The past couple of years have been hard for many developers, but World of Warcraft has seen a number of roadblocks. Delays from the COVID-19 pandemic compounded with lawsuits filed against Blizzard this summer. As Blizzard begins to re-examine itself and address many of the concerns raised against it, World of Warcraft announces "Eternity’s End," the next big content update for the game almost a year after the Shadowlands expansion released.
"Eternity’s End" will take players to the Zerith Mortis; a primordial world where the ancient First Ones created the realms of the Shadowlands and the creatures who dwell within them. The Maw Walkers will finally reach the Sepulcher of the First ones – the reality-bending workshop at the heart of Zerith Mortis – where they will face down The Jailer. Game Rant spoke with lead narrative designer Steve Danuser and lead game designer Morgan Day about the story awaiting players in "Eternity’s End," and the potential future of many major characters as well as WoW itself. Interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Sylvanas is going to be pretty important in this coming chapter of the story, and has been a major character since Warcraft 3. How long have you been planning the arc with her, the Jailer, and the connection to the Shadowlands?
Danuser: Sylvanas’ story has been long, and has taken many twists and turns over the years. There’s fans who love her and adore her as a hero, and there’s others who’ve seen her as a villain, not just recently, but for a while. Even back in Vanilla, when you did quests with Sylvanas, she was clearly up to some very questionable tactics. But obviously, with events in Battle for Azeroth, she escalated to a level not seen before. She’s always been linked to the powers of Death–when she was struck down by Arthas, that was the inciting incident that got her wrapped up in this. Some of those details weren’t fleshed out and didn’t come to life until we were able to show them in Shadowlands.
So, that was an interesting process, looking at the arcs we have been building up and saying, “Okay, what can we do in these realms of Death with Shadowlands to really bring all of that stuff to bear?” In Battle for Azeroth, a lot of her plans and machinations were concealed; we didn’t understand why she was doing the things she had done. Shadowlands was our time to really lay her cards on the table. No more secrets, no more lies. She was able to tell Anduin, and by extension our players, what she was up to. So, we’ve had those threads in action for a long time and we had planned the full narrative arc of Shadowlands, with her and the Jailer and Anduin–that triad was core to the story we are telling. Those threads were planted early on in the Shadowlands story planning, and it is awesome to see them come to fruition here in "Eternity’s End." It’s been a long road, but hopefully fans will see it’s a very exciting one with the twists and turns coming in this content update.
Q: At the end of "Chains of Domination," Sylvanas turned against the Jailer and received a part of her essence back, which was taken when she was first killed, similar to what happened with Uther. Are players going to see the ramifications of what that means? Did the split influence any of Sylvanas’ decisions since Warcraft 3? Does the other side of the spirit have a story to tell?
Danuser: Yeah, so we’re definitely going into spoiler territory there, but what I will say, as with "Chains of Domination" and Shadowlands itself, "Eternity’s End" has an unfolding chapter arc that takes you through the story, and once we get our legs underneath us in Zerith Mortis, get the lay of the land, and find out what the Jailer’s up to there, the story definitely goes into the fact that we need to know what Sylvanas knows. We need the information that’s inside her head because Anduin is still under the Jailer’s control. He’s gone, so without him, Sylvanas is the next best thing we have to understanding what the Jailer’s strategy is. So, we are going to need to speak to her and find out what information she has and how that information can help us confront the Jailer. So, she will be coming into the "Eternity’s End" story early on and we will find out a lot of those things, about what getting that fragment of her soul jammed back into her by the Jailer, what effect that has on her psyche.
As we’ve seen with Uther, it had a pretty devastating effect on him and that was something he took a long time to work through. I think you’ll find there are dramatic similarities there with what Sylvanas will be going through and with what Uther went through. In fact, he can serve as something of a guide for her through that process; he had no one to help guide him, but Uther understands what it is like to go through something like that, and you’ll see how maybe he can help guide Sylvanas through those treacherous waters.
Day: That’s always one of the most exciting parts about working on the story and also how we convey that story within the World of Warcraft through the gameplay. It is always fun to tackle and explore, especially with "Eternity’s End" as we step foot into the Sepulcher of the First ones. The story of Anduin and Sylvanas, where the Jailer’s power is derived from, what is he able to do with this Domination magic and how does it affect not only Anduin but how would it affect the players. We have to come face to face with the Jailer in this finale, so how do we combat that? That’s something we’re always inspired by. We always look for inspiration from the story, and how to tell that story within certain elements of the gameplay.
Q: Players have fought many Horde characters in the past, but only a few Alliance characters as boss fights, many of which were visions or alternate histories. Though he’s not under complete control of himself, what was it like taking a beloved character like Anduin and turning him into a real boss fight?
Day: That was both a delight and a major challenge. Any time we’re dealing with characters that people have a lot of equity built for–they love these characters. In the case of Anduin, we’ve literally seen him grow up, when we were first introduced to him and seen his progression through all the expansions, how he came to be a leader in Battle for Azeroth, and now where we’ve been led into the Shadowlands. There’s a lot to grapple with there. Also, with the parallels between some of our previous storylines, like Arthas and the Lich King and now Anduin, there are lots of fun hooks to play with there.
I don’t want to get too deep into spoiler territory to talk about the specifics of the encounter, but something we are doing that is interesting with this raid is really diving deep into what is it about Zovaal, what is this domination magic, and how do we combat it. Like Steve mentioned, there are a lot of fun story elements both with Sylvanas and Uther but also Anduin potentially plays a role there in determining how we combat that. So that’s something we’re also playing with that’s really exciting.
And the Sepulcher of the First Ones itself in terms of the raid, oh, it’s so epic! A fun little story when we were developing it: we have our pre-production process–we work on layouts, we work on our boss list–something we discovered very early in development, as we were working with gray boxes–literally squares, hall rooms, and no textures–we realized was the scope and scale of this raid is something we really haven’t had much opportunity to develop before. This is the Sepulcher of the First ones; this is the origin of the Shadowlands and the Afterlives.
The scale of this would have to be something we haven’t seen before. So, something that’s really fun within the raid is you actually fly around the raid on a flight path. There’s a whole transportation network within the raid you use to move around between the different wings and elements because it is just that big and epic. You can’t just run down the hallway and get to places where afterlives are created, right? We have to do something a little bit different with this raid, so that’s all been a treat to get to develop and explore that really unique space afforded to us in "Eternity’s End."
Q: Players have seen some exciting and varied places in Shadowlands up until this point, but Zerith Mortis seems to be a height of concept in Shadowlands. During the teaser, you mentioned this was the final chapter of this particular book in the series. Does that mean there isn’t going to be a 9.3, and that the next thing you’d be building towards would be the expansion?
Danuser: As I mentioned in the video, we set out to plan the Shadowlands story as this drama in three acts. We have intended for "Eternity’s End" to be the culmination of that story. That doesn’t mean it’s the last amount of content we release, but this is really the closure of the Shadowlands arc. As I teased in there, there’s a lot more stuff in the works we’re not talking about yet, but we really wanted "Eternity’s End" to represent all these threads being pulled together from the very beginning in Warcraft 3. There’s character arcs and story threads that really come together here, and I think fans who have been following the Warcraft saga all this time will find a lot of very satisfying conclusions to all those threads, so I’m super excited for everyone to finally be able to play this and see how the story comes together.
Q: After this, it seems there’s only two directions World of Warcraft can go; it can get even higher concept, or it can start going back to the roots about where it came from. Which direction will the story be going next?
Danuser: I think the big thing to take away from "Eternity’s End" - what we see in Zerith Mortis and in the Sepulcher of the First Ones - is the possibilities of the future. Warcraft is, by its nature, such a varied universe, there’s so much to delve into. There’s very character-driven personal stories, the Heroes’ Journey of humble beginnings leading to great adventure, and there’s also these big cosmic themes. I think we’ve set both of those trajectories up for the future of Warcraft. It’s not one thing or the other; there’s always going to be storylines and threads that go off in lots of different directions, so I won’t comment specifically on what’s next, but don’t assume it’s just going to be one thing. There’s storylines building up for the next great book in the Warcraft saga. Some of that groundwork is laid here, but there’s a lot more back on Azeroth we need to get back to, and delve into some storylines and characters there.
Day: And that’s one of the great parts about working on World of Warcraft. Zerith Mortis is cosmic in its nature and origins, and we’re going to learn a lot more about the cosmology of World of Warcraft, but the potential and opportunity to stay grounded in those little stories no matter how large the scope or scale becomes is always amazing. Things that aren’t going to be ending the world, but are really fun to explore. There’s all new ecologies and different types of cultures to explore within Zerith Mortis. One of my favorites are the little creatures called Automa, which are these constructs left behind by the progenitors. I’m sure you saw some of the video footage of them, but they’re very interesting creatures in their own right, and they have their own language we are going to explore as we uncover the secrets of Zerith Mortis, something presented as a system in the outdoor world called the Cipher of the First Ones.
We will make a little friend, some Automa buddies, that will come along on our journeys with us. They’ll make little sounds and have symbols that we’ll slowly discover how to interpret and understand as we learn more about this place and about what has been happening here before we showed up. “What were they building in this place? What happened before we were here?” Those little side stories are always exciting for us to explore. We have a lot of fun developing the characters and that’s always something we’re looking at opportunities for. People love those little side stories. They love those big epic stories involving Sylvanas and the Jailer, but they also want to know “what’s going on in the little woods over here? Who am I going to find in that point of interest over there?”
Q: What was it like designing encounters in these crazy high-concept places like the Sepulcher of the First Ones in comparison to a more grounded concept, like the siege of a city?
Day: That’s a great question. That’s always something that keeps us on our toes, and is also something where we are always looking for opportunities with the story we are telling. Using specific examples, this place was really the origins of the Shadowlands, and while you know the Shadowlands is high-concept cosmology, there are some things you can dig in there that become really tangible and easily understandable–and transferable into an encounter.
So one of the ones I think is really interesting is, as you dive into the Sepulcher of the First Ones, one of the encounters you’ll come into is–I’m going to use nomenclature I shouldn’t–but this is the area where they’re “3D printing” the different creatures and objects around the world. What would you have seen in those areas? These prototypes, these experiments the progenitors might have been looking into. So one of the encounters is actually different prototypes of the Pantheon of Death we’ve seen. So, you’ll actually encounter a prototype version of Denathrius within the Sepulcher of the First Ones. And that’s really fun to play around with because you’re familiar with Denathrius–we’ve seen him fight at this point–but what would an incomplete version of that look like, or a version that is a little bit mixed between the finished product we saw? And something that is maybe using more progenitor magic–which I love to call “Math Magic'' because they’re throwing shapes at you. So, there are tons of opportunities to find lots of things we feel we can translate in a very understandable way that also has exciting gameplay attached to it while the cosmic story is taking place.
Danuser: Whenever we’re developing a new raid or dungeon or anything like that, the encounter and narrative folks spend a lot of time together just talking through ideas and characters. It really is awesome to see them take these concepts and really bring them to life in some of the most visceral gameplay we have in terms of a group of friends getting together to fight some boss, and how do the mechanics help tell that story. It’s a super fun challenge, and it’s something that really energizes the team, to get together and jam on those ideas, and let those best ideas rise to the top.
Q: If you had to pick, what would be the favorite encounter you’ve ever designed, and do you think any of the fights in the Sepulcher of the First Ones top them?
Day: I can’t pick a favorite child, that’s too tough! But I think there’s several in the Sepulcher that are going to be really exciting. When it comes to encounter design, there’s the exciting mechanics, and executing the encounter is super fun, but when you have something really memorable and tangible as a starting point, it really multiplies everything. So when you look at something like the Anduin encounter–Anduin has such equity with the players, so when you have that, where it’s so memorable and you can tie that into mechanics that play into the fantasy of “What is Anduin?” Well, he’s a priest; well he’s also got this Domination magic, and we’ve seen how that has played out in gameplay throughout the Shadowlands. When you marry that fantasy with those mechanics, along with all the equity Anduin has as a character, I feel like that just becomes this multiplicative factor where you really can create something truly memorable.
From previous expansions, I look at an encounter like Mekkatorque. This is a character we know and love, and you take that fun, exciting character, and you tie it with these weird puzzles because he’s a tinker, and you’re constantly having to solve puzzles in the middle of the encounter to save your allies–or prevent yourself from exploding. When you tie those two things together, it really creates something unique, so I’m really excited for Anduin for all those reasons. And of course Zovaal, but I don’t want to talk too much about that fight, because I feel like there’s a lot of spoilers that will take place during that encounter.
That’s something we’re always looking to push ourselves on, is that ability to tie narrative in with the gameplay, especially when it comes to the final encounter of the raid. Like in "Chains of Domination", where a whole three-act play in itself took place, where we were at the top of Torghast, and then we saw Oribos get chained to Torghast, and then we travelled to Oribos–that whole journey we went on as a player is something we’re always looking to achieve.
Danuser: One thing I would add is that by having the story planned in advance, by knowing where we wanted to end up through this arc, we were able to lay hints early on in Shadowlands that will come to fruition, even all the way to the fight against the Jailer. It takes years to build these expansions, so seeing all of that come to life, to have those ideas and concepts early on, and now finally see them in game coming to life, it’s a huge thrill and a lot of fun.
Day: When we see players guess a little bit of where we are going, that’s exciting. It’s like “Yes!” We plant these little seeds in hopes of foreshadowing some of the events that are going to take place, so when we see people pick up on that, that’s really exciting. If everyone was completely surprised, then from our perspective, it is like, “Oh, maybe our hints weren’t loud enough,” and “We could have done more there,” but to have this journey we are going on together really feel organic, it should make sense.
Danuser: It’s super fun to see what they get right, and super fun to see what they got wrong because they jumped to other conclusions, so it’s a lot of fun.
Q: Are there any dream encounters you never got to make? Any characters who aren’t around anymore, or who a boss fight isn’t feasible for, like Lor’themar or Thrall?
Day: Steve, who do you want to punch that we haven’t had the chance to punch yet?
Danuser: Well, we do have those discussions about who we should be punching, and the great thing is, as long as those characters are still in the universe, or somewhere in the Shadowlands, who knows what the future will bring? There’s always opportunities to do something about that. There’s so much groundwork we’ve laid in "Eternity’s End" to have a kind of universe of possibilities. We’re adding another layer to the cosmology, a wrapper if you will, that shows how the First Ones architected not only the Shadowlands, but the cosmos beyond, and those are storylines that set up all kinds of possibilities for down the road.
Day: One of the areas we’ve had to tackle and grapple with a little bit is at a certain point is the literal scale of things gets pretty wild. Just thinking back to Legion, when we were encountering the Burning Legion, we were talking early on about, “So, Sargeras… What do we do? I’ve seen pictures, he’s the size of a planet. How does that work?” So there’s certainly challenges we’ve had to grapple with. The story’s one thing, but we have to sell this idea. We have to make it fun to fight in-game, and how do we marry those things together. So those are always fun discussions to have.
Q: One character who wasn't in the trailer was Tyrande, whose story is intrinsically tied to Sylvanas because of the events that kicked off Battle for Azeroth. Are players going to see the resolution to that conflict, especially after their scene with Elune in "Chains of Domination?"
Danuser: From the events of Battle for Azeroth, through the beginning of Shadowlands, and through things we’ve seen all along the way, Tyrande and Sylvanas have been on this collision course. We saw them fight it out in that opening scenario in "Chains of Domination," and yes, even though she didn’t appear in that video, I assure you, her storyline, and that intersection with Sylvanas, is pivotal to the events of "Eternity’s End." Without spoilers, I would say those two figures have a lot to - I don’t know if “resolve” is the right word, because can you ever resolve something that happens on the scale of an entire civilization nearly being wiped out? There is going to be some very heavy interaction between those characters, and that is pivotal to the final conclusion of how "Eternity’s End" and the Shadowlands saga wraps up.
Q: If you had to pick one or even a few, who are your favorite characters from Warcraft history?
Danuser: That’s a big question. And, like Morgan said, if I answer wrong, people will say “See, that’s favoritism!” What I will say is that, while I love the established characters, like Sylvanas, Jaina, and Anduin, who have all that history you can tap into, all those emotional cores you can really reach the audience with, I also really enjoy characters who rise up through the course of an expansion and become beloved in that way. So, for me, I look back fondly on many of the smaller characters, like Runas from Legion, where you got to adventure with him and see him fade away at the end in the pools. Brother Zelling, in Battle for Azeroth, where we got to see this guy die and see his family, and he tries to reach out for them and they reject him, the arc he has in there–it’s those kinds of stories that are also exciting to me, and just as fun as playing with these established franchise characters.
Day: Again, hard to pick a favorite, but I will say I always love to see the characters the community takes a liking to that we might not have even expected. We have our own favorites as we develop characters internally, especially as we’re working on a new expansion, where we’re like “What will people think of this character? I don’t know, we’ll see soon!” Like the story of, as the community affectionately calls him “Zappy Boi”, as he was introduced in a cinematic and has actually had quite a bit of character development since then. I always love those small characters that grow to have a larger role.
I guess it isn’t so much a character as it is a culture, but I love the stewards. There’s just something about them I think is adorable. Just the way they speak, their culture, teaching them to fly, you just really feel a connection with them. Also, their animations are some of my favorites. I think the stewards are awesome. I don’t think… we didn’t punch any. No, we didn’t punch any. Do we need to make an evil steward?
Danuser: There’s some dark stewards in Torghast that are pretty scary. When you have that giant, bulked-up owl? That’s nasty, you don’t want to see them as you’re turning a corner in Torghast!
Day: That’s true, that’s actually a good point. Make it really big; that owl’s scarily swole. Should have had one of those in the Sanctum of Domination, missed opportunity there!
[END]
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available on PC. "Eternity's End" is currently in development.