Given the introduction of Hallowfall, does anyone else notice how the close resemblance of the crystal with the markings around the roof similar in a manner to a Naaru core?
Lore states speculation that it could be a naaru ship or a shard of light, but what if it was more than that? A Naaru with a core like that would be the size of a titan.
Whats equally strange is how according to Arathi lore, the light called to them hence the expedition but not quite unlike the claims how the light called to the leadership of the crusade. Though we were told it was the voice of the Nathrezim, what if it was something more?
Is the Sacred Flame just another fanatical group likely to replace the Scarlet Crusade by using their faith to crush anyone as a non believer in preparation for the final conflict between light and shadow?
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Itâs not Scarlet 2.0. They arenât xenophobic fanatics hostile to anyone not under their banners; the part of them that is, the Priory, we put down alongside the rest of the Arathi, and unlike the Scarlet Crusade, they are not but a tool of the Legion or some other shadowy force.
The Order of Night is more of a Scarlet Crusade 2.0 group than the Hallowfall Arathi, albeit with void instead of Light.
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Wouldnât get ahead of yourself, Lothar definitely said She does not think they would be welcoming of Non-Arathi aside from Anduin.
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This topic also ties in with the Arathi empire, do you think their emperor will just lay down arms and serve the king of stormwind? Or would they become a threat to the alliance.
They could be racial supremacists at worst case scenario. Best case scenario they fall in line because of Anduin and ally much like Kul Tiras.
Hence the idea of Scarlet 2.0.
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Honestly, I think theyll likely tie in with Midnight, their prophesied final battle likely being what they consider the battle of the sunwell.
I really doubt there will ever be a âScarlet 2.0â. While the crusade itself has died a hundred deaths, its successor sects (scarlet onslaught, brotherhood, etc) will probably be around as villian of the week until the end of azeroth.
If anything, when midnight hits i think theres a decent shot of having scarlets return as a part of the story with a bit bigger of a presence than what we saw in gilneas, And even then thats a hard maybe.
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Honestly Iâm actually expecting the Arathi to either turn out to be not-so-secretly already hopelessly corrupted (based off of the Hallowfall expeditionâs acceptance of their crystal turning into Void so often) or if that issue is particular to the Expedition, then the home Empire itself will end up being the big Light based villains of the âcosmic war being bad for everyone on Azeroth regardless of which power they serveâ plot thread. Iâm leaning most heavily towards the latter. Weâll probably see the Hallowfall Expedition became an Alliance Allied Race but Iâm betting on the Empire itself being an xpac enemy somewhere in the next two expansions.
Something I want to remind people is that we know there is some great and powerful enemy of the Titans on the western continent, as hinted to us by DF lore items indicating Titan expeditions being destroyed there by someone. And now we learn of this powerful empire there. Itâs all conjecture but thats my bet.
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Faerin says that in reference to the company Anduin has been keeping, the only of which she has seen is us the player and Alleria, a void elf. Of course at Holy Light worshipping theocracy isnât going to take kindly to their greatest enemy made manifest.
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The existence of the Arathi Empire seems to have a few interesting implications for Midnight.
Midnight is primarily focused on thalassian elves. If you apply âthalassian elfâ broadly, then that net technically includes the Arathi: a half-human/half-thalassian elf race. Following this, the Arathi arguably (and thatâs the fun part) have a birthright claimâto an extentâto the Sunwell.
The Arathi Emperor may seek to either claim the Sunwell for the empire, himself, or in the name of âthe Sacred Flameâ, or at least claim visitation or a stake in its control for him, his people, or the Sacred Flame.
In my opinion, thatâd be an interesting conflict to see unfold.
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How exactly are they accepting of it? They built the dawntowers specifically to postpone the void state and literally run and hide when Beledar shifts.
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I always liked the Scarlet Crusade as a faction, they were a great foil for the Forsaken and in my opinion criminally misused from Blizzards writing room. Honestly Iâd like it more if they learned some lessons from it and moved on at this point, the whole âtheyâre dead but surprise now theyâre back and 10x stronger!â thing just makes them look lamer and lamer every time.
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I have some theories on how the Arathi Empire will be.
There is the whole thing with the current storyline now spanning three expansions, Blizz is going to take a leaf out of FF14 and where it tells players about âfar locationâ early on but will only allow you to actually go there later on like âwoah weâre finally getting to go to Sharlayan/Radz-at-Han/etc!â
I am guessing it will be in Midnight, since we are already spoilered where Big Void comes to nom the Sunwell, which is technically âold worldâ. It means the ânew worldâ will have to be elsewhere since we need a new âworldâ for every expansion pack to grind dailies and rep at.
That may be the Arathi Empire Continent Island. Story probably being we need to pull/convince Big Light to combat Big Void all actually join the Renilash, etc.
The 50/50 is what we will be doing on that new Arathi Island.
Arathi Empire Island Continent will either be the story where we have to fix the local problems first to make it possible for the Emperor to put resources in for Renilash, or the first raid of the tier will be to depose the tyrannical Emperor (or find out there IS no Emperor and itâs just a text to speech machine) and the ânewâ Arathi leadership will take over and join the Alliance/Horde coalition to fight the void.
Personally Iâm in favour for the former and not the latter.
Obviously, this is all all speculation. For all I know Blizz can pull a 180 and the Arathi Empire continent turns into Arathi Empire island alla Isle of Thunder for a single tier.
I could happily go on all day about how blizzard took a villain faction with real, tangible and relatable motivations and fears, and through 20 years of retcon and re-write turned them into facist/uber-racist milk toast bad guys of the week. I would love to see a more nuanced successor crusade pop up in midnight, or whenever they move to actually redo undercity and make it a city again.
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Imagine a fleet of sacred flame troops in airships that invade Stormwind or some other alliance/horde cities.
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The Order of the Sacred Flame is in no way like the Scarlet Crusade
For one thing at least with the expedition they seem to be very open to sharing their faith with others and even outright explaining how it works (Their faith is far more like Thalassian Elves based on a conversation thatâs had with Liadrin.)
Which is also a double whammy of a lore reveal as it implies High Elves/Blood Elves faith in the light is also similarly manifested in the form of a Light/Arcane hybrid and has similar beliefs to the Sacred Flame (which as some people have pointed out their faith in the âLightâ is very much a massive hybrid of Elven and Human beliefs.) they even outright state itâs more like those practice and worship the Light in Silvermoon compared to those in Stormwind.
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Itâs worth considering this implication isnât necessarily anything noteworthy insofar as high / blood elven faith in the Light manifests, as itâs a discussion between one adherent of the Sacred Flame and two Blood Knights whose way of wielding the Light generally differs greatly from most other Light wielders.
The majority of them do not wield the Light through faith, but instead draw it from the Sunwell which is why Liadrin asked Regald if Beledar was the source of the Sacred Flame. Some wield it through faith and we know their faith doesnât differ much from that of Stormwind since the pious high elves too were members of the Church of the Holy Light.
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We have seen that the larger Arathi Empire across the sea may be xenophobic and particularly zealous in nature. There are examples shown throughout the story, from something as small as one of the first NPCs you meet treating you with caution, to something as large as the Prioryâs elite turning against their own people because they believe them to be heretics unworthy to carry forward the Empireâs purpose.
Thereâs some nuance there and it will likely remain somewhat mysterious until we are shown more of the Empire itself, if that ever happens.
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I think any antagonistic things we see from the Arathi Empire will be less based on zealotry and more based on politics and conquest. They are, by default, potentially the most powerful remaining human kingdom (and also have elves as well, who might see Quelâthalas and the Sunwell as something to âinheritâ), and might consider it both beneficial and pragmatic to unite âhumanityâ under one banner.
What Iâm hoping weâll see are factions within the Empire that are practical versus zealous. The Hallowfall people clearly venerate the Lamplighters because of what they do, while the Priory was less a factor outside of leadership. I do foresee religious-based conflict, especially with the implications we see in the Priory and what exactly they were doing there, but thatâs going to be a big split and a schism. Lamplighters arenât, as far as Iâve been able to tell, an actual thing in the Empire proper, theyâre a Hallowfall invention. Weâll likely encounter more entrenched elements like the Priory in the Empire, but the story will drop Faerin, the Lamplighters, and Anduin into the heart of that like a trio of bombs.
And even if theyâre mostly xenophobic and zealous, theyâll never be Scarlets because the Arathi are shown to actually be competent.
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Former Legion Eredar pulling up lawn chairs and cracking open dwarven ale.
'Who wants to tell âem we did the same thing with better ships from low Azerothian orbit?â
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Yeah but if you recall, kill the boss demon on each and the ship itself goes kaboom as in Azsuna, Valâshara, and Highmountain.
And where was the rest of the fleet that is supposed to be massive enough to darken the skies of any invaded world?
Poor planning there or fashionably late to the party⌠Or a portal block due to haphazard construction?