Why? I’ll tell you why.
Yrel is being groomed to be a light affiliated antagonist after the Mag’har recruitment scenario so it’s wise to assume that she’ll be a big player in the inevitable light / void expansion. There’s just one wittle problemo, she and the lightbound are stuck back in AU Draenor. We weren’t even able to recruit the Mag’har without bronze dragon assistance. Now unless Blizz gives new lore that major light entities like the Light Mother are able to somehow time travel to different time lines, the LB are poop out of luck.
So how do we fix this? Well, once again with bronze dragon shenanigans. But why would the bronze dragonflight summon crazy light zealots to azeroth? Answer is they wouldn’t, but the Infinite dragonflight would.
So how and why would the infinite dragonflight summon Yrel to Azeroth if we killed Murozond in End Time? Well, that is true. However, Our MU Nozdormu is alive and well. So here’s where it gets into educated speculation.
What if some dragon shenanigans happen in 9.2, as Bolvar is covered in red dragon fire, Ysera has returned, and many have speculated that Zovaal might raise Galakrond to undeath. The dragonflights then declare that Azeroth needs their protection once more as Cosmic threats seem to continuously endanger Azeroth. So the dragonflights will search for the Dragon Isles as they could have Titan tech that might be able to empower the aspects once again. We know that there are draconic essences out there with power as we saw in BFA when empowering our HoA.
Okay so we find the isles along with the twilight’s hammer who is now being led by a void empowered Sinestra (who is teased to being alive in the great dark beyond) as the herald of the void lords. She and the Aspects succeed in getting empowered. Sinestra displays the horrible power of the void, petrifying Nozzy and sending him into a mad depression. He then shatters the timeways and creates the MU infinite dragonflight and is the final boss of 10.0.
No time travel though! All Muro does is summon AU versions of great azerothian heros to build an infinite army to combat the void. We defeat him of course but he manages one last ditch effort, summoning Yrel and her light bound.
After that would most likely be 11.0 and the light/void war most likely taking place in Ka’resh as it is the only known location where a void lord was able to manifest in the physical universe.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right but man, I’d be elated if Blizzard forgot about AU Draenor entirely and I’m absolutely sick of Twilight’s Hammer at this point.
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As much as I’d love to see it, I doubt it.
For one, the mag’har orc storyline is only available to Horde and only for the specific purpose of unlocking the AR. If Blizzard were intent to seed that storyline, we would have seen a similar tie in for Alliance by now.
Also if you paid attention to that quest, it mentions how, canonically, we “lost” our means to get to AU Draenor and hoops had to be jumped through to get back…seems Blizzard is much more intent to let the AU just do its own thing and not “merge” those storylines (as interesting as it would be).
Edit - It seems very clear that the void is going to be the thing we tackle next. Blizzard even went out of their way to make mention how the void has the capability of messing with the shadowlands too. We’ve also never actually dealt with the void itself.
There have been void storyline plot hooks in every expansion since at least Cata onward and BfA hinted reaaaaaalllllllllllyyyy hard about it. The fact that we know time works differently in SL likely means that we’re going to return to Azeroth to find the void has come to claim our world. Part of me even feels it may be the final expansion since we also know we have a super titan incubating and she seems primed and reach to “hatch”…likely taking our world out for good or forcing us to the stars or something.
Why the final expansion? If you’ve kept up with Blizzard stuff, you’d know WoW isn’t the money maker anymore and obviously budgets are cut…it’s likely future expansions have been axed save for the next. I don’t think we’ll see Blizzard go under, but it’s obvious the rats in the know are abandoning the ship…and in their own words…no king rules forever.
You say that like Blizzard doesn’t routinely bury half or more of the story Horde side. The Gilneas story conclusion is Horde only.
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An entire expansion is a bit much to let only one side get plot hooks for…and VERY weak plot hooks at that. If anything, I think the Mag’har questline really showed AU Draenor is canonically dead and done as far as future endeavors.
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WoD’s story was gated by a novel “Warcrimes” so I doubt that’d be a reason to not follow up. Plus why villain bat her for nothing?
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To give plausible reason for the Mag’har to be rescued and recruited to the Horde. Logically the Horde were going to try and pull the “we helped you so now you owe us” card with no real actual claim (it isn’t like they could afford or even had the means to invade and “force” the orc tribes to submit).
It’s just super convenient that after all the canoically years, we find out the tribes have all made peace and banded together and, surprise surprise, are in dire need of being rescued.
It was totally unneeded. We have MU Mag’har who would have done just fine. I think there are more of them than ren’dorei canonically, too.
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I’m not sure where you are getting that, but in any event, I don’t know why Blizzard opted to not have MU Outland/Draenor orcs join. Part of me kinda guesses that, canonically, MU Draenor may be totally gone by now. I’ve not read the books (only know some things), but has anyone like actually checked?
That’s exactly what I meant. Mag’har simply means uncorrupted, which are the faction of orcs we encounter in MU Outland and the title also applies to the AU orcs… at least most.
Blizzards statement at the time, iirc, was that we couldn’t get Mag’har before BfA because of population, so I drew the connection to them making playable Mag’har from AU Draenor because “There are more of them.”
We only saw half of that, so we don’t know the other side of the story. And it’s from a pocket universe that should have ceased to exist by now.
I enjoyed questing in Warlords. But going back for the Mag’har was dumb. We have our own in Outland.
I’m not! I love those guys.
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I’m going to disagree with your focus on the Void being a big part of the next xpac. We just got a major Void story for BfA, and have been dealing with the Void consistantly since Vanilla.
If they are going to shift to one of the other celestial powers next xpac, I say they will go straight to the Light. There have been just as many indicators that way in Shadowlands. First is putting Turalyon in charge if Stormwind, the Light infused area of Revendreth and the recent story of how it got that way because if the Nathraziem, all of the Scarlet Crusade stuff that has been datamined and teased for Shadowlands but not used yet.
We have had 15+ years of Void is bad, Light is good. If they want to start pushing the everything is shades if grey idea they are moving toward they need to start showing the Light can be bad and the Void can be good angle now. Not show yet more Void bad.
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I do believe Blizzard would love to setup a light is evil expansion. FF14 (Shadowbringers) definitely proved it can be done. Plus Blizzard have been building up to it for quite some time, with Xera (sort of) and as you mentioned, Yrel. Plus in Shadowlands we can see how the war with the light touched Ravendreth, and also the Jailer’s interest in it and Anduin. Plus the Naaru hidden in the Sanguine Depths. So yeah, I definitely think a light based expansion is coming for sure, with Yrel likely somewhere at the forefront. Maybe with AU Garry as well.
But I don’t think she’s gonna be the main antagonist. She isn’t exactly THAT strong, maybe she’s gotten stronger since we left, but ultimately I’d say maybe she can be at Turalyon level perhaps? She’s likely being manipulated by some more powerful Naaru or entity I imagine. All and all, a light expansion is definitely down the road.
I loved Shadowbringers (well I haven’t got to play the last half, but anyway)…but that isn’t the first time FF delved into the “light can be bad” and a lot of us here have said the same about OUR version of the light too…the scarlet crusade is a…pun intended…shining example of that.
But it is clear the void is the next big threat and it could always lead to the light being “bad” later (though I don’t think WoW has enough in it to be able to build that narrative).
Also the “light” in revendreth isn’t the cosmic/deity light…it’s just sunlight weaponized via mirrors against a race fully adapted to a life in the shadows/shade.
Maybe, at best, we’d have some kind of dual void vs light expansion with us in the middle, but I really doubt it since, like I said, there has been next to no plot hooks besides VERY loose ones in Legion about the light being “bad”…whereas there has been A LOT more void plot hooks.
And I still REALLY doubt AU Draenor will play any role in it. The Nightborne had to jump through hoops even to get a temporary portal back to AU Draenor…also Yrel, canoically, doesn’t have any real reason to pursue us/the orcs. The entire point is to protect her world/people and she is doing it by having everyone be one religion. With the orcs gone, she has her objective met.
“Light as evil” stories never really work, because it’s not a realistic proposition. No matter how often it is twisted, when forces of the “light” are evil, it is because they have been corrupted by the forces of evil themselves. This is just as true in real life as in video games.
I’m not saying some people don’t like to rebel against what they perceive as a goody-two-shoes kind of entity or belief system, but in doing so they have to twist themselves into logical pretzels to justify it. Either way it doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of light “failures” are the failures and/or corruption of individuals, not the system writ large.
Specific to WoW, the Void was already the storyline in BfA. It was also a major part of the conflict storyline in the later part of Legion – the part of the xpac that fell flat for most (Argus). You’d be going back to the well for the third time in four xpacs to have a void-centric storyline again in 10.0, with the bigger issue being that the Blizzard hasn’t been able to really write their story well yet.
Dragon Isles, I could be for that. Not if it was Big Void Six, though.
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i doubt it. Alliance will cry if they treat someone like they’ve done horde (leader goes crazy)
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No I’d be happy to see Anditwerp get his 1 way ticket to SL.
Also Tyrande is already a thing…Many would also argue Genn is like 1 step from her. We also lost Magni to being some looney planet whisperer. You also got to fight Mekkadork and Jaina…I’d been all for you offing Mekkadork too.
If they kill Genn we could actually have the worgen leader that we should have had from the start. Alliance Hero, Darius Crowley.
You must have missed the part where Blizzard flat out states it’s a seed for the future. It was during Blizzcon either this Feb. or last Nov. Blizzard has never cared if a story is just for one side or the other. Blizzard has always expected its players to look at outside material or simply to play both side.