Is there any chance we may see more of them in the future? I hope Blizzard still has some plans on expanding their culture because their motivation for being in Shadowlands felt lackluster.
I was just doing the children’s week questline in Kul Tiras and it reminded me that I do not think we have seen Ulfar the High Thornspeaker outside of his bear form. (unless I am mistaken)
8 Likes
I was just disappointed we couldn’t see half kul’tiran monster wood like creatures in Kul’tiras and even Shadowlands. Plus also the lack of Drust Raid was honestly sad really.
2 Likes
I think about this far too often because I REALLY want Thornspeakers to have more, it’s ALMOST there but falls short of keeping me invested enough to want to play one.
Every time I have a reason to be in Drustvar, I visit Ulfar’s den. It’s so perfect in that it captures the beauty but also the spookiness of an old forest with an added touch of magic.
I was hoping they’d expand more with the Drust but we barely scratched the surface and it feels like it’s going to remain a forgotten plot thread for expansions to come.
I’d also really like a bit more on Kul Tiran Shamanism, I loved Dorian Atwater and I’d love to see more of her or even more like her. (I was delighted to see her in Iskaara!)
8 Likes
Agreed + I hope we aren’t done with Witches because they’re just GREAT. The Heartsbane Coven might have been dismantled but that doesn’t mean female Humans empowered by Drust magic can’t still exist out there
Also still can’t get over the fact that the playable Kul Tirans weren’t written as Human-Drust halfbreeds for some reason when it would have made them so much cooler and would have made so much sense (especially in regards to the Thornspeakers where both cultures intermingle)
5 Likes
No, we have not seen Ulfar outside of his Bear Form at all. He should look like any of the Vrykul we see Northrend in the Broken Isles. The Drust (I also want to know the etymology of this term) were originally just a population of Vrykul, not a separate race. The woody appearance they currently have is from being transformed by Thros, which also needs more development.
Fun fact, the Kul Tiran Cat Form is literally a wolf, not a cat. That’s so cool when the Pack form is banned.
Also, no idea how anyone rides the Kul Tiran travel form with those huge spikes on the back.
Mayne the Thornspeakers should be state-sanctioned, and we can have Stormwind Clerics realizing that Kul Tiras is filled with heretics.
5 Likes
This choice was so baffling! It seemed like they were going to eventually have that as a reveal in the Drustvar questline but it never came up. It almost felt like a strange gap that they just randomly forgot to mention.
It’s a bit strange that we’re meant to believe that there are just naturally 8ft humans walking around because they’re a tough seafaring folk and that seemingly has absolutely nothing to do with the now extinct group of giants that were integrated into their society. 
5 Likes
I think it was sort of hinted at with the friendly Drust mixing in with the Kul Tiran colonists but it’s very vague when it shouldn’t be. Kul Tirans being so big because of Drust ancestry makes a lot of sense and is believable so i don’t understand why that shouldn’t be mentioned.
I love the Kul Tiran theme and culture but there are a few things that are needlessly vague about them. Another are their shamans. Kul Tirans can be Shaman but the ONLY example of a Kul Tiran shaman is Dorian Atwater who doesn’t even know what a Shaman is. A simple enough explanation for me would be that the Kul Tiran shaman are similar to the Thornspeakers in that they’re using Drust magic + their faith in the Tide Mother. I just wish they would give some depth there rather than leave it so unexplored.
7 Likes
Do we know who The Tidemother is? Or is it a general term for the water?
3 Likes
The Tidemother seems to be some sort of entity that the Kul Tirans worship and it’s unclear who or what exactly it could be.
A common theory is Azshara, though if it were true the time has passed to reveal that card.
5 Likes
So, we know that a drust themed raid got cut from the game in SL. Raid assets containing drust were data mined and their story got cut.
But to ramble a little I asked the question a long time ago “do druids just become avatars of the primal force that endows them?” Because we have druids of the flame (use druidic magic with a fire theme,) druids of the emerald nightmare, and worgen, which are…druids again–or were or something.
It has been my personal theory that the whole kul’tiras and drust thing is just the druidic version of the element of decay. The element of decay is one of the most unexplored things on the entire cosmological table. Look at the cosmology chart given to us in chronicles and since then. It is opposed to life and nature, and aligned with death and undead magics.
I have a feeling that the magic they do is probably just decay magic rather than the usual druidic magic of propagation/life. But I don’t think we are going to see an explanation from blizzard and I wouldn’t doubt it if the drust raid gets repackaged as a mega dungeon like kara 2.0, mechagon, Tazavesh, etc. Because there’s not really an ideal place to put it in the story right now and blizzard is well known for reusing old assets (they even used assets that were data mined in the freaking wow beta in bfa!) So it will make an appearance…eventually. Maybe we’ll get some answers by then
1 Like
Do you have some examples of assets they used from the WoW Beta?
1 Like
The only person who said they weren’t is Afrasiabi in an off the cuff comment during an interview
And the questing implies they were
So similar to how his “Sylvanas was behind Wrathgate” was retcon’d by Golden, I am choosing to basically ignore every lore reveal he ever did, reverting back to the pre-Afrasiabi state lmao
1 Like
Wait was it Afrasiabi ? I just remember reading “Kul Tirans being big is a matter of inclusivity and has no lore implication” in some official interview a while ago and so I never questioned it
But if that was Afrasiabi then fine lmao might as well just ignore it i guess
2 Likes
Probably for the best to ignore everything that vile human being touched or said
1 Like
I can’t find anything about Afrasiabi saying that Kul Tirans weren’t related to Drust. What I found was this interview, where Travis Day (RIP) said this.
https://blizzardwatch.com/2018/04/05/wow-developer-qa-travis-day-jimmy-lo/
Travis: So, Thin Man and Fat Man are what we call them internally. And no, they’re not intended to be a different race, [they’re] just variants on Kul Tirans. So, generally, when we’re spawning up Kul Tiras on the design side, we looked at using them as kind of our… maybe it’s a little bit like, ‘The big guy’s the bouncer!’ Or, ‘The big guy’s the ruffian who’s got a little guy up by the neck! And then the little guy’s more the scoundrel and they’re always holding daggers or leanin’ up against something,’ and, I don’t know, it just gives us a little more flavor and texture to the world.
He was responding to this question.
Chaud: Are Thin Humans going to be an Allied race, are they NPCs, what’s the weird, thin Human model?
I think the confusion with Afrasiabi is because he said he would advocate for Kul Tirans to have Mages, when they were originally announced not to.
Also, if the Kul Tirans’ large size is for inclusiveness, it certainly doesn’t represent me. I have no muscles. 
If you find the Afrasiabi interview where he tries to explain the Thros metaphysics he mentions it there
Actually you may not be able to find it cuz it might’ve been on the WoW YouTube channel and a lot of the Afrasiabi videos on the official channels were outright removed 
2 Likes
He does that at about 8 minutes in the video. I linked. If there was another, that’s news to me.
2 Likes
yes!
The datamined files for the dragon isles contained the exterior model of the shrine of storms. It was actually the only thing about the dragon isles we had behind the scenes in games before the dragon isles came out. Like it was in the files in beta but they decided to cut dragon isles. The original interior of the shrine of storms was much more like AQ40. You can watch videos of it online including I think of Haven Gaming who was an excellent data miner and out of bounds explorer (rest in peace.)
1 Like
That makes me wonder. Could there be Wild Gods in contact with the Kul Tirans? Would they be the same ones or different ones to those the Night Elves worship, the Loa and the August Celestials?
1 Like
I wonder if some Drust could be elevated and considered Wild Gods?
1 Like