WMG / World of Warcraft

Burning Crusade

Garrosh is setting up a Thanatos Gambit in an attempt to live up to his father.

• At first he's sitting in Nagrand moping about how his father Grom was responsible for the orcs being turned into an army of killing machines; once he hears that Grom died fixing that mistake, he sets about trying to turn the Horde into an army of killing machines. He's planning to make some kind of horrific "mistake", sacrifice himself to fix it, and be remembered as a hero like his father.
  • That would depend on him being sharp enough to come up with something like that.

Kael'thas isn't gone.

We never fought Kael'thas. The one we killed was a shapeshifting demon sent by Kil'jaeden to lead the blood elves to their doom. Kael'thas was being held captive but escaped during the events of Sunwell Plateau. Knowing his people would never trust them again, he vowed to help them discreetly.

He donned a mask and became Aethas Sunreaver.

(someone told me this was a good idea so I'm posting it here, also ib4 setback)

• Alternatively, Kael is a mage. |3 He just knew how to use Mirror Image before we did. MAGISTER'S TERRACE WAS MERELY A SETBACK<3
• Actually, that would explain his Character Derailment between Warcraft III and Burning Crusade a lot better than the token explanation of "fel magic is bad." It also gives a better explanation than Retcon for why in Arthas: Rise of the Lich King it's pointed out that he salvaged some very important artifacts from the Scourge invasion of Quel'thalas (including King Anasterian's skull and the runeblade Felo'melorn/Flamestrike), but these are not mentioned or dropped in Burning Crusade- an imposter probably wouldn't even know they existed in the first place, much less that Kael had them and that they were important.
• Alternatively, Kael is truly gone... but he died as himself in Tempest Keep, the Prince who only wanted the best for his people. When the Burning Legion Priestess 'revived' him by shoving off fel magic to him, that 'being' is no longer Kael, just a husk that adopted his personality, memory and amped up his worst traits and make him more into a Kil'jaeden avid worshipper. The Blood Elves were fooled, thinking that Kael came back seriously messed up and he ended up dying disgracing the Blood Elves, while in truth, it was the Burning Legion's final 'screw you' to the Blood Elves by manipulating them into thinking that their beloved prince fell so hard. The Kael in the Magister's Terrace is not the real Kael, the real one died in Tempest Keep, and the final 'Kael' was but a random demon/monster built on his personality and memory. Want proof? When Kael died at Tempest Keep, he said "For Quel'thalas!". This would be VERY alien to the new revived Kael in Magister's Terrace.

Turalyon and Alleria are fighting demons on Argus.

There are multiple dimensional gateways akin to the Dark Portal scattered throughout Outland even now. Many of them are even functional. And even if we presume that those are the only dimensional gateways that still exist, they canonically lead to other worlds.

Seeing as the Burning Legion had a hand in the creation of those gateways, who's to say that one (or more) didn't lead to Argus (usually theorized to now be a major Legion base)? And a paladin and a paranoid, edgy elven ranger, working together, would have at least something of a chance of surviving against all of those demons. Especially if they somehow managed to bring reinforcements.

• FINALLY confirmed in Legion (literally five expansions later)... Turalyon and Alleria are indeed ranking members of the Army of the Light.

It also might explain what happened to Nemuraan. Because the alternative is that he was Random Anonymous Auchenai Anchorite #9999 that we killed in the Crypts, and that'd just be pathetic.

All of those seemingly useless items Griftah sells in Shattrath DO work.

Except they only work for NPCs.

• So that's why Asric and Jadaar got fired...

Or the players are already wearing them all, since they give us powers we have.

• Trust me. Some of the players could use a soap-on-a-rope necklace.

Kil'jaeden possessed Velen at the end of the SWP raid.

Come on, listen to Velen's voice in his speech at the end! It sounds nothing like him! Kil'jaeden is just biding his time, waiting for a suitable distraction (such as draenei getting to actually do something in Cata). Then Blizz will introduce draenei warlocks with the justification of "Velen said it's ok!" and then when everyone else is busy with whatever terrible evil that manifests itself in the fourth expansion pack, they'll strike. With man'ari!Velen as their leader. We're screwed.

• Highly unlikely. Kil'jaeden didn't get killed, just punted back through the Sunwell so hard his necklace fell off. And quit suggesting draenei warlocks; the very idea is cringe-worthy.
  • There's no reason he can't possess someone while still alive. And draenei being warlocks is only wtf-inducing if they willingly chose it. I'm sure Kil'jaeden is powerful enough (and cool enough) to enslave them all, if he had a way around the naaru. It depends on how kickass a demonic mindmeld of Kil'jaeden and Velen is; if they can take O'ros, they'd do quite a bit of damage before Shattrath could send reinforcements.

Wrath of the Lich King

Variation - Next races, if included will be Ogres (Horde) and Red Drakonid (Alliance)

Check out Dustwallow Marsh in the game. The Ogres are seeking refuge with the Horde from aggression from the Red Dragon Flight. The Ogres are all also now the size of Tauren and are pretty much running this Horde village.The Red Dragonflight is known for it's eniminity with the Horde, and now against Ogres. To make things more blatant, Drakonid's were openly discussed by Blizzard as consideration for a playable race.

• The Ogres in Dustwallow Marsh were run out of their village by Onyxia's brood, part of the Black Dragonflight.
• After Landfall, if any Dragonflight were to become playable as an Alliance exclusive, it would be the Blue Dragonflight.

Arthas father was Yogg-Saron

Yogg-Saron said of Arthas- "HE WILL LEARN; NO KING RULES FOREVER! ONLY DEATH IS ETERNAL!" When Arthas is defeated, he asks the ghost of his father "Is it over?", to which his father, in an Ironic Echo at the very least, "At long last. No King rules forever, my son. And since Yogg-Saron is the God of Death and has been watching and implicitly manipulating Arthas, it isn't a stretch to imagine that he was posing as the dead king the whole time.

Highlord Bolvar isn't actually dead.

Or at the very least, died and came back. At the battle of the Wrathgate, we are led to believe that there were absolutely no survivors, due to the Undead's "New Plague," which brings "Death to the Scourge! And death to the living!" However, after the battle when Alexstraza and Korialstraz are talking, Alexstraza says "Ashj zila gul kirasath lok ante il lok buras danashj Gul gul." Using the in-game translations, this translates to "They must not discover the fate of the young paladin. Not yet." Knowing this, and the quest chain that follows (which implies he's at least dead enough not to need his shield,) we can infer that Bolvar is Undead now. Furthermore, given the proximity to Icecrown Citadel, it's possible, even likely, that he's been made into a Deathknight by Arthas.

• Come the Icecrown Citadel raid, we most likely will be facing both Bolvar AND Saurfang Jr., now death knights, as bosses.
• Also if you pay attention to the cinematic it looks like Arthas absorbed both Bolvar and Saurfang Jr's souls with Frostmourne
• Confirmed, Bolvar becomes the new Lich King.

The Curse of Flesh corrupted more than just the residents of Azeroth

The Curse of Flesh was created by the Old Gods to "facilitate assimilation" of the Titans' new world, and turned most of the Earthen and Mechagnomes into their current states (as dwarves and gnomes). However, when the Titans tried to remove the curse, they found that doing so would destroy Azeroth (thus forcing the Titans to contain the Old Gods using Azeroth as the prison, C'thun in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and Yogg-Saron inside Ulduar). However, if the curse only affected the races of Azeroth, why would it's removal destroy the planet? Simple: the Curse of Flesh infected Azeroth itself. However, it did more than just corrupt the planet. Bear in mind that the Old Gods have been based on the Cthulhu Mythos: C'thun is named similarly to Cthulhu, and Yogg-Saron matches up with Yogg-Shoggoth. Cthulhu and Yogg-Shoggoth are 2 of the most well known Old Gods from the Cthulhu Mythos, along with The King in Yellow (aka Hastur), Nyarlathotep, and Azathoth. Assuming Blizzard is naming their Old Gods based on H.P. Lovecraft's, then Azathoth should become something like... Azeroth. The Curse of Flesh made the entire planet into an Old God.

• It's "Yog-Sothoth," not "Yogg-Shoggoth." A shoggoth is an Eldritch Abomination of a different color, so to speak. But otherwise...the scary thing is that it makes sense.
  • Ah, apologies for the mistake, Yog-Sothoth was what was intended.
  • Interestingly enough, in the Darkshore questline, you get to fight an "avatar" of the big monster with a giant sword through its head, and you find out that it's a minion of the Old Gods named Soggoth the Slitherer. As if we needed another nudge to indicate the Lovecraftian origin of the Old Gods.
  • Wasn't the planet already chaotic, strange, and weird with the Old Gods on it and then the Titans came, locked down the Old Gods and cleaned it up? I don't think this theory works, except maybe Azeroth was an Old One to begin with and the Titans killed it and left it there to put stuff on?
  • Yes and no. The Old Gods did rule it originally, using the Curse of Flesh to help. However, the lore in places implies that the Titans made Azeroth, and that the Old Gods invaded and corrupted it (Algalon being the biggest indicator of this).
• Jossed by the Chronicles. Azeroth herself is actually an unborn Titan, and the Old Gods hope to corrupt her into a "Dark Titan." The adult Titans sought to prevent this by creating Keepers to fight the Old Gods on Azeroth's surface, as the Titans intervening themselves would destroy Azeroth, since the Old Gods have rooted themselves deeply into her surface (like cancer). In fact, this is where the Well of Eternity came from; Amun'Thul himself reached down and tore out Y'Shaarj with one hand, but it left such a huge wound in Azeroth, her life-blood gushed to the surface, creating the Well. That's right, the Well is actually the baby Titan's bleeding wound.

Arthas wants us to get to Icecrown.

• It's an Evil Plan to get him entire raids worth of fully-geared level 80 champions - at least, once he's killed us and brought as back as his minions. What in the world (of Warcraft) could stand against the might of Ensidia, for example?
  • Pretty much confirmed ingame; if you encounter him during one Alliance quest in Howling Fjord, he says that you're not yet powerful enough to serve him.
    • So why doesn't he wait until Cataclysm is released and try and get a bunch of level 85 players with appropriate gear under his control rather than settle for level 80 players?
    • Gameplay and Story Segregation, naturally.
    • He didn't know that there would be a Cataclysm; he wasn't in league with Deathwing.
    • The final battle confirms that this was his plan all along.

Arthas has good reason to let the heroes live.

• He might not be satisfied with his current body and the heroes' prowess impressed him enough to spare them. He could be pulling a Diablo gambit on everybody and is willing to sacrifice plenty of small scale operations and minions to do it. Heck, the open hostilities between the Alliance and the Horde with both sides rightfully pissed at each other means that he doesn't have to worry about his power base being seriously threatened.
  • In connection with the WMG further down stating that someone has to replace Arthas as the Lich King once he is defeated, the entire scenario could be an even further Diablo gambit: the Lich King is likely hoping that, by luring the heroes of the world to Icecrown and forcing them to fight their way through Arthas' armies and then Arthas himself, only the strongest mortals in existence could hope to reach him. he then gives them the idea that someone has to replace Arthas as the Lich King, giving him an even more powerful host to control! He bides his time for a few years, lets the heroes think their replacement has successfuly pacified the Scourge, then reemerges more powerful than ever to deliver an epic Nice Job Breaking It, Hero speech and launch a global invasion. Naturally, this is one of those theories that are too cool to actually happen, but the paralells are definitely there.
    • Oddly enough. that is not too far from the truth. That he wanted the player to gear up, gain strength and skill then kill them to make more powerful minions to serve under him.

Garrosh, and possibly Varian, are being driven crazy by the effects of Saronite.

• Garrosh, as we all know, is a major scrappy after going from being fairly mellow in Burning Crusade to Axe-Crazy racist stubborn Too Dumb to Live Jerkass who thinks Orcish fighting bloodlust can replace things like supplies and siege equipment (and this is coming from a career-long Horde player!). This only happened after he moved from the relatively uncorrupted fields of Nagrand to the frosty continent of Northrend, building a fortress from a black material that looks suspiciously like Saronite. During Blizzcon '09, when the new look of Orgrimmar was revealed, the similarity of the metal to the one used in Warsong Hold and elsewhere in Northrend was explicitly pointed out. This could all be a coincidence, but after hearing that Garrosh will become the new leader of the Horde in Cataclysm, This Troper is hoping the writers have a way out of the upcoming freight train of Scrappyness approaching the storyline if they leave it that way. As for Varian, well, it's fairly unlikely that this is the reason for him acting a bit Jerkass-y as he is wont to do since he came into WoW. On the other hand, he has also had a rather abrupt personality change from the comics to his introduction in the actual game, and this would be a nice unifying circumstance for both the Horde and the Alliance.
  • So...saronite is what they make Conflict Balls out of?
    • It explicitly puts you under the control of a monster who likes suffering. Why wouldn't it be made of saronite?
    • Given that a large number of level 80 Blacksmithing items have saronite as a large component, it would also explain the apparent bloodlust of the player base too.
  • Saronite is the blood of Yogg-Saron, one of the Old Gods. It does slowly drive people insane, except for the undead which are immune to its effects. At the end of MOP, Garrosh is empowered by the Heart of Y'shaarj, another Old God (though slain by the Titans). It stands to reason that influence from one Old God could make him more susceptible to corruption by another.
• My theory is that everyone is being driven insane by Saronite. It's all part of a Gambit Roulette by the Old Gods.
  • What about players? They can wear full saronite armor and never exerience a thing. Having halucinations basod on the ammount of saronite gear would have been awesome.
    • According to Darion Mograine, the Ashen Verdict has learned how to bend Saronite to their will. He doesn't say why, but this indicates there is a method and the Ashen Verdict found it.
    • Yes, and the Old Gods are certainly not behind that. Not at all. That certainly is not going Just as Planned for them.
• The gates of Ogrimmar are being refitted with dark iron that looks a little like Saronite. It's possible that Garrosh may arm himself with similar equipment, apart from wielding Gorehowl, his father's axe again.

Terenas Menethil II is the Lich King

After his soul was taken by Frostmourne he took control and he consumed Arthas and Ner'zhul.

The Lich King ISN'T the result of Arthas and Ner'zhul merging together

Because since when do villains actually merge together into one more powerful villain? It's unheard of! Either both of them are sharing a body (Ner'zhul in the armour, Arthas wearing the armour) or one has absorbed the other so that they can become more powerful (the various plot points seem to imply that Ner'zhul absorbed Arthas, however the backstory suggests that Arthas has the willpower and drive to actually overpower Ner'zhul and take his power for his own).

• Canon. The Lich King is, according to Metzen, "Arthas's body and personality, and Ner'zhul's wisdom, experience, power, and evil." Note that none of the Ner'zhul parts actually require his presence, however. Rather, they are remnants Arthas retains after destroying/consuming Ner'zhul at the end of his five-year sleep.
  • This also explains why the Scourge was so completely ineffective in Wo TLK. Ner'Zhul is the least competent leader in all of existence. Ever.

Kel'Thuzad will return again at some point.

We didn't get his phylactery in the second coming of Naxxramas, so we can't be sure that he's been defeated for good.

• When we see him next he will have merged with Kael'thas. Naxxramas was merely a setback.
  • As insane as this idea sounds, I LOVE the idea of a double KT tag team. Plus, Tempest Keep (and the Sunwell) was merely a setback... The question is who would be dumb enough to resurrect both of them?
    • "A-HA! I've done it! Behold the absolute power of Wilfred Fizzlebang, master necromancer! You are bound to me, death knights!"
    • Even if it's a gag fight, it would be hilarious to see the three of them team up. "You thought that big brute killed me? You forget, warlocks can use soulstones!" And of course, when they lose, the 3 of them would simultaneously yell "This is merely a setback!!"
• Confirmed: Kel'Thuzad returns in Shadowlands as an antagonist in Maldraxxus.

Players are actually a Titan defense mechanism.

Throughout the game there are various Titan strongholds and other bases of operations, all used to store and contain the Old Gods. However, all of these places have one thing in common, their security is a joke. Titan equipment gets corrupted all the time and is often used to aid the very forces they are meant to "contain". None of this makes sense, as the Titans are frequently described as being some of, if not the most powerful beings in all of Warcraft. The reason? Because their main security is in fact the players. WoW players were created by the Titans in order to defeat the various monsters that live on Azeroth. As every player is in fact, Titan blessed, that explains how groups of 25 unimportant lore outsiders are able to take down some of the heaviest canon hitters with relative ease.

• Does this mean the Spirit Healers are in on the Titans' plans, or are they just part of Azeroth's magical structure?
  • Could be a bit of both: they could be built into Azeroth's magical structure by the Titans as part of their plans.
  • Our entire world is just a defense mechanism for Azeroth, which is the actual real world. As players we're running endless simulations, showing the success or failure of different tactics. You don't want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes.
• This theory takes on a whole new spin with the revelations from the Chronicles. Azeroth is in fact an unborn Titan, and the various races living on the surface of Azeroth are, unintentionally, protecting her from enemies that want her destroyed.

Arthas isn't Dead.

Ok, ignoring that blatent use of Dues Ex Machina in the final battle against the Lich King, there is one thing that has always bothered me... where the hell did his father and the other spirits get the strength to do that. But I won't go into that... The main point of this WMG is quite simple... Arthas isn't dead... and my reasoning for this is quite simple. It wasn't the father who appeared when the sword was broken... it was one of the Old Gods, or at least a represnetive. The reasoning behind this (besides the spooky back tone in his voice when they needed a new Lich king), comes from a number of things. First of all, the Line 'No King Rules forever', was also used by one of the older gods during your raid fight against them. Also, when Arthas asks about it being over, it looks his father is shaking his head. The reason why Arthas isn't dead, is because his soul was snatched up by one of the old gods, and the darkness that he sees before him isn't death, but instead a time of servitude and mind control. Eventually he will return, as a future raid boss/enemy. Plus, Warcraft 3/WoW can be seen in some ways as 'his' story, in a similar manner to how the 6 Star wars movies were Anakins story. Unlike Anakin however, Arthas hasn't pulled off a heroic redeeming sacrifice... Assuming anything I said actually made sense to you.

• At least as much sense as anything else here, eh? Valid points enough, though, really. And on that note, Icecrown was merely a setback!
  • Almost certainly true on the grounds that Blizzard loves to reuse Raid bosses.
  • It was recently confirmed that Arthas' body and the shattered remnants of Frostmourne are both missing. Even if he is completely dead, there's a good chance he might be coming back.

The Faction Champs and priest mobs didn't die in the ToC raid/dungeon.

Come on. There's no way they would throw their lives away in the name of "training." The corpses are just there for gameplay's sake.

• Similarly, in the Xuen dailies for August Celestials, you can go up against and seemingly kill the sauroks in the "P.U.G.", but they keep coming back if you get both the Xuen dailies and the P.U.G.'s set of dailies, much like the other contestants, who simply yield when they're low enough on health.

The Lich King is not actually Arthus OR Nerzhul

he is Frostmourne, usurping control during the time when the lich king slept , Matthias did not represent Arthuses humanity, but Arthus in his entirety, with the "Arthus" in his mind actually being Frostmournes, of course being the first being the blade encountered, its first wielder, and the first soul it claimed Arthas had a great impact on the blades forming personality, to the point it may have genuinely thought it was the real deal

Cataclysm

Garrosh's term as Warchief will be short.

It will essentially last long enough for him to utterly destroy relations with the Alliance and have the Horde teetering on the brink of destruction as a result of his crazy policies, when Thrall returns in a He's Back! moment and puts Garrosh in his place.

• Let's hope. Sure, Blizzard is trying to ramp up the faction conflict...but putting The Scrappy in charge of one side is probably not the best way to go.
  • Actually, there's a certain amount of logic in making Garrosh the new Warchief. First is that he fought Thrall for it and won (there's a video of it here). Second is that he reminds the orc population of their pre-corruption past and what it means to truly be an orc, whereas Thrall has always been calling for a truce between the Horde and the Alliance to help fight bigger threats (which for the most part has been proven rather needless: parties from both sides can take down the bigger threats to Azeroth without any need for cross-faction cooperation) whereas most orcs would rather like to get revenge on various parts of the Alliance. If there was to be an election between the two of them, pundits would be saying that Garrosh appeals to core ideals in the voting public, whereas Thrall has policies with an eye to the future and the "bigger picture".
    • He didn't "win." The fight was interrupted. And the comics retconned it into Thrall solidly trouncing Hecksqueal anyway.
  • It turns out that he already significantly upset Cairne enough to challenge him to a duel, which ends in Cairne collapsing and eventually dying from being poisoned by the Grimtotems. It's likely that he won't go over well with the other races, especially if he actually does kick the trolls out of Ogrimmar for being "weak", especially considering the blood elves' and Forsaken's more tenuous loyalty to the Horde; Garrosh may crack down on the Forsaken even harder than Thrall did, and thus cause tension the races.
    • Garrosh is at least reasonable. The trolls are looking to take back Echo Isles, so he kicks them all out and it works out for the best. The Blood Elves know they're a problem and are trying to prove themselves, probably. As for the Forsaken Undead...well, Sylvanas isn't certainly doing anything to win points with anyone, using both New Blight and Val'kyr to resurrect new Forsaken to her cause. He's at least right in suspecting her as becoming no different than the (former) Lich King. He also felt imense guilt when he believed that Cairne's death was his fault until he learned of the Grimtotem plot.
    • Ah, but the guilt over Cairne's death was mostly over his own loss of honor given the circumstances, rather than actually killing Cairne. It should also be noted that Garrosh is definitely causing tension among the races of the Horde. He's definitely gotten on Vol'jin's bad side and alienated him, despite Thrall mentioning Vol'jin as one of the people Garrosh should be listening to. I for one think that Garrosh might be deposed even before Thrall gets back. After all, Vol'jin implied he'd be there to kill Garrosh once the people started wising up to how incompetent he was, and Vol'jin does seem more of a sensible successor to the title of Warchief than Garrosh (at the very least, he seems to fall more in line with Thrall's ideas than Garrosh does).
• If by short you are measuring the number of expansions, then Garrosh's reign (Cataclysm, MOP) sure will be shorter than Thrall's (Vanilla, TBC, Wrath). And we'd hope Thrall will be back afterwards.
  • The new warchief has been chosen, and it's fan-favorite candidate Vol'jin.

An Old God has parasitically fused to Deathwing.

Consider: when Deathwing originally revealed himself as psychopathically evil, the other Dragonflights teamed up with him and took him and his down. Now, however, according to Word of God, nothing matches up to him alone, with, likely, the sole exception of the Titans, who are nowhere to be found. Luckily. We know that the two Old Gods encountered before were well on their way to unsealing themselves; Yogg-Saron's seal was so poor it was practically leaking on its own, before he got to working on it. Deathwing's been hiding in the depths of the planet... where the three remaining Old Gods are kept. What are the chances at least one decided to take the Curse of Flesh a little further, if it meant freedom and a bit of temporary power loss?

• This is pretty much canon. According to Word of God, one of the reasons Deathwing is so powerful now is that the Old Gods, who drove him insane in the first place, are growing in power. As a consequence, Deathwing's power has also increased. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that the remaining Old Gods are piggybacking on Deathwing's return.
  • Given that Deathwing needed a ton of metal plates to keep himself together and whole, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the Old Gods got him to "upgrade" the armour plating with armour made with their own version of saronite.
    • Sort of confirmed. Not in detail but the Blizzcon Q&A did mention that a third Old God (that is, not C'Thun or Yogg Saron) has been "signing Deathwing's paychecks".
• This might have some potential as an event has come up in the beta wherein Alexstraza tries to do what she did with Malygos and finally put down Deathwing. What happens? She succeeds. The kicker is that afterwards he revives and beats the crap out of her, necessitating the player bearing her away (one hopes in her elven form) and another red dragon sacrificing himself to slow Deathwing down.

Onyxia and Nefarian were mates.

Let's face it: unless dragons are capable of asexual reproduction, I doubt there were many other ways that Onyxia could have produced all of those whelp eggs...

• So who's Sartharion been bumping uglies with? The guy's got an entire cavern full of dragon eggs to protect, who laid all of them?? (I'd suggest Onyxia, but that would lead to... interesting implications about Sartharion's love life...)
  • Those are twilight dragon eggs, which are the result of magical black dragonflight experiments carried out by Sintharia (Nefarian and Onyxia's mother) using nether dragon energies, so it's possible that they're hers, and/or some of the eggs weren't black dragon eggs to begin with. Though since Sintharia croaked a little while before Wot LK, and Sartharion is working for Sintharia's mate-turned-rival Deathwing (who took over the experiments), the possibility of Sarth being the father becomes slimmer.
  • Sintharia isn't dead, so she's still most likely producing eggs. All dragons are either asexual or willingly engage in incest to continue their flight. Now that the Twilight has dragons in their own right, they are probably able to reproduce without the magic infusion.
  • One, the Twilight Dragons are created from corrupting and mutating Netherwing Dragon eggs, we even see Sintharia procuring some of them as far back as BC, though there are signs the black flight may have found away to use other eggs now; and two, all Twilight dragons come from corrupted eggs of other flights, since one of the quests in Cata involves the player making sure the first ever fertile Twilight Broodmother to be created is killed.

The mastermind behind everything is...Jaina Proudmoore!◊

Yes.

The Mortal Races of Azeroth Will Succeed the Dragons

Of the five Dragonflights the Titans appointed, two (possibly three) have gone insane and turned evil. Who are the ones who've had to thwart these dragons? The mortal champions of the Alliance and the Horde. Given this, and the fact that even the Titan Pantheons aren't what they once were, it may eventually become up to Azeroth's mortals to keep their own house. Should the Titans ever return in full, they may even appoint which races do what as they did with the Dragons, since the Alliance and the Horde are proving themselves to be the strongest forces on the planet at the moment, just as it was with the Dragons at their time.

• Given that there's 10 (and soon 12) player races, the Titans are going to have to come up with some new aspects for them to represent. Plus, given that 2 of the races aren't native to Azeroth (Orcs and Draenei), 2 of them were created by the Curse of Flesh (Dwarves and Gnomes) and 2 races are afflicted with a curse of some sort (Worgen and Forsaken), it only leaves half the player races as legitimately Titan created (and even then that's assuming Night Elves were actually creations of the Titans and/or an evolutionary offshoot of Trolls rather than being created/"influenced" by Elune, and that Blood Elves are counted as merely victims of their own addiction rather than being in cahoots with the Burning Legion). All in all, it mat leave the Titans with the impression that it might just be quicker to blow up Azeroth and start from scratch. (Cue the expansion after Cataclysm involving the return of the Titans as a series of raid bosses)
  • Hadn't considered the Dwarves/Gnomes and Worgen/Forsaken angles. Though another option, if the Titans assigned aspects, would be to assign one aspect each to a race of both the Alliance and the Horde. Tauren & Night Elves would be nature, for example, each taking the Green Dragonflight's gig for their respective faction. Blood Elves & Draenei could take over for the Bronze (perhaps even why the Bronze Dragons see your orphan as such a threat when you visit during Children's Week). The addition of Goblins and Worgen spanner the works a bit, but then perhaps there has been enough change on Azeroth to warrant a new aspect in need of protection.
  • Actually, none of the races so far (except possibly the Goblins and Tauren— we don't know very much about their archaeological origins) are "legitimately" the creations of the titans, by your standard. Humans are a variant of the Vrykul who are a variant of giants who, you guessed it, succumbed to the Curse of Flesh. Night Elves are related to Trolls, who are related to a race of entities who pre-date Titanic interference on Azeroth. High Elves are direct, historically recorded descendants of Night Elves. Earthen, Mechagnomes, some Giants, and Dragons are the only remaining "pure" Titanic constructs left on the planet (and, again, each one of those has populations who have become corrupted). Even the freaking Ramkahen, who were totally made up for a new zone in Cata, have succumbed to the Curse of Flesh, and the only remaining non-cursed ones are the result of an Old-God corrupted elemental lord... corrupting them some more in reverse.
• Confirmed! Tides of War has the blue dragonflight disband and task the Kirin Tor to be the new protectors of magic, while the trading card game has introduced the "Timewalkers" a faction of mortals who have replaced the bronze dragonflight as the guardians of time.

Garrosh is such a hyper-aggressive Jerkass because there's a shard of Saronite lodged in his brain.

This may sound like a really out-there theory, but think about it. What does exposure to saronite do, considering it's the hardened blood of an Old God? It causes aggression; the unwavering desire to fight and kill. Something Garrosh's no stranger to. And seeing as Garrosh loves to fight- when he gets the opportunity- it's possible that on a battlefield somewhere, a saronite arrow or blade got stuck in Garrosh's skull. He had the wound healed and taken care of discreetly so as not to look 'weak', but the healer could have made a mistake, as this IS a medieval-ish setting, and the wound never fully healed. Maybe a piece of saronite got stuck in his skull, and that much exposure to saronite on a regular basis is literally warping Garrosh's brain and actions. It explains everything.

• Unfortunately there's a hole in that theory: he was a hyper-aggressive Jerkass before they left for Northrend.
  • Alternate theory: Thrall is the one with saronite in his brain. It would explain promoting Garrosh to Warchief.
    • This. Seriously Thrall, wtf.
    • No one's suggested that both of them might? Garrosh is...well, Garrosh; and Thrall not only left him in charge, but reinstated Gallywix. (Unless, of course, Thrall is giving them both just enough rope with which to hang themselves...)
• This requires Garrosh to have a brain.

Being a Defias is the national hobby of Stormwind

Just saying. It seems everyone except players belong to this secret society. It's something they do in the weekends. Grabbing a red bandanna and hiding behind an apple tree is the local equivalent of morris dancing. And because it's a secret society no-one is sure who everyone else is.

• this post is a CMOA
  • Agreed.
  • Being a member of Defias is the same thing as being a member of the Dollars?

The parents of the Children's Week orphans didn't just die, they were stupid.

So stupid they couldn't find their way back to their body from the graveyard after dying.

The Draenei and the Blood Elves will replace the Bronze Dragonflight as Guardians of Time.

• In line with my earlier WMG about Azeroth's mortals replacing the Dragonflights, the Draenei and Blood Elves will perform the duties of the Bronze Dragons, either together or as separate members of the Alliance and the Horde. The Bronze Dragons are fully aware of this, which is why they almost immediately attack the Draenei and Blood Elf orphans you take to the Caverns of Time during Children's Week. Those two are the ones who will lead the Bronze Draenei & Bronze Blood Elves. This is also, if other theories are true, why the Infinite Dragonflight exists. They don't want these uppity mortals interfering with their gig and strive to make the events that would lead up to it not happen, damn the consequences (seeing as they're personally screwed anyway, what have they got to lose?)

The optional final boss of the Bastion of Twilight will be C'thun resurrected at full power and the horrifying secret will be The Old Gods playing a role in the creation of the Twilight Dragonflight.

The Twilight Bastion is said to include "a sixth Algalon-style optional, ultra-hard boss," and a "horrifying secret" in a room full of black dragon eggs. Considering that Cho'Gall is the last required boss of the raid, and he works for C'Thun, it would be reasonable to have to fight C'Thun after the raid falls into the pit. As for the eggs, it's possible that the Old Gods are linked to the Twilight Dragonflight, and are manipulating the creation of the Twilight Dragonflight so that they can put them under their control and destroy the Black Dragonflight when it is no longer useful, similar to how Gul'Dan made the first Death Knights, but made them loyal to him rather than Doomhammer.

• It'd hardly be the first attempt by the Old Gods to control a Dragonflight, and Blizzard has already shown an interest in revamping old-world raid content for new expansions. Having C'thun make an appearance in the Bastion of Twilight doesn't seem that far-fetched, really.
• According to this ripped video, the above has been jossed. Sinestra is indeed the optional boss, judging from the quote she provides about Cho'gall in the beginning.

Hogger is a shaman.

Explains him coming back stronger in Cataclysm.

• Or at the very least, he's got his hands on a player class for himself: he's a boss in Stormwind Stockades in Cataclysm.

Only mortals can kill the Old Gods

The Titans originally could not kill the Old Gods without risking the destruction of Azeroth. However, their deaths at the hands of player characters have not caused such havoc. It could just be that their imprisonment has weakened them. Or perhaps because they've been taken one at a time instead of at once. But it could also be that only mortals, beings linked, if not necessarily native, to Azeroth itself are able to harm the Old Gods without risking untold damage to their world.

• So the mortal races are the planet's equivalent of white blood cells?
  • New revelations from the Chronicles shows that this, indeed, seems to be an accurate metaphor. Azeroth is an unborn Titan, and her enemies either want her corrupted (the Old Gods), or destroyed (the Burning Legion). The moral races are pretty much the only thing protecting her until her birth/awakening.

The Infinite Dragonflight are trying to prevent the death of Nozdormu

Nozdormu was informed by the Titans themselves of when and how he would die. This was done to keep him thinking he didn't answer to anyone. Eventually, Nozdormu's death happened as planned, but his Dragonflight couldn't handle it. They began to plan ways to alter history so as to prevent Nozdormu's death and bring him back, and corrupted into the Infinite Dragonflight as a result.

Gallywix is left in charge of the Bilgewater Cartel to keep Garrosh in line.

I've seen noted the odd detail that Gallywix is retained as Trade Prince of the Bilgewater goblin cartel despite the fact he's an out and out traitor and his own people seem to hate him. However, Thrall's intentions may be more far sighted than we realize. Thrall knows perfectly well that Garrosh is not fully up to leading yet, and is counting on the other Horde leaders to keep him in check until he grows into his role. The goblins are a potential spanner in the works, though. If Thrall had a new leader appointed in Gallywix's place, the odds are high that new leader is someone who would feel grateful to the Horde for its aid. Grateful enough, perhaps, to not question Garrosh or work against him if need be. Nor can Thrall tell his new member nation "Welcome to the Horde, don't turn your back on the guy in charge." But with Gallywix, Thrall has someone who will do exactly that without Thrall having do anything to ensure it. Gallywix can keep Garrosh on his toes in a way no other Horde leader except maybe Sylvanas could, but with the goblins as a whole being a lesser risk than the Forsaken.

Darion Mograine is the Lich King in disguise.

We haven't seen his face since he supposedly became a death knight, have we? He is actually the Lich King, the Knights of the Ebon Blade never broke away from the Scourge, and the person who we killed at the end of Wo LK was just a fake. And someday, when we least expect it, the death knights whom the Alliance and Horde trusted will kill the leaders and take over both factions, enslaving the armies to the Lich King's rule...

• Jossed as of Legion: Bolvar is still very much the Lich King, and has a personal bone to pick with the Legion, so he summons the Knights of the Ebon Blade to him (including players) to act as his instrument of vengeance with Acherus, which ends up being the Death Knight order hall.

When Blizz need to get the Horde-Alliance tension but again, it'll involve Anduin Wrynn.

Partly because the kid is quite honestly shaping up to be the best damn potential faction leader there is. He' all pro-peace so he's gonna either die or be corrupted since that would get rid of someone who would have a chance to bring peace AND provide Varian with his latest reason to hate the Horde, since if something does do Anduin in it will be done to frame the Horde. Seriously, Anduin is like a giant red button saying "WARNING! WARNING!" for Varian. Nothing enrages him like a threat to his son. That, or....

• Confirmed, sort of. Varian dies in Legion, and newly-crowned Anduin is at the head of renewed conflict in Battle for Azeroth

A bad guy will attempt to kill Anduin.

An enemy that is too strong for both factions to defeat will, for whatever reason, attempt to kill Anduin, maybe not even intentionally. For extra goodness a memeber of the Horde or even Thrall himself will save everyone's favourite prince. A supposed, distant Old God might not motivate Varian to team up with the Horde, but someone else gunning for his son? Plus, if Garrosh cools down and becomes half-way more reasonable who here can't say that despite personal dislike of Varian & Garrosh if the two of them actually worked together they'd kickass halfway to Outland & back?

• Hell yes they would. And I can see Garrosh saving Anduin's life. He may hate the Alliance in theory, but that doesn't extend to an innocent child.
  • The novel of The Shattering also shows Baine Bloodhoof developing a respect/friendship for Anduin. So he, if nobody else, will likely step up to help the prince.
  • Actually, Garrosh was originally slated to kill Anduin, and he tries to kill him in "Breath of Darkest Shadow, but decides to leave him alive as an example to Varian. In Tides of War, he brags about how he will parade Anduin in chains through Orgrimmar. Garrosh seems, more likely than anyone to want to kill Anduin, especially since Anduin believes Garrosh must be stopped, but if Anduin's near-death experience didn't stick, it's unlikely that he'll die in the near future.
  • A Dreadlord tries to kill Anduin in one of the Legion comics, but Anduin proceeds to Light 'em Up, demonstrating that he has Taken A Level In Badass.

Expansions will follow a linear pattern of "two new races, hero class, two new races, hero class, etc.

It just seems right.

• Quite likely, but they might switch it up.
  • Next expansion pack is confirmed to have a new class (explicitly stated not to be a hero class) and a new race (with no set faction).

Kobolds will be a playable race for the Horde.

Firstly, there's a quest in the Stonetalon Mountains in which you press some nearby Kobolds into fighting Alliance soldiers. The quest-giver seems very interested to learn that this is possible. Secondly, the Alliance kills Kobolds much more often than Horde. Thirdly, I want to hear male Kobolds using /flirt or /silly and making innuendo about their iconic candles. If they're deemed insufficiently intelligent, the Goblins could lend them some Kaja'Mite. The Alliance in turn might get Furbolgs, Murlocs, Centaurs, Dryads... I don't really have any great ideas for them.

• Murlocs for Horde, Dryads for Alliance sounds swell.
• All Jossed.

Kaja'mite is the blood of an old god.

Just like Saronite, Kaja'mite is a by-product of an old god who lives deep beneath the south seas. However, unlike Saronite which just makes you crazy, those who mite Kaja'mite for long periods of time makes you intelligent....and greedy. That's right. Every time you drink kaja'cola, you're really DRINKING THE BLOOD OF A FREAKING OLD GOD!!! Anyway, it's possible that the old god in question desires the goblins as servants. This could also explain the goblins' love of explosions; their creator smiles upon them unmaking the titans' world bit by bit, boom by boom.

• A little support for this, goblins were creating tools for N'Zoth's corruption of Azeroth (Dragon Soul, and the subsequent Mecha-Deathwing once it tore Neltharion apart) thousands of years ago, before the world's landmasses even drifted apart, which could suggest they were around before there was even an isle of Kezan in the first place. Are goblins dumb creatures empowered with awesome as people tend to believe, or actually an Old God's servants who were somehow cursed with dumb?
• There's a faceless one in the Lost Isles who says that it remembers when the Goblins were created, and since there's nothing to suggest the Titans created them, it pretty much proves the Old Gods created the Goblins. They could've been created to be fueled by Kaja'mite, which would be a pretty good leash on them as the Old Gods could just cut the Goblins off and let them go dumb, at least until they found the Kaja'mite in Kezan.

The Qiraji and silithids will be a future Big Bad.

It'd be easy to do- have silithid hives creep north through Kalimdor with each expansion. There are already hives in Silithus, Un'goro Crater, Tanaris, and the cataclysm unearthed (and submerged) one in the Thousand Needles, they'd just have to add a hive or an entrance to the hive caverns in a new zone or two for another couple expansions until it got to the Cenarion Circle in Desolace. Ahn'Qiraj is now shown on the Kalimdor map as a zone, but has no NPCs, quests, or monsters, and neither of the raids were updated, so there's room for Blizzard to do something with the zone and raids in a later expansion. The kingdom also still has deep ties to the Old Gods through C'Thun, so a resurgence isn't impossible. (Heck, maybe even Qiraji defectors could become a playable race?)

The Titans are a bunch of idiots who pussied out of doing the job properly.

Name me ONE place where the titans did something that some evil dude didn't fuck up big time much later? Aren't the titans almighty gods for crying out loud!?

• To be honest, the Titans have seeded and created countless worlds (Or so it is implied). Azeroth is but one, which explains why they've never came back to help out against the Old Gods (So far). It's less that they're cowards or idiots, and more that they just don't care. They've far better things to do.
• So instead of just being pussies, they seed thousands of planets and don't bother helping when needed, even when their own work has backfired massively (world-clearing weapon in Uldum) they just ignore it?... that seems even worse!
• The Titans CAN'T destroy the Old Gods. Read the lore. The Old Gods symbiotically bonded with the planet and the races, so if they die by the Titans' hand, the planet dies as well. They're also fighting against everything that Sargeras did, and know full well he's eventually coming back. They're preparing for war, and one planet isn't going to change the fate of the universe. Also, the Re-Originator didn't backfire, it's working as intended. The Titans have much more to worry about than the petty squabbles on one insignificant planet. They need to stop the Legion.
• The backstory of the Mogu might support this. According to the lore objects and Lorewalker Cho's story, the Mogu were created by the Titans to fight against the Mantid and other servants of the Old Gods. Unfortunately, when the "Silence" occurred and the Mogu were cut off from contact with the Titans and struck with the Curse of Flesh, they were left without a sense of purpose, and became the brutal conquerors we know. Lei Shen, however, seems to believe that he's carrying on the Titans' purposes.
• Blizzard has updated and "finalized" the lore, officially, with the release of the Chronicles (and declaring the RNG books non-canon). We learn from the Chronicles that the Titans are in fact living worlds, and as they searched the universe for more of their kinds — unborn Titans, who are known as "slumbering world-souls" — they would stop and 'seed' each world along the way. Whenever they found an unborn Titan, they would take special care of the Titan's world/body. Azeroth is one of those unborn Titans.
  • The Chronicles also confirmed that the reason the Titans didn't destroy the Old Gods was because in doing so, they would kill the baby Titan Azeroth. In fact, the Well of Eternity was indeed a huge, gaping wound — the arcane energy was Azeroth's own life-blood — which resulted when Aman'Thul ripped out Y'shaarj with one hand. So, the Titans created their Keepers to combat the Old Gods. The mortal races today carry on the Keepers' original role.
  • The Chronicles also clarifies the purpose of the devices in Uldum and Ulduar, amongst others: they are to wipe Azeroth's surface clean of smaller beings — without harming the unborn Titan herself — in order to help "lessen" the corrupting influence of the Old Gods and its minions, allowing life to start anew. It's not necessarily a bad thing for Azeroth herself, but it ain't so good for the mortals.
  • The Chronicles also revealed that the reason the Titans never returned after their departure is because they're dead. All of them. They were murdered by Sargeras, who then vowed to cleanse the universe of all life — including the unborn Titans. At the time when Sargeras slew the Titans, there were two known baby Titans; Sargeras killed one of them. The other is Azeroth herself, and she's hidden away in a dark corner of the universe, her whereabouts unknown to Sargeras. That's not stopping him.
  • Lastly, and the most important revelation from the Chronicles — combined with certain quests from Mists of Pandaria and the prequel to Legion — is that Azeroth is not an "insignificant planet." She is, in fact, the Final Titan and the most powerful world-soul ever discovered. Azeroth is the universe's last hope, quite literally, against the Void Lords and their Old God minions.
    • Azeroth only needs to resist the Old Gods' corrupting influence on her (with the help of her mortal races), so she would awaken/be born as a proper adult Titan, instead of a Dark Titan corrupted by the Void. It's a race of time, essentially.

Thrall isn't coming back.

Despite claims that Garrosh's position is temporary, Thrall will not be reclaiming the title any time soon. Why did Blizzard introduce Garrosh in the first place? Because they wanted conflict between the factions, and the Horde needed a more aggressive leader for that to happen. So as long as they want the Alliance and the Horde at war (which will probably be the for the rest of WoW), Garrosh is likely to stay Warchief. Near the end of Cataclysm, Thrall will either be killed off or suffer a fate similar to Bolvar Fordragon's (Metzen even hinted at Blizzcon 2010 that Thrall could act as a replacement for Neltharion), rendering him unable to return and leaving Garrosh as Warchief.

• Babies were mentioned. So if he hasn't knocked up Aggra by the next-to-last patch of Cata, he's going to live. If he has (and it'll probably be twins; calling it now), I give it about a 50-50% chance he's doomed. (Or not; he is, after all, an author-pet.)
• Thrall ISN'T coming back. He isn't dying either. He is the new Earth-Warder of Azeroth, taking Deathwing/Neltharion's place. Confirmed in next patch where Thrall the Earth-Warder grants the tanks blahblah special abilities. Dev's pet, indeed.
  • He's only temporarily holding the "Earthwarder" role. Wrathion, remember?
  • All the Aspects lose their powers in Cataclysm's ending, Thrall included. He's back to being an ordinary shaman.
• Confirmed with the end of Mist of Pandaria, Vol'jin is the new Warchief.
• Thrall plays a major role in Warlords of Draenor, as he kills Garrosh once and for all.
• As of Legion, Thrall was Put on a Bus, as his duel with Garrosh had left him without his powers. Thrall had essentially cheated in the duel, as elemental and other magic powers were forbidden, and the elements didn't look too kindly on that. He's still alive though.

"Fel Corruption" is a popular Blizzard tool for a reason.

• There's been some rather awe-inspiring forum backlash against the use of random demonic corruption to "transform" popular WCIII characters into Idiot Ball-hefting raid bosses. Illidan Stormrage is the most obvious with Prince Kael'Thas's "setback" and recovery being another. This could very easily be a reason to let these aforementioned popular characters return to lend us their desperately needed aid in our eventual battle against Sargeras, almost guaranteed to be in The Twisting Nether. These characters with their demonic taint - or even demonic slave-soul in Illidan's case - will have been sucked into the Nether upon death and very likely subjected to agonies unceasing for their failures. When the player characters come storming in we'll liberate them, and they can be completely in-character when they side with us. Of course we'll have to kill Illidan again when he finds a way to steal Sargeras's magic, but that's par for the course with a character like him.

Blood Elves and Draenei will be back in the spotlight in a future raid patch.

Ever since the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the two BC races have just been sitting around in their respective capitol cities, twiddling their thumbs. Sure, you saw more then a few Draenei and Blood Elves fighting scourge in Northrend, but on the whole, their presence in the overall story of Wrath was nowhere NEAR as big as it was in Burning Crusades. Granted, Wrath wasn't really SUPPOSED to be about them, but still, it feels like they've just been tucked into a corner and forgotten about. Sadly, these two races are still being ignored in Cataclysm... at least, so far. Now that the Alliance and Horde are gearing up for another all-out war, everyone in their respective factions will be expected to do their part, including these two.

• The Draenei factor both into Warlords of Draenor and Legion. Blood Elves have been largely ignored, however, aside from the Sunreavers factoring into the Dalaran story arc in Legion.

Now that Garrosh Hellscream is Warchief, he may get well and truly tired of the Blood Elves' recent lack of presence in the Horde's various theaters of war. That, combined with the fact that it was the Draenei that restored the sunwell and saved their people, Garrosh may feel it necessary to remind the Blood Elves of just where exactly their loyalties are SUPPOSED to lie. Lor'themar Theron may not be too happy with any radical actions Garrosh will no doubt take, and this IS Garrosh we're talking about afterall. He's not going to go up to the Lor'themar and ask nicely for more support. Meanwhile, on the Alliance side of things, Varian Wrynn may be similarly dissatisfied with a lack of major Draenei presence on Alliance fronts and may have a bone or two to pick with Prophet Velen regarding the matter. While Varian would not be as harsh toward the Draenei as Garrosh would be toward the Blood Elves, you can bet that Varian will want to do something to remind Velen of the commitments he and his people swore to the Alliance years ago. Not to mention that Varian might not be all that happy that Velen reignited the sunwell for the Blood Elves, curing them of their crippling fel addiction and giving them, and by proxy the Horde, an advantage. In both cases, the Sunwell will be a major point of contention and the name of the raid patch could be "Return to the Sunwell" in which Alliance players will try to take the Isle of Quel'Danas by force and Horde players will try to repel them (not an actual battleground, mind you. More like Alliance players fighting Horde NPC's and vice versa, kinda like the gunship battle in Icecrown Citadel).

• There were quite a few high elves that weren't in Quel'thalas during the Third War, and they're still in service to the Alliance or the Kirin Tor of Dalaran. Restoring the Sunwell would've helped them too (although definitely not as much as it helped the Horde). However, something else that could easily come into play involving both the Blood Elves and High Elves is that since the restoration of the Sunwell, supposedly no more elves should be at risk for turning into Wretched, but in Cataclsym, the high elves of Quel'Lithen Lodge in the Eastern Plaguelands are all Wretched, so something's up.
  • Not so fast. "Quite a few" high elves outside of Quel'thelas during the Third War is arguably pushing it; Dalaran and Lordaeron probably had the largest population of high elves outside of Quel'thelas, and both places got decimated. The small contingent that went with Jaina to Theramore and Kirin Tor agents who fled or were otherwise in the field when KJ built his sandcastle are all that remain of that population. It's a moot point regardless, because 90% of all surviving high elves became blood elves, regardless of their location at the time (a number that's been stated several times by Blizzard). Either they dropped everything and went home, or accepted blood elven ideology after the fact (ie: Koltira). Regardless of the prominence of the Silver Covenant in Wrath, high elves are grossly outnumbered by blood elves, and their numbers in the Alliance are thusly trivial. The Quel'Delar quest chain suggests that even Lor'themar, with his stated antipathy toward them (that doesn't seem to have lessened in Cataclysm as of 4.1 and the scene with Vereesa and Halduron in Ghostlands), allowed Auric and a small number of quel'dorei pilgrims access to the Sunwell. And besides that, nowhere in the SWP coda or Quel'Delar questline does it state that no elves can ever become Wretched again. The fate of Quel'Lithien Lodge in Cataclysm can be handwaved in any number of ways that don't involve renewed high/blood elf fighting.
• Here's a thought: The worgen and the goblins. Between the Forsaken invading Gilneas and the goblins' ship getting blown up by SI:7 just for being there, the Cata races would both be much more gung-ho about a Horde/Alliance war than the BC races currently would. Some inner-faction tension could occur as a result. This troper can easily imagine Greymane becoming frustrated with Prophet Velen's pacifism streak. Not sure how goblin / blood elf tensions could play out though.
  • Goblin / Blood Elf tensions got a small set-up in Azshara. The Blood Elves are trying to preserve historical sites and artifacts, while the goblins don't care and are eager to tear them down. It's not a lot, but it's something.
• A possibility involving the Blood Elves that could also clear up a somewhat common lore complaint (at least partially)- Koltira Deathweaver. He joined the Horde to follow his people, now the blood elves, but he's working for Undercity rather than Silvermoon City in the battle for Andorhal. He could've volunteered or been sent to help as a gesture of goodwill towards the rest of the Horde, or just as a reminder from Silvermoon that they're still there. The blood elves already have a decent reason to be wary of the Forsaken right now, since Sylvannas is gearing up to be the first Lich Queen, and finding out that she's torturing one of their own could be the push they need to call her out.
• The Blood Elves were actually considering defecting to the Alliance. Jaina quickly put an end to such notions however, as she was on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Horde due to destroying Theramore (indeed, she blamed the Blood Elves specifically for preparing the WMD that was used.)

The Val'kyr were sent to Sylvanas by Ner'zhul.

While the Lich King was a merge of both Arthas and Ner'zhul, Arthas was clearly the dominant spirit (at least during Wot LK). Because of this, the last shred of Arthas' humanity held the Scourge back and kept them from annihilating the Alliance and the Horde. Ner'zhul was not happy with this and desired a new host, so he arranged for us to kill Arthas and replace him with Bolvar. This plan backfired, however, as Bolvar proved incorruptable, and the Lich King went dormant entirely. Ner'zhul, more powerless than ever, once again desired a new host. Sylvanas is an ideal target. She's rash, ruthless, and possibly even insane. She cares more about results than methods, and with the Forsaken's numbers diminished from war with the Alliance and the Scourge, is desperately in need of more troops. So Ner'zhul sends her his Val'kyr, who offer their services while wanting seemingly nothing in return. In actuality, the Val'kyr have been spent to begin working Sylvanas into a host for Ner'zhul.

• The problem with this theory is that Arthas wasn't just the "dominant spirit" as of Wot LK, he was the sole spirit in the body. The end of the Arthas novel, which presumably takes place shortly before the xpac starts, has Arthas annihilating both Ner'zhul and the last remnants of his own humanity. Not to mention the fact that the val'kyr who've joined the Forsaken aren't getting "nothing" in return for their services: they're getting job security and a new purpose. Bolvar hardly has the desire to raise new undead, after all.

The next Dragon Aspect of Earth will be...

Since Deathwing's the Big Bad of Cataclysm, it's pretty much a given that he's going down, leaving the Black Dragonflight without a leader. Somebody's going to have to step up and take his place. Possible candidates-

• Nalice. She hasn't really done anything, but she's the Black flight's ambassador to the Wyrmrest Accord, giving her the most opportunity and experience working with key players of the other flights, including Alexstrasza herself. Probably a bit evil, though.
  • In the "Fangs of the Father" questline, Wrathion sends Rogue players out to kill her.
• Sabellian. He's badass, fairly friendly and actually seems quite sane for a member of the Black flight, and counts mortals, including Rexxar, among his friends. However, spending so much time in Outland has probably left him a bit disconnected from Azeroth.
  • Being in Outland could make Sabellian a pretty good choice. Nethalian went insane due to the influence of Azeroth's Old Gods, but Sabellian might be out of their reach.
• The purified Black Dragonflight egg created in the Badlands chain. But it's going to be a Chekhov's Gun or Chekhovs MIA until the final raid with Deathwing or sometime after his defeat.
  • This is Confirmed: [[spoiler: Mists of Pandaria debuts Wrathion, the dragon hatched from said egg[[.
• Next patch confirms that THRALL will be the next Earth-Warder, not a dragon. Perhaps he will lead the Black Flight back to their old ways of protecting Azeroth until the purified egg comes of age and can take the mantle, but for now, Blizzard has confirmed that Thrall is the Earth-Warder/Aspect of Earth.
  • Not necessarily. In Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects, Thrall himself says that he could never be an Aspect. However, during the fight against Chromatus he "fills-in" for the missing Neltharion while the other four Aspects give their power. The Deathwing raid will probably feature something similar.
    • To be more specific, He buffs the tanks in the Ultraxion encounter while Nozdormu gives everyone the ability to survive instant death and the other aspects buff the healers, while in the Madness of Deathwing encounter, he gives Carrying Winds to allow travel between platforms instead of fighting tentacles or buffing the party like the others.
    • The next Black Aspect is probably Wrathion, the purified whelp from the Badlands, actually.
    • At the end of his quest chain, he says that he's the last black dragon (although the video maker for the recorded dialogue sardonically comments that Blizzard ordered people not to talk about Sabellian).
    • While Wrathion is the most likely candidate at this point, during the quest line he says that he has no interest in being an aspect and really just wants the other dragons to leave him alone, so there's still some room for discussion.
• Nobody. At the end of the Dragon Soul raid, the aspects lose their powers and immortality, having fulfilled their duty to save the world from the Hour of Twilight.
  • The flights still need political leaders and the aspects will presumably continue to serve that purpose, so the Black flight could still get a new aspect for the sake of having a leader, but since most of the flight was wiped out by adventurers on their way to kill Deathwing or by assassins sent by Wrathion, there isn't exactly a whole lot left to lead...
  • How about a power struggle involving Sabellian and Wrathion? That's a plot.

One of the new expansions will see us returning to Outland.

Burning Crusade was the first major expansion for WoW, and as such it lacked a lot of the refinement that later expansions would bring in. With Cataclysm, Blizzard has brought the Classic zones up to the new standard set by Wrath Of The Lich King. This leaves Outland as the odd one out among the regions, giving Blizzard good reason to go back and improve it. Because Outland is just a load of islands floating in the middle of nowhere, it wouldn't take much effort to add some new zones. Or we could use Ner'zhul's old portal network to visit new worlds; perhaps the homeworld of the Ethereals, or a fully fel-corrupted outpost of the legion. Plus, Blizzard could use this opportunity to fix some of the Egregious issues with the principal villains-

• Illidan: At the very least, he should have more screen time. In all my time questing in Outland, I think he appeared all of two times. Granted, Arthas recieved a lot of Villain Decay by appearing too much, but Illidan is a complex character, and his motives deserve more exploration. Another option would be to retcon his death and make him a friendly character. This would give Blizzard an excuse to implement the Demon Hunter hero class with Illidan as the faction leader. Lets face it, who wouldn't want to play as a blindfolded, dual-wielding demon slayer?
  • There's probably more to this theory than one would think. At Blizzcon 2010's Lore panel, the question of Illidan's redemption was brought up and Metzen & co. said it was something they'd be interested in. The Cataclysm quest chain in the revamped Felwood featuring a student of Illidan (in which his Always Chaotic Evil BC portrayal is dialed back to the Well-Intentioned Extremist of Warcraft 3 and TFT, and we're reminded of his heroism in the Third War) also lends some credence to the idea that we haven't seen the last of Illidan.
  • As of Blizzcon 2011, Illidan's return is "likely".
  • So if Outland is rehashed, where do we grind to get through 58-70 now?
    • Presumably there would be new quests in Outland for that block of levels, and possibly new zones for higher level content. My guess is that Draenor may be partially "healed" somehow by the Earthen Ring & Cenarion Expedition, and some of the land restored, or maybe they'll bring back the old concept where portals in Outland will take us to other worlds.
• Kael'thas: I'm not sure a retcon would work for Kael, because he's more tightly connected to the story than Illidan was (Tempest Keep, summoning KJ, etc), but it would be cool to bring him back as the Blood Elf faction leader, rather than that non-entity Lorthemar. Kael's descent into villainy wasn't really presented tragically enough, it would be good to see how he went from Well-Intentioned Extremist to Complete monster in more detail.
• Vashj: DEFINITELY needs more character development, she's pretty much a nonentity at the moment. Some exploration of exactly what her minions were hoarding the water in Zangarmarsh for would help, as would her relations with partner-in-crime Illidan.
  • It was explicitly explained that Vashj was hording the water so that Illidan could use it, along with the raw mana Kael was collecting from the Netherstorm, and along with the vials of water from the well of eternity, to make a new well of eternity in outland, likely with the intention of using it's power to defend himself from Kil'Jaeden or go stomp Arthas in revenge, though most people considered an Earth-Shattering Kaboom the more likely outcome.
• There are also Alleria and Turalyon from the Alliance Expedition in Beyond the Dark Portal who were conspicuous by their absence in BC
• One of the "Visions of Time" cinematics from patch 5.4 has Quel'thalas looking over the leaders, who in turn are looking over Garrosh. And considering these are supposedly pointing towards the next expansion, this theory at least holds some ground.
• Confirmed, technically: Warlords of Draenor. It's an alternate timeline, but it still counts.

Cho'gall doesn't die at the end of the Bastion of Twilight.

Cho'gall has twice so far shown a talent for surviving despite having been said to have died. It happened first when he was thought dead by Rend and Maim after they had droven their axe into his chest. The second time it happened it was when Med'an kamehameha'd Cho'gall, who then had broken ruins fall on top of him. He might just prove his toughness once again. As well as that, Cho'gall is THE leader of the Twilight's Hammer, which is the major enemy of the expansion, alongside the Black and Twilight dragons. He's far too iconic as the cult's leader to die in the first raid.

• They might in fact turn it into a Running Gag with Cho'gall continuing to show up alive in several raids in later patches, all up until the patch featuring the Deathwing raid.
  • So Cho'gall will be the new Kael'Thas?
  • Cho'gall was the original Kael'Thas
  • The Bastion of Twilight has canonically fallen, and the preview text for Dragon Soul mentions that most of Deathwing's allies and followers, Cho'Gall included, are dead.

The Frostmane trolls are paying for the Drakkari's betrayal

After the Cataclysm, the Frostmane trolls in Dun Morogh are acting strange; one quest has new Dwarf players sneaking around their camps, and overhearing that the spirits (Loa) have abandoned them. In Wrath of the Lich King when the scourge invades Zul'Drak, the Drakkari trolls turn on their Loa and take their power for themselves, as a last ditch effort to fight the scourge. The Frostmane trolls are an offshoot of the Drakkari, and likely worship the same Loa, but after what the Drakkari did, the Loa abandon the Frostmane as well.

Cenarius will eventually = bad news for the Horde in Ashenvale... unless he gets killed fighting against Ragnaros

Cenarius is back and alive and kicking, helping fight against Ragnaros's forces at Hyjal. After he's finished, he'll go fight against the Horde in Ashenvale. I really don't think just sit idly by while the Horde cuts down Ashenvale's forests. He didn't do so when Grom Hellscream's forces came to Ashenvale. If so, things won't look too good for the Horde there. And Garrosh, the son of the person who previously killed him, won't help matters.

Illidan saw the Draenei as demons because of their connection to the Eredar.

Illidan betraying the Broken and attacking Shattrath in Burning Crusade made no sense and seemed like Card Carrying Villainy. However, there's one other group that he was that outright antagonistic toward - demons. As a demon hunter, Illidan saw demons as pure evil and was willing to manipulate, use, and enslave them for his own purposes. Being familiar with the Burning Legion, he had doubtlessly seen plenty of Eredar, and upon learning that Draenei and Eredar are two factions of the same race he likely decided that Draenei are basically demons, and therefore must be either controlled or destroyed.

Alextrasza is out to kill us all.

She seems relatively unphased by the execution of her brother, Malygos, and seems quite willing to do the same to Neltharion. Who's next? Nozdormu will be taken out for collaboration with the Infinite Dragonflight, Ysera will turn out to be still affected by the Nightmare, and then, when all the dust clears and we're left with four Dragonflights headed by puppets of the so-called 'Lifebinder,' only then will we see that we have played right into her hands.It will turn out that she was driven mad during her captivity with the Dragonmaw, and now she's out to destroy all mortal life. Or enslave it. One or the other.

• She does express regret that she had to kill Malygos even if it was ultimately necessary, and in the leadup to her fight against Deathwing in the Twilight Highlands, despite knowing that he crossed the Moral Event Horizon 10,000 years ago and never looked back, notes that she feels similarly about killing him (She's less successful this time, but will get another chance with the rest of the aspects, Thrall and the players in Dragon Soul).

The final major content patch of Cataclysm (when we fight Deathwing) will be called The Hour of Twilight

"Hour of Twilight" Has been a recurring phrase throughout the expansion, spoken by Deathwing, Fandral, and Ragnaros. In the novel Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects we learn through Ysera's prophecies that it's the event in which the Old Gods will claim their final victory and exterminate all life on Azeroth. Sounds like the perfect setting for an all-or-nothing battle.

• As of patch 4.3, "Hour of Twilight" is confirmed as the final 5 man dungeon in the slate of three that will lead up to the Deathwing raid, Dragon Soul.
• Completely confirmed as of Blizzcon.

How the problems with the Horde leadership will be resolved.

Given all the troubles with Garrosh and Sylvanas, it seems as if the Horde is on the verge of splintering apart, which is the last thing they need given their reignited conflict with the Alliance. Once the problems on the elemental plane are solved, Thrall will return to the Horde and relieve Garrosh of his title as Warchief (hopefully remonstrating him for causing so much tension amongst the Horde while he does it). Meanwhile, in the Eastern Kingdoms, Lor'themar will finally grow a pair, step up to the plate and do something by trying to reason with Sylvanas, and hopefully convince her to take whatever she's planning down a few notches. After all, the Forsaken and blood elves are outcasts even among the Horde, so it makes sense that they're more closely allied with one another. And finally, the goblins will become completely fed up with Gallywix's shenanigans, overthrow him, and replace him with Boss Mida.

• Well since it's confirmed by Word of God that Garrosh is going to be relieved of his title in a rather violent manner, what's stopping some other Horde leaders from going rogue and joining Garrosh?

The residents of Rustberg Village are being exterminated by both Horde and Alliance in a genocide.

(The one in the Tol Barad Daily "Not The Friendliest Town".) The village is actually a peaceful utopia. The residents are of all the races that make up the Horde and the Alliance. It would hurt the cause of both the Horde and the Alliance to have it proven that the races can all live together in peace, so the factions are systematically slaughtering them.

Deathwing will go One-Winged Angel for the final fight.

We have already seen some tentacles on him during the Alexstrasza questline. If the first phase of Deathwing's encounter is breaking off his adamantium plating, then there's nothing holding him in dragon form. Maybe he'll even rant about becoming 'a New God' before mutating into some un-dragony ''thing''. Confirmed. The Madness of Deathwing encounter has tentacles as part of his boss fight. The tentacles are COMING OUT OF HIS UNARMORED BODY meaning that the Old Gods definitely are "inside" Deathwing. So he's definitely going One-Winged Angel on us in the final fight.

Thrall is secretly getting sick of both the Horde and the Alliance ruining his efforts for peace, and the hiatus to save the world from the Cataclysm is one way of getting away from it

In The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, Thrall laments that Varian doesn't trust him and the younger generation of the Horde (not just Garrosh) is more warlike as a result of having gotten used to fighting undead, and presumably also due to the idea of atoning for the Old Horde's atrocities being lost on those who didn't live through them. Eitrigg, hearing this, notes that Thrall seems soul sick, and suggests getting a mate and children to ensure that he will have an heir should he pass on. The Desire part of the Elemental Bonds quest indicates that Thrall wants, more than anything, to give up being Warchief and raise a family. It's thus possible that he won't return to being Warchief, especially if there are ways he can help all of Azeroth rather than just the Horde.

• OP again, in Tides of War, it's revealed that Thrall is choosing to stay behind to help heal the world, much to Jaina's displeasure,
• Only time will tell if once Garrosh is deposed in the Mists of Pandaria expansion whether Thrall will return as warchief, or appoint someone in his stead because he is "retiring". Imagine Vol'jin or Baine Bloodhoof as Warchief. Or heck, even Sylvanas! (How about Lor'themar Theron or Boss Mida or Gallywix? Or Saurfang! Or even some nobody that came out of nowhere that Thrall appoints?)

End Time is not the last we will see of Murozond.

The Murozond that the players encounter in End Time is merely one of the multiple possibilities of what Nozdormu could become as a result of being corrupted by the Old Gods. If the timeline in which Deathwing is slaughtered by the heroes of Azeroth prevails, perhaps the Old Gods will have a slightly different agenda for Nozdormu, one that could twist him into an even more powerful Lord of the Infinite.

• IF the aspects have lost their "immortal" powers after Cata, then they'd have to come back somehow for him to have any use to the Old Gods. So obviously this End Time doesn't happen. Now that brings another question, Nozdormu seems to think that he will still be vanquished by random heroes.
• I don't think you understand how bronze dragons work. All of their deaths are predestined, as they are the only points in time where they will not simply time travel to safety. Ergo, Nozdormu knows that he'll go insane, create the Infinite Dragonflight, and then get killed by a band of adventurers led by his past self, and (like every other bronze dragon) he has known this since he got his time travel powers. Ergo, the Murazond we killed in End Time is the Nozdormu from our timeline, assuming that Nozdormu is subject to the alternate-timeline-clone thing in the first place.
• No, the events of End Time DID happen, and will happen. It's in our character's personal past, but it is still the future for Nozdormu. Nozdormu says it himself. So basically...wibbly wobbly, timey wimey. Murozond yells: You know not what you have done. Aman'Thul... What I... have... seen... Nozdormu says: At last it has come to pass. The moment of my demise. The loop is closed. My future self will cause no more harm. Nozdormu says: Still, in time, I will... fall to madness. And you, heroes... will vanquish me. The cycle will repeat. So it goes. Nozdormu says: What matters is that Azeroth did not fall; that we survived to fight another day. Nozdormu turns away from where Murozond died and looks up at the Hourglass of Time. Nozdormu says: All that matters... is this moment.

Also, Murazond's dialogue during the fight suggests that he engineered the timeline that End Time takes place in because something worse was going to happen and allowing Deathwing to kill everyone was the best idea he could come up with.

Velen is doing nothing because he is literally building his power for a single spell.

The reason Velen has been doing bugger all despite being both the most powerful priest on Azeroth and possibly one of the most powerful mages (remember, Velen was one of their leaders when the Draenei were the Eredar, whose power stemmed entirely from the arcane, not the Light, and he was one of the most powerful) is because he literally gathering power. The purpose? To wound or weaken the Dark Titan himself so the heroes can strike Sargeras down, or at least distract him enough that the Titans can get around to cleaning up their mess.

• In one Swamp of Sorrows quest, in which Velen appears to put a Broken out of his misery, the questgiver remarks that he's overwhelmed with gratitude that Velen would show up for something like this because Velen is otherwise spending all his time and energy preparing for the final battle with the Legion.

Stormwind is in the grip of an orwellian dictatorship

Okay, let's look at the facts here. Stormwind has a population size that is simply impossible (due to having suffered catastropic losses during the first and second wars, which were only about twenty years before Vanilla) if the state does not employ people breeding farms, magical aging or simply lies about its population. The government expected a guild of stonemasons to rebuild the largest city in the world for free, something which only a totalitarian state would expect. Anyone who commits a crime is put indefinitely into one of the two city prisons, with mundane prisoners being locked in the stockades. And, despite the fact that the stockades have been overrun by criminals for years now, the guard keeps putting in new prisoners as if nothing was happening. The various counties that are traditionally under protection from stormwind have received no extra troops for more than a dozen years, despite stormwind supposedly having troops to spare (another lie to make the government look strong? Or do they need the soldiers to curtail thoughtcrime within the city?). SI:7, the stormwind guild of spies and assassins, is manned completely with former criminals, more than 3000 men suddenly having becoming utterly loyal to the alliance, a feat impossible without the use of manipulating minds. The nobles, which form the ruling party, are absolutely unassailable and the king never takes public action against them. Whenever a noble actually does something that is not acceptable to the ruling party, he doesn't get a trial, he just gets an assassin. In all honesty, the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. The guilds, the church, even crime in the city is regulated by the government.

• This theory could also be used to explain the disappearance of the Stormwind Internment Camps. When the horde founded its own nation and helped save the planet, it became politically incorrect to have imprisoned them in camps. Therefore, all evidence that pointed to Stormwind having camps of its own was erased along with the staff and the prisoners. The reason Danath Trollbane can't return to Azeroth is also because of this, as he was the former overseer of the camps, and too high-profile for a foreign citizen to simply disappear.

Gilneas will become a majority of Civilised Worgen

It's already halfway there as soon as you're past the beginning-game. Soon enough, instead of it just being a handful of NPCs who are 'turned', thanks to all these Player Characters coming in and the mass invasion of the original Worgen, the Civilised Worgen will pretty much replace true humans. While there is no cure, there are clearly ways to stay sane, you can change forms at will after a few levels, and the country will become a population center for Worgen, in the same way Mulgore is a population center for Tauren and Dun Morogh is the population center for Dwarves.

Alterac Valley is going to switch sides

Alterac is currently being fought over by the Alliance Stormpike Guard and the Horde's Frostwolf Clan, but the Forsaken expansion into Hillsbrad is going to change all that. In Cataclysm, the Forsaken are fighting the Stormpike forces in Hillsbrad, and ask for help from the Frostwolf to finish them off; Drek'thar is disgusted by the Forsaken and their tactics and refuses to help. Warlord Cromush goes ahead with the attack on the Stormpike and wipes out their Hillsbrad troops, forcing them back to Alterac, and will report back to Garrosh Hellscream on the Frostwolf clan's treason for not helping them. Eventually, the Forsaken will attack Alterac to finish off the Stormpike and claim Dun Balder for the Horde, only to encounter the Frostwolf clan has joined the Alliance to fight back against the Forsaken.

Milhouse Manastorm didn't have a Face–Heel Turn

That's because he was always bad. Why else would he be imprisoned in the Arcatraz, which was originally being run by the naaru?

• The quest you get to rescue him from Arcatraz states his being there was a mistake. Unless he's devious enough to pull one over on Ad'al, it was probably the truth.

Mists of Pandaria

Tyrande Whisperwind was/is being manipulated by the Sha of Pride.

It would explain her poor decisions and the derailing of her character throughout MoP and beyond, especially in 'A Little Patience' scenario; she's a military commander with thousands of years of experience. In a society like the Night Elves that's arguably a meritocracy, she wouldn't have kept her position if she wasn't a good commander. She didn't know about the Sha, was mad about the Horde defiling a temple and all that experience could be used to feed her pride. Remember how Taran Zhu was corrupted by the Sha of Hatred and the Mantid Empress by the Sha of Fear.

Bosses apart from Garrosh in Siege of Orgrimmar

List any ones you think might appear below

• Malkorok. He appears to be set up as Garrosh's dragon in Tides of War, and he could very well be another boss with rogue-like abilities.
  • Confirmed
• As a bonus Heroic Mode boss, whomever did any corruption on Garrosh, possibly an Old God, Burning Legion rep, Sha, evil Titan rep or Magatha Grimtotem.
• An ally of the previous entry, which might mean a Faceless One, Dreadlord, Mantid, Dark Rune dwarf/golem, Grimtotem officer, etc.
  • Confirmed: Among the bosses the players have to face are the Klaxxi Paragons, loyal followers of the Old God Y'Shaarj.
• In classic WoW it was common that the player encountered two Bosses in the same raid that shared the same model or even looked like bigger versions of the trash mobs. This was changed in Burring Crusade where the Raid bosses started to look more unique. So it’s unlikely that the Player will fight against several different NPC’s using a standard Orc (Tauren; Troll; Blood Elf…) models. Therfore two things will happen:
  • The raid itself will contain a bunch of Garrosh supporting generals as a group Boss fight. All these generals will be Horde members the Players already encountered in Cataclysm and MoP.
  • Just like in Cataclysm and Wot LK the last Raid will come with a few five player instances. The bosses will be various henchmen of Garrosh, including Malkorok and Thalen Songweaver. Similar to Falric and Marwyn in Wot LK and Benedictus in Cataclysm.

The Song of the Vale

"Here the Sacred Pools spring pure

Here, seek any who desire cure

Holy, nature, powers divine

Turn death to life, death to life."

Turn death to life. The Sacred Pools are the cure to the plague of undeath.

• Actually, the Alliance-side Krasarang Wilds reveals what that means. If you drink the water you can transfer your own life source to another person. A night elf saves his dying daughter that way at the end of the zone.
  • That pool is located in Krasarang Wilds, not the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, which is the location the Song of the Vale refers to. Here is the first part:
  There is a valley where dreamers sleep,
  Where flowers bloom and willows weep,
  Where loamy earth springs life anew,
  And waters sparkle, clear and blue,
  Where every hearth brings peaceful ease,
  And beauty sings on every breeze.
  • Krasarang Wilds is a coastal jungle, not a valley.

The Reason the Alliance and Horde can kill the Sha

Because having spent roughly a decade at war with someone (often each other) has strengthened them beyond what the Sha can deal with. Pandarens couldn't truly become strong enough because their negative emotions would strengthen the Sha. Alliance and Horde however had plenty of time to hone their skills without having to worry about merely making their enemy stronger. So while their arrival in Pandaria caused (according to the Shado-pan) the worst manifestation of the Sha ever seen, it also allowed them to finally be slain.

• Then again, it's possible that the Sha aren't completely dead, as the Sha of Violence promises to return as long as violence lurks in people's hearts.

By the end of two expansions later, every, or almost every, classic dungeon or raid instance will be updated in some way

I suspect at least one of the following will likely happen to the dungeons that have not been changed so far.

• The bosses are replaced with new ones, whether partial (Zul'Aman), or complete (Deadmines). The bosses might be entirely new (Brother Korloff), Suspiciously Similar Substitute (Daakara for Zul'jin; Durand for Mograine), or old ones with new abilities (Jin'do the Godbreaker for the Hexxer).
• The inside of the instance is changed, sometimes fusing two together (the four Scarlet Monastery instances becoming two)
• The bosses are updated for a new level range (Naxxramas went from a level 60 end-game raid to a level 80 starter raid)
• The headcount requirement for the zone is changed; (Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman went from 20- and 10-man raids to 5-man heroics, and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj went from a 20-man raid to a 10-man one).

Jaina Proudmoore will become an antagonist as the series progresses.

Think about it. She has lost essentially everything she's ever cared about; her family, her lover; her city-state, her people, her sense of idealism. Mount Hyjal was her last real success; since then, all her initiatives, all her ideas and all her efforts have been for naught, consumed by this pointless war. All of her diplomatic and peaceful means for enacting change have failed, and it seems like the Horde and the Alliance are only interested in war, so why not give them what they want? This troper could definitely see Jaina going full-ou Well-Intentioned Extremist and try to bring about peace and stability in Azeroth by crushing the Horde and the Alliance beneath her heel, in the vein of Qin Shi Huang or the Empire in [[Skyrim]]. It would also be cool to have an antagonist who hasn't gone crazy/been fel-corrupted/worships the Old Gods/etc, and actually has a valid reasoning and motivation for doing what they do. Besides, turning Dalaran into a magical Death Star would be cool to see.

• ...Sort of confirmed? She did not become evil and instead went through a redemption arc, but she was a raid boss, so she can count as a Hero Antagonist.

As an alternative to the above, Jaina does take command of a third faction fighting both the Alliance and the Horde... and you get the option to change your character alignment and join her.

A sub-plot running throughout some of the more recent expansions has been the increasing polarization and extremism of the Horde and the Alliance (particularly the Horde under Garrosh), and it's not unreasonable to suggest that some might be looking for something better. Jaina has shown increasing distaste for the Horde recently, but perhaps she might still to willing to accept those amongst the Horde who outright defect and join her in making a better world. It would definitely shake up PvP a bit, and give the opportunity for cross-species team ups not currently possible. In terms of the setting, it was also offer some good story and gameplay possibilities if entire factions start aligning with Jaina's cause. Hypothetical scenario: Baine decides that the tauren have paid too high a price in joining the Horde, and elects to defect and assist Jaina. This could lead into quests where you have those tauren loyal to Jaina and those loyal to the Horde fighting it out over tauren-centric zones, and in which players could assist.

Similar to the above two guesses, Jaina will grow increasingly unhinged as the series progresses, and will end up paying for it.

As we've seen in the latest content in Mists of Pandaria, Jaina is taking much more drastic measures to destroying the Horde, as seen in her purging Dalaran of the Blood Elf Sunreavers. Not only that, but King Varian, who is in the middle of Character Development, chews out Jaina for screwing up his plans to reintroduce the Blood Elves to the Alliance, but Jaina doesn't seem to fazed by this, calling him soft and weak. I wouldn't be too surprised to see the king call Jaina a loose cannon and, if worse comes to the worse, kick her out of the Alliance.

The Titans are dead.

Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHLEo3ctVdg&t=4m20s

Wrathion sounds like he becomes possessed by something in patch 5.2, and in a different voice proclaims "We have fallen. We must rebuild the final Titan." Something happened to the Pantheon.

• Confirmed in the Chronicles. Sargeras had murdered every living Titan a very, very long time ago — except for the Final Titan... Azeroth herself.

Garrosh will call on the power of the Sha in the final battle, possibly going One-Winged Angel in the process

At the end of the Operation Shieldwall/Dominance Offensive questline, you fight against Ishi, a Magh'ar orc blademaster who's infused with the power of the Sha. Even though he's killed and the bell is destroyed, Garrosh takes it in stride, vowing to find other ways of winning against the Alliance, particularly finding a way to master the Sha. While he, as a warrior, doesn't have much in the way of special abilities, the Sha energy could give him special powers, such as debuffs, summoning adds and so forth, to make it a more complex encounter.

• Eh, sort of confirmed. He doesn't use the Sha, but Garrosh does use the their Predecessor Villain Y'Shaarj.

The old Gods are not as powerful as they are portrayed

This seems like a contradiction of the lore, but consider most of their tactics involve indirect conflict, C'thun was probably the strongest of the lot considering that he had of direct attacks, yet even after his seal was weakening he still preferred Yog was a tougher fight than the Lich King, but he used alot of Summons and Indirect attacks, Nzoth hasn't been shown in game as of yet but his biggest play was using Deathwing as a pawn.

I propose that The Old Gods are not actually all powerful which is why in a direct conflict they are beatable and in addition the "Tied to Azeroth" thing is just another misdirection that Yasharg used to trick the Titans into sealing them away instead of killing them.

• Confirmed, sort of, in the Chronicles. The Old Gods are actually The Dragon to the Void Lords (counter-parts to the Naaru/the Light), and their main function are to corrupt any unborn Titan they find, which they do by planting themselves into the unborn Titan's body, akin to cancer. Said baby Titans are known as "world-souls" who would mature into adult Titans, who are basically living worlds.
  • As above implies, the Old Gods are corrupting agents — and they've found a baby Titan: Azeroth. They haven't fully corrupted Azeroth yet, since she resists them and the Pantheon found her in time. The Pantheon created the Keepers to fight against the Old Gods in order to "cleanse" Azeroth from the corruption. However, when Amun'Thul himself tore out Y'shaarj with one hand, it grievously wounded Azeroth; her life-blood rushes to the surface, creating the Well of Eternity. The Titans, not wanting to kill their unborn sister, decided to imprison the other three Old Gods instead, minimizing their influence on Azeroth.
• The Chronicles also confirmed that Y'shaarj actually was the biggest and the most powerful. He's also the only Old God that is actually Dead for Real. Amun'Thul tore out Y'shaarj from Azeroth's surface with one hand and crushed him, scattering his remains everywhere. That's how his heart ended up in Pandaria.

The Silver Covenant is going to betray the Alliance eventually

Think about it. The Silver Covenant was two steps away from outright rebelling against Dalaran when Rhonin merely considered letting the Blood Elves back into the Kirin Tor, and in 5.2, Vareesa is furious over Jaina not only agreeing to stand down when Lor'themar confronts her, but the fact that the two seem to part on amicable terms. If her sister is anything to go by, I don't think she'll take this lying down, and she and her Covenant may very well take their "campaign" against the Blood Elves into their own hands...

In Patch 5.4, Garrosh will make a Heroic Sacrifice

In game and story wise, it seems to be logical. Quite a few heroic mode raids have secret bosses after the supposed final boss (Algalon in Ulduar, Sinestra in Bastion of Twilight, and Ra Den in Throne of Thunder). It wouldn't be too far-fetched to include a secret boss after Garrosh. The secret boss would probably be Malkorok, as it has been theorized before, and as seen in the Dark Heart of Panderia scenario, where he and the Kor'kron have taken Y'Shaarj's essence, and probably using it to fulfill some nefarious deed. Garrosh, who before had wanted to emulate his Father, Grom Hellscream, will sacrifice his life to stop whatever the Kor'kron are up to.

• The Malkorok part at least is disproven now that the list of Siege of Orgrimmar bosses is known. Malkorok is a midway boss, way before Garrosh.
  • And now it's been completely disproven because Garrosh is the final boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. Therefore, Jossed.

Onyxia isn't actually dead

Instead, someone died in her place. As Katrana Prestor, Onyxia was a convincing woman who could flawlessly execute the en masse manipulation of groups with words, gold, and non-obvious spells.

The "Onyxia" in the comics? She had all the subtly of a rampaging bull, was so obvious with her ensorcellment of Varian that anyone with half a brain could deduce something was up (and couldn't even keep him under control when the time came), and, instead of killing one of the Varians with the spell "she'd" intended to use on Alcaz (Which, given the unusual nature of it, was something she likely would've created herself), fused them into one. Not to mention she's lacking the jaw/horn frills on the side of her face that are present on Onyxia in-game.

The next class to be introduced (if they introduce one) will have mail as their main armor.

As of Mist of Pandaria, there are 3 cloth-wearer classes (Mage, Priest, and Warlock), 3 leather-wearer classes (Druid, Monk, and Rogue), 3 plate-wearer classes (Death Knight, Paladin, and Warrior), and only 2 mail-wearer classes (Hunter, and Shaman). It would be logical to have 3 classes that can wear all four types of gear.

Also, it is most likely that the next expansion will deal with the Burning Legion, and it's rumored that Illidan Stormrage returns. With that in mind, Demon Hunters could be a possible candidate for a new class, and be able to wear mail-armor.

• Jossed, as the next class (Demon Hunters) wear leather.

Next Expansion will have humans being assholes

The Horde has been very jerkass lately, especially the Orcs and especially Garrosh. The grey area is getting pretty thin on the ground. To even this out Alliance are going to be real jerks and start getting genocidal when they think they're getting ahead.

• It's really the only reason honorable races like the Tauren and the Pandaren would realistically continue to stick with the Horde.
• The Tauren can't even claim the Horde is entirely eco-friendly; the activities of the Goblins - ALL of them, not just Venture Co. - would put the most nefarious Captain Planet villain to shame.
• Odds are, this new breed of Horde Intolerance will be lead by Jaina Proudmoore and Tyrande Whisperwind (The Former because of the Destruction of Theremore, the Later because of the Decay of Kalimdor from Orcs and Goblins). I'd be going so far as Jaina selling her soul to the Burning Legion for them to help her re-enslave the Orcs, and for her to help them take over Azeroth.
• Most of the Horde races are there because they felt they owed Thrall, not Garrosh.

The Mantid will stay with the Horde

The Paragons of the Klaxxi already have joined Garrosh's Horde (A la Patch 5.4). It would make sense if a large portion of the Mantid, with the new Empress and the Klaxxi's blessing, join the Horde And abuse them just as the Forsaken do; Simply waiting for the right time to strike out of the group. Now, a lot of people will ask "How will the Mantid fight the Old Gods? Don't they worship them?" Well, they do; but they only Worship one, Y'Shaarj. Who's to say they are against killing C'Thun or Yogg-Saron? And odds are, the new Empress might be willing to declare the other Old Gods illegitimate or dangerous to Mantid Society (Just as the Sha, extensions of Y'Shaarj, were).

Thrall Dies to Garrosh Hellscream

If this Video is any indication, Thrall might actually be killed by Garrosh before the player arrives and stops it. If Gamon can be killed fighting General Nazgrim, then So can Thrall to Garrosh. And if Thrall dies (Officially), it will be a very sad day for the Horde to loose 2 war chiefs...

• Jossed. Thrall lives after Garrosh is defeated.
• Extra-jossed. At the culmination of the Nagrand quest chain in Warlords, Thrall kills Garrosh. With lightning.

Ny'alotha is near or is Elwynn Forest

Based off of the Scary Children in Goldshire/Elwynn Forest, it is very possible that Ny'alotha, the ones all the Old Gods have recently been referring to, is near or is actually Elwynn Forest.

Warlords of Draenor

High Warlord Cromush will replace Rend as the leader of the Dark Horde

Blizzard is going too revamped to UBRS for “Warlords of Draenor” and since Rend is officially death they need a new leader. Cromush is an established character and a supporter of Garrosh. Perhaps he and some other Garrosh loyalists refused to surrender to the Alliance and joined the Dark Horde to continue the fight.

• In fact, Warlord Zaela ends up taking command of the (remnants of) the forces in Blackrock Spire.

Kairozdormu's motivation for sending Garrosh back in time is motivated by For Science!

Remember that speech he gave about how amazing the Timeless Isle was? Witnessing the Isle likely caused him to send Garrosh back in time to see if it would cause any alternate timelines, to sate his curiosity. I predict that the players will have to defeat him in a raid before he is able to create even more alternate timelines or even destroy time itself.

• Jossed. Garrosh killed Kairoz immediately after coming to Draenor.

Related to above: Kairozdormu motivation to helping Garrosh escape is motivated by a You Can't Fight Fate scenario

... and as a member of the Bronze Dragonflight, he must ensure that the visions of the Timeless Isle MUST happen at any cost to prevent potential paradoxes.

The Burning Legion will be the final villains, or at least major players, of Warlords.

Everyone and their grandmothers in Mists is talking about how darkness is coming and how the world is heading into chaos and so on. It seems like too much emphasis to just be about Garrosh going nuts with the Heart of Y'shaaj. Warlords is taking place in Draenor, which used to be demon central and one of the main characters is Gul'dan, who is a solid contender for strongest warlock ever. Not to mention the fact that time travel shenanigans could possibly bring in already dead demons for us to fight too, like Archimonde, which could be the real reason we need to stop the time traveling, to prevent long dead demon lords from killing everything.

• Confirmed: Archimonde is the endgame boss for Wo D's last raid, and punts Wo D!Gul'dan into the main timeline to kick off the events of Legion.

Illidan is coming back.

Tying into the above WMG, Devs have talked about how they liked Illidan and wanted to do more with him. Time travel seems a way for him to escape death, and if demons are the main enemy of the expansion, then that gives him a shot at redemption by fighting them. He is a demon hunter and all.

• Confirmed.

Kil'jaeden will be on the players' side in Warlord of Draenor because...

Ner'zhul kills Velen. Kil'jaeden spent TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS planning to kill Velen, and Ner'zhul just does it, albeit via making Velen commit Heroic Sacrifice but still. After NOT being able to do it after twenty-thousand years, odds are KJ really doesn't want his brother dead anyway, just wants to get him back on his side. Velen being dead will prevent that and REALLY REALLY cause KJ to become so angry at the Iron Horde that he joins the player races to avenge his brother. Kil'jaeden will be pissed and the draenei will finally get warlocks and/or get to choose Eredar skins in the character select screen.

Zaela will appear in Warlords of Draenor....as Garrosh's wife

It's no secret that when Zaela first joined the Horde in Cataclysm, she was relatively fascinated by him. By Mists of Pandaria, she had inexplicably become so loyal to him that she whole-heartedly fights for him in the Siege of Orgrimmar. And now it's been confirmed that she's going to help bust Garrosh out in the upcoming novel War Crimes. She's a pretty staunch believer in Garrosh's vision and, as Warlord of one of the strongest orc clans still loyal to Hellscream, she's still a critical political ally to him. Who's to say that a romance won't develop by Wo D's release?

• If they did ever have a thing (and they may have...), it's since come to a tragic end in 6.0.

In Warlords of Draenor, there will be a recurring Doctor Who Expy NPC.

It's an expansion about time travel. If ever there was a time in WoW for Doctor Who references out the butt, this will be it. The NPC will obviously be affiliated with the Bronze Dragonflight in some way (possibly a bronze dragon in disguise, or at least a dragonsworn), will speak with a British accent (described in-game as a Gilnean accent), and will at some point explain to the player or perhaps a major lore figure about how time isn't a linear progression of cause and effect and is more a big ball of.....wibbly-wobbly......timey-wimey.......stuff.

• We SORT OF already have our Doctor expy in Nozdormu. He basically says in Twilight of the Aspects that he got lost in Time because of all the threads and strands (timey-wimey...stuff) that Thrall could never really get. We also have Kairozdormu, the evil expy of The Doctor (The Master?), who goes back in time to the apparently fixed point of orcs drinking demon blood, uses his magical TARDIS thing (The Vision) to stop a paradox from happening in the future, and intends to use his new army of evil to apparently usurp Nozdormu and "play with Time, as we were meant to" (a quote about the Bronze Flight from Timeless Isle). Kairoz thinks himself some sort of time god by the time of War Crimes, since he just smiles and giggles his way through the "trial" and then uses the Vision to teleport his new allies to the paradoxed past for some more lulz.
  • At least Kairoz has a plan. Sort of. He plans to use his new army against the Crap Sack future without Bronze Dragons to apparently give control over everything back to the dragons. He doesn't believe mortals are capable of handling such power and responsibility and he wants to see it back in dragon, particularly, Bronze or Infinite, hands.

The player will encounter him several times whilst leveling in Draenor as well as in a few raid instances. And while others of his kind are aloof towards mortals, this guy is absolutely ecstatic at the prospect of hanging out with mortal races, pointing out all the wonderful things they've created over the years, like jelly babies.

The Zandalari will join the Horde

With Zandalar Isle sunk and the Thunder King dead, there's only one place left for the Zandalari to turn in their mission to restore the glory of the troll race and bring it back from the brink of extinction; the Horde. By the beginning of Wo D, they probably will have heard that Vol'jin is the new Warchief of the Horde, the first troll to ever hold the title, and will send emissaries to Orgrimmar to negotiate a possible membership.

Additionally, it's rumored that the new character model revamps coming in Wo D will come with alternative race skin options, such as Mag'har for the orcs and Dark Irons for the dwarves. If the Zandalari DO join the Horde, they will become a skin option for troll players.

As of Wo D, Zandalar is not yet stated to be sunk but rather sinking, explaining the Zandalari's sudden aggression as they desperately seek a new home. This will inevitably lead to yet another troll raid wherein we must deal with King Rastakhan and the Prophet Zul, who is no doubt the ManBehindTheMan. With Rastakhan and Zul deposed, this will leave a power void in troll leadership, with the end result being Vol'jin claiming the throne, thus becoming king of all trolls and bringing them under the Horde banner. This has some rather large consequences, as suddenly trolls will be a (if not the) majority race in the Horde, as opposed to their current standing as the least numerous. It will also suddenly give the Horde a great number of holdings, most importantly Zul'Gurub, a stone's throw away from Stormwind.

Once this happens, ALL trolls will become alt skins for troll players should they ever get around to doing that (I want my Dark Iron dwarf dammit)

Back in 2009, a Blizzard developer was taking a vacation in the Bahamas and went scuba diving.....

And then they were bitten by an eel. Not only that, but the bite got infected and so they had to spend a few weeks in the hospital, effectively ruining their vacation. And that is why this quest exists.

In Warlords of Draenor, Broxigar the Red and Varok Saurfang's (whom are also brothers) alternate timeline versions will be a Dual Boss in a raid

Because that would probably be the coolest thing to happen. If this does happen, it would probably happen in a later patch in the expansion.

In Warlords of Draenor, Grom Hellscream will fight against his son

The words "You disappoint me, Garrosh. You are not worthy of your father's legacy" were the worst "Reason You Suck" Speech ever delivered to Garrosh, and that was when Thrall was saying them. How much worse would it be for him, for the first four words to come out of his father's mouth, probably bellowed for all to hear?

• Jossed. He actually manages to impress Grom before revealing who he is and is placed in command of the Warsong clan.

Nothing really interesting actually happened in Pandaria.

All the adventurers arrived and promptly got drunk on the copious amounts of Pandaran beer. Everyone, Horde and Alliance, had a smashing good time at a huge party and to allay the concerns of the folks back home expecting results made up stories about the Sha, a troll invasion, and all sorts of other things.

• This would explain why that expansion was so boring...and Garrosh going Axe-Crazy was just the result of a REALLY bad hangover and a tribute to the power Pandaren ale has on orcs. The Mantid, Y'shaarj, the corrupted Vale, even the bombing of Theramore, were all just really bad drunken hallucinations. Possibly compounded by the fact that the pandaren sometimes use "herbs" in their drinks...basically, everyone was just drunk or on magic LSD in Pandaria and not even shaman magic or the Light could trump the powers of Pandaren drugs.

Derek the Undying, the Forsaken Mage trainer, is actually Derek Proudmoore.

He was raised into undeath by the Eye of Paleth along with the rest of his crew, but retained his sanity. Believing himself to be the only sane survivor, he left, later joining the Forsaken. The reason he's in the War Quarter with the warrior trainers is because it's closer to what he was. Like his father, he had some powers over the weather, which classified him enough as a mage for him to train others, but he's more at home with martial combat.

• Jossed: Derek Proudmoore appears in Battle For Azeroth raised by Sylvanas to be sent as a sleeper agent, then was taught what actually happened since the time he died.

The Darkmoon Faire will introduce animatronic robots in their festivals

They will either be glitchy, go insane, or become possessed. Maybe even all three, given that gnomes would be the most likely builders of such things, and will become a new world boss exclusive to the Faire.

Legion

Sylvanas was Evil All Along

We assume she was a good person based on the events of Warcraft 3 but what if she was always evil and turning undead just made her true nature more obvious?

In Legion, Gul'dan will be working against the Burning Legion

After all, why would a servant of the Burning Legion resurrect the most powerful demon hunter? Additionally, it would make sense considering the Legion's low tolerance towards failure.

• Jossed. Demons need a proper vessel to reincarnate and Gul'dan's prepping Illidan's body for Sargeras to possess.

Azeroth will be destroyed, only to be rebuilt anew

Blizzard might have realized that somewhere along the way, they screwed up BIG TIME in characterization. And if you look at Heroes of the Storm, most characterizations for Warcraft characters seems to take place mostly on their WC3 characterization (Warchief Thrall, peace-loving Jaina, sane Kael, 'consider-her-state-a-curse' Sylvanas...)

If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard later released a final expansion that details the end of the World of Warcraft, then pull a reboot to get back to the time between 3 and WoW and use the majority of HOTS characterization as their cornerstone of characterization to tell a new tale that hopefully do not degenerate into "Grab as many Conflict Balls as we can" or "Make this guy Raid Boss, derail him as hell." Hey, if it works with Final Fantasy XIV, I don't see why WoW cannot.

It can also be a setting for unleashing Warcraft 4

• The Chronicles reveal that Azeroth being destroyed is a really bad thing, considering that Azeroth is the last living Titan — and the most powerful Titan ever known, at that — even if she's still a growing, unborn Titan. It's currently a race of time between the Old Gods successfully corrupting Azeroth into a Dark Titan, or Sargeras and the Burning Legion arriving at Azeroth to kill her, or Azeroth herself awakening as a fully mature and un-corrupt Titan. Azeroth is, basically, the universe's last hope or greatest threat. She'll either save us all from the Void Lords, or become the Void's greatest and most terrible agent.

We haven't seen the last of Wo D!Gul'Dan

He gets dragged into the Nether, it's likely we will see him again in a future expansion and he will presumably find his way into the main timeline and be a key ally of the Legion.

• Confirmed

ETC aren't that successful.

They're the equivalent of the guys who swear they'll make it big one day, but they can never quite make it. They're stuck playing crappy, low-paying gigs like the Darkmoon Faire. Samuro still lives with his mom and refuses to get a steady job because he's so committed to the band. Sig Nicious is actually married with a steady job and a few kids, and is only in the band because it's something fun to do at the weekend. Like the blood elves in the Horde in general, he's not 100% committed to it.

At the end of Legion, we will have to ally with the old gods

This is their world to rule; not the legion. Prediction of the dialouge

Yogg-Saron: THIS IS OUR WORLD, SARGERAS!

C'Thun: YOU HAVE NO POWER! WE ARE TAKING OUR WORLD BACK, USURPER!

N'Zoth: AND IN THE END, YOUR HEART WILL EXPLODE!

Y'Shaarj: YOU CHOKE ON YOUR PRIDE!

Yogg-Saron: YOU WILL FACE TRUE DEATH

C'Thun: And YOU. WILL. DIE!

Varian Wrynn will die at the start of the Legion expansion.

It's been implied the Burning Legion is going to absolutely wreck us, and Word of God has said that something would happen that will come as a huge shock to players, so a major Character Death (or even several!) isn't out of the question. Over the last few expansions Varian has been built up to be the Big Good of the Alliance, but the official site doesn't list him as a major character for the expansion. Furthermore, his son Anduin's character bio says that Anduin "will learn the true cost of peace", and losing his father would certainly be a huge blow for him. We also know that Varian is going to be in the Legion cinematic trailer, as a shot from it that featured him prominently was shown at Gamescom. Perhaps the trailer will show a battle between the Legion and the Alliance (and Horde?) and that's when he kicks the bucket?

• Semi-confirmed. According to datamining from the Alpha, he is at least missing, if not dead.

Anduin Wrynn is actually Arthas and Jaina's son.

Seriously, look at him◊. He doesn't look much like his parents, does he? Maybe Varian adopted him when he was a baby so that a scandal involving a baby being born out of wedlock to a member of a royal family. And if he is Arthas' son, and Varian does kick the bucket in Legion...well, we'll have to wait and see (although it would be odd for Anduin, who can pretty safely be aligned as lawful good, would suddenly up and kill his father, unless it was for a genuine reason).

• Doesn't look like his parents? Varian, maybe, but I'd say he resembles Tiffin◊ at least as much as Jaina or Arthas. And he does seem to be growing his own Lantern Jaw of Justice.

Legion will see the Alliance and the Horde forming an uneasy pact to fight together against the Legion.

The key word here is 'uneasy'. If, as the above two WMGs have suggested, Varian does indeed die, then Anduin might want to form a pact with the Horde. It probably wouldn't last long, but it would be interesting to see.

Alternatively, Anduin will blame the Horde for Varian's death.

And this is the reason for the renewed conflict between the factions. It's been said that the Alliance and the Horde are at each others' throats again. Perhaps the Horde either directly or indirectly gets Varian killed (maybe in a Both Sides Have a Point situation akin to Wrathgate so the Horde isn't entirely at fault) and Anduin holds them responsible, leading to another fight. This could also tie-in to the "cost of peace" he's supposed to be learning, since Anduin has long advocated for peace between the Alliance and the Horde. And really, who else could it be referring to? Surely even Anduin's not naive enough to try and make peace with the Burning Legion...

After Legion, the next expansion will focus on an unholy alliance between Jaina and Kel'Thuzad

Legion seems to be very similar and maybe a Spiritual Successor to Burning Crusade, and after BC, it was Wrath of the Lich King, which focused on the Scourge. And in Legion, it seemed that Jaina once again turned into her bitter self and left in disgust as Dalaran was ruled by Khadgar. There's just as big possibility that this is her way to completely turn to the dark side, seeing that she literally has no one else to help her curb the pain after losing Theramore (and perhaps Kalegcos left her). Meanwhile, as far as we know of, as long as a Lich has his Soul Jar in tact, he cannot die, thus giving opportunity for Kel'Thuzad to return.

At this point, Kel'Thuzad probably would see Jaina in a different light, unlike the steadfast ally of the Light like she was before, he sees her as a tortured soul, and more importantly, has a bitter history with Dalaran, the same way he was expelled for practicing necromancy. But either way, she's pretty much a perfect target for his manipulation. Kel'Thuzad will then convince Jaina to jump off the slippery slope, convincing her that she's truly alone and everyone she loved (Arthas, her father, Kael'thas, even Uther) have been trapped in damnation and there's no way to save them. The only option? Join them, and then hope that everyone there would be worth hell. In her vulnerable state, Jaina accepted Kel'Thuzad's offer and becomes a dark sorceress, lashing out against the world that gave her hell even when she tried her best to fix it.

Of course, the catch for Kel'Thuzad is that he wants to use Jaina's rampage as a mean of the return of the old Undead Scourge, back when Ner'zhul or especially Arthas was in control, maybe dethrone Bolvar Fordragon from the Lich King throne and make someone who'd bring back the old days of the Scourge sit on that, and the current Jaina was the perfect person for it, even if it turns her into the Lich Queen.

And seeing that Wrath of Lich King was the last expansion before shit hit the storm big with Cataclysm, this expansion may become the Grand Finale of the World of Warcraft storyline, in which Thrall and Anduin work together to defeat the threat of Kel'Thuzad and Jaina, resulting the death of the latter and finally they had an epiphany just how much this whole war costs, especially when one of the people they cared most died for it, and makes it clear that they will no longer accept war and once this whole business is done, everyone must work for peace, or else.

Because otherwise, Blizzard would have a headache in trying to wreck off Azeroth AGAIN after they've done that in Cataclysm.

Aggra and Tirion Fordring will be among the heroes who die on the Broken Shore.

Blizzard have noted that a lot of heroes will be dying in the event that kicks off Legion, and both the Doomhammer and Ashbringer will be in the hands of players instead of their current owners. They've also teased that Retribution Paladins will have to go to the Broken Shore in the course of their artifact weapon quest, and that Thrall is giving up the Doomhammer because he has "lost hope".

• Tirion is likely going to be either dead or crippled.
  • Confirmed. He dies in the artifact quest for Retribution Paladins, because he refuses to break when captured and tortured.
    • It gets rather more interesting afterward, though... If you're a Death Knight, at least. The Knights of the Ebon Blade decide to bring forth their own Four Horsemen to fight against the Burning Legion, using a spell that has to be voluntarily accepted by the recipient. They choose General Nazgrim, King Thoras Trollbane of Stromgarde, High Inquisitor Sally Whitemane, and Tirion Fordring. Choosing Tirion comes off very much as the Ebon Blade acknowledging the great debt of gratitude they collectively owe to the man who freed them all from Arthas.
• Thrall has been through a hell of a lot without breaking... Losing his wife might just do it, though.
  • Jossed. There's some kind of prophecy about Doomhammer's true wielder, which ends up being the player if you're an Enhancement Shaman. Aggra's still around.

Artifact Weapon Speculation

Death Knight

• Blood - Maw of the Damned - 2H Axe, essentially a Warhammer-style Daemon Weapon, in that it is a defeated demon bound into weapon form.
• Unholy - Soulrend - 2H Sword, not much known so far aside from one picture and the name.
• Frost - Icebringer and Soulreaper - Paired 1H Swords, made from bits of Frostmourne.

Paladin

• Retribution - Ashbringer - 2H Sword. It's ASHBRINGER. The sword that has been lusted after since the game was new.
• Protection - UNKNOWN - Probably a sword and a shield.
• Holy - UNKNOWN - Probably a mace/hammer and either a shield or an off-hand tome.

Hunter

• Marksmanship - Thas'dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners - Bow, apparently previously belonging to one of Sylvanas and Vereesa's ancestors, and last wielded by their big sister, Alleria.
• Survival - Eagle Spear - Spear, because Survival Hunters are moving toward focusing on melee weapons and pets.
• Beast Mastery - UNKNOWN - A gun was shown in one of the images of alternate items.
  • It's called Titanstrike, and it's a Titan-made weapon that SHOOTS LIGHTNING.

Druid

• Feral - Fangs of the First Nightsaber - Daggers that actually change your cat form!
• Guardian - UNKNOWN - Probably something with model-changing abilities similar to the above, but for Bears.
• Restoration - UNKNOWN - Probably a staff.
• Balance - Scythe of Elune - Staff. This item was created by attaching a fang of the wolf demigod Goldrinn onto the Staff of Elune. Because the druids that made it lacked the power to control it properly, it turned them into worgen and created the worgen curse. This is the item that started the worgen curse. And your character will have enough power to wield and control it properly without any side effects.

Shaman

• Enhancement - Doomhammer - 1H Hammer with a pure-energy copy as an offhand weapon, because Thrall has apparently been broken so hard he's given up.
  • Confirmed yet jossed. The Doomhammer is your main weapon, and your offhand is an energy hammer granted by the Earthmother. Thrall gave it up because the Elementals abandoned him for using their power, thus cheating, in his Mak'gora against Garrosh.
• Elemental - Fist of Ra-den - Fist weapon wielded by the Titanic Keeper Ra (known as Ra-den to the Mogu, meaning "Master Ra" in their language). Includes a shield. Ra-den was an optional hard-mode only boss in Throne of Thunder back in MOP.
• Restoration - Scepter of Azshara - 1H mace, comes with shield. Not much is known abou this item other than it containing some water from the Well of Eternity before it was corrupted.

Mage

• Fire - Felo'melorn - 1H Sword, presumably with an offhand item, Kael'thas's old weapon before he went went nuts and became a raid boss.
  • Confirmed.
• Frost - Ebonchill, Greatstaff of Alodi - Staff belonging to the first Guardian of Tirisfal.
• Arcane - UNKNOWN - A staff called Aluneth that definitely looks like it should be for an Arcane Mage has been shown, but that may be for a different class/spec.
  • Aluneth is confirmed for Arcane Mages.

Warrior

• Protection - POSSIBLY Icebreaker - 1H Sword and Shield, it's known that the shield and blade that Protection Warriors take up are from a legendary Vrykul King, and the sword/shield combo of Icebreaker has been shown, but that may not be their particular set of weapons.
• Arms - UNKNOWN - No information on Arms Warriors so far, could literally be any melee weapon.
• Fury - UNKNOWN - Probably two impractically-huge 2H weapons to dual-wield.

Monk

• Brewmaster - UNKNOWN - Probably a staff, maybe fist weapons or dual 1H weapons.
• Mistweaver - Sheilun, Staff of the Mists - Staff, last used by Emperor Shaohao, when he shrouded Pandaria in the mists that protected the land for ten millennium.
• Windwalker - UNKNOWN - Probably fist weapons, maybe dual 1H weapons or a staff.

Rogue

• Assassination - UNKNOWN, Possibly Fang - a Dagger called Fang has been shown in multiple forms. Could be any Rogue weapon.
  • Jossed. You get the Kingslayers, the blades that Garona killed Llane Wrynn with. Varian's probably not gonna be happy to see those things again.
• Combat - UNKNOWN, Possibly Fang - a Dagger called Fang has been shown in multiple forms. Could be any Rogue weapon.
  • Jossed outright. Because Combat no longer exists. It's now Outlaw, and you get the Dreadblades, cursed pirate swords.
• Subtlety - UNKNOWN, Possibly Fang - a Dagger called Fang has been shown in multiple forms. Could be any Rogue weapon.
  • Confirmed!

Warlock

• Affliction - UNKNOWN - No information available for Warlock weapons so far.
  • Ulthalesh, The Deadwind Harvester.
• Destruction - UNKNOWN - No information available for Warlock weapons so far.
  • The Scepter of Sargeras. It's powerful enough to tear open rifts in time and space while you're casting spells.
• Demonology - UNKNOWN - No information available for Warlock weapons so far.
  • Skull of the Ma'nari. As a Demonology Warlock, your artifact is your off-hand, a demon skull that floats around you and occasionally flies up to your enemies and starts screaming at them loud enough to cause damage. Your main hand is a dagger like those used in ritualistic sacrifices.

Priest

• Holy - UNKNOWN - No information available for Priest weapons so far.
• Shadow - UNKNOWN - No information available for Priest weapons so far.
  • Xala'tath, Blade of the Black Empire. You get to run around with an Old-God-made dagger that predates humanity and drove all of its previous users nuts.
• Discipline - UNKNOWN - No information available for Priest weapons so far.

Demon Hunter

• Havoc - UNKNOWN, Probably Warglaives - There is a Warglaive that has been shown in a few pictures, notably in its PVP form.
• Vengeance - UNKNOWN, Probably Warglaives - There is a Warglaive that has been shown in a few pictures, notably in its PVP form.

The Old Gods are the Big Good

Face it, guys. Their world was taken from them by Precursors that destroy worlds at the most minor hint of imperfection. We've been killing the last hope of azeroth this whole time.

• Jossed by the Chronicles. The Old Gods are minions of the Void Lords, who want all the known universe destroyed. The Old Gods strive to accomplish this by corrupting unborn Titans like Azeroth.

The poster of the above WMG has been corrupted by the Old Gods.

Sorry, mate. Couldn't resist.

• Does that mean they're going to be a new raid boss? :p
  • Yes! I am totally corrupted! Not an outright old god! Not the guy who was behind every bad thing that ever happened on azeroth! Nope nope nope!

Legion is being masterminded by Jaina

I think that the events of Legion could be likely to be engineered by Jaina. Okay, this might look outrageous, but here's the thing: One thing that's constant in Jaina is that she'll still fight for peace in Azeroth, but... the leaders are being boneheaded and she even lost Theramore for that. However, she DOES have the experience of fighting under a united Azeroth against the Burning Legion in Mt. Hyjal, so she had thought of a Godzilla Threshold, if they don't want peace, she'll force them by bringing forth the force to be one common foe that can unite everyone, and now that she already lost everything, she has nothing else that could anchor her into the world, so she'll think that her life is enough price to pay for that. Expectedly, the Burning Legion uses her as a pawn, forcing the players to kill her.

So why do I think that this might be likely?

• Blizzard has noted that the fans might not like what they are planning on Jaina after she left Dalaran in anger. THIS might be something the fans might not like. If you wanna go for it, go all the way.
• Not official, but Fighteer stated that the effects of Arcane Magic is corrupting to the point of insanity. Jaina was able to keep it under control, but getting near the vicinity of the mana bomb back in Theramore made her unable to keep it at bay (that hair is a good enough example) and she ends up fully corrupted.
• Hints were given about how severe the situation is: Thrall losing hope, Anduin learning the cost of peace. Where do they get linked at? Jaina. Losing Jaina, though she's just a friend, might be enough to crush Thrall's spirit, if it's not a family like Aggra, not to mention Thrall is also the only one who advocated peace between the two factions and probably saw Jaina as another one who has the same hope, so if she dies, his 'hope' dies. Also, Jaina has taught Anduin about how good peace is and how he should strive to attain it... but he wasn't there during the battle at Mt. Hyjal. Perhaps this is the lesson about 'the cost of peace' that Anduin might learn: That the Alliance and Horde needs something so big to fight together against that they finally unite and hope that there'll be peace afterwards unlike how last time it failed. Thus, if there's another character who might die, it might not be Aggra or Varian. It's Jaina.
• Blizzard is no stranger with Red Herring technique. So even if the purported main characters of Legion as shown in the front page of their site does not list Jaina it does not exclude the possibility that she might be the mastermind of the invasion. (Not to mention, we've seen that in WoD, what with Gul'dan suddenly retaking the Big Bad throne from Grom/Garrosh after being tossed aside in the beginning.)

Darkmoon Faire is somehow affiliated with the Old Gods or some other dark power

• The weird imagery, the creepy atmosphere, the sinister background events, the aesthetic combination of purple and eyes...even Silas Darkmoon himself: Darkmoon doesn't sound like a very gnomish name. My personal money is on Darkmoon being an avatar of Sargeras, and somehow the events of the Faire make him stronger, month by month.

Darkspear never die...

• Vol'jin dying on the Broken Shore doesn't make sense. Anyone who has read Shadows of the Horde will tell you that Vol'jin is absolutely, utterly, and completely impossible to kill, thanks both to his insanely fast regeneration (which is fast even by troll standards), and his one-on-one relationship with Bwonsamdi, the Darkspear Loa of the Dead. That's kind of his most memorable character trait - among many memorable character traits. I have a feeling that Vol'jin isn't really dead, and he's instead pulling off a Nick Fury in Captain America: Winter Soldier here: "Can't kill you if you're already dead." After all, that funeral pyre seems to contain a collection of objects that could contain a troll, but knowing Vol'jin, the whole thing was a ruse to throw the Legion off the scent. If they're not looking for him, he can freely hunt the Legion from the shadows. After all...
  Darkspear never die.
  • Unlikely. This wasn't a mere stab wound or poison, it was fel corruption. The very supernatural nature of it corroded Vol'jin faster than he could regenerate. If he ever does come back, I suspect it will be as a Spirit Advisor, as you mentioned by virtue of his relationship with Bwonsamdi.

Gul'dan keeps his walking staff to honor his shaman.

• We learn the alternate Gul'dan's backstory in the Harbingers - Gul'Dan video, which happens to show where he got his current walking staff. The reason he hasn't replaced the simple hunk of wood for some sort of powerful fel staff is to, in a twisted way, honor the memory of his village's shaman who had unwittingly pointed Gul'dan to his path of power. He had taken a moment to thank the shaman before killing him, so I believe some part of the warlock did care about the shaman.

Azeroth's magic is going away.

• As of Ysera's death, we're now down to two dragon aspects, not counting Kalec since the Blue Dragonflight isn't even a thing anymore. Furthermore Cenarius and several wild gods have been corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare and are likely beyond saving. Then there's O'ros getting killed off in the Exodar event. Not to mention that, as we learned in Chronicles, the entire Titan pantheon is dead. Alexstrazsa's words at the end of Cataclysm are suddenly more ominous - this truly is the Age of Mortals, which means that all the deities of the Warcraft universe are getting axed one by one, which means that we'll eventually reach the point where us mortals will be completely on our own when it comes time for Warcraft's Grand Finale, because all the gods and demi-gods that would've had our back will all be dead.

Elune is in reality a Titan, and is actually the baby Titan Azeroth

• This theory has been gaining some considerable steam on the Story forums. The Chronicles have revealed that there is one final Titan — Azeroth. Azeroth has yet to be born, however we already know a few things about the Titan...
  • We know that Elune is strongly linked with the Well of Eternity, which is the baby Titan Azeroth's life-blood. A tribe of dark trolls originally settled next to the Well, and mutated into Night Elves.
  • During this, the trolls/elves believed that Elune spoke to them from the Well, and it's specifically stated that Elune taught them the Titanic language (e.g., kal'dorei and Kalimdor).
  • It's been clarified that the Emerald Dream is the baby Azeroth's dream. Even if the Titan is yet to be born, there is still some awareness there. Elune has always been semi-active in the world, usually through dreams and arcane magic.
    • Arcane magic is key, because the Titans represented the Arcane. The Well, which is the baby Titan's blood, is pure arcane energy.
  • The Titan Azeroth has been confirmed to be female.
  • In Legion, we need to collect Titanic artifacts (the Pillars of Creation), and one of those is Tears of Elune. Why else would Elune have a Titanic artifact named after her?
  • More hints and implications to come!

Druids have immortal souls, like Demon Hunters.

• Demon Hunters, if strong enough, develop immortal souls like members of the Burning Legion. If their physical body dies, their soul will return to the Twisting Nether until they can inhabit a new suitable body. Their corpse is usually fresh enough to suffice for this purpose. The Wild Gods have a similar form of immortality, though their soul returns to the Emerald Dream rather than the Twisting Nether. Since Druids must learn to traverse the Emerald Dream, eventually they would become like the Wild Gods, just as the Demon Hunters became like the demons they consumed. When a Druid dies, their soul returns to the Emerald Dream only for the soul to make its way back to its body.

Warlocks will get a fourth skillset

• A LOT of players weren't happy when Demonology was reformatted in Legion. The devs have said they wanted Demonology to go back to its roots of commanding hoards of demons, rather than what it became where the focus was on becoming a demon. To make all parties happy, Blizzard will eventually create a fourth Skill set, where the focus will be on Warlocks becoming demonic themselves rather than depending on their demonic thralls. Gul'dan himself makes a fine point in Heroes of the Storm.
  Gul'dan: A true Warlock doesn't need to summon infernal horrors when they are the infernal horror.

Alexstrasza will go insane.

• She's been through some serious crap; not only all her mates are dead, many of her children are dead, her fellow Aspects are dead... but now her last living family, her last blood relative (not counting her surviving descendants) from the "old days" (as in, from thousands and thousands of years ago) — her sister, Ysera — is now dead. Alexstrasza is known to experience BSOD with the deaths of those she cared for (mates, children, and "brother" Aspects). With Ysera? It's all but guaranteed that Alexstrasza would undergo a Heroic Blue Screen of Death to end all BSOD. This could possibly be the Despair Event Horizon for Alexstrasza... and the players would have to put her down, like they did her sister.
  • Besides, it's the "age of mortals" now; Blizzard clearly wants to do away with the Aspects — that's why we killed Malygos, Nozdormu (as Murozond), Neltharion (Deathwing), and Ysera. (Unlike the first three, Ysera was corrupted against her will.)
  • Even if the Despair Event Horizon didn't trigger a Face–Heel Turn for Alexstrasza, her inevitable Heroic Blue Screen of Death could far too easily leave her vulnerable to an attack that corrupts her, a la her sister.
  • Either way, Alexstrasza's future doesn't look too good. She is the last living Aspect (since Nozdormu has technically already died; the players killed Murozond in Cataclysm, after all. Timey-wimey stuff is why we still see Nozdormu around).

There will be a new leader of the Burning Legion after Legion

• They are making a rather huge deal about High General Rakeesh's death at the end of the Light's Hope scenario. Understandable since He is Velen's long lost son. However there is one giant sticking point that is hard to get around. Demons only die if they die within the Twisting Nether. Why else would the writers try convince us he is dead and gone unless it is to have him show up suddenly after we defeat Sargeras and thank us for "Taking care of the competition."

Velen will die at the end of this expansion in a Heroic Sacrifice like his Alternate Timeline self

Velen's character arc will be more or less wrapped up by the end of this expansion. Archimonde and Kil'jaeden will be dead, and the Legion is slated to be defeated once and for all. Also, Anduin is shown coming into his own during "A Found Momento", so Velen's personal mentorship isn't required anymore. Genn seems to be getting set up to be Anduin's new mentor through being a father figure anyway (Genn has been defined by losing a son, Anduin is recovering from losing a father). What about the Distant Finale for the "Son of the Wolf" comic that depicts Velen alongside an old Anduin? Simple, he becomes Anduin's Spirit Advisor and can appear to him after his death. After all, "In the Light, we are one."

Il'gynoth's cryptic quotes have meaning behind them, and some of them are foreshadowing the events of the next expansion

• Flesh is his gift. He is your true creator. - Refers to Yogg-Saron, the source of the Curse of Flesh.
• To find him, drown yourself in the circle of stars. - Refers to Argus the Unmaker and how you reach him.
  • As of Battle for Azeroth, it turns out this actually refers to a portion of the Eternal Palace.
• The king of diamonds has been made a pawn. - Magni is being used.
• The lord of ravens will turn the key. - Might refer to Khadgar or Medivh. Could refer to Kur'talos Ravencrest were his role in Legion not so minor.
• The boy-king serves at the master's table. Three lies will he offer you. - Anduin is being used.
• Her heart is a crater, and we have filled it. - Azeroth's world-soul is being corrupted.
• Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path. - In using the Pillars of Creation to seal the Tomb of Sargeras, the player will end up having a hand in the Old Gods' plans.
• At the hour of her third death, she will usher in our coming. - See the sixth quote. Azeroth's first "death" was the Great Sundering and its second was the Cataclysm.
• From the earth, he draws strength. Our earth. Our strength. - Likely refers to N'Zoth.
• Its surface blazes bright, masking shadows below. - Could refer to a Naaru.

The inquisitor demons and the Frozen Throne came from the same planet.

The inquisitor demons (the tall, dark creatures that cast various AOE traps that are particularly annoying to avoid) have a spell called Shadowfrost Shard, which shares its name with the splinters of the Frozen Throne that had to be collected for the final Shadowmourne quest. Unless Shadowfrost is more ubiquitous than it seems to be, it's likely that the inquisitor demons came from the same planet as the Frozen Throne.

Battle for Azeroth

Jaina will become an antagonist.

• Where did she go? Bizzard only says, they can't tell us, but "she's pissed". The long, complex theory is explained here. (Note that the poster does not believe it, but many do.)

Alleria Windrunner will be an antagonist.

• Same video explains it, and the poster does believe this.

Anduin will be an antagonist.

• The marketing for Battle for Azeroth is playing up Anduin as a very Arthas-like character prior to his corruption into the Lich King. Extremely powerful with the Light, and finally pushed over the edge due to a recent tragedy (in Arthas' case, the scourge devouring his lands, for Anduin it is the burning of Teldrassil). Both have now lain siege to Lordaeron. Furthermore, Anduin has lost his father, but his Parental Substitute that had watched over him the last time Varian was believed dead was Bolvar Fordragon, now the current Lich King. If Bolvar were to reach out to Anduin now whilst still grieving over Varian, Anduin could very well become corrupted trying to protect his people much like Arthas was.
  • As an added bonus, if Anduin were to become the Lich King, he would exert a control over the Scourge in a way even Arthas never could. Sylvanas falls under his control, meaning that we as the Alliance and Horde would have to fight and kill both of our faction leaders at the end of the expansion.

Nathrezim will become playable.

Lothraxion has established the idea that the nathrezim do not have to be evil (even if his form is presumably a result of Xe'ra's intervention). Meanwhile, Heroes of the Storm referencing the 'Jaina is a Dreadlord' meme, by adding a Dreadlord Jaina skin, means that it's also debuting a design for female nathrezim, something that has not existed prior. Following Legion, it could be easy to find nathrezim with nowhere else to go, and since the Dreadlords introduced Sargeras to the Void, the nathrezim's story doesn't have to end with the Legion.

• Jossed. The six new "Allied Races" do not include Nathrezim.

Taelia Fordragon will be revealed to be Calia Menethil's and Bolvar's lovechild.

With the recent revelation that Taelia is Bolvar's long lost daughter, she has mentioned that she had a mother who went missing during the destruction of Lordaeron by the Scourge. She believes her to be dead, just like how Calia believes her daughter and husband died during the outbreak.

• It will become even more shocking when Taelia finds out that her mother was alive for a long time, but just came back as a light-infused zombie!
  • Not only that, but if Taelia turns out to be indeed Calia's long lost daughter, she could be the final living heir to the throne of Lordaeron. Since there is a ship tease with Anduin and her, if they grow closer it could bring unification for the kingdoms of Stormwind and Lordaeron.

The War is being orchestrated by the Void.

The marketing and PR for the expansion has really played up the war between the factions, often referenced the origins of the franchise, has played up faction identity, and seems to want you behind the war. However, the Big Good characters, like Khadgar, are still against the war, suggesting that it's still not ultimately supposed to be seen as a good thing, and other characters who have reached across the faction barrier in the past, like Thrall and Vol'jin, are confirmed to have story arcs, but are noticeably absent from the war scenes in the trailer or the battle in the cinematic. The only real outlier is Anduin, but as leader of the Alliance now he may not have much of a choice.

So the guess is that the war is only the first step of the story, and as usual it will be revealed to be a really bad idea being encouraged by a greater evil. With the Void being built up a lot in Legion and with Azshara having a confirmed appearance at some point in the expansion, it seems likely that the Void would be that greater evil.

Azerite has either always been evil, or has long since been corrupted.

In the Legion epilogue cutscenes, both Sylvanas and Anduin have strange reactions to physically touching the substance. In the prequel novel, it's revealed that they both received visions of using the power of Azerite to further their respective goals, which gives off an unsettling One Ring-like vibe. Azerite also seems to have a tendency to convince people to pass it around and share its allure. Coupled with ominous warnings we have gotten in the past, like the King of Diamonds (Magni) having been made a pawn, when Magni is the one convincing the player character to collect Azerite, something definitely does not seem right. Whether this means that Azerite is not the blood of Azeroth after all, or the blood of Azeroth is already significantly corrupted, the fact that everyone is going around collecting it will not be a good thing, regardless of how they plan to use it.

The Horde will win the war

From a meta standpoint, one thing absolutely must be true at the end of this conflict: The Horde and the Alliance must continue to stand and do so on roughly equal footing. However, with atrocities like the Burning of Teldrassil and the outcome of the Siege of Lordaeron, not even the pacifist Anduin Wrynn has any interest in peace so long as Sylvanas Windrunner leads the Horde. Even if Sylvanas is replaced as Warchief by someone more reasonable, such as Saurfang or Baine, enough bad blood has boiled over that simply halting the war may not be an option from the Alliance side.

The solution is to have the Horde win the war, but not destroy the Alliance. This is not as improbable as it sounds. In the novellas leading up to Battle for Azeroth's release, Sylvanas sells the idea of war with the Alliance by pointing out that the peace they have now is uneasy and can not last; that the only way to guarantee peace is to do so from a position of strength. The thing is, she's right. Assuming the Alliance has no interest in ending the war with the Horde through anything less than the Horde's destruction, the Horde's survival can only be assured by winning the war and, at minimum, weakening the Alliance enough that they couldn't exterminate the Horde no matter how much they may want to.

Finally, but also from a meta standpoint, the scene from the Siege of Lordaeron in which Anduin tells Saurfang that, today, it is an Alliance king's place to decide a Horde soldier's fate, is just begging for an Ironic Echo at some point down the line.

Anduin is going to be corrupted.

This one takes a bit of explaining, so bear with me.

Loosely related to the previous WMG and less loosely connected to the 'Anduin as an antagonist' WMG further up, it begins with the Horde winning the war. The Alliance retreats to the Eastern Kingdoms, and with faction morale at a low, people begin placing most of the blame on Anduin for their loss (easy target and all). Anduin now has to deal with a debilitating loss, displaced refugees from Teldrassil and possibly some very pissed off ones from Kul Tiras (assuming the Horde takes over Kul Tiras as part of their victory) too, being blamed for the loss, and with Darnassus being burned down, it's surely only a matter of time before the draenei begin voicing their concerns about their own security as the only Alliance race left in Kalimdor (especially considering the fact that the Azuremyst Isles would probably be even easier to attack, considering the fact that unlike Teldrassil, most of its population doesn't live on top of a massive tree trunk). Compounding all this is some personal tragedy - perhaps Genn finally kicks the bucket for some reason (perhaps he's killed in the war, and Anduin feels personally responsible).

When Anduin is at his lowest ebb and has no idea what to do, a new face oh-so-conveniently emerges from the shadows to become a new advisor and right-hand person. They're quick to reassure Anduin that none of what happened was his fault (and while not all of it may have been his fault, it's not as black-and-white as that), and in his grief-stricken state, Anduin's too emotionally compromised to realise that his new best buddy is a servant (or perhaps even an avatar) of one of the Old Gods. The people around him try to warn him, but by now, the new advisor has a firm hold on Anduin's mind and persuades him to dismiss them...or worse. Basically, think Wormtongue and Theoden. Eventually, the other Alliance leaders realise that to have any hope of saving their faction, they're going to have to ask for help from the one person (or group of people) they want to ask less than anyone else: the Horde.

Sylvanas isn't going to last as warchief.

This is purely a matter of opinion, but quite a few players in both factions have voiced their (understandable) concerns about Sylvanas' actions so far. The burning of Teldrassil in particular seems to have been particularly random and arbitrarily evil. Either she'll be killed off (perhaps in an uprising from within) or she'll just be forced out.

So who would replace her? If we assume that it'll be one of the other Horde racial leaders (and barring a major story development it most likely will be), then that gives us the options of Saurfang, Lor'themar, Baine, Gallywix, Ji Firepaw, or one of the three new playable race leaders - Thalyssra (nightborne), Mayla Highmountain (Highmountain tauren), or Geya'rah (Maghar orcs). The fan favourite right now is probably Saurfang, although considering what a curveball Blizzard threw with killing off Vol'jin after he got a frankly pathetically small amount of time as warchief, it's pretty much impossible to say whether they'd listen to the fans on that one or not.

Zekhan - a.k.a. 'Zappy Boi' - will play a role in the future.

Zekhan proved to be oddly popular with the fanbase, and people are even jokingly supporting him for Warchief. It's hugely unlikely Blizz would make a brand new, relatively minor character Warchief, but depending on the way BfA unfolds, he might have a bigger role in a future expansion.

N'zoth wants players to gather Azerite

While a servant of the Old Gods does try to claim the Heart of Azeroth from players, it's driven back pretty easily. And for all the power Azerite apparently possesses, the Old Gods only seem to be making a token effort to gather it. N'zoth is stated several times as being The Chessmaster so he likely wants us to gather as much Azerite as possible and use it to empower the Heart of Azeroth before stealing it himself and using it to corrupt Azeroth.

• Confirmed: Azshara reveals that we were being tricked into collecting Azerite so that the Heart of Azeroth could be used to free N'Zoth from his prison when we were lured there.

We have not seen the last of Yrel or the Lightbound

We know - even Blizzard wants to kind of distance themselves from Warlords of Draenor. But come on, the whole Lightbound and Light Is Not Good plot? They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot! Sure, I doubt it will be a new expansion pack (Unless they really need something after battle for azeroth) but it could be a nice little subplot or a raid.

The Lightbound aren't as evil as they sound

We only ever hear one side of the story. The closest we ever get to the Lightbound's side, a sermon, is even positive toward the mag'har. From the mag'har side, our two main sources are Grommash and Geya'rah, which aren't the most reliable sources. Grommash was an infamous Karma Houdini from Warlords of Draenor, and Geya'rah seems to be the mirror image of Thrall in more than one way. Notably, she is extremely aggressive, and takes some time to warm up even to the main universe Horde allies who risk their lives to help her. Durotan, one of the only mag'har that we're familiar enough with to definitely trust, is conveniently dead and we don't know the full context of that event.

Also, this very questline establishes that, in most universes, Garrosh turned out quite heroic and we simply got unlucky. So it stands out that Grommash's son in the Warlords of Draenor timeline (the closest thing to a counterpart to Garrosh) is notable for willingly joining the Lightbound. Finally, while the Xe'ra of our timeline was certainly zealous, her dark moments did not come from malice, but a literal inability to comprehend certain realities of the material plane. Even her most loyal and lightforged soldiers (like Turalyon and Lothraxion) were both willing and able to defy her if they felt she was going too far (like with her treatment of Alleria).

Battle for Azeroth is based on ideas originally planned for Cataclysm

In order to prevent this from being too much of a wall of text, I won't bring up every piece of circumstantial evidence and I'll try to focus on two main things: Sylvanas and everything else.

As we know, "Cataclysm" became Garrosh's Start of Darkness, but Blizzard has said that Garrosh was planned to undergo Character Development and become a hero before his arc was changed. If we look at Cataclysm under the assumption that Garrosh is a hero, things start to change. His Even Evil Has Standards moments become the first steps in him growing as a character instead. Contrasting this, we have Sylvanas. If she was disobeying a hero instead of a villain when she did things like plague-bombing a neutral nation, things change even further. Elsewhere, the Frostwolves refuse to assist the Forsaken because of the atrocities they have committed. During testing, there was dialogue that completely changed the context of free will of the undead Sylvanas raised before it was altered for release. Now consider the controversy over Sylvanas potentially having something to do with the ambush at the Wrathgate after all. This would have come across as more of a standard reveal than a Retcon if it had been revealed in the very next expansion instead of ten years down the line. In other words, what if "Cataclysm" was eventually supposed to lead into revealing Sylvanas as a bad apple in the Horde instead of Garrosh?

As for the 'everything else' I mentioned, they are all things that would seem coincidental on their own, but all of them together start to add up. Most blatantly, there is Azshara. The official "Cataclysm" website originally listed Azshara as a major character and early leaks put her on equal terms with Deathwing, but by the time the expansion came out, she had such little presence that an interview once falsely claimed that she wasn't in it at all. There is a lot of evidence that Azshara had a more significant role planned for Cataclysm before being cut. After continuing to be missing for the next few expansions aside from "Legion", Azshara is finally making her full debut in "Battle for Azeroth".

Word of God also confirmed that Kul Tiras would appear in "Cataclysm" on two separate occasions, before it ended up not appearing at all. However, what should also finally appear in "Battle for Azeroth", but Kul Tiras?

Another thing that was considered unusual back in the day was that it was confirmed that N'Zoth was "signing Deathwing's checks", and yet the expansion itself never actually referenced N'Zoth by name. Again, N'Zoth is finally making his debut in "Battle for Azeroth", reinforcing the possibility that the role he was planned to play was cut and moved to later along with everything else.

A minor point that might be related to this idea, and comes from "Battle for Azeroth", has to do with Azerite. Famously, Sargeras stabbing Azeroth is what made the world aware of Azerite coming to the surface. However, it's retroactively established that Azerite was first noticed just prior to the Cataclysm and was secretly crucial to the goblin's story. Being another event that broke the world, it's entirely possible that even something like Azerite was originally planned to play a role in "Cataclysm", and Sargeras stabbing Azeroth was just a new way to explain the plot that was originally meant for an event that had long since passed.

• A continuation in favor of this idea: The War of Thorns, when the Horde invaded and conquered the Night Elf lands, perfectly matches with Garrosh's ambitions during Cataclysm. Assume Garrosh sieges Theramore and lures a large part of their fleet to the city, then bombs it as in Mists of Pandaria. With the Alliance forces in Kalimdor cut off from the Eastern Kingdoms, Garrosh can blitz his way to Teldrassil and force the Night Elves to accept his terms. The burning of Teldrassil, possibly accidental here, shames Garrosh and enrages the Alliance; Varian, already furious about the state of Lordaeron, leads an invasion of the Undercity in retaliation. The Horde fleet heading to relieve the siege is wiped out by a furious Jaina, setting the scene for both factions needing new allies with fleets to continue their war.

Sylvanas will be slain/imprisioned at the end of Battle for Azeroth and Baine will succeed her as warchief

Considering she seems to turn into Garrosh 2.0, this development isn't outside the realm of possibility.

• Jossed. The warchief position is turning into a council of sorts including Baine and Thrall, and Sylvanas not only survives but kicks off the next expansion.

N'Zoth wants to kill Azeroth so that he can corrupt her

• "In my lifetime, I have twice witnessed a sundering of the world. Mother Moon, I pray I do not see a third."
• "At the hour of her third death, she will usher in our coming."

• What if this refers to Azeroth, and N'Zoth using her to open the way for the Void Lords? While N'Zoth is known for corruption rather than death, there is a subtle death theme that pervades many of his appearances. Thros, a death realm, is confirmed to be a part of the Emerald Nightmare. Most obviously, his Hearthstone card (which was generic before they explicitly brought in the story team to help develop it), resummons all Deathrattle minions that died that game. In Azshara's Warbringer video, N'Zoth begins to speak as the fish only once it stops struggling, and he corrupts Azshara herself after she begins drowning. Other servants that have assisted N'Zoth at one point, including Deathwing, Cho'gall, and Xavius, are all known for dying at some point, only to return later with little or no explanation.

• My conclusion, thus, is that death is an important element of N'Zoth's corruption. Furthermore, Sargeras seemed convinced that he could save the universe from the Void if he killed everything, leaving the Void with nothing left to corrupt. Nevertheless, Xal'atath did not seem worried about the Legion's goals, and even said that destroying everything would not stop the Void. In Battle for Azeroth, N'Zoth redirects our attempt to save Azeroth with our collected Azerite to instead free himself. If he needed Azeroth alive to corrupt her and fulfill his goals, this would seem like a massive risk. However, if he needs Azeroth dead, then he's killing two birds with one stone.

• When the Twilight Hermit says that the end of the world is closing in, he means it. Azeroth might even actually die, because You Can't Thwart Stage One. It might be after Azeroth dies that we will need to stop N'Zoth.

The Old Gods aren't aiming to corrupt titans after all

• The first volume of the Chronicle established a definitive chronology and history for the Warcraft universe stretching back to the beginning of time. It revealed the nature of Light and Void, and introduced the Void Lords as the Greater Scope Villains behind everything, including explaining Sargeras' crusade as a desperate plan to prevent any possibility of them entering reality.

• There are two problems with this. First, by the end of Legion, particularly in A Thousand Years of War, they were already setting up the idea that the Light and Void were both capable of good and evil, something that has come up a few times in Battle for Azeroth. This throws out the idea of the Void as a Greater-Scope Villain all on its own. Second, Sargeras' ability to corrupt Aggramar and his goal of a Dark Pantheon completely contradicts everything in the Chronicle about what the Void Lords were planning and how Sargeras thought he could stop them (specifically, the idea that titans could only be corrupted before birth, and that Sargeras needed to kill unborn titans so that the Void couldn't use them).

• In all of the infamous whispers and various comments from N'Zoth and his minions, corrupting Azeroth never really seems to be a topic. Certainly, corruption is still in their nature, but when it comes to goals rather than events, they mostly talk about ushering in or freeing themselves, opening our eyes to something, or saving us from some greater enemy (mentioned both by N'Zoth and by the Void in Alleria). Notably, Xal'atath refers to even the naaru as brethren, not enemies, so it can't just be a matter of cosmic rivalry. What N'Zoth's goal actually is in this case, I cannot say, but the mystery shrouding the story at the moment would make a lot more sense if the motivation we were given for the Big Bad isn't the one that's currently canonical.

N'Zoth's prison isn't on Azeroth

• Azshara's goal in the Eternal Palace raid is to free N'Zoth, and it appears as if she might have succeeded, but many have noticed what appears to be a Plot Hole. The Adventure Guide reconfirms that Nazjatar was built upon the ruins of Zin-Azshari where the Well of Eternity once was. The Well of Eternity, in turn, was built upon the wound in the world left when Aman'Thul pulled Y'shaarj out of the planet. Why would N'Zoth have been imprisoned in a sensitive area of the planet that was also another Old God's home?

• However, you reach N'Zoth's prison by teleporting from an area called the Precipice of Dreams after fighting a boss called the Harbinger of Ny'alotha, so maybe the prison is not physically nearby at all. In the Azshara Warbringer, N'Zoth tells Azshara that he was bound beneath these waves, but Ny'alotha is also implied to be a sunken city. Notably, Azshara visibly closes her eyes and it fades to black before things get weird (and it fades to black again when all of those things are done). Also known as a sleeping city, it's possible that Azshara was not seeing a vision of N'Zoth under the Great Sea, but him and his prison in Ny'alotha. The visuals match up to artwork of the Black Empire in general, but the obelisk spires, and its ability to impress even Azshara, line up to the two things that Xal'atath said about Ny'alotha.

• Il'gynoth said it would rest in Ny'alotha when it's killed, and that's not the only reference implying a potential link between death and Ny'alotha. Ny'alotha is also oft assumed to be part of the Shadowlands. Perhaps when Xal'atath said that N'Zoth losing a battle with Y'shaarj ended up being advantageous, that advantage was actually being killed and being sent to the Shadowlands. Maybe when he is called the drowned god, it's not just symbolic. While we've seen pieces of what are presumably his body, only the eyes move. In his appearances in the Rise of Azshara trailer and Eternal Palace cutscene where he's more active, on the other hand, his tentacles are shadowy and ethereal. One fairly certain way to survive the heroes of Azeroth is by already being dead and not physically on Azeroth to begin with.

Potential Identities of the Death villain

Now that Sylvanas' dialogue directly addressed the idea of a mysterious, potential Death villain and referenced it distinctly from N'Zoth, I think it's time to start guessing if we might have clues as to its identity.

• The Lich King. Blizzard once said that Ner'zhul and Arthas were both actually holding back the Scourge. Perhaps the real reason "there must always be a Lich King" is to serve as the finger in the hole in a massive dam holding back the true source of that power. This could explain why Bolvar's voice still changed and why Bolvar has become an Anti-Hero, at best, despite not falling before taking up the mantle like Ner'zhul or Arthas. Alluding to this, the warnings from the Memory of Arthas in Legion line up with the way the Death villain is described by Sylvanas. From this perspective, I think it's also possible that the villain has made another hole in the dam, given Bolvar's paranoia (from the Chronicle) in having lost control of the val'kyr.

• The mysterious fifth entity on the inside cover of Chronicle Volume 3. Law of Conservation of Detail says that Blizzard didn't design a creature to match the other Old Gods, and surround them with distinct imagery of skulls and bones, just to fill space. N'Zoth is supposed to be the last Old God, but it's already been theorized that Xal'atath is the remnant of a dead Old God, so perhaps this Death villain is already dead. This Death villain also apparently expects to kill N'Zoth, but this is nothing new. N'Zoth has been a part of every Enemy Civil War between the Old Gods, as elaborated by Xal'atath in Legion. During the Uu'nat fight, N'Zoth's dialogue implies he has made it his goal to warn us about this hungering Death, and might even end up the Token Good Teammate of the Old Gods by virtue of Even Evil Has Standards.

• A Void Lord. A 2017 interview revealed that not all Void Lords have the same motives, so the Death villain who wants N'Zoth dead might be a different Void Lord than the one N'Zoth serves. The sheer power of a Void Lord could be why everyone was shocked at what sort of power Sylvanas showed, despite its purple coloring not being unusual for magic we've seen before. Such a threat would line up with the Myth Arc first established by the Chronicle and it would certainly explain why even N'Zoth and the Void inside Alleria have been acting so scared.

• Alternate Cho'gall's master. Who Cho'gall was serving in Warlords of Draenor was never revealed. However, his taunts about death coming, us being consumed, and giving into darkness, closesly match the wording used by Sylvanas about the Death villain (although they aren't particularly unique). In such a case, it becomes likely that this was also the dark one that Ephial was trying to prove himself to.

• All of the above. Perhaps it could be that Cho'gall was serving a Void Lord who previously tried to use someone like the Lich King to manifest in our universe, and was depicted alongside the Old Gods in the Chronicle because of their mutual connections.

Shadowlands

Sylvanas will be the Disc-One Final Boss of the expansion

• Sylvanas has followed almost the exact same storyline as Garrosh (despite assurances she wouldn't) including becoming increasingly tyrannical, restarting the war with the Alliance, alienating a large part of the horde, and utilizing the power of an Old God before ultimately being dethroned in Orgimmar. Provided the Shadowlands leak was legitimate, she'll be the final non-raid boss of the expansions first patch, much like Garrosh himself was.
  • Confirmed: Sylvanas serves as the final boss of the Chains of Domination patch.

The player will be able to travel back in time to the pre-Cataclysm world

• One of the things that were advertised is the ability to "follow Chromie back in time and tackle any other expansion you choose" for leveling. Why not allow players to travel to the "classic" Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor? For bonus points, this would allow the player to go through now defunct dungeons (such as original versions of Deadmines, Naxxramas, Zul'Gurub etc...). This would differ from Classic in that it would still use the mechanics from Shadowlands.
  • Jossed. What did I expect...

Sylvanas is acutally working against the Jailer

• She says in the trailer she will "set us all free". Perhaps she is only helping him in order to get powerful enough to destroy him and free the souls wrongly trapped in the Maw.
  • Jossed. Good intentions or no, she was working for the Jailer.

The Jailer is the original ruler of the Shadowlands

• The Jailer originally ruled over the Shadowlands until the Arbiter overthrew and exiled him. He viewed new souls as little more than fodder for the spirits native to the Shadowlands and let beings like Mueh'zala run free. The horror stories of the Shadowlands stem from the time of his rule and regions of the realm he governed which the Arbiter has yet to bring under her new order.
  • Jossed, the Jailer was the original Arbiter, but he was not the ruler of Shadowlands.

The Jailer is a "mirror" being of Aman'thul and there may be more like him

• Leaked artwork shows what appears to be the Jailer's appearance which is strikingly similar to Aman'thul, the ruler of the Pantheon; this is because he is essentially Aman'thul's evil twin. Essentially, when a Titan is gestating they absorb the Spirit element of a planet, which is the element of Life. All things must be in balance so this causes Decay, the element of Death, to form a concentration mirroring the Titan. In Aman'thul's case, this became the Jailer.
  • Similarly, the death spirit Mueh'zala who considers devouring Azeroth its destiny is the twin of Azeroth.
  • The Winter Queen has stated Ysera is the pet of her "sister". This could align her as the sister of Eonar, who originally empowered Ysera.

The Jailer is the "boss" Bwonsamdi offhandly mentioned once

• Jossed. Bwonsamdi's boss is another loa named Muzhala.

Bolvar will take the Jailer's place after his defeat

• The Maw serves a purpose in the wider scheme of the universe and all existence. A prison for the vilest and dangerous souls in a setting where they can slip back into the physical plane to wreak untold havoc. A place for the likes of Gul'dan, Cho'gal, and any number of horrific beings. But the Jailer has abandoned his duty in pursuit of power, damning all souls to his prison. He must be deposed, but a vital position in the Shadowlands will become vacant. No one knows duty greater than Bolvar Fordragon, and he is willing to make the Maw what it is supposed to be once more. He will take the mantle and become the true "Jailer of the Damned" once and for all.
  • Jossed.

Uther is the reason the Jailer is stealing souls

As shown in "Afterlives: Bastion", Devos and Uther claimed Arthas after he died and cast him into the Maw personally. The problem is, they took his soul directly to the Maw. When souls die, they must first be judged by the Arbiter. Once the Arbiter judges a soul, the anima they built up is distributed to feed the Shadowlands, with the bulk of the anima going to the realm the soul is destined to. But by throwing Arthas in themselves, the Jailer just recieved a soul with all of his anima. And since the Lich King was a very influential person in life, that was a lot of anima. The Jailer likely never received so much power at once in his entire career. And with that first taste, eventually he wanted more...

Possible events that broke the engine of death - Feel free to add

• We've been told that the engine of death broke sometime around the events of Legion. With Elune able to rescue Ysera's soul in Val'sharah, but not the night elves of Teldrassil, it's likely that death was broken sometime between those two events. However, the ability to do the zones in any order muddies the question of the canonical order of zones (aside from finding Sylvanas' ship in Azsuna taking place before Stormheim). With that in mind, here are some standout moments:
  • Sylvanas' deal with Helya. We still don't know what the details of the deal were, which make it suspicious, but also impossible to pin down.
  • Anything regarding Helya's defeat and Odyn's freedom. Odyn circumvented the natural order of death to begin with by creating the val'kyr, and was only able to do so after making a deal with one of the Jailer's associates. While that clearly did not break the engine in the past, the ending of his war with Helya in the expansion could have triggered something new along the way.
  • The shattering of the Soulcage. If this worked in the Jailer's favor, it would be strange that he didn't have Sylvanas break it herself. However, Eyir said that Sylvanas didn't know what she was meddling with, so it's likely that the Soulcage was in some way tied into something greater than simply the ability to subjugate val'kyr.
  • The Burning Legion using Argus to resurrect themselves. This is an extremely widespread version of meddling with the natural order of death. The details kept changing, but one of the later quests implied that Argus was the only reason the demons were ever able to respawn. It's possible that us turning off this method they had been using to cheat death caused an issue when it was suddenly turned off after so long.
    • Backing this, internally Argus is referred to as the "Titan of Death" and thematically he uses armor similar to the Eternal Travelers and magic that has the same color motif as death magic.
  • The stabbing of Azeroth. The Jailer is interested in Azeroth, and she is known to be an unprecedentedly powerful world soul. While Azeroth has no currently known connection to the Shadowlands, the stabbing was nevertheless the meeting of two absurdly powerful cosmic forces, which could understandably have unintended side effects.
  • The Blades of the Fallen Prince played a role. These blades were reforged using the remains of Frostmourne, a weapon crafted in the Maw using the Jailer's power. While crafted at Bolvar's request, he was likely guided by knowledge gifted by the Maw-crafted Helm of Domination. It's not hard to imagine that they could have been secretly designed to bring about the current situation.
  • None of the above. Either the event will be something we never knew about (like someone in Oribos personally making the Arbiter dormant), or they'll intentionally keep it vague to avoid contradicting it.

The Maw works on a principle of Balancing Death's Books

• Annhylde could bring back the dead with no trouble when it came to Ingvar. When it came to Sylvanas, who had ended up in the Maw in Edge of Night, Annhylde had to die in exchange, but otherwise successfully freed someone from the supposedly inescapable Maw. The story also points out how similar Sylvanas is to the Val'kyr. However, not all souls are entirely equivalent to each other. Three Val'kyr had to sacrifice themselves to save Sylvanas in Silverpine. Perhaps the Jailer redirecting all souls to the Maw isn't simply to empower himself, but that a soul as ancient and powerful as his will need millions of mortal souls in order to equal his and take his place to allow him to escape. This would largely be consistent with the idea of the Maw being inescapable, since the Jailer wouldn't be able to find something to replace him under normal circumstances, and the rest of the souls in the Maw are supposed to be so evil that few people would want to sacrifice themselves to rescue them.

The Dreadlords were working for the Jailer all along

• The Nathrezim are known for their deception and infiltration, and what better deception than having even their true allegiance to the Burning Legion be a lie? While not as efficient as breaking the engine of death and sending every soul to the Maw, assisting the Burning Crusade in wiping out the worlds of the universe is nevertheless going to send quite a bit of deserving souls there. Even with the new lore that the Runecarver created the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne, rather than the Dreadlords as we were originally told, that still means the Dreadlords knew about the Maw and had a reason to look there for artifacts. In this case, Mal'ganis would have been angered by Arthas killing him not because Ner'zhul was betraying the Legion, but because he was betraying the Jailer, since we were told that both Ner'zhul and Arthas were holding the power back. Also, this could explain how Varimathras on Argus knew about what Sylvanas was doing despite him being kicked out before she made a pact with the Jailer, if he himself had a connection with the Jailer.
  • Building on this, there's an item that can be found in Sinfall, a book called Enemy Infiltration - Preface, that summarizes the weaknesses of the Titans, Legion, Void Lords, the Light, and Life itself, presumably written to Sire Denathrius. While there's nothing directly pointing to the Dreadlords, there are multiple things suggesting them. The item is located in an area called the Spire of the Unseen Guests, and "Unseen Guests" is the meaning for the Nathrezim's own name for themselves. It also mentions things the Dreadlords were directly responsible for (stating that the Titans' unity could be fractured, which the Dreadlords did with Sargeras) and events that they could have been part of (manipulating the Light by making it believe one of their own had converted to its cause, which is the case for Lothraxion) and, last but potentially not least, the fact that the Nathrezim report to the ruler of Castle Nathria, Sire Denathrius.
  • Confirmed with the Chains of Domination patch. The Nathrezim are confirmed to be creations of Denathrius who are serving the interests of their creators and the Jailer.

Arthas would have been sent to Revendreth.

• It's true that towards the end, the Lich King was a vile monster that needed to be stopped. But even with his heart cut out and destroyed, some shred of the original Crown Prince was still in Arthas as he died. Let's not forget, he was manipulated into becoming the Lich King in the first place. The crimes he committed in Stratholm and Northrend before taking up Frostmourne were his, yes, but comparatively small potatoes to what he did when his soul was stolen. Had the Arbiter been allowed to judge Arthas, he most likely would have been sent to Revendreth to try and earn his redemption. Uther and Devos denied him that chance by spiriting him away and casting him into the Maw of their own accord.

Where the souls of Warcraft are in the Shadowlands.

A Just for Fun section where we speculate what afterlife in the Shadowlands the various characters ended up in. Unmarked spoilers below:

• The Maw
  • Both versions of Gul'dan
  • Cho'gall
  • Xavius
  • Archimond
  • Kil'jaeden
  • Onixia
  • Deathwing
  • Ner'zhul
  • Malkorok
  • Vincent Godfrey
• Bastion
  • Korialstrasz
  • Rhonin
  • Cairne Bloodhoof
• Revendreth
  • Malygos
• Maldraxxus
  • Broxigar Saurfang
  • Daelin Proudmoore
• Ardenweald
• The Other Side
• The Light
  • Maraad
  • Xe'ra

Sylvanas's soul was split in two by Frostmourne and her "good" side will appear in Shadowlands

• In Uther's "Afterlives" video his soul is visibly torn in two when Arthas slays him, half absorbed into Frostmourne and half taken to Bastion. The half bound in Frostmourne possessed some of Uther's best traits which is why the half in Bastion gave into the desire for revenge. The same thing happened to Sylvanas, with the part of her soul that was manifested as a banshee lacking the compassion and hope that drove her while living. Finding the other half of her soul will play a role in the Banshee Queen's downfall.
  • Confirmed: At the end of the Chains of Domination patch the Jailer returns the stolen portions of Sylvanas's soul and abandons her to the mercy of Azeroth's heroes.

Revendreth's real purpose is to deny the Jailer anima

• According to their original purpose, Revendreth exists to cleanse the most sinful souls and grant them a chance at redemption. While this is one outcome of their process, the main purpose is to ensure the Jailer receives as little anima as possible. Souls that cannot be redeemed will be drained of as much anima as possible before they are sentenced to the Maw, ensuring the Jailer can never rebuild his strength.

Kael'thas will eventually return to the land of the living as a vampire elf, maybe even their leader

• The vampiric San'layn were teased as a possible future allied race when they appeared in a Battle for Azeroth storyline. Kael'thas is stil fairly popular and and loads of story potential, which was ultimately hangstrung by the technical limits of early WoW. It's likely that much like with Illidan they will seak to correct that.

Turalyon's regency is going to cause some trouble for the Alliance in the long run

• Let's be clear: Turalyon is great. But he probably shouldn't be in charge of the Entire Alliance, he's a military commander, not a statesman or a diplomat.
  • His dailogue after Anduin taken is along the lines of "Perhaps there are other holdings of the old Alliance that could be secured" and that has historically ended... poorly for the Alliance.
  • Furthermore, if his lines from the Battle of Stromgarde are any indication he has... kind of old fashioned values on how things should work on Azeroth. "Monsterous Horde", scoffing at Horde Paladins, etc.
  • "Enemy Infiltration" all but states that Lothraxion, the Lightforged nathrezim and Turalyon's close ally, is a double agent planted by Sire Denathrius. He now has a direct line to the head of the Alliance and can exercise his race's penchant for guiding other races to their downfall.

The Runecarver is the actual Banished One while the Jailer usurped his position

• When the Banished One was cast into the Maw all contact was severed between him and the Eternal Ones who are still our allies. As such none of them were aware that there was a rebellion and the Jailer usurped his power and authority. The Runecarver has had so many of his memories drained that he can't quite recall who he was; over the course of the expansion he'll regain them thanks to us and challenge the Jailer for his stolen throne.
  • Jossed: The Runecarver was the Primus all along.

The Red Soul that slammed into The Arbiter that knocked her unconscious during the cinematic was actually the soul of Argus the Unmaker

• When we first contain Argus' World Soul in The Seat of The Pantheon, it looked like a normal constellation until Sargeras awakened him; the constellation turned red before Argus formed. All of the Titans were created from the raw Arcane power that the Universe was born from; to have such a mighty soul die and one that was tortured and twisted over 25,000 years to resurrect the Legions' vast armies to wage war against all of creation. I can only imagine that whatever little The Arbiter had seen within Argus was enough to render her unconscious to prevent herself from going insane at what she saw.
  • "Enemy Infiltration" all but says that the nathrezim are an entire race of double agents created by Sire Denathrius to undermine the other cosmic powers. If this is the case, they've had access to Argus for all of that time as well and could have been subtly manipulating it specifically to cause this. And backing this up is the fact that only the anima of Venthyr production turns red.
• Confirmed: 9.2 confirms that the soul of Argus was infused with death and used as a "maul" to cripple the Arbiter.

The Jailer is responsible for the current system that he wants to overthrow

• It seems awfully strange that the "default" position of Oribos (based on its design and function when the Arbiter is down) is to direct everyone straight into an inescapable land of torture. The Maw also has a First Ones waystone to leave it, implying that it may not have originally been designed to be inescapable. Finally, the Arbiter is the only Eternal One to appear artificial. My conclusion is that the Maw was originally a normal land in the Shadowlands (maybe even technically the only one, like Kalimdor on Azeroth before the Sundering). Then the Jailer did something that shattered the Shadowlands. As punishment, he was imprisoned in the area left most irrecoverable after this cataclysm (now the Maw), and the Arbiter was created not so much to direct souls to their proper destinations, but to direct them away from where Oribos was originally designed to send them. This would also be the twist on the Jailer's motives, a way for his claims to not offset his role as the Big Bad. He has lured many to his cause with a sympathetic story about a corrupt system, but conveniently leaves out the part where the system was built as a necessary evil to cover for his mess.
  • Alternatively, the Jailer's crime was the creation of something which draws all souls to his realm. Realizing their own realms would be starved, the other Eternal Ones attacked the Maw in an attempt to stop this but were unable to do so. The Maw itself was shattered and the Jailer chained; the Eternal Ones then set up the Arbiter in the center of the flow of souls headed for the Maw to forcibly direct them away.
• Jossed: Zovaal was created by the First Ones to serve as Arbiter but eventually rebelled against his purpose. The "shattered" nature of the Shadowlands is due to each realm being individually crafted by the Forge of Afterlives with no connection to others.

A content patch will focus on a "lost" realm overrun by Devourers

• Background lore states that nobody knows where the Devourers come from but it's speculated they are breeding on a lost realm in the In-Between. Players will visit one of these realms both to cull their numbers and search for information from before the Jailer's imprisonment.
  • Jossed. Shadowlands is finished. Maybe in another expansion, which is unlikely.

Kel'Thuzad cheated his way out of being sent to Revendreth or the Maw

• Despite causing immense death and suffering on Azeroth, Kel'Thuzad managed to avoid punishment in the afterlife. It is possible he gained connections in the Shadowlands that let him bypass the Arbiter's judgment. Alternatively, his phylactery was directly delivered to Maldraxxus (possibly at the request of Margrave Sin'dane or Baroness Ninadar for their own purposes) instead of being presented to the Arbiter.
  • His soul could have been sent to Revendreth initially only for Sire Denathrius to personally redirect him to Maldraxxus as part of his alliance with the Jailer.
  • The Lich King's Val'kyr might have been able to redirect his soul after he died, bypassing the Arbiter much as Devos and Uther did with Arthas.

The Val'kyr who "saved" Sylvanas were the ones who sent her to the Maw

• The Val'kyr who allied with Sylvanas obviously had the ability to redirect her soul given they prevented her initial descent into the afterlife. However they were also responsible for her going directly to the Maw. They captured her soul before the kyrian were aware and offered her the chance to return to undeath. When she refused, they cast her into the Maw where she caught the Jailer's interest. Had they not intervened, Sylvanas would have at worst been sent to Revendreth due to her sins as leader of the Forsaken.

Ardenweald is the "true" purpose of the Shadowlands and everything else exists to support it

• The Titans needed a way to ensure that the beings they empowered could not permanently die. To that end, they created Ardenweald as a place for them to regain their strength if something managed to kill them. Bastion brings souls to the Arbiter for sorting, Maldraxxus trains warriors to defend the Shadowlands, Revendreth extracts anima to feed the wildseeds, Oribos makes sure everything stays in working order, and the Maw is a trash bin for anything that could damage the system. This is also why Bwonsomdi sets up shop there despite not fitting in with the aesthetic, he's gonna go where the true power lies.
• Jossed: The Shadowlands are a system created by the First Ones to control the flow of life and death.

A content patch will feature Maw invasions similar to the invasion events of previous expansions

• At the conclusion of the 9.0 Necrolord story, Kel'thuzad enacts a ritual that apparently breaks the seal preventing the Jailer's forces from leaving the Maw. He is able to summon a being out of the Maw and the Jailer's fallen Ascended are able to draw Kel'thuzad through a portal into the Maw. In a future patch, Kel'thuzad and other Covenant traitors will use this ability to launch invasions into the other realms.

A general outline of my guess for some upcoming plot points.

• At the end of 9.1, Sylvanas will face Death Equals Redemption, in her final moments she will regret having helped turn Anduin and give us a key to save him: the location Arthas is being held in the Maw. When we get there, Arthas will be in a similar situation to Jaina in Thros. Uther will have to face his hatred and retake his role as Arthas' mentor and friend in order to bring Arthas out so he can help us destroy the Jailer's control over Anduin. By the end of the expansion, Anduin will be free and survive, but retain the white hair and look haggard from the experience.
  • Jossed for everything except Anduin being freed of Jailer's control. He doesn't retain the looks either.

The Shadowlands wasn't originally about "Death" at all

• From what we know now, natives to the various realms of the cosmos are deathless unless they are killed within their own realm. Only mortals die no matter where they're killed. However, it's heavily implied that what happened to Z'rali is that Denathrius discovered how to break this system for a being of the Light, leaving open the possibility that even mortals weren't supposed to be mortal. The Night Fae questline even talks about the first mortal who arrived in Ardenweald, with the mortal explaining to the Winter Queen why they were in Ardenweald. Seems a bit odd to have a timeless cosmic being have their role explained by a random mortal.
  • My theory is that Zovaal saw himself as the only one capable of ensuring justice throughout the cosmos (perhaps after being confronted by some terrible, unchecked injustice much like Sargeras had), creating the role of an arbiter for himself and calling himself "The Jailer". In order to play this role, he needed to force souls to come to him when they die rather than return to their home realms and found some way, as a result creating the first mortals. So far that's as far as he got, but his endgame is to do this to all realms (there have been several references to the idea of Death trying to claim and devour everything).
  • Importantly, this happened so early on in the cosmic scale that he was able to convince his siblings it was the natural order of things and isn't the direct reason for his imprisonment. Thus, when Zovaal was imprisoned and became the Banished One, they removed his heart and used it to create an artifical "Arbiter" to fulfill the same Purpose, not realizing that the purpose itself was corrupt. Zovaal now reveals that corruption to sway allies, while failing to admit that his actual plan is to expand that corruption. The Covenants unwittingly upholding a system created by Zovaal to begin with would also explain why each has a problem that has nothing to do with the Arbiter being broken (most notably with the legitimate greivances of the Forsworn).
  • The Maw, taken for granted as the prison for the worst evils, would in this situation be Zovaal's ultimate arrogance (perhaps built with the theoretical evil that frightened him in mind). More and more characters are pointing out how horrible the Maw is and questioning whether anyone even deserves it. This is also supported by several of the Sinstones you can read in Revendreth, which describe absolutely monstrous people whose deeds are arguably even worse than the worst villain we've actually faced, but are nevertheless often implied to have found a permanent place in Revendreth. This will turn out to be because no one does deserve the Maw, no matter how bad (notice how he tends to have to force people into it), and it was a realm Zovaal created specifically to serve his twisted brand of justice, when his siblings' existing realms weren't good enough.
• Jossed: Zovaal was created by the First Ones along with the other Eternals. The Shadowlands were always meant to be a realm of death separate from the others.

Zovaal will turn out to be right, but still evil

• When the expansion first came out, the reveal that the Kyrians were throwing souls into the Maw while knowing the Arbiter was broken simply because of "The Path" caused many players (and Kleia, albeit briefly) to say What the Hell, Hero? and label the Archon especially as Lawful Stupid at best. The Forsworn, despite Jumping Off the Slippery Slope moments, had such a blatantly sympathetic argument that many saw them as a Designated Villain group. Then in the first major patch it becomes plot relevant that the Archon was wrong and learns to accept the Forsworn (despite this being obvious to the audience all along). This sets the precedent that other things we've questioned about the Eternal Ones may be intentional.
• A mystery at the launch of the expansion was what horrific evil the Jailer could have possibly done to deserve a fate worse than most villains in Warcraft history (and inflicted upon him by his own siblings, no less). When the question is finally broached, the first main excuse is that he wanted to access some knowledge that he and his siblings were told was forbidden by the First Ones, making their reaction seem like some zealous Disproportionate Retribution rather than anything approaching justice.
• Cryptic dialogue from an artifact in Korthia, a city of secrets left by the First Ones, refers to it as the city of lies instead. Zovaal's minions in the area can also mention lies.
  • My conclusion is that the Eternal Ones were lied to, probably by the First Ones, and not only did Zovaal learn the truth of this lie, but if his siblings had treated him better it all could have been avoided. However, at this point, he's jumped off the slippery slope and will use the truth for some evil we inevitably have to stop.
• Semi-Confirmed: Zovaal was originally motivated by his belief that the "seventh force" would destroy reality unless the six forces were all united.

The greater cosmic threat that Zovaal saw was the Void Lords. He like Sargeras saw the danger they posed and wanted to unite the cosmos to stand a chance against them.

Shadowlands originally had a different plot that was overhauled late in development

• A common criticism of Shadowlands is a perception of it being too much of a Standalone Episode for taking place in a realm we'd only briefly glimpsed before, told almost entirely through new characters, and featuring a Big Bad who had barely even been foreshadowed before. What did not help this perception, is the many examples of Fauxshadowing leading up to the expansion, as seen in some previous WMGs. For example, both the announcement trailer for Shadowlands and the launch cinematic dramatically feature the Jailer in chains, implying his breaking free being a major plot point, only for the expansion to start with him already freed without even suggesting he was ever imprisoned to begin with (aside from being trapped in the Maw as a whole), with the Runecarver instead being a mysterious character chained in a similar way. A major mystery going into the expansion was also "What broke the engine of death?", with many implications in previous expansions, yet while this question was technically answered, the actual plot completely brushed over it and left it as a vague piece of trivia.

• However, Orphaned References throughout the expansion and beyond imply that these pieces of Fauxshadowing may have been the unintentional result of the original plot having been excised too late to adjust.
  • In the beta, many items in the Maw had Flavor Text, one of which referenced a time before the Maw was called the Maw. The idea that the Maw was ever anything but the Maw is a plot point that never comes up at all in the final version of the expansion.
  • 9.1 added a variety of Maw-themed cosmetic items, most of which have a golden variant.
  • Despite being off-doubted, concept art floating around on the internet of the Jailer as a bearded being with golden armor is both consistent with the golden armor from 9.1 and matches his silhouette from the announcement trailer exactly (a silhouette his final appearance wouldn't match at all).
  • Without the Arbiter, all souls default to going to the Maw. This has terrifying existential implications in the final version of the story, but makes a lot of sense in a version where the Maw used to be a nice place to go, before it was ruined and the Arbiter (the only Eternal One to look and act like a robot outside of Zereth Mortis) was created to fix the problem.

• All of this paints a picture of a very different story where the Maw was once a nice place with golden spires that Zovaal may have ruled, before something happened that turned the place into a barren, gray ruin and led to him being imprisoned there. By its very nature, this completely different premise would have had very different implications throughout the expansion, and its removal late enough to still have assets used in the announcement trailer and 9.1 could explain why the rest of the expansion's plot violated Show, Don't Tell and felt so disconnected and full of Aborted Arcs to players.

"Cartel Xy's Proof of Initiation" trinket has a bigger meaning.

• This trinket drops from the boss "Artificer Xy'mox" from the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid. This trinket may not look like much, but it teleports the player to random spots all over Azeroth, other continents and planets. These teleportation destinations range from unassuming, to oddly specific. This could be just a funny one-off item that adventurers are not required to think about, or a specific pattern that Cartel Xy paved for the adventurers in the past and future expansions and stories. Keep in mind that Cartel Xy is the most powerful Broker Cartel in all of the Shadowlands.

Dragonflight

One patch will deal with an underground zone, possibly Deepholm

• The Vault of Incarnates ends with the remaining Primal Incarnates retreating to rest after being freed. Iridikron, the earth elemental member, is stated to be the one who will shelter them. This indicates they are either underground or in Deepholm, the plane of earth elementals. The Black Dragonflight will help players access this zone to attack before they can regroup.
  • This also potentially allows the players to encounter the Djaradin Elders, the four most powerful leaders of the Djaradin who were defeated by Deathwing. Many Djaradin believe they are slumbering beneath the earth.
  • Confirmed: Patch 10.1 is a new underground zone where the Djaradin Elders will pose a threat.

Some Djaradin will ally with the Primalists due to a deal Iridikron struck with them

• The Djaradin are dedicated to hunting any dragons to prove their might, but there are also some proto-drakes with whom they seem to have a truce. Iridikron likely struck a deal with the Djaradin in the past, something which would disgust any of the other dragons or proto-drakes. Some of the Djaradin will assist them, while others will potentially join the players in search of a challenging fight.
  • Confirmed. Tarjin the Blind's fifth tale covers the Magma Pact, an alliance created between Iridikron and Djaradin when they were being drive back by the Dragonflights. The Djaradin only agreed because at least the Primalists are similar elemental beings, but planned to resume fighting them once the Aspects were defeated.

The big reveal of the expansion is that Azeroth's world soul isn't really a Titan

• The Titans claim world souls are all nascent Titans, but this is a lie. They can become elemental manifestations of whatever element dominates their planet, with Azeroth originally destined to become a Primalist incarnation. The Titans installed their various engines and armies to reshape her into a Titan. Raszageth and the other Primalists learned this truth and are disgusted by the manipulation of not only their own race but the planet itself.

Both the Infinite Dragonflight and Chromie will succeed in their goals regarding Nozdormu

• The Infinite Dragonflight seek to ensure Nozdormu will be corrupted into Murozond and take his place as their leader. Chromie has vowed to Screw Destiny and find a way to save Nozdormu from corruption and death. In the end, at the critical moment, both events will happen. Nozdormu will trigger a Time Crash that will turn him into Murozond, but as all of time and possibility go wild, Chromie will use the rampant time magic to split the Aspect into two possible futures. One will be a Nozdormu who turned away from what tempted him to forsake his oath at the last second, the other will be the Murozond who seeks the Hour of Twilight.

Both Sabellian and Wrathion will become the leaders of the Black Dragonflight, possibly alongside Ebyssian as their third co-leader/mediator.

• It is plainly clear that a large part of the Dragonflight story will be about them butting heads over who is the better candidate for leader, but what differs them from the conflict between Kalecgos and Arygos (where the latter was revealed to be a traitor) is that both are equally flawed for vastly different reasons. In Wrathion's case, he is young and well intentioned, but also extremely rash and prone to trying to manipulate the situation towards what he thinks is right, resulting in him accidentally making things worse with the Iron Horde. Sabellian by contrast is much older and more experienced with the intelligence and drastically better skill in manipulation, but he is plagued by his willing past atrocities he committed under the former Earth Warder, with uncertainty about whether he's actually managed to become uncorrupted, or if he's just playing a role.
  
  As such, assuming that Sabellian doesn't go traitor and is genuine, it'll become plainly clear that the two of them are not fit to be the sole leader of the flight, due to their respective flaws as leaders and as people, while any other potential candidates like Ebyssian are tricky due to the latter's reluctance to leave his role as a Highmountain. The answer therefore is that Sabellian and Wrathion will form a co-leadership (possibly alongside Ebyssian) akin to the Dwarven Council of Three Hammers, where each of them can balance the other out, with Wrathion being able to learn from the wisdom and experience of his elders, while Sabellian can properly begin to atone for his own past actions and learn from both Wrathion and Ebyssian. Ebyssian meanwhile will be a source of mediation for both in case they become too aggressive and hotheaded, without needing to devote all of his time into being the sole leader of a flight.
  • Proven false. Ebyssian becomes the Black Dragonflight Aspect, with Sabellian and Wrathion serving as his general and diplomat.

The Incarnates aside from Iridikron will die during the first patches, but will be brought back as undead variants using Decay for the final raid tier

• Decay is a very prominent force in the Dragon Isles, rather than the Life which is present elsewhere. Iridikron struck a deal with whatever caused it, or will do so soon. The other Incarnates would be disgusted at this, so he's kept it a secret. As he's being framed as the final big bad of the expansion, he won't pull out the Decay magic until the other three Incarnates are all dead, bringing them back in the last patch for his final assault on the Aspects.
  • Proven false as Iridikron left Azeroth through a void gate after the events of the Dawn of the Infinite and Vyranoth defected from the Primalists.

One of Iridikron's deals was struck with the Light

• Iridikron's magic doesn't quite match with past appearance of Earth magic, instead having some resemblance to Light magic. This is because one of the deals he struck during the Rebellion was with the forces of Light, possibly to act as a counter to Neltharion's growing connection to the Void. This reveal may help set up the conflict for the next expansion.

Vyranoth will make a Heel–Face Turn

• The expansion has been setting up from the beginning that the Primalists aren't wrong, implying that this dragon war will eventually end on good terms. However, with Raszageth dead, the three remaining Incarnates follow a pattern. Fyrakk is the aggressive, impulsive one, an unlikely candidate for a Heel–Face Turn. Iridikron is said to be the most obsessed with his grudge and even made a dark bargain he has kept from the other Incarnates, making him likely to be a full, unsympathetic villain. That just leaves Vyranoth.
  • This is further supported by the upcoming book, War of the Scaleborn. Its synopsis includes that Alexstrasza and Vyranoth were once friends, and that they were trying to keep peace between the Aspects and the Incarnates. That being said, though, Vyranoth and the other Incarnates end up imprisoned for 20,000 years anyway, and she seemed to mourn the loss of Raszageth (who was killed by adventurers at the behest of the Aspects) the most of the remaining Incarnates.
  • Confirmed. Vyranoth defected from the Primalists and sided with Alexstrasza against Fyrakk in the Fury Incarnate campaign from 10.1.7.

Odyn will be the final boss

• Odyn's edicts reinforce him as a tyrannical villan.
• Odyn wanted to reach a place called Avaloren, but was foiled every time by the "heretics" there.
• The Primalists would fit the description of heretics to Odyn, making them potential allies to the beings on Avaloren.
• Dragonflight shifted Kalimdor on the map, making room behind it for an island, but not a continent.
• So the guess is that 10.2's new zone will be Avaloren, an island west of Kalimdor. We will follow Iridikron there and, as normal for our heroes, will smash through the defenses that Odyn's expeditions had never been able to do. This will lead to a MacGuffin Delivery Service type twist, however, where Odyn will congratulate us on finally giving him access to Avaloren, but we'll realize that Odyn being there is much worse than the Primalists being there. We'll have to stop Odyn from enacting some sort of Order Is Not Good endgame, then in the aftermath finally bring some understanding between the Aspects and Incarnates.
  • Jossed. Fyrakk is the final boss of the Amirdrassil raid and the whole of the Dragonflight expansion. He does briefly appear in the Emerald Dream storyline, when Vyranoth convinces the Storm Drakes to break their bond of loyalty to Odyn.

The Fifth Old God is Good

• The earthen of Khaz Algar apparently seem to have become like dwarves without the curse of flesh. Avaloren also features "heretics" that Odyn wants destroyed, despite no apparent aggression from them. With the existence of a fifth Old God remaining in a new edition of an old in-game book, it's possible that this psuedo-curse of flesh is due to one of these locations (if they are distinct at all) harboring said fifth Old God. This would be consistent with lore in the past couple of expansions elaborating that no power is either inherently good or evil and contrast perfectly with this expansion specifically hammering in through Odyn's records that Order Is Not Good.

The Emerald Dream has a Secret Purpose

• We were told awhile back that the Emerald Dream is basically the Titan's blueprint for Azeroth. However, the wild, untamed wilderness of the Emerald Dream contrasts with the new implications of the Titans not merely being Order-themed but a bit Order-obsessed. However, even the Chronicle offered contradictory origins for the Emerald Dream and didn't confirm which one was true. Therefore it's possible that the Emerald Dream really is a Chaotic realm of Life predating the Titans. The Titan perspective may not entirely be a lie either, merely taking credit for the particular way in which they decided to fence this wilderness off. If the theory about the Emerald Dream being natural for Azeroth is true, this could tie into the earlier WMG about Azeroth not being exactly what we have been told she is.
  • Confirmed. Lore books in 10.2 reveal that the Emerald Dream is a small fraction of a much larger realm of life, with the Dream itself merely being the segment that the titans have been able to keep under some amount of control.

Odyn stopped the Aspects regaining their powers

• Odyn opposed the creation of the Aspects in the first place, but the other Keepers and the Titans overrode him. However, when the Aspects attempted to restore their powers it required approval from the Keepers and Odyn, as Prime Designate, refused to give it to them.

Tyr was the one who imbued the Proto-Drakes' Eggs with the Magic of Order

• He learned about Iridikron's dark dealings, and to prevent the Proto-Drakes falling to the Void (being the one who got to know what may come in that case with Galakrond), knowing that Alexstrasza is too attached to them to be decisive in doing so, he chose force. This will be revealed to the members of the Tyr's Guard (and probably, the Dragonflights) at the climax of his quest chain in 10.2.
  • It is also possible he believed that the relationship between the Aspects and the Incarnates would lead the former away from Order (and thus to corruption, which, as emphasized in 10.1, he feared most) and decided to infuse the eggs on purpose to drive a decisive wedge between them.
  • Somewhat confirmed. As revealed in the War of the Scaleborn novel, it was at Tyr's suggestion that the primal dragon eggs were imbued with Order magic and the keepers carried out this task after the Aspects gave permission.

Tyr is responsible for the creation of the Incarnates

• Tyr’s progress report on the construction of Uldorus was written chronologically before the events of the War of the Scaleborn novel. By the time of the first chapter the facility was already finished. In the report Tyr mentioned attempting to form a strategy to bring the primal dragons that refused to accept the Titans’ philosophies in line. That links well with his secret facility in Thaldraszus, in which he went on to experiment with imbuing the primal dragons with elemental energies as well as cataloging the lifecycle and overall potency of their phenotypes on the Isles.
• The information in the Hall of the Aspects not going further than the defeat of Galakrond goes to support the chronology of the aforementioned. The décor surrounding the holograms also suggests that the draconic society was already deep in its development by the time the facility was built.
• The novel refuses to elaborate on how exactly did Iridikron discover a way for the primal dragon to imbue oneself with the elemental energies outside of Fyrakk helping him with it, which can easily tie to Tyr and his experiments being involved, indirectly or otherwise.

The War Within

11.0 will be a Void Expansion

• A lore item in the Forbidden Reach recontextualized Il'gynoth's whispers to be about events in Dragonflight, events that have now almost completely taken place, teasing the return of Azshara. The Dawn of the Infinite dungeon ends with Iridikron escaping through a void portal with the silhouette of a mysterious ally. It is then noted that Vyranoth and Fyrakk has been left behind to finish his other goals. After that, the expansion won't have enough time to elaborate on Iridikron's escape and connection to the Void, leading to it being an obvious contender for the next expansion's plot. Similarly, the Incarnate's vendetta against the Titans has remained mostly unresolved, especially since Odyn, who was the instigator of most of what they hated, has not appeared in Dragonflight so far. However, the Titan's history with the Void would make for an appropriate pairing to bring into the spotlight in the next expansion.
  • As 12.0/World of Warcraft: Midnight is confirmed to the Void expansion, it seems unlikely that Blizzard would have two void expansions back to back.

11.0 will come with a World Revamp

• It's now been longer since Cataclysm than Cataclysm was from World of Warcraft's launch. In that time, a lot has changed, both for the game and expectations for the industry as a whole. While small improvements have been made to a new player experience over the years, such as a new starting zone, a level squish, and a concetrated leveling experience, many of them nevertheless leave the game disjointed and confusing for new players. As for veterans, many lament that the original continents of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor have been obsolete for over a decade.

• However, over the last few expansions, classic enemies and old buildings have been slowly updated to modern standards. The game has also been moving to more content that scales and reward structures that have value beyond the patch they're introduced in.

• There have been a few potential teases to a revamp as well, such as the orc heritage armor quest giving a prophecy of what a Cataclysm-affected area would look like in the near future. The dragonriding from Dragonflight is also poised to be introduced to the rest of the game as "Dynamic Flying", something the old world isn't really built for. While dragonriding races have been added to the old world, and this is cited as an argument against an impending revamp, the Kalimdor Cup is not mutually exclusive with a revamp, being a brief holiday that already requires Zidormi to access one of the races anyway.

Since 11.0 will presumably be launching around World of Warcraft's 20th anniversary, breathing new life into the original continents of the literal world of Warcraft by creating a modern experience for new players and potentially creating evergreen content for veterans would be a perfect way to celebrate the occasion.

11.0 will have a seafaring theme

• A book can be found on the Forbidden Reach about the pirate Nightsquall returning from some distant lands to the west and looking for volunteers to claim a new prize. Over the course of Dragonflight, an increasing number of cash shop or other cosmetic rewards have been nautical or exploration themed. The implication that Nightsquall found the lands to the west that Odyn was searching for ties it directly in with one of the biggest open plot threads. With Azshara's return teased as well, it seems that the sea will be an important part of the next expansion.

Midnight

Midnight will add Playable Forest Trolls as an Allied Race

• With the War Within only getting a single Allied Race that's a variant of an existing race, it doesn't seem to be too much of a stretch to guess that it's possible another expansion in the Worldsoul Saga will get a similar treatment. Midnight involving a return to Quel'thalas and the reunification of the elven tribes of Azeroth would make an elf variant an obvious pick, but all major variants are already playable (if only through customization on one). On the other hand, the Quel'thalas region is home to a different sort of variant of an existing playable race in the Amani tribe of trolls. The much more muscular forest trolls have been a popular pick for an Allied Race for some time, and would fit right in with the known setting of Midnight (and also parallel being a Horde themed race to the Earthen's Alliance themed race).

The Last Titan

The Last Titan will feature Avaloren

• It was often presumed that Khaz Algar and Avaloren were related locations, but with the War Within revealing Khaz Algar as its setting with no Avaloren in sight, Avaloren still seems to be unaccounted for. The Last Titan is associated with Northrend, but with the little information we have making a point of it being centered on Ulduar where the return of the Titans is witnessed, the extent of the rest of Northrend's relevance is incredibly vague. On the other hand, we know that Avaloren is still an incredibly well defended land of people who had disagreements with the Titans that the keepers wanted them to answer for. With The Last Titan also being said to be about a vast conspiracy involving the Titans that stretches throughout history, the "heretics" of Avaloren are a solid guess as where to get some answers.

It will be Revealed that World Souls are not Titans

• It's now been confirmed that there is a conspiracy involving the Titans and Azeroth is not necessarily what we've been told she is. Perhaps World Souls are not baby Titans after all, and the only reason World Souls become Titans is because the Pantheon has been Ordering them in the same way they're terrified of the Void Corrupting one. If allowed to be born without anyone tampering with them, a World Soul would become something else entirely, and this will be our goal in the Last Titan.

World of Warcraft Classic

World of Warcraft Classic will Expand into the Expansions

The early expansions have a lot of nostalgia as well, and some would argue that the game's most nostalgic period is either Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King, rather than Vanilla. It stands to reason that, especially once players have once again expended the original game's content, accurate versions of the some of the early expansions are logical directions for Classic to go.

• Confirmed. World of Warcraft Classic split into Classic and Burning Crusade Classic. Burning Crusade Classic turned into Wrath of the Lich King Classic.

There will eventually be a Classic+ that Diverges by Adding New Content

World of Warcraft Classic has already changed things from the original game. Even if they have been relatively minor, such as balance adjustments, it means an absolute pureness is not being adhered to. Also, as some have observed, "you can't go back home again," in that even the things that stayed the same in Classic don't always give the same experience they originally did because information exists now that didn't back in the day. Content that was once considered incredibly challenging has been trivialized thanks to having been "solved" in the meantime, even for players experiencing the content for the first time.
Ironically, one way to restore the mystery, challenge, and need to learn, is to add something that's never been seen before, but done in the spirit of Classic. Popular candidates for this include zones based on the original versions of Outland and the Emerald Dream, which had partial, unused maps in the original game that differed from versions that would eventually appear in later expansions. Similarly, other options include new player options in races that were outright considered for the original launch (like ogres) or had old models that have been requested since then (like naga, high elves, and furbolg), alongside classes with a long history like necromancer, all with the symbolic goal of taking old moments of What Could Have Been and making them happen.

• Confirmed. The "Season of Discovery" announced at Blizzcon 2023 purports to add elements from later in the game's history and new experiences in a way that's consistent with the Classic era of the game.

Outside WoW

The WoW WMG page will never be sorted

Because no one who comes back here knows how to sort it.

Tseric committed suicide

Blizzard didn't say anything since they didn't want the public to know that forum trolls led a community manager to suicide.

• The forums are just terrible enough to make this possible.

The movie will flop

Not that I want it to, but while Warcraft is very popular, it's a lot less popular than World of Warcraft. If you base it on Humans as the heroes, with the rest of the Alliance as backup, and the Horde as villains, you're going to jack off at least 50% of the fanbase. It's never going to be as good as the game.

• Really? having the horde, a psychotic group that screams evil be the villains? Lets see, We have a race (or two) of Axe-Crazy an entire race of Omnicidal Maniacs one obessed with Disproportionate Retribution and the Goblins, Plus the majority of WoW players play alliance anyway.
  • Clearly Grey-and-Grey Morality is lost on you.
• Prediction: most non-players will say "I liked this movie better when it was called The Lord of the Rings."

World of Warcraft is hypnotic!

Why has nobody mentioned this yet? How else can this game be so addictive, so time-consuming, and not to mentioned it has ruined people's lives? Be very careful when playing this game!

• What a silly notion! I only play for 20 hours each day, and I'm sure a lot of people could say the same, thus rendering your point moot, sir.
  • ... ._. Holy Tauren... And there are people who play Warcraft AND surf TV Tropes... The poor, poor souls.

Crossover Theories

Every player character is a Time Lord.

Sure, why not?

• It is now a title you can acquire for gaining reputation in the Deaths of Chromie scenario.

Azeroth is a Spiral world.

Either that or Algalon is the closest thing that the Warcraft universe has to Anti-Spiral. Loken, the one entrusted with the Titans, was corrupted, and certain events (his death) sent a signal that the world had become too corrupt, and it could be said that the world was doomed if the players hadn't intervened. Oh, and the battle takes place in space, with Algalon possessing an attack called Big Bang. This quote helps seal the deal that Azeroth and its beings possess Spiral Power:

Algalon: Perhaps it is your imperfection that which grants you free will. That allows you to persevere against cosmically calculated odds. You prevailed where the Titans' own perfect creations have failed.

• It would explain why, whenever a new threat appears, the players can grow to the exact level needed to defeat it and no higher: once they have re-established themselves as the top predator, there is no need to continue evolving, because the environment doesn't change.

The Old Gods are Reapers

• Ancient, incomprehensible beings of pure evil that slowly erode your willpower and sanity, turning you into their thralls? Coincidence?
  • Unfortunately they look nothing at all like robots... or zombies with Tron Lines...

The Titans and the Old Gods are two different factions of Xel'Naga.

Titans seed worlds right? Except these guys made the races of Azeroth and the Outland rather than Protoss and Zerg. This can also tie-in with the WMG above regarding player races as Titan Security Systems™. Stretch it a bit further and the Old Gods can be the Dark Hybrids introduced in Starcraft II.

• Jossed in the Chronicles. The Old Gods are actually minions of the Void Lords (who are the opposite of the Light/the Naaru) sent out into the universe to seek out unborn Titans in order to corrupt them. As for the Titans, they're actually living worlds and are pretty much the most powerful race in all the universe. They were continually on the search for more unborn Titans growing inside their worlds, and only found a few. They're the Good Guys, though, so they would "order" every world they found, with or without a baby Titan within.

A fifth (or tenth) expansion will feature a gateway into Sanctuary

The humans have had their power restraints removed in the end of Diablo II; in Diablo III we saw what this unrestrained power does to a godlike Superprime... with a few more decades of experience and refining, Sanctuary should be just about the proper place for a level 150 WoW player.

• Well wake me up when we get the StarCraft expansion. I want my siege tank mount.

General Theories

The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show will be the dance of a future playable race.

Why? Because it would be awesome.

The holy Light is a force of universal balance.

• The Light, which gives equal benefits to paladins and priests of any faction is what causes the regular changes to class abilities in a desperate attempt to keep the universe in some sort of equilibrium.
  • Or, it's the Force.
    • It does have a light side and a dark side...
• Sorta confirmed. The Light and The Void are the 2 polar opposite primal forces of the universe. In fact before they came into contact with one another what we call the universe didn't exist. The Void Lords, analogous to the Nayru or the Titans, are beings of pure Void that seek to corrupt all the universe into the Void, and Sargeras set out to destroy everything because a universe devoid of life was preferable to what the Void would do to it.

World of Warcraft is an alternate universe, and the inhabitants are being helplessly manipulated against their will...

• Chief Archaeologist Letoll is on to us!

No character is actually dead

Everyone that is dead just can't find their corpse and doesn't want to take 25% damage on all their gear.

• Alternatively, the time it takes for a named monster to respawn is the time it takes to run to their corpse.

The final villain of World of Warcraft will be the World of Warcraft

After stopping the Burning Legion from destroying Azeroth, and after preventing the Void from corrupting Azeroth, we'll discover that the world-soul of Azeroth is naturally evil. The titans were born from shards of the Light, but are composed of the arcane energy of the material plane (and people have used the Light for evil before anyway). Azeroth will end up being the final villain that we have to put down at the cost of the main setting of the franchise.

The Alliance-Horde race restrictions will be removed in a future expansion.

The War has gone on for years due to the various leaders' grudges, prejudices, and personal agendas. Azeroth is slowly dying after the events of Legion and the Alliance and Horde are more interested in controlling the azerite than saving their dying world. Tired of the constant warring when, several nations and factions to sever ties with the Alliance and Horde, starting starting a new group comprised of races from both.

The clockwerk (that's actually how the game spells it) goblins and pocket factories from warcraft 3 will appear as a threat or ally faction at some point in the warcraft story.

They are self replicating robots. All they need are a variant that harvests resources and they can produce indefinitely. Friendly robot helpers or Steampunk version of Grey Goo? We'll see.

You just need one Goblin to engineer a variant of the Clockwerk Goblins that harvests resources and you have something that can spiral out of control. Perhaps the Goblin controls them as his personal army or perhaps he has some method of giving them intelligence. If AI is not on the cards perhaps some kind of spirit gets into the mechanism and wrests control away from him.

They don't need to be a major threat, perhaps a couple of quests involving taking them out before they can snowball into world threatening numbers or a goblin who just maintains control of one area and helps you out when you are in the area or when your interests align. Matti 23

The Void Lords are a form of Roko's Basilisk

• The Void Lords don't actually exist yet. The Old Gods can see all possible futures, and in those futures they saw the creation of void-infused world souls which become the Void Lords. Having even greater ability to see both past and future, the Void Lords are able to command the Old Gods of the past to ensure their creation.

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