Thread by @Portergauge

Finally home and free, wasn't lucky enough to get a pre-review copy so I'm doing it the old fashioned way on release day lol

Here be spoilers, but mostly out of context snippets I find interesting.

It's nice to see Tyranastrasz get a cameo, and some confirmation that he's an *old ass dragon* lol

(maybe one day his poor skull will be taken from a fucking dwarven museum and given back to the dragons lol)

The first chapter notes the "Dragonwilds" as surrounding the Broodlands/Dragon Isles, but the opening of it has it already existing as a totally independent island, just with Ohn'ahran Plains renamed (but also somehow still housing Maruukai?)

Not sure what's up there.

I've said it elsewhere but it's still so weird that this hasn't come up in game at all. You'd figure *someone* would taunt Alexstrasza and Ysera over their cousin being their biggest adversary now

I'll be curious to see how long it stays at "just kidnapping the unprotected eggs", given Vyranoth's modern motivations and Alexstrasza's regrets

Nice little moment of "why are the Aspects so insistent on this being the path forward for all dragons" from Ysera

Well, we're not even two chapters in and we already get the Aberrus explanation, so that bodes good for answers in this book lol

Cute little pair of lesser developed proto-dragons, though it makes me curious what caused the others like Iridikron or Vyranoth to develop full speech without the aid of the Titans like the Aspects got

Was already mentioned by @TheRedShirtGuy but Harrowsdeep *definitely* feels like it's located in what is now Icecrown

It's the only place other than Crystalsong that's directly north of Dragonblight and also not Titan-occupied, and has a lot of descriptions matching Azjol-Nerub

It's interesting to see that Fyrakk actually *does* care about the cause in this, his cause wasn't just an excuse for fighting like the Aspects believed. Shame it's not shown in game lol

Gives a lot more reason behind his disdain for Iridikron from the 10.2 cinematic, too.

Also Iridikron's characterization is *super* strong even just in this first scene of his.

This is from the page before, really good job of showing his character through actions with this first quarrel with Fyrakk.

Interesting little interlude bit between the major sections of the book, which seemingly come with their own timeskip.

I'll be curious to see what Raszageth's story is here, so far she seems more like in-game Fyrakk than the radical devotee to their ideals that she was in 10.0.

Vyranoth: But I *like* being unemployed!

Vyranoth has definitely been the most intriguing part of the book so far.

That idea of "not just a clutch, but a place in this world" is very similar to a certain other independent dragon, and I *really* hope their similarities are properly highlighted more before xpac's end.

Vyranoth playing with whelps is *super* cute, but also super sad given that Alexstrasza is accidentally the cause of her friends' isolation from the things she loved

God, Vyranoth really is the best character of the xpac, and I really wish all this sorrow in her story was more accessible

Raszageth's intro is super fun. Very different from who she is in game, but I like the almost *innocence* to her, the natural animalistic tendencies rather than hatred.

She's definitely a tool for Iridikron at this point, but I like that she's just having fun.

Vyranoth is apparently one of the oldest dragons *period*, which is very interesting.

She's definitely the definitive representation of non-ordered dragons, that's for sure. When we said old woman yuri, we meant *old* woman yuri lmao

Here are the bits about trolls from early in the book, nice little addition

Very neat that trolls were their main reason for creating visage forms, and this scene is *super* cute.

It's nice seeing the Aspects as genuine friends goofing around in the midst of doing their duties.

Okay I'm back, probably gonna do parts 2 and 3 today, then finish the book tomorrow in time for Blizzcon focus

Starting with an Iridikron-POV chapter, they wrote his thought process really well for this, and plausibly maintain some mystery as to how much he knows.

Iridikron is a *really* fun villain in this. They did a really good job of showing just how much he knows his own strength, and how much he's able to use that against even his own allies.

Also, he's literally got gravity powers, so that's fucking badass lmao

Raszageth really does feel a lot more like in-game Fyrakk than she does her 10.0 character in this

I really do hope that she changes over the course of the book, it'd suck if they reduced her importance for the sake of Fyrakk gaining her traits

Doctor Iridikron, reporting for duty

Iridikron's sister is quite interesting, she's an ordered dragon who came to regret her place as a Black Dragon pretty much immediately, because of the overwhelming burden of duty thrust upon her by Neltharion.

But yknow, she's also kinda racist lol

Ah, the Yearning™

Iridikron and Neltharion were both rock-nerd friends once upon a time, that's cute lol

Beyond the implications of him hearing the voices before becoming Aspect.... *fourth* voice?

Either Y'shaarj still had a presence after being uprooted, or they really are going forward with the secret fifth Old God idea.

It's nice seeing how much Neltharion genuinely cares for and respects Alexstrasza, and how he's wholeheartedly resisting the whispers and doing his best to pay them no mind.

The rough cruelty of pre-corruption Neltharion from 10.1 is very absent here, and I much prefer it.

He's also basically a full on magic-geologist in this, doing on the spot carbon dating lol

Very creative way of using his powers over earth here

Nozdormu is unfortunately continuing his Dragonflight trend of "not actually being useful at the one thing his powers might help with" lol

One thing I've noticed is that the dragons in this are speaking with their *actual* mouths, not with the weird telepathy they've shifted to for in game cinematics

I really do wonder how much that was an intentional lore choice vs "we thought animated mouths might look weird"

Well... she's not wrong about the Aspects lol, they've got a bad history of turning tail lol

Seeing Neltharion's thoughts leading into creating the dracthyr is super neat, and one born of genuine interest in their potential despite their limitations, which is nice

Good to see too that they're seemingly born in *opposition* to the whispers, not because of them.

Interesting that the green dragons were the most taken to visages, I'd have expected that more of the red dragonflight.

Kinda sad that we've never seen a troll visage for a green dragon to reflect that though, given they were the main mortals around at this time.

Hey, points to Iridikron of all people for calling it arcane magic instead of Order Magic lol

Nice that they explained this, the Incarnates took visages pretty much solely out of spite and tactical advantage

It also hints that Raszageth *does* have one, we just never saw it

Well there's the explanation for the *original* Primalist allies of the Incarnates... but it doesn't quite explain how they persist today.

This feels a lot more like 10.0 Raszageth, at least. I guess they're just going for a mixture of sadism and spite over things (which I thought stemmed more from her imprisonment but I guess not)

Really hope the book elaborates on this later, this sounds very juicy