With 8.3's Announcement Out of the Way, Let's Talk Expansion 8!

Today's announcement of 8.3 tells us a few things: obviously it shows us how BFA's final patch is going to look (so far it looks like a thumbs-up from me) but also, by showing us what we are getting in 8.3, we're also seeing what we're not getting in 9.0, which narrows the possibilities for next time.

Having N'zoth and Ny'alotha in this patch, we're getting the biggest glimpse of the Black Empire in-game that we ever have. Ny'alotha is less of a single location than a whole alternate reality that N'zoth has built and wishes to essentially overlay onto the true world.

So the notion that next expansion will be the Black Empire seems less likely now.

We have yet to see what story content we get in 8.3, but unless Sylvanas sneaks back into the spotlight, I think we can truly consider not just the Alliance/Horde conflict over, but also we can see her schemes being pushed back.

And that means that Sylvanas (whose image is part of Blizzcon's key art much as Jaina's was when BFA was announced) could be a major player in the next expansion.

So while rumors that we'd be seeing a big "assault on Stormwind" raid have clearly proven false, that does not mean that we couldn't get the fabled Shadowlands expansion that I've been advocating.

That being said, given that Ny'alotha is being portrayed less as a singular location than a whole other realm of existence, I do wonder then if they'd want a whole expansion set in the Shadowlands, or if that would be too similar.

Another popular theory for the next expansion would be the Dragon Isles, and there certainly have been a number of references to dragons in the last couple patches, with a startling (and hopefully reversible) part Wrathion will play in the next raid.

We of course don't know what exactly will happen at the very end of the expansion, when the final raid is completed. What happens to the World-Soul of Azeroth? The answer to that question will, I think, be a very important one to understand in order for the next expansion's story to make sense.

I think my only real doubt about a Dragon Isles expansion is that I don't see who the big bad would be. And to be fair, Blizzard has made their last few expansions (Legion as a sort of exception) ones in which it wasn't entirely clear what the greatest threat was behind everything.

Obviously, it's trademark-hunting season, so we'll keep an eye out for that. But with the Black Empire hitting in 8.3, I really think the two biggest possibilities are the gothic/spooky horror of the Shadowlands or the ancient primordial power of the Dragon Isles.

Less than a month now to find out if it's one of those, some combination of the two, or neither!