The Arathi mention that the Hallowfall Expedition embarked away from their homeland a little over a decade ago. Prior to that, they had flourished as a mighty empire on an unknown landmass ever since their exodus from Northern EK over a thousand years ago.
They mention their original home a few times sort of off-handedly throughout the zone’s quests. One quest that stands out in particular is the one where the mage tries to make a portal to take them home (and, spoiler, is killed because of it).
They also mention their emperor more than a few times, but as far as I can tell he’s still chilling back on their original homeland, wherever that is. A part of me thinks it might be Avaloren, but who knows. Either way, I think it would make for a really cool patch zone.
What do you think? Is there a chance we might actually go there and see the full might of the Arathi Empire in a future patch? Or is it just going to remain a bit of background lore?
To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole “new Arathi empire” thing. After 20 years and several apocalyptic scenarios, it seems kind of wild to me to introduce a new Arathi empire on a continent that is supposed to “have been there all along” without ever getting noticed. I mean, we’ve been in the Emerald Dream and other dimensions. In the Stormrage novel, we saw a dreamer army, the slumbering mortals of Azeroth fight the nightmare. We’ve had a Cataclysm and a Legion Invasion and yet… nobody, not even the evil cosmic demon army noticed that there was an entire empire of light wielders on the other side of Azeroth?
IF we ever go there (which I’m sure we will), they better address these events of the past or show us how they’ve dealt with these world shattering events.
That said, even though they really upgraded their storytelling in this expansion (hell, I really enjoy it!), there’s still the question that also bugged me in Shadowlands:
Why does nobody investigate? Just like we chilled around the Eternal Ones in SL, helped them clean up their houses and willingly fought their enemies - nobody thought of asking them about the Jailer, his motivations and their backstory - I mean, getting to know your enemy should be at the beginning of the story, especially when your allies KNOW them.
Why doesn’t Anduin (or anyone of the NPCs) investigate? Who is that Emperor, what’s their deal? Did they ever try to reach the Eastern Kingdoms? Do they even know about anthing that happened to us? I mean, after cyborg gnomes and light wielding aliens, I understand why we aren’t surprised anymore, but… these would be the obvious questions in a situation like that.
Im quessing they will be the big baddies one point and Yrel and the other light fanatics will join it. It could be even the reason why horde and alliance start fighting each other too