Other, Earlier Leak Rumor - Rumor! Rumor! Not Confirmed!

Ok, the other rumor about expansion six, which we'll know in... eight days, goes by the title "The Dark Prophet."

This would, similarly, deal with The Prophet Zul, who came to King Rastakhan of the Zandalari and drummed up the whole "re-unite the Trolls" story we've been getting since 4.1.

The expansion would also feature Azshara prominently, though it's unclear from the rumors whether she or Zul would be the real headliner (here's a tin-foil theory for you: Zul is Azshara in disguise.) I'd prefer Azshara, just because she's a bigger name and frankly we could use more prominent female characters in WoW. Not to say that it doesn't have them - Sylvanas is a great character, and I like Jaina a lot too (frankly, I think the reaction to her purging of Dalaran has been interpreted as far more "evil" than "badass" and "done putting up with this bullshit" primarily because she's a woman, but that's a whole can of worms that I don't want to get into here.)

The rumor goes that Vol'jin will be at the center of the Horde plot, which makes a lot of sense. He'd be dealing with questions of his loyalty, with the Zandalari perhaps trying again to interest him in joining their nationalistic movement. Obviously he won't, because Vol'jin is awesome, but it'll be a nice bit of conflict and a cool story you couldn't have done if the Horde were still being run by an Orc.

Meanwhile, the rumor goes on to say that Malfurion would be central to the Alliance plot - though frankly, again, I think they need to bring Tyrande back to the forefront. In my headcanon, Malfurion's obviously powerful and useful, but he's not a real military leader, and is more the kind of earthy, Night Elfy version of your most powerful wizard - in other words, too caught up in his mystical stuff to deal with mundane practicalities like actually running their society. Tyrande, however, is practically the Queen of the Night Elves, and so I'd like to see her kicking ass.

Still, the overall idea that we could have a WoW expansion where neither Orcs nor Humans were at the center of things makes me super excited. We got half of that in Warlords of Draenor, and whatever flaws the expansion might have had, I don't think I've heard anyone complain about getting more Draenei lore.

Obviously this is not far off from the Council of Glades rumor. The main reason I put points in this one's favor is that the name "The Dark Prophet" sounds way, way cooler than "Council of Glades."

I think we could definitely see some carry-over of demons, and perhaps even see Gul'dan-B return to kick off the expansion. It's kind of shocking that Gul'dan wasn't a raid boss in Warlords of Draenor (I really expected him to be the final boss) but they could be saving him to kind of take us, as they did with Garrosh, into the new territory.

And while Warlords is really the first expansion since BC that didn't deal in some way with the Old Gods, I think we've been long enough away from those eldritch horrors that I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of them. Twilight's Hammer might have lost it leader, but you can be certain that it hasn't been wiped out.

I'm also very curious about where Azshara's loyalties lie. Deathwing was taken over entirely by the Old Gods, but I wonder if Azshara has somehow managed to maintain her own will. I know it's unlikely my "Fel Magic makes you immune to Old Gods" theory will prove to be canon, but it'd be cool if it did!

EDIT: Oh yes, and this one seems to suggest that we'd be getting a class called "Shadowstalker," with specializations called "Dark Ranger" and "Shadow Hunter." While not totally outside the realm of possibility, this seems less likely to me than Demon Hunters. The reason being that "Shadowstalker" isn't really a name that has much existing meaning in WoW. Granted, it's not unprecedented to see an established "class" re-conceived as a spec of a larger class (Brewmasters.) That said, if we have a Troll/Naga South Seas expansion, a class that allows for Shadow Hunters might fit better than Demon Hunters.

Again, none of this is confirmed, and there's still a possibility that the next expansion won't have any new classes, even though I'd prefer that it did. I certainly have a positive response bias toward Demon Hunters as a new class, so while I think it's more likely, I realize that my expectations are a bit skewed.