The World of Warcraft overrun by Murlocs instead of heroes. That’s apparently what we can expect to see in Dragonflight.
The reason the World of Warcraft looks the way it does today is primarily due to the rich history of the Warcraft universe. Countless conflicts, invasions by demons and other cosmic powers, massive wars, and mistakes in handling magic have shaped Azeroth. But what if some details in history had played out differently? That seems to be what Blizzard wants to explore with the new expansion Dragonflight, bringing a world where Murlocs have taken dominion. At least, that’s what it looks like.
What was found? During data mining, the folks at wowhead discovered some interesting maps that are supposed to be associated with a new feature. The most striking one is a map belonging to “Azmerloth.” It shows a map of the Dragonblight but with some concerning changes: all locations have been given a “Murloc name,” as you can see on the map:
A few examples of the renaming:
- From “Azjol Nerub” it became “Mrshy Blggrb”
- “Galakrond’s Rest” is now “Glrlurglokr”
- The “Wyrmrest Temple” becomes “Ergbrgls Flrgmrbbl”
- From “Icecrown” it simply becomes “Brrrrrgl”
What does this belong to? This is not entirely clear yet. So far, these maps have only been found in the game files and belong to a feature currently called “Grand Adventure Time” – but that could be just an internal name and not final. So far, this feature includes several maps that already exist in the game in one form or another. These include:
- The Black Empire (Ny’alotha)
- The Pandaren Revolution (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)
- War of the Sandstorms (Silithus)
- The Gnoll War (Elwynn Forest)
- Azmerloth (Dragonblight)
- Dawn of the Primalists (Dracthyr starting area)
What could this be? The most obvious guess is that this is a new time travel feature connected with the bronze dragons. Because the first four events (Black Empire, Pandaren Revolution, War of the Sandstorms, and the Gnoll War) are significant occurrences in the past of World of Warcraft. If just one of these events had played out differently, Azeroth would likely look very different today. It could be conceivable that characters will have the opportunity to experience these events in some sort of “flashback” – similar to the scenarios and stories back in Mists of Pandaria.
The story of “Azmerloth” or the “Dawn of the Primalists” could then be alternative timelines, where one of the events turned out differently – like Murlocs becoming the dominant, sentient species on Azeroth.
In any case, these stories already sound interesting, even though so far only a few maps about them are known. Let’s hope the coming weeks in the alpha and beta of Dragonflight will reveal more about it…
Also interesting: If you want to troll your teammates in Dragonflight, you practically have to play Dracthyr…
