A conversation between @1990Sanji and World of WarCraft creative director Alex Afrasiabi has revealed a pretty shocking piece of information about how the alternate Draenor we’ve spent the past several months on works. Namely, the Burning Legion there is the same Legion we’ve been facing back on Azeroth and Outland. Even more shocking, the Archimonde and Mannoroth we’ll be fighting in patch 6.2 are the same ones from WarCraft III! The implications behind this are staggering. Read on after the jump to see the full conversation and find out more.

Archimonde and the Infinite Legion, a Potential Lore Revelation

The full twitter conversation between @1990Sanji and Afrasiabi can seen below, and read on twitter here.

@1990Sanji | 22h
@Abrosiabi @DaveKosak is Hellfire Archimonde from the AU or MU?
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Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi – @Abrosiabi | 15h
@1990Sanji @DaveKosak that’s not how demons work.
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 6h
@Abrosiabi @DaveKosak could you explain how demons work then? There’s been a lot of changes and revelations since TBC.
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Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi@Abrosiabi
@1990Sanji @DaveKosak Its really not a Twitter convo. There’s a lot going on that we as inhabitants of Azeroth don’t understand about demons9:31 AM – 6 Jun 2015
Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak right but we’re asking if Archimonde this patch is from the AU or the one we killed at Hyjal.
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak because previous tweets have stated that we’re dealing with an alternate universe legion.
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak but the wording from the journal, previews, and you imply there’s only one legion in all universes.
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak that instead of Archimonde dying for good, he is able to travel across universes AND the past.
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak do you understand our confusion?
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Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi – @Abrosiabi | 4h
@1990Sanji@DaveKosak Archimonde is a demon whose demon soul is anchored to the Nether. The Nether transcends all realities. That is all.
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Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi – @Abrosiabi | 4h
@1990Sanji@DaveKosak no tweet I am aware of implies that. Not saying you’re wrong just saying I haven’t seen it.
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak So this Archimonde we’re facing is the one from Hyjal? Does he remember that fight?
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak Most of us assumed that there was a Nether per universe. When did it change to being the same across universes?
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Johnny Duggan @1990Sanji | 3h
@Abrosiabi@DaveKosak does this extend to Old Gods? As in there’s only one Cthun, Yogg, N-Zoth, etc.
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Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi – @Abrosiabi | 3h
@1990Sanji@DaveKosak Old Gods don’t work like that. Haha, sorry couldn’t resist. But seriously, they’re different. Done for today!

 

He also added some individual replies which give further clarification and raise further questions.

Nazja – @Trike_Dealer | 3h
@Abrosiabi @1990Sanji @DaveKosak Sorry to intrude, but if there are multiple universes, isn’t it likely that an Archimonde was born in (c)
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Nazja Nazja – @Trike_Dealer | 3h
@Abrosiabi @1990Sanji @DaveKosak and corrupted in more than one of these universes? What happened with the “extra” demonic copies? (c)
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Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi@Abrosiabi
@Trike_Dealer@1990Sanji@DaveKosak that’s actually a very good question with a complicated answer. Archimonde the Avenger?? He exist?10:35 AM – 6 Jun 2015

 

And a response refuting that this contradicts established lore.

@1990Sanji | 4h
@Abrosiabi @DaveKosak because previous tweets have stated that we’re dealing with an alternate universe legion.
View conversation·

Alex Afrasiabi Alex Afrasiabi@Abrosiabi
@1990Sanji@DaveKosak no tweet I am aware of implies that. Not saying you’re wrong just saying I haven’t seen it.9:41 AM – 6 Jun 2015

 

As I said, the implications are wide reaching. Archimonde wasn’t killed at the end of the Third War. Neither was Mannoroth. Defeating them in WoD won’t kill them either (though there is speculation we might find a way to permanently take out Archimonde via the Twisting Nether this time). This means the Burning Legion is an even greater threat than we could ever have imagined. How many universes have they already destroyed? How does there being only one Legion and one of each demon shared across universes work?

From what these tweets have given us, I have a theory on how the Burning Legion works. The Legion, and demons in general, are essentially an army of Lutece twins from BioShock: Infinite. The Burning Legion exists in a plane connected to all universes and timelines, but part of none. Impossible to destroy and able to manifest in any reality they choose, the Legion attacks and re-attacks every universe. Each time they try different tactics, testing weaknesses, finding constants and variables across timelines. Eventually the day will come when in one universe they hit upon success. Then, armed with that knowledge, all realities will fall before them.

Now that’s just a theory and the only official information we have are these seven tweets by Afrasiabi. It’s also possible that come the start of the work week Dave Kosak could say there’s been a miscommunication and none of this is accurate. Bits of information from the 6.2 PTR and pre-release information do corroborate Afrasiabi’s statements, though. Archimonde is described as having traveled “across time and space” to face us in Hellfire Citadel while a dev commentary said he has “learned a number of nasty new tricks since (the Battle of Mount Hyjal).” There is also 6.2’s new world-boss, the familiar Supreme Lord Kazzak. His dungeon journal states Kazzak “has emerged from the Twisting Nether once again,” the Nether’s existence independent of alternate universes being Afrasiabi’s reasoning for why these are the same demons from the original timeline.

While waiting for confirmation, we can speculate and try to make sense of this new information. If correct and handled correctly, this would change everything we thought we knew about the Burning Legion and create many interesting possibilities for future lore. Other questions are again raised. Does Archimonde remember the Third War, or does living in all realities leave one’s perception of time so different from ours that questions like that irrelevant? Are there good Archimondes out here, as Afrasiabi wondered? How does that work if there should be only one? Does becoming a demon make it so you exist in all realities as a singular entity, and you’re separate before that? It would explain how there can be an alternate universe Velen but not an alternate universe Archimonde.

Hopefully we’ll be given more information on the subject in the future. In the meantime, I’ll leave you all with a quote from another eredar, Prince Malchezaar, said in The Burning Crusade. “All realities, all dimensions are open to me!

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Ian Bates

World of Warcraft Writer and columnist for Blizzplanet. I am also known as The Red Shirt Guy (BlizzCon).

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