But she does predate them, and Ardenweald is described as the polar opposite of the Emerald Dream. As the Emerald Dream seems to lack a ruler outside of Ysera, it comes to no surprise that deities who enter Ardenweald have to answer to the rule of said realm they go to. You don’t go to another country and openly defy the leadership there. You go by their rules if you wish to remain welcome.
It doesn’t look like Polar opposite, it looks like it’s extension. This is a fairy forest #4 with stags and unicorns!
It doesn’t look like a land where gods reincarnate.
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The Emerald Dream was described as being spring/summer, a land of life and growth. Ardenweald was described as the opposite, as winter/autumn, of death and rest. That is how it is the opposite. The Emerald Dream is where the Wild Gods are when they are active, but when they die and need to rest, they seem to enter a hibernation state in Ardenweald, which fits the theme of sleeping through the winter.
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It doesn’t look like winter Autumn cycle of life zone, it looks like Shadowmoon valley with furry draenei.
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Hands down, with all honesty, everything from her character design to this role she’s taking I couldn’t describe with a more fitting adjective than absolutely cringeworthy.
I’ve been playing Warcraft for longer than a decade, I would say I’m used to a certain style and certain appearances and what Blizzard has been showing of Shadowlands in some cases leaves me wondering if that is still Warcraft. In some cases I feel like I got lost into another casual generic fantasy MMO without realising. A lot of Bastion and the Ardenweald things give me that impression.
I can imagine how Troll fans feel. It would be like discovering that Cenarius has a boss who’s a rock-looking Orc-Troll in a Durotar dimension. I hope they undo any connection between the Loa and the tooth fairy.
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I think design wise they really missed the mark. I imagined place where old gods reincarnate to be less generic.
I have nothing against nelf aesthetics, they are very pleasant but I have a problem if they take over entire nature theme as if they had some sort of monopoly over it. Nature is not just forest, it’s jungle, it’s stepps and plaines, it’s desert and canyons.
If we’re meant to go to place where gods are being reborn then why not chose something that would fit various wild gods and aesthetics, not only nelves have wild gods, but also pandaren and vast majority of wild gods are the loa who trolls worship.
I honestly think that they should’ve pick something which should bring a proper harmony to all the nature themes and make a place where all gods would fit. Why entire zone has to have one “boss” maybe it could be some sort of triumvirate? Or a place created by super ancient wild god to allow others to reincarnate?
So this zone should’ve been far less plain, it should have various domes for each unforgiving climate. And I’d rather if they picked for main aesthetic something completely new instead of usual trees, butterflies, unicors and stags…
Why not taking inspiration from some truly ancient and exotic civilizations and draw new aesthetic from there?
I’d rather if they would pick hinduisitc inspirations and use something that looks like Garuda for ultimate boss? Kinda humanoid, but with wings, claws, two sets of arms.
Go bizzare and creepy even. It’s death realm.
But I have a feeling that I went to uncorrupted satyr land. This doesn’t really live up to hype, this doesn’t look like a place where old gods reborn.
This aesthetic is done to death, literally.
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Leaving it here to avoid opening a new thread.
Looks kinda cool…if Anduin could GTFO.
It does seem as if Nathanos will play as the main antagonist in the story.
Wonder if Talanji will end up killing him. Given he is notably absent so far from the datamined info, it sure seems likely (although there is still lots of things to be unveiled).
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His armor is really ridiculously large… In my headcanon this is now a gnomish mecha suit!
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He is covering the beautiful temple, his presence was deffinietly undeed on the cover.
It’s too early to say. Datamining just started and well there is no hint of Talanji either and she was also involved in this plot after all. Not that I expect for her to appear.
Not only he has too big armor but he looks like some androgenous bishonen. Creepy.
They tried the Valerian Mengsk look (as in young but imposing), and failed rather miserably.
And besides that, it’s bothering how they need to shoehorn him into yet another novel that has nothing to do with him.
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Well, I get why they do it (don’t want a cover with only a Horde presence to avoid riling up the Alliance fan legions), but I too find it ridiculous, a perfectly fine cover ruined by the Goldenboi.
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Even with troll and nathanos stuff they can’t stop throwing Anduin in for no reason.
To be fair, it makes only sense that the intro book is about the Horde and Alliance. Just… they don’t have to put Anduin on the cover, ya know?
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New expanded custom options for trolls.
There have been a ton of books that feature only one side in their cover. Often because their protagonists.
Wolfheart, Stormrage, Tides of War, Twilight of the Aspects, the trilogy of the War of the Ancients, both Rhonin books,…
That said, I’m personally not against having an Alliance character in the cover of this particular book (even if it’ll dominantly deal with Zandalari affairs).
The issue is more with WHO they’ve chosen for it.
Given both the summary and the excerpt, Anduin isn’t really all that relevant to the story that will unfold.
They should’ve put Turalyon or Alleria there.
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Forest trolls are coming baby! 
I know quite some who will be thrilled over it.
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Dark skin = dark trolls ?
It’s a shame none of these visual options are actually canon (at least when they imply certain new tribe). 
But the tattoo options certainly have a lot of appeal.
The white skull paint, so similar to that of Vol’jin, and the ones shown blind in one eye, or entirely, seem rather cool to expand on some veteran/mystic kind of appearance.
Love em, only thing I am missing is that there seems to be no frost troll options? But it seems the same with the dwarves sadly!
Who and the placement of him are both off about this book, as far as I know Anduin doesn’t even play a major role in the book, as Turelyon and Alleria seem to be the main Alliance protoganists?
Yeah, Speaker It’nal of the Shadowtooth Clan (or however she’s called) uses that skin colour too, so dark skins is dark trolls.
I remember there used to be one forest troll tribe that used the lean model, but they don’t seem to anymore.
Which is a shame, but having lean forest trolls is better then having none, imho.
Both forest and dark trolls should be much bigger.
The story will treat all this customisation options, regardless of what their appearence may imply regarding their faction/tribe, as if they were all Darkspears.
The heritage questline will be that of a Darkspear. The racial leader will still be whoever replaces Vol’jin, and any future story to be had regarding them will be about them being a troll born and raised in the Echo Isles.
These customs are cool. And certainly i’ll be using several to weave a more detailed character model for this toon.
But for all intents and purposes, canon will be that neither the Sandfury, nor the Revantusk, Shatterspear, Dark Troll, Blood Troll, or Ice Troll tribes, will be playable or even have any kind of role in the overarching stories that come down the line (as part of the protagonist cast of factions that participate in the story).
Just as we will never have stories that address the player as a Wildhammer, High Elf, Southern/Eastern/Western human, etc.
That’s why i feel a bittersweet taste in my mouth whenever i look at these.
And i’m glad that they managed to introduce several “iterations” regarding playable races, as proper allied ones, before they started working on this customisation options.
Mag’har Orcs, Dark Iron, HM, and Zandalari, all have secured to some degree, some detailed attention as proper playable races in future stories.