World of Warcraft will finally be breaking the mold of yet another giant island continent in the next two expansions of the World Soul Saga. Instead, Blizzard will turn its attention not only to progressing the three-part saga's overarching story, but also to revisiting influential zones and stories that, until now, have been left in the past. Wow: midnight will mark its first attempt to modernize the old town since Cataclysmwith players returning to Quel'Thalasthe home of the Blood Elves of the Horde, found in the northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms.
Quel'Thalas was introduced to Wow in its first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Its early introduction speaks to the prevalence of its tradition, but it also brought with it numerous technical limitations that persist to this day. Even despite its papier-mâché backbone, Silvermoon City was created with a truly distinct and memorable aesthetic. A return to Quel'Thalas all but guarantees an overhaul of the zones that comprise it, with Blizzard having the opportunity to create perhaps the best city in the gameespecially if it can improve its already promising attempts at elven cities.
Silvermoon's restoration will be essential at midnight
The return to Quel'Thalas needs a big step towards its restoration
Quel'thalas was a crucial destination in the Warcraft 3where the undead campaign saw Arthas lead the scourge in decimating the place, and The lasting impact of this event is seen throughout Wow. The high elves' source of power, the Sunwell, was destroyed, leading to the desperation that created the mana-addicted Blood Elves. Sylvanus Windrunner and Kael'Thas, two of the most iconic characters in the War story, also had its sequence of villains starting with the dismissal.
With Midnight As players return to Quel'Thalas, its restoration will need to be at the forefront of the expansion. Since Wowof The Burning Crusade expansion, Silvermoon City was left half-destroyed, with the Scourge's destructive path creating a scar that runs from the Ghostlands to the city. Since then, the Sunwell has been restored and the elves have begun work on rebuilding the ruined city. This has yet to be seen in the game and probably for good reason. There is little doubt that Wow: midnight will see the complete restoration of Silvermoon Cityand Quel'Thalas as a whole.
Quel'Thalas will require extensive modernization
Silvermoon City is based on a paper-thin structure
If all expansion focuses on Quel'Thalas, extensive work will be required not only on its now outdated appearance, but to modernize the structure in which it exists. Quel'Thalas is unique in that zones require a loading screen to enter, a holdover from the fact that it was created on the Outlands map. Additionally, flying is not permitted in Silvermoon, necessary because the city is essentially just a facadewith incomplete sections being hidden by the players' grounded point of view.
The benefit of these glaring technical limitations is that Blizzard will certainly be forced to rework the entire region, as opposed to the more granular approach as seen in Teldrassil or Gilneas. Given that the zones themselves require a complete overhaul of their framework and with the expansion focused on Quel'Thalas, now is the time to reimagine these zones, and more adequately display its scale and grandeur. The original trailer for Burning Crusade It features sweeping mountains and dotted structures, with an almost angelic-looking design waiting to be freed from previous limitations.
WoW's recent zone trend and work on Suramar could make Silvermoon unforgettable
Combining iconic location with modern design philosophies could create the best city yet
Dragonriding has fundamentally altered Blizzard zone design as of late. Warlords of Draenor promoted the approach of designing zones around the ground crossing. However, Blizzard has fully embraced the challenge of creating maps that not only facilitate flying, but embrace it. Dragon-fly and The inner war are composed of zones that reach new levels of verticality and scale. They were designed from the ground up with dragon piloting in mind and are an important component in making dragon piloting so satisfying. With player housing also coming MidnightPerhaps players can look forward to a Silvermoon skyscraper to call home.
WowThe previous attempt to build an elven city, Suramar, was a resounding success. Even before the change in design philosophy, Suramar achieved a scale and detail never before seen in Wow. Silvermoon is the ideal place to experience a modernization of Suramar, where Silvermoon manages to achieve not only its size and detail, but also the verticality that dragon riding allows. When the flight is finally available to Quel'Thalas in Wow: midnightSilvermoon City would be the perfect location to showcase the design team's progress and to truly flesh out a location that has had significant relevance to history since Warcraft 3 in all its glory.