World of Warcraft: The War Within isn't just another chapter in the 20-year history of the venerable MMORPG.
This is Blizzard's first attempt at a multi-expansion arc of stories, a trilogy called The Worldsoul Saga. In the War Within, the first expansion of the trilogy, we collect some of Azeroth's biggest names and delve underground to fight against the evil Void creature Xal'atath, best known for being smoking hot and wielding an evil smirk (and unbridled power stolen from about everyone).
But this isn't just a fight between the forces of light and darkness; appropriate to the title, it's also a battle within most of the main characters.
Former dwarven king Magni Bronzebeard was turned to diamond back in Cataclysm, a sacrifice he didn't mind making when the world soul inside Azeroth was using him as its speaker. Now that she's not nearly so chatty, he's questioning why he did all this to begin with.
"So let's be clear," he says in one of the pre-patch questlines. "I'm doing this for all of you. Not for her." Perhaps unsurprisingly, when he attempts to commune with her a few seconds later, he gets smacked down.
On the bright side, his injuries (deliberately?) bring his family closer together, and the Bronzebeards have never really seen eye to eye. His daughter Moira has never really forgiven him for arranging the killing of her beloved husband Emperor Thaurissan – who, granted, kidnapped her to start – by players. Her bookish son Dagran, who plays a larger role in The War Within, is about as far from his warlike mom and gran'da as you could imagine. As The War Within starts, the looming question is, what is it going to take to bring this family together again?
Family is also on the mind of our favorite former orcish warchief, the shaman Thrall. He has once again been brought back from retirement, this time by the jarring visions sent by the World Soul. The short story Trials, released before The War Within, describes his inner questions about the old orcish tradition of om'gora, the dangerous hunt that marks the beginning of adulthood.
Thrall is mostly a secondary player so far in The World Within, but this short story about his children hints that perhaps, like Dagran and the Bronzebeards, we're about to see a new generation of leaders step up from that family.
At the start of the expansion we see Thrall seek out former human king Anduin Wrynn in the deserts of Silithus, who then joins the former warchief in the delve underground.
Anduin's inner struggle is one of the main storylines in the expansion. After he was forced to do terrible things as the mind-controlled prisoner of the Jailer in the Shadowlands, he vanished to deal with the guilt and the shame. He apparently didn't get far, as when Thrall finds him in Silithus, he is also troubled by the visions of Azeroth, still tormented, and unwilling or unable to call on the power of the Light.
As he begins The War Within, he's left his kingdom in the hands of Regent Lord Turalyon, and it's clear throughout the early questlines that he is wrestling with his doubts and questioning if he's worthy to be king or even to be a wielder of the Light.
Guilt also plays a role in the story of Alleria, who is back in a very prominent role in The War Within. This elven sister of Sylvanas Windrunner sacrificed her position as Ranger General of Silvermoon and even her relationship with her son to fight the demon hordes of the Legion—a big deal when you and your kind live to be thousands of years old.
She embraced the po wers of the Void to hold off the demons, getting instruction from the ethereal Locus-Walker, and her abilities appear to be the only thing so far that can touch the World Soul Saga's Big Bad Guy, Xal'atath.
But during a crucial moment at the start of the expansion, she is unable to use them to fight off Xal'atath and stop a Very Bad Thing (no spoilers!) from happening. Torn by that and the mystery of what's happened to one of her closest friends, she spends much of the early part of the story single-mindedly focusing on hunting Xal'atath down—because if she can't, what was all of this sacrifice really for?
Xal'atath's own plans and desires, other than consuming everything for the Void, are still a bit unclear this early in the saga. She's come a long way since she was a disembodied voice inhabiting the evil dagger used by Shadow Priests in Legion. In the prepatch storylines, she talks the princess of the spider-like Nerubians into killing her own queen mother, and that new leader serves as the boss of the expansion's first raid instance, Nerub-ar Palace.
The only thing we do know for sure is that our heroes are taking the battle to Xal'atath over the next three expansions, starting in the underground zones of Khaz Algar in The War Within.
