Calen/Caelestrasz is the Red Dragon you met in AQ40 before C'Thun.

Do aspects have heirs? I'd more assumed it was a new consort given how she talks to Krasus in Knaak's books it seemed similar.

Anachronos is Nozdormu's heir. Although for him it makes sense since he knows when and how he is going to die.

It begs the question as to where Krasus was during the Alexstrasza-Deathwing fight? Was he put in charge of clean-up operations in Northrend instead of helping out with the Cataclysm? It doesn't seem right that he'd just accept that and not interfere, especially when Alexstrasza is facing Deathwing himself.

Or should we take Alexstrasza's line about the fate of the world resting on Calen's shoulders if she falls to mean that Krasus already has?

Good catch, I completely forgot about the three dragons trapped in AQ. I wonder if this means Arygos and Merithra will show up again as well. I seem to recall that they were all supposed to be heirs to their flights, but maybe I just don't remember correctly.

Hopefully not -- he calls her 'mother'. Even in a fantasy world and for dragons, that's bound to offend *somebody* somewhere.

I always kinda figured the consorts were the children of the Aspects in most cases since we don't really have much information on non Aspects outside the Black Dragonflight actually laying eggs (which in itself was a relationship between siblings). Of course I guess Nozdormu and Malygos had to have Consorts who were not born from them...at least initially.

Krasus saying 'Mother' could also be alluding to her position, as 'mother' of the world in a sense. So regardless of her maternal position, she would be a mother to him. Call it a title.

As far as we know, Alextraza doesn't have other consorts besides Krasus right now. Everyone else died when she was enslaved by Dragonmaw.

Arygos, Caelestrasz and Merithra are represented as heirs aren't they? (Along with Anachronos and the presumed Nefarian?).

Speaking of Dragons..

In the Beta, outside CoT there is a rare spawn named Occulus the Corrupted. Now this is interesting because he is an Infinite Dragon. On live he is a normal bronze drake, so this might be evidence that bronze drakes can be corrupted and turned.

Occulus the Corrupted - NPC - World of Warcraft

Hopefully the new levelling experience in Tanaris will pad out the COT/Infinite Dragonflight lore, would be great to have it tie into the zone better, as far as I recall, none of the level 40-50 quest in Tanaris on live even refer to the CoT, you are sent there to talk to the bronzes by the Cenarion Circle in Silithus as part of the scepter chain but it suffers from being a level 70/80 dungeon in a 40/50 zone.

Caverns of Time is never mentioned when questing in Tanaris in Cataclysm either unfortunately.

That's a shame.

As an aside, I've just heard that Guillermo Del Toro is going to be making an adaptation of Lovecraft's 'At The Mountains of Madness' which is scheduled for release in 2013, the same year as Sam Raimi's Warcraft movie.

Is it too much to hope that some kind of mix up occurs resulting in Del Toro making an Old God based Warcraft movie? (Not that I have any problem with Raimi you understand )

I do have some problems with Raimi. Mainly, that his Warcraft tone goes down the same aseptic, somewhat black and whitish hero/vilain road as his spider-man movies. Not that they were bad, more like bland.

Of course Warcraft isn't "grimdark", and it's the blockbuster of fantasy universes, but I hope they tone down the clichés.

On the voices subject, I think both are appropriate, if not entirely pleasing to the hear. But Garona is a brutal, scarred orc (double X cromossomes don't reduce an orc's toughness in the slightest) and Alextrasza is the "mother" of all living things in Azeroth...I doubt she should sound like the aspect of sexiness.

She shouldn't sound like the aspect of sexiness. But confidence and clarity over frailty would enhance the character, not take away from it.

But the point is that Garona is smaller, no entirely Orc, and has so far been presented as possibly the most attractive/charming Orc in Human terms. To have a voice more gruff than the random NPC Orc female just doesn't fit her previous representation. It isn't consistent. I wouldn't mind her voice one bit if she had been a normal Orc with special training, but a very important part of her story is her difference from normal Orcs. Her voice wuldn't need to be sexy at all, but at least different from NPCs would be better.

And Alexstrasza's new voice doesn't fit how she shows off herself. If she is going to be a matron, have the decency to not make her into one that doesn't know when it is time to put on some clothes. We know the types, and they are sad, I don't want that to be Alex. But I guess if she does dress differently it could fit, and her new voice be a result of all that has happened (death and destruction and the loss of a brother, at her hand more or less).

I can see your point, but Garona's depiction in the comic - which seems plausible to me, from most angles - shows her as the ex-assassin she is, one tough dagger-wielding bitch. She also seems to draw much more from her orcish side, something logical since she's spent the greater portion of her life with them. From a biologal pov - I hope I'm not saying anything really stupid - I believe her "inheriting" her "voice" from her orcish half is pretty natural, even if she's half draenei - who don't have the sweetest voices themselves.

That being said, and while I see the logic behind them, I don't like the orc female voices, either.

On Alextrasza, I was trying to wrap my head around theories of the Aspects' greatness and complexity, which made them above puny concepts such as dressing accordingly...but no. You're right, in that matter. A matron of all life shouldn't dress as Mindy from the bar across the street.

She may have personally suffered a lot at the hands of the Dragonmaw, however Malygos I think got the sharper end of the stick. He bore witness to the reduction in power of the other Aspects by Deathwing's Dragonsoul/Demonsoul which was turned on the blue Dragonflight utterly decimating their number when they flocked to try and stop Deathwing.

The decimation of his flight drove him into madness and despair. When he finally gets some semblance of himself back with the destruction of the Demonsoul he manages to pull together the tattered remnants of his flight. He never really got his mental balance back because he then blames mortals for most of the ills in azeroth through their misuse of magic and launches a campaign against the mortal races inorder to restore balance to the arcane powers. Despite his intentions to bring order his methods are somewhat flawed and he is turned upon by the Red Dragonflight and Alexa herself, who while they were never as close as Alexa/Neltharion they were at least equals and peers.

So slaughter, madness, reason, betrayal and death......definately the sharper end of the stick....

It's a small detail, but it's Malygos and Neltharion who were the closest between the Aspects. Although, Ysera and Alextrasza must be pretty intimate as well - they're said to be lookalikes, to a degree.

The in-game storyline does make the red dragonflight's actions against Malygos too harsh or akin to a betrayal, but that's the game's fault, really. The lore tells us the Flights tried to persuade Malygos to act differently and in a less radical way. I'm assuming Alextrasza and the others told him everything that the mortals had accomplished while he was lost in his mental whirlwind. All the lives saved, populations freed, etc. And how the danger posed by evil immortals or demigods generally outweights that of evil mortals. Still, he went on with his plans and, again, while the game pretty much couldn't convene that sense of destruction, he was pretty much wrecking Northrend - the whole world was in danger, actually.

I won't say it's downright worse than what Malygos suffered (he felt all his family dying in a second), but Alextrasza was imprisoned by lesser creatures (roundhouse kick to her dragonpride), forced to mate under stressful conditions (right hook to her dignity) which made her give birth to many a malformed and savage youngling who helped the orcs commit atrocities (bodyslam to her as a mother of all life). Said younglings then died in battle or were killed by the orcs themselves (piledriver to her motherhood).

Actually, if I was asked to name the most reasonable turn-to-villain in Warcraft, I'd say Alextrasza (and perhaps Nozdormu).

I'm confused about this "new" voice of Garona. Didn't we hear her in one of the Yogg Saron visions? It seems the years were not very kind to her.

Well, I'm going to play the worst card there is, the realism card. The pitch of the voice is determined by the size of the vocal cords (bigger = slower movement = deeper and often gruffer voice), Garona is smaller than normal Orcs, and slimmer as well, surprisingly so since the Draenei for all their prettiness aren't exactly lithe. Anyway, the sound of her voice just doesn't fit her physically. And while some people have voices that defy what I just mentioned, games are often bad places to fool around with that.
And while I agree she is a vicious fighter, she is one of agility, speed and technique. The general orc female fights with tenacity, fury and strength (even as Rogues). The result might be similar, but the act is not. Quite simply Garona is remarkable in Orc society.
Her voice need not be sweet, though that could be one solution. It could also be snarky or cunning. Heh, when I listen to her I almost expect to hear "Strength and Honour" as the next line.