Serene Moments
Some of our favorite storylines in Dragonflight so far are the smaller, more serene stories that are nevertheless incredibly impactful. Whether it’s watching the view while listening to the red dragon Veritistrasz, supporting a Tuskarr chieftain as he grapples with the pain of losing and a beloved companion, or helping a very good boy find his purpose, Dragonflight has been littered with questlines that might not be all about defeating a world-destroying raid boss, but that somehow hit just as hard.
According to Danuser, they’ve really enjoyed the way working together in Dragonflight has allowed everyone to experience the same stories, including these smaller, more local tales.
Steve Danuser
We really like the balance that Dragonflight has of those big action moments that everyone expects from a World of Warcraft expansion with big battles, and things like that, but also lots of smaller character-based moments. I think those really stand out in Dragonflight because, unlike some previous expansions where you might only see part of the content if you have a Horde or Alliance character, everyone is working together through the course of Dragonflight. It allows all of the content, those local stories, and interesting smaller characters to be available to everyone, and we really like that.
Themes of Legacy
If Dragonflight has a theme, it’s legacy – the history of the past, and how that affects the future. This theme stretches across the narrative, from the Waking Shores side questline where we help a dying member of the Dragonmaw clan grapple with his terrible legacy, to the Dragon Aspects dealing with their creation, past, and place in the world.
In the interview, Danuser confirms that this theme will continue in Embers of Neltharion and beyond.
Steve Danuser
I think in both Embers of Neltharion, and the 10.0.7 content that leads up to it, you’ll see some very quiet moments where you get to reflect with certain characters, and you see them grappling with these themes of legacy and history in the past and how that affects the future and all of those kinds of things. That’s a big resonant theme throughout all of Dragonflight, and you’ll definitely get to see that play out in quieter ways as well as going into big raid encounters that are also based around this theme of trying to claim a legacy. That theme of legacy was definitely something that started the wheels turning, and when you look at the dragon aspects, who are kind of the central characters that we knew about coming into this expansion, we really thought about what their legacy meant to them.”