Yeah I don’t foresee him deciding to stay aligned with Venthyr like Draka and the others in Maldraxxus, he’s not even there cause he wants to be for instance, and he repeatedly talks about his people every chance he gets.
He may “stay” there, but he surely does not want to be there.
Also also something I hadn’t considered, the next expansion could be undead themed (coupled with rebuilding Azeroth, specifically Lordearon and Gilneas), I would totes love a “chill” expansion.
I would not be opposed to Kael’s return to Azeroth to help his people (San’layn) by any means 
Haha but yeah I’d enjoy an expansion like that, where we rebuild and fight off the remainder of the scourge, possibly some minor baddies that jump up. The ‘major villains’ could be more of the scourge, we did deal with the Legion, so I dunno, controlling that issue makes sense.
But with more of an emphasis on rebuilding and like… embracing free will, if one is an undead, which would be a good time to introduce more free-willed undead in general.
On another note, when I roleplayed, I had a vampyr coven (San’layn & humans) in Sholazar basin known as “Rebel Coven”, who LOVE parties so much (and respect the nature around them, fun fact!). Just imagine a vampire beach party, and how wild it is. A lot of fun.
Regarding San’layn in BfA, they did seek to join the Horde, but were they ever really offered a chance to join it? I mean, Sylvanas was warchief at the time, but it seems like she just used them for her own ambitions and didn’t care about them at all. Likely, she used some empty promises to get to do things for her and really wasn’t the best bridge to joining the Horde at all. I still wonder who all in the Horde even knew about the San’layn in Nazmir, aside from Rokkhan, Talanji, and any grunts in the area.
If someone else was warchief at the time, maybe we would’ve seen the San’layn treated better and interacting with the Horde more. It’s really disappointing to think about, but if other San’layn did seek to contact and work with the Horde as it stands currently, maybe things would go a lot better for them.
As it currently stands, some of the Horde council I can see being for San’layn joining while others would need some convincing. However, maybe the way they were treated by Sylvanas could come to light and at least earn some sympathy for them. Especially if the San’layn can do things to help the Horde in a particularly dire situation.
Just thinking out loud. 
Glad to see that this thread is one of the very few threads on the internet that acknowledges the Scourge still running rampant across Azeroth. People keep speculating that they’ll only be two major patches ending with 9.2 where we deal with Baddie Baldy. These same people keep saying that there’s nothing left to do in Shadowlands after that. If they’re talking about the Shadowlands afterlife then I agree, but I think there’s still more unless we really do spank the Jailer and send him to bed in 9.2.
If not dealt with in Shadowlands, an undeath expansion (we haven’t one since Wrath) featuring the Scourge would be great after the disappointment of Shadowlands. It could kind of be like cataclysm minus Deathwing and plus awesome undead hordes which we struggle to fight off considering how badly Azeroth’s armies have been depleted. Meanwhile everyone’s trying to rebuild while we find a solution. I still believe that we’ll be fixing the Helm, free of the Jailer’s corruption this time, and inaugurate a new Lich King before Shadowlands is over.
There will always be undeath as there will always be death. Azeroth has seen more than its fair share of death and war so bodies will never be in short supply. All it takes is a single event of mass reanimation and Azeroth with drown in the undead again. There needs to be a Lich King, a single, godlike figure to command them with his great will.
As for the bow and quiver, I am sort of excited for them as they allow me temporarily fulfill a small crumb of my Dark Ranger fantasy. Too bad the effects are temporary and I’ll replace them with quest greens at the beginning of the new expansion. Alas, my ability to participate my Dark Ranger fantasy will be woefully temporary. Blizzard seems dead against allowing us to play as Dark Rangers.
If they update the quiver to be an actual quiver mog, at least we’ll be able to carry that beyond Shadowlands.
So far it seems to be usable by any agi class, and doesn’t seem to be class locked, so maybe we could mog it on any class. A dual wielding DK with a quiver on their back could look like a Dark Ranger at least.
I found this mog on Wowhead that looks pretty Dark Ranger as far as plate goes:
I still want my red eyes and undead skin for Belfs and nelfs.
Agreed. It’s stupid I have to be an Alliance velf to pull the look off on a hunter.
I’m curious if this will get addressed in-game at all aside from brief moments of it, such as during the Kyrian campaign questline. I feel like there are going to be some things that should come from it while the world (of Warcraft!) is in chaos. I imagine there are Necromancers that would somehow take advantage of the situation.
Granted, it wouldn’t surprise me if the undead just toppled over and it isn’t spoken about again or any consequences of it being shown. Hopefully, we’ll see what all has happened in our absence as opposed to all of that being swept underneath the rug. Guess we’ll have to see.
It’s really hard for me to imagine there being much to Shadowlands aside from the Jailer and Death Metal Anduin. Honestly, the sooner we leave this expansion, the happier I’ll feel.
One of the rumors of what the next expansion could be is another revamp of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Honestly, I’m all for it since it feels really needed. Not to mention that we could even see new playable races as a result. I’ll temper my expectations, though I hope it’ll at least be better than Shadowlands’ setting.
It would aggravate me as well. It’s something that should be a big event that is dire enough to at least be shown off more than it has in-game already. Not to mention different story possibilities that could come from it. It just feels off to not see or hear much of it at all from anyone that has come from the living world. We even have civilians nonchalantly coming from the living world, another issue I have with the setting, so who knows just how bad it is?
I get that we’re trying to accomplish things in the Shadowlands, but there needs to be more of what is going on back home to further illustrate how important it is for us to succeed and how dire it’s suppose to be. It adds weight to the situation and gets players more invested in the story…even if the setting has a lot of issues.
It also would be yet another good chance for some races to come to the aid of the Horde and Alliance to assist defending their capital cities and even lead up to joining them. But that’s just me.
As I said, expectations are being tempered, though it’s hard not to keep hope for what is to come after Shadowlands.
I would expect things to be dire on Azeroth with mounting casualties. Dropping the Scourge easily would retroactively make them (one of the most iconic antagonistic forces in Warcraft) look weak and harmless as opposed to the world ending threat they were in Warcraft III and Wrath. It would sully the Scourge’s legacy even more than Shadowlands has already. The Scourge story deserves to be ended in a respectful, impactful and appropriate manner.
What point is there in saving the Shadowlands and the fixing the machine of death when there is no Azeroth to return to? We went into the Shadowlands during the Scourge invasion for two reasons. One, we couldn’t stop Scourge’s relentless assault nor could we cull enough of their seemingly endless numbers to matter putting Azeroth in imminent danger of a zombie apocalypse. Two because Sylvanas broke the sky and death, putting reality in jeopardy.
The Scourge washing over Azeroth and our search for a solution was our main concern when we threw ourselves into the Shadowlands. We had no real idea that the machine of death was broken until we established ourselves in the Shadowlands more. We knew that broken crown = big oh no and that shattered sky = oh crap and was a product the broken crown which meant we finally figured out why the Lich King was so important. Oh and our leaders were stolen
Other than that we had no way of fathoming how grim things were in the Shadowlands. We only knew how grim things were on Azeroth and took the plunge to get our leaders back and figure out how to fix Azeroth. The deeper we traveled into the Shadowlands the more we realized that to fix Azeroth, we needed to fix the Shadowlands first.
Not to be too spoilery, but they are adding a lot of models.
Even female Dreadlords! (Dreadladies?)
Yeah I saw the articles on WoWhead for stories and models. I know we were speculating in this thread before. Now is a good time to bring it up again.
We speculated that the Dreadlords created the vampyr curse in order to torment those on Azeroth. It was given to/stolen by Arthas. Possibly in Azeroth long before Thalassian vampyr/Arthas using it, what with Lucard being a thing. I wonder if we’ll see more of that Vry’kul someday.
Been hearing some rumors about the upcoming raid. I haven’t seen confirmation, but I figured I’d talk about it some.
Since it’s spoiler territory, I’ll hide it behind a spoiler tag.
Been reading that Sylvanas survives and escapes the raid encounter. As I said, I haven’t seen official confirmation of this aside from people discussing it online.
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me, much as I do want to mount her head on a pike. I would imagine that a dead Nathanos…err, well an even MORE dead Nathanos might be involved with her in the future. I don’t know if she has any more minions left or what to follow her if she does escape.
Again, not 100% confirmed, so take it with a grain of…well, ok, maybe an entire saltlick to go with this. If this is true, hopefully the San’layn would still be smart enough to not follow her crazy-go-nuts plans and stuff. They deserve better. <- <
I will continue to keep an eye out for anything else of interest to report.
Sorry I was absent from San’layn discussion. I was forced to take a vacation for using a certain word. I hope no one in this thread reported me or felt offended. I apologize.
No harm done from what I’ve seen, and no need to apologize. I didn’t see an issue myself, nor was I offput by any words I’ve seen here aside from some a while ago not said by anyone active in this thread anyway.
Drew some stuff. Been down lately. Figured I’d share art though to keep the interest going. I’m still learning and am a beginner artist as an FYI to newcomers. So yes, it’s not going to be great.
My paladin. Would be nice to have tattoos, as I will always bring up. And scars.
San’layn, cowboy-bard character. Has teeth that are all sharp. First time trying cell shading. I’m still getting a handle on how to do highlights.
hugs
And ooo Pally, and yesss, just imagine like the Zandalari gold tats on a blood elf swoon
And awesome! Always love how you do teef.
I’d like to see the stone carver venthyr guys make some female gargoyles that look more like the males. Could do both and have some new males that look like the existing females.
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On another note, I’ve been leveling/gearing up my Blood Elf Death Knight who I would make a San’layn if it were an option. He basically already is a vampire.
Been mostly sticking to Blood while leveling, of course.
The venthyr door of shadows ability would make a pretty sweet racial ability.
Could change the visual to be more mist-like if needed, but I don’t mind the red at all. Mainly because if already fits my spells haha.
First row Blood DK talents has one called Blooddrinker which is basically what the blood prince did to the gnome in BFA.
That would also make a pretty sweet racial if it were reworked a bit. Mostly put it more on par with other self heal racials like the Draenei or Trolls.
Currently as a talent it’s not the most useful. It’s pretty weak, combined with you being unable to attack, that seems real odd. Be neat if it were more of an “execute” style spell used at low health and getting a bonus heal or haste effect if the target died while using it.
So we getting a Sylvanas book.
I wonder if it’ll have any San’layn in it or have pre-San’layn Blood Elves as an Easter egg?