I’m back with my third installment of fan made expansion ideas! And this one’s the most ambitious yet with a number of pretty substantial additions to the game thought out. Given all of these exfansions build off each other, I’m going to do a quick rundown of the plot thus far so people can catch up.
Death’s Rise begins at the end of BfA. The Scourge goes haywire and Azeroth bands together to push it back. The expansion takes place in a revamped Northrend where players battle to Icecrown to stop Bolvar. But plot twist! Sylvanas has usurped him and death fissures have ruptured across Icecrown! He helps players prepare for a confrontation with her while guiding them through this strange tower called Torghast, ruled by a mysterious being.
For some reason the Scourge go to the remnants of Teldrassil, where eventually Sylvanas steals the powers of the Night Warrior from Tyrande with an Old God dagger, then stabs Anduin with it. Anduin turns into Shadow Anduin and vanishes with Sylvanas! Eventually the heroes find a way to enter the death fissures without dying and end up in Avernia, the land of the Spirit Healers. They solve those problems, defeat Helya, who has been harassing them, and then slay Sylvanas. End of the expansion.
Shadowlands begins with Azeroth’s health continually ailing because we forgot we left a sword in her. The heroes yank it out and try to brute for heal it with all the big deal healers around the world, including Eonar and Alexstrasza. But it seems like Azeroth is cursed from the Shadowlands to die! Players go to the Shadowlands and find out Anduin has become the next Lich King after Sylvanas’ death.
Along with him heroes find Yogg-saron has been there since its death in Northrend. OooOOooh! Turns out the Maw in this version of the game was created from a fallen Void Lord, and Old God souls go to its epicenter when they die, except for Yoggy, who’s the god of death. It needed an avatar of death and Void in order to complete its goal, though: Fishing the other Old Gods out and merging with them to become a MEGA Old God! In a last bid for survival, players rouse Azeroth from her slumber and have her spirit duel the Old Gods. She wins but has to fall back asleep because it was quite the ordeal and the world is saved so everyone packs up and goes home, closing the way to the Shadowlands behind them.
That’s the gist of the story so far. If you haven’t read the full expansions yet and you’d like to, you can find them here: Death's Rise | A New Shadowlands
I hope you enjoy reading about the next expansion idea. When writing it, I was overcome with nostalgia and it really boosted my morale lots to see what the game could be with the right amount of care put into it.
And here we are, my friends. World of Warcraft: Age of Mortals!
Introduction
Azeroth has been through much in the last few years. She has endured an invasion of the Burning Legion, a devastating wound, the spread of Old God corruption, and a brush with death itself. With the sword of Sargeras removed from Silithus and the crater finally healed, the world seems to be on the mend.
Nations celebrate, rebuild, and reevaluate. With this newfound relief and regrowth, boundaries are tested and challenges rise once more. Old rivalries create sparks, new ones arise, and some alliances and friendships are strengthened. One thing is certain: Even when the world is not in peril, the stories continue.
Heroes return weary from a brutal campaign in the Shadowlands, The portals and fissures to the afterlife close behind them, once more separating life and death. They find themselves in a world rebuilding. Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been remade, reflecting the multicultural hubs they have arisen to become. With the expansions to these cities come new problems, and heroes may be required to mediate inner city dilemmas, small pockets of conflicts in the new streets that occasionally arise.
Over the next few weeks, more locations across Azeroth experience the same burst of expansion. New places, such as Gadgetzan, Crossroads, and Shadowforge City receive their own attention, and their own growing pains that heroes may assist in.
All the while, the champions of Azeroth are celebrated. At long last, the Burning Legion, Old Gods, and Scourge have all been defeated. It’s about time these heroes are given the recognition they deserve. Capital cities all have feasts and parties for them to attend. Each race celebrates differently, ranging from Orcish sparring rituals, to the hedonistic goblin raves, to the dignified songs of exultation from the draenei. Even the less experienced heroes of Azeroth, still looking to make names for themselves, may partake in the festivities to glean a bit more wisdom and power off the noble champions’ legends.
Everything seems to be looking up. And that is, of course, when heroes are discretely summoned to the chambers of their leaders. With time to breathe and rethink, the Horde Council has agreed to begin paying reparations to the Alliance. As part of this new decision and a show of solidarity, the heroes of the Horde have been requested to assist those of the Alliance in a special mission: Find King Anduin.
Although there appears to be some scheming among certain Horde representatives to use this to their advantage, the heroes all set out for Northrend to begin their search. There, in Dragonblight, they encounter Wrathion, the close friend of Anduin. He assists them in hunting for clues while also making it clear he’s about to start something big. The search proves fruitless, and upon returning in failure, the Horde and Alliance decide instead to have the heroes investigate Wrathion’s plans.
They follow him across the ocean, until they find an island on the horizon. Before Wrathion can approach, however, something stirs in the depths. A great sea dragon rises above the waters, eclipsing Wrathion’s own dragon form. It crushes the vessels, leaving the heroes and Wrathion to drown. They survive thanks to their skills acquired over the years of war, but must retreat back to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Wrathion, however, is seen crawling onto the mystery island’s shore.
Whatever Wrathion was determined to reach, the sea dragon didn’t bode well in the minds of the Horde and Alliance. It was time they set sail, this time prepared for this uncharted land.
Overview
World of Warcraft: Age of Mortals is the third installment to my fan series of expansions that takes place after Battle for Azeroth. After so many expansions of global destruction, it’s time to return to an RPG’s roots and explore how Azeroth has been shaped by all this time. The stakes will be much lower, with an emphasis on having adventures instead. The expansion will also streamline and clean up a few systems to have a more evergreen lifespan for years to come.
The primary features of the expansion are:
- New Continent: Dragon Isles
- Whole of Azeroth Remade
- Level to 80
- Torghast Reimagined: Towers
- New Artifacts: Dragons!
- New Class: Dragonsworn
- New Class Skins
- Housing
- A Dynamic World
- Challenge Mode Leveling
- And much more!
Content Overview Part 1: Dragon Isles
The Dragon Isles are a group of islands to the west of Quel’thalas where the dragonflights were elevated from proto-drakes. Although there are some titan influences on the islands, it is primarily left to the devices of the dragons. Players will find a colorful set of islands with unique dragon buildings and cultures, all connected via bridges. This new continent does not house a villain with plans for world domination. Nor is any disaster emanating from it. No, it’s just a new set of islands with something fun and exciting for players to explore.
Sarakan(68-72) is a forested island in the southern Dragon Isles. It is where players land as they begin their adventures in the continent, and where they meet the first inhabitants of the Dragon Isles: A race of the first Dragonspawn called the Azgar. They were the first mortals to be brought into the dragonflights’ fold, whose silver scales display no allegiance to any one flight. Their city of Azgonnar sprawls along the coast and heads the highway that leads to an altar at the center of the Sarakan, where mortals are made into Dragonspawn.
Storylines here include gaining the Azgar’s trust, dealing with dragonflight politics as each one attempts to sway the Azgar to their side, and a deadly Void based plague that affects Dragonspawn and has led to a cult based around converting mortals into Dragonspawn to be also become plagued by this Void.
Tempest Falls(71-75) is a less conventional island than Sarakan, found on the eastern Dragon Isles. The island houses a large structure in its center, where water pours from the top and forms massive waterfalls. There are various openings in the earth that lead to underground facilities and others that outright poke out of the ground. The waterfalls hide many of these features and require some exploration to discover. A three way war wages among the Voidwing, Twilight, and Black dragonflights as these discarded tools of the Old Gods seek purpose.
Storylines include working with and against a new cast of dragon characters hailing from these flights, learning about the ancient ruins on this island, and unexpectedly finding Alexstrasza, who has taken it upon herself to help these wayward dragons find their identities and the various tragedies that come from it.
Mazora(71-75) is not connected to the other isles via bridge. This is because Mazora is an invading island. Invading how? It’s a giant, floating island that has been all over the world before settling near the Dragon Isles about a decade ago. Now it roams the western waters. It is a system of woods and plant life whose origin is theorized to be an ancient Druid’s dream home. Others have come to inhabit the isle, including a number of amphibious races like saurok and naga, a bizarre pirate port, and wooden beings that look like replicas of mortal races.
Mazora’s questlines involve a red dragon that rules the saurok like a god, Wrathion being a good ol’ scamp among pirates, and learning alongside a green dragon that Mazora is alive and conscious.
Galeborne Chain(75-79) is a collection of many tropical islands to the north of the isles. The islands in this chain range from tiny to enormous, towering stacks. Some aren’t even natural. Some are giant, hollow, mysterious statues inhabited by murlocs and an amphibious race of little salamander people called the Tinoco. Other islands are titan facilities or dragon keeps that house Azgar, both with rooms that extend below the sea. The Galeborne Chain has a number of special mechanics that make traversing to islands fun, such as launching points with wind channels that can carry gliders super fast. Plus bridges that connect the larger islands.
Story points here include learning about the sea dragon that guards the Dragon Isles known as Anakwa, helping Wrathion convince the Tinoco to allow him into their sacred temple, and waging war alongside Azgar against a new faction of Dragonspawn that have become hostile due to a fear that mortals will destroy them without the ability to reproduce. At this point it is revealed that Wrathion is trying to find a way to reverse dragon infertility and save their race.
Maladum, the Heartland(78-80) is the central island of the continent. The zone starts off with rolling hills by the coast then gets craggier the further inland you get, eventually culminating into a towering mountain spire. At the top of the spires is the sacred temple that commemorates the creation of the five dragonflights. Unlike Titan structures, this temple looks more like it’s carved into the rock itself and has a very natural but elegant appearance.
Maladum comes in two parts, the leveling part that happens in the hills and coast, and the exclusively endgame part that takes place around the sheer cliffs and mountain passes at the center. Azgar reside in villages by the coast, and a glittering flight of golden dragons living in the mountains surrounding the shrine. The hills leading up to the mountain are inhabited by phoenix elementals that are used as mounts by the Azgar, and food that fuel the golden dragons’ glowing/sparkling forms. The western bay of Maladum is the location of another Azgar city known as Zek’amir. This city is welcoming to visitors and will be players’ capital city for the continent.
The main story beats in Maladum include learning about the dragons’ heritage, healing a wound left by Deathwing after the War of the Ancients, and Wrathion being framed for murdering the golden flight’s leader, causing them to go hostile and imprison him.
Blackscale Island, a PvP island to the southwest of the Dragon Isles. Legend has it, upon his rebirth into a black dragon, Neltharion blew fire in triumph. The fire plumes melted the rock faces of what would become Backscale Island. The magical lava caking the mountain peaks never cool, even when they drip into the ocean below. Because it resides out of Anakwa’s range, the island has been settled by elven and orcish sailors of the Second War. They once declared peace and coexisted, forming a city on the island. The Cataclysm depleted resources and created tension that has now escalated into a war between the two races. Both have formed new bases on two ends of the island and meet in the center to do battle.
This island will be reserved for PvP. More on that later.
Content Overview Part 2: Azeroth
Hit a character limit thanks to the massive number of revamped zones I had to cover. See my second post in this thread for the whole list.
Open World Content: A World Unshattered
At this point it is worth mentioning now that the last few expansions have had open world content deviate from its connection to instanced content. This is now going to be acknowledged fully, that there will now be a distinction that sets three elements of the game apart from one another: Instanced PvE, Open World Content, and PvP. It is beneficial to officially separate these three as their own focuses to appeal to the wide variety of play styles players enjoy, instead of the philosophy that open world “chores” are for getting players into raids and dungeons faster.
Gear will remain a loose connector between the three. Open world content will always provide some catchup gear, even if it does not reach the power level of the other two. Open world content shall have other rewards that should offset the players’ desires to be rewarded with gear without doing instanced content. Meanwhile, PvP gear will still be set as the most effective gear in PvP content, while raiding and mythic+ shall be the sources of the best “raw” gear.
Age of Mortals takes the best of the systems invented for Death’s Rise and Shadowlands and applies it to the rest of the world to give it a breath of relevance. This means the inclusion of battlefields, dynamic environments and world talents. Developments will return in the place of renown, which is a much more solid, less convoluted system.
As a brief reminder of these previous systems carrying through from previous expansions: Callings will stay. Dynamic environments are zone wide weather effects that actually affect players mechanically but may be countered with mount equipment, which is now unique per mount. Open world talents are a set of three talent specializations active solely in the open world. It comprises three specializations that may be active at the same time. Battlefields are like PvE battlegrounds found in the open world using events, AI, and interactable objects to provide some challenge and fun.
Battlefields
The Shadowlands iteration, while only subtly more different to Death’s Rise, is the framework for Age of Mortal’s version. While there won’t be spirits or renown connected to them, players may spend new resources gained exclusively in battlefields to upgrade their capabilities in that specific battlefield. In addition, these resources can be used on interactable constructions or NPCs to provide temporary events/benefits in a battlefield for other players use, similar to the way spare parts are used in Mechagon.
Random events will continue to be a part of battlefields that offer variability to each battle.
- Tol Barad: Prison Break!
- Prisoner players in Tol Barad may organize prison breaks after they fill up a “defiance” bar among prisoner NPCs through helping out. The islands then become a battlefield where prisoners must find ways to escape while guards and other players aligned with the guards try to prevent them from doing so.
- Prisoners are restrained and lack equipment. They must find ways to increase their power across the zone, either stealing equipment or finding buffs through other means. Until then, they must rely on their greater numbers to overwhelm guards.
- There are multiple ways to escape the island; stealing ships from supply bases, hijacking the portal network, and holding important NPCs hostage long enough to negotiate freedom. When defeated, guards respawn at a spirit healer. Prisoners are “detained” and teleported to their cell and may be released by other free prisoners.
- Victory for prisoners is individual, escape and they win. Guards, however, win if they can quell resistance, either by detaining a large enough percentage of rioting prisoners or by holding out for a set amount of time.
- The Qiraji Hive
- The silithids in Silithus have been digging a massive network beneath the zone, using potent azerite and lingering life magic to swell their numbers. Heroes must dive into the tunnel system and face the horrors that reside within. Tunnels lead into caverns that serve specific functions, such as hatcheries or food storage.
- The tunnels are always shifting and players need to update their maps or get lost.
- A Great Worm from Beyond glides through the tunnels and devours any unfortunate souls to be caught in its path.
- Commanders: Lost Explorer, a commander that comes as any random race whose mind has been consumed and uses their azerite treasure to fight. Queen K’zeek, an immobile insectoid that lays eggs and summons adds. Herald Veziz, a Qiraji prophet that makes players their own worst enemy.
- Thousand Blade Keep
- The largest fortress in Dread Wastes with several terraces and fallback locations. Players must hold the line side by side with Shado-pan and Rajani against mantid waves.
- Utilize the clever mogu creations around the keep to gain advantages over the endless swarms, including anti aircraft weapons, animating statues, and rune traps.
- Mind losses to prevent Sha of Fear manifestations that can spiral out of control. These can be prevented by avoiding overwhelmingly lost battles and lighting hallways.
- Commanders: Tak’vor the Horned, a new paragon that has evolved a strange spiked carapace that returns damage dealt. Klik, a kunchong that has been infused with amber which drips from its body and forms pools. Shabender Deyukk, a mantid sorcerer that uses the sha as a weapon against his foes.
- Citadel of the Fallen Flights
- A castle on Tempest Falls that changes hands between the three dragonflights on the isle. It sprawls over several hills and cliffs, with gaps in the terrain that lead into the mechanical bowels of the castle.
- Look for shortcuts that circumvent defensible positions, but tread carefully. The ancient ruins are unstable and contain collapsing ground, bursting pipes, and forgotten primordial beings.
- The Voidwing, black, and twilight dragonflights each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Whichever dragonflight controls the fort changes the strategies needed to employ in order to capture it. The other two flights will help, but one will claim the citadel once the current holders are usurped, and they are just as aggressive about keeping it as the last.
- Commanders: Eeronia, a former red dragon turned Voidwing who creates life, then corrupts it to destroy her enemies. Kalissian, a black dragon warmonger covered in elementium plates only vulnerable to his own flames. Irestra, a twilight dragon that is ever evolving.
- Blackscale Island
- The PvP battlefield of the expansion. Blackscale has two types of terrains: Volcano and city. There’s mountain ranges around the zone that belch lava rivers into the sea, then the closer to the center of the zone the denser the city and fortifications become. The elves and orcs are both determined to claim the city hall at the very center.
- Collect metal and scrap around the zone that may be turned into the orc/elves’ craftsmen to create buildings or upgrade troops across the field.
- Be wary of the volcanic lifecycle of the zone. Lava may burst from the earth at any time in more rural locations, creating new deadly flows of superheated rock. When one fissure runs dry, it may leave tunnels that prove useful. Or it may fill up again with lava or collapse, killing all inside.
- Both faction commanders roam the field of battle, helping to secure capture points around the zone. Factions win if they control all points or they slay the opposite faction’s commander. Ashen winds then blow through the city, so hot all forces retreat and the zone is reset. Then the cycle of hatred repeats once more.
Developments
Developments are a vital part of the expansion that integrates the world together. It provides a valuable answer to the long dilemma World of Warcraft has faced with a world that remains forever stagnant. By developing the world around them, players can make old zones relevant for themselves, feel like they’re making a difference, and earn noticeable power progression outside gear.
This system is a bit bigger than it was in Death’s Rise, standing as a player’s primary progression for the open world. Developments unlock new stories, more world quests, ease of transportation, benefits to farming, and much more. Players will unlock developments for all continents, including both the revamped Azeroth and the Dragon Isles.
This leaves developments as an evergreen system, and a great one at that. With more patches, more developments may be added to any zone to tell new stories around it that keep the world changing. New alts may also speak to Chromie to level through a world with their account’s developments active, or inactive, providing a continually fresh experience for leveling.
Developments cost development resources that are gained through doing open world content like battlefields, emissaries, and world quests. These resources may also be used to gain world talents, sent to alts, or spent on trade goods. On the topic of world talents, the spec talent tree will remain consistent through all continents, but the travel and “goofy RP” talent trees may— and “may” is an important word here— change for each continent. For instance, a druid might find different ways to interact with the world in Kalimdor, the ancient homeland of the Kaldorei, versus the Eastern Kingdoms, a land mostly untouched by druidism.
Artifacts: Dragon Riding
Artifacts through their iterations of the game have come in many forms. Weapons, necklaces, and relics. Age of Mortals seeks to try something new for players’ artifact progression. Instead of gaining a new piece of equipment, a mount which will grow alongside the player in power and help them in combat will be a fun personal addition to their adventures.
Dragons
Who doesn’t love dragons? On the Dragon Isles, dragons are the fundamental forces of control over the land. In order to successfully traverse it, players must have the heart of one. They will bond their souls with an egg, hatch it, then nourish the dragon into a mighty companion.
Artifact power gained in this expansion is used to grow a player’s dragon, whose special powers can be used to aid the player on the continent. In addition, when the dragon has grown old enough, they become a customizable mount that can even be named. Unlockable customization includes horn styles, scale patterns, wing styles, armor, saddles and eye color. They will even have different tints based on their base color, such as maroon, scarlet, and pinkish tints for red dragons.
When on the Dragon Isles, the dragon has special abilities while mounted. The dragon’s chosen dragonflight decides the abilities. A titan artifact may be used to change a dragon’s color to prevent a covenant situation. No power is lost in transition.
Even when players are not riding their dragons, they gain an ability that calls upon their bond with their dragon, unleashing ancient power that depends on their flight alignment.
Dragonsworn
With the draconian focus of the expansion and the fate of the dragons coming into question, the dragonflights are recruiting mortals to bolster their unreplenishable forces. The dragonsworn class is a mail wearing sorcerer who wields the ancient magic of dragons. Their powers reflect the natures of the five dragonflights, though canonically all dragonsworn are sworn to only one.
Dragonsworn come in three specializations: Lifebinder, Spellweaver, Earthwarder. Although five aspects exist, some overlap to work under the same spec. Thus the green and red flights work under Lifebinders and the bronze and blue flights work under Spellweavers.
The unifying mechanics of the dragonsworn class come from their connection to dragons themselves. A dragonsworn is a mortal that is becoming a dragonkin, thus the mechanics around the class revolve around brief draconic transformations.
The transformations do not work like metamorphosis does for demon hunters, however. They are weaved through the rotation, and players will actively be deciding when to transform and when to leave the transformation, more similarly to demonology warlocks of the Mists of Pandaria era. Metamorphosis for demon hunters is a single cooldown which players prioritize doing as much damage as possible within. For dragonsworn, multiple spells activate it and the act of being in a dragonkin form is interactive with non dragonkin form abilities.
With the overall theme explained, it is time to go into the detail of specializations. Lifebinder dragonsworn are sworn to either the green or red dragonflights. They are ranged healers that use arcane magic from the Emerald Dream or life giving fire breath to mend wounds.
Spellweaver dragonsworn are mortals who swore themselves to the bronze or blue dragonflights. They are a ranged damage dealing specialization that uses magical fire to devastate foes. Their temporal magic is used for crowd control and to speed up time around the dragonsworn for buffs and to change ability cooldowns within the rotation.
Earthwarder dragonsworn have sworn their allegiance to the black dragonflight. The hearty nature of the earthy dragons make for perfect tanks, allowing these dragonsworn to grow and harden scales around their body that protect them from the explosive flames they release. A secret sixth dragonflight has taken up this ancient practice, however. One of the final talent tier options available to Earthwarder dragonsworn swears them to the twilight dragonflight, weakening their defenses and threat but increasing their damage to make them melee warriors of fire and death.
Although mechanically players cannot turn their back on the powers of every dragonflight, they may swear themselves to one dragonflight and do quests for them. This is entirely for role play purposes, the only thing it changes is that the player gains a different color of dragonsworn transmog when they complete the questlines. They may swap to a new dragonflight to earn the other transmogs if they desire. There is no penalty and they may return to former dragonflights any time. The only mechanical change is to a portal spell they gain similar to death gates and zen pilgrimage where they have a portal to their sworn dragonflight’s lair. The option to swear themselves to the twilight dragonflight is available upon reaching max level.
If dragonsworn players dislike their generalized specializations and wish to be visually one color, class skin appearances may be used to change certain spells to be more in line with their desired dragonflight. For example, if someone really likes the green dragonflight and feels weird healing people with red fire, they can use class skins to make that fire a sort of druidic dream spell or something. Or they can use it across specializations too, someone who loves the blue dragonflight could make their Earthwarder spells more arcane looking and have their scales turn blue.
Dragonsworn are restricted to using staves, wands, one/two-handed maces, axes, or swords, and shields. They may also speak draconic.
Character Features: Unlocking A Hero’s Potential
The character features for Age of Mortals is a vital ingredient to the expansion. It is not expansion specific and intended as evergreen content that can be revisited with each expansion. As a side benefit, too, is that it’s something players will always have an option to enjoy, not just when they’re at max level. This adds freshness to playing through the game in all facets.
Heritage Sites
Heritage sites (the race version of class halls) will return in Age of Mortals, as it is necessary to understand where races are heading in this revamped world. It is, however, mostly done for story purposes. Other systems will fulfill the other functions heritage sites once served. Completing campaigns continues to provide cosmetic rewards that make it worth running through at least once. Perhaps in later patches heritage sites will include more questlines that reward racial customization options, such as the “undead human” look for Forsaken.
The Adventurer’s Guild
A separation of the mission table and followers from order halls, which was their original home. The Adventurer’s Guild is a new entity that appeals specifically to players who like to have many alts. They have two headquarters, one in Orgrimmar and one in Stormwind. From the guild, players can interact with their own alts, specific to each realm.
How do they interact? To start, players will find all their realm’s alts present in the Adventurer’s Hall. If they are in a guild, they may find guildmates’ alts there as well. They can then recruit these characters as mission followers, up to some specified max. If not enough alts exist, generic NPCs can be recruited. With these recruited followers, players can send them on missions.
But that’s not all. Healers and tanks may request one alt to join them on their adventures in the open world, making open world content as anything but a DPS much more possible. The strength of the companion, while not necessarily a 1:1 ratio, depends on the strength of the actual playable character. A max level, fully geared follower will scale down to their character’s level and be a well geared character for that level.
The Adventurer’s Guild handles the distribution of rewards for certain achievements, such as the challenge mode leveling sets. It is also where towers will be accessed. Both of which will be discussed later.
Additionally, it provides a weekly campaign quest. This quest starts at a board in the guild, then sends players on a step by step set of quests that seem to escalate. For example, start off with a bounty on raptors, go to Un’goro and kill some raptors, gain a follow up quest that has the player loot some eggs, then gain a follow up that has then kill a raptor matriarch. If technology allows, the campaign will be procedurally generated to always be unique, though players can share quests with friends to do the same one if they wish to complete it as a group.
That’s basic, but the gist of the idea. This is available at all levels and is a good weekly burst of experience that should offset the time spent going out of the way to whatever location. It’s possible this will be expanded, but I do not want it to become more than optional.
Character Customization
More customization options around the board for races. You know the drill. But what’s more exciting to announce is the new system of class skins. This is the class spell customization system from the last expansion but improved upon and made into a cohesive thing. It is like equipment appearances, and will have its own tab on the collections window.
The idea is this: Through various means, players can obtain spell appearances. Turn your fire green as a warlock, or make your spells redder as a paladin. Speak to your class’s trainer in order to access the UI for changing spell effects. Age of Mortals brings to each class at least one full “set” of these skins. Warlocks get necromancers where demons are undead instead, for instance.
Ideally, the full blown “sets”, also known as subclasses, are obtained through class quests unlocked by various means like finding an item or doing an achievement. If resources and time is limited, they’ll instead be unlocked just by learning it from an item.
Warlocks can now go out into the world and find demons to add to a grimoire. To do so, they must enslave the demon and perform binding rituals that add its appearance to their grimoire. Demons all come as classifications: lesser, guardian, tempter, mageslayer, and brute. Warlocks may choose any demon from a classification to appear for that slot. It won’t change gameplay. Any tempter will be able to cast a seduction spell. But it will provide more class fantasy for warlocks to be able to hunt down powerful demons that fit their ambition and enslave them.
Lastly, a new language system is being added to the game. Players can listen to languages spoken, or find books written in said languages, and slowly improve their ability to speak it. This should take up to a month of work for the character, but over time they will be able to understand more and more. It works sort of like the furbolg language quest in Azuremyst Isle, where the more familiar with the language a player becomes, the more words begin to be translated.
Upon reaching full fluency, players are given the option to speak that language themselves. Each unique, non racial language, such as Kalimag or Draconic, also has some small cosmetic reward for players who achieve proficiency, like an elemental or whelpling pet. These are unlocked through questlines, so players may feel special speaking this language with the quest givers.
To prevent players from unwillingly learning random languages just by being around a language being spoken, they must purchase a primer book and use it every 7 days in order to continue gaining progress. This is for players who do not wish for their elf to become a master of dwarvish just because someone is shouting in it in Stormwind’s Trade District. In a similar vein, players can also purchase tomes that can wipe out a language aside from their native language if they so desire. It has little effect on endgame or anything, but such roleplay options in the game truly add an immersion that makes progress even sweeter and unique for each person.
Housing
This feature is another evergreen system that adds an excellent new collecting aspect to the game. Players may buy plots of land in a handful of zones and create their own homes. This will utilize the technology used for runeblade customization in the previous expansion to grant players as much freedom to create what they envision as possible.
Items and appearances may be gained through several means. Dungeons, treasure around the world, vendors, and especially professions. This will give professions another avenue to make money off of and boost its relevance, as well as demand for old world crafting reagents. This should add some variability to the economy of the game.
Other players may visit each other’s homes. For the fun of it.
Challenge Mode Leveling
Any account with a max level character is given a second option of creation when making new characters: Iron Man Mode. The popular community invention is now being made part of the game. Characters are not able to equip gear of qualities uncommon and beyond. They cannot select a specialization. They are immune to other players’ healing and buffs and cannot join parties. Mob tags cannot be shared with Iron Man characters. These characters are not permitted account wide progress, such developments or mount collections (they must purchase their own). They cannot access mail or accept trades either. They can enter war mode but good luck on that.
These characters are completely alone. If they die, the player is given the option to respawn the character as a non Iron Man character, or to delete them altogether. Reaching max level as an Iron Man character grants a feat of strength achievement and access to a cosmetic set appearance. There are four appearances to unlock, one for each armor type. If an account hits max on all classes with Iron Man, they will receive a title “Iron Man/Woman” and an Avenger Mk 32 mount, which uses the shredder/lightforged warframe model but painted red and gold.
Instanced Content: Mortals’ Folly
Because there is no world ending catastrophe, most dungeons and other instanced content are designed to be more exploration oriented. It goes back to the roots of old classic dungeons, where players will delve into forgotten tombs and caverns just to find treasure and see what’s going on. It is part of the return to grounded adventuring that this expansion aims to bring.
Dungeons
- Runestone Gardens is a dungeon located in Sarakan. It is a terraced garden nestled inside a narrow mountain valley. While there are beautiful ferns and flowers in the garden, its more prominent features are its runestones. They are magical stones of draconic origin that seem to interact with elementals and weather. It is also theorized that hearthstones come from the valley. It is an ancient place that has not received as much attention over the years, causing elementals and guardians to become aggressive. Wrathion’s agents wish to access the runestones’ powers and wisdom, and the quest leads to a final battle against a silver wyrm who no longer discerns between friend and foe.
- Altar of the Firstblood is the shrine spoken of in the Sarakan overview. It is a simple but magically charged stone structure that looks like a mini version of the temple in Maladum. It is where the first dragonsworn were turned into dragonspawn by the nascent dragonflights, and that power still remains. The Voidspawn have captured the altar and are growing an army from mortal captives.
- Bedrock Foundry is accessed from a cave behind one of the larger waterfalls in Tempest Falls. It burrows deep into the earth and blends dragon architecture with titan machines, slowly becoming more titan-like as players descend. It is inhabited by malfunctioning titan constructs, mad nerubians who dug into the chambers from Northrend, and foul slug-like dragon mutant monsters.
- Mossgore Willow, found at the very center of Mazora, is an enormous willow tree. The green dragonflight believes it is the neural center of the zone and worries that it is at risk of falling into the Emerald Dream, causing untold damage to it if Mossgore is not soothed. Players must climb through the root system and ancient treehouse platforms while fighting creepy wooden dolls to the heart.
- Tinoctilan, one of the main Tinoco temples in the Galeborne Chain. It’s been taken over by a gilblin who tricked the tinoco and captured a relic of power in the temple. He now uses it to coerce murlocs and tinoco into serving him. The temple is a giant Easter Island sort of head with large passages carved into the interior.
- Xianarr: the Sky Kingdom is a dungeon similar in design to Taza’vesh or Lost City where it is a big city. It resides in the clouds above the Galeborne Chain and serves as a base of operations for the hostile Azgar in the zone. A race of flight capable dragonspawn also live in Xianarr, some are being held hostage, some work with the Azgar willingly. The same goes for the air elementals residing there.
- Aspect’s Tears is a caldera on Maladum with an active lava lake inside. After Deathwing’s betrayal of the Aspects during the War of the Ancients, he landed in Maladum to contemplate his decisions. The Dragon Soul continued tearing his body apart, and in the emotional turmoil of Neltharion and Deathwing’s personalities clashing. His rage, sorrow, and pain erupted around him and formed the caldera before he flew for Highmountain. There are some islands that form a link across the volcanic lake along. Phoenixes nest in cliff sides around the caldera’s edge to hatch their priceless eggs, and the elemental furies found there hold key treasures and knowledge that Wrathion’s agents would like.
- Sunscale Lair, one of the larger lairs of the golden dragonflight. On Maladum, dragon lairs are more than just caves. They are beautifully carved complexes that use runes and the elements to defend their territory. Sunscale Lair houses a traitor in the golden flight; the dragon that had Wrathion framed and imprisoned known as Eranox. Though the story around his imprisonment isn’t resolved here, players must enter the lair and gain evidence of the traitor’s wrongdoings. The last boss is Eranox, whose scales are too tough to bring him harm. This results in players running away in a cat and mouse manner for the encounter.
Raids
- Kin’rethar, the Heartland Temple, a ten boss raid taking place in the mountain shrine at the highest peak of Maladum. The ancient holy site that hums with the energies of the five dragon aspects’ birth. Several wings are dedicated to the dragonflights’ charges, such as life and time. Eranox has used the murder of the former leader of the golden flight and Wrathion’s imprisonment to rise to the top. Players start off in the prison complex, clearing Wrathion’s name and gaining the goodwill of the golden flight. Then the rest of the raid is dealing with the treacherous insurgents.
- Voyage of the Drowned is a three boss raid where players join the cursed ship Farstrider’s Revenge. In an attempt at countering the red dragons under Horde control, the high elves tried to recruit Anakwa to control the seas. Anakwa, however, was the wrong dragon to appeal to. She seems to be driven only by hunger and some strange instinct to patrol the Dragon Isles and destroy any ships caught in her wake. Farstrider’s Revenge swore to bring her down, and players battle Anakwa in order to secure the isles. However, there’s a twist. Anakwa is only the second boss, and Alexstrasza steps in to stop the senseless violence and save her. The ghost elves of Farstrider’s Revenge don’t take kindly to this, and the heroes must face them as the final boss to put them to rest.
- World bosses will continue the previous expansion’s iteration of having lairs around the continent and being a little less zergy than the outdoor bosses.
- Warlord Gargonnax, one of the last few original dragonspawn of Sarakan. Gargonnax is a skilled warrior who lusts for battle. He is not evil, simply seeks challengers. Players do not kill him in the end, he just cedes. His abilities mainly revolve around weapon techniques that are punishing to those who fail.
- The Weeping One, a large ancient on Mazora. There’s two platforms to battle on in its fight. The tunnels around its roots, and the trunk where its face and gnarled arm branches can swing freely at its attackers. Players need to split their group between the platforms in order to effectively take down the treant, but must be wary of the roots shooting through tunnels like spears.
- Synaria, a large phoenix matriarch found along the cliff faces of Maladum. Her ever present celestial fire melts everything around her into liquid gold. However, phoenixes are symbols of rebirth and immortality in mythology. Her mechanics are brutal, but the living fire that chases and damages players can also be kited over a player’s corpse to resurrect them.
Towers
Torghast has been an excellent start to a system that will now be generally referred to as “Towers”. Towers are an instanced PvE game that players can engage with either solo or in groups, giving non keystone pushers or raiders a place to focus their progression. Torghast lies as the foundational system to towers, but it’s been made broader in terms of theme and has more choices added for players.
For starters, Tower wings are no longer primarily accessible through the Torghast lobby. Instead, they will be accessed through a tower on the side of the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters. From this tower, players can enter portals that take them to new thematic lobbies with their own wings. This allows any number of wings and tower types to be added to the game for any number of reasons. Now instead of just Torghast, players will be able to enter other towers, such as a Dalaran tower, or a Karazhan tower, or a cursed Sandfury tomb style tower. It’s not necessarily limited to literal towers, of course, but it will be places with varying floors that players can ascend for progress.
Along with these new towers being added, the number of powers that players can gain will be exponentially increased. In the current iteration of Torghast, players will always receive the same powers by the end of the run. And if they didn’t, odds are they had terrible luck and won’t complete the run. Roguelikes need more than that. Players should have many options they can experiment with, different buffs that interact in different ways. If they’re absurd, that’s okay. Maybe a mage can do a sword fighting build if they want. Or maybe they can do an invisibility build if they want instead. It should aim for building a character like Hearthstone dungeons instead of just being buffs.
As with my own previous versions of Torghast, towers can be ascended indefinitely before players are eventually overwhelmed by the scaling. To add to the vastness of the tower and exploration theme, all floors may also be traveled indefinitely outward using procedural generation to keep building out hallways and rooms. To combat getting lost, players are given a unique tower-only hearthstone that takes them back to the entrance of the floor. There will also be ways to find the boss room from the entrance too when players are ready to leave.
The importance of this wider style is so players don’t feel obligated to clear every floor and turn every stone before moving on. They can kill as much as they want, skip as much as they want, loot as much as they want, then continue onward when they’re ready. There will still be random events that may even repopulate formerly cleared areas with invading enemies like in Island Expeditions. This won’t be too common, though. Constantly having to fight backwards would not be fun.
The reward system will remain the same as the last few expansions’ Torghasts. Bosses, rares, and treasures will all have a chance to drop cosmetics. The higher the floor number, the better the chances for rare items to drop. They will all also drop a currency that can be used as bad luck protection to target specific items with a vendor in the Adventurer’s Guild. This way, dying and being ejected is not necessarily a make or break experience. The resource may also be used on an account wide talent system only functional in towers.
Towers may be used to level and are available to players level 20 and up.
Player vs. Player: A Cycle Reborn
PvP is a very important avenue of content to address when revamping the world. With no massive threats looming over the horizon, races and factions will inevitably return to focusing on their tensions. Territories lost must be regained, old insults must be repaid, dead must be avenged. The factions may no longer be actively at war, but the fire of conflict still burns in the hearts of many. PvP needs to reflect these renewed tensions.
The previous expansion system continuing into this one will be Siege Mode, a PvP event in Stormwind or Orgrimmar that initiates when enough enemy faction players attack the city. It activates a camp outside the city that spawns attacking NPCs, and it becomes an open world battleground of trying to invade a fortified leader chamber (a revamped Stormwind Keep and the Underhold). Battle events will also be returning, a similar system to Siege Mode where large battles in war mode between players will spawn a battleground style event in the open world. Unfortunately, it’s only active in the Dragon Isles and select old world zones, in the interest of resources and time.
The Center of PvP
With players leaving the Shadowlands, lorewise, they will need a new PvP hub like the Amphitheater of Anguish and the Ardenweald coliseum. The new PvP hub will be found in Blasted Lands, built upon the ruins of Nethergarde Keep. This zone has always had a dark history of conflict between the Horde and Alliance, and both factions have been happy to build up a new keep fit with arenas to send troublemakers to vent their aggression. It is their hope to remove those who would keep the faction war alive and place them where they can’t do serious damage to relations while murdering demons that sneak into Azeroth in the process. The arenas can be used for duels, and the mines in the keep will also be set up as a free for all PvP games area that is similar to Dalaran’s Underbelly.
From this new keep, PvPers can access vendors, call to arms quests, portals to battle events across the world and portals to and from Stormwind and Orgrimmar to correct the mistake of removing the portals to Blasted Lands. The keep will also have a series of story quests that involve the bitter rivalries fostered between both factions in the hub, leading to some saucy murders and espionage. Completing the campaign will grant a title and a tabard.
PvP Reputations
A few new reputations will be added to the game that are PvP oriented. The rewards are all of a cosmetic fashion or goofy little gizmos that can be used exclusively while in war mode or another PvP setting. Completing these reputations’ activities does grant PvP currency that may be used to purchase PvP gear, but it is otherwise not useful for any other progression, as to avoid making others feel like they have to PvP or do dailies to PvP.
- Team up with one of three gangs in the mean streets of Gadgetzan, where players can participate in gang wars and other conflicts. These reputations are like the Steamwheedle Cartel and the Bloodsail Buccaneers where gaining reputation with one lowers reputation with the others.
- Participate in a new hunt in Northern Stranglethorn with the Nesingwary Expedition. They’ve teamed up with the Gurubashi to create a new hunting event that will be the talk of all the town! Bring back impressive trophies to gain reputation. In this secluded, fenced off section of the jungle, players will stalk the most deadly game of all: Man. Killing other players grants a buff that makes you more valuable until you yourself get hunted. Vision is slightly more obscured under the dark jungle canopies to make stalking a prey more challenging, but there will be other mechanics added to track people down.
- Silverwind Refuge was hit hard by the Army of the Black Moon in recent times. They ruthlessly tore through the Horde forces holding the lodge and scattered them like leaves in the wind. Vengeful over their loss, the night elves have trapped the Horde in the woods around the refuge, shooting any who try to leave but taking pleasure in giving them enough space to let their guard down, only to strike again. Horde players join the survivors, Alliance players help hunt camps of Horde. Alliance players can return Horde heads to a moonwell to be empowered while Horde can seek out elemental runestones to beg for protection.
- Krasarang Wilds will have occasional events spawn in the zone that players can battle for. It could be capturing a mine, filling up an oil tank from an oil spill for their faction, or other such competitive events. Completing them grants players reputation with their general. It’s overall very similar to how the current system works but with more modern technology.
Final additions
Old world arenas like the Gurubashi Arena in the Cape of Stranglethorn will be scaled up to be worth taking a look at for all players. The Arathi warfront from Battle for Azeroth will also be added as a PvP epic battleground. It works like the warfront did, but instead of being a PvE zerg, it’s going to be more of a tug of war battle between two enemy raid groups. And lastly, a new arena taking place in Azgonnar will be added.
Notes
As I like to do, here’s a list of new or continuing currencies being added with this expansion as to help readers fully visualize the new systems:
- Development resources - Set apart from the resources in Death’s Rise to give all players a fresh start, these resources are gained and used to enhance open world content. It can purchase cosmetics, unlock world talents and be used to level up developments.
- Valor - Gained through mythic+ completion, used to upgrade mythic+ gear.
- Tower Treasure - Looted from bosses, rares, and treasure chests in the tower instances. This currency is bad luck protection so players can purchase cosmetics they’ve been targeting in towers from vendors.
- Ancient Power - A currency gained through just about any endgame content, used to grow one’s dragon.
Characters
In order to continue developing the world and the story around it, it’s important to introduce new generations of characters to take center in the world. Some will be forgettable quest givers and vendors, others as important as Garrosh or Anduin. Most characters in the zone overviews were omitted barring some exceptions, mostly because I believe zone stories should be about the zone, not characters within the zone. Below is a list of new characters needed to bolster some races’ representation, and existing characters who are receiving enough of a narrative update to necessitate explaining their situation. All others are of course doing things, just not as notably.
New Characters
- Anette Vela’thir. A San’layn princess invited to the Horde by Sylvanas. She won her stay of execution and a spot on the new Forsaken Desolate Council with a single skill: She can give free will to Stratholme undead. This places her and her San’layn in a uniquely powerful position as the one source of new Forsaken, given the loss of Val’kyr. She clearly has her own motives, but presents herself as the anti Sylvanas, with a charming and likable personality that engages with the people.
- Detromede, the Azerothian Rangari Exarch. He is extremely personable and kind, yet his position as the draenei’s defacto “espionage” leader has placed him in the uncomfortable position of investigating the Sargerai festering in the populace. Though at first he is reluctant, he eventually has a wake up call when his hesitation results in several deaths and the corruption of one dear to him. As a result, he has stepped up to become the main face of those who push against the Sargerai.
- Eekesh, the newly appointed High Sage of the Arakkoa from alternate Draenor. He is bold and optimistic. Many even believe he is the true reincarnation of Terokk. His boldness is offset by his idealistic and naive nature, however, needing more experience before he can truly guide his people into a brighter future. In order to do so, he must make peace with a Shadow-Sage in Skettis, and stand by his clutch sister, Kinde.
- Golgan the Insightful. An unexpectedly charming ogre from the Stonemaul. He was blind at birth, but that never curtailed his desire to master the arcane. He is a popular figurehead in Eldre’thalas, displaying an unusual amount of wit for an ogre. Under his influence, many ogres have sought to claim arcane secrets all over Kalimdor, either by plundering Theramore or trading with the Highborne.
- Hansley Greyfield. One of the first Stratholme undead to have his personality returned to him. He was given a place on the Desolate Council due to his leadership experience in the city’s defenses, and to give the new Forsaken a say on matters. The captain does not care much for politics, but reluctantly rose to the leadership position to help his city find its new identity. His lack of political expertise has placed him inside Anette’s web, however.
- Hor’chag is a two headed ogre of the Stonemaul. He is one of the eldest ogres around, old enough to even have a substantial arcane knowledge. However, he’s seen what that magic does to a people multiple times over. He would rather learn of shamanism from the orcs and teach his kind a more peaceful lifestyle.
- Imogen Andresta was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up exiled with Umbric and his people. She despised having to leave home, and only followed them out of necessity. Then she got caught up in the transformative process of the Ren’dorei and now hates her own existence. She laments having to live as a Void abomination in either a crumbling rift or human city. Returning to normal has become her obsession, and she and her followers will do anything to accomplish that.
- Iskar. Perhaps a familiar name, this Iskar is the outcast arakkoa of the main universe. This one was not corrupted by Gul’dan and, unlike Reshad, survived the destruction of Draenor. He’s been eking out a living for the arakkoa living on Outlands. Without Skyreach and its adherents to harass them, he’s relaxed a little more. However, the arakkoa of Draenor have arrived with their own adherents. Though they have noble intentions, Iskar struggles to trust them and reconcile the two groups.
- Katrinne Sallowheart. If Magister Umbric is the representation and advocate of Void elf self restraint and control, Katrinne is the opposite. The wild embrace of endless possibilities and freedom that the Void offers. She is a Void elf rogue-like character that shifts through the shadows and seems to get into places she ought not to. Unlike Valeera, another elf rogue in the Alliance who seems to use her stealthiness for specific purposes, Katrinne is reckless and is usually caught up in mischief. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone or cause misery, but her attitude, while alluring enough to gain her a Void elf following, tends to have consequences that puts her at odds with Umbric and his teachings. Seems to know something about the Tal’ren but isn’t open about it.
- Kinde. An outcast arakkoa of alternate Draenor. She is a jittery character that always seems on the move. Her fear and anxiety saved her people from a crumbling timeline. But now she has to swallow her nervousness to be the leader they need and bridge the gap between the high arakkoa and the outcasts, with the help of her clutch brother, Eekesh.
- Losha Skyhorn is a young tauren who gained a gift through the Earth Mother following a near death experience. She can see time like no one else among the tauren spiritualists. This is done mostly through visions of individuals. She can see someone’s, or something’s, entire life on fast forward. Thus she can see a whole tree grow from a sapling until it is cut down centuries later. She must be clever to use this helpfully, but the excitable and upbeat youth is more than up to the task.
- Nogra. Tharg’s appointed second in command over the Stonemaul ogres, based in the Stonemaul city in Feralas. She is brutal and efficient, with a true talent for managing the burgeoning ogre civilization on Kalimdor. In spite of her own savagery, she has managed to gain the friendship of the Highborne in Feralas. Her successes have even made the clan question if they’d rather have her over Tharg, and that has brought tension between the two.
- Siressi Dawnbloom is the High Sunkeeper of the Sunwell, the highest authority of those who tend to the sacred font. She struggles with a lack of empathy and can become quite psychopathic when push comes to shove, but it is a conscious battle she makes to be kind. She is the one that took a vial of Kel’thuzad’s essence for study in the previous expansion and seems to have a fascination with the Lightforged undead. Her own forbidden interests, however, pale in comparison to her hatred of Ren’dorei, and the brutal campaign she employs against their infiltrators in Quel’danas. However, it is later revealed she may not hate them as much as she claims.
- Ror’nash Flamekeeper, a master engineer of the Iron Horde. He’s a classic Blackrock orc of Warlords of Draenor, who practically bleeds molten iron. He ushers the Horde into the era of full fledged industrialization but during his time on Azeroth he’s gained an appreciation for the old traditions carried on in the Horde. His goal is to implement elemental magic into Iron Horde technology to make it more environmentally safe. However, he is dreadfully terrified of the Light thanks to the Lightbound, and won’t even show his face when in sunlight. He was apparently good friends with Draenor Grom’s son before he became Lightbound.
- Unit 62 is a synthetic life form recently found in Mechagon. It is gnomish in shape, but entirely made of machine. It was created by King Mechagon as another exploration of mechanizing others, with the intent of digitizing minds and placing them in machine shells. Unit 62 is a deadly hunter that was going to be the king’s enforcer before the rebellion claimed the city. Now it seeks purpose and serves King Erazmin. Later it is revealed that Unit 62 may not entirely be synthetic, however, and those memories begin to surge.
- Vis Throatscar. Fresh blood from the Mag’har of Draenor. Her tragic history in the wilds of Gorgrond made her an excellent rogue, albeit unhinged as is common among Laughing Skull. But her talents and youthful vigor has gained her a place by Garona’s side, and she has a lot of room to grow as a character.
- The Wayfinder. A mysterious tauren appears in Thunder Bluff, shrouded in a cloak of stars. He speaks of a new tauren society and claims to have direct contact with the night sky. He has gained a large following, and Baine was happy to accept this spiritual soothsayer into the tribe. However, the Wayfinder seems to have ulterior interests, and his faith has had multiple explosive encounters with the Sunwalkers.
- Xenath Lightbane. A Void elf extremist that leads the Tal’ren. He believes Void elves are the future of the Thalassian race and their misled brethren should be inducted to their ranks. He also incites a fear of the Light in his followers, arguing the Light will Lightforge them into slavery if they continue to rely on the Sunwell.
Updated Characters
- Calia Menethil has expressed interest in leading the Forsaken into a brighter future. However, she struggles to gain any form of acceptance and recognition from the Forsaken. They believe she turned her back on them, which in a way she did. Nor has she shared in their same struggles. Her determination to do right by Lordaeron and correct her brother’s wrongs has led to escalated extremes that only seem to push the Forsaken away further. And that only makes her resort to more extremes.
- The Desolate Council. It may not be a character per se, but the Desolate Council is the new form of Forsaken leadership. It consists of five members: Deathstalker Commander Belmont, Master Apothecary Faranell, Dark Ranger Velonara, Hansley Greyfield, and Lady Anette Vela’thir. Each member represents various branches of the Forsaken; the military, the apothecaries, the dark rangers, the freshly raised, and the San’layn.
- Divinius. Before Velen secluded himself, he appointed Divinius and Fareeya as two guides for the draenei, one representing the draenei, the other representing the Lightforged. Divinius was quite shy at first, preferring the company of the Light and other Light’s Chosen in seclusion. But one day she was captured during a diplomatic trip to Ashenvale by satyr. She was changed when the Rangari rescued her. More confident and driven. Many draenei claim it is simply Velen’s plan for her as a leader realized, but eventually it is discovered that she is in fact leading the Sargerai and has a vision for becoming their greatest selves: Man’ari. They intend to form a new kingdom alongside satyr as a sort of “twisted night elf and draenei faction”, where their race will never be threatened again.
- Renault Mograine. The original final boss of Scarlet Monastery has been resurrected by Sally Whitemane and serves her again as her commander. Death seems to have mellowed out all of the risen Scarlets, and he’s been willing to work alongside other races in defending Tirisfal. His previous prejudices, ambition, and “slash and burn” tactics still have a tendency to flair up, however.
- Gelbin Mekkatorque has awoken from his coma with a new vision for the future. This vision taught him how to forge new devices that allows him and the gnomes to reclaim Gnomeregan. However, every time he sleeps, he receives new visions of mechanical domination. Ever introspective and intelligent, Mekkatorque has been trying to figure out the nature of the visions before he actually acts on any more.
- Gorgonna of Conquest Hold is now High Overlord after many successes and victories off-screen during Legion and Battle for Azeroth. She stands as the “heart and soul” of orcs, an honorable and robust person who respects the wisdom of her elders.
- The Horde Council, like the Desolate Council, is not a character but a governing force that needs to be outwardly addressed. Each race within the Horde has representatives on the Council, but they are not racial leaders, as those leaders already have too much on their plate to work with. The High Councilor is the executive Horde authority, elected by vote of Council members. The Council consists of: Thrall, Master Gadrin, Tagar, Lilian Voss, Lady Liadrin, Boss Mida, Ji Firepaw, Arcanist Valtrois, Jale Rivermane, Geya’rah, Ghaliri, Nisha, Chieftain Wintergale, Nogra, and Kirrik the Awakened. Thrall is currently the High Councilor.
- Lorna Crowley dedicated her life to the liberation of Gilneas and to stopping the evils of the Banshee Queen. While Gilneas has been restored, many crimes are unaccounted for. She has accepted the worgen curse to become a deadly hunter who joins Shandris as they hunt war criminals denounced by the Horde across Azeroth. Darius and her are no longer on speaking terms, as he was so vehemently opposed to her becoming a worgen. It is implied that Ivan Bloodfang gave her the blood to become one and she does seem a bit more feral and savage than the usual Gilneas worgen.
- Raene Wolfrunner has become disillusioned by the Alliance’s fumbling of her people’s safety in the last few wars. She is the face of the group of Kaldorei that seek to split away from Tyrande’s leadership and the Alliance. She is not violent towards the Alliance, though she’s happy to slaughter Horde who violate their commitments and cross established boundaries. All night elves do, in fact. Not just the separatist faction. Some are more merciful than others, though.
- Rehgar Earthfury is now the orc racial leader. Thrall may no longer be in a “soul searching state” but his place on the Horde Council leaves him unable to take up the mantle of orcish leadership. He is now Rehgar’s advisor instead. The pair are the levelheaded leaders the orcs need right now as they attempt to atone for their previous unwarranted aggressions against the Alliance.
- Vanessa VanCleef despises working with the Stormwind throne. However, when the Burning Legion was defeated, Mathias Shaw strong-armed the Uncrowned to release her into his custody, in return for keeping their existence a secret. At first they wanted to have justice against her, but Turalyon eventually had her released into service of SI:7, where she is expected to help calm the angry hearts of the people. Turalyon at least told her that her cooperation will lead to a better future for everyone. She hasn’t forgotten her rage over her father’s death, though. And now she finds herself in striking distance of many nobles, if she can shake her SI:7 leash.
- Zekhan will go through trials during this entire expansion that eventually prepares him for leadership among the Darkspear. Rokhan is experienced and a fine warrior, but has little interest in leading. Thus he and Master Gadrin act as Zekhan’s mentors. The young troll shaman will become versed in diplomacy and logistics, while also adding his own youthful idealism to guide the Darkspear into a new era.
Patches
Patches will be low key, much like the expansion. They’ll mainly be used to flesh out some of the gaps left behind by the vast amount of work that had to be put into the main expansion. With no doomsday scenario to contend with, raids and zones may be anywhere on Azeroth, not just on the Dragon Isles. Each patch is expected to bring more class skins and character customization, tower wings, battlefields, and developments. That is baseline content.
11.1
A filler patch. No new zones added, but it does tackle the massive challenge of revamping old world dungeons to match the narrative and visual quality adjustments made to the surrounding zones. New towers and wings added to the tower system in the Adventure Guild. New developments added around the world, some with new dailies. Balancing mechanics will also be a primary goal in this patch.
Caverns of Time will gain a new wing dedicated to reaching all the old continents that have been updated/replaced. It will also house the next raid: Thunder King’s Demise. The Infinite dragonflight is trying to dissuade Lei Shen from assaulting the Tol’vir and being destroyed by the Halls of Origination. Players must join him under the guise of Zandalari in his conquest to make sure he’s in the right place at the right time. In the meantime, Nozdormu will have a candid discussion with Wrathion about how dragons aren’t meant to reproduce anymore, according to the timelines. He admits he wishes it was different, but to try would cause unspeakable damage to time.
11.2
Players return to a familiar island that has finally been opened to the rest of the world: Kezan. The island has been revamped and placed in the Kalimdor open world instance, though it is canonically the middle point between the continent and the Maelstrom. Venture Co. may have stripped most of the azerite bare of the island, but it has also been repaired and repopulated by goblins from the many cartels around the world. Quests and open world content revolve around working for, with, or against certain cartels who wish to gain full control over the coveted goblin homeland.
Kezan is an experimental zone that is not exclusively made for endgame and max level players. In fact, it is also a new goblin starter zone for players to choose from when creating one. It’s capital city, Undermine, is a massive neutral subterranean city with all the capital city amenities. However it also has quests and fully attackable mobs.
This patch includes a new mega dungeon, The Pleasure Palace, which is a raid on Gallywix’s compound to bring justice to the little cretin. It includes a casino, penthouse, golf and pool houses, and a clubhouse. The raid of the patch will be Vault 99, a secret goblin facility in Undermine that hoarded and used kajamite to perform unholy experiments. An evil cartel seeks to unlock its secrets to gain an advantage over the others that will most certainly be used for evil purposes.
11.3
This patch begins with Nozdormu finding heroes and explaining that he has discovered something horrible. He takes them to the Caverns of Time and explains that the End Time is upon us and the only way to stop it is for Murozond to survive. At which point he attempts to destroy the players, who are the ones destined to kill him. Chromie saves them at the last moment and whisks the players back to their faction capitals. Worried the fabric of reality is in danger, they seek out Alexstrasza to help.
She agrees with a heavy heart. With armies from all over Azeroth and a unified dragonsworn army, they charge into the caverns to find it is not the bastion of hostile dragons they expected. As a matter of fact, the Bronze flight is fluttering about in a panic, trying to fix what they exclaim to be massive temporal anomalies and Nozdormu and a large number of their flight is nowhere to be found.
At this point, players are sent into the heart of the anomalies and find themselves in a strange negative space zone called Zoterah. This is the land from which the Infinite flight are based and players must hinder their efforts both in Zoterah and across all timelines.
This patch adds an infinite tower to the Tower system where it has a jumbled mess of all tower floors and styles as well as Infinite flight themed floors tossed into the mix. Players also get to participate in Time Heists, essentially the same as Legion Invasions on Argus but instead of going to other worlds, players are going to other times. This offers more opportunities to see other historical events in the game without having to commit to resource intensive dungeons and raids.
The zone itself is meant to be very bizarre, with a vast number of dynamic weather that changes up the physics of this pocket dimension. The center of the zone houses a battlefield called the Chronarium, a fortress that houses the anchor points of many timelines. As such, there are time portals all over the fortress that have an entrance and an exit point for traversing the battlefield. And within may be benefits… or risks.
The final raid of the expansion takes place in Anomalar, a black hole above the zone where Murozond dwells. It is a twelve boss raid that will be fairly psychedelic as players delve into the very heart of demented time. Through this raid, it is indicated that the Infinite flight seems to be drawing some kind of “probability” power out of the Void, which is said to know all possible realities. It is known players do not kill Murozond, so the story plays around with finding clever ways to remove his threat.
In the end, they outwit Murozond by “using” the Hourglass of Time to defeat him. Which, in truth, is to trick him into stealing the Hourglass and escaping the dome of influence the players made… to the End Time, where he shall meet his fate in the Cataclysm dungeon. The final phase of the fight is a mirror battle of players fighting him from the hourglass as past versions of themselves battle him in the End Time. With his death, Alexstrasza is the last of the original aspects and leaves for Wyrmrest Temple in solemn contemplation.
Wrathion, however, finds something of interest while sneaking around Zoterah as the Bronze flight closes the rift. He finds an echo of Nozdormu, who explains his understanding of the circle of time, knowing his eventual fate, and knowing also the doomed fate of the dragons with no means of reproduction. At which point, he discloses the location of his research into the matter. As his echo fades, he confesses that the act of doing so may very well be what drives him into his Murozond state. Yet he did not wish to see his people die out. Thus, he asks whoever finds his message that they consider the ramifications and be the ones to decide what the future holds.
Wrathion, of course, immediately searches for the research. Upon discovering the cache, he asks players to leave him to his studies. The future of Azeroth has just entered uncharted waters.
Thank you for reading. This is a whopper, I know, and I greatly appreciate those of you who took the time to do so! And as it would turn out, I sort of hit a character limit (fun fact, it’s 99,000). So I cut out the biggest space hog, which are the revamped zones. I’ll post them in a comment below. I highly recommend checking them out too, though. That’s where most of the nostalgia comes from!
If you have any ideas for zone updates, feel free to submit them in the thread here. If you have any other thoughts too, I’d be thrilled to hear from them.
See you all next time!