I think that eagle/gryphon statue in one of the images looks like the one in Aerie Peak. Of course, it’s possible that it’s intentional on Blizzard’s side, but something about those images in general makes me feel like I’ve already seen those assets (exception being the dinosaur who is an adult version of a pet from Time Rifts).
It could be legit, but on top of the screenshots feeling off, I’m not sure given how early it is. Usually the real leaks come out about few days before the reveal and feel more random than images from (possibly) every zone.
This is incredibly funny to me. Tyr has gone from being the benign benefactor of humanity and friend of dragonkind to insane “We must grow the Dragons like belgian blue bulls no matter the cost” xeno warfare specialist.
But maybe it’s just another unreliable narrator used to broaden the morally grey canon
That leak has several new models and textures in it and very much seems accurate to the description of the Khaz Algar area, even featuring a new Dwarf statue in the background and new Titan pillar models alongside a new Titan golem model.
It’s completely joever I think, they’re really going ahead with this new Titans/Light are the secret evil angle and this new Titans love Eugenics storytelling.
The leak is also accurate to around the time we got BfA, Slands and DF leaks.
It’s Danuser bulldozing established lore with his single-minded obsession over his version of the cosmic chart, while misunderstanding or willfully ignoring the intent of the original one.
The cosmic chart shown in Chronicle 1 wasn’t meant to introduce new magic types, it mapped already established magic types to the six cosmic forces:
Light — Holy
Life — Nature
Order — Arcane
Shadow — Shadow (Void)
Death — Necromantic
Disorder — Fel
The magic associated with the cosmic force of Order, and with the Titans, was meant to be the same old arcane magic that mages use. But then Danuser came and sunk his fingers into the lore, and so we get “Order magic”, “Life magic” and “Decay magic” all over the quest texts and now the books, and it’s extremely jarring.
If it’s a real leak then yeah cool. But I can’t say there is anything exciting about the idea of travelling to yet another new continent to level very quickly through another 4-5 zones and 6-8 dungeons and do the same old song and dance all over again.
This game desperately needs to do something new, and carbon copying the same tired old format and hoping for different results just isn’t going to do it.
This is just doomposting without full context of what the expansion is., but I feel it in my bones. That said, my bones are quite old.
I remember finishing the Dragon Isles leveling campaign quickly and then thinking, “That was it? Why are the storylines so short? Okay, now what? What am I supposed to do, help the tuskarr make soup?”
There are side quests, of course, and they’re on average better written than the main plot about sultry elves and short-tempered humans who sometimes turn into dragons, but there’s no real incentive to do the side quests, and at any rate it’s obvious that the game caters primarily to endgame players who see questing as a distraction and want it to be over quickly.
This creates a vicious cycle: players who are interested in a good story leave, and only endgame players who don’t care about the story remain, so the writers have no incentive to try harder, and thus fail to attract story-loving players.
It looks plausible, at least. It has a lot of new assets drawn in the current style of WoW’s art team, and it’s done on a professional levels that I wouldn’t expect fans to bother with just for a fake leak.
It’s a pity that we’re getting yet another long-lost continent previously hidden by mists storms. At least we’re rooted on Azeroth, and it’s not Lifelands or Light vs Void, I guess. It could have been worse, which is as good an endorsement of a WoW expansion as any.*
But if Dragonflight is any indication, we’re going to get another self-contained story about the new continent while the old world is left in the dust. Imagine if we got a world revamp expansion, and those four screenshots were the Hinterlands, Dun Morogh, Thousand Needles, and Un’Goro respectively.
If no one has done it yet, I can check the original interview this afternoon and see if there’s missing context. (I know I come a week after the battle but better late than never?)
The resolution and view distance are so low and there are enough old-looking models and textures that I think that the leak could be someone’s private server kit-bashing. At the same time, I won’t be surprised if it’s legitimate.
I don’t find it that weird. Dragons have been written as stewards of Azeroth chosen by the Titans (and later the Titanic Keepers) since around fifteen years ago, to me this just seems like an evolution of that.
It’s a bit of an odd choice to choose Tyr as the morally grey Keeper who values the security of Azeroth more than the emotions and agency of Azeroth’s inhabitants, but it’s still not all that out-of-character for Titanic constructs.
I guess my reaction boils down to “weird choice but ok i guess it makes sense” and I don’t really get the reaction of “it’s so over i can’t believe that they made tyr a fascist i hate blizzard for subverting the objective good guys and making them evil i can’t believe they’re trying to make us be friends with the void now.” Just seems a little overwrought and hyperbolic to me.
Don’t cheer just yet, with BfA we managed to cram three expansion-worthy story beats into one expansion, and also tackled the very Void with N’zoth’s raid and stuff.
I mean, to be fair - the Cataclysm revamp pretty much made most zones self-contained as well. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with self-contained stories. If the new expansion would do a world revamp, I unironically wouldn’t mind current Dragonflight devs doing it. They showed they can absolutely make very grounded, touching, well written stories as well as do absolute horse . Though in my experience, most of the worst parts of the story were involving the main story, so… probably more Danuser Effect than Story Dev #21 being a bad writer?
The questing in Dragonflight was very well done imo, of course it wasn’t perfect (and no expansion has had perfect questing), but it was a good step up from BfA and Shadowlands at least. They still can do worldbuilding well. Just keep the opinions of the General Discussions posters far away from your design, the moment people start complaining about ‘waagh why do we hear about NPC #397’s emotions??? where is the WARcraft!!’ is when quests like Rambo from Redridge and CSI:Westfall get introduced. No thanks, hard pass.
All indications point towards Avaloren being a “void heretic” safeground, and we know Iridikron and Xal’atath are up to something with the essence of the Old Gods and Galakrond and we know the Void Lords are part of Iridikron’s plans. So I wouldn’t take a relieved sigh just yet.
Profoundly upset they are using a name that’s obviously a riff on Avalorn and yet nothing about it looks remotely Avalorny or British Western Fantasy, but Blizzard taking from cultures’ histories and lore and then butchering it is par for the course.
. Though in my experience, most of the worst parts of the story were involving the main story, so… probably more Danuser Effect than Story Dev 
Americans I s2g…