Who Is Liadrin Talking to in Midnight's Cinematic?

 So, first off, mark it down: that's twelve WoW cinematics without a Gnome.

(The initial plan for WoW was to only have six playable races in Vanilla, being the Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Orcs, Tauren, and Undead. Trolls and Gnomes were added later in production, and that's why they share Durotar and Dun Morogh, respectively, and before Cataclysm, they literally started in the exact same spot at level 1 as the races whose zone they shared. A troll appeared briefly in the Burning Crusade cinematic, but from Wrath onward, the expansion cinematics were focused less on unidentified heroes representing player characters than they were on major NPCs.)

But, more to the point: we see Lor'themar and Liadrin rendered in gorgeous detail in the Midnight cinematic, while Xal'atath leads her void forces in a siege on the Sunwell. While Lor'themar seems skeptical and wishes for Liadrin to remain with him on the front lines of the battle, she ultimately retreats to the Sunwell, where she petitions... someone to come aid them.

The cinematic concludes with the promised aid arriving, and an army of light arriving to clash against the army of the void that Xal'atath leads. But who are they?

One thing I noted while watching the cinematic was the skepticism that Lor'themar seemed to have. Lor'themar is not a religious figure - if he has a class, I think it's Hunter. He's reluctantly taken on a leadership role amongst the Blood Elves after the depravities of Kael'thas Sunstrider (who is on the road to redemption, at least in soul, over in Revendreth,) but in case you don't remember Burning Crusade, the Blood Elves' worship of the Light is actually a pretty recent phenomenon. While their Highborne ancestors certainly aligned with sun imagery as a contrast to their Night Elf brethren, the original Blood Elf Paladins actually acquired their power by draining a Naaru of its essence in a rather profane act of parasitism. Liadrin, the first of these Blood Knights, ultimately repented when Kael'thas returned from Outland with a bunch of fel-corrupted elves and took M'uru to the Sunwell Plateau, where they used the Sunwell to attempt to summon Kil'jaeden to allow the Burning Legion to fully invade.

To back up even farther: the Sunwell was created with a vial of water from the Well of Eternity that Illidan had gathered before the Sundering (another of which created the well on Mount Hyjal from which Nordrassil grew). The High Elves, originally the Highborne of the Night Elves, went into exile rather than give up their use of arcane magic, which the new Night Elf leadership (Malfurion and Tyrande and their regime) felt was to blame for drawing the Legion's attention (which wasn't incorrect, though the distinction between Fel, Arcane, and even Void magic is something I don't think even Blizzard had worked out when BC came out). The High Elves used arcane magic so much that they became addicted to it (not quite to the same level as the Nightborne, who literally didn't have any arable land to grow any food and so sustained themselves entirely via mana, but they were still quite dependent on it - like the Nightborne Withered, the Blood Elves have a population of "Wretched" who lost their minds in arcane magic withdrawal).

The Sunwell kept a steady stream of arcane energy flowing to the High Elves, but with the rise of the Scourge and Arthas' invasion of Quel'thalas, and his use of the Sunwell to resurrect Kel'thuzad as a Lich, the Sunwell was corrupted, and the source of energy was cut off. This is why Illidan provided them with Fel energy, though of course this was like helping someone get over their cocaine addiction by providing them with meth.

However, with the end of the Sunwell Plateau raid, Velen used the remains of M'uru to purify the Sunwell, and transformed it into a source of both Arcane and Holy energy. The Blood Elves thus became light-worshippers, or at least they revered it, and actually the Blood Knights became much more conventional paladins.

This dependence isn't something that game has really done much with in the intervening years (nearly 20,) but it's interesting to see how the Void Elves are former Blood Elves, themselves former High Elves, who are sustained by the Void somehow, though it's not clear how.

Still, as we prepare for a return to Quel'thalas, it's clear that the Sunwell is a major strategic goal of Xal'atath's campaign.

The obvious reason for this is simply that it's a font of immense power. It was enough to summon Kil'jaeden to Azeroth (nearly - we bonked him back down into it, so we didn't actually get to see his legs until Legion) and to make a Lich out of Kel'thuzad (though Liches don't seem to be profoundly rare). More importantly, though, it seems to keep an entire nation of elves neurochemically balanced.

But also, remember that what fixed the Sunwell after Kil'jaeden's first defeat was the heart of a Naaru that had to be slain after it entered its void phase. Is M'uru's heart still in the Sunwell? Doesn't it seem possible that that's what Xal'atath is trying to get there?

We then have another question, though: Lor'themar's concern might be less about philosophical skepticism toward the Light than simply worrying about one of Silvermoon's greatest champions retreating from the battle lines. But the tone, as I heard it, seemed more like he was concerned that she was taking a risk by calling for aid at the Sunwell.

The end of Midnight's cinematic has an army of light-wielding soldiers arriving to battle the Void's forces, but they're back-lit and vague in detail. Mainly, we just see some heavy armor. But they don't look like Naaru or any other light-based creatures we've seen (not that we've seen many of those). What they look like, to be honest, is humans.

Could that mean it's just a representation of us, the heroes of Azeroth?

Or is it a group we're already well aware of?

War Within introduced to us the Empire of Arathor via the Hallowfall Expedition. But there's so much about them that doesn't really add up: we already know the Arathi Highlands, and the history as we've always gotten it in-game is that the Arathi Empire was the original human nation, which spread across most of the subcontinent of Lordaeron. Eventually, it broke up into seven human kingdoms: Lordaeron, Stromgarde, Dalaran, Alterac, Gilneas, Kul Tiras, and far to the south, Stormwind. Lordaeron was supposedly founded by the empire's nobility, while the descendants of the Arathi kings went to create Stormwind. Anduin Lothar, the great hero of Stormwind (and, if we're to take the movie's assumptions as canon, Varian's maternal uncle) was among the last direct descendants of these kings (interesting that he wasn't king, then, and the Wrynn line instead held the throne).

But humanity in Azeroth seemed to kind of be accounted for - with the occasional exception, like the human Wastewander Bandits in southern Kalimdor. And then, all of a sudden, we hear about this whole empire somewhere else in an unexplored part of Azeroth, not to mention that the person we get to know the best among them is also a Lothar.

We know a little about the Arathi: for one thing, they seem to have a lot of mixed-in elvish ancestry, with many having pointed elf ears despite primarily human physiology. Among them, however, there are some who lean more toward a high-elf physiology.

This would actually make a fair amount of sense: the Arathi formed their first alliance with the High Elves to fend off their mutual foes in the Amani Trolls. The Kirin Tor were founded by the 100 humans taught arcane magic by the high elves.

And yet, the history as we mostly receive it is that, despite this alliance, the humans and high elves had a fraught relationship: Kael'thas' people were given all the most dangerous tasks in the Alliance's post-Third-War clean-up of Lordaeron (a project that can only be considered a failure).

What we've seen of the Arathi Empire, at least in this small expedition, is that it seems to be a very religious one. While the Church of the Light is very popular in human lands, its influence on Stormwind society is limited, and it's especially rare in other human societies that we've interacted with (notably, both Worgen and Kul Tirans can't be Paladins - Gilneas does have a church at the center of its capital, but that's about it, and Kul Tirans have their own shamanic faith with its Tidespeakers - one that, in a very Lovecraftian manner, was probably engineered by Azshara, given that it's heavily implied that the Tidemother is none other than the former Highborne queen).

So, yes, in case it wasn't clear, I think that, barring a generic "heroes of Azeroth" that Liadrin is summoning at the Sunwell, I think it's the Arathi.

And I think I know why Lor'themar is skeptical: because I'm calling it here (and basically a year ago): the Arathi Empire is going to be something we have to oppose in the future. I think they're going to decide to bring order to Azeroth by conquering it. And I think that starts with them arriving and saving the day in Quel'thalas.

Liadrin is inclined to assume that light-worshippers can be trusted. But as we've seen reinforced as a recurring theme since at least Legion (though we can also look to the Scarlet Crusade all the way back in Vanilla, which, in fairness, was also being secretly run by a Dreadlord) that the so-called "good" cosmic forces aren't always actually good. From the life-aligned Genesaurs and light-aligned Aarakoa on Draenor to ample evidence in Dragonflight that the Titans can be quite domineering and imperious in their methods, or Xera's attempt to forcibly convert Illidan to the Light, the developing theme in World of Warcraft is that pushing too hard in any one direction is what's harmful. Sure, we tend to see aggression from the forces of Fel, Void, and Death more often, but we also have at least a few examples of benevolent Death entities, like our allies in the Shadowlands, and some examples of the void serving as an important counter-balance to an excess of Light. We haven't really seen any truly positive portrayals of the Fel (the best we get is heroic Demon Hunters and Warlocks,) but maybe we will some time in the future.

I suspect that the Arathi Empire is quite authoritarian. We get those vibes in Hallowfall, but the expeditioners have had to become more flexible and tolerant just to survive there, and with that flexibility comes a friendlier culture and outlook.

I've long theorized that Faerin Lothar's family is none other than the Empire's royal family - she is a Lothar, after all - and that her participation in the expedition to get away from the pressures of her family suggests that perhaps she disagrees with the way that they do things. And if that's the case... well, maybe it's because Emperor Lothar is some kind of tyrant.

This is all a huge amount of speculation based on some silhouettes and a just a reading of Lor'themar's attitude in the Midnight cinematic. But I figure it would be good to get my thoughts down here so we can see if I'm on to something or if this is just utterly and totally off-base.