While BFA is only in its first raid tier, and we've got about another year of content releases to go within the Battle for Azeroth cycle, we can also start seriously considering the future of the expansion as well. We don't know where 8.3 will take us, though signs are pointing toward Ny'alotha.
The first couple WoW expansions were largely about filling in the map. While the Eastern Kingdoms had been established as early as the first Warcraft game (though it wasn't until II that we got anything north of Blackrock Mountain,) Outland, Kalimdor, and Northrend were all present in the RTS games. Obviously WoW launched with Kalimdor fully realized, and so the promise of Outland and Northrend seemed very logical.
Other than Pandaria, which really took a questionably (then) canonical race of Panda people and generated an entire interesting continent with its own multitude of humanoid races, most expansions have built on stuff established in prior canon. Kul Tiras was part of Warcraft II, and Zandalar was first referenced in Vanilla. The Broken Isles were part of the Frozen Throne expansion in Warcraft III.
Now, if WoW is to live on indefinitely, they're going to have to do more Pandaria-like invention over time. But on the other hand, something like Zandalar works out quite well - no, it was never mentioned in the RTS games, but consider that WoW came out only a few years after WCIII and will be 15 years old today. Zandalar had plenty of time to intrigue us before we actually went there.
While the plot is important, as are the villains, every expansion needs a place for us to go. Cataclysm is the only expansion that didn't add a new continent, and that's generally seen as one of its biggest problems. A sense of place is important to set the feeling for an expansion.
Where have we not gone? I'm going to talk about a couple of possibilities. It's not an exhaustive list, but I figure these are the ones with the most potential.
The Shadowlands:
The Shadowlands have the potential to expand the cosmic-tier threats that we heroes of Azeroth have to deal with. I always found the distinction between the Burning Legion and the Old Gods to be a really great one for keeping the Warcraft cosmos interesting. One of my problems with the Diablo games is that it always just boils down to some demons (though I loved how Reaper of Souls flipped the script on it - I still would have liked to see something outside of that binary system.) Making Death its own unique and separate force from the Chaos of demons and the darkness of the Void means the opportunity for interesting dynamics - I love when we're forced to team up with one bad guy to fight another.
The Shadowlands do have a bit of the same problem Blizzard had with an Emerald Dream expansion. It's basically an overlay of the existing world. Now, on the other hand, while the Emerald Dream is supposed to be an unspoiled Azeroth without any signs of civilization (which they kind of cheated around in order to make the Thunder Bluff part of Emerald Nightmare more recognizable) it's not clear there are such rules in the Shadowlands. Consider, for example, that the Drust are there now, and we could have plenty of distinct and spooky populations existing within it.
Still, is Blizzard willing to have a whole expansion take place in an extraplanar setting? We'll see. Warlords of Draenor was an alternate universe, but presumably was still a sort of "material plane" setting.
The Dragon Isles:
This to me seems like the safest option. We know that the Dragon Isles exist in the real world, and it would be pretty simple to just make five zones like the Broken Isles, each themed around one of the five dragonflights. There's not obvious villain other than maybe the Infinite Dragonflight - the Black Dragons are coming back, though, and so you could have Wrathion as a central figure.
K'aresh or another Space-Based Adventure:
It's funny that Burning Crusade felt way more Science-Fantasy than Warlords of Draenor despite taking place on different versions of the same world (and same zones in many cases.) It wasn't until the last patch of Legion that we really got that spaceships-and-lasers feel we got in Burning Crusade. While I think it's something to use in moderation - sometimes it's fun to go for more traditional fantasy settings - I think it's a mode that WoW can certainly return to.
On the other hand, I'd prefer, especially if we fight N'zoth at the end of BFA, to let the Void-themed villains fade into the background for a bit before we return to them. Still, playable Ethereals would be a lot of fun.
The Where of Warcraft
We're still several months out from Blizzcon, which is when I expect the next expansion to be unveiled. It could go in a lot of different directions, but my current money (not that I tend to bet actual money) is on a death-themed expansion. Where that will be set remains to be seen. I personally really want to see a Shadowlands-set expansion, but I don't know how comfortable their creative department is with that as an idea.
Given that we've defeated the Burning Legion on Argus, there's really no ceiling to the kinds of stakes we can get into. A bit of restraint is a good thing to make sure we don't get jaded, but I think that by level 130 there's really nothing they can't have us do.
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