Where do you think we’re headed in Midnight’s next major update, WoW patch 12.1?

We’ve got the details for what’s coming next in Midnight with patch 12.0.7, and that means it’s time to speculate on where we’ll be adventuring for the first major content update of the expansion: patch 12.1. Will it be what everyone is expecting, or will there be a surprise detour to a completely out-of-left-field spot?

Spoilers follow for all Midnight content through the 12.0 campaign and March on Quel’Danas raid. Don’t continue if you haven’t finished the story.

The overwhelming consensus is that we’ll be headed just across the Strait of Hexx’alor to the mysterious mountainous island off of the coast of Zul’Aman. Towards the end of that zone’s story, we find Zul’jan brooding about wanting to expand the Amani empire at the end of the conspicuously deconstructed Skybridge. He seems to be staring at this ominous landmass, which is off-limits to players due to a suffocating fog that becomes impassable just after learning the region’s name: Atal’Utek.

A number of other hints both in-game and from the World of Warcraft team suggest that we’ll be heading over to this island for the next chapter of the story. But those clues could all add up to one enormous red herring swimming through the Strait of Hexx’alor. If Atal’Utek is where we’ll be headed in patch 12.2 (or simply the next map added to Decor Duel in 12.1) where else makes sense for us to continue our adventure?

I’ve been hoping for quite some time for an expedition into the Undersea. If the only way to follow Xal’atath into the interior of Azeroth is to set up a mobile diving platform in Hallowfall and strike up another conversation with our goth fish buddy, then we could be in for an aquatic adventure in patch 12.1. I wouldn’t mind exploring a dark, creepy underground sea in search of a watery back door to the Worldcore.

We’re also running out of time in Midnight for one of the most-expected character re-emergences in Queen Azshara. We think it’s highly unlikely that she will be willing to sit out this whole void-heavy expansion, and there have been just enough Naga breadcrumbs for 12.1 to take us to their secret base of operations on an island off the coast of Eversong Woods or even straight to their underwater headquarters.

It wouldn’t be a speculation post without a dark horse candidate, so I humbly submit that we will actually head straight to the Worldcore in the next patch. We know that by the end of Midnight we’ll be headed to Northrend for The Last Titan. What if we heroically burst straight through Azeroth’s crust as the next chapter of the story, only to be foiled by Xal’atath yet again? Then 12.2 could see us regroup and head to Atal’Utek to gather some unique source of power in order to meet up with the Pantheon at Ulduar in the opening of The Last Titan.

So what’s your guess for the next setting in Midnight? Where do you secretly hope we’ll end up?