Something happened in World of Warcraft: The War Within that caught my attention. One might scream: “Mary Sue!!!” or conclude Theorycrafting: Ethereal Allied Race.
When the expansion launched, everyone was on the edge of their seat not knowing for a fact whether Khadgar died or not. Many had the hope that he survived, but seeing his body disintegrate into energy seemed a finito moment for him. Khadgar is done.
However, later during the level 80 endgame questline finale in the Priory of the Sacred Flame, Alleria struck the Dark Heart with an arrow — damaging it. It leaked energy long enough for Khadgar to escape the Dark Heart.
In Dornogal, and now sitting on an arcane-made wheelchair, Khadgar reveals that right before he was consumed by the Dark Heart, he transmuted his body into pure energy. We took this casual explanation at face value without thinking about it twice. He’s the heir to the Last Guardian, Medivh. Why bother to think too deeply? Right? Believe-it-seal-of-approval. Khadgar said so, so I believe it. Flip the page.
It is just too convenient and too Mary Sue to think Khadgar capable of transmuting his own body into pure energy and then re-materialize back to normal without any side effects. Well… with jellyfish-soft spinal cord it seems, but close enough. It’s been several patches since the 11.0 endgame questline finale, but Khadgar still remains in his wheelchair without further development on his condition or improvement to walk again.
Theorycrafting: Ethereal Allied Race
The concept of theorycrafting new races or new classes… or even a new race-class combo (cough, Dracthyr) is a natural thing to do because Blizzard Entertainment has come up with them with a specific purpose in the expansion’s lore to help us face specific enemies or threats where their skillset or knowledge comes handy.
In World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade the Blood Elves helped us face their leader Kael’Thas and the Draenei guided us in Shattrath to Illidan and the Legion.
In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King the Death Knight was introduced as a new hero class to help us fight against the Lich King with a special set of skills against the undead.
In World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, both factions welcomed the Pandaren race as an ally to search for Anduin on a mysterious island with unique challenges.
In World of Warcraft: Legion, Blizzard Entertainment introduced the Demon Hunter as a new ally to fight the Burning Legion.
In Battle for Azeroth, we saw the introduction of Allied Races: Highmountain, Nightborne, Void Elves, and Lightforged Draenei.
Finally, Dragonflight introduced the Dracthyr to face the threat of the Primordials.
The World of Warcraft: Worldsoul Saga trilogy is setting us up toward some major showdown against the Void Lords in World of Warcraft: Midnight allegedly. The War Within expansion introduced us to the new Earthen allied race.
Has anyone thought about what potential new Allied Race or Race we might get in World of Warcraft: Midnight?
All we know about that upcoming expansion is that Quel’Thalas is getting a zone revamp and that all Elven races have been invited to the assembly. Of course, also that a big Void invasion is a threat, and that Undermine Raid cinematic gave us a glimpse into what the Ethereal villain who stole the Dark Heat is up to. Allegedly, that background is likely K’aresh — homeworld of the Ethereals, currently controlled by Dimensius the All-Devouring.
Either we are getting a new Ethereal playable race… or an Allied Race. In this case, Khadgar casually transmuting his body into pure energy and back to his material form screams Allied Race to me. An Allied Race able to transform into an Ethereal and switch back to its original form like the Worgen do.
Creating a new Ethereal Race introduces its own can-of-worms limitations. Say like having to build the level 1-10 starting zone in K’aresh. You solve that issue by introducing an Allied Race that is local to Azeroth. Hence… Khadgar transmuting into pure energy.
Khadgar could teach mages of every race how to transmute into pure arcane energy as a way to fight the Ethereals and the Void in their own turf, here on Azeroth, and abroad.
This Ethereal Allied Race doesn’t need to be a K’aresh Ethereal. It is the simple and logical way but not the only one. The Ethereal Allied Race doesn’t need to be only mages either. By story mechanics, Khadgar could invent an Ethereal race using a similar mechanic to his own transformation. Build something similar to the Dark Heart. Or… repurpose something akin that already exists.
The Dragon Soul used in the Cataclysm expansion might still be around. Probably empty after Thrall used it against Deathwing. If empty nowadays, the Dragon Soul shell might be filled with Arcane magic. Any able-bodied volunteer could be absorbed by this device infused by Khadgar, then returned as an Ethereal being that can transmute back to its original form: Orc, Goblin, Tauren, Human, High Elf, Dwarf, etc.
The Heart of Azeroth amulet is empty at the moment, as the Azerite it formerly absorbed was returned back to the worldsoul. A more natural device for Khadgar to use in this arcane transmutation experiment is to infuse the empty shell of the Heart of Azeroth amulet with arcane energies and Azerite. Then use it as a tesseract where to transport volunteers to cook in the new Ethereal allied race.
It would make sense that the Worldsoul is involved in the transmutation experiment. The Azeroth Worldsoul changed the Earthen with free will and gained extraordinary powers. The Azeroth Worldsoul blessed the Dragon Aspects in the Dragonflight expansion. It would then make sense the new Ethereals have Azeroth Worldsoul’s blessing as well to combat K’aresh’s ethereals.
