As you can see from the picture above, it would appear that Deathwing is very much alive still and has plans of his own. The question is, do you think he will appear as a raid target at some point?
Edit: When the patch goes live, go to the Dragonmaw base camp on Netherwing Ledge (make sure you've done the questline that turns you into a fel orc whenever you're near the Ledge, btw, otherwise you'll probably just be attacked) and stay near Mor'ghor (he's in the main building with an Eredar with him). A "Blood elf" comes up, talks, and then when she leaves, transforms into a black dragon
Post your thoughts in the comments section below!
Comments
I hope they do put Deathwing in at some point, the character model is gonna look awesome. Also something to consider is like the Illidan fight it could be possible that you get npc help (in this case it would most likely be from the dragon flights) which from a lore perspective would be fitting. I also like the idea of the instance being in hyjal considering the instance entrance does look like onyxia's lair as some people have already stated
Pumbz, you make some good points. And from the rumors I've heard posted on other forums, it sounds like there's an "out" for why players are already taking on Illidan; apparently he's actually killed by a fairly well known NPC, rather than the players themselves. That does make sense, because Illidan is pretty darn powerful, especially compared to the weakened lieutenants and old gods. Though, I guess you could argue that even Illidan is weakened right now, what with Arthas nearly killing him and all.
To all of you "lore does not scale"-questioners out there: Have you ever had a good think about how big this game has grown lately?
In the beginning, Blizzard created the heaven and the earth, and they saw that it was good. Soon thereafter, there were people questioning why the sky was blue, and why the earth was solid; and very shortly, they had the best selling MMORPG in history.
The original game was set up so that Ragnaros (pre-Nefarion) was the strongest being alive; a liutenant of an Old God - in a weakened state - and back then, 40 man had a huge struggle to bring him down. After that, we fought the offspring of an Aspect (as with Onyxia, Nefarions *little* sister) and his works; which 40 man still had some grevious problems with at first. As time went on, the fighters get stronger and more experienced, and we down an Old God, or at least the weakened avatar of one (it is speculated that he even is only one half of himself); which, once again, proved very difficult. By now I suppose you catch where I'm goin', so I don't have to get into the Naxxramas-part.
When we get to the Outlands discussion, things to consider is: -We only fight in 25-man groups -- therefore you might ponder about who is really the strongest; a creature of might being destroyed by 40-man, or by 25. -We have, for example, Magtheridon, while being a Pit Lord, is also both captured and recovering from a series of mortal wounds -- not in great shape so to speak.
In my eyes, Blizzard incorporates the lore in a nice and somewhat polished matter seeing as to how big the game has grown. The initial idea of fighting a weakened elemental liutenant has now escalated to fighting Illidan, probably the greatest spellcaster of Night Elven history, WITH his demonic strength.
Now, seeing as you have read my wall of text, think about how you would have reacted and continued on from Blizzards stand. They had a great foundation with BWL as the real end-game, but when more and more people started playing and such a huge amount of players conquered the "end", they were forced to develop new content, whilst still considering lore and scaling with difficulty. Sure, Gruul might be somewhat overpowered in comparison to Kel'Thuzas for example, but keep in mind that we have progressed from lvl60 to lvl70, gotten huge upgrades in gear and experience.
I believe that the overall lore-incorporation in WoW is great, with some flaws here and there; but still keeping in mind that some things cannot be altered and some will have to be subdued when considering in-game experience and difficulty-thresholds.
That's me for now. Pumbz -- Lorekeeper of Memento Mori, Frostmane EU
Rofocal That about Illidan not dying im not so sure of. Well, anyways Illidans model do have a custom die animation.
holy crap!
Developer
The books DO have a small part or lore in the game. You see little integrations of their stories everywhere. I see Krasus' name on a few items. Zuluhed (quest from shadowmoon) was mentioned in The Day of the Dragons. Just little stuff like that. I'm somewhat inclined to believe that Hyjal might be the place. I don't think they'd use his lair from WC2. First of all, his last fight (the fight with the other 4 aspects) was in Azeroth and his lair was destroyed in WC2. I dunno it could be either or. But he could very easily be still weak from his last fight, he was injured badly plus he lost the demon soul. If he was up and healthy he would've shown himself by now.
If you did fight him I doubt he'd die. Illidan supposedly doesn't die. You'll probably defeat him and he'll retreat or something.
Anyways I hope he's in the game. That would make my day. But there's no point in arguing like this. Just wait and see what Blizz makes of it.
If we're following Lore here, shouldn't he look a lot different to Nefarion (model-wise) as he is only held together by the armor the goblins made for him (according to Lore) and is not quite a dragon-looking dragon... terrible wording but u get the point
so in other words we've rely just been "lucky" to catch these "gods" off guard?
As to weather or not we see Deathwing i f***ing hope so.
First off I would like to say that I love little lore snippets like this. Second I will add that Lore and game level will not always meet at the same point. Lore creates the beautiful world in which we play. Game level balances the interactive side, which often times does not relate at all to level. Level is a relative measure that serves to balance the game's actual game play. The fact that Lore seems to be almost on par with level at this point is merely a byproduct of good design.
As to the what being more powerful etc, please people pay attention to the story. Ragnaros was in a weakened state, because of this he was not 'ready' yet and we caught him off guard. C'Thun was just beginning to emerge, we laid the smack down on him before he could get stronger. Hakkar was merely the last Avatar of himself left on the world. The actual god behind him was slain long ago.
So in short, the story tries to justify the relative strength of said things merely to keep the Lore fanatics semi-happy. And for their efforts on this front I applaud them.
since what ive seen, maybe the 2nd lair of deathwing on azeroth (which is unknown) may be under hyjal... which would be cool cause they already ahve that instance there..
but maybe they will re-create a BWLish type instance since they both deal with the same thing..
The maps from WC2 showed Deathwing's Lair as an island to the east of Shadowmoon Valley and Hellfire Peninsula. It won't be hard to fit it in.
As to the books having nothing to do with Warcraft lore... Are you on crack? Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Horde, The Sunwell Trilogy, Day of the Dragon, The Last Guardian, and Cycle of Hatred. There is lore in WoW thats stems directly from those books. The only books of questionable lore value are the War of the Ancients trilogy.
You completely misinterpreted my comment. Please re-read it; I said the books do not impact the lore progression in World of Warcraft, which has been very true thus far; Gruul the Dragonkiller is a more powerful being than an Old God, the son and daughter of Deathwing, and an elemental lord.
Not only that, but so is the king of the ogres. See where I'm coming from now?
It will not be hard to fit in outlands... You know why?
Because it wont be in outlands... It will be in Azeroth and the place will be Hyjal... If anyone has been there like I have there is a cave there that kinda looks likes Onyxia's cave mouth. It is in the shape of a dragon and looks a lot like Deathwing IMO
Neltharion is his Aspect name, if you want to get technical. I think "Deathwing lore revealed!" would be a more fitting title for this, IMO.
Also remember that C'Thun is an Old God, but appeared in a weakened form. It's entirely possible Deathwing will appear at some point, in a weakened form as well.
Deathwing can't die, he's one of the Aspects (Deathwing the Earth-Warder). If he dies, it would completely screw up Azeroth.