No Wall Yet: Fingers Crossed in Dark Souls III

Well, here I am, back in Anor Londo. The place where I hit the wall that prevented me from beating Dark Souls. Only now, instead of being at the highest peak (give or take the Duke's Archives) and bathed in sunlight (which I understand to be an illusion you can dispel later on) it's a snowy ruin in the Boreal Valley.

After fighting my way through Irithyl - an interesting take on Dark Souls' urban environments in that it was clearly abandoned in some way but not in ruins - I made it to Pontiff Sulyvahn. I was pretty convinced that this would be the first really infuriatingly difficult boss, given that I could barely hit him the first four or five attempts. But then I discovered the wonders of the Buckler - I believe that in Dark Souls III (maybe the original as well,) small shields make up for their lack of 100% physical damage reduction by giving you a wider parry window. And with Sulyvahn going crazy with his massive flurry of attacks, it wasn't hard to get a parry in there and take a massive chunk out of his health.

Also useful was getting some lighter armor so I could dodge more effectively - he clones himself at 50% and you need to be able to dodge the clone's attacks before parrying the boss. Once I even attempted the parry method I think I beat him either in one or two attempts.

We're pretty well into the mid-game here, and I've done all I need for the Usurp the Flame ending (poor Anri... or... maybe she's fine? I don't know how it works for Hollows, but that's the most fucked up "wedding" I've ever seen... well, at least among those that went as planned, so not counting the Red Wedding.) One of the cool things in Dark Souls is that good and evil are pretty ambiguous. I mean, ok, Aldritch (and Sulyvahn, who kind of orchestrated Aldritch's actions) is very definitely evil. But is the Usurp the Flame ending the "evil" one? Given the endless cycle that seems to just be getting more and more miserable as it goes, the idea of doing something new with the fire seems like not such a bad idea. Does your character become some kind of dark emperor? Well,  yes, by definition, but again we're not exactly sure whether Dark and Evil are the same. (Are dark and the abyss even the same? And what is the Deep?)

Anyway, I was very happy that I helped out Siegward at the Cathedral of the Deep because he rescued Greirat in Irithyl. I'm led to understand that Patches can do this as well, but only if he has the Catarina armor still. Kind of cool to know that Patches can actually do something nice for once.

I've been thinking a lot about how to do another character. This guy was originally supposed to be Strength-based, but your options for weapons seem a lot broader with Dexterity. Still, I think the next character will probably be a caster (I'm thinking Faith-based.) I'm beginning to understand a little better why one might go for infusions that remove scaling - if your character is a caster, that means most of their weapons won't scale with their main output stat, and so having a weapon that just does a bunch of damage regardless of your stats seems powerful, especially early in the game. I could imagine focusing on survival stats in the early game even on a STR/DEX character using this method and only pumping stuff into the throughput stats (aside from what is needed to equip items) once the scaling would make it better.

While the core gameplay is very similar, I'm understanding how much simpler the stats and equipment in Bloodborne are. I wouldn't mind seeing a Bloodborne 2 (well, I could end the sentence there) that diversified things like Hunter Tools a bit more, but there's also something kind of nice about knowing that you can pour Blood Echoes into your main stats without fear.

Anyway, in the main game I think I basically have Aldritch (with the main doors to Anor Londo open, I assume that I can just run into O&S's old room) and then Irithyl Dungeon (I believe I know how to get there...) the Old Demon King and the rest of the Demon Ruins (which I've partially explored,) the Profaned Capital (which I believe is super-short, not unlike this game's Anor Londo) and then Lothric Castle and the end of the game.

However, I've also got both the DLCs. I talked to Gael when I first showed up in the Cleansing Palace at the Cathedral of the Deep, but after I got the first bonfire I left, intending to return when I was ready. I figure I'll try to get at least Dragonslayer Armor down before I do any of the DLC stuff, and then go Ariandel before Ringed City.

So I'm in no danger of running out of game anytime soon. Not to mention all the stuff I'm sure I've missed.

Dark Souls III: No Wall Yet, Fingers Crossed

When I played Dark Souls, I hit the Ornstein and Smough wall. I had heard that they were the hardest boss, and boy did they seem to be. But either because I've played through all of Bloodborne or because Dark Souls 3 isn't as hard, I've been going through bosses at a decent rate.

After the Curse-Rotted Greatwood I went down the Road of Sacrifices and found the Crystal Sage first. As with the other bosses, it's taking be 3-4 attempts per boss (with one exception,) and while it was pretty easy to get this guy to phase 2, I had to learn to patiently eliminate some of his clones before wailing on him in order to take him down.

From there, I went to the Cathedral of the Deep, which is a pretty large and complex part of the game. I eventually got through the Patches encounter - an NPC I actually seem to have missed in Dark Souls 1, perhaps because I did the Undead Tomb (or whatever that area was called) a little early (I also lost my Pinwheel boss souls, which was infuriating.) I did the next part of the Leonhard quest chain - I believe I have to get to the Profaned Capital for the next part. I also got Siegward his armor back (spending my Deacons boss souls on it.)

While the Cathedral itself was very tricky (and there are definitely a couple of it that I still need to explore,) its boss, the Deacons of the Deep, was the only boss so far that I've one-shot. I think it's basically the Witch of Hemwick of the game - a simple puzzle, but once you figure it out, it's quite easy. (It helped that rather than surrounding the "enflamed" member, they simply got between me and the one they were protecting, meaning that I could easily run around the crowd to the back and take out the target.)

Next I went into Farron Keep, which was actually not as terrible a poison swamp area as I expected (I expected Blighttown.) On to the Abyss Watchers, it took again, about three or four attempts before I made it. I realized that damage reduction was not worth it if you couldn't dodge, so I got a bit of a mix of armor sets, still using my 100% physical reduction shield (I think the Dragon Crest) to break up combos. The Watchers don't have much health - it's just that getting a hit in is tricky. Also, they probably have my favorite boss music in the game so far.

I then sojourned into the Catacombs of Carthus. I definitely need to explore this area further (I think the Demon Ruins are below it?) I met Anri for the next step of the Usurp the Fire questchain, though I think I need to get into the aforementioned Demon Ruins to continue.

I did go and defeat High Lord Wolnir, which I really hope hasn't screwed up that quest chain. The first two attempts, I thought I was going to win because I got two of his bracelets off, but then I got swallowed by the Abyss fog, so the next time I played a lot more conservatively (I also attacked the single bangle on his right wrist first, and oddly didn't see any skeletons spawn in the final, successful attempt. I suppose this is Dark Souls' take on a Lich, which is pretty cool.

Anyway, I think my post-boss ember for Wolnir was the shortest-lived yet, as I immediately died to the beast thing that pops up on the bridge as you enter Irithyl of the Boreal Valley.

So, I think what is left for me in the main game is the Old Demon King, Pontiff Sulyvahn, Aldritch, Yhorm, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Oceiros, Champion Gundyr, Nameless King, Dragonslayer Armor, Lothric, and the Soul of Cinder. But I think that I'll treat Dragonslayer Armor as the "Micolash" of the game, as a boss that will lead me into the DLC, starting with Ariandel and then the Ringed City. Here I was worried I was plowing through the game too quickly, but I've still got a ton of bosses left.

Dark Souls III: High Wall of Lothric and Undead Settlement

Having picked up Bloodborne again recently, I assumed I'd be in good shape to breeze through some of Dark Souls III's early areas.

Um. No.

Granted, I don't think I've been going into the kind of controller-smashing frustration I had with my first foray into the Undead Burgh in the original Dark Souls, but it certainly hasn't been the kind of cakewalk that I have with Central Yharnam on playthrough... four, I think, of Bloodborne.

The pace and rhythm of the game is also very different. If you pile on the armor in Dark Souls, you're not going to be able to dodge. Also, the lack of recovery - the mechanic in Bloodborne where you can get health back after being hit as long as you strike back quickly and don't get hit again - makes the Bloodborne gameplay style a little too reckless in Dark Souls.

Still, it hasn't been horrible. I've managed to beat Iudex Gundyr (the only boss you have to beat before you can level up,) Vordt of the Boreal Valley, and the Curse-Rotted Greatwood, all in about three or four attempts.

There are a lot of quests to keep track of, but I think I've managed to get all the NPCs out of these areas, and I did the first part of Ringfinger Leonhard's quest chain (the Venetian-like mask he wears MUST BE MINE.)

I will say that leveling up in Dark Souls is a lot more complicated than in Bloodborne - in the latter, you can more or less pick one of the throughput stats and then just level it up in tandem with Stamina (which is the health stat, if I recall correctly) once you have the requirements for your chosen weapons. There are many more to juggle in Dark Souls, and I haven't done much exploration of spellcasting as an option.

I'm still at a level where I could go either Dexterity or Strength - I'm generally drawn to the latter, though given the fast Bloodborne-style gameplay I'm used to and the fact that it seems like there are way more Dex weapons than Strength weapons, I'm equivocating a bit (for now I'm going to try to pump in enough Dex to use the Hollowslayer Greatsword, which is a boss weapon from the Curse-Rotted Greatwood.)

This is of course a shared feature with Bloodborne, but I've got to say that having the ability to teleport from the get-go (never having beaten Ornstein and Smough, I never got that in DS1) as well as getting a bonfire after every boss has been a huge quality-of-life improvement. I have yet to summon an NPC for a boss (my ember from earlier bosses has never made it to the next and I'm not ready to start using up the consumable items) but I'm very grateful that you don't have to Ember up at a bonfire, and can instead pop one right before stepping into a boss room - I can't tell you how frustrating it was to lose all my humanity after some ill-timed dodge fleeing the giants in Anor Londo before I even got to O&S.

I'm actually contemplating trying out a PS+ account to try the online stuff. I'd love to aid people in Jolly Cooperation and potentially get... some kind of reward? I've never played these games online, so it would be new to me.

PTR: 110 Level Requirement for Allied Races

This is all PTR datamining-based stuff, but apparently there is a string (little things that can pop up as messages in-game) that suggests that, in order to create an Allied Race character on a given realm, you'll need to have one character of level 110 there.

Much as Hero Classes have historically required leveling characters on the specific realm (you still, I believe, need a level 70 character to create a Demon Hunter on any given realm, though the old 55 requirement for Death Knights went account-wide a few expansions ago - and I don't know what its fate was after Warlords introduced level boosts,) it appears you'll need to have some investment in a particular server before creating Allied Race characters, who we should recall start at level 20.

I imagine the primary impetus for this is to prevent exploits, like creating characters only to vendor their gear and repeat - though with level 20 characters, I can't imagine the gear will be worth enough to do that (not to mention that starting gear for hero classes has tended to be worth the bare minimum of 1 copper a piece for the same reason.)

What I think is notable is that the required level will not be 120, but will be the current cap of 110. Now, this could just be to allow players to jump into Allied races from the launch of the expansion, but I continue to suspect that we might be getting at least four of the playable races (whose models and voice files are all in the 7.3.5 PTR patch) before the expansion launches.

One reason I think Monks never became quite as popular as Death Knights or Demon Hunters was that when Mists launched, if you wanted to play a Monk, you'd have to level up from 1 while everyone else was in the new continent already.

Allowing the Allied Races, or at least some of them, to start leveling early (not unlike the Demon Hunter) could get them mixed into their factions so that you could have Void Elves and Highmountain Tauren as players' new mains right out the gate.

So I highly suspect we'll get these races (probably not the Zandalari Trolls or Dark Iron Dwarves) before the expansion launches. The question is one of timing.

Demon Hunters were released in the Legion pre-patch, but they only have two levels worth of catch-up to do, and all of that could be accomplished in one unified questline (with a lot of forward momentum to carry people through.) Comparing those two levels to an Allied Race's 90 means that if you want Lightforged Draenei and Nightborne hitting the new continents at launch, you're going to have to give people more time to start them up.

So while I think 7.3.5 might not bring them immediately (something Blizzard has more or less explicitly told us,) I do think that they'll be packed and primed, allowing Blizzard to flip the switch some time in the middle of next year, which will also have the huge benefit of giving players something to do after Antorus has gotten stale and players are simply waiting for Battle for Azeroth to launch.

It's all speculation, but that's what I predict.

Journal with Tantalizing Hints Found on PTR

On this Reddit thread, someone on the 7.3.5 PTR found a journal on a rare Twilight's Hammer-affiliated ogre in Silithus, which is spoiler territory for the Antorus Raid.

I don't know exactly how spoiler-conscious we should or even can be when discussing Silithus, so beware of UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR ANTORUS to follow. Also PTR SPOILERS.

The journal that players discover is called Visions of Ogmat the Steadfast.

Much like Il'gynoth, Xal'atath, and the Puzzle-Box of Yogg-Saron, this thing is chock full of prophetic mysteries. What's exciting is that it seems to refer to previous statements like those from Il'gynoth. What's really intriguing is that I don't know that it's talking only about the Old Gods...

Thanks to Reddit user Wilder_people for the find.

Let's go through the journal, interpret, and speculate:

The journal's description: Visions of Ogmot the Steadfast: "The handwriting is barely legible, and the primitive sketches contained within are best described as... unsettling."

Pretty standard for a Tome of Eldritch Lore. Let's crack it open:

"I was a mere boy fighting at the war camp when the Masters first blessed me with their visions. I have come to Silithus, to the site of the great wound, seeking wonders beyond imagining. Make me your vessel, Masters!"

Given that this is an Ogre, I suspect that his boyhood exposure to the "Masters" could have happened in Nagrand, perhaps near Oshu'gun (aka the Genedar,) where K'ure began to turn to the Void. Draenor never had Old Gods, which suggests to me that this Ogmat is referring specifically to the Void Lords

"Last night I dreamt of two great armadas clashing upon an ocean of blood. Shadows writhed beneath them, rising. Rising. I smiled in my sleep. Why did the skittering of insects have to stir me? Damn those bugs! No matter. We will finish what they began."

The armadas I would assume are those of the Alliance and Horde. But the ocean of blood? Could simply be metaphorical: the wound in Silithus has created a resource race between the factions to gather as much Azerite (aka Azeroth's crystalized blood) as possible. This war is also probably going to be heavily naval in nature, and the Shadows beneath the ocean could very easily be N'zoth or his minions (potentially Azshara.)

"Life returns to this dead place. First the bugs came. Now goblins skulk about. It is the blood they crave... I am sure of it. Bah, let them have these drippings! Soon there will be seas enough to sate every thirst."

"Life returning" could just refer to things coming back after the enormous destruction wrought by Sargeras, but one disturbing notion is that perhaps Azeroth's blood has helped to revive C'thun, whose mass exists beneath Silithus. It also suggests that Twilight's Hammer (or whoever) is going to bleed Azeroth until the world drowns in her blood. Not good.

"Today the smoke rose from my campfire and took form. A shepherd, cloaked in the shadows of her past, beloved by a flock of blind sheep. They followed her footsteps without question. Without thought. She guided them over a cliff. Even as they crashed upon the rocks, they never doubted her. The crows grew fat upon sheep flesh. Her laughter echoed all around."

Oh boy. Who is this shepherd? My initial thought was despair that they had finally decided to give in and make Jaina full-on evil. I'm not ruling that out, but I also wonder if it refers to Alleria. She has, after all, cloaked herself in shadow. It could be someone else, but what is suggested here is a long-festering betrayal that may have even begun already that we won't see until far later, if ever. Disturbing indeed.

"The blade's eye watches all. Why do you not see? The first of his lies has been offered. Bound by a throne? No... boundless. The next will come soon."

Man, if the previous one got me revved up, this one's got me climbing the walls. First off, the blade's eye could refer to Sargeras' sword, though what it "sees" remains unclear. Alternatively, and supported by a later entry, it could refer to Xal'atath - a dagger with a big eye in it (though there are other blades with eyes, like Xal'atoh, or even the Dark Edge of Insanity, which drops off of C'thun in AQ40.) Xala'tath is very talkative and cryptic, which suggests to me that she fits the bill best. But that's just the start.

The next refers to the first of "his lies." Il'gynoth says that "the boy king serves as the masters table. Three lies will he offer you." This has got to refer to the boy king, then. So is that Anduin? (We've heard him referred to as such by Gul'dan.) So what lie? If it is indeed Anduin, what has he even told us lately that could be a lie or a truth? And if it's not Anduin, who could it refer to? There actually aren't a ton of Kings in Warcraft - there's basically Anduin, Rastakhan (who is definitely not still a "boy.") There's Genn (see Rastakhan.) One could argue for Wrathion, though the Dragons never really had "King" as a title. There's Moira's son, but as far as we know he's still an infant or at least still a little kid, and we haven't heard a word from him. So Anduin really fits the bill best as Boy King. What, then, could the lies be, especially the first, that he's supposedly already offered us. And does he know it's a lie? Given that I'm about 90% convinced that Teldrassil's burning is not, in fact, the work of the Horde, could the lie be Anduin's motivation to attack Undercity?

Next (and yes, this is still just the four-line page 5) pretty much has to refer to the Lich King. While yes, Sargeras is now bound to a throne as well, I really do think that his story is over. But look at the Lich King: Bolvar is frozen in the ice of the Frozen Throne, but just as Ner'zhul had done, he has spread his influence far and wide. For the Lich King, being bound to the Frozen Throne is no handicap at all, and if my pet theory that the Lich King is actually far older than Ner'zhul or even possibly Kil'jaeden, and that all the Deceiver did was take a godlike entity and craft a physical form in which to store it, then boundless would very likely describe this entity.

Finally on this page, "The next will come soon." The next what? The next WHAT? The next Lich King? The next Old God? The next Titan? The next Warchief?

Moving on:

"A band of cultists arrived. Do they comprehend my blessing? My greatness? They speak of Argus. Of the one who was awakened. Of the victory that went unnoticed. I shared my vision, but the skinny one just laughed. I do not like her."

Ok, aside from the fact that Ogmat is distinct from whatever cultists (presumably Twilight's Hammer) have come, which is an interesting note, the most curious stuff is about Argus and this unnoticed victory.

I had floated the idea a while ago that the Pillars of Creation, being used to close the portal in the Tomb of Sargeras (which... um, did we ever do that? We chased Kil'jaeden through it and then got teleported back through Khadgar's magic and Illidan's portal network) actually served to open the restraints on N'zoth's prison (as Il'gynoth said, five keys to open the way, five torches to light our path, or something like that. We saw no immediate repercussions of using the Pillars (if indeed we did,) but wouldn't it be just like the Old Gods to let us think that everything had gone according to plan only for us to find out when it's too late to do anything that we just stuck all the keys in their keyholes and turned. The one who awakened, I would imagine, was N'zoth after the defeat of the Emerald Nightmare.

Now, what about this skinny female cultist? Granted, to an Ogre, anyone would look skinny. But I'd keep an eye out for humans and elves as likely candidates (which rule out neither Jaina nor Alleria.) What vision caused her to laugh? The one about the armadas? Is it because it's too obvious, or that there's something else going on?

"Many days have passed without a vision. Have I displeased you, Masters? I will leave you a sacrifice. Remember me!"

Not sure if there's too much here other than that this mad prophet isn't getting his visions. His sacrifices are almost certainly humanoid - is he killing the cultists?

"The star peers down. I must hide from its glare. The dagger spoke true. It has been too long since I was drowned. Do not forsake me, Masters!"

Ok, first off: star, not stars. Which star? Could it be the glimmering remain of the portal Illidan opened? (Following Antorus, the portal that has allowed us to view Argus in the sky is replaced with a faint, five-pointed red glimmer - presumably something less obtrusive that they can leave up in the skybox indefinitely.) Or is it something else?

The dagger speaking true... well, that sounds a whole hell of a lot like everyone's favorite talking cutlery, Xal'atath, and a dark prophet is exactly the kind of person she'd talk to. The line about drowning... well, remember that Il'gynoth says "to find him, drown yourself in a circle of stars." Is Ogmat going to try taking that advice? And is the star above related to the circle in which one must drown?

"The bones were picked clean, yet still I am granted no insight. The others scoff. They question my devotion. But I am the chosen vessel. I will not lose faith! Another sacrifice. Yes. One more of them will not be missed."

Sounds like another murder. But if the others are scoffing, is it possible that A. he's sacrificing people other than the cultists or B. he's a member of a different cult, sacrificing members of the visiting one, and that his own cult is scoffing?

"Roused by her screams. Stirred by their whispers. A blessing from the Masters. At last I understand. A door. A path. Ours. Ours. Fool! The circle has awakened us all."

This is where the journal ends. Is the "skinny cultist" the one who screamed? Perhaps dying, or worse, in the night? The whispers seem to have awoken him in whatever dark night this was, presumably giving him the vision he sought.

By the end, he claims "the circle" has awakened us all. Take note: he says Us. Ogmat sought to become a vessel for something - perhaps one of the Old Gods. Is it possible that when he says Us, he's not talking about his mortal form but rather than dark thing inside of him (and possibly others - maybe even the screaming female?)

Also, we get the word that has been haunting us throughout Legion: the Circle. What is the freaking Circle? The Legion, the Old Gods, and even the Titans seem to refer to this mysterious circle. Is this the Circle of Stars? And if so, how is it both a place one can drown and also some kind of metaphor for a cycle in time (if indeed, it ever was.)

Man, I love this stuff. It's like Blizzard is channeling Hidetaka Miyazaki for this story.

The Darkspear, the Zandalari, and Trollkind

Since vanilla, the playable Troll faction was actually a very specific and small group of people. Trolls could very well be Azeroth's most populous humanoid race (though the arthropod-like Aqir races might have them beat at the expense of being far less likely to live to old age) but when it comes to the playable races, we're looking at only the Darkspear Tribe - one tribe within one kingdom of a larger Troll civilization.

The Darkspear were initially members of the Gurubashi Empire, which spanned much of the southern Eastern Kingdoms area before humans drove them back into Stranglethorn Vale. Stranglethorn had been the heart of the empire, with its capital of Zul'Gurub.

Despite having the overarching leadership of the Gurubashi Empire, the Darkspear fought brutal battles against rival tribes, and some time after the Second War, the Darkspear were driven out of Stranglethorn and forced to sail west to a small group of islands in the Great Sea.

It's unclear exactly whether the Darkspear had fought alongside the Horde during the Second War. Orgrim did secure many Trolls as allies, including the Amani under Zul'jin, and given the Gurubashi's position within what was fairly securely held Horde territory during that war (ironic, given that the map in the Second War and that at the beginning of World of Warcraft was practically flipped) it would make plenty of sense to have seen the Gurubashi lending support to the Horde against their ancient human rivals.

Still, it was when Thrall and his recently-liberated Orcish Horde landed on those islands and helped avenge the Darkspear chieftain, Sen'jin, that the Darkspear officially joined the Horde, and they would settle on the peninsula that Thrall named Durotar in honor of his father.

The Darkspear have obviously risen to far greater prominence within the Horde than they had before. Once a single, downtrodden tribe exiled from a crumbling empire, they are now perhaps the most politically powerful group of Trolls in the world. They did suffer a bit under Garrosh, but as they spearheaded (pun not intended) the revolution against the tyrannical Warchief, they even managed to ascend to the Horde's greatest heights as their own chieftain, Vol'jin, became the first non-Orc Warchief of the Horde.

But with Vol'jin's death, they are in a state of bizarre limbo. While certainly not languishing in the outright persecution they faced under Garrosh, they have seen their place of power, held so briefly, taken by the Forsaken - a highly organized war machine that was very effective even when they were just one small branch of the Horde.

And with Vol'jin dead, the Darkspear do not have an obvious leader. Vol'jin had no children, nor did he have a clear second-in-command who might take over for him. While core members of the Horde, their influence must be waning.

And that makes this a really complicated time for the Zandalari to join the Horde.

If the Darkspear were exiled refugees from a crumbling empire collapsing under brutal tribalism, putting them at the bottom of Troll civilization's social ladder, the Zandalari are its pinnacle.

The Zandalari Empire was the greatest of all troll civilizations. The other three major empires were initially just territories ruled from Zuldazar. Even in the wake of the Zandalari Empire's collapse, the remaining Zandalari kingdom still maintained an elite status. Theirs was the center of culture and history. The Zandalari could afford to send out teams to study the degradations of the other Empires while they seemed to remain prosperous and enlightened. As the Gurubashi fell to the madness of Hakkar and the Drakkari collapsed in the face of the undead Scourge, the Zandalari were safely on their own island watching in safety, but with concern.

Ultimately, the Zandalari are proud. They even stand up straight, unlike the other Trolls who hunch and bend.

And now they are going to be joining the Horde.

A few issues present themselves: First off, while our initial interactions with the Zandalari were nothing but friendly - even the Alliance could work alongside them when fighting Hakkar - they underwent a shocking reversal, swept up in a zealous dream of manifest destiny, attempting to reunite their Empire under the spiritual leadership of the Prophet Zul.

Joining up with the Gurubashi zealots they had helped us defeat, the Zandalari suddenly began a global campaign of domination. They traveled south to Pandaria where they revived the Thunder King and attempted to help reestablish the brutal Mogu Empire to serve as an ally in their campaigns against the Alliance and Horde. Yet it was during that time that we discovered one possible motivation for their actions: Zandalar had been devastated by the Cataclysm, with parts of it sinking into the sea.

In Battle for Azeroth, it looks like we'll get a revised sense of that story: that it wasn't so much the sinking of the Nazmir forest, but what it unleashed.

With Blood Trolls and Blood Gods, and potentially a great deal of other rising threats in Zandalar, the Horde will convince King Rastakhan to join up.

But what does that mean for the Trolls?

First off, Rastakhan will probably take a great deal of convincing to swear fealty to someone else - an undead elf, no less. It's unclear to what extent Rastakhan was on board with the Prophet Zul's vision, but even if he resisted Zul as the fanatic he is, for someone who is the king of the oldest mortal civilization on Azeroth, it's got to be tough to have to kowtow to someone else.

The other really interesting issue that could arise is the relationship between the Zandalari and the Darkspear. It was Vol'jin who struck out against the earliest efforts by the Zandalari to reunite the empires, and even setting that aside, you have what is essentially the elite of the upper class now allying with the ultimate downtrodden pariahs. What even is the power dynamic there? As nearly foundational members of the Horde, do the Darkspear "outrank" the newcomer Zandalari? And can they, even, when their own leadership is in shambles? Or will Rastakhan, entering the Horde, insist upon being at least the sovereign over all the Trolls in the Horde?

And in the midst of all this, what do the Loa have to say?

The Combatants in the Battle for Azeroth

When you've defeated the most powerful evil in the cosmos (for the sake of argument, let's just say that if Sargeras beat us, he'd also beat the Void Lords, albeit without leaving anyone other than demons to celebrate such a victory,) who do you fight? Blizzard's answer appears to be "each other," which does have a certain logic to it.

Unlike other major forces in the Warcraft universe, the Alliance and Horde, for story and gameplay purposes, always keep pace with each other. The Alliance gets big steampunk airships? So does the Horde. The Horde loses a city? Only if the Alliance loses one first.

The headline fight in the next expansion is going to be an all-out war between the Alliance and Horde. We did see this in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, but this expansion seems to be putting that conflict center-stage, while those earlier expansions had the real focus as Deathwing and the elemental unrest he caused, or the mysterious land of Pandaria and its many secrets.

And yet...

There are logistical problems with making an expansion all about Alliance and Horde fighting. Generally, the raids in an expansion are where we deal with the big villains - take Legion as a great example. Every raid ends with us defeating a very important enemy from lore, with only Helya and Argus the Unmaker not established previously (though new, both of those characters were definitely very important lore-wise.)

But when you're focusing on the conflict between the playable factions, how do you resolve that story?

We have had raids in which the experience is mirrored but different for the two factions. In both Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel, some fights feature members of the other faction as the enemy. But ultimately, that conflict plays a distant second fiddle to the real threat, which in both cases is the Scourge.

Even in Mists of Pandaria, that ended with the Siege of Orgrimmar, we had to jump through a few narrative hoops to ensure that the Horde had a reason to invade their own capital. The Alliance story was utterly straightforward (and thus, sadly, not really as interesting) while the Horde underwent a revolution from within. But the end result was that both sides were, as they tend to, uniting against a common enemy.

Now, there is a case in which cooperation was decidedly not part of the endgame: in the aforementioned Icecrown Citadel. While the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade were arguably going through their own "unite against a common foe" plot, Alliance and Horde could only get in each others' way during that raid. The closest they came to cooperating was when Varian allowed Varok Saurfang to claim the body of his son after we killed him (a scene only Alliance players get.)

But again, in that case, even if the war was hot between the factions by then, the real enemy was a third party.

And to be honest, I suspect that this will be the case in Battle for Azeroth as well.

Let's look at evidence, circumstantial, datamined, and speculative:

Throughout Legion, we've been getting hints that the Old Gods are active. Yogg-Saron summoned faceless N'raqi to attack us in Ulduar. The death of Xavius ended the Emerald Nightmare, thus waking up N'zoth. The Naga, allied with the N'raqi, were seeking the Tidestone of Golganneth for apocalyptic purposes (we also know Azshara will be a boss in BFA.)

Now sure, this could all be building things up longterm - Wrathion's comments about the Legion were all in Mists of Pandaria, and we had Warlords of Draenor extending the gap between that and the Legion's invasion.

But if we're talking about longterm buildup, I suspect that Battle for Azeroth is actually going to be introducing threats more from the Shadowlands than the Void.

Getting into datamining spoilers, we should also talk about a few other elements:

The quests sendings both Horde and Alliance to Silithus to keep tabs on what the other faction is doing there after Sargeras stabbed the planet in that zone eventually have us run into members of Twilight's Hammer who are trying to reunite the cult after their defeat in Cataclysm. While Deathwing's demise (not to mention Cho'gall and Benedictus,) Twilight's Hammer's leadership has been devastated (even Bishop Farthing, who replaced Benedictus in Stormwind, both appears to have also been a Twilight Cultist and is killed by Shadow Priests after he acquires Xal'atath in Tyr's tomb.)

But when you consider how Twilight's Hammer is a textbook example of a Chaotic Evil cult (emphasis on the chaotic,) it stands to reason that killing one leader or three isn't going to mean that the whole thing disappears. And given that the Old Gods have their tendrils deep in the cult's activities, one could even argue that the "leadership" was only middle management.

Moving onto the Allied Races, datamining suggests that the Highmountain Tauren will have to deal with Void corruption, as shadowy whispers attempt to corrupt Ebonhorn, who is one of two surviving (and uncorrupted) Black Dragons on Azeroth (we still don't know the fate of Baron Sablemane/Sabellian, but he's been in Outland all this time as far as we know.)

On top of this, it also appears that Void-aligned Ethereals attack at the Sunwell when Lor'themar invites the Nightborne into the Horde. Alleria is there, and despite helping defeat the ethereals, she is blamed for the event and exiled even from the historically neutral grounds of Quel'danas.

Also, Void Elves. The connection to the Void, and thus the Old Gods, is not hard to imagine.

Moving on to the stuff we see in Kul Tiras and Zandalar, the most obvious is the presence of Uldir and the "Blood God" within. This creature was a failed attempt at turning Old God biology to a good purpose by the Titans, and while that does mean that this Blood God is technically a different thing from the Old Gods, it's still on-theme.

The Sea Priests of Kul Tiras also have a very strong Old God vibe to them. While these guys do provide a service to the kingdom by blessing their ships, everything we've seen of their practices screams Old Gods, from their tentacle-and-eye-motif robes to the cathedral that looks like a giant kraken to the fact that said cathedral will be a dungeon with what is apparently a void-corrupted water elemental as its first boss, I'd be rather shocked if they aren't N'zoth cultists.

And then of course we have Azshara, who will apparently be a raid boss in Battle for Azeroth. While it's possible she only really worships herself, Azshara does have ties to the Old Gods that have existed for ten thousand years - far longer than her brief alliance with the Burning Legion. Even if she's ultimately in it for herself, she's probably going to help her allies if it means more power for her.

So I'm pretty confident about the Old Gods, and likely N'zoth in particular, being major villains if not the major villains of Battle for Azeroth.

But if they aren't?

Well, Azshara could be the final boss of the expansion - she's a big enough lore figure to warrant the spot, and could easily lead into an Old God expansion. If not her and not N'zoth, I don't really know who would make the most sense as a final boss unless they pull a Siege of Orgrimmar situation and make one of our own leaders the boss, though Sylvanas seems too obvious a choice if you ask me, and in the interest of balance, it would make more sense for an Alliance leader to get the raid boss treatment. I don't think Anduin makes sense, which leaves probably Genn or Jaina. I don't want them making Jaina evil, as I think she's far more interesting as a good person who has just been pushed too far to forgive the people who keep betraying her. Genn could pursue revenge to the point of becoming evil, but I think his influence on the Alliance has been interesting, and I want the Alliance to retain characters who aren't so firmly in the altruistic and good category.

I guess there's also the Prophet Zul, though I see him much more as being a mid-tier raid boss rather than the boss of the whole expansion, especially because his connection to Kul Tiras is non-existent as far as I know, and whoever is the final boss really ought to have a presence on both continents.

At this point we're still probably months away from the Beta, which is when I think we'll be getting a far better sense of just where the expansion is headed. Until then, we can only speculate, but damn if that isn't fun in and of itself.