So, we don’t know much about Dragonflight lore, but we do know that “primalists” and half-elemental giant guys seem to be a bigger 10.0 threat. So instead of going through the “six cosmic forces”, or going to even higher concepts like we did in Zereth Mortis with Firim, we are going down the magical complexity scale towards the rougher kinds of magic, and how fire, water, earth, wind and love, erm, spirit, might fit into it all.
Now, on the one hand this isn’t so different. We are diving into the magic system of the world, and trying to figure out rules and backgrounds, where there was none before. And thus there is the danger of disenchanting something that was enchanting, like they certainly did with Death and its magic.
On the other hand… this primal magic is all about the world that we care about. We’re not introducing some aetherial realms that are so much more magical than Azeroth, we are facing beings that are much more natural to the world than our characters. Indeed, we are probably going to get a bit of an explanation of the titanic anti-elemental politics that made them banish the elementals into artificial realms to keep them out - and some explanation of Azeroth’s consumption of the spirit element.
If the cosmic stuff until now was to define our characters’ place in an uncaring, giant multiverse, the primal stuff could very well be questioning our place on our home of Azeroth. It has to be a deeply azerothian story, but especially with the races that were created by titan meddling it might very well put us into the position of alien invaders that were unknowingly following a questionable agenda.
I don’t know if this is necessarily better than cosmic adventures, but I am a bit intrigued by the direction they are going, and I do feel there is some potential to make it actually interesting, and not too much that it could ruin.
So… any optimism about that around? Or at least mild interest? Or do you see another catastrophe waiting to happen? Or just some additional notes?
I’m interested in seeing hwo they handle the Primal Flights and Aspects, which are supposed to be a faction of dragons, who have rejected the Titan blessings, in favor of embracing their elemental ancestry. But i’m worried that they will go the way of Fandral staghelm, the Fire Druids and Alysrazor, where they’re mostly introduced to get axed in the raid despite posing legitimate viewpoints and interesting perspectives.
I’d be happy if Blizzard calmed all the way down from all the cosmic nonsense, in favor of actually telling a decent story. We should learn why, how, who, when, where of the significant players that drive the story and see how it organically flows form there. I know that Legion was a success, but Blizzard took all the wrong lessons out of it.
Elemental and Titanic stuff are certainly to be put in the Cosmic box, but somehow they don’t feel as… out of touch with the world as Death, Life, and even Light and Void do, to me at least ? Maybe that’s because both forces largely contributed to building Azeroth’s identity, notably in terms of landscape and races.
Titans are aliens, but Titanforged races are so deeply anchored within the Azerothian landscape, and over time they developed into so many subraces, they just shaped the planet in so many ways. Grummles are a good example of how grounded they have become. Come to think of it, at this point even the Breaker races from Draenor, namely the Orcs and Ogres mainly, are starting to feel “nativized” by now… They’ve not been there for long compared to the Titanforged but they’ve become part of the ecosystem in some way.
Elementals on the other hand not only are the actual natives of Azeroth, but we also know several races whose ancestry can be traced back to them : Dragons of course, Centaurs, Mistlurkers, Bog Beasts… And I suspect Trolls, Drogbar, Sprites and many others could actually be part of the Elemental lineage. We know we’ll get to meet Primordial Trolls in the Dragon Isles, which makes it more than likely that Trolls are connected to Elementals (that would also explain why they’re so adaptative and quick to evolve into subraces depending on the type of environment they live in). Also, Elementals themselves are less cosmic beings than actual sentient Azerothian beings, with their own culture and political structures.
tldr; Writers can ground the Cosmic because some Cosmic forces already feel grounded. Now it’s up to them to capitalize on that
Basically what it boils down to yeah, its more about how you let the player approach the cosmology, take the titans for example;
Are you going to have the player share a coffee and brunch with the titans as you all discuss how to get rid of the next big bad or are you exploring one of their abandoned ruins, filled with either local wildlife, some sort of energy corrupted local wildlife or degraded mechanations of old, to find some hidden disk filled with lore a la discs of norgannon?
Both of those are titan centric, but the approach is miles apart