One thing we know for sure is that the expansion after MoP will be a major war between the factions. I kind of interpreted that as a possibility that we could see zones like Arathi, Dustwallow, Ashenvale, and so forth revamped into leveling areas.

Anyway, I'll contribute some expansion ideas I've had floating in my head for awhile like an Azerothian Revolution, Titan Civil War, and my Sargeras-End Expansion idea (everyone has one, don't they?) once I come back from work.

I ask everyone who wishes to participate to PLEASE keep faction wars out of here. It's possible some people might not like ideas from others and I just want to see this thread kept civil as possible.

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“Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.” - John Tyler

Well, I believe faction wars must be separated from "evil guys storylines". Scenarios can help a lot regarding this. The expansion is against X, yes, but we have a ton of scenarios where we kill each other. While a minority of heroes fight the big baddie, the bulk of the Alliance and Horde forces kill each other at the scenarios.

And yeah, this is for theorycrafting, not poking bullshit into others, so keep whining out of here. If you don't like something, criticize it in a civilized manner and/or post your own ideas .

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

~Main: Expansion theorycrafting, Expansions list, The Age of Nightmare, Empire of the Tides (coming soon)~
~Fan ficton: Anachronos Journey: The Timeless Heir~ ~Geography of continents series: Old Kalimdor (original), Pandaria~
~Locations as zones series: Azjol-Nerub, Barrow Deeps, Zul'Aman, Demon Hunter zone, Caverns of Time~

EDIT:

Eh, actually, after a more thorough read, I really only oppose a few things.


Mostly because I want Horde insectoids/Arachnids,and I don't think Aqir would fit the Alliance well.

I don't know how Arakkoa would get in the emerald dream, and I worry about tying them to the Horde, I'm really not eager to homogenize all the themes that are usually tied to other races.


I vehemently oppose the Darkfallen.

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A dead leader's often better than a live one, a dead leader's idealized, he can't do something stupid and make people hate him.

I don't think they would group a race with the Emerald Dream, unless they added something weird like Dryads or Drakkonids or something. Otherwise there are no races that really fit.

Naga will be added whenever they do an underwater/Nazjatar expansion, which may be next given the dodging of the Abyssal Maw question. I'll be perfectly honest here - I think they are going to bring back Abyssal Maw and the Neptulon storyline for that expansion. Abyssal Maw was a time issue, but at the same time they probably figured it could be done much better in an expansion focused on that sort of thing. Metzen's dodging of the question kind of makes me wonder if they are already planning this.

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I still say Azshara and N'zoth, Emerald Dream and Nazjatar will be a single (and last) Old God expansion, in which the Titans or Legion is heralded by the Oldgods return or Azshara's gambit. The inner threat problems are dealt with on Azeroth and we can proceed to the outer threats. This expansion is likely to be the next one simply for flow.

I also suspect we will see more of this SINGLE race buisness. Theres a point where there just gets to be too many new races and alts. I seriously hope they don't just keep adding new races and making people have to level the zones over and over again.

Why would the arrakoa go Horde? Don't they kind of have every reason to hold a grudge against the orcs, what with the whole "blew up their world" thing?

Man, that shit doesn't matter in the slightest. The major events that get overlooked on a regular basis for petty gameplay reasons world destruction doesn't even hold a candle. Not that I'm defending the Arakkoa going Horde or being playable, I'm not, but that reasoning just isn't valid. Just look at the Nightelves...

Yeah, but the Night Elves did it thousands of years ago, while the orcs enacted their little flustercuck in living memory. Besides, unless they get a total cultural revamp the arrakoa are spiteful little crows and don't strike me as the type to ever forgive a slight.

A good number of explanations about the 2 races and the overall plot of the expansion:

(warning: long post)

Arakkoa:

-The playable arakkoa are a sect that disappeared from Draenor years ago (the Apexis fit this). Somehow they got into a dream plane, and later, when the Dark Portal linked Azeroth with Draenor, came to the Azerothian Emerald Dream (a theory that could match Anzu's shenanigans). Inside the Emerald Dream, they serve as the opposite to the worgen, both dreaming inside it and fighting each other once the nightmare starts to mess stuff around.

-The arakkoa start at one of their towns inside the Emerald Dream, and then stuff starts to go wrong. Some ED natives start to fight each other, and parts of the dream seem to fall apart. Eventually, the town itself falls, too, and they materialize at the middle of Zul'Aman (region), where they have to fight the trolls (some of them are worshiping dark loa) and join the blood elves and the Revantusk to retake Zul'Aman. The arakkoa inform the Horde about the weird stuff going on inside the Emerald Dream, and with this information they eventually sail to Tel Abim, starting the expansion.


Naga:

-The naga are there because Azshara is starting to move under Old God orders, and we'll meet some of them around. In general, my ED idea is the nightmare entering the world at some breaches, while other mysterious breaches appear all around the world, produced by the other Old Gods. These rebel naga get their glory in the next expansion, after the naga move out and start attacking the player factions.

-The naga start at the main holdings of the empire after the Eye of the Maelstrom. This zone, which I call Seaspire plateau, is an underwater plateau in the middle of the South Seas, where all currents converge. In the middle of this place is the Seaspire, a giant naga tower where the empire houses their communications, which travel around using the currents and meet here. Aside from this vital point of control over the South Seas, the entire plateau is a giant slave labor camp. The naga rebels are part of a low caste, and they escape. They arrive to Kul Tiras, where they manage to befriend the humans. The empire, chasing them, arrives later and attacks. The naga are later welcomed into the Alliance, helping with valuable intel against the empire. Between these naga there's some old characters current night elves remember, servants of Azshara and citizens of Zin-Azshari, Suramar and other places that were trapped and converted. Night elves accept them, watching them just in case. These rebel naga could show some worship to Elune, shocking Tyrande a bit (Elune would be forbidden by Azshara, but some naga disobey the empress) .With this intel, the Alliance sends ships to Tel Abim, and the expansion starts.


Expansion key-points

-In general, the expansions starts in two ways. The first is sailing to Tel Abim, to investigate the new allies' information, as well as a weird mist that has started to appear in some places, Tel Abim being one of them where it seems to be stronger. The second is helping the Cenarion Circle research this same weird mist. They send you to any of the dream portals, and you enter Heart of the Dreamer. Heart of the Dreamer is heavily phased, and everything seems to be "ok" when you first arrive. You do some minor stuff and then you take a special portal to Tel Abim, arriving shortly after the ships, when the players that took them have already completed some minor quests.

-The Heart of the Dreamer changes once quests are completed, and when you already complete the first 3 zones, it turns into a real war zone, full of rifts. Once finished, the nightmare retreats, and you chase it through the rifts it created to invade, to the fifth and last zone of the expansion. The Heart has a number of portals, all distributed geographically as a circle, far from each other and across the landscape:
--5 to each great tree in Azeroth
--4 special to 4 locations where the nightmare is causing trouble: Tel Abim, Lost Isles, Great Canyon and Uldaman Conservatory. Some of them are locked at the beginning, and get unlocked once you progress.
--3 portals to Nighthaven, Darnassus and Silvermoon (Darnassus and Silvermoon work as this expansion's capital cities, Thunder Bluff doesn't, to avoid all the population on the Kalimdor server).
--2 portals to the same place: the golden fortress of the green dragonflight above the zone.
--The Rift of Aln, reopened at the end of the zone, located in the middle of the zone.

-The expansion doesn't have a continent, but the Heart of the Dreamer is the central hub, and you'll go across it during the entire expansion. In fact, you'll use the dream as a transport, since traveling to each of the expansion's zones is easier by getting inside the Heart and then taking the portal to the other zone. You get the feeling that the Heart is your headquarters, until it's assaulted later, where it becomes a real zone with enemies all around, instead of just some places. The Heart will change with your progress against the nightmare, deteriorating until the assault. Each time you return to it after completing a questline, you'll find it worse.

-Path of the Titans lets you customize your abilities with different results. Something similar to Diablo 3 runestones. The paths aren't focused on a titan anymore, now they focus on various paths, most of them matching the role of each dragonflight. To level the paths you need to complete special quests across the world. They are introduced in the third zone, Uldaman Conservatory.


Zone details

Not many changes from my previous theorycrafting: http://www.scrollsoflore.com/forums/...7&postcount=75 No need to repost, but give it a read if you're interested, I think it's pretty good. Describes each zone and some new mechanics I didn't mention here.


And that should be all. Missing details are probably on the link in the line above this. If not, tell me .

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

~Main: Expansion theorycrafting, Expansions list, The Age of Nightmare, Empire of the Tides (coming soon)~
~Fan ficton: Anachronos Journey: The Timeless Heir~ ~Geography of continents series: Old Kalimdor (original), Pandaria~
~Locations as zones series: Azjol-Nerub, Barrow Deeps, Zul'Aman, Demon Hunter zone, Caverns of Time~

I think people possibly underrate what the Dragon Soul raid brings to WoW. Having a massive battle in a zone for a raid is now a possibility.

Battle for Stromgarde, Orgrimmar Revolution, Razing of Theramore, and so forth. The possibilities are endless and if they do in fact make an expansion that puts emphasis on the faction war, I wouldn't be surprised to see different instances for the Alliance and Horde.

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“Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.” - John Tyler

Technically Battle for Undercity was the first

Edit: Also, I don't ever really see Arakkoa being playable. They are just not popular enough. You might as well have playable Kobolds.

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It didn't hop zones though

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“Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.” - John Tyler

Does Dragon Soul? I fully expect that fight to be visual trickery at best.

Side note: Calling it now - underwater expansion = Naga and Murlocs as playable. If they aren't neutral, Naga for Horde since the Night Elves would have a fucking fit.

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There was a quest in TBC beta were an arakkoa mentioned they weren't like that before, that they were bigger, stronger and prouder. Their dark arts made them smaller and weaker.

I presume the playable arakkoa disappeared before the dark arts started to be used, and they would be different from the ones we know.

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

~Main: Expansion theorycrafting, Expansions list, The Age of Nightmare, Empire of the Tides (coming soon)~
~Fan ficton: Anachronos Journey: The Timeless Heir~ ~Geography of continents series: Old Kalimdor (original), Pandaria~
~Locations as zones series: Azjol-Nerub, Barrow Deeps, Zul'Aman, Demon Hunter zone, Caverns of Time~

It goes through a loading screen I think but it's still the first time we've had a raid that, you know, actually has us move outside of some castle/keep.

Imagine an Azeroth where the Forsaken have full control of Arathi Basin and the final raid of the expansion (for Alliance) starts at the Thandol Span and you fight your way across the landscape against enemies such as Galen, Cromush, Val'kyr, Abominations, Ettin, and others. Sylvannas would be the final boss in Stromgarde Keep herself. You would be led by Alliance heroes such as Varian, Anduin, Muradin, and so forth. So much potential...

Side note: I think the Naga would be more dynamic in the Alliance myself. The hatred the Night Elves have for them would be more interesting to see unfold than to watch them go Horde and just be chumy chumy with the Blood Elves on day 1.

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“Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.” - John Tyler

I'm saying it will be fake though. Like seeing Deadwind Pass from atop Karazhan, or almost any Caverns of Time instance that takes place in a current zone (i.e. Hillsbrad). They'll take a specific segment of the terrain and duplicate it on the instanced map. The models below will probably also be lower poly to avoid performance hits. Deathwing will essentially be flying around one big room but it will look like he's flying over zones.

Edit: Also it's not that there isn't lore or whatever to support playable Arakkoa - it's that they are not that interesting of a race and most people don't give two shits about them. If they made playable Arakkoa very few people would roll that race or even necessarily buy that expansion for that race.

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You feelin ok? This is the most I've seen you post in years.

I hope they eventually give the ED its own expansion. It could totally carry one.

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Expansion 6: Horde and Alliance go to White Castle

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I hate the idea of all the mortal races traipsing through the Emerald Dream. I think it should be left alone with perhaps a raid going there but only to the most corrupted parts.

Varian: Hey! What the hell are you doing?
Garrosh: I’m trimming my pubes.
Varian: Why aren’t you doing this in Ogrimmar, man?
Garrosh: The mirror’s in here. Hey, check it out. It’s like a bonsai tree. Besides, man, it makes your Saurfang look totally bigger.
Varian: Please! Are those my swords!? Dude, I trim my nose hair with those! Garrosh: Dude, I’ve been cutting my ass hair with them for the past six months.

I love this kind of Thread !

The idea for zone please me, but I'm not with you for the race :

- I suggest putting Naga in the horde, and Arrakoa in the Alliance. I think they fit those faction better. Apexis Arrakoa, if linked to the dream can have a strong connexion with Night elfe, despite from being native to Draenor. Naga fit very well with blood elfe too.

- Aqir and Tinker seem to be a strange association. I would rather see another class added with Aqir if you want them to be add as the Pandaren will be added.
Plus Tinker are a bad idea because of engineering.

- If sub race are added to the game (And I hope they will one day), Blizzard can add more than on race by xpack to this system.
Think about,
High elfes + Forest troll
Broken + Maghar
Taunka + Frostborn

I know, it's crazy right?

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This. Both threats are linked with N'zoth, if they werent one it would be to strech WoW. Though I hope that either Azshara herself will come after N'zoth or will pull out a setback and appear in the end of xpack and open the way to the BL

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