In the old days, there was a horizon of what to expect. But now we are at point where who knows what the next expansion’s setting will be.
Especially worse since BFA and Legion wasted so many potential Expansion settings.
Argus could have been its own thing, Nazjatar and Nya’lotha could have been its own thing, but got shackled by the faction war.
But now I don’t know what is next for WOW.
The most common theory is going to another cosmic realm, Lightlands or Lifelands and continuing the cosmic game that the player has barely any stakes in other than spontaneous death. Lifelands seems to be getting more traction with Elune and the fact the Shadowlands have such a unique connection with it.
Others are hoping for a more down to earth(Azeroth) expansion, going back to more mundane problems. It doesn’t really seem that’s realistic anymore, especially with tying up so many loose ends already, it would more or less be recycling already defeated threats. It would require a bit of a time jump to even allow others to rise up.
The other would just be a wild card, like WoD, just jumping through a portal to another planet for some reason or having. With the philosophy the current writers seem to display, anything could happen. Could just have aliens from Omicron Persei 8 invade the planet and the lore would be changed to support it.
The question is “What will Sylvanas do next?”
and then they’ll make an expansion out of this
WoW’s story has definitely shifted its focus. And I’ve always had an overwhelming vibe that the current writers are more focused on writing their own original plots than revisiting dangling threads.
It’s partially why I think Argus, Azshara, and N’zoth were just kinda spurted out and wrapped up quick like. Because they wanted to wash their hands of the “old lore” and move on to this fancy “new lore”.
And any remaining plot threads, such as Azshara, will likely be re-introduced, yet re-contextualized, to fit this new story. I hope you’re ready to stop Azshara from eating Elune’s heart and obtaining godhood in the Lifelands expansion.
“Lifelands” is just the Emerald Dream no?
Anything could happen from here with oribus as a hub to limitless other after lives. It could easily be a permanent hub which gets used as part of an expansion. Hunting down enclaves of dreadlords perhaps (since they’ve been reintroduced), while at the same time dealing with some issues on Azeroth.
They’ve said during the Shadowlands announcement that the Ardenweald was the Autumn/Winter equivalent to the Emerald Dream’s Spring/Summer, which doesn’t make much sense, but the Emerald Dream we have known I believe is just a ‘side realm,’ like Helheim.
The Lifelands, or Gardens of Life, I think it’s called, is realm of the Life/Nature cosmic force. It will likely be as varied in zones as the Shadowlands are and have its own Pantheon.
tbh the cosmology has changed so much in the past 5 years alone I can’t really get invested in it. I’d rather just have another expansion of azeroth or draenor, Ogre Continent, Underground, Other Side of Azeroth, even the Dragon Isles.
In Legion and in Shadowlands, they really expanded on the idea of other planets and realms. Which expanded the potential for the story. But then again, they recently doubled down on the idea that Azeroth and the creatures from it are special - which kind of makes the rest of the universe lame by default, if it can never compare to us. Maybe I am drawing too hard a line, but still.
I am more “who cares what will happen after Shadowlands”. It honestly feels like fanfic since BFA. Its impossible to be invested in characters that no longer feel like characters and are instead just the current writers self insert.
Imagine someone trying to rewrite the Lord of the Rings with a sequel explaining Gandalf was the true evil one all along and Frodo ended up murdering Samwise cuz he stole his lemdas bread at some point in the past. No one would take that seriously and you shouldn’t upset yourselves with it at this point.
Yeah its pretty cool.
Altho tbh we overestimate how much we knew in retrospect. Every next expansion was the Azshara expansion until it wasn’t, and then there was no Azshara expansion.
They’ve been telegraphing an expansion where we see that “Light Is Not Good” (TVtropes reference) for a while now. Might be the next expansion or the one after that.
There have also been hints about the Dragon Isles, making that a popular theory for the next expansion to happen on Azeroth.
What’s the plot hook regarding Dragon Isles?
Since the Dragons have lost their Titan-given powers, and Deathwing is dead along with his old god master.
Whatever plot hook it needs will probably be hinted at in SL’s final patch, if even then. I don’t think BFA had one at all; you just went from Legion to faction war. And the only hook Shadowlands had was chasing Sylvanas.
At least Dragon Isles would take place on Azeroth, though.
Dragon Isles should have been the “end-game zone” for the Cataclysm expansion though.
Like it would have been a far better content for Patch 4.3 Hour of Twilight then re-using Dragonblight and the Caverns of Time.
That’s honestly where I am at this point. I grew up on WoW, and I loved the pre-chronicles worldbuilding, but now I’m just exhausted.
The story cant be saved at this point as far as I’m concerned. As others have noted, they’ve messed up the cosmology in so many ways. The universe feels way too small and restrictive, with everything fitting in these “opposing force” boxes.
I think one of the problems is they’re insisting on expanding the story, but they’re doing it in a way that makes everything feel small and restrictive. They’re building UP instead of OUT.
Building up is when you just keep introducing BIGGER bad guys that make everything before seem insignificant and outdated. It’s the Dragonball method of storytelling.
Building OUT would be showing us new worlds, more interesting factions, returning to old locations and seeing how they’ve changed, and delving deeper into EXISTING factions. Making the world seem deep and wide, instead of linear and small.
Why can’t we just have one expansion where the entire universe isn’t at stake? I want to explore the WoW cosmos, and I want it to feel like there’s still a lot of mystery and possibilities out there! What does outer space look like after the Burning Legion spent thousands of years trying to destroy it? There’s still countless millions of demons scattered across the great dark. BC introduced us to the idea that there’s a huge universe out there full of aliens, demons, and unknown gods with their own agendas and conflicts.
I’m tired of following the same few characters around and listening to their shallow melodrama. I’m tired of the writing feeling like it’s being made up as they go along. I’m tired of the entire story being built around “twists” and “shocking revelations” to the point where nothing makes sense anymore.
I’d honestly rather they just restart the game lore-wise from the end of classic onward. Develop the world and the characters that inhabit it a bit better. Slow down the pacing so we’re not just wasting an iconic enemy faction with each expansion. Get us INVESTED in the World Of Warcraft again.
We had azerite, a giant sword, and the Sylvanas-Genn beef.
I’ll give you the other two (even if ultimately nothing was done about the sword in BFA) but azerite only started happening in the prepatch, and by then you’re not really in Legion anymore.
Can’t wait for us to stop the Jailer, only to learn that there are actually seven Halos, all primed for remote activation from the Ark.
WoW cosmology is starting to look like a marginally more complex Dragon Ball cosmology.