With more than seventeen years of World of Warcraft history, it’s no stranger to add-on leaks. A week before the official announcement of Cataclysm, the World of Warcraft community already knew about goblins, worgen and the forever changed appearance of Azeroth. Mists of Pandaria was leaked when Blizzard applied for the trademark, although at the time few were willing to believe it was an expansion for World of Warcraft. Screenshots of the Warlords of Draenor video leaked online a few days ahead of schedule.
Taking this into account, it’s not at all surprising that World of Warcraft fans have a very clear idea of what the next expansion might entail, even if it hasn’t been announced by Blizzard Entertainment yet. According to a huge number of leaks and rumors that have appeared over the past few months, it is widely believed that the action of the next World of Warcraft expansion will take place on the Dragon Islands, and the recent update is only a mini-map of the Dragon Graveyard. strengthens this idea even more.
Let’s get right to the point: although the mini-map for the Dragon Graveyard was indeed recently updated, there were no tangible changes in the location compared to the unfinished version uploaded to the game database back in 8.2 during the Battle. for Azeroth. At the same time, considering that the minimap for this version of Galacrond’s Rest has been restored, and comparing it with previous leaks related to a potential dragon-themed expansion, there are a lot of coincidences in the game.
The main differences between this version of the Dragon Graveyard and the previous one (shown on the right) are that the entire architecture of the Titans has been removed, including the famous Dragon Rest Temple towering over the zone. In addition, the bones of Galacrond are missing, as well as Ruby, Bronze and Obsidian dragon sanctuaries.
The consequences of these omissions point to an exciting opportunity — a new instance of the Cave of Time, showing the defeat of Galacrond by the original, early versions of the original Aspects of the Dragon: Yser, Nozdormu, Malygos, Alexstrasza and Neltharion. For an expansion supposedly dedicated to dragons and their future, going back in time and witnessing one of the most pivotal moments in their history would be a great concept for World of Warcraft.
Given the poor reception of the Shadowlands finale, as well as player fatigue from World of Warcraft’s focus on its cosmic lore, scaling it all up for a simple expansion built around the rebirth of Galacrond could be a breath of fresh air. The history of World of Warcraft is in great need.
