“Prepare for Major Character Losses in World of Warcraft’s Worldsoul Saga”

This year’s Midnight expansion kicks off the second chapter of World of Warcraft’s transformative Worldsoul Saga, and it’s set to bring some heart-wrenching moments, whether they hit now or later. Celebrating two decades of the MMORPG, this epic multi-part narrative is bound to see some beloved characters meet their end.

“There will be important characters that do not survive the trilogy,” shared Maria Hamilton, the design director for World of Warcraft. “It’ll be a lot of death, I’m afraid. Those are hard decisions. We have arguments about, ‘Is this the right time? What will we do with that person gone?'”

Right now, the champions of Azeroth are uniting against Xal’athat, a cosmic entity from the Void, in a desperate bid to stave off total darkness. This trilogy, which began with The War Within and will conclude with The Last Titan, is building toward an epic showdown between the forces of light and the encroaching shadows, all while delving deep into the rich lore of Warcraft.

Crafting a story like this demands high stakes, and it’s refreshing to see the team at Blizzard fully embracing that challenge. Evolving a game of this magnitude means accepting that nothing is permanent, regardless of how long players have been invested. While nothing is guaranteed, these kinds of twists can make the journey all the more rewarding.

And rest assured, nothing is being overlooked, even if it takes a while to resurface. “Sometimes Chekhov’s Gun, or Chekhov’s Sword as the case may be, is going to lie there for a couple of expansions before something comes of it,” noted Ion Hazzikostas, the game director, referencing the massive blade that was embedded in the planet during Legion back in 2016. “Get used to that.”

It’s an exciting time to be a WoW player, without a doubt. Midnight is set to launch on March 2.