I was thinking last night while my brain refused to turn off to sleep that truly one of the most fun parts of a new expansion in the more current iterations of WoW is watching which themes and cultures from the launch story stick out in the questing to perhaps signpost where 12.1 and 12.2 are going to go. Some of my favorite speculators are drawing a total blank at this, and it’s really the most excitingly uninformed point of any expansion.
Who could have called “zereth mortis” at the start of shadowlands?
K’aresh was seeded in the narrative with the TWW pre-patch with locus walker, but not many I heard were guessing it as a destination that early, not until the datamining started to signpost etherals. Dimensius was a breadcrumb for sure!
Emerald dream was also signposted sufficiently throughout the DF leveling questing, but was still a wild and fun twist. I wasn’t playing at the time but I imagine Zaralek Cavern came out of left field!
We’ll be told the first raid, but guessing the 2nd and 3rd will be extra fun in Midnight because, man… I got nothin’. I want Azshara, I think the rootlands are a TLT thing, and I’m still not sure if the Arathi empire’s Avaloren will play into the WSS at all (personal hope: the empire are soldiers of some light/order alliance once we take out the shadow… and not our friends). For me, a lot will depend on how present the Amani are. We are due a troll raid!
As soon as we go into Midnight alpha we can start sniffing out the kinds of breadcrumbs that the goblins in the ringing deeps turned out to be for undermine! That’s exciting!