[Warning: Spoilers Abound]  Darth Malgus is easily one of the most popular characters in SWTOR.  Heck, the Collectors Edition even came with a statue of him.  If you haven’t completed SWTOR’s 1.0 storyline, well, here’s what happens.  Darth Malgus tries to take over by declaring himself Emperor of a new Empire.  The storyline then forces you to go beat the hell out of him.

This all leads to the question, “Why?”  What was the point of making this guy so badass (for Empire players at least) only to force us to defeat him?  The folks at Bioware are arguably the best storytellers in the business, so why would they be so heavy handed?  If you look at the overarching story though, it becomes apparent that this must be the beginning of a much bigger story arch.  Will Darth Malgus be back?  Yes.  Count on it.  And I have a pretty good guess for how and why.

Let’s just cut to the obvious.  We don’t kill Darth Malgus; we shove him off a platform.  He falls out of sight, and falling has never been a reliable way to kill lead characters in the Star Wars mythos.  So when will Darth Malgus show up again?  It’s possible we’ll have some cameos, but there’s one big moment when I think he’ll appear.  First though, we need some context.

Bioware makes it clear that the Empire has some intrinsic flaws holding it back.  How does it expect to not be grossly outnumbered with nearly every alien race joining the Republic, so they won’t be enslaved?  Heck,  the Empire’s racism is laughable from the start when you consider the fact that the Sith species are aliens.  The Empire is an entire culture based on human-alien crossbreeding.  Couple that with the constant infighting, a multitude of other issues, and hey… how do these Empire guys expect to win?

With that in mind, the whole Darth Malgus fight struck me as weird.  Bioware sets up all these flaws within the Empire.  Then they have Darth Malgus show up and proclaim, “I’m taking over.  I’m fixing all the BS holding us back, and we’re going to mop the floors with the Republic!”  Awesome.  Then Bioware forces us to fight him.  It was the one point in the game where I gagged on the linear storyline.  I didn’t want to fight Malgus… I wanted to join him.  So did everyone else in my Empire guild.  Heck, this was worse than having to destroy HK-47… twice!

But enough ranting.  Bioware knows what they’re doing, so they must be up to something.  Darth Malgus is obviously the ideal Emperor, so why have us fight him?  The answer lies in the current Sith Emperor.

If you’ve played the Jedi Knight storyline then you know what’s really up with the Sith Emperor.  He wants to destroy all life in the galaxy.  Literally.  Republic, Sith, the wamprats on Tatooine, the Emperor wants it all dead.  The Sith Emperor is so obsessed with living forever, he has decided to kill everything in the universe so nothing will exist to kill him later.  (The Empire doesn’t know this yet.)

So in terms of lore, who is the Emperor?  Excuse the WoW comparison, but he’s Sargeras.  He’s going to be SWTOR’s ultimate boss.  Count on it.  The Sith may revel in the dark side, but they enjoy living just as much as the Jedi.

So there you have it.  The end of SWTOR.  The Emperor’s true intentions are revealed to everyone. The Empire turns on him, and we all kill him.

But if the Sith Emperor turns into a villain, who will take his place?  Enter Darth Malgus.  When the Emperor betrays the Empire, Malgus will show up in time to hold it all together and lead the charge.  This is what I think the over-arching story of SWTOR will be.

There’s something even bigger here though.  Take a look at the movies.  The Sith ultimately failed in establishing their own Empire, so they slowly took over the Republic and evolved it into their own image.  Darth Malgus failed in establishing his own New Empire, so now he’ll slowly take over the Sith Empire and evolve it into his own image.  Keep your eye out for this in the coming patches and expansions.  That’s Malgus’ influence you’re seeing.  By the time Darth Malgus takes over, the Empire will already look like the New Empire we destroyed in SWTOR vanilla.

How soon will this happen?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

1. Sith Purebloods – Why did they Disappear? It’s easily one of the...

This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
Darth Malgus – Will he return?
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What’s on the other side of Azeroth?  For a long time, the answer has been, “Nothing but ocean.” Recently though, this may have changed.  Game-wise, Azeroth is running out of space, and there are only so many islands that can emerge from the fog before it becomes cliche.  But this isn’t just about zones… it all ties into something deeper.

I’m convinced there has been a shift at Blizzard since the Activision merger, which has affected WoW’s future expansions on a fundamental level.  Simply put, they’re milking WoW more than they originally intended.

Several years ago, I speculated that Blizzard only intended to create five expansions for WoW.  Back then, I think this was true.  Today though?  I strongly question whether this is still the case with Activision and Blizzard deciding to milk their cash cow for all it’s worth.

To be clear, “Plan A” is still possible.  It’s still perfectly reasonable to suggest WoW will be treated  similar to Dark Age of Camelot.  Once the main expansions are out by 2014, Blizzard will move the bulk of it’s MMO crew to Titan, and WoW will only receive smaller content updates for those who continue to play.

But then there’s “Plan B”, which Blizzard may have switched to.  And what’s “Plan B”?  It’s simple.  They’ll continue to make expansions indefinitely until WoW’s subscription levels no longer justify it.

This leads to a bit of a conundrum lore-wise.  Blizzard once had a loop hole for endless content.  At the very first BlizzCon, Metzen mentioned that the dormant portals could be activated to lead to a new worlds, allowing for all sorts of endless content.  Unfortunately, Burning Crusade taught Blizzard something else: Players prefer Azeroth.  (This was mentioned in an interview months after BC was released.)   Later, WotLK’s popularity would confirm it.  Azeroth, though, is running out of space.

To solve this, Blizzard’s first tactic was obviously to switch from macro to micro.  With Emerald Dream shoved off into a book, most of us were expecting an expansion that entailed everything in the Great Sea.  Instead we received Vanilla 2.0, the Elemental Plane we originally expected in Emerald Dream, and a handful of zones added to the Vanilla continents (Vashj’ir being a clever addition to Khaz Modan).

As it stands now, Blizzard is slicing up the remaining unexplored lands as thinly as possible.  Pandaria was once expected to be a single zone.  Now, it’s an entire expansion.  The opposite is being done with areas outside of Azeroth.  They’re being minimized and used as filler.  Check out the Elemental Planes for a great example.  We once expected each of them to at least be their own leveling zone.  Instead, we received one full zone, a daily quest hub, and a few instances.  Azeroth itself is obviously being prioritized.

There’s nothing wrong with this, but what do they have left to work with?  There’s only so many zones they can tack onto the Vanilla Kingdoms and possibly Northrend.  There are also only so many islands to be found in the Great Sea.  Some have suggested Blizzard will try to present us with some kind of “Southrend”, but Pandaria has pretty much filled that role as far as concept and geography goes.   A “floating continent” of sorts up in the sky is possible… I suppose.  But the most promising suggestion is that we finally travel to the other side of Azeroth.

When it comes to the “other side of Azeroth”, many like to point to the globe of Azeroth within the Halls of Lightning, or even better, the hologram Algalon pulls up when he’s preparing to reset the planet.  Both of these are dubious, but they’re all we have to go on.  Neither globe shows Azeroth as it was (before the Sundering), nor do they show the planet as it currently is (no Pandaria).  With that in mind, they both show nothing but ocean on the other side of the planet.

Fortunately for Blizzard, they have another loophole to provide more content… the Cataclysm.  Blizzard could easily claim that Azeroth’s altered  shorelines are partially due to new land that emerged on the other side of the planet when Deathwing returned.

Granted, it’s also plausible that we could someday see an Outland 2.0 (and Northrend 2.0), fixing it so the timeline no longer jumps around as we level up.  Blizzard *has* established that they’re still willing to leave Azeroth, but only for short trips to individual zones and instances.  This would allow them to still use Outland’s dormant portals.  [Edit: It's also how we may finally see the Emerald Dream.  It won't be a full expansion, but we could see an instance and/or zone.]

As always, we’ll just have to wait in see.  Once Titan is out though, we should at least know which plan Blizzard has decided to use.

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This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
Azeroth – Is it running out of zones?
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He’s arguably the most famous character in WoW’s lore, but in Cataclysm, he was given a complete overhaul.  Chris Metzen has all but admitted Thrall is his favorite character, “It’s not that I’m an Alliance or Horde fan; I’m a Thrall fan.”  So, why all the recent changes?

From a writer’s perspective, it’s obvious Metzen was having trouble being unbiassed when it came to “Horde versus the Alliance”, since his baby was the leader of one.  By lifting Thrall out of the Horde, it’s definitely easier to keep things balanced.  Now though, Thrall is the World Shaman… a strange place for him to be for those of us who still think of him as Warchief.  Will Thrall be Warchief again?  I doubt it.  So, what then does Metzen and company have in store for the former Warchief of the Horde?As it stands, Thrall and Aggra, his wife, are currently expecting their first child.  So, we know there will be a bloodline.  Thrall’s story could eventually simply move on to his progeny.  But that’s his legacy, what about Thrall himself?  For that, here’s the question we should be asking: Does Metzen have the balls to kill his favorite character?

Epic heroes grow old and die.  It’s part of what defines them.  Beowulf, King Arthur, Hercules, and Robin Hood all grew old and died.  This is what Frank Miller sought to do for Batman in “Dark Knight Returns”.  Ideally, I think Metzen eventually needs to kill Thrall… but I just don’t see him doing that.  Why?  Let’s take a look at how Thrall has been treated so far.

Thrall now harnesses the power of a demi-god; he even stood in for a missing Dragon Aspect.  This is the other reason, I don’t see Blizzard ever making Thrall Warchief again.  It just no longer works.  It’d be a step backwards for the character.  Plus, as the World Shaman, Thrall would be a bit overpowered as WarChief.  It’s the same reason why Malfurion is now held “above it all”.

Frankly, I think this was a mistake.  Thrall has been the poster-child of what it means to be “Horde”.  The Horde itself is a better defined faction, because it has this ideal, an in game character to compare itself against.  (The Alliance has this character, Turalyon, but he isn’t in game.)  Without Thrall, the Horde will become less defined.  I’d rather have seen the Alliance strengthened. Lifting Thrall out of the Horde was the easy way out.  Don’t get me wrong; story needs conflict and Garrosh has been brilliant for that.  I just wish Thrall’s absence wasn’t permanent.  Sure, it’s tough to not be biassed, but that’s the burden of being a good storyteller.

So how has Thrall been treated?  Instead of risking bias against Thrall, Metzen chose to Mary Sue the heck out of him, while gimping what it means to be “Horde” in the process.  With Metzen and the rest of Blizzard treating Thrall with such kid gloves, can we really see them killing him?

With all this in mind, here’s what I think:  Thrall will have kids, grow old into a Ben Kenobi mentor figure, and ultimately be granted Malfurion Stormrage style immortality.  But whereas Malfurion achieved his immortality through his connection to the World Tree, Thrall will acquire his through his ties to the elements. What will Thrall become?  The Shaman version of Malfurion Stormrage.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that.  I just think it’d be more epic if say… Thrall grew old and died defeating some great evil.  (And I mean *died*, not become some elemental spirit the writers could bring back anytime they wished.)  But who knows?  Perhaps Metzen and Blizzard will change course and decide to go the epic route.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Thrall – What will happen to him?
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It’s easily one of the greatest mysteries in Star Wars lore…”What happened to the Sith species?”

This then begs the question, does SWTOR offer us any clues?  Yes.  It does.  But don’t get too excited.  The Sith were already “extinct” in Darth Bane’s era, so Lucasfilm still has a window of some 2500 years to play with.  What does SWTOR give us?  Seeds.  Small snippets of information that could one day become the reason the Sith species is gone and an explanation as to how it will someday return.

But first, let’s break this down a bit.  We’re actually asking several questions.  Were the Sith wiped out?  What happened?  Will they return?  How?

Were the Sith wiped out?  No.  Something happened, but they’re not extinct.  Why?  I just don’t see Lucasfilm cutting themselves off from ever using a Sith Pureblood in any legacy era stories.  The Sith are simply too huge of a story asset to be permanently killed off.

But could *most* of them have been killed off?  Sure.  That’s definitely possible.  Star Wars has a growing theme of Sith Lords wiping out huge portions of their supporters if it serves their own self interest.  Naga Sadow did this… and it isn’t a stretch to see the SWTOR Emperor doing it too.  If this turns out to be the case, then I have to wonder if SWTOR’s story will ultimately end with answering “what happened to the sith”.

So, it’s possible that most of the Sith were wiped out, but what of the survivors?  There’s really only two possibilities: exile, or stasis.

Is it reasonable theb that remaining Sith purebloods have been hiding out all this time in wild space?  Certainly.  An entire planet of stranded human Sith was recently discovered in the Luke Skywalker era, so we have precedent.  One could suggest the Sith purebloods escaping via time travel, but I think that borders on the absurd.  The Thrawn trilogy was supposed to include Sith purebloods, but they were changed to Noghri.  It’s rumored that the Yuuzhan Vong were also originally supposed to be Sith purebloods.

The other possibility is “stasis”, something Star Wars lore has loved for years from Han Solo all the way to Abeloth today.  But carbonite is messy business, with issues such as hibernation sickness.  We know it lasts for years, perhaps even centuries, but what about millennia?  For the Sith purebloods to survive into legacy era lore, the Sith Empire would need to have acquired technology that could reliably hibernate an entire race for thousands of years.  Enter Belsavis.

Minor spoilers abound at this point, but I think you’ll be safe.  Belsavis is one of the zones in SWTOR.  It’s a prison planet for the Republic, but it goes deeper than that.  Belsavis was also a prison planet for the Infinite Empire tens of thousand of years before.  It’s where the Rakata imprisoned an entire race known as the Esh-kha.  In the Imperial Bonus Series, the Empire acquires this Rakatan technology and intends to build their own Belsavis-style prison as a space station.  Could this station or one like it be used to store the pureblood Sith into the legacy era?  You bet it could.

Here’s an interesting side note.  I almost considered not including it, but hey.  Just keep in mind, this is pure fanboy speculation.  SWTOR revealed that the Emperor Palpatine based the aesthetic of his own Empire on that of SWTOR’s Sith Empire.  That’s why Star Destroyers and Vader’s armor harken back to this style.  One thing I haven’t seen anywhere though are orbs.  So where did the aesthetic for the Death Star come from?  It could just be an original design, but it seems weird that Palpatine would give everything a Sith Empire aesthetic except for his own super weapon.

Where am I going with this?  Eventually, one of SWTOR’s future patches will reveal the Empire’s new super prison.  Imagine the twist if this prison turns out to be orb shaped.  A big, Imperial orb… floating in space. Hm.

With the introduction of Rakata prison, the Sith Empire now has the technology necessary to bring the Sith species into the Legacy era.  Sure, Sith purebloods may technically be ancient Sith/Human hybrids, but there’s something cool and logical about the idea of a Death Star shaped prison floating through space, waiting for someone like Cade Skywalker to discover the legions of red Sith sleeping inside.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

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This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
Sith Purebloods – Why did they Disappear?
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In WarCraft lore, there is an orc military commander who is descended from a famous orc war-hero. He is revered among his people, has served as a close advisor to Thrall, and there is even a named axe that has been passed down through his line. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Except it isn’t Garrosh– it’s Nazgrel, and the axe is Serathil.  How else are Nazgrel and Garrosh alike?  Traditionally, Nazgrel hates the humans as much as Garrosh does, but unlike Garrosh, he is ferociously loyal to Thrall.

If Nazgrel is so important though, then where has he been?  Has Blizzard forgotten him?  Quite possibly.  But what fun is the speculation in that?  I might be going out on a limb here, but I think Nazgrel may very well be the next Warchief of the Horde.

The Mists of Pandaria is not about Pandas.  Sure it has Pandaren in it, and the title shouts “Pandaria”, but that’s not the story.  Blizzard gave the expansion a poor introduction, because they shoved the setting and characters at us as if they were the plot.  Hardly.  Mists of Pandaria, despite it’s froo-froo name, is the expansion a lot of us lore-junkies have been waiting for.  At long last, we have an expansion dedicated entirely to the war between the Horde and Alliance.  That’s the plot of MoP, and I think if Blizz had shoved that down our throats at BlizzCon, instead of pandas, there’d be a much more positive attitude surrounding that upcoming expansion.

So– if MoP deals with the war then what loose ends will it tie up?  Who wins?  Who loses?  Sure.  But when it comes to unfinished business, the one big gaping loose end for me is Garrosh.  Why?  It’s simple.  <Minor Spoiler Incoming>  You don’t sick SI:7 on Thrall and walk away.  That’s about as big a loose end as they come:  Right now, we have a Warchief on the throne, who handed Thrall over to the Alliance.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go play a goblin for ten levels.

As a writer, you can’t throw something into the plot like that without dealing with it.  If MoP is truly about the war then it’s likely we’ll finally deal with Garrosh.  How so exactly?  Well– I did suggest he’d become a raid boss a couple years ago, and I still stand by that.  But that just leads to one more enormous question.  Who would replace him?

Most seem to think Thrall will eventually return to the throne.  I doubt it.  He was removed, and made neutral, because Chris Metzen is a huge Thrall fanboy and obviously found it hard writing balanced lore when his favorite character we the leader of one side.  If not Thrall then who?  Nazgrel.  He makes the most sense.  He’s Garrosh, but without all the baggage.

But Nazgrel taking power is endgame.  How does he get there?  One other character comes to mind, who has yet to make his move: Rexxar.

Why does he matter?  Rexxar, is the Champion of the Horde.  What does that mean?  I’ll put it this way… he’s the bodyguard of the Horde itself.  So, what do you think someone like that thinks of Garrosh?

We know Rexxar has returned from Outland, since he was last seen in Orgrimmar protecting the city from elementals right before the Cataclysm.  He obviously then knows what’s going on with the Horde, and is still active as its champion.  Further, he’s the last person to forget about the Horde’s forces back in Outland… currently led by… you guessed it: Nazgrel.

When Garrosh is overthrown, we will be involved, and we know the other Horde leaders will instigate it.  I think Rexxar, however, will be the one who goes to Outland and arranges Garrosh’s replacement: another orc war-hero who led the Horde to victory in a far off land.  It worked for Garrosh.  I have no doubt it would work for Nazgrel too.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Nazgrel – Future Warchief of the Horde?
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Just a quick review before I get back to my usual posts.  I’ve been playing SWTOR since early closed beta, and I’ve been especially enjoying it since pre-release began.  (There’s just something about knowing your character is now “yours” and won’t be deleted after a few weeks.)

I’ll keep this short and sweet, since I know most of you don’t come here for reviews.  SWTOR has, quite simply, the best storytelling I have ever seen in an MMO.  Period.  If you love MMO’s for their stories and you’re not playing SWTOR then you’re not experiencing the MMO that was made for you.  It’s as simple as that.

How good is it?  The stories are so riveting, the biggest problem I’ve had so far is needing to turn off general chat to avoid spoilers.  Yes.  Spoilers.  The stories in this game are actually deep enough with enough awesome moments and twists to warrant “spoilers”.  And this is YOUR character’s story mind you, not the general story of the game.  These twist and awesome moments feel like YOURS.

Game wise, is it perfect?  No.  It’s an MMO Client 1.0 release that plays mechanics-wise like Burning Crusade era WoW.  But if story is what you’re into, you won’t care.

I once heard a story about a developer who had a meeting at Apple then Microsoft within 48 hours.  At Apple, the designers were considered the most important people in the room.  At Microsoft, it was the engineers.

Having played both WoW and SWTOR the best comparison I can make is at Blizzard it’s obviously the game designers who are the most important people in the room, while at Bioware, it’s the storytellers.

Go play SWTOR, you’ll love it.  I’m currently playing Empire on “The Swiftsure” server (the one with the longest queue).  Feel free to say hello.  Ask nicely and I may even toss you a guild invite.

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This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
SWTOR – A Quick Review for Lore-Junkies
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So I have a question for all of you…

If you’ve been here awhile then you know Loregy is technically a site about game lore in general; I just happen to talk about WoW most of the time since I know that’s what you enjoy.  For the past few months though, I’ve been trying out the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta, and I have to say, Wow, what a game!  As it is, I’m only familiar with the game up to level 20 or so with each class, but from what I’ve seen, if you’re a lore-junkie then SWTOR is the game for you.  The sheer amount of detail that has gone into the storytelling is mind-boggling.  In fact, it’s so good that I’m considering diving deep into the lore.  The problem with Star Wars lore is the meat of it spans over 5000 years, and no one can seem to agree on what’s canon other than the movies.  With Old Republic though, the lore is more contained, and easy to discuss.  And that leads us to my question.

How would you guys and gals feel about me writing more often about SWTOR?  I’ll still of course talk about WoW… but the SWTOR posts might be just as frequent.  Thoughts?

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A Question for my Readers: SWTOR?
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He’s the most potentially awesome character WarCraft has introduced in years.  Wrathion, the Black Prince, the last black dragon on Azeroth.  An impressive title, but that’s not the best part.  The real kicker?  The Red Dragonflight used Titan technology on him, before he was hatched, to purify him.  So unlike Deathwing, unlike any other black dragon seen on Azeroth in over 10,000 years, Wrathion is a pure, uncorrupt black dragon.   And considering what black dragons have been capable of as villains, one can only image what one of them could do as a hero.  But therein lies the first question…

Is Wrathion a hero?  I say yes.  He’s ruthless and perhaps even cold, but at the end of the day…  he’s one of ours.  Some have pointed to Wrathion’s arranged assassinations of the remaining, corrupt black dragons, and even Deathwing himself.  But is that evil?  Nonsense.  What would Alexstrasza do if members of her flight were corrupted to the core by Old Gods?  She’d put them out of their misery.  Sure, Alexstrasza would do it with love, but like I said, Wrathion is ruthless.  He’s a black dragon.  What did you expect?  Rainbows?

So, why is this important?  Why does it matter?  Wrathion is the type of character writers salivate over.  He’s got two things going for him: motivation and capability.  Sure, this is where you  all ask, “What the heck are you talking about?”  …But bear with me.  This is a good one.

With Deathwing dead, this finally opens the succession for there to be  a new Earth-Warder.  With Wrathion being the only Black Dragon left on Azeroth, the title is all but definitely his.

Is there another black dragon?  Yes.  But not on Azeroth.  He’s in Outland, Sabellian, a son of Deathwing and likely Sintharia, since he’s also referred to as a brother to both Nefarian and Onyxia.  Sabellian is another interesting black dragon.  For one, he’s on good terms with Rexxar, a character who chooses his associates carefully.  He’s even arguably friendly with us players.  So what’s his deal?  Uncorrupt black dragon?  Heck no.  I think he’s corrupt to the core.  That said, I also believe Outland protects him from the symptoms.  The Azerothian Old Gods simply can’t reach him there.  Sabellian then is in permanent exile if we wishes to remain free.  This in itself is awesome.  Why?  One name:  Obi Wan Kenobi.

That’s right, Obi Wan Kenobi.  In story analysis, Kenobi is what’s known as the “Wise Man”, a mentor to the hero.  See where this is going?  We have a young, uncorrupt black dragon who, whether he’ll admit it or not, still has a lot to learn.  And what do we have in Outland?  A son of Deathwing, capable of teaching Wrathion everything he needs to know about the history of his people, where they went wrong, how it all started, and what he must do better.  Wrathion is already on the right path.  He is understandably sensitive to avoiding corruption at all cost.  Sabellian though… well, he’s Wrathion’s personal loremaster.

So this leads us to the biggest question of all.  Will Wrathion become the new Earth-Warder?  If possible, yes.  But pay attention to the first part of that answer.  The “Twilight of the Aspects” has been a central theme throughout Cataclysm.  I don’t think it’s over.  Blizzard has been awfully mum about what actually happens at the moment of Deathwing’s demise.  Will the aspects sacrifice themselves and die?  Will they give up their power?  Will they pump it all into the Dragonsoul as they did once before?  Any of those are possible.  They could of course just end up going about their daily business, but that would be kind of lame with all of this “Twilight of the Aspects” lore Blizzard has been shoving at us.

So is that it?  No more aspects means no more Earth-Warder?  For the time being, sure.  One could also point out that in the Blue Dragonflight’s case, a new aspect can only be chosen once every 437 years when Azeroth’s two moons align.  Granted, 437 years is the blink of an eye for a dragon, but for us, it’d be WoW2.  Granted the Black Dragonflight’s ascension ceremony could be different, but we’re forgetting something even more obvious.  The Titans themselves.

We’ve still got the Argus expansion on the horizon, and if we’re fighting Sargeras himself, you better believe the other Titans will make an appearance as well.  Khaz’Goroth is the benefactor of the Black Dragon Aspect.  He is the Titan who created “The Earth-Warder”.  Why would Wrathion need to wait 437 years when Khaz’Goroth himself could do it first hand in a matter of moments?

But would Khaz’Goroth have a reason to remake the Earth-Warder?  I say yes… and it goes back to what I mentioned earlier: motivation and capability.  The Titans still have an Old God problem, and  I can’t think of a more fearsome weapon to unleash on them than a restored Earth-Warder who’s resistant to their corruption.  And let’s not forget, this is personal.  Wrathion is alone in the world, because the Old Gods ultimately wiped  out his line.

Before WoW is over, I think we’re going to see the Earth-Warder beat the living hell out of an Old God.  At least I hope so.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

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This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
Wrathion, the new Earth-Warder?
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I’ll be updating this post as we learn more Mists of Pandaria lore, but for now, there are a few things we can surmise.

First and foremost, Blizzard is obviously further sub-dividing the originally expected “Maelstrom” expansion.  This is a very big deal.  Why?  Simply put, it could mean we’ll have not five, but six expansions (as some of you have suspected).  Is this certain?  Hardly.  In fact, I discuss this more in the latest Future Expansions for WoW – Redux update.  Six expansions would bring us to a nice clean 100 level cap, but I’m not sure if that’s enough incentive.  Right now, the golden question is, “When the heck are we going to see Zandalar and Kul Tiras?!”

Will it be part of Mists of Pandaria as a patch?  Will they receive their own expansion (together or separately)?  Or will they be included with the expected, final expansion that ultimately takes us to Argus?  As I like to say, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Right after the opening ceremony, Chris Metzen was interviewed as part of the DirecTV broadcast.  In it, he mentioned that the overall story of WoW will be shifting down into fourth gear for Mists of Pandaria; in essence this would be the calm before the storm (a reprieve before getting back to the “mega war”).  He then went on to say that perhaps the Horde and Alliance were meant to discover Pandaria at this time.  What does that mean?  I’m betting the overall story arch of our Mists of Pandaria lore will be the Alliance and Horde finally coming to peace.  We’ll have several patches of escalating conflict and then finally a resolution allowing the Horde and Alliance to finally come to terms and form a unified front against Sargeras.

This is why, right now, I think we’ll still have only five expansions with Zandalar and Kul Tiras being part of the Argus expansion.  Why?  Conflict equals story.  It’d be counter-productive for Blizzard to end the Alliance/Horde war any earlier than they needed to.  Would they need to unify to take on Zandalar?  Maybe.  But that’s a lot less compelling.

So this leads to another question.  What about Queen Azshara?  Will we see her in Mists of Pandaria’s lore?  Perhaps, but if she shows up in this expansion she’ll probably be the boss who bridges us to the following expansion, similar to Kil’jaeden and Halion.  If not then she’ll certainly show up in the future due to her wannabe connection with Sargeras, her threat to the island nations, and because she controls the one dormant portal on Azeroth that we know leads to Argus.

As for the expansion itself, I’ve had a few readers ask for my opinion.

I’m excited about the new features and mechanics, but I’m a bit dubious when it comes to the lore.  Why?  Imagine if Burning Crusade had been entirely about the Elves and Quel’Thalas, or if Cataclysm was entirely about the Goblins and Kezan.  It could be great… but if elves or goblins weren’t your thing, you’d have a problem.  If Pandas aren’t you’re thing, will there be enough “other content” to keep your interest?  Blizzard really seems to really take it for granted that everyone loves Pandas as much as they do.  Personally, I think Pandas are cool, but even your favorite food can make you puke if someone shoves enough of it down your throat.  A lot of players in the forums are compaining about the pandas, but I think the fuel being thrown on the fire is the overall feeling that the expansion will be, “all Pandas all the time, because we’re Blizzard and we’re obsessed with them!”  I’m not saying that’s really the case, only that BlizzCon obviously gave a lot of people that impression.

My point?  I question whether focussing on one race is wise.  For now I’m witholding judgement… but I honestly hope it’ll be great.

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This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
Mists of Pandaria Lore
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When will the Pandaren be in WoW?

and here’s another one…

Future Expansions for WoW – Redux

and one more…

Illidan Stormrage, Dead?

Enjoy!

1. Updates in the Archives… http://www.loregy.com/world-of-warcraft/nozdormu-bronze/ and here’s another one…...
2. When will the Pandaren be in WoW? [October 2011 Update:  And now...
3. Future Expansions for WoW – Redux [October 2011 Update: Now that Mists of...

This post originally came from Loregy a Game Lore Blog.
Updated Posts…
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