Now that we’re all aware that we won’t really be able to roll Nagasaurs (damn it!) and Blizzcon’s closed its doors for another year, I want to touch — briefly and tangentially — on the idea of the upcoming Cataclysm.

First, a disclaimer: while I’m sure there will be lore aplenty and all kinds of speculation over the months leading up to the expansion, we still have in all likelihood a year before its official launch. This means anything and everything is subject to change. I’m not sure how much we’ll discuss it here — I’m personally very interested to see the story bits as they come out, but as for the mechanics (guild achievements, changes to stats, etc)… they don’t hold as much interest for me. (Yva or Bricu might have some neat musings on those things, though, which is the beauty of co-blogging.)

Second disclaimer: spoilers of a minor nature within. I’m not going into great detail, but if you spent last weekend hiding behind a rock to avoid news about the expansion (much like I did when the last Harry Potter book came out), you might want to click away now.

Hokay. Are they gone?

Here we go.

One of the things that interests me very much is, broadly, the idea of change. We’ve been questing and RPing in what is a fairly static world for the last four years. The phasing system helped with that in this most recent expansion, and several times, they used it to great effect. Think about the starter quests for the Death Knights, when between one phase and another the world turns red with the blood of Havenshire’s citizens. Or, out in Icecrown, how you get to witness the construction of Crusaders’ Pinnacle.

But Old-World Azeroth has been largely static. Stormwind Harbor was a brilliant addition, as was the opening of Eversong Woods and Silvermoon City, but for the most part, the world remains completely unchanged. The skies over Stormwind darkened during the pre-Wrath Zombiepocalypse, when Arthas sent his minions to attack, but once that event was done the city went right back to normal.

More years ago than I care to mention, I played in the beta for Asheron’s Call. My favorite part, since it was my first experience with an MMO, was running from town to town and being a tourist. As the beta wound down and the official game-launch approached, an ominous, omenous comet appeared in the sky. All over the world, things started changing. Cities that had previously been sanctuaries were suddenly overrun by monsters or engulfed in flames.

I still, somewhere, have a screenshot entitled “Rithwic Burns.” When I’m less full of fail, I’ll dig it up.

What made it so very cool was the idea that anything could change, that it was a mistake to take that world for granted, and that the next time you logged on, something might be vastly different.

With WoW, the only sweeping changes that happened came during content patches or over the course of a few days’ questing. Once you got to the end of a chain and the phasing was done, though, that was it; the world settled onto its foundations and stayed that way for your characters. Any changes in their IC environment had to be in the players’ imaginations: shop burnt down during the Zombiepocalypse? You have to emote the scorch marks and ruined timbers, post the tale of it and ask your fellow RPers to imagine along with you, or explain it to someone in whispers during a random encounter.

So now, we’re headed for upheaval on a very grand scale: Deathwing’s rise is going to break the world — floods and fires, once-dead places suddenly in-bloom, what once was green becoming barren. A wall long sealed cracking and spilling forth its very-altered inhabitants.

Oh, the RP opportunities.

Sure, once the expansion is launched, the landscape won’t be shifting on a weekly (or even monthly) basis, but the initial tumult is going to leave most of our characters reeling for a good long time. It’s a chance to strip them of things they’d once thought solid, eternal. Or to make them rediscover what they’d forgotten was most important. Will they try and rebuild? Will they take the opportunity for vengeance and set out to destroy? Will they simply walk away, let everyone believe them dead in the wreckage and start over completely?

It’s true that it doesn’t require the developers shifting pixels around for us to do these things. If you want to turn your character’s lives upside-down right now, you have the power to do it at any moment. But the idea of it happening on a global scale is what’s intriguing. Everyone will be witness to these events. Not a single person will be unaffected by the drastic changes. Even if, say, Stormwind somehow escapes unscathed, its citizens will still feel the far-reaching effects.

Obviously, we have a long way to go. We can try predicting where our characters will be in a year, but we still have a pissed-off Lich King sitting up there in Northrend, biding his time. So, rather than asking what RP plans you’re making from an expansion, I’m inviting you to toss out things you’d love to see affected by the Cataclysm. It can be stuff that’s already been confirmed at Blizzcon or your own wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if type of speculation.

Mine?

Nagasaurs.

Okay okay. I’d like to see the redemption or reclamation of some of the lands that have been in ruins for years and years — Duskwood, or even just a corner of the Plaguelands, maybe some of the Dead Scar up in Eversong. Imagine being one of the inhabitants of that area and finally seeing your homeland heal, just a little. How would those citizens celebrate, especially when some of their gain might have come at the expense of a neighboring area? Say, Darkshire becomes sunny Grand Hamlet once more, but every day they have refugees pouring in from the now-shattered Lakeshire.

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