[instance] Illidan strikes back in the caverns of time?

[Gibraltar]

Mystery Instance; Illidan strikes back?

Warning: This topic is one big speculation. Don't take it as facts.

Introduction
Earlier today, while I was walking around in the Caverns of Time advertising my Mascot For Hire scheme to riches, and I noticed something that I had seen before and just never really put much attention to. Hidden behind a ship is a pink coloured instance portal, a five man that has not been added yet.

Now I know that a new five man involving Stratholme is going to be included with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I figured the ship was just a way of actually blocking the portal, but then I saw this conversation between the two custodians staring at it.


Apparently, the ship came flying through the portal. What is a Night Elf (Kaldorei) ship doing in Stratholme, which isn't even near the sea? Nothing, that's what! It must be something else...

The Ship
The ship itself is a Night Elf ship according to the two custodians, which came crashing through the instance portal / time way. However, closer inspection of the ship revealed something strange; the symbol on the ship's sails.

After looking around some, the Unicorn on the sail seems to indicate that the ship is not a Night Elf ship, but in fact an High Elf one. (The Unicorn being the symbol of Quel'Thalas at that time.)

However, I'm inclined to think that the Custodians aren't oblivious to the differences between high elf and night elf, so this is simply laziness on Blizzard's side. (The boat is a recycled model, the same high elf ship is also used in the Shimmering Flats.)

Facts:
It's from the past.
It's of Night Elf origin.

Instance - Theme
This leaves the question, what is in that instance? Blizzard wants players to be involved with the Warcraft lore. The other Caverns of Time instances all involved crucial events in time, and the one in the Wrath of the Lich King will as well. So this must be a major event in the World of Warcraft time line, involving well known lore characters.

Another thing Blizzard seems to enjoy is bringing endgame raiding bosses to people who do not have a chance to encounter them in the real deal. Examples would be Kael'thas, which is becoming a 5 man boss in the Sunwell, and Kel'Thuzad, who is being relocated to a starting raid environment.

Combine these two things; and there is only one event that I can come up with that holds lore importance, and brings not one, not two, but three important lore figures to an instance suitable for a five man instance.

Tomb of Sargeras
Enter the Broken Isles and the Tomb of Sargeras. For those of you who never played the campaign in the Frozen Throne, I will give you a quick overview of what happened.

Illidan was supposed to deal with Arthas and the Burning Legion would leave him alone; but Illidan failed to kill Arthas. He's given one final chance to get rid of the Lich King, and he opts for simply destroying the entire Frozen Throne, using the power of an artifact known as the 'Eye of Sargeras'. (Because just killing Arthas isn't dramatic enough.)

The Eye of Sargeras is located in the Tomb of Sargeras, which in turn is located on the Broken Isles. Illidan is assisted by the Naga to get there, but he's followed by Maiev who is intending on putting Illidan back into his prison.

Why are we there?
Illidan escaped the Broken Isles with the Eye of Sargeras, but due to the fact that he failed to kill Maiev, Malfurion and Tyrande Whisperwind were able to reach Illidan and interrupt his Naga spellcasters before they could complete their channel to destroy the Frozen Throne. Failing the Burning Legion once again, Illidan ends up fleeing to the Outlands where we find and kill him in the Burning Crusade.

Now, we know that the Infinite Dragonflight seems to orgasm over the idea of screwing up the timeline, with seemingly no preference whatsoever as to what happens; as long as major events do not happen.

There's two massive changes they could make to the time line, depending on which side of the conflict they end up helping.

Maiev
If the Infinite Dragonflight were to help Maiev, Illidan would never end up in the Outlands. The Blood Elves would very likely still be part of the Alliance and the Outlands would have been a Burning Legion stronghold. Not a pleasant scenario.

Illidan
If the Dragonflight was to assist the other side, things wouldn't be much better. If Maiev never leaves the Tomb of Sargeras, Malfurion and Tyrande Whisperwind will not know what Illidan is planning on doing. He would have succeeded in destroying the Frozen Throne, forging himself a powerful alliance with the Burning Legion. It is very likely that with the Lich King gone and Illidan, and thus, the Naga on their side, the Burning Legion would have once again invaded Azeroth.

My personal guess is that they would be aiding the side of Illidan the Betrayer, as the death of Maiev would result in massive changes in the time line.

The Instance - Speculation
If you've gotten this far, congratulations. You must be either really bored, or just as curious about the instance as I am. From here on, I am going to describe what could possibly happen in the instance. For the most part, it's just wishful thinking, really. Still, it might prove for an interesting read, while you're sitting outside the raid instance as a backup like usual, wondering why you rolled a holy priest again.

Entrance
Much like in the Hillsbrad instance, you would be given a disguise. But instead of being disguised as a human; the custodians of time instead disguise you as Night Elves, part of the small army Maiev took along on her chase after Illidan.

You dock your boat and follow Maiev off, fighting by her side as you fight your way through Naga trashpacks that are trying to keep you away from Illidan. You fight your way through the tropical island to try and catch up with him, only to be blocked by Lady Vashj. After a short conversation, all hell breaks loose and you're fighting a Lady Vashj fight. I have no real clues as to what a five man lady Vashj would be like, but I suppose it would involve a lot of entangling roots, running away to aimed shot lame your healers and summoning some water elemental adds.

You knock Lady Vashj silly and she drops some loot and drags herself to the water. Maiev urges you to leave her, at that point already being blinded with wanting nothing more than to imprison, or kill, Illidan. After finishing the loot and telling her you're ready to move on, you start making your way to the Tomb of Sargeras. The Naga have treated back into the sea, but a new adversary has shown up.

As you walk through the island and get closer to the tomb, rifts in time start to open and the Infinite Dragonflight comes pouring out. You are forced to fend them off to keep Maiev safe, possibly with a dragon boss encounter mixed in as well.

After fighting your way through not only the Infinite Dragonflight, but also crazed demons that were unleashed ages ago by Gul'dan as he tried to obtain the Eye of Sargeras, you finally reach Illidan, but you are too late to prevent him from grabbing the eye.

Next is a fight with Illidan, perhaps a fight where he alternates between his normal and demon forms and players have to avoid a pattern of fel fire he shoots up from the ground. Once Illidan gets to one percent HP, he yells that you are already too late to prevent his plan, and he teleports away using the Eye, leaving your team to loot the 'other loot' that was left in the chest Illidan obtained the eye from.

Once you're done sorting your loot and you talk to Maiev, you hear Illidan shouting that 'after thousands of years of imprisonment, it's Maiev's time to be trapped', and much like in the Warcraft 3 campaign, he makes the tomb collapse on top of you. Maiev starts blinking out on her own just fine, and you are left to escape yourself. You only get one chance at this, and you have to backtrack through the path you cleared in the Tomb, avoiding debris that comes flying down, and getting rid of the dragonwhelps that start spawning through new portals.

If you make it out alive, Maiev holds a little speech on how it's good that you made it out alive, but that it would be too dangerous to follow. To thank you for your assistance, she gives all the players a quest token you can exchange for actual gear, and she runs off.

Conclusion
There's obviously two conclusions here.

I have far too much time for actually writing this all up, but more importantly, Blizzard should have hired me to do their instances.

Hope you didn't fall asleep during this massive block of text, if you made it all the way down, congratulations, you're hardcore. Have yourself a Badge of Justice. ;D

For me that post was a good read, i checked the screen and its all true.
But i wont ask for rep xD.

i am not able to post links because there is some sort of a crappy tree post count rule or whatever. Cant talk about a link(because of that rule) but please just check the nihilum homepage for further details(and sorry for my bad english i am german).

[Dvveh]

There is coming a new instance where you go to Old Stratholme. That is probably what the entrance is for

[The Maffyx]

There is coming a new instance where you go to Old Stratholme. That is probably what the entrance is for

Agreed, wonder if we'll get to burn houses for a quest

[Slippers]

Bad english you say? Thats some amazing english bud. I had a fun time reading your ideas, and maybe you should post it on the real WoW Forums and you might actually get a blizzard response (it's happen alot of times).

If you're bored, keep up the stories, that was some good reading

-Silvers-

[shadowbladex]

OR .. blizzard just put a random ass boat in front of a upcoming instance-portal and it has nothing to do with anything other than keeping people away from the portal? =O

[Mallak]

I thought that was a sick story, +rep for entertaining me

[Locksvoltage]

Nice! If i didn't know better, I would think you came back from time, and told us would would happen. That, or your from Blizzard. Very good, and I am now interested with what happens

[Kurtiz]

Nihilum.eu - MMORPG Gaming Guild and Community
Copy Paste FTL

Leave FGT

[Mozy]

Man awsome ideas that would be pretty sweet i liked reading it =)

[Razmataz]

I'm happy to have seen it here, thanks, but next time state it's a copy and paste from another site.

[Gibraltar]

i did write that i copy pasted it. Just have to read the whole thing.

[Kjetta]

i did write that i copy pasted it. Just have to read the whole thing.

There u said it^^, and right before u said I did write that -.-, smaart

[Gibraltar]

lawlz that was funny.
I did write, that i copy pasted it should mean that i mentioned in my original text that
i found everything on nihilum site. And i apologized for my bad english.
if i could give damn links in my first post(whats that stupid three post rule?) you whould alle have recognized it on first sight. As i whould have given the damn links.

Stop flaming and enjoy the read. and yeah give rep because i was the first to find it and post it here.

[Kartio]

but next time state it's a copy and paste from another site.

For me that post was a good read, i checked the screen and its all true.
But i wont ask for rep xD.

i am not able to post links because there is some sort of a crappy tree post count rule or whatever. Cant talk about a link(because of that rule) but please just check the nihilum homepage for further details(and sorry for my bad english i am german).

You should read more, Raz.

and yeah give rep because i was the first to find it and post it here.

Don't ask for rep.

[Rubs90]

You: Attack +93 damage
Wall of text: Crits you for +90000 damage
You: Dead