The Dragonflight
Hey everyone,
I thought I’d write my own “Dragonflight” for funsies. This is a long one, so without further ado:
Cutscene: We see an enormous temple seemingly in the clouds that remind us of Wyrmrest. We hear a female voice which we recognize as Alexstrazsa.
“Dear siblings. Thank you all for joining me today, here.”
We get a closer camera shot, as she starts speaking; revealing a host of various races of Azeroth, clearly dragons in disguise. Very close to her stands Nozdormu, and just around them are Merithra, Kalecgos and Ebonhorn.
“Our existence has been intertwined with the world-soul Azeroth. We were born of her and thanks to the Titan’s blessing, we have become what we are today and defended Azeroth against those who would claim her. After the fall of the once-earth warder, we thought this purpose might have come to an end. However, recent events have proven otherwise. And after much discussion, we now believe that we were wrong to assume so in the first place. Mistaken or not, Azeroth needs us once again. ”
The camera pans through the characters and the dragons, showing their reactions. Some are suspicious, some nod and others seem upset.
“The rumours are true. Galakrond is back. We don’t have all the details, but our investigations led us to the thinned veil between Azeroth and the lands of Death. Another consequence of the mortal’s reckless actions. No matter, we have defended Azeroth from his evil once, we will do so again. While we, the aspects, lost some power in defeating Neltharion, we’ve been recovering. More importantly, each of us, aspect or not, is inherently powerful. We defeated him before reaching our full potential. He can not stand against the combined powers of us. Once he’s defeated, we will restore order to Azeroth and start her healing process.”
“Brother. I believe this part’s yours.” says Alex, turning to Nozdormu and he starts talking.
“The titans brought order where once there was chaos and they entrusted the aspects to take care of her. Over time, mortals arose. Natives, Titan creations turning into flesh and even ones from a different world… Some of us wanted to believe in the good in them (camera at a thoughtful Alex), even formed personal relations (camera at a very uncomfortable Kalecgos). My own flight relied on them to fight the Infinite Dragonflight.
But the truth is… they caused much more destruction and chaos than good and order. They murdered and enslaved our kind. They harvest Azeroth’s resources and even her very own essence for their short-sighted purposes as long as they are alive. They kill any creature that doesn’t accept their endless love for expansion, calling them monsters. They caused invasions of the Legion and the powers of Death. They… even killed an aspect. As misguided as Malygos might have been, challenging an Aspect is a serious show of power and can never be forgotten.
Despite our trust in the past, we have to face the fact that the mortals are not forces of Order, even when they assist the very creations of Titans or the Titans themselves. Most of the catastrophes they faced and called themselves heroes were caused by them in the first place. Let’s not forget that some of them were tainted by the curse of the Old Gods, others use disorderly fel powers and others aren’t even born of Azeroth.
We have to act when we have the chance. I do not need to remind any of you that my future is sealed. Every passing day brings us closer to Murozond taking over. Every passing day the mortals find new ways to become more powerful and risk Azeroth in bigger gambles for their schemes. And we’ll need the strength of all the dragons, all the dragonflights combined. We have to act as The Dragonflight.”
During his talk, we see flashes of the past. Alex chained by orcs, DK’s killing dragons, Arthas raising Sapphiron and Sindragosa, the sundering, the sword, Azerite-mining goblins and dwarves etc.
“And we can not allow that to happen anymore.” Alex takes over. “So let us fly together and defeat Galakrond. Once the monster is defeated, we will converse with the mortals and hopefully, they’ll see reason. For if they not, they shall face the fury of The Dragonflight!”
The Plot
So what happens is that the Dragonflights, on the Dragon Isles, have access to a number of old Titan facilities. These are among the first that the Titans created, including the temple above, where the aspects were empowered.
Nozdormu’s plan is to use these facilities (they are managed by Titan constructs and a handful of Dragons called The Forsworn — those who let go of normal lives to study Titans and their machines) to take over the “newer” ones (the ones we know of — and some that we didn’t). Then, Nozdormu plans to use them to bring order, but the details aren’t clear to anyone, not even himself for they need to spend time working on the machines to understand their capabilities first.
The Dragonflight don’t necessarily want to kill the mortals, especially not the natives. The cold, calculated Nozdormu is less selective but Alex and even the Arcane/Order-sided Kalecgos insist on sparing them. Alex wants them alive also for finding/strengthening her bonds with the cosmic Life force. While Nozdormu opposed using the Life force at first, the possibility of using the power to heal Azeroth sells the idea.
At least — that’s the plan. Unfortunately, they attack Galakrond and…fail miserably. Galakrond is empowered by the thinned veil between Azeroth and Shadowlands (the veil is now closed, but it wasn’t when he was raised… by who exactly and how? TBA) and butchers the dragons. Worse yet, he seems to have gained some sort of domination power as well and takes over some dragons, including Kalecgos. More surprisingly, Nozdormu falls in the battle. Alexstraza is mortally wounded. Ebonhorn tries to carry her and Galakrond attacks! Just at the last moment Chromie manages to get in between, do a time-trick to move Galakrond back and the three fly away. Alex’s eyes close while being carried and we realize she sees something, but can’t keep her eyes open. The camera suddenly moves to a character watching the fight from afar. Clearly, it is Wrathion.
Not only has the threat of Galakrond not ended, he now has access to the Titan facilities as Nozdormu was the most knowledgable one on them. Alex is persuaded that Wrathion’s behind this. And on top of all that, the Dragonflight is in disarray. The loss of so many for all dragons, the second loss of leaders for the Blues and the death of Nozdormu, who was supposed to be Murozond, create fear and confusion. Some dragons start blaming mortals, some blame the leaders, some fly away and others keep their loyalty.
In our adventures, we’ll revisit Shadowlands again. We’ll ask for the crown of wills from the Arbeiter but they will refuse, claiming it’s a big risk. We’ll ask Primus to help with breaking domination but he’ll claim his research won’t be useful in the material realm. Meanwhile, we’ll chase the renegade Wrathion with the help of Kirin-Tor. We’ll find out that Galakrond was raised by someone from the Shadowlands, suggesting Sylvanas might have done it (he was raised during Shadowlands)
Eventually, we’ll corner Wrathion and find out that he is on our side. He did not help because he knew the dragonflights had no chance and because he trusted no one. Apparently, there are many Nathrezim infiltrators that seem to be still active, still working on an end. Wrathion couldn’t find out what Denathrius’ angle on this is. But he trusts us and we start secretly discovering the infiltrators while acting unaware and feed them misinformation to uncover the real reasons.
We defeat Nozdormu thanks to help from the Bronze Dragonflight and capture him. Chromie uses Nozdormu’s unique disposition to use time magic! to revert the effects of domination — a trick that can’t be used for others, unfortunately.
Nozdormu informs us that Galakrond plans to use the Titan facilities to infuse Azeroth with death powers and force her to be born prematurely as a Death Titan and the only way to stop it is to use the machinery how they were intended: To apply Order.
Wrathion’s goal is to make Azeroth self-sufficient and independent of the cosmic forces. He dislikes the facilities use for “Order”. We go on an adventure with him and Brann into a Titan facility and we realize that Azeroth isn’t a “titan soul”, just a “world soul”. It was the Titans themselves that pushed her to become a “Titan Soul” but her fate isn’t decided yet. Magni joins, seemingly having difficulty keeping control, but accusing us of treachery. He is empowered by the facility and aided by the Titan construct. It seems hopeless… until a female figure appears and touches Magni’s forehead. Magni is surrounded by a diamond cocoon, which breaks after a second. We find out that it was Azeroth, barely finding the power within herself to break Magni so he can be her True Voice, without the Titan influence.
We find out that the original aspects were infused by titans when they were empowered. That’s why Wrathion wasn’t programmed the same way. However, Alexstrazsa is. We fight her in all her might and more, supported by the Titans. Magni channels Azeroth’s power and breaks her free. With Ysera, Malygos, Neltharion dead and Alex free, the only dragonflight left is Nozdormu. We go to Nozdormu. He doesn’t fight but he says something cryptic, as if he comes to an understanding of something as Magni channels Azeroth’s power. After spending countless years trying to oversee myriad of timelines, witnessing all the problems in Azeroth and recently being killed, raised, dominated and finally anti-brainwashed, the Aspect is overwhelmed. Domination magic takes a strong toll on him, causing him to lose his sense of identity. He leashes out, attacking others. After beams of power, dragon breaths etc are unleashed on him by the many powerful beings surrounding him, he is transformed into the being we know as Murozond and escapes.
Finally, we start taking back facilities, now reprogramming them to sustain Azeroth neutrally and together with the now-combined Dragonflight, joined by Wrathion too, attack Galakrond forces. Finally, we defeat him.
During the kerfuffle, we talk to Sylvanas in the maw, confirming that she didn’t raise Galakrond. She says Jailor wasn’t talkative about his plans, so it’s entirely possible that Denathrius was behind it (which also explains why we thought it was Sylvanas — it was a Dreadlord posing as her) but it doesn’t seem to be part of Jailor’s plans and Denathrius doesn’t seem to be around to gloat. The mystery is yet to be solved.
More importantly, it’s clear that Azeroth can be assaulted by any cosmic power. A council forms to discuss the matter with many leaders on Azeroth, even those who would be mortal enemies. Result? The council breaks apart, as different groups defend different powers. Paladins defend the power of Light, some Life, some neutrality, some Order… The discussions don’t just break the council apart. Even within many organizations and the main factions, heated arguments and fighting occur.
Rest? Well, that’s 11.0!
The Mechanics
During the levelling campaign, we will try to take over titan facilities. By taking over a previously unknown facility, we’ll make our way to the Dragon Isles. That facility will act as player housing. In the Dragon Isles, we’ll take over more facilities and just when we thought we won… we’ll suddenly find ourselves back in the Housing Facility with Chromie lying there, drained. She will explain that she felt someone moving the timeline and she had to give her everything to stop it (not dead!).
We will find out that Nozdormu was raised by Galakrond and dominated. The end game will be taking over facilities and the enemy trying to take them back. There will also be bonuses depending on how many you keep up and how long you manage to keep them up. These will happen server-wide, similar to Warfront’s rotation. But you’ll be able to fight solo or party to get them back. You will also be able to purchase defences etc to make your life easier.
Player housing will be cosmetic but will include a mission table where you create titan constructs and send them to missions, which will decrease the difficulty of attacks/defences. Think Shadow of War’s siege system. The housing will be instanced and you’ll be able to unlock inside and outside areas. There will be different architecture options and utilities like the Garrison had.
There is going to be a new allied race for both factions: Dragonites. They’ll be unlocked when you hit max level. They are ancient but sentient Titan constructs inspired by dragons. They were affected by the curse of flesh too but became reptile-like. When Galakrond took over, they ran away. They look like half-dragons or Dragonborn from D&D. Wings are their racial ability, which allows them to fly to any flight point with a cooldown. During character creation, you also select a Dragonflight and you get a different resistance depending on that. Finally, each flight has a utility. Reds can heal a bit, Greens can put an enemy to sleep for a few seconds (the enemy loses aggro when woken up, works on humanoid, beasts, giants and dragons), Blues has a small damage & slow ability, Bronze get regeneration of resources and Blacks get a small shield against physical damage. They can be all classes except DH and DK.
Conclusion
So, I’m sure pretty much none of this will happen, but it was fun to think about, I can’t wait for April 19th! What parts do you like or find possible? What do you think will be in the expansion?
