Warning: Spoilers for World of Warcraft: The War Within Patch 11.1, Undermined, below
Summary
- Patch 11.2 may take players to the lost Ethereal homeworld of K’aresh in the Void.
- The Dark Heart was repossessed by a separate Ethereal faction, hinting at a K’aresh setting.
- Patch 11.2 is expected this summer; fans theorize the role of Ethereals in The War Within.
World of Warcraft may have just teased that fans could be heading into the Void itself in Patch 11.2 – potentially even to the lost Ethereal homeworld of K’aresh. Though Patch 11.1 has only just been released, World of Warcraft is already setting things up for the next major content update for The War Within.
The first part of the World of Warcraft: The War Within Patch 11.1 story launched on February 25. During the campaign, the Dark Heart, a relic that was being repaired by Jastor Gallywix as part of a deal with Xal’atath, was repossessed by a group of Ethereals led by Phase-Thief Azir, ostensibly working on the latter’s orders.
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However, now that the rest of the Undermine(d) story is available in World of Warcraft, some surprising twists have complicated matters – and revealed what may be the setting of Patch 11.2. In one of the cinematics in the campaign, Xal’atath confronts Gallywix in order to retrieve the Dark Heart, where it is revealed that the Ethereals were not her agents, but rather a separate faction. Then, near the end of the epilogue cinematic after Gallywix’s defeat, Azir can be seen with the Dark Heart somewhere in the Void, overlooking a glowing vortex surrounded by shattered stone. This has led many viewers to suspect this never-before-seen location may actually be K’aresh, the lost homeland of the Ethereals.
Is World of Warcraft Going to K’aresh in Patch 11.2?
Dimensius the All-Devouring, a powerful Void Lord with a connection to Xal’atath, was responsible for destroying K’aresh in the history of World of Warcraft. According to Locus-Walker during the Harbinger prologue ahead of World of Warcraft: The War Within, the people of K’aresh heard a “radiant song” similar to the one experienced by many on Azeroth in The War Within, suggesting the planet might have also been a Worldsoul before it was destroyed. Given the prevalence of Ethereals in the story, and the foreshadowing throughout the expansion thus far, it seems K’aresh will probably be a location visited in the Worldsoul Saga – possibly even in Patch 11.2 – and that the area glimpsed in the cutscene is likely a part of the planet.
It is important to note that very little has been officially confirmed about Patch 11.2 yet. While players will likely see this mysterious location again soon, it may not be K’aresh, or it could show up later in the story, rather than as the next patch zone. Either way, this revelation has sparked much theorycrafting among fans about the role of the Ethereals in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
According to the roadmap for World of Warcraft in 2025, Patch 11.2 is expected to arrive this summer. Two more content updates – Patch 11.1.5, tentatively titled “Nightfall,” and the unnamed Patch 11.1.7 – will take place in spring before then, so players can expect to see more hints about the next major content update soon, ahead of its official reveal.
In this opening chapter of The Worldsoul Saga, you’ll journey through never-before-seen subterranean worlds filled with hidden wonders and lurking perils, down to the dark depths of the Nerubian empire, where the inscrutable Harbinger of the Void has gathered her arachnid forces to bring Azeroth to its knees.