There isn’t a fixed amount of time like 3x or 10x faster like in a sci-fi movie. It’s more chaotic.
What does that mean for the player? We’ll have to see when we come out the other end.
Why would Blizzard first raise the issue of time passing differently while we are in Shadowlands, and then tease us about the amount of time that will pass, describing it as “chaotic” and “we’ll have to see when we come out the other end”?
This isn’t something you add to the plot for no good reason. They obviously have something planned that involves a jump into the future, and are teasing us that the jump could potentially be significant.
My speculation is that they are going to use this to do a soft reboot of the game world and story. I think that they have realized that their new systems of gameplay (e.g. zones automatically being matched to your level) are not a good fit with the the way the game world and story have been previously structured, and they are going to use a time skip to do a major, Cataclysm-scale revamp. I think the reason they are being cagey about Undercity and Teldrassil is that those locations, or their replacements, will be major features of the revamp.
I think their long game is a significant reboot of the game, setting, and story, and that’s what both BfA and Shadowlands have been building up to.
They might do a timeskip. They might even have it so virtually no time at all has passed. Totally a possibility.
I’d love a revamp with new hubs for the homeless races. Just… build a new nelf one under Nordrassil, and move the Forsaken into Andorhal or Alterac.
As for Shadowlands’ time, it might also be important for events in the Shadowlands. Like, say, Vol’jin becoming a loa could be sped up due to time working differently.
As soon as Ion started talking about the flow of time and getting cagey about how that’s gonna pan out, I started to worry. Primarily because they have a really bad habit of telegraphing really awful story-lines and then pulling the “wait and see,” until we wait and see that it was just as bad as it sounded. And as much as I would love a world revamp, I just don’t have faith that any timey-wimey stuff they do is going to satisfying.
But yeah, I think you’re more or less right, and I’m a little (lot) worried.
If you listen to the interview beyond time being unstable in the Shadowlands it is unstable on a PERSONAL perspective level. For example, someone like Kael’thas might perceive he has been in Revendreth for centuries while other souls would perhaps only feel they had been there for days.
Ngl the thought of a time skip/ soft reboot depending on how far we go somewhat scares me.
On one hand it’ll be nice to take a break from all the world ending threats year after year and build the world back up.
On the other hand, I’m scared that blizzard may use this as a get out of jail free card by magically pushing us just far enough in the future and saying everything worked out.
Night elf’s and the tree? They got a new and better one and they’re fine now
Baine led a good life and changed the horde for the best, it was rough but it all worked out big family now perfect horde.
The burning? Yah things got dicey but over the years while you were away the horde has paid heavily for things and even earned back the rights of old land they once held.
We could see the Son of the Wolf in two Expansions and kill Anduin off very quickly.
I expect the Time speed being different to contribute to both Heritage Armors and Allied Races. I expect for Heritage Armors we are going to have the Twilight Hammer activate the Forge of Origination Re-Originating everything to an aimless Black Empire without N’Zoth.
Naturally Human and Orc Heritage Armor Scenarios involve kicking the Void out of Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Of course the Void corrupted Alleria copy would be linked to multiple Whispers and consume N’Zoth’s Re-Originated remains fulfilling the vision Alleria had in the Audio Drama she was in.
Since Alleria and Turalyon are hunting Sylvanas as of Shadows Rising it seems likely they will be with us in the Shadowlands when this happens. Turalyon will be giving the order to kill the Evil Doppelganger just as Alleria saw in her vision.
As for Allied Races if they come in from the Shadowlands then they have all the time they need to set up their own Capitals on Azeroth and hold off Evil Alleria while we kill Sylvanas.
Once we get back we(including Alleria and Turalyon) can come back to Azeroth and kill Evil Alleria setting up the Pre-Launch for the Lightbound Invasion Expansion by Yrel, AU Xe’ra and AU Medivh/Avatar of Sargeras(who would be aware that the Light beat the Fel empowered Legion and decide to side with it)!
Apprehension is my immediate and overwhelming reaction. It has the potential to be amazing - most of that coming from our own wish-listing, I suspect - but it has equal potential to be terrible.
More than anything, I feel that it’s either a throwaway line by Ion or a possible segue into the next expansion after Shadowlands and nothing more.
Possibly a setup for something else? We’ve already done the time travel thing with Warlords of Draenor. More time shenanigans could be justification for bringing someone back with us from Shadowlands by diverting their past to one were they didn’t die; specifically I’m thinking this in relation to Kael and Arthas.
While I’d hardly say it’s impossible for them to change their minds, something to keep in mind is one of the more fundamental and straight-forward things stated in Chronicle: that the forward flow of time is the one ultimately immutable constant of the WarCraft universe. In places like the Twisting Nether (and now perhaps the Shadowlands) that flow can go faster, or it can go slower, or fluctuate between the two, but time itself is always forward-moving. It’s treated as arguably the one unchangeable, absolutely necessary factor of reality that allows the universe itself to continue to exist.
So while people or objects can be made to move back-and-forth along the “stream” of time’s progress, the forward march of time itself is supposedly a universal constant.
I had an interesting idea: When we come back from the Shadowlands we land around Karazhan or in the Blasted Lands and realize quickly that much time has passed…and now rediscover a changed world. Essentially the first expansion after Shadowlands would only play in a handful of zones around Stormwind and Orgrimmar but all of these zones have been greatly upscaled.
Orgrimmar and Stormwind are the size of Boralus, Durotar becomes just as large as Vol’dun, Elwynn more akin to Drustvar and so on. From this point onwards you start to discover Azeroth again. A larger, livelier Azeroth.
The first patch could play in Stranglethorn Vale. The rebel camp has become a full blown Alliance city, Grom’gol a Horde city, and everything in between is a war zone against ogres, trolls, pirates, murlocs, naga, bounty hunters and the relentless jungle itself.
We could go back to adventuring. Back to basics essentially.
As far as plans to neatly sweep the genocide plot under the carpet go it’s a pretty good one. Lazy, but it works. We were never going to let it go, still won’t, but this way they can move forward from it whether we like it or not.
