Whispers out of Karazhan

This one's a pretty tiny hint, and could be absolutely nothing. We're also at the beginning of any public knowledge of Warlords of Draenor. Things change, and this wasn't' even an official announcement.

However, there's a hint that there may be a new phase - as in phasing and questing - that involves Karazhan.

Karazhan is tied deeply to Azeroth's connection with Draenor. The Wizard's Tower was built in a nexus of strange temporal and arcane energies, and it is there that Medivh, the Last Guardian, possessed by Sargeras the Dark Titan, made his home. While Gul'dan was on the Draenor side of the Dark Portal, rallying the Horde through his puppet Blackhand, Medivh was on the Azeroth side, constructing it, the Fallen Titan within him eager to unleash a brutal army on the unsuspecting world.

You can experience the opening of the Dark Portal in one of the first Caverns of Time dungeons, and of course, Karazhan was the initial raid in the Burning Crusade.

In a previous article, I put forth the notion that the Medivh of Azeroth-B could be the final boss of the expansion. Karazhan is a very strange building, not strictly adhering to a logical geometry. It's said that there is a sort of mirror to it underneath. It's also one of the most popular raids that Blizzard has ever come up with (Karazhan and Ulduar generally vie for the top spot.)

Right now we have what might be a phase - perhaps part of the pre-expansion event (assuming we're getting one. BC, Wrath and Cataclysm all had pretty big ones, but Mists had practically none.) Yet could this maybe suggest something for the future?

While there's a lot of confusion over whether WoD will definitely have Grom Hellscream as a final boss or certainly not have him as a final boss, there was a statement that the final boss would not be an Orc, which seems more firmly on the "not" side. If we do wind up fighting Medivh (and, in a sense, Sargeras, which is pretty damn big,) what place makes more sense to do so than in his own tower?

Obviously, a Karazhan raid would need to be very different. While the rationale for bringing Naxxramas back was that so few people had seen it in its prime, Karazhan was the first really accessible raid - tons of people ran Kara - and only Kara - in BC, which is why they introduced 10-man raids for all raids in Wrath. Likewise, Naxxramas at 80 was the first raid - an intro. There was a promise of new stuff to come within the expansion.

So if they're going to do Karazhan, they're going to have to do a very different Karazhan. Right now, the place is basically a haunted house. If we're going to Azeroth-B's Karazhan, which would presumably be 30 years younger, it's got to feel like a populated space and not a ruin. And given how freaking magical it is, I could imagine it having an entirely different layout.

WoW does spooky settings really well, and I would love to have an excuse to go back through Karazhan again.

BUT!

Don't. Do not. Don't even think about getting rid of the old one in any way.

Karazhan-B had better take place in a totally different version of Deadwind Pass, in a different Azeroth.

Ahem.