Next WoW Expansion leak

[Huffalax]

trolling is a art.

[gameclub]

Expansions are the reason I hate wow. They change the game much too often. Imo, vanilla wow > wow today.

[Tengu]

Old news for anyone following [edit: a wow news site not mentionable here]. It's about 2 weeks ago the races were announced there, and even a bit more since they announced the name Cataclysm.

As for sources, there aren't any for the races. It's guess-work by boibuille (however he spells his name), the owned of the site mentioned before. But let's face it, he's never been wrong with his guesses before when it comes to new stuff on the horizon. Only 1½ week left until we know for sure though =)

[vampiric161]

I have no doubt that the expansion will be called Cataclysm (considering Blizzard bought copyrights or what have you for that name) and will be dealing with the Maelstrom but I have serious doubts about worgen being a playable race. Where do they fit in with the Alliance? Goblins being horde exclusive wouldn't make sense to me either considering how neutral they are in WoW. Not saying that I couldn't be wrong but, it just doesn't seem like a logical conclusion to jump to.

[Linkn]

Remember there's different goblins in wow, steamwheedle cartel, venture co, etc. There are goblins that favor the horde more than being neutral. They work the zeppelins outside of Org. So goblins do make sense, since they were with the horde before.

[Kirth]

Goblins align with whomever pays most. Worgen don't even give you the chance to try and discuss an allegiance.

This is complete bogus!

[WarDrum]

Source?

Invis filla

[Lolofail]

I wouldn't take this at face value. Besides, wouldn't the worgs be horde because they're so ugly?

[[the Sills]]

joke or not :S

[[Ichigo]]

Wtf. :| I think its high time to roll HORDE.
Ally will suck with Worgens .

[Tazjin]

Skin color changes seem to work in char creation, clothing works ingame (even on Worgen).
Female Goblin textures are totally ****ed up, female Worgen model is not completed.

Race texts are already included in the .lua files, but don't show up ingame. Might be a lua syntax error or whatever, I can post them later. If I'm not too lazy.

[EcHoEs]

I really think that Goblins of Horde will be separate faction from Steamwheedle Cartel, but it will still be neutral or friendly with the Cartel. I highly doubt it will be able to speak orcish and common.

[Tazjin]

I forgot to mention that it seems like there's a placeholder in the char creation files to place goblins in a neutral faction. However, that stuff has not been implemented yet.

I guess that you will be able to choose your faction after completing the starting area or something like that.

[Equ1N0X]

Being myself an avid fan of warcraft lore, I might be able to fill in several gaps about the content. most of this is just speculation mixed in with bits of what i could find about each part


Goblins --
Previous to the creation of the steamwheedle Cartel, the majority of Goblin worked either for the orcish horde, or for the Aspect Dragon, Neltharion[Deathwing]. It is no too far a stretch to say that at least some fraction of the goblin population would invariably decide to ally itself fully with the horde.

Throughout history, many goblins have favored the horde, and i am fairly certain the palyable goblins will be of a separate faction than the steamwheedle cartel.

Worgen --
Due to to the fact that the majority of worgen are post-human, and retain much of their intelligence, is not a possibility that the alliance has found a wa to more efficiently communicate witht he Worgen, allowing one or several factions to form an alliance with them?

In addition many worgen show the capacity to make tools and communicate, which qualifies them in my eyes as a civilization. in addition if im not wrong ther eis an entire town of worgen outside of shadowfang keep.
[screenshot pending]

Another thing that people are completely forgetting are that in the grizzly hills in northrend, the alliance have ALREADY FORMED AN ALLIANCE with Worgen trappers, who have their own Outpost near Drak'tharon keep, and a city of decent size near the middle of the grizzly hills.

Please keep in mind at all tiems that most of the worgen are human during the light hours, and that those who are not are ussually in some quest or another described as being in servitude of <insert evil dude here> in <Duskwood or silverpine forest or Azshara>

The Maelstrom
Several hundred years ago, during the first war between the burning legion and the mortals, the elven queen azshara helped sargeras create a portal into this world using the well of eternity, a lake in former azshara which connected to thousands of alternate dimensions, making it an unimaginable source of power for the elves.
[this is all out of the Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy of books]
Once the portal had been opened, Broxigar, an orc with an enchanted living wooden axe managed to hurl himself into the portal and do mano-a-mano combat with sargeras to delay his entry to azeroth until Malfurion,Korialstrasz, his elder version from the future, the rhonin from the future, all managed to shut down the portal.
"As the aftershocks from the Well of Eternity's implosion rattled the bones of the world, the seas rushed in to fill the gaping wound left in the earth. Nearly eighty percent of Kalimdor's landmass had been blasted apart, leaving only a handful of separate continents surrounding the new, raging sea. At the center of the new sea, where the Well of Eternity once stood, was a tumultuous storm of tidal fury and chaotic energies. This terrible scar, known as the Maelstrom, would never cease its furious spinning. It would remain a constant reminder of the terrible catastrophe... and the Utopian era that had been lost forever." - Warcraft 3, reign of chaos Manual


In the process of shutting down the well of eternity, the well started surging with energy and its magical waters inexplicably began to grow, consuming the entire eastern half of kalimdor, and pushing the elves and all other known races all the way to Mount hyjal [another zone that will probably be opened with next expansion]. This event is known as the sundering. the eastern half of kalimdor was sundered into hundreds of Islands which were pulled into the maelstrom, which is the result of the well of eternity's rupture.
The islands that comprise the maelstrom will probably have alot more elven lore involved with them, as well as the mysteries of the missing 80% of kalimdor. The Zones that wil rpobably make it into the Expansion are:

Undermine [with help form WoWWiki]
"
The Undermine is an underground city located on the small island of Kezan. The city has a population of 20,000. in the southern seas of Azeroth near the Maelstrom
Making their home in the Undermine are the goblins, who are native to the island.
Undermine is home to the fabled Goblin Trade Princes, who hide from Alliance and Horde authorities on Kalimdor. The princes each control their own private armies and trade fleets. As a result, Undermine is a busy place, as the goblin fortress city goes about its business."
In addition the Warcraft: Behind the Scenes DVD included what seems to be a fairly detailed hand sketched map of Undermine



The Eye
The eye is what is left of the Maelstrom. Do to the fact it seems to be a Black hole of sorts with no event horizon, the black hole has become a zone of swirling magic and water.
Explorer brann Bronzebeard once stated upon visiting it that "Indeed, I saw more forms of life in the Eye than I imagined existed in all the world." Which means that blizzard is going to retexture alot of old monsters, add an arm here or there and call it something new.


The wall is characterized by being a near spherical zone of swirling water, elevated above the water table, and where the underwater pressure is elevated, making it dificult to enter via ship.


The eye is also the word used to refer to the region of the maelstrom as a whole, which is the swirling center and the slands sucked in near it.


Nazjatar:
Nazjatar is the Capital City of the Naga, those disguisting green things that are always stealing water. Azshara, former queen of the elves now reigns as queen of the Naga in this city
An important thing to note it that Nazjatar is nearly completely underwater, located in a trench north of Ma'kura[spelling?] a city of the lobster people such as the ones in blackfathom deeps. This would mean that there is probably going to be a new series of underwater mounts, items allowing underwater breathing, swim speed increase, and other aparatti of the sort.
One thing that makes this a very possible location to be added is that at blizzcon 2008, Blizzard mentioned that along with northrend, nazjatar and the maelstrom would probably end up in world of warcraft at a future date.


Not much more is known about nazjatar as it only recieves a few pages of coverage in lands of mystery, but im willing to bt it will be there.


Below is a sketch made of an estimated location of nazjatar


Here we see a sculpture depiction of Azshara in her new naga form.




The Boiling Terrace
The boiling terrace is a region of water int he southwest of the maelstorm which is characterized by large underwater plateaus, heat resistant animals like giant crabs and sea worms, Geothermal vents, and oh yeah, boiling water. possibly to be added as the setting for a raid or something.

In the southeastern Edge of the boiling terrace, there is a ship graveyard called the Drowned Reaches, where over the last several thousand years ships have gone astray and sunken. this is the reason zeppelins and boats [as you see them tracked on the world map] avoid the maelstrom in general. lore for the place includes a scooby doo ship graveyard; Zombies, skeletons ghost ships, ghost sailors yata yata

The Rift.
Essentially the reason for the swirlign waters. After the sundering occured, the remnants of the well of eternity burned straight into the planet down to the core, creating an enormous rift at the center of the maelstrom, charged with electrical energy. It is rumored that even from the surface of the waater near the rift, one can see the orange glow, and feel the heat of azeroth's exposed core. According to quotes form Brann Bronzebeard, it is very difficult to venture deep into the rift due to pressure, but perhaps in some form, the well of eternity still exists at the center of the rift. This is also [spoiler] probably more than enough motive for the blood elves to want to get there, as the well of eternity could at one time provide an unimaginable magic energy to all elves accrooss kalimdor

Some speculate that possibly Ragnaros or some form of a fire diety dwells near the core, making it another likely location for a raid instance, along with the well of eternity


In page 72 of Lands of mystery, it is also mentioned a place called the Gishan caverns. These are supposedly enormous underwater caverns that the naga and lobster people generally avoid due to a probably accurate belief that there are giant sea monsters, which isnt much of sa strtch since we see a North sea kraken in the waters near Hrothgar's landing. another possible raid isntance, but due to lack of information, i cant make many speculactions.


Scintal Reef [crap people zone]
This is the ozne where msot of Azeroth's crab/lobster people hail from. there is their city makura here and they will probably be some kind of friendly race to both factions in the way the kalu'ak were in northrend, or the shattrath people in Burning crusade.
the city of ma'kur [spelling?] is contained here. this will probably be more of a questing zone


Possibly [i hope] mount hyjal's present day form will be added to the game as well.

Finally a slightly weirder zone is Pillar deep, which is a zone filled with tube worms. tube worms of all colors and sizes. some of them even reaching the surface of the water.



Thanks to Blizzard's Lands of Mystery, WoWwiki, giigle, and to blizzard againf or shutting down servers long enough for me to take the time to type this up

[Mrjohnnyboi]

This must be a joke...