World of Warcraft’s 5.2 patch brought with it a new batch of undead elf cultists. Found in the Felwood forests, the elves are worshipping Zoltan a chap intrinsically linked to the Burning Legion.
The new models, their subtle introduction to the game, and comments made by Blizzard’s Chris Metzen all point to the developer’s next expansion being Burning Legion related.
Redditors discovered the undead worshippers in Felwood following the release of the 5.2 patch. What made the elves stand out as something a tad special is that they’ve a new model to the standard elf, showing that an artist was assigned the task of creating the new content. Clearly, Blizzard see them as worth spending a little time on, suggesting they’re not just an incidental addition.
The elves are worshippers of Zoltan, a master pet trainer found in Felwood. His three pets – a blue beholder called Beamer, a legion destructor named Hatewalker, and an infernal called Ultramus – are all creatures linked to the Burning Legion, an infernal army that wish nothing more than to raze Azeroth to the ground.
This suggests that Blizzard have plans to grow a new strand of content in World of Warcraft that’s Burning Legion related. It’s all quite minor evidence at the moment, though. However, at the Mists of Pandaria launch party in Irvine, Virginia, Chris Metzen, senior vice-president of creative development at Blizzard, said that they had plans to continue Turalyon and Alleria stories in the MMO’s next expansion. Both were Alliance characters who tried to take the fight against the Burning Legion to the demon’s doorsteps. It failed and there’s been no word of them since that failed assault.
It does suggest that Blizzard are looking at building towards an expansion focused on the Burning Legion and these elves in Felwood could become a part of that. We’ll need to see if future patches drop more hints of a Burning Legion flavour.