Over the course of the franchise’s existence, we’ve seen a plethora of cliffhangers, unanswered story questions, and underdeveloped storylines pop-up.
One could complain about how unsatisfying, disappointing, and generally frustrating this is; no one wants to emotionally invest in something and then see little to no pay off. However, perhaps the more constructive thing to do is simply list everything we can think off in an easy-to-read and logical manner in the spirit of positively helping CDev—to remind them of what they may have forgotten.
So, post what you wish to add or discuss what others have put forward below and I will update (as fast as I can) the list in this OP as we go.
I’ll get us started with a few.
G A M E S
Warcraft I
TBA
Warcraft II (+expansion)
TBA
Warcraft III (+expansion)
TBA
World of Warcraft: Vanilla
What is An’she’s cosmic role?
What rite of passage do female Night Elves go through to get their tattoos?
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
TBA
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
TBA
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
TBA
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
No answer as to what happened to the Sunreavers Jaina imprisoned?
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
TBA
World of Warcraft: Legion
TBA
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
No development regarding the Botani and other Draenor races that also came to Azeroth with the Mag’har.
What’s the Tidemother? Is she real? Was she a Wild God or Azshara all along?
Why did Elune abandon Tyrande when she was about to achieve justice?
Why did we not go to rescue the remaining (majority of the) Night Elf Souls from the maw?
What has Tyrande been doing in the time between 8.1 and 9.0 since she wasn’t present in Nazjatar and she didn’t reclaim the zones of the Night Elves since there’s still Horde presence in Night Elf zones as of “Exploring Kalimdor”
Why is the Horde still attacking the Night Elves in Ashenvale?
Why did Sylvanas decide that she wouldn’t serve the Jailer after having done so for over a decade and she didn’t have her soul fragment back yet?
Why does Elune not freak out when she finds out that she sent her children to the maw and why are we never fixing this?
What caused Zovaal to believe the First One’s design was flawed in the first place?
How does Elune have influence to send all Night Elf souls to Ardenweald?
What exactly is the crimson star in the sky over Azeroth? Is it just the remanent of the gateway Illidan tore open to Argus or is it something else?
Are we ever getting Sargeras’s sword out of Azeroth? Or is it just going to kill her eventually?
Why was Sargeras attacking Azeroth as a giant fart cloud instead of just attacking her directly like he did at the last second?
Since the world soul was destroyed are all the non-demonic inhabitants of Argus doomed now? Or was the planet pretty much dead anyways so there’s no real difference?
Where was the rest of the Army of Light while all this was going on?
Mine is very trivial, but it has bugged me for awhile. In “Tides of War”, the Theramore defenders pull off an ambush of Garrosh, but somehow he survives a direct massive explosion. Despite suggesting at one point that this was going to be explained, I don’t believe that it ever has been.
Alot of mine are wandering where’s character x. Like where’s Tagar and Bovan Windtotem (War3 TFT), Fenris Wolfbrother (War2 BtDP), Shokia, Thalen Songweaver, and Harrowmeiser (None of them were in WoD, despite being apart of the Rescue Garrosh Crew in War Crimes), etc…
Because it revealed that Zovaal lied to her. Sylvanas was under the impression that they were both seeking to destroy the current system to create a new one that would promise true freedom. However his use of serve indicated that Zovaal wanted servants, not allies. Plus when resurrected Arthas called upon her to serve him (War3) and then Ner’zhul told her she would serve for his glory (Rise of the Lich King), so she could have matched Zovaal’s tone with theirs.
From my understanding the red star is where Sargeras, Illidan, and the other titans are. If the star vanishes Sargeras would be presumably free.
He wanted to corrupt Azeroth into a Fel Titan under his command. The stabbing was essentially him saying: “If I can’t have you, then no one will.”
For that matter, what circumstances or deal led to Helya possessing Illidan’s soul after Gul’dan stole his body? It was kind of random having to rescue his soul from her, especially considering Helya and her Kvaldir were no friends of the Legion’s own Tide/Felskorn vrykul.
My best guess is that Gul’dan wanted Illidan out of the way, so that his body could serve as a potential vessel for Sargeras, and Heyla sought to deliver Illidan soul, and thus his anima, to the Jailer.
The thing is, his was already a demonic soul, running around the Nether trying to evade capture when players contact him during the first few Azsuna quests.
So it’s doubtful that his soul would have anima, as it’s not a mortal soul any more. And since he eventually got caught, presumably it was the Legion who caught him and gave him to Helya - someone who was openly hostile to their servants in Stormheim.
It’s quite unfortunate really, given that the expansion concept had so much potential.
It really could have been one of the best if the team just made better narrative decisions from the get go and listened to the narrative criticism throughout development.
It’s too late to fix though, as it would require too many retcons to the story that have already made it into the live game. At least while it was still on the PTR/Beta retcons wouldn’t have been an issue.
I was hoping the Community Council would bring some of these narrative issues to light, but it seems there was only a singular person selected with an interest in the lore who also just so happens to not be too active.