I think this offers blizzard an opportunity to utilize time travel “responsibly”…
Maybe our defeat of N’zoth turns out to be an elaborate ruse, and once we depart for shadowlands, he maintains the facade that all is well on Azeroth.
Meanwhile time moves much slower in shadowlands and upon its completion we return to a black empire ravaged Azeroth, who’s denizens think their “heroes” abandoned them thousands of years ago.
Would allow for the the timeline to move WAY into the future without really closing the book on a very under-utilized bad guy…
There’s really no telling where they’re going to go with SL. It’s one of the more open-ended expansion themes they’ve used yet. Personally I would like to see an expansion that returns to the basics and lets Azeroth be a living world again. Update the EK/Kalimdor zones again (with Zidormi/Chromie phases so we don’t run into the “removed content” issue again) and re-focus efforts on rebuilding the world and solving more localized issues, like we did in Vanilla.
We need a break from “cosmic universe shattering threats” for a bit.
When we step back onto Azeroth after exploring the Shadowlands, we find it invaded from below, where armies had trained beneath the surface of Azeroth for countless years. After Sargeras’ sword pierced their world, crushing one of the few leaders looking for peace, they rise to the surface to conquer it as well.
What follows is an expansion filled with traditional ‘dungeon’ adventuring, exotic locals including underground lakes and phosphorescent fungal jungles, and a clear “Underdark” aesthetic. A world below, where our champions from the surface are once again merely… adventurers.
Also, the goblin capital of Undermine is the Dalaran-like hub.
We didn’t have a problem running our own farms in MoP, and that was after taking down Deathwing I don’t think it would be that difficult to scale back down. A lot of people complain about being the “mighty hero of the planet” and would rather be a regular soldier/adventurer again.
Salanar the Horseman spent all of the years between WotLK and Legion in the Shadowlands, and claimed it had only been a few days for him, so I’m hoping after Shadowlands we come out to a timeskipped Azeroth revamp.
Sargeras founded the Burning Legion to combat the void lords (the old gods are basically pets of the void lords. If a titan is the size of a planet, a void lord is basically a sun, for perspective) - to prevent them from using the old gods to corrupt a titan soul as a means of opening the gate for them to invade our universe.
It was pretty far fetched for us to fight Sargeras, even with all of the borrowed power, so it’ll be interesting to see how they power us up to fight something so unimaginably powerful that they could one-shot the entire titan pantheon in a head-on fight.
… we’re going to absorb the titan’s power, then absorb whatever the source of THEIR power/creation was, aren’t we?
OP means a time skip, not time travel necessarily. Forward, not back.
We didn’t even try to fight Sargeras, to be fair. We just went behind his back, ransacked his house, freed the other Titans, and let them deal with Sargie. And if you think he’s “dealt with” and will never be seen again, I have oceanfront property in Duskwood to sell you.
The cinematic opens with a pre-Lich King Arthas approaching Frostmourne. A hunched figure, presumably Muradin, stands behind him. Arthas steps up to the sword, reaches his hand to grip the hilt…
But then, BAM!! Ashbringer comes out of nowhere and shatters Frostmourne!! The shards fall across the icy snow and Arthas falls back in shock.
“But, this was supposed to be my destiny!”
The hunched figure of Muradin, Ashbringer in hand, stands, revealing himself to be of full human height. He pulls the hood back from his face.
Khadgar looks down upon the bewildered Prince Arthas. “Times change.”
I don’t think it would be that difficult to scale back down. A lot of people complain about being the “mighty hero of the planet” and would rather be a regular soldier/adventurer again.
