A leak has caused a stir: World of Warcraft Voidstorm. Much of it sounds good – but can this really be the next WoW expansion?
There are only a few weeks left until Blizzard is likely to announce the next expansion of World of Warcraft. However, as is customary, the “leak season” has already begun. Alleged insiders are popping up everywhere revealing supposed details about the next expansion.
Even though these leaks often turn out to be nonsense in retrospect, there is often a kernel of truth in them – and besides, it’s simply amusing to engage in some “what if?” scenarios.
Therefore, today we take a look at the biggest (alleged) leak so far: World of Warcraft Voidstorm.
Where does the leak come from? Like many leaks of the past, the “Voidstorm” idea appeared in the mmo-champion forum – that’s almost become a bit of a tradition. The original author of the post has since been banned from the site, a practice that has also become common.
World of Warcraft: Voidstorm – What it is supposed to include
But let’s first talk about what the expansion is purportedly supposed to be about. It states:
Adventurers will travel to the South Sea to seek ways to end Queen Azshara’s Voidstorm. In the center of the storm, Iridikron flies with the wrath of Galakrond. Wherever he goes, darkness follows him. The planet is torn apart and slowly destroyed by the immense forces of the assault.
Meanwhile, the soul of Azeroth stirs under a terrible nightmare. The Herald is nearly successful in awakening it and turning it into a terrible manifestation of shadow that will end all life.
The World Shaman, Thrall, returns to save Azeroth from destruction. Alongside the Earthen Ring, he leads the heroes of Azeroth into the elemental planes, before ultimately advancing to the core of the world to eradicate the corruption.
This is the last expansion before Azeroth is reshaped and before we discover the other side of the world.
At least story-wise, this seems plausible. Both Azshara and Iridikron have allied themselves with the powers of the Void. This is evident not only in cinematics in the game, but also from some texts that can be found in the game world.
Additionally, the appearance of Thrall is likely. After all, Thrall can already be seen on the “Key Art” for BlizzCon 2023. It seems very likely that he will play a significant role in the next addon, especially since it has now been confirmed that Chris Metzen (the original story writer and the voice of Thrall) has again assumed an important role in the WoW team.
Features of “Voidstorm”
The leak mentions the following features:
- Dragon riding returns, but your mounts will work in the air and underwater. You must unlock this piece by piece.
- Explore as many islands as you want with your own ship.
- Two new playable races. An underwater race at launch (name unknown) and the Ethereals as soon as we arrive at K’aresh. Both are neutral.
- Most content is now account-wide.
- No new classes or specializations, but now that most classes are available for all races, there are many new glyphs that change the appearance of spells. This looks great. One of them transforms the golden light of your Paladin spells into silver.
- The campaign with Thrall spans the entire expansion and takes place all over the world. This is not just a collection of quests, but also a really good story, with significant cutscenes and cinematics, unique rewards, and a lot of voice acting by Chris Metzen. You will meet the elemental lords, dragons, wild gods, and some ancient creatures you haven’t heard of before. At the end of it, you will see Azeroth in a whole new light.
Once again, it must be said that some of the features sound enticing and likely. Dragon riding is set to be a staple – this has already been confirmed by Blizzard. The quest line with Thrall also sounds logical, especially since Thrall is already featured on the cover of BlizzCon 2023.
Other things sound nice, but not necessarily likely. A glyph that changes the signature light of Paladins to silver would be inappropriate even for Paladins of the Silver Hand.
Overall, with the features, it’s all a “could be true” – and that’s what often makes the leaks credible and distinguishes a good fake from a bad one.
New Areas in “Voidstorm”
According to the leak, there should be a total of 6 new areas.
- The Undermine: A large underground zone primarily inhabited by goblins with a good sense for profit.
- Tel’Abim: A tropical island with beaches and lush primeval forests. While it looks idyllic, the island hides some dark secrets. And bananas.
- Hiji: The fortress of the Bloodsail Buccaneers, sometimes known as “Plunder Isle”. All pirates from Azeroth gather here to embark on a new mission under the captain “Nightsquall”. The island was once tinged with Pandaren flare, but has now become the fortress of pirates – although some ruins still tell of its origins.
- Unnamed underwater zone: An unnamed area that was destroyed during the Cataclysm. It was once the home of the Darkspear, but now it is largely submerged in the sea. Naga have settled here, and the Titan facility “Ulgaz” is said to be here as well.
- K’aresh: The ruined remnants of the world where the Ethereals once lived. This area will only be available in a later patch.
- Unnamed islands: There are many smaller islands in the sea. These are sometimes procedurally generated and are part of an endgame system.
Most of the areas sound plausible. Only the “procedurally generated islands” seem a bit out of place here. Blizzard has already tried something like that with the Island Expeditions, and randomly generated rooms were also used in Torghast or recently in the Vault of Zskera.
Whether Blizzard can expand this into a “core feature” after the possibilities have so far been quite limited remains to be doubted.
Voidstorm: Nice idea, but unlikely
How likely is this leak? To be honest, probably not very likely. On one hand, the leak promises quite a few concepts that seem unlikely. Especially the “procedurally generated islands” are likely something Blizzard will distance itself from after the failure of the Island Expeditions.
The most important factor, however, is that Mike Ybarra, the current president of Blizzard, has already made a brief statement about the next expansion. He simply said “No Pirates”. That alone contradicts this leak quite clearly.
On the other hand, WoW has proven with Dragonflight that it makes room for small details and finally responds to long-standing wishes of fans. Even if this “leak” turns out to be completely fabricated, it is certainly possible that we will still see some of these features.
Exact information will probably only be available at BlizzCon 2023 – that is, in early November.
