Ve’nari butts into the Lorewalker Cho’s retelling of Ethereal/Broker history and sends the player to go and rescue Locus-Walker from Shadowguard assassins. A brief conversation between the two of them reveals that they have known each other since before the destruction of K’aresh and have rather negative feelings about each other. Despite this, they’re going to work together “one last time,” likely in 11.2 as two of the patch’s primary protagonists.
Anyway, “K’areshi” is the term that’s used for Ethereals and Brokers alike.
Dev Comment: “In light of recent discussion regarding a lack of Horde character’s present and an abundance of Alliance characters we have decided to help balance the scale by making a major patch where neither has any reason to involve themselves. We hope this helps to lessen the gap between Horde and Alliance narratives.”
After five days, Ve’nari sent the Maw Walker a letter revealing her survival, and how she had faked her death to get Cartel Ve off her back. She then revealed that within Zereth Mortis, she created a device that allows her to travel the cosmos, which led to her meeting Xolartios, who agreed to serve as her guide as they explored this new unkown.
“Please forget about that plot thread thx.”
Brokers
Native to an unnamed realm of the Shadowlands, Brokers possess an innate affinity for locating anima, even in the midst of the current drought.
My impression (which might be totally off target), is that they’re truly dead Ethereals, who have retained a form somewhat similar to the one they had in life. Similar to how we meet characters from Azeroth who mostly look like themselves in the Shadowlands, but are quite dead.
Honestly, what was even the point of getting Brokers involved in this story? Blizzard should well know that most players would rather forget Shadowlands was ever a thing.
It’s…a strange choice, to be sure. I was vocal in saying that Brokers shouldn’t have existed and they should have been Ethereals all along in SL, and if that were the case then Ve’nari coming back’d be…fine, I guess. Not great, but fine.
But it does seem like they’re looking to actively retcon the Brokers now. “Native” to the Shadowlands implies to me they’re like Attendants or the original Venthyr. No connection to formerly living souls at all. I don’t know how you square that circle with them also being K’areshi as these quests imply.
Though I guess it is Metzen’s habit to retcon a race’s origin 'cos he maybe forgot about what was written about them before \o/
I mean, let’s not pretend that Alleria won’t heavily feature, likely as the primary protagonist.
I’ve also got a nasty hunch that we’ll need to begrudgingly accept Xal’atath’s aid, only for her to reclaim the Dark Heart at the end and bring about the start of Midnight. Here’s hoping that I am wrong, but I really get the feeling that they’ll try this in an effort to cement her as the ultimate manipulator.
Also, looking back at the origins of the Ethereals, learned via Ask CDev, there’s a chance that they might not be the same race but that Brokers were instead another K’areshi race that lived outside of the Ethereal cities, that devised a method of escaping the calamity of K’aresh instead of trying to endure it.
K’aresh was an arid planet, home to a thriving ecosystem and several sentient species before the arrival of Dimensius the All-Devouring. How the void lord found K’aresh is still hotly debated among the surviving ethereals, but the effects of his coming were unmistakable: he opened countless gateways into the void and the Twisting Nether around the planet, bathing K’aresh in arcane and dark energies. Using every scrap of its advanced technology, one of the mortal races hastily attempted to construct magical barriers around its cities, but it was only partially successful; although the dark energies were blocked, the unimpeded flood of arcane energy tore away the mortals’ corporeal shells and infused their souls with enough energy so that they could subsist without a body… barely. Members of this race, now called ethereals, took to binding themselves with enchanted strips of cloth to provide their souls with enough structure to survive. This altered state proved to be a blessing in disguise, as their enhanced minds and magical abilities allowed the ethereals to fight Dimensius and his limited forces to a standstill. Over the years, however, Dimensius eventually grew powerful enough to summon armies of fellow void creatures, forcing the ethereals to flee into the Twisting Nether.
Ngl, I don’t mind Brokers being Ethereals(or from K’aresh). Now they just need to retcon the First Ones into Titans, Zereth Mortis into a Titan facility (and the Death Gods into Titan Watchers) and the different realms into fake afterlives akin to the Halls of Valor and Hellheim and we can maybe make something out of the Shadowlands :^)
Because helping people out of the goodness of your heart (or profit/ search for power) is what an adventurer hero does, not because of their court mandated faction obligation or that the end of the world will occur if you don’t and Blizzard reeeaaaally struggles with this notion
Mechagon came close but then they added the last minute “oh and if you don’t stop king Mechagon the atmosphere will literally burn up”
Brokers really vexed me. I hate it when Blizz doesn’t utilize what they have and just keep making up more races and characters which bloats the setting. It would have been absolutely fine, really interesting even, if Brokers were always Ethereals (including their model). It would add depth to their otherworldly appearance.
Even now there’s no need to make them cousins. Just say they’re Ethereals. Ethereals with a different taste in fashion.
Blizzard for the last couple of years seem to have a formula they are not happy with leaving when it comes to new content and expansions, in particular towards races. Rather than exploring what they already have, it tends to be something along the lines of:
Introduce a comic relief & or “joke” race.
Depending on the expansion, either two races who are sympathetic to one faction each, or a race that is firmly neutral to both. This/these are the main faction of the content.
A new villain race that shows up alot.
A new variant of a pre-existing race, but often with completely different visuals and lore and often no connection to their sister-race beyond sharing a name.
Some kind of elf or elf-adjacent.
It’s not always like this, but it tends to follow a formula similar to that.
They´ve already kind of did a retcon/explanation with 4th Chronicle, where the First Ones are named after cosmic forces and are portrayed as more of a theory people in Shadowlands have rather than objective fact and the real truth (compared to Chronicle propaganda of the Titans, thanks Pyromancer and Danuser).
Eternal Ones are Zovaal, Primus, Denathrius, Winter Queen and Archon. First Ones are the mysterious creators of Shadowlands/universe/we probably won´t ever know what else in Danuser´s original plan.
The comedy of one writer going “these look like ethereals but they are different” and another going “no, they are ethereals” brings me back to the Spider Clone Saga.