There’s an elephant in the room in every discussion of World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion, Midnight. Or should I say, a sword. A really, really big sword.
I’m talking about the Sword of Sargeras, an absolutely colossal weapon bigger than a mountain that Sargeras stabbed into the planet several expansions ago and has since just been sitting there, unaddressed, probably doing something awful to the planet.
For years now, WoW fans have been asking if we were ever going to, you know, do something about that. And Blizzard has been very, very coy when asked. But answers are coming, says game director Ion Hazzikostas, if not in Midnight, then at least by the end of the Worldsoul Saga.
As a recap, the Sword of Sargeras is the sword of, well, the Titan Sargeras, which he stabbed directly into the planet at the end of WoW’s Legion expansion as he’s being kicked out of Azeroth. Initially, it’s poisoning the planet, but players use their Legion Artifact weapons to suck out the poison and buy the planet time before the sword does…something to it. Though the sword was discussed further in the following expansion, Battle for Azeroth, it’s since been largely forgotten from a plot standpoint. Instead, it’s just…sitting there in the middle of Silithus.
And really, I can’t emphasize enough, this thing is huge. You can see it from several zones away! Doesn’t anyone think this is a problem?
At BlizzCon 2023, when the Worldsoul Saga was announced, there was a brief moment of joy that Blizzard might finally pull the sword from the planet, or at least do something with it. There was an enormous statue of the sword in the convention hall, complete with the meme-ified “What sword?” caption. Hazzikostas even wore a shirt emblazoned with “What Sword?”. At the time, Warcraft executive creative director Chris Metzen confirmed that we would see the resolution of the Sword Problem in the final piece of the trilogy, The Last Titan.
But The Last Titan can’t come soon enough, and The War Within and everything we’ve seen of Midnight so far remain notably sword-less. So in a conversation with Hazzikostas and WoW lead UX designer Crash Reed, I asked them about the sword. What’s the deal? Will we finally do something about it in Midnight?
“What sword?” both of them intoned in response, simultaneous and predictable. I laughed. Yeah, okay. I deserved that.
But Hazzikostas did go on. We will do something about it. “Before the Worldsoul Saga is over. Metzen promised and Metzen doesn’t lie.”
So hang in there, everyone. Just like, the rest of this expansion, all of the next one, and presumably all or most of The Last TItan left to go.
For our impressions of all the bits of Midnight we’ve seen so far, sans add-ons, check out our preview of the new expansion. You can also read more from the same interview with Hazzikostas and Reed, specifically their response to the changes around WoW add-ons in Midnight.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
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