WMG / Warcraft

Frostmourne and the Maw of the Damned were made out of the same metal.

• They were both forged by demons and have similar soul-draining properties, which may be inherent in the metal from which they were made.

Lor'Themar's eye

Lor'Themar is one eye blind due to battle injuries in the Sunwell Trilogy, but in WoW he has both eyes. The answer? It's make up and a contact lens (most likely Rommath's idea) to make him look more Lordly.

• It may also be a Restraining bolt holding in a massive amount of power like Kenpachi. Woe betide anyone who forces him to remove the lens and his make up.
• Jossed. His model has been updated to depict one of his eyes as scarred and milky white.

The Old Gods are manifestations of the Five Senses

Just think on it for a minute. There are five Old Gods and five Senses that humans (and theoretically, humanoids in Azeroth) have, which could easily be a coincidence. But then you look at the evidence we have. The Five Senses are some of the most primal things humans have that we never had to engineer, and the Old Gods are primal beings that have tormented the living beings of Azeroth longer than any other entities we're aware of. Look at the Old Gods we've met so far. C'thun has an undeniable eye motif, having an entire phase during his fight devoted to battling his eye. He represents Sight. Yogg-Saron, also known as the Beast with a Thousand Maws, has mouths in the place of eyes and has a recurring 'Maw of Madness' theme going on. He represents Taste. N'zoth, the new Old God that we know next-to-nothing about, but his servants include Deathwing and Warlord Zon'ozz, a Faceless One. As both of these leaders have a more hands-on approach to what they do (culminating in Deathwing physically flying around and sundering the world), I would assume N'zoth represents Touch, and when he is finally revealed, his face may be 'composed entirely of tentacles' as is the guy who named him, Zoth-Ommog, with a reliance on claws and tentacles during his fight.

Bolvar is manipulating Sylvanas

Sylvanas has taken command of the Val'kyr, claiming that when the Lich King died, the more intelligent scourge became unemployed. Except, Bolvar is the new Lich King. Now, we know that Sylvanas gained her freedom when Ner'Zhul temporarily lost power, but we also know that Bolvar had to become the new Lich King because without one, the Scourge would go berserk. It's very likely that Bolvar would blame the Forsaken for his death, since it was their Grand Apothecary that killed him. Unknown to Sylvanas, the Val'kyr are still serving the Lich King, and are assisting Bolvar by creating an army that will destroy the Forsaken from within, again. This would fit perfectly with Sylvanas's new Won't Be Fooled Again attitude.

Draenor Never Blew Up

Outland is either simply the player taking in LSD, as evidenced by the giant mushrooms, floating land masses and how there is still life there in spite of the obviousness of how their should be a lack of sufficient gravity due to the mass of Outland. And the inhabitants of the place are merely "high"

Another theory involves how that there was a link to Draenor from Outland, but Illidan closed it, and that Outland serves as the halfway point from Draenor to Azeroth. Also the Outland that the player goes to may be in fact the creation of mind from one of Draenor's inhabitants before he/she escaped via portal, at the time of the planet's apparent destruction.The reason I say the above sentence is that I reckon because of how Outland apparently lies in the Twisting Nether, and in the Twisting Nether one can create anything that they know of. (I.E In the nether you can create an entire library but those books would only contain information you already know), which is why Outland is no bigger than the map of Draenor given in Beyond The Dark Portal

• As with most of the more wild wild mass guesses, I highly doubt this will be true, but it does explain how so many important characters, locations, and races managed to survive on what was supposedly an extremely deadly explosion to just about everyone on Outland.
  • They survived BECAUSE they were important. The planetwide explosion only took out all the NPCs and wildlife under level 55.
• The giant mushrooms existed before Draenor became Outland. In fact, they were the chief source of lumber on Draenor in Warcraft II.

Cataclysm is an excuse to put Saurfang in charge of the Horde.

From what I've seen, he seems to be the third in command of the Horde, right after Garrosh. Garrosh is going to be the new Warchief while Thrall goes out to level grind in badass. We already know, from the dialogue in Warsong Hold, that Saurfang isn't afraid to kill Garrosh if he goes too far.

Way I see it, Garrosh crosses the Moral Event Horizon (Probably by killing Cairne/Vol'Jin), and this leads to Saurfang and the Horde players taking part in an epic coup that ends with Saurfang the new Warchief and Garrosh dying of Cleave.

I assume that Saurfang will be leading a rebel faction of the Horde prior to said event.

It will end with both factions having their resident badass running the show.

• It could be the new Wrathgate and officially the best thing ever. I mean, how many of us have fantasized about caving Garrosh's skull in (as Horde)? To be able to actually do it, AND to have Saurfang on our side would be bliss.
  • Varok Saurfang stayed behind in Northrend, clearly disappointed that Garrosh didn't take his lessons to heart (although Garrosh does quote Varok's advice about showing honor in every battle before executing Krom'gar for killing civilians). Garrosh does kill Cairne, but it's revealed that it was caused by Magatha's poison, and even Baine, who doesn't like Garrosh, admits that it's not his fault.

Garona Halforcen is half Goblin.

Due to sloppy retcons that make the idea of her being half-human unlikely, I vote we take a hard look at the other Draenor races. Ogres are unlikely as parents, and so are Draenai, so maybe goblin is an overlooked possibility.

• Goblins aren't Draenorian, though - they're native to Azeroth and were forced into the Horde against their best interests during the Second War.
  • Well crap. There goes that idea.
• I wouldn't say the Goblins were forced into the Second War. Nor was it against their best interests. Remember the expression "War is good for business"? Money is the Goblins' best interests.
  • 'Native' is a tricky word when describing the humanoids of Azeroth. There is strong evidence that the Kaldorei and it's offshoots are the only sentients to actually originate there (or alternately, they are immigrants as well, and the Ancients are the true natives). it's been stated outright that humans, dwarves and gnomes originally were refugees from worlds destroyed by the original Burning Legion, if memory serves. This would also explain why there are several wildly diverse several races (Murloc, Furbolg, Nerubian), some of which seem to live there in very small, isolated communities (e.g., Pandaren), scattered nearly at random across the map.
    • Unfortunately your memory is incorrect. All those races are in fact Azerothian natives, including the Goblins. The Dwarves are creations of the Titans in their shaping of the world; the Kaldorei (and thus all other elves) are possibly a trollish evolutionary offshoot. Furbolg precede the Titans, and Nerubians are the descendants of the Aqir, who in turn descended from the Silithid under C'thun's influence. Humans are Azerothian natives, but no one is sure where the original Arathi came from. Goblins are a similar case- present at the time of the War of the Ancients, but never really taken much notice.
    • It's theorized that humans are an offshoot of the Earthen, ancestors of the Dwarves.
    • As of present knowledge, humans are the smaller, more gracile descendants of the Vyrkul, a proto-human race descended from giant stock who had been subjected to the Old Gods' Curse of Flesh much as the dwarves were, thus shifting from beings of rock to beings of flesh. The humans were descended from those vyrkul who grew even less muscular and required more care as children, who were sheltered by their parents from their race's wrath.
    • Goblins look close enough to trolls as being a related race. As for humans, isn't it kind of strange the most human looking species seen are the Titans? Perhaps humans are Titans left behind or sentient action figures left behind by the Titan kiddies.
    • The Pandaren, note, have been on Azeroth since the days of the Kaldorei, if not earlier, and in fact split off from them at some point.
    • Natives - Trolls (and Elves, as descendants), Pandaren, Furbolgs, Tauren, Goblins. Titanic Seed Races - Vrykul (and Humans, again as descendants), Giants, and Dwarves. Aliens - Draenei and Orcs.
• Pfft. She's obviously Thrall and Jaina's daughter who got sent back in time. [Disclaimer: This Editor is only half serious]
  • My theory is that she's half orc, half succubus. Hey, it's plausible.
    • Orcubus?
• Jossed. She's an orc/draenei hybrid. And her son has the vestigial catfish whiskers to prove it.
  • Unless, of course, The father is a draenei.
    • No, she has been officially identified as such a hybrid. Which doesn't rule out babydaddy being a draenei; I've heard everyone from Medivh to Prophet Velen suggested as possibilities. It seems the tin-foil-hatters would have us believe that Garona gets around.
    • It's been pretty much confirmed that her baby-daddy is a human. Medivh to be exact
    • You're a little late to the party with that revelation; see below.
• A moot argument, since at this rate, by the time Garona actually shows up her heritage will have changed at least twice more.
  • But she HAS showed up. You see her in a dreamscape during the Yogg-Saron battle.
    • True, but taking the visions projected by an Eldrich Horror in the process of driving you insane as fact isn't necessarily a wise idea.
    • It's a scene of the past that we KNOW happened. The only new information is that Garona was mut spec.
• Okay: It's been officially established that Garona is the daughter of Maraad's sister and some nameless grunt...and all but officially established that Med'an's father was Medivh.

Imps and Goblins are related, and may come from the same world.

Imps are red and Goblins are green, but the two are otherwise very similar in appearance and disposition. It may be that goblins escaped to Azeroth from the imp homeworld when it was invaded by the Burning Legion. Over time, the goblins lost their more demonic features as they absorbed the more natural, healing influences of Azeroth.

• No, normal goblins we know should be the "original" race, imps being "chaos goblins", twisted by the Legion's demonic influence. Look as normal orcs are green, while demonized evil tainted "chaos orcs" are red.
  • Uncorrupted orcs have brown skin. They turned green after being exposed to demonic energies. They become red and spiky when they are directly infused with demonic energy (by drinking demon blood). Also, imps come in black, greenish and purple too.
• This is more plausuble at second glance than first, as the Goblins are, ultimately, motivated by one thing - GOLD. The Burning Legion's offers just happened to be more attractive to those who aren't as farsighted.
  • If this did happen, it would have happened to the pre-Kaja'mite goblins - the stupid ones. The intelligent ones had no time to be corrupted by the Legion, having evolved AFTER the War of the Ancients.

The events of the Warcraft Universe will happen in the future

Take a good look at this here map and tell me that's not Kalimdor, complete with the Well of Eternity. Plus it helps to remember that while we are told that Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend were all a supercontinent at one point, we don't have any maps or other such information of what pre-Sundering Kalimdor actually looked like.

• That's not Kalimdor, complete with the Well of Eternity.
  • Spoilsport.
    • Also, unless Humans evolve into trolls, THEN the Titans come by, drop Vrykul on the planet, and then THEY evolve into HUMANS, gonna involve some major retconning. REALLY major.
    • Maybe the Vrykul were created using the remains of long dead humans as a base and the old gods also used long dead human remains to create the curse of flesh which is a magical retrovirus that returned Vrykul to a more corruptible form and caused some to go all the way and turn into full blown humans thus completing the circle.

The Warcraft Timeline is Being Torn Apart

Whether through the influence of the Legion or just some imminent magical catastrophe, causality is being ripped apart and the progression of time is slowing and twisting back on itself. This has been going on since at least WC 3 where you could bring peope back from the dead even if they were killed assuming they were heroes, as long as they were still important to the timeline (so they could still be killed off once their purpose was fulfilled) and only with a significant investment of resources and an Alter to serve as a focus. By the time we get to the WoW period, anybody can cheat death without much effort, and even when some progress should be made through the completion of quests or killing of significant world figures, it doesn't stick and instead seems to revert to the way it was within moments.

• Gameplay and Story Segregation
  • Sorta confirmed, actually - the Burning Crusade expansion's Caverns of Time often involve the mysterious Infinite Dragonflight, who seem to be trying to wreck the world's timeline for reasons unknown. While the cause isn't as linked as it appears here, it is related.
    • It's hinted that the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight is Nozdormu, the leader of the Bronze Dragonflight and the Keepers of Time, in an attempt to Screw Destiny. However, Nozdormu was given knowledge on when and how he's going to die. So its possible that Nozdormu is trying to Screw Destiny because he's supposed to, therefore creating a Stable Time Loop. Time travel is one crazy thing ain't it?
    • I have a theory that Nozdormu's situation is tied to the futures of Dornaa, the super-shaman Draenei Orphan from Children's Week, and her Blood Elf counterpart Salandria who has the potential to become a really awesome Blood Knight. Given how berserk the Keepers of Time go when either is brought into the cave, it would make sense.
    • From a nonstory perspective, this is likely the reason the Infinite Dragonflight was created. The Infinite flight will be the last boss we face in World of Warcraft, and they'll win, allowing blizzard to canonically retcon the events of WoW out of existence paving the way for a similar, but somewhat different path in Warcraft 4. This is also why we're burning through lore so fast; it won't matter, since at the end WoW never happened.
    • Apparently, the resurrection thing is not gameplay and story segregation, as one of the dragons is in a relationship with a spirit healer, mentioning that spirit healers have resurrected the player a large amount of times.
    • A bit on Nozzie (Nozdormu), he was the only Aspect to name an heir for one very simple reason. To make sure he didn't abuse his powers he was shown the how and why of his death by the Titans hoping to show him the futility of trying to go rogue. At one point in lore he apologizes to allies for what he will do in the future. Nozzie is most likely leading the Infinite Dragonflight in an attempt to screw his personal destiny and make the world a better place despite what the Titans told him. We may even have the fight against I.D. Nozzie assisted by Bronze Dragonflight Nozzie for even more time screwiness.

The Emerald Nightmare is caused by Hakkar The Soulflayer and the Old Gods, who are connected

That is, assuming Hakkar isn;t an Old God himself. I mean, lets take a look at what we know of the Nightmare, Hakkar, and Old Gods in general shall we?

• Hakkar has a very strong serpentine theme.
• The Wailing Caverns, who are corrupted by The Nightmare, also have an extremely obvious snake theme.
• The Sunken Temple has, in the same place, an avatar of Hakkar and crazed Green Dragons.
• Eranikus, a powerful green dragon who was corrupted, can be quoted saying "Redemption? Ha! My redemption comes from the will of a god! And Old God, perhaps?
• Several depictions of Old Gods depict them as serpentine, not the least of which the twin Dead Goliaths in Desolace that are speculated to be of dead Old Gods, and who are also gigantic anthro-snakes.

Obviosly Hakkar would have to be extremely powerful in order inflict such a horrible corruption, and him being an Old God (or at least connected to them somehow) seems to fit perfectly. This would also mean that whatever's in Zul'Gurub isn't him at full strength.

• It's been confirmed that the Emerald Nightmare is indeed cause by an Old God.
  • In one trailer for Wot LK, a creature using the avatar of Hakkar model (placeholder, since Blizzard had, at that time at least, not created any boss models) is seen in the ice trol capital of Zul'Drak. It has to be a connection! Other things connected are, of course, the Jormun Worms, Ouro from Ahn'Qiraj, the snake motives from outside Uldum in Tanaris, the breach in the gate from the same place, that serpent loa god, and the random snakes found in Westfall.
    • Actually, Ouro is indeed a servant of the Old Gods... not to mention that in Lands of Mystery, Word of God supports my theory...
    • Except that at least 70% of the RPG's information about Northrend or any WoW-relevant point was Jossed by WoTLK.
    • Every single monster in Ahn'qiraj and Silithus is a servant of C'thun. That's kinda why they're there.
  • The dead snakes in Desolace are not Old Gods, nor have they ever been claimed to be. There were five Old Gods. One is dead in Darkshore, one is C'tun, one is Yogg-Saron, one is apparently in Tirisfal (evidence points to this). Where the last one is, I don't know but many speculate somewhere near southern Azeroth, possibly in Stranglethorn, which could make Hakkar an avatar of one.
    • So the Avatar of Hakkar in Sunken Temple is an Avatar of an Avatar of an Old God?
    • The last Old God is now revealed as Y'shaarj, located in Pandaria.

The soldiers of Azeroth's armies are golems.

They're constructs made of gold and wood. That explains why you just give those resources to a building and a soldier comes out a few moments later.

• Though it must be asked why Golems need housing.
  • Spare parts storage.
    • Silly humans, Golems are all metal men with flamethrowers for arms. Just ask the dwarves.

Pigs influence all major events in the Warcraft Universe.

Think of all the quests in World of Warcraft requiring you to kill boars. The populations are placed and numbered carefully to draw adventurers of a certain power level and repel those below it, as well as moving the nations' economies around by inciting them into giving those quests. And why do the demon-controlled orcs in Warcraft 3 use pig farms when all other orcs in the game have moved on? Because the pigs have links to demons which haven't been fleshed out yet. Add in the quillboars of Kalimdor and it's clear that there's some serious porcine shit moving things around.

• To be fair, at least some implications are made that the Razorfen clan of Quilboar are being manipulated by the Scourge... Or perhaps doing the manipulating themselves? Wouldn't be the first time one who appears to serve has in fact been themselves the manipulator in this setting...
• Going a bit further back, the Orcs in Warcraft II had economy based on Pig Farms (which is why the Demon Orcs of III had them as well). Maybe the whole "Evil Invading Horde of Demon Worshipers from a Dying World" business was just a front for the pigs who sought to gain more ... um ... whatever you call the sort of land that pigs live on. Mudlands, or something.

Kil'Jaeden knew the Lich King would betray the Legion, and in fact hoped so.

Kil created the Lich King, as everyone who has read the background info knows. However, in the events of Warcraft III, it is only Archimonde who keeps using the Scourge for himself, and in the end he almost drains the powers of the World Tree, which would have made him a living god and definitely thrown Kil'Jaeden off from the co-leadership of the Legion.Did Kil not guess Archi would betray him if he were given him a chance? Hell no. In fact, since Kil created the very being who ensured Archimonde would get killed, it's reasonable to believe Kil started the whole events of Warcraft III only to get his counterpart killed and get the leadership of the Legion to himself. Notice that later on when he tells Illidan that killing Tichondrius is what made Archimonde's death possible, he doesn't even seem that angry.

• The nature of the Burning Legion is consistent with this; Eredar, in particular, don't seem to be very brotherly to one another when there's no Holy Light or similar motivations to be good around.
• Well, Ol' Killy is known as the Deceiver, and for a reason..
• Xanatos Gambit. Ner'Zuhl stays loyal and Kil'Jaeden has a large army loyal to him poised to kill Archimond. Ner'zuhl rebels and Archimond is defeated.

WoW is a theme park version of Azeroth.

At least WoW has the excuse of being really scaled down version of the world of Azeroth (in the Warcraft games aswell as the backstory distances are much greater), so the changes in climate wouldnät occur so suddenly in "real" Azeroth. The game essentially takes place in a theme park version of Azeroth.

• Try to create a GAME world with "real life distances" that is actually played by someone. Even now they complain that the ways are too long - honestly, I don't want to imagine how you could change areas quickly to help someone or to run an errand for an NPC.
  • Blizzard tried... originally, in Alpha, World of Warcraft was 10 times bigger. Though it was still pretty small overall (it'd take about 20 hours to run from Tirisfal to Booty Bay) it was DEFINITELY considered far too big. And boring.
  • All games that have a seemingly complete world with areas that are adjacent to one another (as opposed to having a loading screen and moving to a new area), seem to suffer from this problem. Warcraft is a rare case in which it goes from a series where maps are a large area that are a small part of the world to having an entire world that players could reasonably traverse.

Corollary to the previous one, WoW is the equivalent of a historical reenactment of the events of the storyline, as viewed from significantly into the future.

This allows for concurrent running of events, can explain some retcons (unappreciated influences finally get their due respect) and the move of Naxxramas (since it is the same thing, why would whoever's funding the reenactment bother representing it in both places?). Lots and lots of special effects, and very careful use of different magics allow for interested people to "visit" the Azeroth of centuries ago, during possibly the greatest wars in the planet's history. Oh, and the Infinite Dragonflight, despite acting in-character, are the Anonymous of this project, trying to screw up its history for the lulz.

• This theory makes so much sense, its terrifying.
• So does that make Chromie some kind of editor/censor? Sending adventurers to smack around the Infinites so that the script doesn't get fudged?
  • Doesn't really work, now that the players are having an impact on the world that's being recognized by NPCs.
  • Or, you are some pawn in the present time to make sure everything goes correctly

Jaina Proudmoore will defect to Horde side in the future

Think about it. King Varian Wrynn seems more than willing to go to war with the Horde, while Jaina really, really doesn't want to. She's gone as far as to directly intervene with his plans to protect a friend. Said friend just so happens to be the Warchief of the Horde. Frankly, Varian Wrynn has little reason to trust her, especially if he intends to declare war on the Horde (assuming that outburst in Undercity wasn't a formal declaration of war already). I can see her being disowned by the Alliance. Should that happen, she would most likely be considered an enemy by both sides, unless she seeks refuge within the Horde. It'd be easy enough to get Thrall to take her in, and once he's made up his mind, there ain't a whole lot the rest of the Horde can do about it. I can't really see Cairne or Vol'jin objecting, either.

• I have the horrible feeling you're on to something here, with the unfortunate corollary attached that this will mean Jaina's forces will probably be used for yet another "evil" or rebel faction- and this time for actually doing the right thing. I hope it's not the case!
• I would like to see her made the head of an all-new neutral faction. Bonus points to Blizzard if they let players ditch the bullshit Horde/Alliance dichotomy for said faction...but we all know they're not going to do that.
  • Icecrown Citadel shows that Varian isn't such an asshole, stopping Muradin from killing Saurfang Sr when he goes to collect his son's corpse. Jaina starts sobbing with happiness knowing that Varian isn't such an asshole. Also, Thrall isn't going to be the leader of the horde, come Cataclysm - and there is NO WAY Jaina will side with Garrosh. Neither will Cairne, Vol'jin, Sylvanas, or Lor'themar...
    • One, Pet the Dog. Two, Cairne is probably going to die(if the rumors are true), nobody cares about Vol'jin(But he's probably going into exile), Sylvanas knows that she's stuck in the Horde after the Wrathgate, and as far as I know Lor'themar is playing Follow The Banshee Queen. Hopefully he'll get killed in the Cataclysm so Sylvanas can take over both factions.
    • The source claiming that Cairne dies was Something Awful. Enough said already, right? Well...they also claimed that Thrall was becoming Guardian of Tirisfal. Need I go on?
    • Cairne does die, as a result of being hit by Garrosh's poisoned axe (which was Magatha's doing) during their duel.
  • Jossed as of Mists of Pandaria: The bombing of Theramore and the theft of the Divine Bell from Dalaran have made Jaina even more fervently anti-Horde than Varian was.

Thrall is deader than a five-man Ironforge raid on a crowded Friday.

Blizz has been talking about putting in an "Anti-Thrall" for a reaaaally long time now, someone who could and would show the world that the orcs were still a threat. And now we've got this Varian Wrynn, who not only shares many suspicious parallels with Thrall's background (enslaved as a gladiator by the opposite faction, escaped, realized he was royalty, and became king when he returned to his people) but also has all but declared open war on the Horde. He hateshateshates orcs. Word of God has stated specifically that he is designed to be Thrall's direct opposite number. This isn't over until one of them is dead.

• Thrall is super, super awesome. He is turbo-nice, turbo-good, and almost singlehandedly led the orcs from a downtrodden and legarthic imprisoned race to a reformed new country with its own spiritual identity. He wants peace. He holds no grudges against humans, even though he spent his childhood as a slave to an abusive human. Ask yourself: when was the last time anybody had it that good for that long? Good characters are constantly getting corrupted, finding out their good intentions led to some really epically bad consequences, or just plain getting pwned off the face of Azeroth. Furion? Coma. High elves? Cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Arthas? Pure evil. Lordaeron and the Silver Hand? Scourge, Death Knights, or Forsaken. Thrall's been too lucky. Something BAD is on the horizon. You just wait.
  • If one of them ends up dead, it'll probably be that petulant Jerkass Varian. When Blizzard touted him as "Thrall's opposite number," they must have been drunk: The man is unhinged, and all he's accomplished is to reinforce certain stereotypes of the Alliance. And the only way he could possibly beat Thrall is by treachery...which, quite frankly, I would not put past him.
  • Especially ominous is the fact that Garrosh Hellscream is being explicitly set up as the new dark side of the Horde. And that Garrosh was beating up Thrall for a while. And that Saurfang was so nervous about Hellscream's berserker tendencies that he was willing to send his own son into danger to try and demonstrate that the Horde can win with honor.
    • Pshaw. Thrall was holding back so much that it's not even funny. He's a shaman, remember? If it had gone on much longer, he'd have just healed up and clobbered Squeal.
    • Garrosh is a warrior dual wielding one-handers. He's a 21/50/0 Warrior. Would someone PLEASE explain how that has ANY chance against the only person in-universe to multiclass as an MS Warrior/Enh Shaman? Windfury Deep Wounds, PLEASE.
• Guys, you've gone off track and since the rumor about Garrosh taking over is true it means that the rumor about Thrall becoming the Guardian of Tirisfal now has some ground to stand on.
  • No, it has not. Garrosh doesn't take over the Horde as far as we know, just becomes more important. Cairne is not killed, and Thrall doesn't become the fucking Guardian of Goddamn Tirisfal because everything we know, including the comics where we see the new Tirisfal Council, are in favor of the contrary.
    • Actually, as Cataclysm's info has been out for some time, we know that Garrosh is made Warchief, Cairne gets killed by grimtotem poison, and Thrall isn't becoming the new guardian, but is instead busy trying to nsingle-handedly stop the goddamn Maelstrom.

There are one or more unrevealed continents in Azeroth's Southern Hemisphere

Think about it. The southern tip of the Eastern Kingdoms is a tropical jungle (Stranglethorn Vale) and Southern Kalimdor is either desert (Tanaris and Silithus) or jungle (Un'Goro Crater). If either continent extended much past the equator one would expect to see a progression back into temperate zones as you went south, therefore both continents are mostly in the northern hemisphere, maybe dipping down to the equator but not much further. It would seem extremely illogical to me that all the land on Azeroth would be located in the northern hemisphere.

• Unknown lands to the south would also give them somewhere to site as yet unrevealed things like the Pandaren homeland.
• Actually, if one looks at the big globe of Azeroth in the Halls of Lightning, there's another southern-style island that hasn't been revealed yet (reminded me of Mozambique), as well as what looks like an Antarctica-type-continent.
  • That is Kezan, the homeland of the Goblins. Their capital of Undermine is there, as well as a huge vulcano populated by trolls.
• There is a window in Illidan's study showing Azeroth from space. Maelstrom is on the equator, take that as you wish.
  • Confirmed as canon (Sort of). The titan facility of Uldum was hidden by a cloaking device that was destroyed by the Cataclysm. There's much less ocean than thought.
• Brann says the Tower of Krolmir turned an entire continent to dust when it was used. While he doesn't specify whether it was used on Azeroth, this could indicate that there are (or in this case, were) other continents

As Above, the unknown Southern Continent will form the basis of a future expansion pack

And the Padaren capital will form a neutral city like Shattrath and Dalaran do currently, having abandoned their secrecy and neutrality due to some unseen threat. Possibly a new incursion of the Scourge or maybe something else entirely. Whether the Pandaren will also become a playable race is a coin toss, though a new Pandaren themed class is a distinct possibility.

• The really fun part is that this gives Blizzard a chance to create whole new sets of lore without having to worry about contradicting previous revelations from the RTS games (not that that's stopped them).

The Silmarillion is a WMG version of the Warcraft timeline written awhile after some apocalyptic event. This also means that Middle Earth is Azeroth IN THE FUTURE.

So, here's how it goes down: The Blue Dragonflight are, as of Wot LK, determined to forcibly pry all the magic out of Azeroth, as mortals are unworthy of it. They succeed, and, as everybody told them it would, everything goes straight to hell. Stars going out, earthquakes, volcanoes, the ocean rushing in to cover the land, cats and dogs living together - mass hysteria. Teldrassil, being a magical tree grown with magic that has a magic city on top, implodes. Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isles, being punctured all over with volatile magic crystals, experience the equivalent of a nuclear fallout. The Scourge, having nothing to animate it, drops dead. Naxx falls out of the sky. The Blood Elves go totally apeshit. The Dark Portal goes poof. The Gnomes and the Goblins realize that their technology isn't actually physically possible without magic, sending them both back to the Dark Age. Thrall is killed in the ensuing confusion, sending the orcs into a state of chaos. Cut to the Second Age or so. In a few millenia, nobody remembers there ever having been magic of the flashy-fireball type, although "magic" caused by the Titans (Valar) and demons (evil Maiar) still exist. he remaining Night Elves and Blood Elves have stuck together to survive, and although differences still divide them (Noldor and Vanyar), they have been interbred heavily. History becomes legend, legend becomes myth. People forget just what happened to wipe out Lordaeron, as nobody can bring themselves to really believe a crazy zombie story (Numenor) however, the survivors do eventually band together and rebuild as Gondor. Weird things get mixed in, people get confused with each other. Broxigar becomes Fingolfin, Sargeras gets mixed up with Illidan a bit and becomes Morgoth, Elune becomes Varda and is recognized as one of the Titans, the dwarves stay pretty much the same, the orcs get depressed and fall back under the control of the Legion (Sauron is a lieutenant, like Kil'Jaeden)...I could go on. There are SO many things. Like, someone clearly remembered that there were two very important trees, but not how or why or when, and that the separation of the Elves was caused by a civil war over control of magic. God, this is long. I should stop now.

• Ewww. No. I like LotR, and I like Warcraft, but they don't really go that well together.
• I stopped reading after "The Blues Succeed". Because they don't. Malygos is dead. The Nexus War has ended.
  • Okay, I wrote that before Wot LK, and also I was drunk. Chill out.

Fingin: Class?

Take a look at this guy. He's selling poisons and thieves' tools, and he's dressed like any given member of SI:7. But everyone knows draenei can't be rogues...right?

• Wrong. They can be. Back when Burning Crusade first came out, the devs stressed that just because a player character of a certain race can't belong to every class doesn't mean there aren't examples of that class amongst the race. Hence, Blood elf warriors.
  • Actually, despite the "tauren rogue" being a running joke, it's been stated that draenei and tauren are ill-suited—both by character and by physiology—to subterfuge. Hence the link.
  • There even exists a Dwarf mage NPC, a relic from the times when Dwarves could be Mages in the beta.
  • There's also a boatload of Blood Elf NPCs that are suitably Warrior-like (And aren't Blood Knights/Paladins). Guess which is the only playable race in the game not to have Warrior as a class option? Playable race/class combinations are limited for balance (I know, bear with me on this...) reasons, but that doesn't mean that races in "real life" aren't restricted to class options. If a Gnome was suitably faithful in the Light, she could be a Paladin or Priest. If a Tauren trained suitably in the arts of espionage, he could be a Rogue. In fact, I'm sure that there are several members of the Grimtotem tribe with suitably Roguish abilities.
  • He could be a sniper who says you can't poison dip your Arrows
    • Race/class restrictions are shifting even for player characters. Dwarf magi, blood elf warriors, and gnome priests will all be added in Cataclysm.
    • Orc Mages being warlocks exercising restraint, Dwarf Magi and Shamans already existed (though not playable), just like Blood Elf Warriors and Gnome Priests (remember those medics in Gnomeregan? Spamming heal all day long).

Tirion Fordring did a nice job breaking it when he destroyed Arthas' heart

Everyone in the game thinks that Arthas is the Lich King. However, unbeknownst to them but beknownst to us, the current Lich King is actually a fusion of Arthas Menethil and Ner'zhul, the original Lich King. Arthas' heart contained the last remnants of his humanity and when Tirion destroyed it thinking that Arthas was beyond redemption, all hope of separating Arthas from the Lich King and redeeming him was lost instead.

• Tirion only 'checked' the heart from what I've read and seen and confirmed that Arthas is not in there anymore. Now, you know that little blonde human boy spirit that guides you through that quest line? Matthias Lehner? He knows an AWFUL LOT about Arthas and his actions. Besides, what is a childs ghost doing there? Now, shake the letters around a bit. That name is an Anagram of Arthas Menethil. So my guess is: the 'real' Arthas was never present in the ripped out heart ever since he merged with the Lich King but manifested outside in Spirit form to help people fight against his body that is under Ner'Zhuls control (Ner says in an early Alliance Fjord Quest if you go too near to him (it isn't requited to complete the Quest) that you wheere brought here through shaman powers... and that he was shaman too) and to redeem his mistakes, so Tirion 'breaking' the heart didn't have any actual effect lest it'd be needed to rejoin the body with the true soul, but who would believe that story anyways? He'd be hated by most of the people because redemption isn't accepted by most, see the attitude towards the Horde by many veteran alliance soldiers that can't accept that they were mind controled by the true legion.
  • Read the new Christie Golden book. It explains a lot.

The normally inaccessible dungeon located near Karazhan is, in fact, Karazhan

Under-Kara, as it's affectionately known, is an unfinished instance located near Karazhan. The normally inaccessible corridors are the darknest and bleakest corner of the game, bar none. The implications of the location names, particularly the Pauper's Walk, match up at least a little bit to the story of Karazhan in the Lore. Conclusion: This aborted dungeon is where the events of the lore actually took place, while the instance itself is a haunted re-imagining, a phantasmic conjuration by the spirits of the dead and Medivh based pon legends about the tower.

• Much of what's in the back tower is probably the creation of Malchezaar, Aran, or both.
  • Confirmed, effectively. The Original Karazahn was three different dungeons, however only the first and a few pieces of the second were ever completed. The first was to be up through the opera house, the second was to be the upper tower, and the third was to be a large raid instance in the under tower. This is also why Karazahn makes some degree of sense right up until after The Curator, while after that the only two remotely-connected-to-plot fights are Aran and the Chess Event. The Curator, Aran, and the Chess Event were all finished before the 5-20-40 style of instancing that was originally promised was scrapped, and the other bosses were tacked on as 'interesting but make no sense' fights.

A future expansion, if not the immediate next one, will have at least some if not all central focus on the Naga.

Think about it. What major Warcraft Big Bads are left? Onyxia, C'thun, and the rest of the endgame raid bosses were supposedly killed off in the original; Illidan, Kael'thas, and Vashj are all canon dead post-BC, along with the rest of the expansion enemies. WOTLK has already removed Kel'Thuzad (Naxxramas), Malygos (Eye of Eternity), and Yogg-Saron (Ulduar). The only major canon ones remaining in Northrend are Mal'Ganis and Arthas/Ner'zhul himself, both of which will probably get a raid each to themselves; removing Arthas will pretty much nuke the Scourge unless ONLY Arthas is killed and Ner'zhul somehow survives (or, perhaps the other way around, and the surviving Arthas portion escapes with what remains of The Lich King's power; either way he'll be out of commission for a while). The remaining major "world villains", unless some new superpower is created, are pretty much limited to the Black and Infinite Dragonflights, the other surviving Old Gods (if they wake up), Kil'Jaeden (this time at his full power, rather than poking his head halfway out of the Sunwell) and the Legion again, and Empress Azshara and the Naga. Coinciding with the theory above that the Southern portions of Azeroth, so far unhinted at and unexplored, will be the next place to travel, I think what will draw the attention of the world to that otherwise-ignored land is the sudden increase in activity from the Naga, suggesting a culmination of some plan by their Goddess. Possibly working with the Legion again, giving us both Azshara AND Killy to deal with.

Also, prediciting now: If the Naga are indeed the central focus of the next expansion, the major gold sink will not be a "warm weather flying training" or anything like that, but rather Underwater Mounts. If it's gonna spend a lot of time on Naga, I predict a lot of swimming, so having mounts that up your swim speed and give you waterbreathing sounds like a pretty logical gold sink to me. You heard it here first. ;)

• This theory actually holds some ground as Blizzard has apparently copyrighted the term "The Maelstrom". Not to mention this would allow more lore on the Goblin's as they supposedly come from a Southern region of Azeroth (their capital city, Undermine, could serve as a new sanctuary). The Pandarians if Blizzard wants to risk pissing off the Chinese. And the Old Gods, as they were the ones to change the Naga into what they are in the first place.
  • Errr... I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that. The Naga are the result of Azshara paling around with Sargeras, and her kingdom dabbling in fel magic and warlockism, not tinkering by the Old Gods. Although I wouldn't doubt that they have a tentacle in the gearworks somewhere.
    • If I remember correctly, it is hinted in the end of the novel "The Sundering" that the Old Gods are responsible for their mutation.
    • I suppose that's what I get for not having read the books then. My mistake. :)
    • You probably didn't miss anything you couldn't find out on WoWWiki. Knaak ruins everything. But regarding the naga plot? It'd be a better idea than the alleged "leaked info from the next expansion pack" that's being bandied about.
    • Um, the Old Gods DEFINITELY caused the Naga mutation.
• Aszhara apparently won't be fought in Cataclysm, but it's possible she'll be a prominent villain in the expansion pack in which Sargeras is main villain.
• What Big Bad is left? Are you serious? How about Gul'dan? The constant reminding the player of everything he's done screams Chekhov's Gun. You know he's coming back.

The world of Warcraft 3 is the past of the world of Dragon Age:Origins.

I don't know the story of WoW, so I will ignore it here. But if you only consider the story of Warcraft 3, it makes sense. In Dragon Age: Origins, the Elves are somewhat enslaved by the humans and mourn about their long lost immortality. In Warcraft 3, we see both Night Elves and High/Blood Elves losing their immortality. And in Frozen Throne, we also see for the first time how Blood Elves are bullied around by humans (that is, by Lord Garithos' forces) and treated as some kind of disposable servants. If you project these developments into the future, you get exactly the human/elves relationship we have in Dragon Age:Origins. Also, the Scourge or the Burning Legion (or both) might be the equivalent of the Blight.

Ered'ruin/eredar connection.

It's been noted that there's a marked resemblance. Hell, some doomguards even still have the catfish whiskers. But while most man'ari eredar in-game seem to share the same basic outline as draenei, doomguards have hunched postures and thinner, almost vestigial tails.

So...the ered'ruin must have been those eredar who were reluctant to join the Burning Legion voluntarily, but who—for some inexplicable reason or another—were pressed into service (by decidedly nasty means) rather than just killed outright. As for the physical differences...they'd started mutating into Broken or something similar (since the "coercion" would have certainly involved fel energy) before they outright gave in. ("Ered'ruin" is an appropriate name; they're eredar that have been ruint.)

• Certainly possible, though all previously shown Man'ari eredar warriors have been Wrathguards.
  • Now, my thought on that is that eredar who accept fel corruption voluntarily get mutated to a degree in inverse proportion to their innate magical power. But it's not the same sort of mutation that would be caused by forcible exposure. Wrathguards have clawed feet, tusks, horns that would shame a tauren, and no tendrils whatsoever (the combination of those last two traits makes me suspect that the standard draenic dimorphism has gone the way of their tendrils); however, they also still stand up straight, and still have large, heavy tails.
• Okay, this would seem to have been jossed by the recent revelation that doomguards were among the first demons Sargeras encountered. But the combination of the name and the resemblance to a weird fusion of Broken and dreadlord still seems a bit too coincidental. (Perhaps ered'ruin are the result of what happened when a splinter faction of early Argus natives made an unholy deal with dreadlords, and are therefore the reason the concept of "man'ari" even existed in the Rise of the Horde prologue?)

The planet, Azeroth, is named after an Old God.

There are (supposedly/for now pending a retcon) five Old Gods. Three have been named, but "The Nightmare" is possibly just a nickname, or might not be an Old God in its own right but rather a servitor/herald/the effect of one's presence or manipulations. The other two have blatantly obvious references to Lovecraftian entities - C'Thun to Cthulhu, Yogg-Saron to Yog-Sothoth. From what I've seen, even people who aren't extremely familiar with Lovecraft still recognize some of the names and can peg them as Cthulhu-like in origin - notably those two plus Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, and Azathoth, in my experience, are easily the five most well known Lovecraftian horrors. Maybe toss in Dagon and/or Hast--! as well, if you like.

Azathoth and Azeroth are too close for my liking. Furthermore, the Old Gods were imprisoned within the planet by the Titans, but couldn't be destroyed because their existence was bound to the world's. (Which makes me wonder what raid groups slaughtering everything in Ahn'Qiraj and Ulduar is doing to the stability of the world... see below.) Azathoth is the most powerful of his kind, but slumbers beyond reality and is all but mindless; an entity named Azeroth, if it was the most powerful of the Old Gods, would have the deepest prison - the planet's core - and it would make sense for the Titans to use its name to refer to its cell as well. On top of all this is a comment Yogg-Saron makes as he dies: he refers to Azeroth as "this meager little seedling". Perhaps the dying Old God is dropping a last-second gloating hint - that by destroying him (and C'Thun before, and any other Old Gods who break loose of their cells later) they are helping this "seedling" to grow and release the secrets hidden inside - essentially by defeating the other Old Gods, weakening Azeroth's (the theoretical Old God) prison of the planet of the same name? Food for thought.

• According to WoW RPG: Lands of Conflict, the name is a human word coming from a human tribe, the Azotha. However, as it is used by non-humans before the Sundering (which may be a continuity error), a retcon is still possible, considering the increasing importance of the Old Gods in Azeroth.
• That could be handwaved if the lore is altered to read "Oh, by the way, the Old Gods influenced the humans too".
  • Honestly, it seems to me that all the Old Gods have a little bit of Nyarlathotep in them. They seem to be unable to resist the temptation to me
• Jossed by the new Chronicles book in two ways: there are four Old Gods (the unnamed fifth has been retconned out of existence), and Azeroth is actually an unborn Titan. Like, the planet itself is a baby Titan. Azeroth is just still growing.

Yrels' "Dark Secret" that was teased about from the Warlords of Draenor expansion is that she is actually the Daughter of Kil'jaeden.

Even though around 25,000 years have seemingly passed in real time between the events of their departure from Argus and later landing on Draenor, chances are that Kil'Jaeden may have had a wife of his own before joining with the Legion, and that wife would leave Argus behind to travel with Velen, while also taking their young daughter Samara and being pregnant with his second child Yrel.

• 1. It would serve as ample explanation behind why Kil'jaeden would turn towards twisting Velens' own abandoned son Rakeesh into an agent of the Legion as part of revenge against Velen for stealing his own family away when they ran.

• 2. Plus it would be equally-good justification why in most Beta materials, Yrel often referred to Velen as her uncle (since Velen, Archimonde, and Kil'jaeden were considered to be "brothers" before Sargeras arrived).

• 3. It would explain why Velen would be so interested in raising Yrel and why he would proclaim her as the new leader of the Draenei following his death in the alternate Draenor.

• 4. Poetically enough, Yrel ends up "Corrupting" the Orcs just like her father did by infusing them with The Light against their will, similar to how Kil'jaeden had corrupted the Orcs by having them drink demonic blood. Similarly, both groups of Orcs also have a father and son leading the charge for their respective groups as exemplars with Grommash Hellscream having spearheaded the cause of the Burning Legion through the Orcish Horde, while Garroshs own alternate selves' son became known as "Exarch Hellscream" and is firmly on the side of High Exarch Yrel by the time of the Mag'har Recruitment Scenario when we last see her.

The Warcraft movie's universe will be even more of an Adaption Distillation until it flat-out derails from canon

Durotan is in the film as the Orc lead despite being established in past Lore as not playing a major role in the First War. The non-human Alliance races are actually alarmed at the presence of the Orcs, likely leading to the Alliance being formed earlier than in canon. The magical corruption subplot currently seems to be focused on Gul'dan's antics (although that doesn't rule out Kil'jaeden being revealed to have taught him this) as opposed to most of the chieftains drinking Mannoroth's blood. With all this in mind, and Metzen even comparing it to Marvel's Ultimate universe should make you expect the movie's universe to go even further in merging, removing, simplifying, and expanding elements until it derails from canon. Possible ways for this go:

• 1. Remove the Burning Legion as a faction-The Orcs have arguably sympathetic grounds to invade Azeroth as opposed to just being pawns of a demonic army, and Mannoroth's blood seems to be absent. While it can be revealed that Gul'dan's soul magic was taught to him by Kil'jaeden, that doesn't require the presence of the Burning Legion considering WC 2's Lore did have Gul'dan study under Kil'jaeden.

The Light comes from Azeroth itself

Given The Reveal that Elune created the Naaru and the possibility that Elune may actually be a manifestation of the unborn world-soul within Azeroth, perhaps this is the true nature of the Light. In other words, the Light is one of the means by which Azeroth itself protects those who call it home.

Kairozdormu had to clean up the players' mess at the Well of Eternity, and that's why he turned evil

Specifically, while any number of things might have been done that weren't supposed to be, the player characters got the achievement That's Not Canon!, and Kairozdormu was assigned to fix it. This was a (ahem) time-consuming task that was really not worth the effort put in, and drove him into evil cackling madness, which the death of Deathwing and the fading of the Dragonflights' powers didn't help.

The name Dalaran comes from the Thalassian Dalar'Aran

Dalar and Aran are both elven words, or at least elements thereof (e.g. Quel'dalar and Ameth'Aran), and Dalaran was built by elves as well as humans. It may well have been elves who named it. The name Dalaran certainly sounds more like such elven cities as Bashal'Aran or Ordil'Aran than any human city.