The next expansion of World of Warcraft is not out yet, but the end has already been leaked. And that has sparked a lot of discussion.
Although the release of World of Warcraft Midnight is still a few months away, many players can already join the beta. However, this also means that data miners are digging deep into the game data and finding things that might have been better kept hidden. Because the end of the Midnight campaign has largely been read, it raises some new questions. How the conflict ends leaves many puzzled.
Spoiler warning: This article discusses the story of World of Warcraft Midnight and how the initial conflict comes to an end. If you don’t want to know how the story surrounding the Sunwell develops, you might want to stop reading.
What has been found? Ian Bates, who many may still know from the past as the “Red Shirt Guy” who repeatedly peppered the developers with questions at BlizzCon, often talks about the story of World of Warcraft on social media. Since some data miners have managed to extract critical details about the end of the campaign surrounding the Sunwell from game data, there is much reason for discussion.
The end of the original campaign, which is the launch content of Midnight, is summarized by data miners, even though it still includes some speculation:
Xal’atath succeeds and corrupts the Sunwell, which then becomes the “Twilight Well”. After the raid “March on Quel’Danas”, the Blood Elves, High Elves, Night Elves, Void Elves, and Nightborne come together to heal the Twilight Well by offering different sacrifices to the well.
Thalyssra: A fruit of the Arcan’dor tree
Umbric: A Void Crystal
Liadrin: Uncertain, but she has an animation for dropping something into the well
Vereesa: A crown (possibly Anasterian’s)
Shandris: A vial of Moonwell waterThis creates a new well: The Duskwell, which possibly shines in rainbow colors
The leaks largely coincide with what was previously found by Bellular and others in data mining about the story finale.
Rainbows and quick fixes are received rather mixed
This is how the community discusses: On various social media platforms, like X or the WoW subreddit, these leaks are being actively discussed. Many express skepticism and criticize that “the power of friendship” would save the day again or that major consequences, such as the corruption of the Sunwell, would be resolved relatively quickly.
- “They win with the crappy ‘The Power of Friendship’ finale.” – I_am_not_creative
- “The Power of Friendship creates a literal rainbow” – The_Kebe
- “I’m not bothered by the whole ‘Warcraft is friendship’ stuff, they have been doing this ‘together we are strong’ thing for over 15 years. But at least make the story coherent.
It seems dumb that we experience a shock where the Sunwell is corrupted, only to have it resolved 5 minutes later. What I’m seeing reminds me more of a Saturday morning cartoon, where the heroes are in panic 95% of the time, and through the power of plot armor, the heroes win and the villain shouts: ‘Next time I’ll get you!'” – zangetsen - “A damn rainbow Duskwell from the power of elvish friendship, lmao, we are basically My Little Pony with this stuff.” – Wonderful_Bed_5854
Others point out, however, that every story reads oddly when it is summarized into a few bullet points. It depends on the execution and presentation in the quests whether this solution ultimately feels good. Also, some factors, like the rainbow color, are still mainly speculation. It could just be a spell effect, while the well is being purified by different magical forces – which have different colors in WoW.
Cortyn says: Even though I can understand the criticism that the Sunwell is first corrupted and then immediately purified again, I find it fitting for the story. Because it is already clear that Xal’atath likely only needs the “Twilight Well” for a short while to achieve her goal. That the well then needs to be purified makes perfect sense – because such a huge power of the Void cannot simply be left standing in the middle of the kingdom of Quel’thalas, where all blood elves and the land would subsequently fall into corruption.
Also, I don’t necessarily see the purification of the well through various sacrifices as an “Through the Power of Friendship” ending – but it aligns with how powers in WoW have always been renewed. Each individual Moonwell is created through sacrifices, the Dragon Soul requires the sacrifice of several, and even more recently (like Dragonflight) this has been an essential part of the story.
Of course, it ultimately depends heavily on how exactly the quests play out and how the characters behave. But judging the story as silly or inappropriate based on a few leaks might be something to hold off on. Because it’s probably not really “the great power of friendship”, but simply the necessity that allows this purification. I am, however, also quite optimistic and waiting for the actual finale, because with the new Immersangwald, Blizzard has outdone themselves – and that is a good sign for now.
