I failed to come up with a clever or relevant post title so I just slapped whatever song was currently playing on winamp in there. Now you know.
There aren’t a lot of cataclysm changes out yet, so there isn’t much to discuss there. We have some talent changes, and a whole bunch of zone things.
I do have to say, I love goblins. Flat out. Best addition to the horde ever. What other race would build a defensive cannon so large it can be seen from orbit? And just look at their sense of style! Banana wallpaper! Golf courses! Pineapple bedsheets!
What do the worgen have to compete with that, huh?
Oh right… top hats.
Those top hats better be available somehow horde side. I desperately require one, so that I may log off in a tux and top hat and look bloody spectacular on the armory. I suppose I could always throw on my haliscan set again. I did, after all, expend some effort for that sombrero back in the day. Did it solo and everything.
(Conspiracy hat mode)
What if, just what if, the Warcraft and Starcraft universes are actually the exact same universe?
Think about it.
It struck me a few weeks back that the draenei and protoss look almost exactly the same. Their body structures are nearly identical. They both have the exact same legs (protoss sans hooves), they both have glowing eyes, and their spines are near identical.
The protoss look like a somewhat stereotypical advanced space race looks like. Spindly limbs, thin body, that just somehow manages to look exactly like what the draenei would look like in a few million years, provided evolution functions in the warcraft/starcraft universe.
(It probably does, though we have no real evidence for it in either case. The Zerg evolve intentionally, and that hardly counts. Both protoss and zerg races were created. Everything in WoW was essentially created as is. Trolls seem to be the only thing that ever actually bothers to adapt to their surroundings. Everything else just says “fuck it, I’m a tiger, I don’t need to evolve” and remains unchanged.)
Consider also that all draenei can heal. They have a deep affinity for the light, and thus even the lowliest of sword grunts with no skills whatsoever can still wield holy magic. On the protoss side, all protoss have a deep affinity for various psionic abilities, where even their lowliest of sword grunts can still summon lethal blades from nothing.
Consider this picture of the Halls of Origination. Now compare that to this picture of the protoss central structure, the nexus.
You could say they look similar due to Blizzard pulling from Egyptian architecture in both cases. I say, there is no such thing as Egypt in-universe for either the warcraft or starcraft universes. So where did the common architecture come from?
Well? Who created most of the stuff on Azeroth? Who built the Halls of Origination? Who went in and created life, leaving behind guardians, elevating the dragons from mindless beasts to powerful, thinking creatures?
They’ve been called makers, creators, they are basically gods in the world of warcraft. The Titans. Effectively, they created Azeroth, birthing most, if not all, of the sentient life there.
Sound familiar? Was there, perhaps, an advanced race of mysterious beings in Starcraft that went about creating life? That created the protoss and the zerg? The Xel’Naga?
I posit that the Titans and Xel’Naga are one and the same.
Consider also the relative nature of the Burning Legion and the Zerg Swarm. Or, rather, the complete and total absence of any difference between the two.
Both the Legion and Swarm are hell bent on conquering everything.
Both are diametrically opposed to the draenei/protoss.
Both, lorewise, are assimilators. The zerg were originally just tiny, sentient bugs. They assimilate the DNA of other races, twisting and evolving them to suit the greater will of the Swarm. Anything that benefits the swarm is incorporated, the rest is erased from reality.
The Legion spread across the universe, either annihilating or assimilating everything in their path. Sometimes they meet a race such as the orcs, and bring them into the fold of the Legion. Everything else is simply destroyed.
Each individual zerg has their will bound to their master, the Overmind. Each individual warrior of the legion has their will bound to their master, Sargeras. In both cases this can be broken.
Sargeras physically led the Legion for millenia, until his physical body was (possibly) destroyed, rendering him little more than a driving will behind the Legion. Which is pretty much the definition of the Overmind.
Consider also that a cerebrate does not stay dead when killed. Unless slain by a Dark Templar, a cerebrate simply regenerates and reappears elsewhere.
*cough* MAL’GANIS *cough*
Critical QQ 
MIND = BLOWN
Nice speculation. Can you imagine the loregasm that would spontaneously occur in thousands of Blizzard players if they ever announced a combination Starcraft / WoW game?
/tinfoilhat
What if they already have/are? They have stated they are working on some new IP, possibly a new MMO, that isn’t any of their previous IPs.
Warcraft 4 is in the works…
Point the First: There’s a map, somewhere, floating around the intarwebtubes that shows several worlds in the Starcraft Universe. One of these worlds (a tiny insignificant speck, really) is marked Azeroth.
Point the Second: There is a Terra/Earth in the Starcraft Universe, so there is an Egypt. Of course, we all know the Egyptians were influenced by extra-terrestrials…not a huge leap to say that was the Titans/Xel’Naga dropping by Earth for a bit of formation? Most of what the Titans did was reshape planets to be able to support life and then create ordered, structured life on them. In the case of Earth, they would have found a planet already well-suited to life and even with primitive cultures running about. They drop in, make a tweak here, a nudge there and everything’s dandy.
Point the Third: Perhaps the Tauren Marine wasn’t quite the April Fool’s joke they made it out to be? Who’s to say a group of Tauren weren’t picked up when the Earthican forces mapped out where Azeroth was? If there was a sufficient sample size (say, a decent size village of 500-1000 individuals) they could easily have bred and thrived. There’s also advanced reproduction options like cloning, if the sample size was too small…
Just my gasoline to the fire.
Indeed, in-Starcraft Egypt (we can only assume it exists as it does here) would have to have gotten it’s inspiration from the xel’naga (or protoss) at some point.
There’s no way the protoss would have gotten their inspiration from humans.
It’s also worth pointing out that Tauren Marines actually do appear in-game in Starcraft 2. Supposedly an easter egg, hanging out near an isolated edge of the map, but still.
The denizens of World of Warcraft are already capable of intergalactic travel via portal magic (which, by the way, is exactly how both the protoss and zerg attain faster than light travel).
Hmm, that would be pretty awesome, though I think they wouldn’t announce a WoW/Starcraft game like that for a while since Starcraft II and it’s xpacs are lined up for the next 2/3 years possibly.
I was also thinking… I wish WoW was like Dot Hack (the anime minus the falling into a coma part), since that would be awesome.
Hydralisks are rather similar to naga, aren’t they? Felhounds and zerglings are nearly identical in physiology.
Ultralisks look an awful lot like magnataurs.
The evidence just keeps piling up.
Reminds me a bit of the speculation in Games Workshop’s Warhammer universes—the idea that the fantasy game and the sci-fi futuristic game are within the same universe has far stronger evidence there (several gods or nearly godlike beings are referenced in the canon of both universes, under the same names and with the same traits).
Why stop there? I vote we bring in Diablo’s Sanctuary world too. And the Lost Vikings. And Blackthorne. I will not rest until someone publishes an awful cross-universe fanfic where James Raynor goes back in time to play some pivotal role in the War of the Ancients, while Saurfang and Wirt hold off a Zergling rush on Shakuras. Gheed and Griftah get in a bidding war selling useless junk to willing player characters, and M’uru and Tyrael square off at the summit of Arreat to see who’s the badassest angel around. For the finale, Tassadar smashes the Gantrithror into the World Tree to destroy Diablo forever, but as the epic cinematic fades to black, we hear low, evil laughter keeping the way clear for a sequel.
James Rhonin, amirite?
This is quite possibly the greatest comment I’ve ever read.
As for the post title… .hack//sign had a slow pace, but is still one of my favorite shows. Music and scenery was absolutely beautiful.
Cerebrates are demons? Woah…
I’ll be honest.. I’m kind of pissed about what blizzard is doing to Azshara. Not because I’m anti-Horde or anything. I have two 80s, one of each faction. What annoys me is that it seemed to be the one truly forlorn area in the world. A place where magic used to be the norm (seriously, it’s like the perfect version of a belf area overgrown by nature and during autumn) which has fallen into ruin and disrepair. The epitome of a place to study an ancient magical culture for the pure sake of being a mage. I still use pig polymorph, because it still makes me laugh and remember doing the quest a little while after BC was released.
My first experience with Azshara was preBC. I never made it to the upper levels before the first xpac came out, but I did make it to Azshara.. and I fell in love. It just seemed so factionless, just like the woods an hour or two north of my home in Grand Rapids.
It just vexes me how it won’t be factionless anymore, that’s all.
All the same… I am so hanging out there if I faction xfer my mage to UD 😛 (I won’t go troll, because then I’d have to compete with you, and that’d be an epic fail on my part)
On the other hand, turning an abandoned, natural/magical paradise into a golf resort featuring race tracks is pretty much exactly what goblins do.
This is true. I hadn’t thought of it like that! Guess I’m going to be spending a lot of time there, because only in the virtual world could I enjoy golf.
Speaking of golf, have you seen Robin Williams’ stand up bit about the scottish and golf? If not, check youtube for it or I can find a link for you if you so desire.
I wonder if they’ll leave Archmage Xylem in his tower along with the pig polymorph quests.. I still want the guy’s shoulders ;P
Starcraft and Warcraft.
We shall call it:
StarWars………craft.
In all seriousness though, I agree with everything. The two are one and the same, and someday, far from now, Blizzard will unveil the true awesomeness of the merged universe that, even now, inspires reflection and quickens thought amongst the educated of our culture.
Tauren will hoist the Gauss Rifles of the stars, and the zerg will rise from the dead under the command of the Lich Overmind.
The final battle will truly have begun.
Now, one could simply write it off as Blizz stealing from themselves… but why bother when conspiracy is so much more fun!
/tinfoilhat
I, for one, cannot wait for the arrival of our new Zerg Overmind leaders. ^_^
I think you like the SC2 beta…
There is indeed a map.
Previously taken from the official Starcraft2 website, before beign pulled. It’s not clear if the identical naming is a coincidence, or something more…
So we can assume that the Horde was wiped out.
The humans are the superior race on the world, and that they’ve enslaved gnomes to continue technical progression.
They also lost control of magic, massacred the Night Elves and Dwarfs, and only the Draenei escaped thanks to their space vehicles?
The Draenei always escape. Always.
How do you truly kill a race that has access to magical spaceships with godlike energy beings protecting them at every turn?
On a sidenote, have you seen the Worgen animations?
I mean, I’m a fan and all, but … good lord. I had hoped they’d be less pretty. Worgen Rogues will be the new Blood Elf Paladin. Times fifty. Like, there will be BG’s where the entire Alliance side is nothing but Worgen Rogues and the odd Worgen Warrior.
Ret paladins destroy rogues though. So all those belf paladins should keep their population in check.
All the Belf Pallies will racechange to Tauren Pallies.
But … yeah, they will.
Please
Zerg = Slithid
possibly after being absorbed by the scourge.
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