I doubt a Cataclysm model would accidentally be added since I doubt they would use the same client for Cataclysm production that they are using for 3.3. It being Bolvar could work since they are testing the Airship encounter with this build and may have wanted all the models that will be getting used in.

It wouldn't be the first time a resource appeared oddly. iirc, the Tuskarr models were included in a TBC build, and of course Howling Fjord objects famously appeared before WotLK was announced.

Remember that the Bolvar who appears in the Yogg vision is "Immolated Champion". I'd say the Lavaman is definitely Bolvar.

The model just seems pretty 'scourgelike' with the destroyed armor and whatnot.

Also view the Immolated Champion (which we know is Bolvar) on WoWHead using the View in 3D button and you see how it matches the armor pretty well.

Immolated Champion - NPC - World of Warcraft.

It seems the Quel'delar chain gives us the origins of the San'layn also.

Indeed, and detectives on the MMO boards make a pretty compelling case for it:




Now, to ramp things up a little, I think that model suggests that it may be worth going back to the Bridenbrad questline for the answer of what may have happened to Bolvar:

Could it be worth speculating that the torching of the Wrathgate by the Black Dragonflight was not just to kill the remaining undead and recently turned, but perhaps a direct intervention by Alexstrasza herself to save Bolvar's life? Obviously Arthas would have then acquired the cleansed (immolated) "remains" of Bolvar shortly after Wrathgate and has been attempting to turn him since.

I doubt it was done with the intent of saving him (since it wasn't her that breathed the fire) but just realized that it may have had that affect on him.

Indeed, if saving Bolvar wasn't within the Reds' scope of powers, then the torching of the Wrathgate battleground happened for the sole reason of cleansing the whole area - and punishing the Forsaken.

Perhaps this is what Alextrasza meant when talking about the "fate of the young paladin" that we shouldn't know of: not necessarily an eventually glorious fate, but the more immediate retrieving of his body by the Scourge, as well as the Lich King's attempts to turn him (which, I hope, succeed, since I personally don't see Fordragon as the uber, epic character he's been made into in this last patch, but as the seasoned, aging general he seemed before).

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/wo...rfordragon.jpg
Not the best piece of artwork ever, but I prefer this depiction to the behemoth he looks like in the comics.

Something interesting in this icon panel

http://s.nihilum.eu/image/image/main...1/newicons.jpg

(Other than the fact that the Tier10 sets seem to be in a degrading in quality with each new batch presented (although the paladin one has its interest)

The icon for the Green Dragoness boss, Valithria Dreamwalker, suggests she is still alive, the blue tinge on her eyes resembling what happened to Keristrasza - mind control, that is, not the Malygos-related part.

Blizzard, it seems, does have some passion for the old dragon model, even if it's for the last raid of this patch. Then again, there seems to be nothing special about this green. I guess I'll just have to wait for Cataclysm to see new dragons.

Yep. Very "immolated" gear. Although a bit skullish, but all the new T10 seems scourge-inspired - bar the warrior and priest.

I'm guessing the pink sash/plating in the lower "jaw" is a bug. Or Blizzard had a gas leak. Either way, the Tier 9 paladin also had its fel-color changed to regular black, so pray, ye paladins.

World of Warcraft - Lore & Storyline discussion [SPOILERS]

I didn't expect that sort of accuracy to be true when I wrote that weeks ago. Crazy.

At any rate - I think this opens up some interesting possibilities for the Alliance. All of the heros of the Alliance currently are your classic "Good Guy" archetype, out for justice and upholding the law and always coming out on top. Bolvar has been through a lot now...and no doubt it will change his outlook on how he operates.

A Paladin hero of the Alliance who has no remorse left (even moreso than Tirion - he is niether here nor there) could be a good playing piece come Cataclysm.

Or, more recently, the accidental inclusion of Cataclysm stuff on the PTR, in the form of the Halloween masks. The client is probably built from a general assets database, in which things are appropriately tagged as being "live", "ptr", "dev" (I'm assuming). And one bad scroll of the mouse when selecting the tag is so easily done...

@Redlimit: You're telling me that charred aberration (like the guy or not) is supposed to return to Stormwind's Throne room? The fact that that character used to be a clean and noble paladin and has now probably been turned into a mind-scarred, permaburning...monster, makes him worse to look at than an abomination.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about tolerance. What I'm thinking is how such a presence (come on, even Wrynn's stomach will churn every time he looks at Fordragon) will translate into the Alliance's modus operandi. He seems to remain noble and stoic, but I'd be very dissappointed if he didn't come out of the Lich King's torture session (assuming he does) a changed man. He should be molten on the inside as well, his temper and all.

On another subject, it's probably today that we get to know how the airship battle starts. I searched the database the other day, and the name of the Horde's airship captain, Blackscar, came up. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to put Garrosh's "Kill the pink-skins" agenda ahead of the threat that is the Lich King.

And to show I'm not building this theory on thin air, there's a battlefield full of corpses at the entrance to Icecrown, where the Horde ambushed an Alliance offensive against the Scourge, instead of lending a hand.

Edit reason 1: Gunship, not Airship, although it's not exactly wrong.

Edit reason 2: @Airraid - You're right, I stand corrected.

Bolvar, though, wasn't "plagued". This plague, as far as we know, doesn't turn anyone into undead, it's more of a poison or toxin - not really a disease. And even if the Forsaken plague was simpler than the Scourge's, it can't be reverted, as it insta-kills anytone who isn't a Lich King.

You must understand, young <race>, that cleansing the body in favor of life anew is something well within my grasp... removing the plague of undeath without affecting the body, however, is beyond the scope of the powers that I control.

So the red dragons must've still set their "guns" on Life Anew mode. It means, I think, "flowers where dead flesh first was", so to speak. They had no intention of saving anyone there, scarred body or not. They just torched the place, probably to prevent the Lich King from later on rising some of the Horde and Alliance's best troops. Incidentaly, their breath seems to make flowers grow...

So, Bolvar got bio-nuked with a rapid-killing toxin, which he inhaled for a long time. We saw him succumb to it and shrivel (I still think if it was an optical illusion, but I guess not). Then he got torched by a red dragon sweep. Isn't he probably dead? Undead, more specifically. He could've released himself from the Lich King's grasp at some point - or never having fallen to it, which is indeed extraordinary - but I don't think there's a chance of him being alive any more. Which takes us to: Should he survive Icecrown, where could he go? Would Wrynn accept him?