Traditionally, World of Warcraft <\/em>expansions have been condensed upon themselves, with the narrative of each expansion being confined before the next addition to the franchise takes the game in a new direction. <\/p>
On occasion, the last patch of one expansion has set up the first patch of the next. But never before has a specific narrative point of the game been promised to play out over the span of three intertwining expansions. <\/p>
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WoW\u2019s<\/em> story was heavily criticized<\/a> during the Shadowlands <\/em>era, and to leave that destitute moment in history in the rearview mirror, the narrative team had to pivot in a major way. A front-to-back trilogy of expansions that bridges the modern age of WoW <\/em>back to its roots just in time for the 20th anniversary<\/a> is definitely a colossal risk, but it\u2019s what the dev team thinks is necessary to pull the masses in for what has been promised to be \u201ca storyline that in every way feels like the culmination of the first 20 years of our storytelling,\u201d according to WoW<\/em>\u2019s executive creative director Chris Metzen back at BlizzCon 2023<\/a>.<\/p>
To ensure the boundary-pushing nature of the Worldsoul Saga remains faithful<\/a> to the already-existing story the franchise has established, the WoW <\/em>devs have frequently turned to in-house loremasters, historians, and experts to keep continuity at the front of mind when developing the narrative for not just The War Within<\/em>, but the entirety of the Worldsoul Saga. Names like Sean Copeland (lore historian lead), Anne Stickney (senior narrative designer), and Chris Metzen (executive creative direction) were specifically cited as major influences in the departments of accuracy and fine-tuning.<\/p>
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While little is known about where the story will end up in Midnight <\/em>and The Last Titan<\/em>, what fans can be assured of is the story that\u2019s set up in the initial stages of The War Within <\/em>will be concluded in full by the time the third expansion of the Worldsoul Saga wraps up. That likely won\u2019t come until at least <\/em>three years from now as Blizzard plans for WoW<\/em>\u2019s expansion releases to be slightly expedited<\/a> during this new era, as opposed to the usual every-other-year schedule for WoW <\/em>expansions.<\/p>
The Worldsoul Saga will kick off in earnest with The War Within <\/em>later this year. The expansion is expected to be released at some point between the late summer and early autumn, according to Blizzard\u2019s 2024 WoW <\/em>roadmap<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
