Warlords of Draenor

Blizzard has just trademarked the name "Warlords of Draenor." Given the timing of the filing, the apparent legitimacy of the trademark (unlike the Dark Below,) and the fact that this could easily fit into one or two of the most obvious next directions for WoW, I'm 90% confident at this point that this is the name of the next WoW expansion.

And with a name like this, we have some very clear implications. Assuming this is legitimate (and I think we have a lot of reason to believe it is,) we will definitely be heading back to Outland, and dealing with Azeroth's sister world (with a hell of a case of sibling rivalry.)

The name does hint, however, at some funny stuff. For one thing, it refers to Draenor, which is the name the planet had before Ner'zhul broke the planet into Outland. Could this imply we're going to be seeing a past version of Draenor? Will this be a journey into the past? If so, what time period?

The "Warlords" part of the title would seem to imply the early days of the Horde, perhaps letting us interact with such founding members as Blackhand, Ner'zhul (pre-Lich King,) Gul'dan, Grom Hellscream, Durotan... basically a whole bunch of Orcs.

But, on the other side of things, this would be a fantastic opportunity to flesh out the Draenei. We could see what Draenei society was like before the Horde's genocide against them. Despite the Orcs being the natives, it is the Draenei who built most of the most impressive structures in Outland, such as Auchindoun, Shattrath City, and the Temple of Karabor (now known as the Black Temple.)

I could also see this as an opportunity to add the Ogres as a playable Horde race, though I don't know what they would balance them with on the Alliance side.

If the expansion were to take place at a later date, we could see the early days of the Alliance expedition.

But the whole time-travel aspect is purely speculation. We could, after all, be seeing a modern version of Draenor. Perhaps we'll be exploring other parts of the planet that broke off during Ner'zhul's portal-spree.

I would expect to see more of the Burning Legion, but with a name like this, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be center-stage. On the other hand, with the Orcs kind of serving as the main villains of Mists (well, other than the Sha,) I doubt we're going to have everything focused once again on the Horde.

This would (fingers crossed, oh man) be a great opportunity to bring in Demon Hunters as a class, but I'm going to try not to jinx it.

Anyway, all we have is a name at this point. While it's not a perfect guarantee that this is the name of the next expansion, I think that it's an extremely likely possibility.

We will, of course, find out more details as time goes on, but I think WoD or "Warlords," is pretty likely to be expansion 5.