Bolde and I, part I.

It was sunny, for once, though, as we picnicked high above Crystalsong on one of the ancillary floating rocks held up by the levitating spell keeping Dalaran afloat, the winter trade noreaster blowing hundreds of feet above the forest chilled us a bit.

Bolde and I didn't care. We wanted to have our picnic anyway, though Bolde had to coax me out of from under the bear skins I keep in my flat on Aranda Street, east of Runeweaver Square. Even with those, I keep 4 braziers conjured and blazing at all times. It drives Bolde insane. He doesn't like the heat. Humans, I think, are a bit better acclimated to the cold then we Sin'dorei. Eversong is always sunny. Bolde is from the Alteracs, and after that he lived in Lordaeron before it fell, and after that, the old Dalaran. He actually enjoys the cold.

But we'd been meaning to do it since before...a lot of things. I couldn't remember when we'd agreed to it, but it must have been over a year ago. There were so many problems. So many things keeping us apart. But there was no better time than now.

So I unrolled my carpet and gave it to him, told him the incantations to get it flying and direct it. Harkostrasz down from the spire stables overlooking Krasus's Landing. Harko seems to enjoy hanging out with the Wyverns and Gryphons. I would not expect this from a dragonkin, and I've asked him about it, but the drakes are of fewer words than their more mature counterparts.

It was rather funny watching Bolde wrangle this carpet into carrying him over onto one of the floating masses to east of Dalaran, and eat some real food. Harko carried the food and wine in his claws. Bolde could barely manage to even keep himself on the carpet, let alone hold the thing rigid and flat enough to keep the food from being scattered about the forest floor below Dalaran. And I didn't want to conjure anything to eat. Unless you were an absolute master of conjuration, real food tasted better. Bolde did manage to maneuver himself into a sort of between his legs, so that he was both mounted as though it were horse he had to lay almost face down on. Ha!

We chose a big hovering boulder that didn't seem to be doing too much rotating and staying level, and laid everything out. Harko took to doing laps around the city while we waited. The food was delicious, and the view was spectacular. In the distance, the crystals of the thicket chimed against each other, their music faintly audible over the wind even as far away as we were. It sparkled like a million diamonds.

Bolde and I said nothing to each other for a few moments while we drank and ate. I wanted to say more, but it was difficult. I could not think of what to say to him at times. Both he and I had been with other companions here and there, and we had not been without jealousy. But spending so much time away from each other, it wasn't that. It was that, after so long- years actually, now I'd thought about it- it still felt new. We'd met four years ago in Deadwind Pass, when I'd received a mysterious missive calling me to Karazahn, from what I would later find out was the Violet Eye.

He was already there, though not working directly for the Violet Eye. I'd thought he was another of the dislodged spirits roaming the catacombs beneath the town surrounding the tower, and was about to incinerate him with a scorching blast of fire. He'd counterspelled me and went about scratching in the dirt with his instruments that the gnome Zizzy Arcfire had built for him (I would later meet her brother in the Exchange.) .

It was a staggeringly strong counter, or so I'd thought at the time. Of course I was much less of a spellcaster then, but it had knocked the wind out of me. When I recovered, I asked what he was doing down there. He'd told me, without even looking up, that he was trying to find equilibrium points on the ley lines, that below Karazahn they were complete mess. The Kirin Tor needed this information because they were thinking of using a massively powerful set of spells to move Dalaran. I laugh now when I think of how I hadn't believed him. My formal elven sensibilities caused me to take umbrage at what I thought was his sarcasm, since it seemed so outrageous.

The Violet Eye asked him to stay and investigate the tower. At first he seemed aloof, preoccupied with his work. My people were a courteous and ceremonial one, and I thought him rude. But I hadn't been out of Silvermoon very long then. In the camp outside of the tower a few days later, he'd asked me how the Sin'dorei had learned to pull the arcane energies into our bodies directly, without an incantation or conduit, particularly since the origin of this ability was demonic. When I corrected him and said that they'd had little to do with each other, and how we actually did it, and what the fel magics had done to our bodies and our minds, he listened, without judgment. When he spoke, his voice was without admonishment or disgust. He believed that not all of us were so far gone. He spoke about it with knowledge far beyond even what some other elves could muster, let alone human. He was obsessed with the science of magic in all its forms, like I was.

The Violet Eye sent us into Karazahn to investigate, with others. Working with him was inspiring. He showed me a trick actually. It seemed the ley lines were arranged in such a way that enormous arcane potential was stored at certain hotspots, and these were probably what was producing the odd phenomena and visions. They could also produce odd kinematic patterns in small objects with the right stimulus. In the stables he told me to feel around for where I felt the magic potential to be strongest. I highlighted it with a ring of fire, and he shot an arcane bolt from his wand into it. The hay scattered about the ground formed stick figure animals, which jumped through the hoop of fire. Neither of us had intended for this. It simply happened. It was short-lived, and had nothing to do with anyone's work directly. But it was amazing.

Karazahn had many eldritch dangers lurking around every corner, which have become famous by now, and not all of which any of us understood. but somehow, we knew that we could trust each other from the first moments of our acquaintance. We talked endlessly, to the annoyance of the other members of our teams, about the nuances of this spell or that, how that incantation interact with this ritual at that hotspot. Even in the face of death we wondered at the magic behind and within everything in that mysterious tower.

Later, after the demons had been defeated, we explored the tower together, alone, hoping to find some artifact to take with us. Perhaps to learn more about Medivh's magic, divine something of the past in the tower, or simply to commemorate our time together. Really it was just to be near each other for a bit longer. Nothing was found worth keeping. Instead, we made love in Medivh's library that night.

But now that we actually had some peace, some time, it was surprising hard to know what to say.

The Infinite Dragonflight

Okay.

I think it is safe to infer that the Infinite Dragonflight was created by the Old Gods and they are part of their plan to escape, in some form or another. They are almost certainly corrupted bronze dragons.

What do we know?

1) The Old Gods have been trying to bust out of Azeroth since at least the War of the Ancients. They got Deathwing to create the Demon Soul, and manipulated things so that it fell in to Malfurion Stormrage's hands, blowing up the portal and eventually the world in the Sundering. Azshara also created the Naga (herself included) in a pact with the Old God.
2) The Old Gods have been constantly manipulating events to get things that they want. Some people theorize that Deathwing was the real conspirator behind the destruction of Draenor, as a test run for the Cataclysm, which is supposed to do what the Sundering didn't do. They are always driving people mad.
3) The Old God C'Thun made war with the Brood of Nozdormu in both Wars of the Shifting Sands, along with the night elves in the first and the rest of Azeroth in the second.
4) Even the bronze dragonflight does not know the origins of infinite dragonflight or what their purpose is.

Now the infinite dragonflight has no clear explanation of their origin, but we get some hints.

In Wrath of the Lich King, Chromie, Ambassador of the Bronze Dragonflight, sends players on a quest to take a powerful artifact to the Bronze Dragonshrine in order to divine the true identity of the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight. Instead of the leader being revealed, players reveal Nozdormu himself. While this is shrugged off as merely being interesting by Chromie, it blatantly suggests that Nozdormu himself is responsible for the Infinite Dragonflight.

It is unknown at this time whether Norzdormu is the leader, and it is also unknown what, if anything, would lead him to this fate. Why would an Aspect suddenly go from carefully guarding the events and happenings of time, to trying to disrupt them? Why, he’d have to be…mad.
(shades of grey)

Finally, we know that Nozdormu is away on some kind of quest and that's why we don't see him in the Caverns of Time. In the War of the Ancients trilogy, Krasus tells us that Nozdormu knows how he will meet his demise, and he check out what he says to Krasus in Day of the Dragon:

Nozdormu knows he's going to do something bad. Perhaps he will be corrupted like Neltharion and do some crazy stuff like disrupt timelines. We also know that you have to save a bronze dragon from the Infinite Corruptor in order to get your bronze drake mount.

Where have we seen them show up?

Now. Let all of that marinate in your brain for a moment and consider when players have to intervene to stop the Infinite Dragonflight from altering the flow of time.

• Escape from Durnholde. They are attempting to stop Thrall from escaping his internment camp.
• Opening of the Dark Portal. The infinite are trying to stop Medivh from opening the Dark Portal, allowing the Orcish Horde to enter Azeroth and begin the First War.
• Culling of Stratholme. Interfering with a turning point in Arthas's journey to Northrend to become the Lich King.

Why would the Old Gods want to interfere with each of these events? Think about their results. Thrall escapes from Durnholde, and later becomes the leader of the New Horde. The New Horde which arose out of the ashes of the Orcish Horde. The Orcish Horde came to Azeroth through the Dark Portal. This is the same New Horde that was heavily involved in the second War of the Shifting Sands, which vanquished C'thun. C'thun who was imprisoned by the Bronze Dragonflight. Coincidence? I think not.

Especially when you consider the repeated references to some specific plan, or to a master, or to ensuing choas, which the Old Gods love.

Aeonus in Opening of the Dark Portal:

• The time has come to shatter this clockwork universe forever! Let us no longer be slaves of the hourglass! I warn you: those who do not embrace the greater path shall become victims of its passing! (It is worth noting that this quote was partially stolen from Medivh...)
• No one can stop us! No one!
• One less obstacle in our way!
• We will triumph.. It is only a matter...of time.

Temporus, in Opening of the Dark Portal:

• My death means ... little.

Chrono Lord Deja, in Opening of the Dark Portal:

• Time ... is on our side.

Epoch Hunter, in Escape from Durnholde:

• Ah, there you are. I had hoped to accomplish this with a bit of subtlety, but I suppose direct confrontation was inevitable. Your future, Thrall, must not come to pass and so...you and your troublesome friends must die!
• Thrall will remain a slave. Taretha will die. You have failed.
• No!...The master... will not... be pleased.

Infinite Corruptor

• How dare you interfere with our work here!
• My work here is finished.

And the Culling of Stratholme. Why would the Old Gods want to thwart Arthas? Easy. Stratholme was a turning point for Arthas on his road to becoming the new Lich King. Remember that the old Lich King was drawing him there because the power of the Frozen Throne was severely waning. The infinite dragonflight simply attempts to kill him, rather than turn him from his path. So with Arthas dead, and the old one's power waning, the Scourge may be defeated much more easily as time goes on. There is no new Scourge invasion to draw the combined military might of Azeroth to Northrend on a counteroffensive. Why is this important? No one discovers the Secrets of Ulduar.

And even if they did, only the Alliance would be able to do anything about it, seeing as how the Infinites would have tripped up the New Horde's formation.

What does this mean?

This is interesting for several reasons:

Old God Synergy

It implies that the OGs are working together, at least in some minimal capacity. Previously we had not heard of this. C'thun was the problem of the Bronzes, yet by killing Arthas, you are aiding Yogg-Saron. Perhaps they work together, perhaps they do not. It seems reasonable for them to understand situations where what is good for one of them is also good for all of them. If no one discovers the Secrets of Ulduar, no one kills Yogg. More Old Gods executing sinister plans to divide and menace the mortals of Azeroth is better than less. Once they regain control, who knows who friendly they will be to each other.

Thrall is a threat.

There is a strong interest in Thrall. This may not mean anything in terms of the way the Infinite see things, but for us, notice that they tried to stop the Dark Portal only after we saw Thrall to safety. Failing at that point, they had to go earlier. They would like to avoid altering the timeline too much to avoid unexpected results, so they play as conservative as they can.

This confirms (if this theory is correct) that Thrall is going to be a major figure in the defense of Azeroth against the Old Gods, as was recently discussed at Blizzcon.

Thrall is one of the few orcs out there who have blue eyes -- a sign of great destiny, much as golden eyes and antlers signify the same among night elves. It's been assumed all these years that Thrall's destiny lay in leading the Horde ... but what if that's not actually the case at all? What if Thrall is part of something much, much larger than this? In response to a question regarding whether or not we would be taking out some of the other dragon Aspects in the same way we took out Malygos, Metzen responded that future patches would introduce story development in which the dragon family would have to get involved, that there would be a big battle, and that "they [the Aspects] will perform the function for which they were created." The specific question posed was "How will the [dragon] family and Thrall pull this [Deathwing's defeat] off?"

Then Metzen gave us another seriously interesting hook. He asked, "What aspect is missing from the family?" After some silence, he responded with Deathwing, the Earth Aspect. Earth -- and the family of Aspects is broken and has been broken ever since Deathwing's betrayal during the Sundering. The implication here is that someone needs to step up and take the place of the Earth Warder ... and who better to do this than a shaman who is possibly more powerful than any living creature on Azeroth? Or as Metzen put it, "Perhaps that's a way our boy Thrall can distinguish himself, down the line, in helping to bring the family back together for the big win."

Thrall is also currently in Draenor learning to fix the broken elements. They got broken thanks to the efforts of Deathwing, according to a fairly sound theory I've run across. Even if it isn't true, now Deathwing is trying to do something similar here on Azeroth, and what Thrall is learning from what happened to Draenor's shattering will help him fix Azeroth. The inference here is clear. Thrall is a problem they tried to fix in the Caverns of Time twice. That means they couldn't defeat him in the future. Thrall, I guess, has not nearly exhausted his badass potential.

War of the Ancients Planned CoT instance

The Old Gods were responsible for the Demon Soul, which destroyed the portal summoning Sargeras, causing the Sundering. The Old Gods wanted to escape their prisons beneath the Earth, yet only C'thun seems to have been able to do it. That says to me the Sundering didn't quite go the way they planned. Or maybe they wanted the Demon Soul to be used for something else. We don't know. It may be like Mount Hyjal, where we don't even see the Infinite Dragonflight. But I wouldn't bet on that.

Nozdormu

With this guy we get some interesting stuff. He knows he's going to be a problem for the other dragons later in life. He also cannot avoid this. But he also knows. Perhaps that gift/curse of knowledge means that he will be able to act in some way, some sacrificial way, to prevent the looming crises. Especially because Chris Metzen said it was badass. And as we all know, everything badass in time travel involves knowledge of the future and going back in time to influence things in the future that prevent/cause your own death. And I don't know if he has fallen victim to the Old God whispers, but Neltharion did, and some speculate that Malygos did too, thanks to Yogg, after he regained his sanity. But maybe the Infinite Dragonflight has some hidden purpose we're unware of.

We Have Bigger Problems Than Deathwing

I've been thinking about Deathwing. Certainly, he is a fearsome enemy. I can feel that he's coming, the Kirin Tor agree with me. But something else is happening. Allow me to meander a bit. For some reason, I found myself thinking of Velen. It's hard to know how to feel about him. He redeemed us at the Sunwell, but...let's just say Sin'dorei and Dranei have not gotten along so well. Knowing his history, leading the draenei from world to world fleeing the Legion, and how they ended up here. But, together we defeated Ki'jaeden. So, why are the draenei still here? Especially if they serve the Alliance.

Then I heard of Velen's prophecy. That Azeroth would be the stage for the coming battle of Light vs. the Darkness. And I wondered what is so special about Azeroth.


(Similarly to how Ilidan was the poster child of Burning Crusade and Outland was the new continent, but really the story was ultimately about the Legion trying to make a third invasion of Azeroth. The creative development team is a notorious bunch of foreshadowers. Lots of questlines and dialogue bits that don't make sense or go anywhere until 2 years later.)

Deathwing is a problem, but then I think of the problems we've already overcome. We defeated the Burning Legion yet again at the Sunwell, and now we've all but bested the Scourge, the runaway zeppelin of the Legion. Those were the major threats to Azeroth as a whole. Then whats the only thing left now: The Old Gods.

The Titans see something in us. They know that Azeroth will be the stage for the final war against Sargeras and the Legion. That's why Algalon was so astounded at our defeat of him. There is something uniquely resilient about Azeroth. Draenor was all but shattered by the forces that settled there. Other worlds Algalon himself has snuffed out without batting an eyelash, and that's probably nothing compared those the Legion has conquered and annihilated. Defeating Loken in the Halls of Lightning was what called Algalon to the planet. This was considered to be the sign that Azeroth wasn't working, and it was time to turn Azeroth off and turn it back on again. But we managed to stop this unfathomably powerful being. So Algalon was surprised. Something about this world was outside of their calculations, claims Algalon, something makes Azeroth special, and the Titans aren't sure what it is.

Think about the Legion and the Scourge, both of which were checked by us mere mortal Azerothians, the Legion, led by the great enemy of the Titans, Sargeras. We know (from Know Your Lore) that the Old Gods viewed the Old Gods as a problem, but they were unsure of whether they should destroy the life Azeroth to kill them. That says something is special about Azeroth, and the people here. There was a baby in that bathwater. And now, that's why Algalon returns to consult with his masters. He's told them that they've created something worth keeping here, and that's why the war is coming here.

That's where Deathwing and the Old Gods come in. Deathwing, terrible and awesome as his power might be, is really just their servant. All of his evil is due to their corruption, and they've been scheming to get out of their prisons for unfathomably many centuries now. We have bigger problems than Deathwing. The Old Gods are just using him as a pawn (more on this later). I can't see how it would be otherwise.

The Titans are interested in us now- they saw what we did with the previous evils, and they want to know how we'll handle this one that has been a conundrum for them thus far. They want to see how things play out on this little planet that could. So many worlds have been destroyed or corrupted- maybe here they finally got their experiment right. We, the denizens of this planet, just won't seem to die, even after we fell victim to the Curse of Flesh. And if we Azerothians prove our mettle yet again against this enemy that the Titans didn't quite know what do with, the great battle will begin. That's what Velen's prophecy meant- the Titans are coming back to make war with Sargeras and the Legion. Let's hope we're all alive to see it.

A note: Start updating WoWpedia. WoWWiki sucks now.

Maybe you have been noticing in the past few months that WoWiki has been featuring more and more ads, which in some cases have become quite obtrusive on the reading experience there. The obnoxious kind that play videos that eat up memory and CPU, and the kind that abruptly stretch out or otherwise cover up the stuff you want to look at. You know, the stuff that's not ads. Finally Wikia forced them to take on a really ugly skin, apparently, which, while not being completely unreadable, looked awful.

So they migrated all the pages over to a new site WoWpedia.org, which is hosted by Curse and has no ads. It's exact same information, it works, but far less annoying to read. So let's all edit that instead. Also, their layout is just a little better than the old one which is nice. They really want people to radically update WoWpedia.org because WoWwiki had a lot of outdated or incomplete information (which is just a necessary consequence of the fact that all editing of individual pages was by nature ad hoc). Particularly they point out class pages and specs.

You can also migrate your user account page by following the directions here. Then you can edit away. Look here to read the welcome to WoWpedia.com, for more information about it.

Something Dreadful This Way Comes

In the last post , I mentioned the disturbances around Azeroth- unusual earthquakes, fires, droughts, storms. Also, some sort of massive shift in the power of the ley lines, which seems to have strengthened my spellcasting, and others. I was just falling asleep last night after giving some divination lessons in the Sanctuary. Some of the energies of the repeated spell-casting demonstrations must have remained latent within me, because just as I was about go under, I was had a vision of the Destroyer.

It was too terrible, and vivid, to write off as simply a dream. This could only be some kind of warning about Deathwing.

Naturally, as I was in Dalaran, I consulted with my Kirin Tor brothers and sisters. I spoke much with the archmage Rhonin, and the mage Krasus, whom I’d heard had dealt directly with the black dragonflight. Krasus himself being a red dragon, was particularly concerned about it. They told me much of the history of his evil, and we talked at length on the subject of what the meaning of the images could mean.

Deathwing used to be Neltharion, Aspect of Earth, until the whispers of the Old Gods drove him insane. It was when his body became overwhelmed by the power of the Demon Soul- the one that destroyed the first Well of Eternity- that it began to erupt with lava and fire, the essence of which he was formerly the steward of in Azeroth. So he had had goblin fashion metallic plates and hammered them in to his very bone to hold his body together. (They also told me that what I saw was confusing to them. They’d thought that the plates on his body had already been applied over 10,000 years ago in the time of the War of the Ancients, which incidentally, the two had been there for, by goblins. But those in the vision did not look like goblins. Who were they?) This is what I was seeing, they said. As they do so he slams into the walls of his cavern, oddly causing the earth to shake and break. And he finally makes the world break when he emerges to reign fire.

And they told me the stories of the twilight dragon flight in Grim Batol, which I’d already faced in the Ruby Sanctum. It was indeed a brazen attack and a massacre in that place. Halion, the Twilight Dragon in command that we defeated, called himself the Herald of the Deathwing.

And his words:

Pain. Agony. My hatred burns through the cavernous deeps. The world heaves with my torment. Its wretched kingdoms quake beneath my rage. But at last the whole of Azeroth will break, and all will burn beneath the shadow of my wings.

To me he seems...vengeful, full of spite. Unsurprising, but still...I do not quite understand where his hatred comes from. From what they told me, all of his pain and agony and torment physically are of his own doing. But then, he is corrupted by the Old Gods. Tormented by them in his mind, long before he inflicted this pain on himself, perhaps. I almost pity him. I can’t say that I know what that is like. And now he wants to take out his fate on the rest of us. I sense this time of peace after the Lich King’s fall will be over very soon.

Odd...in that way he is much like our newly old foe, Arthas, wanting the world to suffer because he did. Yet, in some way, I fear this more. Arthas wanted something in particular from us. He had a story to tell us. He wanted us to understand him, and wanted our pity, twisted though his methods and ruminations were. He asked the spirit of his father “Is it over?” just before he took his last breath. In moments of reflection, I sometimes believe that Arthas wanted to be defeated. From his words and his appearance, all I can tell is that Deathwing simply wishes to live up to his long-held title of Destroyer. And make no mistake- he has the power to do it.

All three of us, sitting here floating above the world, sensed the unmistakably ominous portents of recent events and my vision. All we were able to figure out was that none of this was good.

The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm

Something is happening. Thrall has sensed a disturbing change in the elements...there have been strange earthquakes, not severe ones, but worrisome. They're occuring everywhere. The Horde, and the Alliance, we're butting heads more than ever. And I can sense that the ley-lines are being disturbed. Many casters, and indeed even many non-casters, have felt radical shifts in the amount of power they're able to summon. What power I am able to summon with my own casting has increased dramatically, seemingly coinciding with these other disturbances, and without any effort on my part. Interesting. The wars in the north are over, but the peace feels...I don't know...precarious?

When I was in Shattrath Voren'thal taught me, when in doubt, start scrying.

(I went out to Barnes and Noble the other day, not actually knowing when the lastest Loremaster must-have, The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm was going to drop, but remembering it being sometime in October. Turns out I was one day early, and they had copies in the back which were not even available on the shelves yet, and they got me one.

We, including both Barnes and Noble, are awesome. I got a 36-page headstart. One thing I'm going to do is probably exactly two weeks I'm going to update Wowwiki with the plot, as I have been meaning to do with other novels. Two weeks is the general blackout time for new novels so as to give people a chance to actually read the book. But there's a woeful poverty of lore in the articles. They usually feature only the plot synopsis on the back.

I wrote most of the article for Stormrage. That was an interesting book. More on that later.

Anyway, I am currently reading The Shattering. Pretty awesome so far. Won't spoil anything at least until I finish it, but lets just sat in the first few chapters they are getting into some stuff that I really would like to know about, and talk about...so yeah.)

A Hero Will Rise.

There's been some talk about what, if any a new hero class should be. There won't be one added in Cataclysm. But, I am feeling the new class vibe for whatever the next expansion will be. I have a theory or two on what the story of that expansion will actually be. I'll get into that later.

I think Blizzard does a reasonably good job of propping the classes up with a good amount of lore. The introductory Death Knight experience as part of the Scourge and all the way to the Battle for Light's Hope was fucking awesome. (What is that artifact under Light's Hope, anyway?) I didn't even really enjoy the death knight class all that much, because I started off as unholy, and at that time there were just too many damn buttons to press for unholy. But I figured that was the most magic-based and my character was supposed to be a high-elf, the sister of Luqa, while she was alive. So I abandoned it and later returned to spec frost, which is a lot of fun. But I digress.

Whatever hero class Blizzard adds, there will be some strong narrative focus on them to support their addition to the game. In the current 3 expansion, our antagonists represent pretty much all the major threats to Azeroth there are. The Burning Legion invading, we dealth with some aftermath on Draenor, prevented. The Scourge we thwarted after they attacked. Cataclysm, we will have to survive a radically world-changing event, which is so grand in scale, the consequences will never be the same. But notice that each time an expansion drops, they've had to up the ante. First it was on some other world, with the possibility of spreading to ours. Then we had to excise the evil from the world that threatened to cause trouble. Now the trouble is happening whether we like it or not, shit is going down and we have to deal with it. You could conceivably imagine that some people would not have even noticed that Kil'Jaeden's summoning in BC or even the war with the Scourge were even happening. Cataclysm affects everybody.


The best bet for the next hero class will be the one which is most equipped from a lore standpoint. How can we best equip players to handle a ridiculously epicly awesome world shattering threat? Guardian.

Since we already have a tanking and physical (mostly) DPS class, we should get a magical and healing class that uses purely arcane magic to heal and shield (as opposed to nature or holy magic). But what is a Guardian?

Guardians of Tirisfal were a succession of immensely powerful mortal champions who were imbued with the power of the world's greatest mages, The Council of Tirisfal, to secretly combat the Burning Legion's incursions into Azeroth. Worked for about 1000 years, but then it turned out that the last, and greatest one, sort of was part of the Burning Legion. So they disbanded. But now that [insanely powerful evil] is threatening to [do something to terrible], its up to the players yet again to put in some work and stop [whoever].

My guess is that the Burning Legion is going to make a return as the next major enemy. I think this for a lot of reasons I won't go into now, but Sargeras himself, or an avatar, might show up. The specific purpose of the Guardians were to defeat the Legion. Aegwynn herself actually killed an avatar of Sargeras in battle, although he ended up having the last laugh. But even if the Legion doesn't return, they're still powerful and cool stronly lore-based class.

Who will train them? Aegwynn is dead, but as we have seen many times in the Warcraft universe, that should hardly present a problem for her to return. In fact, Medivh, her son and successor as Guardian, was killed, and then she resurrected him. He hasn't been seen in his human form since the end of the Second War in Warcraft III. But he can and does morph into a raven from time to time. Outside of his former home at the tower of Karazhan in Deadwind pass, it is said that a raven can be seen sometimes, endlessly circling the tower's upper reaches. There is also Medivh's son with Garona, Med'an, who has been made into a Guardian by the New Council of Tirisfal, about which I know very little. I'll be getting on that soon. All of these people are possibilities.

What would be really cool is if Medivh himself were involved in the training. The same pep talk that you get from Arthas at the opening of the Death Knight intro, we could get one from Medivh. The introduction could involve, like the Battle of Light's Hope, a massive event with a bunch of Guardians saving Azeroth from something. I'm envisioning a massive number of Guardian players in Dalaran or Crystalsong, perhaps defending Azeroth from a slew of portals being opened up into the Nether, and through them flowing hordes of demons that are in dire need of some slaying, and finally another Avatar of Sargeras. Or perhaps some great battle higher up over the planet itself.

And this expansion's final boss will culminate in a raid instance where the heroes of Azeroth, some of whom will be badass Guardians enter the Twisting Nether to defeat not just another avatar, but Sargeras himself, with the help of the Titans.

You could also have the option to convert one of your characters into a Guardian, and take abilities as a Guardian based on your previous class, since the New Order of Tirisfal, or Medivh, or whoever, wants an army with very diverse strengths.

See? The game stuff is flowing straight out the story (off the top of my head) :). But the possibilities are endless.