http://lorekeeper.net/en/world-of-warcraft-visions-of-nzoth-interview-with-patrick-dawson/
[Can] The Black Empire is a huge part of the Warcraft universe, and especially lore geeks like us were looking forward to seeing it in all of its glory for years. Are you worried that you might be wrapping this particular story thread a bit too quickly in just a patch, or can we look forward to more in the future?
You never know where we’re going to end up going in the future. There is a chance we can revisit the Black Empire in more depth. We don’t have any plans to make it today. But I think if you look back at World of Warcraft’s history and lore, any content update we do tends to be pretty heavy. We did the entirety of Argus in a content update and that’s a whole planet that had tremendous depth to it. The Black Empire… We are not going there as much as we are focusing just on N’Zoth and Ny’alotha itself. So we’re definitely leaving that door open for the future. But I think we’re all pretty happy and proud of the offering we have, of what you get to explore in Ny’alotha, the ability to take down the final Old God of Azeroth. It’s going to be exciting.
In the Big Bad Evil section… Most characters are no longer ahead of us (in our way) in the World of Warcraft universe. N’zoth is the last (one) remaining and (we are) killing a great evil character in a raid. So where are the Void Lords in this part?
Is the question about the villains in general or the Void Lords? I’ll try to address both.
Yes, we are killing the last Old God. We do big things, we’ve done it before; it is going to be really interesting to see how Void Lords react to their last agent dying. You are not necessarily going to get the answers in Visions of N’Zoth, but this certainly sets the table for answering that question in the future. Void Lords are definitely paying attention, they know what’s happening; they are probably not happy about this. That’ll probably be answered later.
For villains in the future, I think World of Warcraft has such a tremendous immense lore. We have not only a giant list of people in the universe that we can go visit, explore, and really dive into depths with here, but… I only spoke on the Visions (of N’Zoth) but thinking about the next expansion too, that’s a completely new place that we’ve never been to, which allows us to be really creative with some of those people and the stories behind it. It doesn’t necessarily have the same history that our cosmos does with the Void Lords. There is a rich story ahead of us here, both in Shadowlands and beyond that I’m super excited about. And I think the actions of what’s happening right now on Azeroth, with Visions of N’Zoth will help influence with that future.
2 Likes
I told everyone the old gods are dead
1 Like
https://www.millenium.us.org/guide/10782.html
What happens if a creature dies in Ny’alotha, including N’Zoth? Does this change anything, compared to the battles against Yogg-Saron and C’Thun?
Yes, certainly. Ny’alotha is not even an imaginary location — it’s real, it’s an alternate reality in some ways that is almost merging with ours if we don’t prevent it.
So, when we go in there and we are defeating minions of the Old Gods, then it’s fair to assume and expect that we are destroying them pretty heavily. If we are victorious against N’Zoth, that should be the last that we hear from him — but we’ll see!
Certainly, if we perish ourselves, then that’s permanent as well. The stakes are very high, and it’s an exciting adventure we can’t wait for players to experience.
N’Zoth is dying unless the Dagger bails him out.
yep I dont think its that big of deal tho, blizzard can just have the void lords send more old gods if they like.
They got in direct contact with the Twilight’s Hammer on Draenor so with N’Zoth and the other Old Gods dead the Twilight’s Hammer are going to take charge of Azeroth’s corruption since they got their mission directly from the Void Lords!
The Nightmare still lives too:
Returning to the lore, does the Emerald Nightmare have a hold on the Shadowlands? We know the Drust have gone through to the Shadowlands, but also that the realm where we saw them last, Thros, belonged to the Nightmare.
Looking at the Shadowlands, I think it’s very likely that we’re going to see a continuation of some of the storylines from the Emerald Dream and Emerald Nightmare, that we saw back in Val’sharah, as we go into the zone of Ardenweald in particular.
Those two realms are very connected, and beings of nature that went through the Nightmare, were affected by the Old Gods there, may well find themselves in Ardenweald.
The Nightmare is finding itself in Ardenweald after death it seems(it had to go somewhere) and since the Emerald Dream and Ardenweald are connected one could assume that the Nightmare would be able to escape back into the Emerald Dream just in time for Deaths of Chromie!
The Dragons of Nightmare, Ursoc, Renferal, Elothir and Theon Moonclaw were lucky enough to be purified(hopefully not as a result of Eranikus taking in their corruption) before finding their way back into the Emerald Dream… Let’s hope we find Eranikus in Ardenweald.
1 Like
That’s a lot of text to reach the conclusion we’ve heard time and time again. “No plans now, but if we run out of ideas, we can use them again.”
7 Likes
Agreed. At least the answer to the question concerning the Nightmare(https://www.millenium.us.org/guide/10782.html) shows they may come up with plans concerning the Nightmare in Shadowlands unlike the rest of the Black Empire.
Expect to see places resembling Thros and places resembling Shala’nir in Ardenweald… Ardenweald will be the continuation to both Drustvar and Val’Sharah’s storylines.
The Death Realm of Nature will be very interesting.
Except, they didn’t do the entirety of Argus. Just three zones. As detailed as they were, it’s when you step back and realize Argus is an entire planet that you realize it was pretty shallow, and should/could have held up an expansion in its own right. Much like Azshara’s shenanigans. And much like the Black Empire.
They write these things with the same cramped, Saturday morning cartoon tone of fitting an entire narrative arc into a 30 minute episode, then act like they’ve crafted a world in Tolkienian detail, full of charts, glossaries, treatises, appendices, and addendums.
5 Likes
Does anyone need a bigger confirmation that Blizzard is clueless about their lore and how to utilize it?
Why should the consumer care when the creator clearly doesn’t?
This is kind of like the new starwars movie.
Very shiny distractions and only puddle deep.
Its very sad what they have done and continue to do.
1 Like
So… I guess I have several questions.
Is N’Zoth dying? I thought that was the point of the Old Gods? They couldn’t ever “be killed”. I suppose this change is more of an additive retcon, but eh… It kinda cheapens it, in my opinion.
This? Just…
I’m trying to uhg with emphasis without sound trite. Man, how much damn practice does it take to say that with a straight face? You know what, I’ll give it to him. Argus was a good update. Did Argus deserve more? Sure, it easily had an entire expansion worth of content, but… We got three zones, a dungeon, and a raid. It was basically a mini-expansion, so I’ll let it slide. However, the Emerald Nightmare? We’d better see more of it because The Dream is definitely an entire expansion! Then… Implementing Ny’alotha as a raid? At least it’s not an island expedition.
We don’t “get to explore in Ny’alotha.” Granted, I should withhold judgment until I’ve seen the raid. Maybe it’s the next Ulduar. I hate to be a pessimist, but I’m gonna place my bets that it isn’t. It just…
With all of the hype that’s gone into it over the last few years, it feels like it should at least get the Argus treatment. Actually… Yeah. Ny’alotha is perfect for the Argus treatment. Three subzones in a larger zone.
Argus? The Emerald Dream/Nightmare? They’ve been around for over a decade! One’s a planet, the other’s the freakin’ sandbox the Titans used to create Azeroth. Why just a raid. These days, a raid is such a linear experience. There’s some exploration, and perhaps a branching path or two, but… It lacks the freedom that comes with a zone. It feels like wasted potential.
Edit/TL;DR: The difference between “exploring” in a raid and “exploring” as in a zone/expansion is the difference between a guided tour and Leif Erickson.
They have a LOT of trust to rebuild before I’ll get excited about this.
3 Likes
There is the chance that they’ve leaked into a different reality like WoD’s timeline and are secretly building its strength.