While it might be too much to ask Blizzard to update every zone in the game to current events in the world, it is still fun to imagine what is going down in these old zones that Blizzard stops touching. What is an old zone going through these days? What is your personal head cannon about one of these zones? Is Duskwood now a haven for Night Elves and Worgen? Are the Barrens overrun with Vulpera supply caravans now that they’re apart of the Horde? Has the Blasted lands finally begun healing now that the Dark Portal no longer functions?
My personal favorite is that the Draenei have finally managed to turn Azuremyst into a new home, instead of chunks of spaceship they have actual homes and fields that grow alien crops on Azeroth. They are still dealing with the effects of their crystals on the wildlife, but new wildlife stolen from Argus and Draenor are growing well in the relative peace of the Isle. A big issue they are dealing with is packs of demons left over from the Burning legion, now split up in to roving war bands that are attempting to claim the left-over Naaru technology to bring more demons to finally wipe out their ancient enemies.
4 Likes
They did this is Cataclysm.
It wasn’t as well received as you might think.
Even putting aside the changes to the zones, I think people were upset about “classic” quest chains being broken or deleted.
Besides, they spend most of their time on the new areas in an expansion, it would take a lot of extra work to update old zones as well, and considering how some expansions haven’t done well when they’ve ONLY focused on new areas, could you imagine them splitting their time between the old zones and the new ones?
I think you misunderstand me, im not demanding them remake old zones, im wondering what you think is happening to old zones that haven’t been touched for multiple expacs.
3 Likes
I don’t know how I could headcanon it, but I really, -really- want to see how neighboring zones react to what happened to Darkshire during Legion.
The town goes fel-crazy, a third siding with the Legion and murdering another third while a few holdouts hide in their homes, and… you’d only know about it if you played an Assassination rogue or read out-of-game material.
How many Darkshire residents survived? Is it even a functioning town after the massacre? Did they have to take in a lot more immigrants (worgen, void elves, night elves) to function properly again? If there are multiple new waves of settlement, is there friction between the groups or are they united against the spooky things still lurking in the woods? Is anyone, say in the House of Nobles, planning to take advantage of the chaos in this big section of Stormwind-adjacent territory?
Now I want to see a worgen-ified Isiden Perenolde trying to build a base of support in the disunited power vacuum of post-Legion Darkshire.
sint incoming
So, there’s a lot of text about Stonetalon. Not like, a lot a lot, but enough to get a general gist of what happened to it after Cata. After Krom’gar got dismissed, the region was mostly left alone until BfA, where it was said to be an active warzone. To me, this reads as “the Night Elves defended their portion of Stonetalon to prevent the Horde from moving troops and supplies through it”.
There’s also an evil beneath Stonetalon, which we saw in Cata. This’ll be important soon. To me, Stonetalon currently is practically deserted. Most of the region is uninhabitable due to prolonged warfare and the rampant environmental destruction that took place during the Cataclysm. The parts of Stonetalon that are still inhabited are border outposts or Night Elf sanctuaries, or a few scattered keeps that might’ve been constructed during the Fourth War.
Stonetalon is empty. The little that is happening is that the Night Elves are attempting to reclaim and repair their sections of the area, as well as try to reckon with the Evil Beneath Stonetalon Peak.
Dragonblight is pretty much dragon only town (and friends). This isn’t really because dragons don’t want people around in Wyrmrest but because there are masses of rogue undead roaming around the snow fields. Without the armies of the Horde and Alliance stemming the tides, hordes of undead are wandering around unchecked on the ground.
Unless you have a flying mount, which I assume only wealthy people own, are a dragon or friends with one, then you can’t really get to the temple without getting killed by the undead.
Tempest Keep has been retaken by the Sha’tar following Kael’s defeat, but it is no longer fully functional. A’dal and co allowed the Draenei to gut it of certain components while they were building the Vindicaar, so while Tempest Keep maintains certain functions (we see it still has a working prison in Legion for one), it is basically just a fortress now. That’s basically just the best explanation I can come up with for why it apparently was not destroyed outright (again, as evidenced by the Arcatraz mission in Legion) but was not used in the Argus campaign.
1 Like
I’ve always maintained a headcanon that the zones we explore in WoW are probably much, much more vast than we actually see and we only see so little because an MMO can only contain so much. Though… it may not be headcanon, exactly, since I think a while back some dev or writer suggested that Azeroth’s lands are much bigger than they can really portray in a game.
Myst was helping Pandaria heal after the alliance and horde scurried off to fight elsewhere after MoP. And I always liked to think they eventually healed the vale.
When I saw the update I was like “alright alright alright” in Mcuahneghey whatever spelling voice.
I do think the peak of serenity is just gone for good. And has likely been transformed into a graveyard for the fallen after the Legion destroyed it in Legion.
1 Like
This is what I mean! There’s no hint that it happened anywhere other than the quest!
Something this big, with this many potential consequences, needs to be mentioned elsewhere, too.
Edit: In Beta, Watcher Ladimore (daughter of the paladin-turned-vengeful-undead who the player puts to rest and whose spirit sends her a memento in a really touching quest) was one of the Legion converts too, but there was enough player outcry that she was changed to an NPC defending the hiding villagers instead.
I headcanon that she’s the new leader of the Night Watch - or has renamed the organization so it doesn’t have those historic ties.
3 Likes
Thanks! I had no clue that happened, and it’s a shame; Darkshire has always been oen of my favorite locations.
1 Like
Across the world, the primitive races which lacked military power to truly threaten the great walled cities of the Alliance and Horde, have started finding Azerite makes for quite the weapon. It gives them instructions on how to use it, even visions of its full potential to some people. And now that N’zoth is in everyone’s heads, all across the world? They take action, everywhere. Spells, guns, arrows, and blades, fueled by Azerite, are unleashed on the civilized races as madness swallows the world. Sure, they lack any organizational capacity to win a war, but walls aren’t feeling quite so safe anymore. Dealing with these ‘lesser’ races, more like beasts than people by most’s reckoning, is more costly. And leaves more to repair or replace.
1 Like
Oh boy, here I go again.
Desolace: Following the aftermath of the Cataclysm and the rise, and fall, of High Khan Aratas, the Magram Centaur still remain the leading faction of the Centaur Clans of the region and are still nominally allied with the Horde. While there is much awkwardness and bitterness, the Tauren and Centaur ambassadors are making progress and someday the Centaur may indeed stand as fully-fledged allies of the Horde. While Theradras’s death, permanently since we have never seen her again in Deepholme, has angered many Centaur, many more now feel clear-headed for the first time in their lives without their ‘mother’ pushing them to acts of barbarity and war to protect their ‘father’s’ final resting place, a state of being that the Orcs are well acquainted with and which is improving diplomatic efforts significantly.
Duskwood: With most of the townsfolk either dead or fled, the region has become lawless and hostile to all travelers, with the damned souls of Karazhan, including the Dark Riders, plundering the area, the Ogres and feral Worgen spreading their influence and the undead forces native to the region growing, seemingly without limit, Duskwood seemed to be a place cursed to suffer evil for generations to come.
However, the actions of Revil Kost have drawn a number of individuals to the region, adventurers in their own right even if they are not up to the level of the PCs, and an unusual alliance of Priests, Druids and embittered heroes who seek to drive back the darkness once and for all. In the aftermath of Teldrassil, many Night Elf and Worgen refugees who find Stormwind’s urban confines stifling have retreated to the area, retaking Darkshire and fortifying it with Druidic magic, making a curious blend of Human structures and living wooden buildings. The surviving villagers of Darkshire, refugees from Westfall and from Teldrassil and a growing surge of adventurers unwilling to turn a blind eye to evil growing next to their homes has turned Darkwood into a burgeoning training ground of heroes and adventurers … and they’re the type of people who listen to their hearts first, and their High King second.
1 Like
after years of suffering, the barrens finally built a bridge between north and south
Not sure this is really headcanon, but…
The Horde quests in Dustwallow involve overthrowing the current ogre leader and him being replaced by a more competent and thoughtful one. This ogre wants to retake their old home that was overrun by black dragons in Cataclysm.
It seems implied that this wasn’t just his will, but the will of the majority in the clan.
With the decline of the Black Dragonflight, it would make complete sense if they succeeded in retaking their old home.
However, if the zone were ever updated, I expect two things:
- They will have forgotten about their old home, despite it being a focus of their quests.
- The old leader will still be in charge. I say this because after he is defeated, he just respawns back where he used to be, so to anyone who didn’t do the questline (or forgot about it), he appears to still be in charge. After all, Blizzard forgot all the NPCs in Hillsbrad that died.