So in-between digging for lore and trying to not commit homicide due to incompetent managers and co-workers, I’m leveling alts up since Shadowlands is so …
Well, Shadowlands.
In Silithus, part of the reason that the Ahn’quiraj were able to dig so deeply and build such an amazing city is the network of tunnels and caves they were able to expand and fortify. We see this again in Northrend, where the Nerubians actually encompass the entire continent, but due to the vast amount of space under the earth that they had to work with, had little need for building above ground, where they would have to fight the Taunka, the Vrykul and the Dragons for space.
Gorribal, the Sword of Sargeras, got shoved right down next to the Heart Chamber, hence why our primary entrance point is right there.
What if our next expansion, or even just some leveling zones in the next expansion/future expansions is crawling through the fractured and mangled network of underground caves, tunnels and caverns beneath the surface of the world?
We know Kobolds are everywhere, and they have to be coming from somewhere. Troggs, for the most part, only tend to appear near where Titan facilities are due to being hyper-devolved Earthen and lack the capacity to think about leaving their territories unless driven out by hunger, overwhelming numbers of their own kind or a superior force driving them out. We also know the Brul of the Broken Isles had much deeper domains than what we saw, but were driven closer to the surface by the threats below ground that were held back (at least in part) by Ebonhorn’s enchantments that kept Highmountain safe from Old God corruption and servants.
I think it might be a rather interesting story or sub-plot that when the original super-continent was destroyed by the Kaldorei’s reckless abuse of sorcery and hunger for power, the continental plate didn’t just sink, it collapsed, specifically in on itself where the surface was riddled with Azeroth’s natural underground network. Entire cities were entombed and ‘spared’ destruction under the crushing, freezing weight of the ocean and instead, the citizens found themselves trapped in a lightless realm, racked by destruction and with the native denizens up in arms at the ‘invasion’ of the Surface Dwellers.
We might encounter whole colonies of Dark Trolls who eschewed the Twin Empires to live in harmony with nature as their pre-Kaldorei kin did before being mutated and corrupted by the Well of Eternity, Kaldorei who have adapted to a nomadic lifestyle following the Ley Lines of Azeroth through the maze-like tunnels and caverns and turned to the worship of Azeroth herself, rather than a Moon Goddess who had not saved them, and was no longer even visible to them, a society in the throes of despair of Kobolds and other races who worship the Light in a unique way, and who have been slowly ground down to a single bastion and a few satellite communities by a rampaging army of Old God servants seeking to elevate one of their own to a ‘New God’ status, even Vrykul and Humans who, trapped underground, have developed in a radically different direction, both culturally and socially, from their surface-dwelling kin.
It might go a long way to padding content out, and rather than flying, we might gain access to specific mounts capable of crawling over walls and ceilings. Spider, Snails, Lizards, Beetles, all of these would be more than capable of such a feat and, with the new maps being so claustrophobic and cut off from the surface, we might not even be able to fly at all.
Even better, being as we’re underground, we might come across buried Titan Facilities, either the two mentioned by M.O.T.H.E.R. during the Battle for Azeroth expansion, or satellite facilities/facilities written off as destroyed during the Sundering that have survived, albeit in a crippled state, and find new clues as to what exactly Azeroth really is, or what the Titans’ overall plan was for Azeroth if they did know she was more than ‘just’ a Titan like them.
Underground seas populated by eerie versions of surface-dwelling aquatic humanoids. Cathedrals of living stone where the natives pray to the Light for salvation from the Void that creeps and seethes in every dark corner of their home. And a long-held resentment against the Surface World for their abandonment … and the cultural uprising that might emerge when they learn the Surface World had long ago assumed everyone had died during the Sundering, and were more than happy to come to the aid of their long-lost kin.
