Warlords of Draenor Trademarked in Europe (Update: In the USA as well)

With Warlords of Draenor trademarked in Europe now, it seems very, very likely that we know the name of expansion 5.

Given, however, the fact that the name is all that we know, there's still a lot to be asked. After all, in one of my theories after the reveal of the name "Mists of Pandaria," I was convinced that we would have an island-hopping expansion with Azshara fighting the Kvaldir (with all their mistiness.)

Ok, maybe I wasn't convinced, but that was my theory, and it was way, way off.

There are rumors floating around that we'll be traveling back in time to deal with Gromm Hellscream, Garrosh's dad. The theory goes that Garrosh travels back in time to meet his dad and maybe avert everything that has happened (though whether this is an example of Garrosh trying to redeem himself or simply trying to mess with time to make himself the winner is up for speculation.)

Anyway, I'm a little skeptical of that because dammit, we've had enough focus on the severely screwed-up Hellscream family. Frankly, I don't think we really need to put much focus on the Orcs for a good long while, as they've had a central role in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria already.

That said, given that it seems evident that we're heading to Draenor/Outland, we'll definitely be dealing with at least some Orc stuff.

While I'm a huge advocate of a time-travel expansion, I would still want the narrative to move forward. I want to see the Alliance growing more confident and proactive. I want to see the Horde struggling with the aftermath of their civil war.

I also think that an expansion that focuses on time-travel would need to deal with many different time periods.

That said, there's a lot of potential here to not simply retread a bunch of Orc stuff. For one thing, this could be the golden opportunity to do a ton of stuff revolving around the Draenei. I'd love to see how a society of ageless devotees to the light might come into conflict. Perhaps some are not as devout as the ones you typically come across. What was the society they built for themselves on Draenor like during the thousand years before Kil'jaeden tracked them down?

Of course, we could be missing a big part of the picture. After all, Mists of Pandaria was ostensibly about Pandaria, with the threats of the Mantid, Mogu, Yaungol, and Sha. Who, then, with only that information available to them, could guess that we'd be fighting the Zandalari and that the final raid would be to unseat the Warchief of the Horde, battling through the streets of Orgrimmar?

The "Dark Portal" expansion had us battling it out at the Sunwell, and the "Scourge" expansion had us fighting Old Gods in a giant, magnificent Titan city. The "Black Dragon" expansion had us jumping between the Elemental Plains and fighting Twilight's Hammer.

Every expansion throws at least one curveball, so the fact that "Warlords of Draenor" would clearly focus on Outland in some new way does not rule out some of the things we might also want.

Four days left before Blizzcon, and then we'll know. But at the very least, I think Warlords of Draenor is looking to be a very strong contender for expansion 5.

UPDATE: Warlords of Draenor is now also trademarked in the United States. While you never know when someone will do a little change to the Matrix and we'll see the same cat walk by us in the same direction twice in a row, I'm going to go ahead and say that Warlords of Draenor is a practical guarantee for expansion 5.