World of Warcraft’s new patch concludes Dragonflight’s biggest conflict

polygon.com:

While Blizzard announced the next three World of Warcraft expansions at this year’s BlizzCon, we’re still not done with the current expansion, Dragonflight. World of Warcraft players are delving into the Emerald Dream in the game’s next patch, Guardians of the Dream. Patch 10.2 takes place in the spirit realm, the Emerald Dream, that mirrors the world of Azeroth.

We’ve seen hints and glimpses of the Emerald Dream in the past, but this time we’re going much deeper in service of a final stand that ties up many loose plot threads that date back to the Legion expansion. Here’s what you need to know:

World Trees are a spiritual anchor and sanctuary in the world of Azeroth. The final battle of Warcraft 3 was centered around Nordrassil, a World Tree which spread life-giving power across the globe and granted the Night Elves their immortality. Nordrassil was badly damaged, which led the Night Elves to plant Teldrassil, a replacement tree… which Sylvanas Windrunner burned down at the start of Battle for Azeroth expansion.

Amirdrassil is the third crack at growing a World Tree to serve as a home for the Night Elves, and this one is blessed by the Winter Queen and Elune, and enhanced by the souls of the innocents lost during Teldrassil. The seed of Amirdrassil was a major plot thread through the Shadowlands expansion, and it’s culminating in Guardians of the Dream.

“This is such an important moment for Azeroth as a whole, we wanted to include everyone we possibly could who would have an interest in making sure that Amirdrassil blooms, or that the Emerald Dream doesn’t turn into a fiery hellscape, or Azeroth doesn’t turn into an expansion of the Firelands,” says Katherine Bankson, assistant lead quest designer at Blizzard, in a