WoW or D3 expansion? The Dark Below

[Taeron]

Very exciting news. Either way you swing this The Dark Below theory, it feels we're definitely moving away from oversized angry turnips and giant manic rabbits back to a more Diabloesque world of demons and monsters.

[bldavis]

the more i think and read about it, the more and more i am getting excited for it!
i love MoP and its story lines, and all the stuff it brought with it (ok maybe not ALL of it but..) but it would be great to get back to that darker feel of Wrath
(i would say BC possibly, but i only played for the last 2 months of BC)

[Newsom]

I really hope it's an Old God expansion, being a huge Lovecraft fan and all.

N'zoth could very much be a possibility. He is said to be sleeping in the sunken city of Ny'alotha (obviously R'lyeh) which also has connection to the Emerald Dream/Nightmare. Possible location?

There's also the theory that Azeroth itself is named after/encased by an old god (see Azathoth) which is why Azeroth is so important to the titans. (Edit: found the article! It's a good read.)

[Pfife]

I think I'm going to take a stab at the initial plot/story.

As the warriors of Azaroth brought turmoil to Pandaria and freed the Horde from another cycle of dark influence, something boiled underneath the surface of the Maelstrom. Under the command of N'zoth, Queen Azshara has used Deathwing's corpse with remnants of the Well of Eternity to bring her city back to the world. And with it, turmoil begins anew as her naga ravage the coasts of both Kalamdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Horde and Alliance have agreed to put aside recent grudges in order to force the serpent queen to fight on two fronts, but she holds more beneath her power than they realize. Wrathion, in an attempt to prevent the old kingdom from rising, has been captured and sent to the Emerald Dream. He is slowly being twisted as his father once was. The time has come to enter The Dream and end the corruption that has been plaguing it for years. There is no rest for Azaroth's mightiest as they must fight through the ruins, the water, The Dream and The Dark Below.

Edit: included the Well of Eternity.

[benebarba]

Now if we can just go for an expansion without a troll patch.

[bldavis]

no we cant, we still have the zandilari on zandilar to deal with..thier island is sinking, but hasnt sunk yet

i personally like Pfife's idea..plus it would bring in the emerald dream/nightmare and would lead us fairly straight into a burning legion expansion being queen azshara was at one point wanting/going to be (or possibly was? i dont remember exaclty) Sargera's consort/bride.

the reactivation of the well of eternity, as well as the cry of queen azshara might be enough to bring sargera's eye back to azeroth, which he has never forgotten.. we are the only planet to survive an attack from the burning legion, so you know he wants to get a second chance at us


this could be the end of wow wrapped up nice and neat, esp given 2 years per expansion.
we could have the dark below, late 2014, so the fall of argus? (someone book mark this page just to see if i am right in 2 years lol) being launched late 2016, and they said project titan was pushed back til 2016 at least...so we could be seeing the last expansion of wow, which would fit with the old rumors of the engine only handling up to level 100 (dark below - 95, fall of argus - 100) and as wow was winding down with us defeating the burning legion on argus and the draenei returning home possibly, project titan would be picking up more and more steam...


one thing we havent talked about is if it is a wow expansion, like we are fairly sure of now, new class? new race? both? neither?

[cdan]

A new race? What is the current version of Kung Fu Panda? Smurfs 2? Despicable Me 2?

So we're going to get blue, goblin / gnome like figures. Or little yellow dudes with stupid voices.

Smurf race will be Poppa - tank, Smurfette - healer, Clumsy - DPS.
Minion race would be Dave - Tank, Phil- healer, Carl - DPS

[benebarba]

If we get minions, I'll keep playing. I won't care what the story is, as long as I can send minions to do my bidding with hilarious consequences.

[Taeron]

Aaaaand it seems The Dark Below might have been a troll register at that .gov site.

Damn it.

[benebarba]

See? The Trolls are at it again.

Stupid trolls.

[Pfife]

BAH!

Ooh well, I guess I can turn all the ideas I got in the last half an hour into some form of fan fiction. I had the whole expansion mapped out, ending with N'zoth using Azshara (after some form of betrail) to signal the Legion.

[Flex]

World of Warcraft: Trollnation
World of Warcraft: Trolltastic
World of Warcraft: Trollriffic
World of Warcraft: Zandaloony

[bldavis]

A new race? What is the current version of Kung Fu Panda? Smurfs 2? Despicable Me 2?

i would agree, but panderan were in lore long before kung fu panda came out...
panderan brewmasters in WC3
plus chen was at the founding of ogrimmar

[cdan]

A new race? What is the current version of Kung Fu Panda? Smurfs 2? Despicable Me 2?

i would agree, but panderan were in lore long before kung fu panda came out...
panderan brewmasters in WC3
plus chen was at the founding of ogrimmar

Don't interrupt my fabrication with your facts. I even called my one and only (female) Panda char Jackblackina.

[bldavis]

sorry its just one of those lines i hear all the time from friends who claim WTF BLIIZ IS JUST CASHING IN ON KUNG FU PANDA!

nice name btw

[Treck]

Not disagreeing with you really, but technically MoP is set in Azeroth and was all about an old god.

Even the developers said that the next expansion is going to take us back to azeroth (if he said "back to the old azeroth we know and love" or smth like that i dont remember)
MoP is not all about an old god tho.
Yes sure, an old god is involved, but so was one in Cata, I never considered it to be the case that much tho, it wasn all about deathwing, not all about the old god.
Garrosh is doing all this crazy stuff cause he found a great powersource, but he was crazy before he found it as well, but he was hungry for power tho.
Not to mention ToT was (like many mid tier raids) a tangent boss not really relevant to the main storyarch.

[Treck]

Anyhow, all this talk about the new expansion has gotten me really excited about all that kind of stuff again, been on wowpedia for a while now

[bldavis]

Anyhow, all this talk about the new expansion has gotten me really excited about all that kind of stuff again, been on wowpedia for a while now

same here...i am actually excited for blizzcon now

[Lieris]

Wishlist:

1. Not another corruption or redemption story.

2. A "big bad" on the box who makes their presence felt throughout the expansion but doesn't behave like a saturday morning cartoon villain.

3. Important story bits are in-game, not exclusive to books.

4. Chris Metzen to retire; the last Blizzard game to have a great story was vanilla WoW. SC2 was especially embarrassing.

[bldavis]

and no more f-ing RETCONS!
in before malfurion tutored cenarious in the art of druidism, or slightly more plausible (cause i would hate...and kinda love to see the shit storm on the forums if the first one happened) Velen was really an agent with the Burning Legion after all, duping the entire draenei race, as well as the naruu and every other major lore figure he has met since...including anduin, who he tutored in the preistly ways!

[Lieris]

I don't mind too much the draenei retcon and the Velen/KJ/Archimonde origins story. It was confusing at first but they somehow made it work. Maybe it has just grown on me even though the spaceships thing still feels horribly out of place and that this is probably the moment when WoW's story started to go off the rails.

I also really didn't like what they did to Kael'thas because he went from sympathetic and likeable in TFT to suddenly being completely corrupted in TBC. Who is the current blood elf racial leader? I can't quite remember and really does anyone care? As much as I loved him as a raid boss I don't think it was the right decision to kill off Kael. I just don't like it when characters do 180s without any foreshadowing and when it's not shown in game; Arthas' corruption worked in WC3 because we experienced it with him. Finding out in guild chat that Kael had turned evil and could be killed was a huge "WTF" moment.

If a major lore character gets corrupted so they can be a raid boss and Illidan gets resurrected somehow for a kooky redemption story then I am completely done taking Warcraft lore seriously. Just wipe the wowpedia servers clean and call it a day.

[Amirya]

Illidan will be resurrected by Tyrande, and then he will use his demonic powers to go to Northrend to convince Bolvar to raise Arthas as a death knight, so that Jaina will be reunited with her lost love, finally.

Oh, and Malfurion will get the monks, shamans, and druids to rebuild Theramore as a sprawling neutral sanctuary that has spiral staircases into Shallowholm. And the staircases will constantly spiral downward like demented escalators, but to get into Shallowholm, you'll have to run up them, all the while dodging the eggs that Alexstraza and Ysera are laying (sired by Neltharion). If you hit an egg, it's a guild-wipe, and you have to start over at level 1.

*waits for bldavis' head to explode*

Edit: Damn, the typo-bandit hit my post!

[bldavis]

the draenei story is ok..i mean how else would we get playable legion race?
plus, having never played warcraft before wow (i played Diablo and a little starcraft though) it helped show the power of sargeras.

Illidan will be resurrected by Tyrande, and then he will use his demonic powers to go to Northrend to convince Bolvar to raise Arthas as a death knight, so that Jaina will be reunited with her lost love, finally.

Oh, and Malfurion will get the monks, shamans, and druids to rebuild Theramore as a sprawling neutral sanctuary that has spiral staircases into Shallowholm. And the staircases will constantly spiral downward like demented escalators, but to get into Shallowholm, you'll have to run up them, all the while dodging the eggs that Alexstraza and Ysera are laying (sired by Neltharion). If you hit an egg, it's a guild-wipe, and you have to start over at level 1.

*waits for bldavis' head to explode*

Edit: Damn, the typo-bandit hit my post!

i hate you some times ami...

you really want to retcon though, you would add in that Go'el (aka Orc Jesus..i mean Thrall) leaves Aggra, hooks up with Jaina, and Arthas apologizes to Sylvanis who admits her quest wasnt for his blood, but for his heart... oh and aggra? she, magatha grimtotem and blaine bloodhoof live together now ..possibly with vol'jin

edit: Lieris, current Belf leader is Lor'themar Theron he is doing a pretty good job based on the isle of thunder stuff, and the 5.1 chain. i personally think he will be the new warchief once we take out garrosh. as much as i would love it to be simple campfire or vol'jin, i think it will be Lor'themar

[Newsom]

Lor'themar has actually been pretty active this expansion. Both in 5.1 and 5.2.

[Ruldar]

You know, it's kind of impressive how long Zandalar has been sinking. Slowest cataclysm ever.

Hell, it's taking long enough, they've had more than enough time to pick up and move and there's plenty of land that isn't particularly inhabited at the moment. At this point I doubt anyone in Dustwallow Marsh is going to complain very long if a bunch of trolls show up.