style hollow earth with boiluminescent fungus on the ceiling, or Azerite clusters working as suns, but you would still be in a cave.

Caves always seem to me like a zone you have for drastic contrast, not as a core theme. You go to Deepholm because it's such a drastic departure from other zones, and really make you feel like you are underground. Zaralek as well works this way. You have all these nice zones above for each colour of dragon, and then you get Zaralek Caverns for the Black dragonflight and it really feels it.

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My thought are that it would've been better if a Gnomish Engineer showed up with a Gnomish Shrink Ray and shrunk the Sword at this point if they are going with this idea unless they intend to have the sunken Sword as a Raid underground.

Why do you need to remove the sword anyways? It's been stated several times to not be doing anything. We fixed the issue twice, both at the end of Legion with effective First Aid, and at the end of BfA with all the Azerite.
Removing it would just be for the sake of it, and I would much rather such an event be a big deal. Either by Azeroth herself pulling it out after being birthed, or some other Titan or equivalent doing it.

[Cheezits]

The Jinyu and boats definitely don't fit an entirely underground expansion, unless it's boats to Kezan. There's not enough pointing to an entirely underground expansion IMO, but definitely A zone or two.

[Teriz]

They already said recently in an interview they are not going to do expansions that revolve around only 1 theme/visual queue (Eg. Old God expansion) and underground fits that as well.
Towellie is just on his yearly attention seeking crusade. He keeps being wrong over and over again and yet for some reason people still believe him.

It’s highly doubtful that Undermine would have a similar looking visual theme throughout.

[Sondrelk]

The Jinyu and boats definitely don't fit an entirely underground expansion, unless it's boats to Kezan. There's not enough pointing to an entirely underground expansion IMO, but definitely A zone or two.

Boats would again fit much better a world revamp theme. Ek and Kalimdor getting more connected through trading routes, which will be shown by merchant fleets and such.

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It’s highly doubtful that Undermine would have a similar looking visual theme throughout.

If it doesnt, then why make it the Undermine? Isn't it better in that case to have Undermine be a singular new zone as a faction city.

[micwini]

It’s highly doubtful that Undermine would have a similar looking visual theme throughout.

Yeah it will have different areas, but you can't have something the size of a Dragon Isles-like continent. Undermine would always be better suited as a zone + City environment like thaldraszus if anything IMO.

[Sondrelk]

Actually, why not make Undermine the new Goblin Capital? Bilgewater Harbor never did anything anyways, and I'm sure someone will complain if Alliance gets one more functional city when Gilneas is retaken. Just have a zone be Kezan with Undermine beneath it. Full new zone for both endgame content, and for new faction cities for the Horde.

[micwini]

Actually, why not make Undermine the new Goblin Capital? Bilgewater Harbor never did anything anyways, and I'm sure someone will complain if Alliance gets one more functional city when Gilneas is retaken. Just have a zone be Kezan with Undermine beneath it. Full new zone for both endgame content, and for new faction cities for the Horde.

To even out the eventual return of Gilneas to Worgen, which was already confirmed to going to happen ingame? Hold on! You're on to something.
Part 2 of the cata line from the chinese leaker.... yes its all coming together now.

[Sondrelk]

To even out the eventual return of Gilneas to Worgen, which was already confirmed to going to happen ingame? Hold on! You're on to something.

Gilneas City is afterall a full capital city as well. It's even got colour coded districts on its own map. It doesnt take much to make a functional capital these days, not to mention that Gilneas would be a much more convenient capital to teleport to compared to Bilgewater Harbor would be for Horde.

[Teriz]

If it doesnt, then why make it the Undermine? Isn't it better in that case to have Undermine be a singular new zone as a faction city.

No, because Undermine isn't controlled by the Bildgewater cartel, it's controlled by the Trade Coalition, which is a group of neutral goblin trade princes. Gazlowe's Bildgewater cartel is with the Horde, but the other goblin cartels and companies are not.

In addition, Blizzard originally conceived Undermine as a continent-sized landmass. It's unclear if they'd conceive it that way now, but if we're going on history, I would lean in the direction of Undermine being a continent.

[Santandame]

Cant believe so many people in this thread are taking Towelie’s word as gospel. Some of you are so gullible.

[Marlamin]

Datamining for the new PTR build is coming up, fwiw.

Cant believe so many people in this country bread are taking Towelie’s word as gospel. Some of you are so gullible.

Stop this. Not again.

[Sondrelk]

No, because Undermine isn't controlled by the Bildgewater cartel, it's controlled by the Trade Coalition, which is a group of neutral goblin trade princes. Gazlowe's Bildgewater cartel is with the Horde, but the other goblin cartels and companies are not.

In addition, Blizzard originally conceived Undermine as a continent-sized landmass. It's unclear if they'd conceive it that way now, but if we're going on history, I would lean in the direction of Undermine being a continent.

Sure, but they also concieved the Dragon Isles as a dragon shaped peninsula north of Tirisfal, and look what we have now.

Also you don't need to have Undermine be technically controlled by the Bilgewater Goblins, just have it be their main hub. Wouldnt be the first time a faction city isnt fully controlled by the faction.

[Santandame]

Would be awful. But then again, I don't think I would be excited for anything but something directly up my alley like a world revamp. A true South Seas expansion maybe, but all the best ideas for that were already done in BfA, and the ones that wasnt people don't seem to like, true underwater zones like Vashj'ir for instance.

Except they weren’t. Our own customisable ships weren’t in BfA. Nor was content in BfA on the sea with our ships like naval battles, sea monster attacks etc or randomly generated islands. The only South Seas island in BfA was Zandalar. No Tel’Abim, no Kezan, or Plunder Isle, or Hiji.

I don’t know where this nonsense that BfA was the South Seas expansion started or why people here continue to perpetuate it.

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Datamining for the new PTR build is coming up, fwiw.



Stop this. Not again.

Yeah not sure where country bread came from. But blame the countless people here who seem to have resigned to the fact it’s true for 11.0.

[micwini]

Datamining for the new PTR build is coming up, fwiw.



Stop this. Not again.

I mean it helps if this stuff is posted to people who first start bringing it up. I agree with you, it's really annoying.

[Cheezits]

I don't think you and Marlamin are saying the same thing...

Looks like they are making the Ember Court daily!

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No, because Undermine isn't controlled by the Bildgewater cartel, it's controlled by the Trade Coalition, which is a group of neutral goblin trade princes. Gazlowe's Bildgewater cartel is with the Horde, but the other goblin cartels and companies are not.

In addition, Blizzard originally conceived Undermine as a continent-sized landmass. It's unclear if they'd conceive it that way now, but if we're going on history, I would lean in the direction of Undermine being a continent.

Gazlowe "merging with" the Bilgewater may be a hint that the Goblin Cartels are going to unionize anyway, so they would eventually all work out of Undermine.


also, a very interesting back item labeled "cape_special_terrarium"

[Marlamin]

I mean it helps if this stuff is posted to people who first start bringing it up. I agree with you, it's really annoying.

It's fine to bring up what content creators say, take it as any other speculation regardless whether or not you believe they have any actual intel, the constant "haha content creators dont know shit" or "x was wrong/right in the past" bickering is what annoys me.

[Sondrelk]

Except they weren’t. Our own customisable ships weren’t in BfA. Nor was content on BfA on the sea or randomly generated islands. The only South Seas island in BfA was Zandalar. No Tel’Abim, no Kezan, or Plunder Isle, or Hiji.

I don’t know where this nonsense that BfA was the South Seas expansion started or why people here continue to perpetuate it.

Well for one both Zandalar and Nazjatar were big draws for a South Seas. But even then you still have Kul Tiras and Broken Shore mentioned as a likely part of it. People said South Seas, but what they always meant was "all the various islands between EK and Kalimdor".

And yes, customizable ships were not a thing in BfA, but island hopping was. Island expeditions are exactly the randomly generated islands you are talking about. It was done terribly, but the point still stands.

All you ahve left are the auxillary islands that were mentioned as filler to the big important locations. Plunder Isle maybe, but Tel'Abim? That island is only known for a brief bit of funny text regarding possibly sentient bananas. If you count that as a major draw then you might as well just make stuff up entirely. The only thing Tel'abim has is the recognizable name.

[micwini]

I don't think you and Marlamin are saying the same thing...

Looks like they are making the Ember Court daily!

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Gazlowe "merging with" the Bilgewater may be a hint that the Goblin Cartels are going to unionize anyway, so they would eventually all work out of Undermine.

Man I would hate that. Im getting really annoyed by current writers infusing current real world political trends into the game lore. It's the most immersive breaking thing they have done the last few expansions.

Goblins are supposed to be obsessed with money and profit, which means competing and cartels and shit.

[Woggmer]

Because some posters on WoW forum get triggered when you bring up anything dealing with Gnomes and Goblins.

The reality is that Undermine is one of the major locations of Warcraft. It really should be in the game as a place for players to visit, because there's really no place like it in the WC franchise. People are really being shortsighted when it comes to the potential this expansion could have. With Goblins and technology attached to the theme, you could really go pretty wild with the zone diversity. The WoW RPG describes it as follows;



https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Undermine

Interestingly, an article came out 12 years ago that talked about future WoW expansion locations; Undermine, Pandaria, and Broken Isles. Undermine remains the only location on that list that we haven't visited yet.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2011-...-pandaria.html

Mhm. I guess it would depend if there's another way to get inside the Undermine, because the volcano in Kezan destroyed Bilgewater Port.. and we don't know how much of the city is destroyed or intact from the Cataclysm.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Gazlowe "merging with" the Bilgewater may be a hint that the Goblin Cartels are going to unionize anyway, so they would eventually all work out of Undermine.

Blizzard writing anything pro-union would be ironic. I wonder if the writers are trying to slip something through.

Edit: misread. Sounds like you mean that they'd form a conglomerate, not that they'd unionize. I don't like the implications of that. Feels like monopolist propaganda unless the end result is their economy stagnating and products becoming garbage due to a lack of competition.