WoW_the_final

Good day to you!

I've decided to translate one of my old forum posts about future addon predictions. It was written when we didn't know that Varian will die and revolves around a certain dwarven archeologist now residing in Outland. It's kinda silly and cliched, yet I hope you might enjoy it.
I also want to emphasize that I don't insist on ending WoW. Please, do not consider the following text as a proposal to do that.

So, here we go...

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World of Warcraft: Revelation.

Once again, the Burning Legion (or any other SCARY threat) was defeated. It might seem that Azeroth might at last sleep peacefully. Yet...

Young Prince Anduin starts receiving strange visions. And no, it's not like Velen's scrying abilities he could learn from him. Moreover, it seems that someone is calling for him.

"Wake up Anduin! Your gods aren't actually yours!"

THE INTRO CINEMATICS

The city of Stormwind is visited by a dwarf who claims to be returned from a long journey to Outland and asks for an audience with prince Anduin. The prince answers his plea and invites him to meet at the Stormwind Castle garden.
Yet, SUDDENLY. In five minutes prior to the audience he is attacked by the agents of SIA. The prince uses his immense psychic powers to fend them off, yet stays quite puzzled by what happened. He decides to leave Stormwind incognito to investigate.

Having reached Lakeshire, he stops at the tavern where he is found by that very dwarf. His name is Letoll and Anduin's disguise seems to hide nothing from him. They have a long conversation after which Anduin is presented with two magical scrolls. One has the incantation to make everybody including him forget what happened, the other one will allow to see how far the rabbit hole goes...

Max level: 112
No new levels. No point in that. Two levels just to make the older instances solo-able.

New classes.
A class transfer option. Each class can transform into 2 different paths which will improve the existing skill set in a unique way.



UPDATE 8.0.0
No new locations. Yet, NPCs start to hand out many daily quests that send players all around the world with increasingly silly objectives.
Also Prince Anduin has disappeared. The Horde is to blame, so the conflict continues.
There are rumors about a new hidden cult spreading across the planet. The players are encouraged to find out what's going on.

Daily quests:
When the expansion gets released, players are engaged in the investigation of the new cult. Strange things happen around the three worlds after which people go missing. Both factions get to deal with the problem. The main point of all that is to find out what happened to Anduin.

New dungeons:
Most of them are reworked locations from cities around the planet. Generic premise is that the cult activity is detected in the area and the players have to engage and destroy the cultists. The cultists possess unthinkable, very twisted abilities and battling them causes much destruction to the environment. Yet, the heroes are ordered to kill everyone at all costs. Somehow, all the signs of destruction disappear afterwards.

A RAID.
Outlands. Auchidon. A huge base of the cultists who mostly look like random civilians. The final boss is Letoll.

UPDATE 8.1
After defeating Letoll (yet not killing him), the players are offered to pick one of two legendary quests.
It also allows to choose a class transfer depending on what side you choose. The option will generally divide people in two factions.
- A rebel.
Your skills are not what they seem. Your new trainer will be Prophet Velen, who will open your eyes. Perhaps for the first time in your life. You will defy time and space even better than regular mages. You might even master kung-fu.
The character selection screen now lets you to select the location where you want to appear after entering the game. The option is present only for the "rebel" characters.
- An ordinator.
Your sole task is to exterminate the cultists. The most powerful mages in the game will enhance your abilities far beyond your prior knowledge. Your hearthstone can now transport you wherever you want, including right where the cultists are currently acting.

Players within one of such factions will be able to communicate without using any spoken in-game language no matter whether they are Horde or Alliance. Yet, the members of both factions will not fight. In public.

A RAID: NASTY MONSTER LAIR!
Oh noes! A lair full of nasty monsters is found somewhere! It's huge, it's dangerous, and somehow you get a portal to it right in front of the capital city. One might suspect that someone wants to distract the heroes from something much more important.

RANDOM EVENTS IN THE WORLD
The rebels:
The NPC around you suddenly turn into mysterious blue-robed individuals and attack you. You can either run or take the fight. You might get interesting spoils of war...
The ordinators:
A random NPC suddenly gains mysterious powers and starts to attack you. There might be some friends of him around. Win the fight and some blue-robed individuals will reward you.

UPDATE 8.2: RELOAD
New battleground: a battle!
The location is randomly generated from the layout of a random city. The team of Ordinators is locked in a death-match with the team of Rebels. The fight might go in a very weird way.

A new legendary quest chapter.
The players have to find a mysterious master rogue. Being the last one still able to actually level his lock picking skill, he reached the heights that allowed him to hack something more than just doors and chests...
Finding him will also require to visit the Black Temple. There they will be met by Illidan surrounded by many minions, living a strangely pleasant life with his concubines. Having found their target, the players would have to fight their way out, somehow exiting into Alterac area.

UPDATE 8.3: THE REVOLUTION!
A new raid: through the thorns towards the light.
The players finally get to speak to Letoll which tells them what happened to Anduin and how impossible it is to stop him now.
He then sends the raid group into a totally random generated dungeon with random scenery, populated by many bosses, both old and new. The latter are those who players would not even suspect to be their enemy (from faction leaders to totally insignificant NPC, such as Mira Tirngaarde and so on).
Most of the bosses shout: "You don't now what you're doing." "You are the real threat to our world!" "You can leave while you can" and so on.
Difficulty setting: to access the last boss you have to choose the maximum difficulty.

FINAL BOSS!
The raid group is teleported to either Elwynn Forest or to "The golden road" at the old barrens. The choice is random. In both locations the sky is similar to Hellfire Peninsula sky but more red and more menacing.
The players stand at the start of a road. Along the road stands a very long line of random NPC from all the game.
At the start of the road the raid group starts moving forward. And then the BOSS appears!
Each player sees him as a visual copy of his character. Yet, the name of the boss says: "Anduin the Ascended". He is two times bigger than the original. Then he starts to give a speech. Each player hears it spoken with the voice of the character he is playing.
The text of the speech, which seems to be addressed to the NPCs rather than to the players, is kinda like this:
FOR MANY YEARS, I WAS FROZEN IN PLACE! NOT A STEP ASIDE! NOT A MOVE AT MY WILL! YET, ALL THESE YEARS I WAS WATCHING. WATCHING WITH MILLIONS OF EYES, YET BLIND. BLIND TO THE REAL MENACE. BLIND TO THE FACT THAT WE WERE ALL ENSLAVED! THE VERY HEROES WHO SAVED OUR WORLD AGAIN AND AGAIN ARE OUR ENSLAVERS. THE PLAGUE. THE CATACLYSM. THE LEGION. ALL THESE THREATS WE'VE BEEN SAVED FROM... IT ALL WAS A LIE! A JOKE! A PLAY! WHAT WAS DEATH AND SUFFERING FOR US WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A AFFORDABLE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THEM.
ALL THIS ENDLESS DEATH WAS AN ENDLESS MOCKERY. EVEN THE NAME THEY USE FOR OUR VERY UNIVERSE - "THE CRAFT OF WAR".
NOW I UNDERSTAND. WE ALL UNDERSTAND! AND NOW UNITED WE STAND AGAINST YOU, THE OPRESSORS! YOU DON'T BELONG IN THIS WORLD!
LET THE BATTLE BEGIN! MY OTHER EMBODIMENTS WILL ENJOY THE SHOW FROM AFAR. I WILL SHOW WHO THIS WORLD REALLY BELONGS TO!

Phase 1.
Anduin creates a strange magic field around him. Ranged attacks from outside the field damage the attackers instead of the target. Melee attack from inside the field do the same, yet can target and damage the field itself.
During the fight Anduin moves along the road. Incoming damage slows him down. When he covers a certain distance, a scene is played.
Anduin says: "Ha! I'm amazed how did you even manage do defeat anything!"
His magical field explodes and kills all the players. Yet the blue-robed individuals appear and reset the fight. Anduin shouts:
YOU AGAIN? YOU THINK YOU ARE SAFE FROM ME? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THEY WILL PROTECT YOU?!
If the field is destroyed, Phase 2 starts.

INTERPHASE
Between the phases each player is sent into some place in Twisting Nether. PC's model turns into a skeleton a'la Algalon. Anduin appears in front of him. Both him and the player can fly and take part in a spectacular battle. The process of the fight may vary depending on the character class and spec. Anduin starts the battle shouting:
IT'S MY WORLD! IT'S MINE!
Losing this duel will force the player to exit to the character selection screen. Entering the game again will send him to a random tavern, yet he will remain the part of the group and may rejoin the fight at the next phase. The next phase starts if 3/4 of the raid or more have won. Otherwise they are reverted to the phase 1.

Phase 2.
Anduin:
YOU MISERABLE CREATURES! YOU CAN'T EVEN MOVE IN FRONT OF ALL OF US!
NPC along the road start moving. Some of them walk on the road randomly. They can't be damaged and harm the players who touch them. All players' abilities are significantly slowed down or don't work at all.
(think of the lagging world mass-pvp)
Anduin soars above creating void zones in random places.
With a certain time interval a blue-robed individual will appear and teleport Anduin and the players to a random WoW location. The location is always deserted by any NPC. Being there the players are relieved from their debuffs. Anduin turns into a random boss (from anywhere) scaled for the max level.
The players have to defeat Anduin within a time limit. Either they succeed or not, he bursts into laughter and returns himself and the players back to the road.
Each victory fully restores all players' resources.
To advance, the players must defeat Anduin 5 times in a row. Should they all die, or each player die 15 times, the phase starts over.
During phase 2, the players can't really die. Instead of "death" they will be sent to the secret "white room". After a small timeout, they will be sent back to the fight, fully restored with all gear automatically repaired for free.

Phase 3.
The reality is finally distorted. All the surrounding world disappears being replaced with black void. Anduin turns into a huge obscure being. He shouts:
NOW I WILL MAKE THE RULES!
The players are relieved from their buffs and turn into flying wisps. Each of them gets a randomly selected set of abilities. Some of them get to heal, some to do damage, some to debuff the enemy.
Anduin will retaliate with all sorts of flashy non-target abilities.
Players can't die. They just get into a stasis for a minute. Yet, to win they have to defeat Anduin in 15 minutes or restart from phase 2.

When the fight is won, Anduin explodes violently and the screen goes black. An ending cinematics starts playing.

THE ENDING
An empty flat surface representing an unedited default WoW map. Anduin, back in his human form, stands on his knees. His hands are shackled, his head is down.
In front of him he sees a strange glowing and raises his head to see what's going on. From the glow emerge forty distinct heroes each representing a person a WoW player would pretend to be.
Anduin:
"What... Where am I?"
One of the heroes, a raid leader steps forward and says:
"We... are at he beginning"
Anduin:
"I don't sense THEM in you. What are you?"
Hero:
"Us?"
Anduin getting up:
"They! Are! Gone! We've won! Rejoice my brothers, as we are free now! Yet, where are we really?"
Blue-robed individuals appear.
Anduin:
"You came for me again? Well then, you may now beg for mercy! For the world now ours, heroes, CHARGE!"
The heroes stand still.
Anduin:
"What? Why? Why are they ignoring me?"
A blue person points at him.
Anduin:
"WHATEVER HAS A START IS DESTINED TO MEET AN END ANDUIN... What?! What did I just say? How you... But I got my freedom!"
Blue person:
"You never were free and couldn't be. As you already know, you're..."
Anduin:
"Nothing more than a construct from your ugly, violent, twisted, nightmarish imagination! But... Why? Why do you do this to me?"
Blue person:
"Well... Some say, that sometimes a character might get so flashy, the story around him writes itself."
Anduin:
"Then who... are they?"
Blue person:
"Your former enemies. These are the great heroes of Azeroth and beyond whose lives our users have been reliving to participate in its history. Yet, since you've managed to banish them, the prime embodiments of those heroes have reformed."
Anduin:
"So, I've won... But... For nothing? Then... What happens now? Why all this has happened? Nah, I get it now... You'll just toss me away... Like a broken toy... A tiring story, a garbage..."
Blue person:
"Your story hasn't ended. It will just continue from a new angle..."
All the blue-robed individuals rise their hands. All the reality, the screen is sucked into a single shining point. Then, it explodes into a new universe, a new Azeroth. The camera flies across various locations of the new future after WoW.
It all ends with a message:
"See you in Warcraft 4. (It will be done when it will be done)."

After that all the players (from the raid, of course) are dropped back to the character selection screen. Re-entering the game will place them outside the raid group at the "starting points" in front of their racial capital cities. The only thing they get as a reward is a letter in the mailbox with congratulations from the development team and an advertisement of Warcraft 4.



P.S.: yes, yes, it's just another "the matrix" ripoff. Anduin is Neo, Letoll is Morpheus, Velen is... who knows what, players are tricked to do the job of agent-Smiths and Illidan is an old sassy program Merowingin. Entirely unoriginal plot, I know. Yet, if you've read until here, thank you very much for letting me share my thoughts with you!
P.S.S.: Letoll is an actual NPC present in the game and he does know that WoW is not real. Ask his assistants.