The Unexpected on Argus

Much of the experience of coming to Argus is what you'd expect: this planet has served as the capital world of the Burning Legion for 25,000 years. That means a lot of it is fel-blasted and swarming with demons. Many of those demons are the eredar - it's their homeworld, after all. And given that the Legion's creator/leader/god is a Titan, there is actually a slow-build to a reveal of Titan influence. I don't yet know how much the Titans' stuff (like what we saw in Northrend) is visible on Argus, but even though he's evil, Sargeras is undeniably a Titan, and thus brings with him the crazy magi-tek trappings.

But there are other elements at play that I think bear talking about. Are these hints of what is to come? Potentially. The Warcraft cosmos will need to move onto other subjects with the Legion taken care of, and I think we're seeing some of that now.

Spoilers to follow.


There are three areas, like zones, that we will visit on Argus. Krokun and the Antoran Wastes are both somewhat classic Legion-y areas. Krokun gives you a hint of the world Argus once was, but is desolated by the Legion's influence. Antoran Wastes, from the little I've seen, looks like the ultimate (is the ultimate) Legion-themed setting, with the seat of Sargeras looming in the distance.

Mac'aree is the second area you go to, and it's very, very different. Mac'aree was the capital of the Eredar civilization, and is where Velen once ruled with Archimonde and Kil'jaeden. This is the best glimpse you'll ever get of what Eredar civilization looked like prior to their corruption by the Legion, and my little character background for my Death Knight is that this is where he lived before they fled Argus.

Imagine Draenor's version of Shattrath, but with more of a gold-and-purple color palate. Cleverly, while the area you adventure in is clearly important (holding the Seat of the Triumvirate, which was the capitol building of the Eredar, and the magic academy where Thal'kiel and Archimonde studied) you also see a vast expanse of city in the skybox, drifting as shattered pieces of the planet's surface that were broken out and float high above the world. Mac'Aree is utterly enormous, but the section of it that we encounter is small enough to make a normal max-level zone.

And while echoes of ancient Eredar (including many who could become raid bosses later, like the guy who eventually became Jaraxxus) populate the city, there's also a surprising return of some old fan-favorites: the Ethereals.

While Turalyon and Alleria have allied with the Army of the Light (which seems to largely be uncorrupted Eredar who are physiologically identical to Draenei - they just didn't go with Velen,) and Turalyon has been kind of a paladin of the classic sense, Alleria got in trouble with Xe'ra for studying the Void and using its powers.

We encounter her tutor, who is an ethereal. There's actually a large ethereal population in Mac'aree who all seem to be conjuring the void - bringing it to Argus.

It's actually pretty gorgeous if you don't think about the horrifying implications. There's not much in the way of Old God-style sliminess, but instead certain areas of the city are being consumed by swirling, star-filled darkness. Alleria's tutor (whose name I can't recall) is clearly not allied with the other ethereals, who seem to be totally in service to the Void Lords, but is nevertheless using the power of the void and teaching her about it as well.

All of this raises some interesting questions:

Is the Void inherently evil? We have seen the Light abused by people like the Scarlet Crusade, so isn't it possible that just as the Light failed to redeem those using it in that context, we could similarly have good guys using the Void for positive purposes (depending on how you RP your Shadow Priest, you could be such a person.)

What is the significance of Alleria's use of the Void? She does not seem to be corrupted by it, and in fact seems to be training in order to avoid falling to corruption. Could a Ranger class, distinct from the Hunter, show up at some point using shadow magic (with Alleria, Vereesa, and Sylvanas as exemplars?)

Should we take this as a hint of what is to come? With the Legion defeated, the only other really cosmic threat we know of is that of the Old Gods, who are themselves creations of the Void. Given how strongly the game seems to be hinting at N'zoth playing a large role in the next expansion, should we expect not just the Azerothian "squid-faces and insectoid" Old God spawn but also the more cosmic "true void" monsters?

I am a little hesitant to dive headfirst into the "what comes next" questions (though I seem to have done just that) given that Argus promises to have some really amazing reveals about the Titans and the demons, but given that "how are you going to follow this one up" is such a crucial question for World of Warcraft after Legion, I'm going to be paying very close attention to any hints we might get about the future.

But one last thing: Was the void-corrupted tentacle-planet in the Star Augur Etreaus fight K'aresh, the homeworld of the Ethereals? We know from Burning Crusade that much like the Draenei, the ethereals fled from their homeworld. But while at the time Void creatures seemed to just be another type of demon, the much clearer distinction we're now aware of hints that K'aresh is probably nothing like Argus, and that this world could be something very different.