Meet the Enlightened, a new kind of Broker that we’ll meet in patch 9.2

In patch 9.2, we’ll be going to Zereth Mortis, because we want to stop Zovaal the Jailer from remaking the entire cosmos into a place he rules and everyone is his slave, kind of like what he’s done to Anduin on a metaphysical scale. And when we get there, we’re going to run into the Automa, a race of constructs who speak a mysterious glyph-based musical language it’ll take us time to decode. But at least we’ll have a little help figuring that all out, thanks to the presence of the Enlightened, Brokers who don’t care about money.

I know, I know, it’s like I said goblins that enjoy philanthropy or Ferengi who hate the very sight of gold pressed latinum, but it’s not entirely a surprise to find ourselves with the Enlightened in Zereth Mortis. As we saw in the Grimoire of the Shadowlands, the Brokers of Cartel Al are trying to discover all that they can of Zereth Mortis, and one of them, Al’firim, has even broken away from his Cartel and gone rogue over the place. It’s entirely possible that he was far from the first of his people to decide that the Broker mentality of mercantile exploitation was incompatible with a discovery on the scale of a forge that can create realms of the Shadowlands and chose instead to defend it.

So far, all we know about the Enlightened is this fact — they are Brokers, but ones who have abandoned the secretive plots and intrigues of their people and are instead focused on defending Zereth Mortis, which puts them at odds with the Jailer and willing to work with us mortals who also want to stop Zovaal from doing whatever he plans to do with the Forge at the heart of the realm. Imagine, ruthless venture capitalists realizing that you can’t have a profit when everyone is wiped out by runaway greed and rapacious lust for power and putting the safety of everything ahead of themselves? Truly, World of Warcraft is a most fantastical game.

Brokers may hold the key to saving the cosmos

We’ll need the help of the Enlightened to unlock the mystery of the Automa language, and also, perhaps to solve the mystery of the Brokers as a whole. We’ve been working with Ve’nari for a while now, and her defection and ‘monopolization’ of the Maw Walker was the reason the Grimoire of the Shadowlands was written at all by Ta’lora of Cartel Ta. And Al’Firim hints pretty regularly that he is just one of the Brokers with an interest in the First Ones, hinting that it’s a rogue female Broker, and of course suspicion falls upon Ve’nari. After all, she was in the best place to be studying the Jailer’s moves, and the Jailer has been seeking the First Ones all this time. What’s the ultimate reason Cartel Ve says that Ve’nari betrayed them, and she counters with the argument that they betrayed her?

Has Ve’nari been working for the Enlightened all this time, and that’s why she had to make sure to monopolize the Maw Walker? Too early to say, but there’s definitely a possible connection there. Regardless, we’ll find out more about the Enlightened and their actions once we reach Zereth Mortis. The hub city for the zone is Haven, the stronghold of the Enlightened and the place they seek to maintain and preserve the First Ones’ legacy, and as such, we’ll be spending a lot of time with these enigmatic beings.