Leaks and Speculation

In prior years, we've gotten occasional leaks to clue us into the next World of Warcraft expansion. This time around, it's no different, so let's look at what we've got:

Right now the only really believable leak is a bit of datamining that we found in the 7.3 PTR patch. This was a set of textures related to armor and "doodads" (aka bits of decorative stuff for in-game environments.) The textures included maps (again, not for the player map screen, but rather for in-game objects) as well as what appears to be cloth gear. The gear textures were labeled "Kul Tiras quest" which is generally how the game denotes the green and blue quest rewards from the leveling process. Now, I don't know if the quest gear in Legion was labeled as simply "Broken Isles Quest" or tied to specific zones, like "Highmountain Quest." Given that each zone had its own color variant, I would guess the latter, which would suggest that Kul Tiras will likely be a zone, rather than the whole continent for the next expansion.

This is not the first time that a texture proved promising for a future expansion. In 5.4, the Siege of Orgrimmar patch, we got a texture (in this case just a nondescript grey square - nothing as detailed as what we've seen this time) that was labeled "Iron Horde." While many of us assumed this had something to do with Garrosh's "True Horde," it of course presaged the Warlords of Draenor expansion.

This Kul Tiras stuff is much stronger evidence that that had been. The armor textures even have a rope-like motif, which would tie strongly into the nautical country of Kul Tiras, and given that we'd be likely to see simple color variations for different zones, would point strongly to a nautical-based expansion.

We are less than a month away from Blizzcon, but so far I don't believe we've had any other major leaks. In the past, people have discovered trademark registrations by Blizzard that gave away expansion names: Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor were all "announced" this way. We did not see this in Legion, though I suspect Blizzard has gotten better at keeping these under wraps, such as registering the trademark in other countries first.

Beyond this leak - which to be clear, is a substantial one - the rest of our speculation is based on the strong hints that Blizzard has made over the course of the Legion expansion. The past two expansions have had clear segues between them - Garrosh carried us from Mists to Warlords and Gul'dan carried us from Warlords to Mists. Legion has had many references to the Void and the Old Gods, and so the general consensus is that we'll likely be dealing with something at least connected to the Old Gods.

With Kul Tiras likely featuring in the upcoming expansion, it seems likely that we'll finally be getting the long-rumored "South Seas" expansion involving Queen Azshara and the Naga, who are of course tied to N'zoth, the last living Old God we have not yet faced.

An expansion featuring Kul Tiras would likely involve Jaina Proudmoore, who is featured prominently in the Blizzcon art. Alleria's recent connection (well, recent from our perspective) to the Void and its magic would make her a key player to have in an Old God expansion as well. In fact, there's a Blizzcon panel featuring female voice actors, which would make a lot of sense for an expansion that could feature Jaina, Alleria, and Azshara as prominent figures.

If this is truly a "South Seas" expansion, I would then further speculate that we'd likely be seeing Zandalar, with King Rakastan and the Prophet Zul (whom I have always theorized might be an avatar of N'zoth - a kind of Nyarlathotep figure.) We could also see a return to Kezan and perhaps the goblin capital of Undermine (I'd actually love to hear more about the history of the goblins, as they were supposed to at one time have a super-advanced civilization.)

I will of course be keeping my ear to the ground for any credible leaks - though I should also point out that the most accurate leak I saw for Legion looked like total BS at the time - a poorly-translated Chinese post that featured such wild ideas as Sylvanas becoming Warchief, Deathwing's Lair featuring prominently, and a whole new race of elves... which all turned out to be true.