Taliesin & Evitel Narrative Interview with Maria Hamilton - Dalaran, Xal'atath, and Azeroth

The War Within Posted 2024/04/18 at 10:59 PM by Archimtiros

A Story in Several Parts

The world soul saga is a very large story to tell, with a lot of pieces from previous expansions. Telling it as a trilogy allows each expansion to have a satisfying individual story, while progressing through the overall story arc.

It's new for them, but creates an opportunity for better pacing and foreshadowing, since they know what story is coming ahead of time... though they're very busy working on three expansions at one time!

They'll still have an engaging and entertaining story in each expansion, but it will also set up elements to resolve later over a longer period of time. They're planning to provide the expansions faster than in the past, so it might not necessarily take six years to get through all of them, but the hope is that building it as a trilogy causes players to look forward to what comes next. They want to get the pacing right.

The biggest challenge is continuity, which is to be expected. Coordinating such a large team means a lot of meetings to make sure everyone is communicating and on the same page.

The art team is already going nuts on the third expansion, The Last Titan, creating phenomenal creature and environmental concept art. Meanwhile, the world builders are very hard at work on Midnight, building maps for other designers to start building quests and spawning creatures. The narrative designers want to make sure they're building spaces that can be used to tell the stories they have planned, and sometimes they all have to adapt if plans change.

Maria does know the ending of the World Soul Saga already, but she's not telling us! They know where they're starting, they know what stakes they're setting up, and they know where they're ending. They already have a story backbone established to introduce players to new enemies and friends, and it's all been plotted out.

Raising the Stakes

The World Soul Saga starts off with the Fate of Dalaran to ensure players understand the risk, who the enemies are, and why we're pursuing them. The full introduction available at launch (not prepatch) will provide a lot more detail than the more obvious parts we've figured out so far.

There were lengthy conversations about how this narrative compares to other controversies such as the Burning of Teldrassil or Battle for Lordaeron, and how players would react. They don't want to repeat those feelings, but think the risk is worth it, since the hit isn't on any one faction or race - we all lose when Dalaran goes down.

We should expect more of the same from the rest of the World Soul Saga - anything could happen!

Xal'atath, Player Choice, and Ambiguity

While Season of Discovery has been teasing a secret shadowy figure Maria is not sure how much overlap there is with The War Within. Shadow Priests are already familiar with her, but the team will be making sure that other players also understand who she is in the upcoming expansion. She's up to something, and it's very definite, but players aren't going to have a clear idea of what for a little while - that's part of the mystery of her involvement.

Blizzard is trying to follow a philosophy of not needing to play other games or read supplementary material to understand what's going on.

Throughout the course of The War Within, you might get some foreshadowing and learn a little bit about her motives, but Maria cryptically states that she isn't sure giving players a choice whether to support Xal'atath or not would actually matter.

They like player agency and choice that has impact on the game world. It's obviously a little hard to do in a shared world rather than a single player RPG, and there's always a risk that the playerbase could diverge in a way that makes it difficult to bring everyone back to the same page. It's something they think about a lot.

The Earthen are more different from regular Dwarves than most people realize. There's an surge ability that's really cool and the story between their three different sub-groups offers an interesting difference in perspectives.

Some ambiguity in the Amirdrassil ending cinematic, in which the dragonflights are re-empowered, has raised speculation that Azeroth may not actually be a Titan... but Maria cannot comment on that.

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Comment by skairipathats pretty cool that they already have concept arts for Last Titan. Super excited for the entire Worldsoul SagaComment by wisedadaCool!Comment by SoeroahThere are three lines in particular Maria said that make me really excited for the upcoming story.

One of them was right at the end.

It's really good to know they already know the ending, and this time they're trying not to have another WoD diversion. If they play their cards right, and I hope they do, the Saga could be one of the most fun new WoW stories in a long time. Potentially the most funnest one in the MMO*.

I just really hope the actual experience of playing the game conveys that story well.. if we could get more Legion style cutscenes and BfA style pre-rendered cinematics, it'd go a long way. A lot of the recent "cool" moments in Shadowlands and Dragonflight have been somewhat tempered by frankly basic looking in-game cutscenes and pacing. Moments that should have been epic or even just fun to see were kinda spoiled, for me, by looking like they weren't given polishing time.

*"Fun" does not equal "best."Comment by LutherCZDalaran isnt a neutral city. It rejoined the Alliance. And is still a member. The council never changed its status.
Propably the only Alliance city that got destroyed twice.Comment by SaruyaAzeroth isn't a Titan IMO, she's a nascent First One.

Or something similar. Too powerful, sought after and important to be just a Titan IMO.Comment by LintianDalaran isnt a neutral city. It rejoined the Alliance. And is still a member. The council never changed its status.
Propably the only Alliance city that got destroyed twice.Comment by Brimzthats pretty cool that they already have concept arts for Last Titan. Super excited for the entire Worldsoul Sagamajor patchesComment by MortimerFolchertthats pretty cool that they already have concept arts for Last Titan. Super excited for the entire Worldsoul Sagamajor patchesComment by NulgarI bet Brimz never watches the first movie/episode of a series.Comment by orca2017this video gives me so much hope that they learned alot of lessons and since microsoft has taken over they have the money and tools and the feedom to really do a great job with the game now.. and the staff..Comment by FlasKamelReally nice interview! They seem to have the right attitude going into the Worldsoul Saga.Comment by Anarch12911No apologies for the lore in Dragonflight and Shadowlands?Comment by Anarch12911No apologies for the lore in Dragonflight and Shadowlands?Comment by Edgysanthats pretty cool that they already have concept arts for Last Titan. Super excited for the entire Worldsoul Sagamajor patchesComment by RandykroweNo apologies for the lore in Dragonflight and Shadowlands?Comment by 0AlorethThe Earthen are more different from regular Dwarves than most people realize.Comment by TehraI hope the jailer comes back. He was such a compelling character. I want him to return full force!Comment by ImionaSo she confirmed Expansions will be released quicker.Comment by shmohawkeNo apologies for the lore in Dragonflight and Shadowlands?Comment by NulgarNo apologies for the lore in Dragonflight and Shadowlands?So she confirmed Expansions will be released quicker.