Much like the title says, there’s some story issues that I’ve picked up on that are throwing up some hella red flags, and some on-going story arcs that just don’t seem to match up with what we’re picking up from the data-mining efforts and lore-diving teams.
Don’t take this too seriously, this is just me purging the grey matter so I can sleep.
1) No backups for the Red Dragon Flight
The thing we’ve seen with all of the four major Dragon Flights is that there’s always backups for the Aspects in the wings, fleshed out and established to the players/characters.
The Bronze have Chronormu, aka Chromie, should the worst happen to Nozdormu.
The Greens have Ysera back from the dead, albeit she cannot become the Aspect again, only lead until a suitable replacement comes along if Fyrakk murks Merithra.
The Blacks have both Wrathion and Sabellian if somehow Ebissian, aka Ebonhorn), somehow gets done in.
And the Blues have Stellagosa to fall back on if Jaina’s favourite, and only, surviving Ex doesn’t consume an energy field bigger than his own head and spontaneously turn inside out.
But … who is the backup for Alexstraza? On the one hand, that certainly fuels some tension as there is nobody left who can pick up the slack for the Queen of the Dragons, but on the other hand, it deflates a lot of narrative tension because she’s just too damn important to bump off her perch. And apart from Alexstraza, we have no interesting Red Dragons in the story, none that are emotionally engaging or didn’t serve as anything other than a quest vehicle in a one-and-done chapter of the leveling campaigns.
We have no backup Red Aspect if the worst should happen to Alexstraza, be it being killed by Fyrakk, falling to corruption like the Old Gods and their servants seem to prophesize, or Odyn decides to wipe out any and all individuals and records that could expose his treachery if we get concrete signs that the Titans are coming back, or sending agents to resolve potential disputes over the World Soul.
We have no backup for Alexstraza. Now, from a writer perspective this means they have no intentions of ‘I cannot sit down on my outfit will stab me in the unmentionables’ Super Mom going out for smokes anytime soon, it also means if Blizzard does ‘swerve’ the story and take her out of it, via death, corruption or being dragged into the Happy Fun Tentacle Pit by Iridikron’s schemes with the Knaifu of Waifu’s, it completely negates all of our progress through the Dragon Isles because there is no direct successor to Alexstraza’s position, and two of the four Aspects are fresh to the job and completely untested as true leaders in the field.
2) Darkshore is ruined and Teldrassil is a charred stump
The 4th War, the War of Thorns, completely stripped all useful resources from Darkshore, including ravaging the local wildlife and stripping most useful mineral deposits down to bare stone. At best, its a source of lumber, and even then the soil itself has been cauterized with Blight and fire and the horrendous side-effects of so much magic being thrown back and forth.
Potentially, this could also include the Moonwell where Tyrande invoked the ‘Darkest Phase’ of Elune’s existence and took up the mantle of the Night Warrior, and the same incredibly destructive magic she was imbued with has also done immense damage to the land, possibly diverting ley-lines and scourging the land by dint of the raw power she absorbed.
So even if the Kaldorei return, the lands of Darkshore at effectively worthless by any mercantile or military standards. Especially so since the land is hemmed in by nearly-unscalable cliffs to the north and west, the south leads to Ashenvale which the Kaldorei simply no longer have the numbers to hold, against the Horde, the Fel remnants within, the Furbolg or the Naga, and without the might of Teldrassil behind them, they will never have the ability to project their power across the continent again.
The only way I could see this altering is the very malleable nature of the Emerald Dream allows the growing Amirdrassil to transmigrate from the Emerald Dream to the charred stump of Teldrassil, effectively using the deep roots of the former World Tree as a ready-made foundation, much as loggers use the stumps of the trees they harvest and the seedlings from those trees to help with regrowth. The sapling grows into the old trunk, its roots digging into and fusing with the pre-existing material beneath them, or growing off the decay and water trapped within the dying stump.
Now if that happens, we could see Amirdrassil not become a new city, but rather a new beacon that has to be protected at all costs, since surrounded by nothing but ocean, it will be intensely vulnerable to Naga attacks, given that they are still devoted to the Void through Queen Azshara, and they have a mad-on at the Kaldorei that surpasses all the conflicts their species has had with the rest of the planet, and that is going to mean the whole Druidic Order of the Cenarion Circle is going to move the bulk of their forces to protect and nurture it, potentially leaving only skeleton crews behind to guard the other Druidic sites, which is an issue in and of itself.
If Amirdrassil doesn’t change locations and does grow off the coast of the Ohn’ahran Plains, that is going to relocate a lot of the Kaldorei to that location, and for the Kaldorei, that’s probably the best thing they can hope for.
The Green Dragonflight has long been staunch allies of the Kaldorei, and have been forced to stay out of the conflicts due to neutrality and their battle against the Shadow-In-The-Dream, the Nightmare. With the Nightmare pushed back and all the Old Gods (that we know of!) pushed back into stasis or slain outright, they’re now able to fly to the Kaldoreis’ aid because they are literal neighbors now.
But it also means that Kalimdor effectively belongs to the Horde Council now, and the Kaldorei have lost their homes twice now, and this time it wasn’t their fault. A few die-hards might cling on to Darkshore and Ashenvale, but I just can’t see them being a military power anymore due to a lack of numbers, far too much territory to hold and their population being split between Stormwind, Amirdrassil and Darkshore.