Ingromfolly

There has been some speculation that Deathing would be added as a raid, presumably to outlands. There is the scrpited event with Lady Sinestra on Netherwing that lends weight to this. Whether that could be the filler pre-WOTLK raid or something that they would hold back for WOTLK to get people back to outlands.

 

Kumar

One thing I am wondering is how Blizzard will tie in adventures venturing to OL to level to 70 and then going to Northrend. On the same note, the lack of Scourge in OL is something I have missed, I do realize though that OL is a Burning Legion story and Northrend will be the scourge story.

I am hoping for a Scourge invasion of Outlands before WoLTK's release to bridge the TBC->WoLTK adventuring. We also have information on boats being one form of transport to reach Northrend, and these can actually left off from Sunwell Plateau.

I have always wondered if any of the Outland factions will show up in Northrend (especially the neutral ones) and one I would love to see there is SSO/Shat'ar.

 

Jangro

I think they will hold back Deathwing for WOTLK. The entry for Malygos on wowwiki mentions that the Blue Dragonflight have forged ties with the netherdrakes so they could easily hold off the conclusion of that story until you're getting up close and personal with Malygos. Of course, it would also be a little strange that Deathwing would be the weakest of the Aspects as well.

 

• Adoriele

We sort of already have the lore reason to head to Northrend, at least from a raiding standpoint. The Sunwell, while currently tied to the Burning Legion was also a major lore point for Arthas/the Scourge. It may just be that heading to Sunwell reminds us that Arthas exists and needs to be dealt with, or more hopefully that the events we unfold at the Sunwell reminds Arthas that we exist and need to be dealt with. In either case, it provides a nice segue.

From an adventuring standpoint, though, not much exists yet. Yes your average 70 is going to spend time on Quel'Danas, but there's a lot less of a tie there. Perhaps Arthas will make an appearance there, in person or in proxy, near the end of BC's life cycle.

 

Tacitus

Well, he has had his ass kicked twice.

And his body is on the verge of exploding because he held the Demon Soul too close to him. The only thing keeping it in check is the adamantium plating. I think he's around Malycgos in strenght (which we are raiding in WotLK).

Brotherhood, Peace, Unity

Welcome back, Comrade

 

Kirion

Maghar orcs will definetly show up there. Probably something related to draenei too.

42.

 

◊ Zerchi

I'd be rather surprised if we didn't run into Ethereals in Northrend too. Maybe even an Ethereal versus Venture Trading Company quest line (or at the very least a few enterprising Ethereal traders here and there).

 

• Chicken

The Blood Elves are likely to have a strong representation in Northrend too. The Blood Elves were after all originally after vengeance for their fallen brethren, that's just been postponed after they figured out they were addicted to magic and attempted to find a solution.

buff /bʌf/ Pronunciation[buhf]
–verb (used with object)
- to reduce or deaden the force of

 

Emeraude

Err I highly doubt that. The Elves have spent all of the Burning Crusade trying to get their main lands back as well as reach Outland, then find out their King is crazy only to return and form an offensive at the Plaeteu.

Honestly it depends on the timeline of how long Northrend takes place after the events at the Sunwell in this patch.

I think it's a very safe assumption that at the beginning of the Burning Crusade at least, the presence of the Sin'dorei in Northrend was at a minimum if at all. Kael's forces suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Icecrown and had to retreat to Outland as well as call on reinforcements from Azeroth afterwards.

 

Kumar

It can all depend on the status of the Sunwell at the end of SSO's offensive.

One of the problems Blizzard faces with Blood Elves (and I would beleive the Draenei too) is that their storylines are very evolving in that it evolves tremendously as your character progresses from Azeroth to Outland. I really do see the Blood Elves playing a major role in Northrend. They will be a part of the contigent led by Lady Sylvnass IMO and I think blood elves should have a major involvement in the Blue Dragonflight storyline.

We have the Blue Dragonflight playing an important role in Sunwell, helping us out (wowwiki has the dialouges during the final fight of Sunwell). When we reach Northrend, they are going to be seeking us out. Malygos is pissed at us for using arcane magic recklessly, and which race is most addicted to arcane energy?

Overall, Northrend should be tying up a lot of race storylines I think, The Dwarves will find answers, Blood Elves storyline I actually don't know how it will evolve, Humans will be playing an important role, Undead will get some vengance, Tauren have the Tanuka to look forward too. I don't know where the Night Elves and Draenei fight into all this though.

 

Morlark

Heh, I was just about to type up some thoughts on the matter, only to find that Kumar has just said pretty much what I wanted to. I'd guess that the huge Blood Elf (and Draenei) involvement in TBC is because they're the new playable races, and so it makes sense that the storyline would focus on them to explain why they're suddenly so important. So I think they probably won't be so strongly represented in WotLK.

Still, there's still some good potential for Blood Elf storylines in Northrend, what with the Blue Dragonflight involvement. Personally though, after an entire expansion full of Blood Elves, I'd like WotLK to focus on some of the more underrepresented races. Particularly the Tauren; I've always thought that they had one of the more cool backgrounds of all the races. The presence of the Taunka in Northrend makes me hopeful that we might be seeing some interesting developments there.

 

Emeraude

Well some things have been confirmed by Blizzard.

There will be some fairly heavy Tauren lore with the Taunka as you stated. They also share a kinship with the Tuskarr, because like the Tuskarr, Tauren were also a nomadic people before they joined the Horde and settled in Mulgore.

The Humans have their settlement that Arthas himself formed years ago that's still standing and fighting off the endless Undead. The Scarlet Crusade or Scarlet Onslaught as they call themselves are out there now as well. Hopefully Jaina finds a way back out there. And we can't forget about....The Ashbringer...

The Dwarves meet the Iron Dwarves, and dig up their past as usual, hopefully they'll run into the Titans

The Forsaken obviously are out there to spread their new plague upon the Scourge, hopefully Sylvanas will move out there(And take part in the Arthas encounter! With a new updated model.

The Orcs have Grom's whelp of a son out there causing trouble and turning the Horde all evil, or at least that's what Metzen wants us all to believe. =D

Other then each race's primary trials and tribulations the entire area of Northrend is pretty rich in terms of history.

The Nerubians that ruled out there long before the Lich King, and their kingdom, are a part of the Aqir, which are basically agents of the Old Gods.
The towns that the Lich King(Ner'Zhul) first infected and destroyed to test his new powers before he attacked Lordearon. This also includes several troll tribes, so expect another Troll instance.
Aegwynn's fight with Sargeras that took place up here with the assistance of the flights, I'm sure that'll be touched on.
Dragon Drama: Not to be limited to Magylos declaring war on us, but also the Red Dragonflight getting involed. The dead Dragons that the Scourge is using against us. The fact that Deathwing the Destroyer has made himself known in Outland and that the Netherwing flight are his offspring. It's also worth mentioning that we assisted the blue flight in procuring some of the Netherwing's eggs, AND as a direct result, according to Metzen, Magylos declaring war on us stems from him being "cured" by the energies of the Netherwing Flight. Even if Magylos is an intro raid encounter it'll no doubt be epic. Everything that effects the current Matriarch/Patriarch of the respective 5 flights stems down and affects their children, with some exceptions.

There's lots of tiny Details in the RPG books if you're really interested in an inside look of what's to come.

 

Tojara

Where would you get the idea that Garrosh would be out causing trouble and turning the Orcs evil again? That seems to be quite a stretch considering the position of the Mag'har in Outland. Not to mention how much shame Garrosh had to live with because of his fathers faults.

Everything else seems about right but that honestly doesn't make the slightest amount of sense to me.

 

Nezralix

Not necessarily causing trouble, at least not yet. But Metzen has suggested that, presumably under Garrosh's leadership, the Horde will be getting much more aggressive in the coming years of Warcraft lore, where they've been fairly stoic for some time now. I don't think this means "turning evil" necessarily (or in common WoW parlance, "going insane").

EDIT: Also, it seems a little anticlimactic to me that after years of inactivity, Arthas is still pretty much just sitting around (minus one half-hearted WoW "invasion"). Now, I get that they said Arthas is "luring" the Alliance and Horde to him, but I hope they do something to at least make it clear that the Scourge is up to something, some reason to be taking the fight to them. Maybe a new, more permanent Scourge invasion in Azeroth.

 

Kumar

Azeroth and Outland both IMO. When we defeat Kiljadean, it would surely catch Arthas's attention. Another good reason to go there, is the Argent Dawn storyline. We know that the trophy of Kel Thuzad is not with AD actually, so any changes in Naxx before the coming of WoLTK would lead Argent Dawn to take the fight to Northrend.

That would be a great idea, but I also think Arthas's has caused destruction for many races and not just Undead, but Sylvanas's story is the most tragic for sure. I would personally like to see a few heroes from BE, Undead, Humans and NE taking part in the encounter. An encounter with Arthas needs to have an epic feel to it, I have even toyed with thinking that getting to Arthas would require a common Alliance-Horde effort in some way, maybe not the raid itself. I do firmly beleive that WoLTK should be the end of Arthas and the Scrouge, that he should die (no redemption for him). The only other thing Blizzard can possibly do have him make an alliance with Burning Legion in the end to survive our assault.

 

Boywithrage

Completely ripping from 'Tales of the past 3' but I would love to see a similar ending where we kick the evil out of Arthas and he 'comes back to the light' so to speak. If you haven't seen 'Tales of the past'. Tales of the Past III By Martin Falch
I think this ending most likely goes against the limitations of current lore, but I personally would really like a similar ending to this in WotLK.

 

Kumar

The reason I think that ending is bad is because it might suit the Humans, but the Undead and Blood Elves want their revenge on the guy who destroyed everything they had. Blizzard killed of Kael, Illidian, they have to kill of Arthas or as I was mentioning have him ally with Sargreas and set the tone for the next expansion.

 

Starfire

Fury of the Maelstrom!

There's no reason to assume Sargeras is next, we still have Queen Azshara to deal with. And Blizzard keeps having her prop up. Quel'Danas for example has a statue of Azshara.

What's interesting, personally, Azshara seems to be borrowing very heavily from Hindu mythology. Nagas are after all Buddist/Hindu, and now Azshara's statue appears to be very similar to the Nataraj. (Not to mention, I personally see some similarities between Nataraj and Nazjatar).

Oh yeah, and how could I forget Vashj -_-

I am sure we'll be seeing plenty of Naga in Northrend as well.

And as far as Night Elves, I personally think they are the most fleshed and detailed, so I wouldn't be disappointed if they had little or no lore in Northrend.

 

Kumar

Tell me about the Azshara thing, I am a Hindu lol. So yes, but Arthas allying with the Naga is also quite possible. But I don't think how Maelstorm would be a whole new expansion, I can see it coming out in a big patch as a raid though.

Edit: We also have the missing information on the "Dark Riders". I wonder if we will know more about them and the Worgen in WoLTK.

 

Maledict

Please, please, for the love of god, abandon the "dark riders" stuff. It was a questline that meandered into a confusing mess because the quest designers got the level ranges mixed up. It was suppossed to be the quest line leading alliance into Shadowfang keep and to kill Arugal - that's made patently clear from the Horde side of things. (The Horde quest lines specifically state that Arugal has no real magic, and that he uses artifacts to pretend to be a real mage. He's then in contact with the night elf priestess who has the scythe, and suddenly his castle and everywhere is overrun with werewolves in one of the biggest displays ofopen magic since the war. It's not a hard puzzle to solve).

They are never going to extrapolate a major lore arc based on a quest that most alliance characters never find, nevermind the fct it's locked away to all horde players.

 

Emeraude

The Naga working with Arthas is not possible at all actually. The Naga are loyal to Queen Azshara, and she views Sargeras as a god who she wants to bring into this world...and marry. >_> That is to say, that they serve The Legion to a certain degree.

Now I know what you're thinking in regards to Vashj and the Naga in outland, but you have to remember she joined with Illidan when Illidan was in the service of Kil'Jaeden. It wasn't until after he lost to Arthas that he fell on the wrong side of Kil'Jaeden's eyes. And by then those Naga forces had already situated themselves in Outlands as the rulers along with Kael's forces, and Illidan's.

Now will there be a Naga presence in Northrend? Probably, where there's water, there's Naga, and they are making themselves known to the world. But there's no real reason to assume that the Naga would ally themselves with the Scourge, the Scourge are a blight upon all of Azeroth, and downright dangerous. Unlike the Legion who promises real power through demonic means, the Undead only promise immortality through death, and most of the time without the consent of the person on the receiving end of the deal. =o

In fact there is mention of the Naga in Northrend at the Borean Tundra, attempting to flood the region, I imagine that would only server their purposes, not so much the Scourge's.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

"The Alliance has established a smaller presence here as well, and as both factions prepare to launch an offensive against the Lich King and his undead armies, they must first address the more immediate threat: the naga. The sinister serpentine race is using massive generators to melt the surrounding glaciers and ice caps, threatening to flood the entire region."

 

flyingtoastr

Unless I'm mistaken, when Medivh was killed Sargeras' spirit was "banished" to limbo in the twisting nether. I think it had more to do with the writers wanting to just get him out of the picture for a while to develop other enemies, but unless they do a major retcon (not unprecedented) I don't think we'll be seeing his big evil face any time soon.

Of course Arthas/Lich King also betrayed the Legion, so he might not be the most popular guy over there.

Divine Favor still costs mana.

 

Addled

I completely agree with you. The Scourge and Queen Azshara (Naga) want to control the surface world, but not necessarily in conjunction with each other.

Also, doesn't it sound like Blizzard is setting up SSC version 2.0 in that paragraph? Naxx is already slated to be the "starter" raid, so that's T7, SSCv2 can be T8, and Arthas + Malygos can be T9.

If you level a draenei, there's also a Hindu-style statue on Bloodcurse Isle. There's a L16-17 quest that takes you there.

 

Boywithrage

Whilst yeah I see where your coming from having Arthas die would 'satisfy' the races concerned 'ticking' one more off of the list so to speak of bad mo-fo's to slap, I just think it'd be cool to see Arthas re-join the humans (albeit quite tentatively) thus re-sparking the actual conflict between horde and alliance. Whilst I don't really see all out open war back on between the horde and alliance really working in an MMO environment, this 'peace' that we currently have, whilst being super-handy for killing the super-villains, shouldn't be permanent.

And as one guy said someplace else on the internet. 'This is the World of Warcraft.' Just my thoughts.

 

Starfire

To clearify my statement, I was just saying it seems they are drawing quite heavily from Hindu mythology, not necessarily that they are going to start ripping out plots/themes from it. Like how Ahn'Qiraj is based on Egyptian mythology.

But, there is something else of interest here... The Shivarra/Shivan are also based on Hindu mythology too, and they most definately serve the Legion.

The Shivan/Shivarra borrow their name from the Hindu God Shiva and their physical form from the Hindu Goddess Kali.





Isn't it curious how the Shivarra appare similar in form to the Naga (females) sans the whole legs/tail thing.

And as far as the comment of Maelstrom not being an expansion... there's a lot more to do here than just Nazjatar. Nazjatar is the Royal Palace of Queen Azshara, but there is also the city of Mak'aru, capital of the Makrura. Other areas: Gishan Caverns, Pillar Deep, the Boiling Terrace, the Rift, and the Drowned Reaches.

And of course, I'd think it'd be rather easy to tie in Undermine and possibily South Seas areas to the Maelstrom expansion.


On a completely unrelated side note and waaaaay off topic, I am waiting to see how Blizzard implements the Garuda as the enemies of the Nagas =p