"Council of Glades" Rumor - Rumor, Mind You. Putting That Right in the Title.

Ok, with Gamescon coming up an a lot of speculating that we might hear about expansion six there, we have another supposed "Trademark Leak." The "Leak" "is" that there is a Blizzard trademark application in New Zealand for "Council of Glades."

Trademark leaks are usually the most reliable way to discover the truth of a new expansion - Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor are all trademarked titles that were discovered before their respective expansion announcements.

On the other hand, "The Dark Below" was similarly discovered, and we all know how that turned out.

Additionally, a little while ago, there was a rumor of a leaked "Council of Tirisfal" themed expansion. In case you don't know what that is, allow me to elucidate.

The Council of Tirisfal was created thousands of years ago by mages in Lordaeron (primarily human ones, though I think High Elves got in on the action as well.) They chose someone to serve as the Guardian, imbuing said Guardian with their power and creating effectively the most powerful Mage on Azeroth. Why don't we have such a useful person anymore?

Well, the second-to-last Guardian was Aegwynn. In her time as Guardian, she traveled to Northrend and did battle with an Avatar of Sargeras. Despite Aegwynn winning, Sargeras was able to pour his essence into Aegwynn. When Aegwynn seduced Nielas Aran in order to create an heir that she would give her Guardian powers to (circumventing the Council,) she conceived Medivh, and Sargeras transferred over to him while he was still a microscopic embryo.

Medivh was thus the Last Guardian, and his possession by the Dark Titan led to the invasion by the Horde.

Now, in the comics, Medivh had a son with Garona Halforcen. This character, Med'an, is almost universally reviled by anyone who has read the comics, who appears to embody all the worst Wesley-Crusher-style wunderkind/Mary Sue tropes. I don't know for sure, having never read Warcraft tie-in materials outside of short stories on their website.

Anyway, the expansion rumor mentions a return of Illidan, with Gul'dan and Azshara also working against us. The rumor puts forth playable Demon Hunters, the establishment of Gnomeregan and Gilneas as functional Alliance cities, Thassarian attempting to rescue Koltira from Sylvanas, as well as Magatha Grimtotem summoning a massive ocean behemoth and Timewalker Zones, which would allow you to scale down and quest through old zones again.

So, can you spot the problem with this rumor?

My problem is that it looks way too good to be true. Demon Hunters, Gilneas, a follow-up to Thassarian and Koltira, a return of Illidan - these are all like a checklist of things that players have been clamoring for for years.

Mind you, this is more or less exactly what I want out of the next expansion (throw in "launching with twelve 5-player dungeons and three new ones each patch" and I'll overdose) but let's just say color me skeptical.

While real expansion leaks do happen, for every true one, we get at least three total BS "leaks." This one looks way more like the BS variety.

But that said, if it does turn out to be true, it could be a fantastic expansion.