I have patient readers. And I thank you.
So, here I sit, ready to ride write again. But the ultimate question is… about what? But more on that later. You’re here to read about WoW.
What is there to say? WoW has gone far beyond its predicted lifespan. At one point, there was a master plan. You could see it with the seeds they’d plant here and there in the early stories. Now though? They’re stalling, trying to make up additional land masses for us to go through, because they’ve basically burned through all of the ones we’ve had since 2004.
But there you go. The game is 12 years old. Of course they’ve burned through the original material. I’m not judging. It’s just a fact.
My point is, it gets tough to speculate this stuff when they’re now making up new landmasses as needed (Back in Time/Alternate Dimension Draenor). I think Kul Tiras is the last of the old guard… save for perhaps Argus.
Argus, the Eredar homeworld, HQ of the Burning Legion… the last of the land masses we’ve known about since WoW launched. The name “Argus” technically not really kicking in until Burning Crusade.
With Argus’s now one of a kind pedigree, we can safely surmise the new writers are going to save it for something special. The end of WoW will undoubtedly be the true end of the Burning Legion, which we can safely bet will take place on Argus.
Everything else is as good as anyone’s guess. They’ve managed to “alternate dimension resurrect” Gul’dan to fill some space in the meantime. Eventually though, we’re all going to Argus and defeating the final boss, Sargeras.
If we want more details of what will actually happen in this joint invasion, we have a good description straight from Blizzard. The climax of the short story, “Prophet’s Lesson” is a vision Velen experiences of the last WoW Expansion when he looks at Anduin Wrynn:
Instead of the prince, an armored warrior stood before him, his plate helm and breastplate shining with the essence of the Light itself. The warrior wielded a sword forged from the same material as the armor, held it aloft as he perched on an outcropping… Whether it was on another world or Azeroth, Velen couldn’t quite tell. And suddenly the dark sky above erupted with the combined chivalry of Azeroth’s races. The blood elves, orcs, trolls, tauren, and even the accursed undead and scheming goblins rode flying mounts of every sort and description. They were armored and armed in magical weaponry glowing with so much power it hurt Velen’s eyes to look at them. Beside the legions of the Horde, the ancient night elves charged with humans, dwarves, and gnomes, whose ancestors formed the original Alliance, and the shape-changing worgen were united with them. Velen’s own draenei bolstered the army, their ranks adorned in otherworldly metals and bearing crystalline maces and swords.
The Alliance and Horde were not alone.
Dragons swooped and soared in formations that made the sky resemble a giant multicolored, reptilian wing. They blanketed the horizon with their physical size and numbers, and when they roared a challenge, it shook not just the earth Velen stood on, but the universe as well.
And yet, for all this, the greatest shock to Velen’s senses came as he saw those that flew just beyond the army of dragons. The naaru had taken the field, so many that Velen didn’t understand how creation could contain them. The power of these beings of Light filled Velen’s heart with hope, swept away the lonely centuries, and left him in wonder that he could ever despair, that the dark, no matter how terrible, could ever truly reign.
That’s either the invasion starting the expansion, or the last battle against Sargeras (heck, it may work for both).
So, anything more? I think so. Why would Blizzard be okay with letting the cat out of the bag like that? I think they’re okay with it, because they left out the twist.
Anduin is at the head of that future army. It’s impressive, but there’s a *huge* force not mentioned within Anduin’s list of allies. And you’d think they’d mention it considering it’s led by a being who swore an oath to protect Anduin. What we’re talking about is Bolvar and his Scourge. I’m betting Bolvar is Anduin’s Gandalf who’s going to show up “at the light of the fifth day” to turn the tide against the legion and save everyone.
We kill Sargeras. End of WoW.
But would it be the absolute end? Perhaps, perhaps not. They could certainly write more expansions, but the death of Sargeras will be the end of an era for WoW. Anything beyond it lore-wise would be a new generation.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Legion fortunately looks like it’s going to be fun, and I have to say the artifact weapons lore is *amazing*.
So, those of you who just wanted read about WoW can go get a drink now. For the rest of you. Howdy! Here’s where we’re at: For the reasons described above, WoW speculation just isn’t the same anymore. After this expansion, they’re really making it up as they’re going along now until we get to Argus.
So the question is, what do you want as readers? I’m tempted to write about all sorts of random stuff… even non-game related.
If I were to post non game related stuff, would you guys be interested, or should I publish that stuff elsewhere on a different blog?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Welcome back! I have missed these posts; they get me excited for WOW, what it has been, and what it can become. I would love to read what you have to write. Just let me know where!
What a fantastic surprise to see you posting again. I remember spending hours reading your posts and dreaming how things could be and later, sadly, how things could have been. It is making me sad to know, that a game that would have only gotten better, that had a direction, a purpose, got so diluted and distracted because even more money needed to be made. This and many of your other posts cemented that picture and I believe you are absolutely right. So, while reading your posts often makes me sad, it also let’s me dream of the World of Warcraft that it could have been, that I wanted it to be, and that gift of imagination might just be one of the most precious things.
To answer your question with my personal opinion, I would like for this stay a Warcraft or at least video game lore related blog. I would love to hear your opinion on the new information released with the World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 1. To me it seems they are setting the stage for the future direction of the story of WoW and possibly even beyond. Void Lords, dormant Titans – exciting stuff! I would also love to read your take of the WoW story line. If you had had to write the story, how would you have done things? What ideas got you excited, what do you feel sad about never really played out the way it should?
But in the end, I understand that you’re writing this blog not because you can earn a living from it, but because you like talking and writing about the lore in the games that you enjoy, the games and stories that you keep thinking about. If that’s not what World of Warcraft is to you anymore, I think I might enjoy reading about other stories as well, but I must admit that I find it hard to think of many things that would interest me as much as the lore of Warcraft.
I don’t think they will ‘end’ WOW.
Sargeras has been the prime antagonist since the RTS games (well, at least WC3 anyway), and seeing him destroyed in an end battle will ultimately conclude the Warcraft universe, meaning no more source material for new games.
The only way around this for me is if they begin to introduce and build a new enemy from the ground up, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that yet.
the best poets of his era and
manuscripts underwent in the Middle
then only a few have reached us