I think it’s at some point likley, or at least to some degree. After Shadowlands, or at what point though? No idea.
Why do I think it’s possible? Aside from Illidan destroying Xera and the Vision on the Illidan novel, showing a world over taken and destroyed from the light, everything was crystalized, those are the main things:
Yrel and her light fanatics seem like are a set up that could be used again.
Turalyion as the leader of the Alliance armies could fit well with such a theme, he would have to choose his path. Light, or Alliance. It would likley also lead to something between him and Alleria.
The Scarlets somehow still survived. They claim to have Calias heir to Lordaerons throne and it seems there are plans to use them.
Those let me think such a szenario is possible. I will not be hyped about it. At least it could be better than Shadowlands, which isn’t saying much. It could also lead to some tension in the Alliance which is a good thing. However I don’t know how well it would go, if at all. It seems like it could become some mess like WoD with perhaps some villain bating for someone in the Alliance, or something else stupid.
Perhaps it could be interesting, hard to say really from speculations alone. I wouldn’t be hyped for it though.
Hm this seems strange. Yrel was only seen in the Mag’har scenario in all of WoD right? Seems like this tells us we will see more of her at some point.
I’d say that it hints at some upcoming plots.
Don’t know if her inclusion in SL (had a typo in the previous post regarding BfA) portraits, may hint at her having a role in this expansion or in the next.
Oh in SL, hm that’s different.
I would assume if she is listed as a leader for the expansion we have to see her. Otherwise I don’t see a reason to include her.
Hard to say after the changes made with Shadowlands.
Before I would have argued we could see Gonk and perhaps other loa there as well.
Looking at Ardenwald it’s possible this could be a problem. Most themes aren’t for everyone though. I would lean more towards a yes to your question. Not fully, but more.
First of all, it’s a literally the dream of Azeroth.
From "Discovery of Azeroth" chapter in Chronicles vol. 1:
It was during his long and lonely journeys that Aggramar sensed something extraordinary: the tranquil dreams of a slumbering world-soul, billowing across the cosmos. The song of life led him to a world that the Pantheon had not yet discovered, a world they would later name “Azeroth.”
Nestled within the world’s core was one of Aggramar’s kin—one far more powerful than any yet encountered. The spirit was so mighty that Aggramar sensed its dreams even through the din of activity that rattled across the world’s surface.
Yet as Aggramar drew closer to Azeroth and beheld the world, horror seized him. Void energies shrouded the world’s surface like a layer of diseased flesh. From the ruined landscape rose the Old Gods and their Black Empire. Miraculously, the nascent titan’s spirit remained uncorrupted, but Aggramar knew it was only a matter of time before it succumbed to the Void.
What are the dreams that you have? All grass and trees all the time? There is a part of it ordered by Freya, but it can be the craziest playground of all.
Description of the place from the same source:
Although tied to the physical world, the Emerald Dream is a place that most mortal minds would find alien and surreal. But some of those minds, by channeling druidic magic, can enter a state of dreaming and consciously navigate the Emerald Dream. Their thoughts can also shape and influence portions of this verdant spirit realm, but the imprint that these dreamers leave behind is never permanent.
In the dreamways, time and distance are mutable. Spirits flow like living winds through lush tracts of constantly shifting primordial woodlands. What appears tangible one moment becomes intangible the next; seemingly impermeable landmarks transform in the blink of an eye.
So, yeah, there could be used an excuse, that if the goal is to visit the snipped of the Dream altered by Freya, that would be a place full of forests. But it’s so far from what the Dream might be (assuming a high quality implementation).
Not if it will lead to “Anduin is right” again. IMO.
Depends on the take.
THE DREAMING WORLD
Some believe that Freya wove the Emerald Dream into being from nothing. Others claim that this strange place had always existed in some form, a dream born from Azeroth’s slumbering world-soul. It is said that Freya tapped into this realm and molded what would become known as the Emerald Dream as a way to commune with the nascent titan.
It can be an exploration of the titans. It can show more light on the ordering of Azeroth, and why before Azeroth had “tranquil dreams” but now is “dying titan” who is in pain. Or, about the older time, with comments about what was the scouring and why that happened. More about why OG followers refer to the players as “usurpers’ children”. And so on.
That would touch tauren mythos, could have a lot with trolls, and yes, night elves including the Empire days with all the crazy things that happened there, origins of titan-forged who were created by manipulating life essence of Azeroth. Parallels with draenei story, and their “affinity to magic” and titan-magic.
Possibilities are vast. It’s all about the execution. Honestly after seeing how the current team handled the night warrior story line, I’m fine with there being no Dream stuff till a more competent team steps in instead.
I see Shadowlands as a version of Helheim, “not too different from life”. And it is indeed, not that different both visually and in terms of content.
But different people have different preferences. Not everyone might like it. And likely I would not like it if it would be done by the current dev team.
To be fair, I’d be happy with each addon being some new continent on Azeroth, or a rework of an old one, and if we never left Azeroth again, except maybe for some raids. The cosmic stuff only annoys me.
So… for me it’s really:
Azerothian stuff >>> Other dimensions/worlds in the same style > Magic realms > Space stuff
I don’t see why I would find the Emerald Dream more attractive than the Shadowlands. Primordial Earth doesn’t have much in common with current Earth. What we have seen of it certainly seemed boring to me. I understand that it could be big for druids, but for everyone else I’m not seeing it so much.
Depends on what you mean by “Azerothian stuff”. Because it’s very tightly coupled with Azeroth herself. And can have a big importance for the history of the world.
taurens, trolls, elves of all kinds, are tied to it directly.
All titan forged creatures - a bit less but still, are born from the essence of Azeroth originally (humans, dwarfs, gnomes, some not playable races).
Titan-related creatures still can have more of their origin explored (orcs, draenei).
But, again, depends on the execution.
I mean, Black Empire every once in a while still affects modern events.
Stuff on Azeroth. Exclusively. The Dream is clearly in the “Magic Realms” category for me.
I don’t much care about racial origins either, I guess. Or let’s say I prefer legend to fact on that. I’d be much more interested in the Draenei version of their origins than I’d be in their actual origins. And I’d just be annoyed if they were the same.
And affecting Azeroth is certainly fine with me. As is a raid where we try to stop it at the source, be it through space, time or realm borders. I just don’t like it as the zone setting. I want what my character does to be based on Azeroth, and everything else as mysterious as possible.
There sure are possibilities to make it interesting for pretty much everyone. After all, the Emerald Dream is basically an evolutionary footprint and mirror of Azeroth.
The thing is, everything related to druidism so far has always been so… rooted in Night Elven culture and aesthetics ?
I’m not saying it’s inherently a bad thing, but because of that I can’t really connect with places like Moonglade and Dreamgrove. I get that the concept of multiracial class orders makes it hard not to do that but… yeah!!! yeah
Anyway. As others have said before, I just want to go back to Azeroth, personally. There are so many things to do back there. Even something as clumsy as expedition islands made it clear. For example there is that island where we engage a Nerubian clan that had fled Northrend during the War of Spiders and had survived there up until now, and then we report our findings back to the people of Azjol Nerub… who are very active in reconstructing their empire by the way. Azeroth is just so cool, do we need anything else ?
If im perfectly honest, im far more interested to know wheter or not the Gnomes finally cleansed Gnomeregan, what´s up with Gilneas, what the new Home for the Forsaken and Night Elves is going to be, how current day Plaguelands and Quel Thalas is looking and if the Loch Modan dam has finally been repaired, then im interested to fight some Void creature that tells me “all possibilities, lmao” while melting my brain with insanity. Or some Naaru-thingy that wants me to “pray real hard or else, mhkay?”
I know Blizz loves to ignore the fallout of events of previous expansions, but ironically enough they are usually far more interesting to wonder about, then the one dimensional threat of some cosmic power. Have you ever seen a really passionate discussion about the Titans, Sargeras, the Old Gods, the Naaru or the Jailer? Or the Eternal Ones? I certainly didnt. I do have however seen hundreds of incredibly passionate discussions about who has a claim to Lordaeron, whether or not an agressive Warchief is needed or if Camp Taurajo and the Purge of Dalaran was just (it obviously was, fight me!). If we take these metrics, those far smaller moments that are miniscule in a cosmic lense, have far more emotional impact on us, because we just do care about the fate of the core player races and their homelands.
There are some here and there, although revolving more around discussing the retcon of their motivations and goals. And as general approach of the current dev team to either replace what was made before them by “new and better”, or just to retcon away elements created before them.
for the reference, a bit about the original approach:
Not really just in WoW universe. Fallout and aftermath events usually provide that delicious substance that is just generally awesome in any genre. We can only fight so many big bad guys, gals, monsters, terrors for so long until we start to consider what the point of it all was.
Devs enjoy using dialogue as the option to do this, but they underestimate - or are purposely ignorant - of the value of visual impact. A big shame, really.
I am quite an enthusiastic gnome player. And It’s been so long that I really don’t care anymore, one way or another. Especially since they threw us Mechagon as a bone, I guess. If Gnomeregan is never mentioned again, I wouldn’t miss it.
And that’s a shame, because they really wasted the investment I had there. Especially in the fate of the leper gnomes.
This so much. Does anyone feel genuinely involved and interested in gigantic scale, multimillenial cosmic stuff ? There’s no discussing it, it’s just here to crush you. Coming up with something that straight up nullifies everything that got you into the universe in the first place is the worst move you can pull out in a fantasy setting, seriously… Like, no I don’t want to raid the freaking afterlife, thanks
There’s hope for Gnomeregan though don’t you guys think ? I mean now that Undercity and Darnassus are lost, it’s the perfect time to dedicate an expansion to the rebuilding of the factions’ strongholds - surely Nordrassil (arguably Stormwind too) and Orgrimmar can’t house such large populations for long. Plus Gnomes have the support of Mechagon now.
That being said. LEPER GNOMES FOR THE HORDE!! We have a monopoly on sickos
For what, though? Giving us a gnome city? That’s been done now, Mechagon it is. Gnomeregan is just rubble with tech that’s 15 years out of date. The only real thing of interest left there are the leper gnomes themselves, and possibly some specific gadgets that were beyond their time. You could certainly add some questing around healing leper gnomes or negotiating with them, as well as killing another buttload of troggs, but that’s pretty much it. More an allied race recruitment scenario, than the taking of a stronghold. And it certainly wouldn’t require a remake of the city.
So… no, I don’t see any hope for Gnomeregan.
Urgs, and ideas like that make me wish they never tackle any of it ever. Those are sick gnomes, not a Horde race… Not even undead.
Are you satisfied with Mechagon though ? It’s certainly far better that what Gnomes had up until now I guess, but it’s still not their city. They have no story with the place.
Well that’s everything it could offer right now, in its frozen-in-time state, yes. But once you’ve reclaimed it and made it a capital in its own right, it could become the heart of many different scenarios. Healing Leper Gnomes is the most obvious and surely the top priority, but considering the amount of time they’ve spent on their own, there is probably much work to do with them.
I was joking ofc. Well, half-joking, because I like them, and because there’s this Forsaken character with Leper Gnomes assistants that goes like “They’re not plagued in the same way as us but they’re clearly plagued nonetheless”. The Horde has a tradition of teaming up with the weirdos the Alliance kinda doesn’t want anywhere near them so why not. It’s true Gnomes have been actively trying to cure them though so the situation is different
