World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Two new continents: Dragon Isles, Shadowlands. New class: Tinkerer DPS with turrets, bombs and ‘ghost buster’ gimmicks. Also healer and tank specs. Uses mail armor. Primary stat is intellect. Vestiges of Power (secondary talent system a la artifacts/essences). Level squish postponed. No world revamp. New scaling tech that will do away with the frequent item level & stat squishing. Raid tier sets are not returning, but there will be class-specific challenge sets. Champion system: We will reunite with the spirits of fallen heroes: Uther, Cairne, Vol’jin, Varian, Saurfang, Rhonin, etc. But also certain villains. The Old Gods are not dead. They are sleeping in Ny’alotha. N’Zoth has been redirecting souls to fuel the Old Gods’ ascension back into the world. The Black Empire will rise again very soon. This is what Azshara saw when she died.
Forces of death aka “Death’s Vanguard”:
Elune, Helya and others are working together to fight the Void incursion into the Shadowlands. Bolvar brings us there. Sylvanas has been honoring a pact, waging war in Helya’s name. Elune’s night warrior also transports the souls of its victims to the Shadowlands. Alliance has inadvertently helped the war against the Old Gods in the Shadowlands. They will be reunited with all of the casualties (almost). Bwonsamdi is working for Hakkar the Soulflayer, who seeks power for himself, also by consuming souls. Old Gods: The void exploited the defeat of Argus to gain access to the Shadowlands. Xal’atath may have sold us out. Ny’alotha is threatened by the advance of Death’s forces N’Zoth instigated the battle for Azeroth to cause death & consume more souls. Sylvanas propagated the war to usher souls toward Helya instead of Ny’alotha.
DARKFRONT:
“Starting point” for Shadowlands. Three minor factions: Night elves, death knights, Helya/Sylvanas. Helya is kinder now & prettier. Main goal is to prevent Ny’alotha from consuming the souls of the fallen. Huge rivers of souls run through each zone.
MORBARA:
All the blood trolls we killed in Nazmir are here. Bwonsamdi has been roped into working for Hakkar the Soulflayer. We help him overthrow Hakkar and reclaim his title as the loa of death. ALNIR RIFTLANDS: A crucible for the primordial energies that comprise the fabric of all realities, with portals to each one. Everything is spilling in and out of rifts. Source of void incursions on Dragon Isles and Emerald Dream.
XIROS:
Semi-peaceful zone where spirits go to rest according to lore. Main city and sanctuary is here. Lots of questlines and two dungeons. Greek inspired, a la “Hades’ front yard”. Ethereals have a big presence here.
There will likely be 9 dungeons total at launch, 5 in Shadowlands and 4 on Dragon Isles. No names for them yet.
Dragon Isles:
Don’t know much, but it has void dragons We will help rebuild the black dragonflight Storylines for each dragon aspect
