Could have really high ceilings so we could still fly, like deepholm. I remembering seeing something about a subterranean zone was planned for wrath but was scrapped. I want to see it now.
We saw in legion that kolbolds have a massive underground empire like Skaven from warhammer fantasy. but also the Nerubian do as well. In hearthstone there’s a whole heeps of stuff in one of it’s expansion sets that has things not even in the game or talked about in lore. Like “The darkness” “The Ancient one” all monsters (minions) made up for the sake of cards. but all have interesting implications and of course references to contemporary horror or lovecraft horror
But to be honest, i’d absolutely love a whole expansion of a subterranean world of kobolds, nerubians, giant glowing mushrooms, troggs, old gods, feral cave goblins and other feral bastardizations of the azeroth races warped and made psycho by whatever’s lurking in the darkness.
In lore has this stuff been referenced yet? Do we know if there is a such world that exists? I’m certain something like this does indeed “exist”
Well, if you want to link the Djardin into being beings created by Therazane and Ragnaros to fight the Dragonflights, and combine that with other underground stuff it could make for a whole expac.
It would be nice to get azjol nerub proper, that was the zone planned in Wrath but got remade into the dungeon.
edit - If I’m not mistaken, the Nerubians are descendants of the akir, and akir have made tunnels that span all throughout Azeroth. Wouldn’t be too far fetched to see if we enlist their help using those tunnels in finding Iridikron and the primalist forces.
It would be interesting to check up with the nerubians. Maybe the smidgen of quests we hordies did might open a friendship or maybe it will be forgotten.
An entire expansion depends on the player reaction to the underground zone they’re adding this expansion.
Vash’jir pretty much nuked the chances of underwater zones happening, which is why Nazjatar didn’t have us actually underwater. If players hate being underground it won’t happen, no matter how much material they have to pull from.
Personally I found Deepholme rather underwhelming.
– Not as underwhelming as Vash’jr mind you (Having the Abyssal Maw & all its wonders as a large water-zone would’ve been way cooler) - but nonetheless.
As for a suberranean expansion:
I’d love for a massive extension of the Nerubian Empire — and throughout nearby & around, have dark old-god influenced corridors, ancient Black Empire temples that were buried by the titans to be forgotten, scourge corridors (that Arthas had digged up & used to penetrate and break the Nerubian defences), and other various holdings – such as the kobold, trogg and perhaps some friendly nature races that give us aid along the way.
A good quote I liked was one of the Nerubians saying after the old gods had been imprisoned + the troll wars of pushing them back, they let the old-ways go & found their own way, built their own culture and rise up of their cities. After the scourge attacked, many dug deep to escape - some dug too deep … To either the shackled old ones, or the remnants of Yogg’Saron himself. So it’d be cool to see perhaps a three sided battle of the Nerubians:
The mindless or rage-addled scourge variants of the Nerubians who simple want to scour life.
And
Surviving Nerubians who are followers of the old god, and the old ways.
Surviving Nerubians who no longer follow the old god, but want to restore their empire (And perhaps some ‘friendly’ undead Nerubians who were free from the shackles of the scourge of either the defeat of the Lich King or the breaking of the helm).
It could make for some epic content, quests, storylines and characters in the making. Especially for titan facilities that are buried beneath to help contain lower levels of containment.
Yeah Azjol’Nerub was planned to be a fully complete zone. Where you could choose to level through Dragonblight or Azjol’Nerub. That said we are getting an underground zone (most likely in 10.1) in Dragonflight.
i personally feel like we might still get an underwater expansion in the future. dragonriding feels like a mechanic that could translate to a swimming mount.
ANNND lets not forget UNDERMINE. we’ve heard about undermine even this expansion through a quest. an underground based expansion would probably introduce undermine in someway.
The issue is more on the 3D environment. Despite Vashj’ir trying to bring it to a 2D plane at times. Some aoe abilities do not function correctly in a 3D space. Death and Decay for example. It is why Blackwater Behemoth never left the ‘caves’ it was poking its head from.
Not to mention Kobyss(Deep Ones) and Voidstone Elementals.
Logistically the Ankoan, Kobyss and Deep Murloc Models can be used for a secret Deep One Village ala Innsmouth with Humans serving as the first step for the Deep Murloc-Human Hybrids’ gradual transformation into Deep Murlocs.
Of course the evolution is hardly noteworthy for Alliance and Horde who would just react to the Hybrids with “What?! The half-Human-half-Murlocs start off looking Human then turn into Murlocs overtime?! Just put that on official documents on Half-Human Hybrids so that Murloc-lovers know that they aren’t getting Mermaids out of the deal!” and simply open up negotiations with the Hybrids cause their existence is not a frightening prospect outside of aesthetics and seems more like a bad attempt at producing Mermaids.
Blood Elves will already be made painfully aware of the breeding with Humans thanks to the Arathi and Orcs are already aware of Orc-Ogre Hybrids.
