Where do you think we’re headed in The War Within patch 11.2?

We’ve been careening around Undermine in our custom hot rods for ten weeks now, which means it’s time to start speculating wildly regarding where the heroes of Azeroth will be called next. Patch 11.2 will be the last major content release for The War Within, and it will include a new zone, dungeon, and raid. Will we continue exploring Khaz Algar, or might we find ourselves rushing off to lands (or planets) unknown?

Spoilers follow for all The War Within content through the 11.1 Undermine campaign. Don’t continue if you haven’t finished the story.

You should go read another post if you don’t want spoilers. We have some pictures of cute baby pygmy hippos to look at if you’d like to do something else.

We really mean it. Spoilers to follow.

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The idea that seems to have the most widespread support right now is K’aresh, the at-least-a-little-bit-destroyed home planet of the Ethereals. The final chapter of the Undermine campaign concluded with Phase Thief Azir absconding with the Dark Heart to a place that looked enormous, rocky and consumed by void. Since we have been chasing down that magical MacGuffin for much of the expansion, it makes sense that we might need to follow along to K’aresh and make further attempts to claim it for ourselves.

The main bee in my bonnet about this idea is that the expansion thus far has featured a previously undiscovered island with four connected zones deep below ground. To end The War Within with a zone that takes us not further “within” but so far “without” that we end up halfway across the universe doesn’t sit right. Maybe the K’aresh zone will be within that planet? I am also willing to entertain the notion that the war was within us the whole time, and major characters would be facing their own inner demons. This made more sense in the beginning of the expansion with Anduin struggling to reconnect with the light, but not very much of the Undermine campaign involved intense self-reflection.

K’aresh also seems like a world we would explore with multiple zones, and feels like a perfect fit for the opening destination of the upcoming Midnight expansion. Perhaps the last campaign of The War Within will have us settle some unfinished business in Khaz Algar before heading off-planet in the next major chapter. In that case, the curious roots hanging from the ceiling of Azj-kahet become another intriguing possibility for our next destination. For how prominently they featured in some of The War Within’s promotional materials such as the cinematic trailer, we have spent very little time with the guardians of those roots, the Haranir. I like the idea of a whole zone of twisted roots and tunnels where we fight off some shadowy entity (more Ethereals?) bent on corrupting or exploiting what many fans think are the remains of the very first world tree.

Let’s not forget the Hallowfall Arathi and the homeland they have been cut off from for more than a decade. Somewhere beyond the Storming Sea is a landmass that is the home of an entire empire that isn’t even on our maps. While I do think it quite likely we’ll be visiting this continent at some point in our future adventuring, it also seems like it would take more than a single zone to fully explore the origin point for Faerin Lothar and the rest of the Arathi Expedition. I’m penciling this one into the first slot of the concluding expansion of the Worldsoul Saga, The Last Titan.

Finally, there’s the dark horse (or maybe I should say dark fish) candidate: the Undersea. This vast expanse of water below Beledar in Hallowfall is where the hungering Kobyss emerged from, and we have had tantalizing hints that light-hating beings reside deep below its surface. In fact, K’aresh is an awful long way for Phase Thief Azir to have traveled. Perhaps that large, glowing void was some source of shadowy power deep beneath the Undersea that we’ll need to go investigate.

So which of these theories do you think holds the most water, and where would you most like to head for the final chapter of The War Within?