As if the speculation surrounding potential titles for the next World of Warcraft wasn’t bad enough with all the Corgis Below, a new possibility has entered the ring. MMO-Champion is reporting that Blizzard has trademarked “Warlords of Draenor.”

The domain “warlordsofdraenor.com” was also registered recently, adding credence to the rumour.

The really bizarre thing is that this very title, along with other details of the expansion, was “leaked” by a random poster on MMO-Champion the other day. This post was roundly dismissed as a troll initially. Aside from the lack of any corroborating evidence (at the time), its predictions were ludicrously improbable.

It stated that the main villain of the expansion is Grom Hellscream, Garrosh’s deceased hero father. Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. This leaker also said that the expansion features heavy use of time travel, and that “The Dark Below” is the name for Titan.

Both of those things also make no sense at all. The Bronze Dragonflight only governs Azeroth (and is much weaker than it used to be), so going back in time on Draenor shouldn’t be possible with the current lore, and Titan is still years away, so I can’t imagine Blizzard trademarking a name for it already.

Of course, all the Legion fans and old school players are taking this as proof that the next expansion will be Burning Crusade 2.0, solve all of WoW’s problems, bring playable Demon hunters and Ethereals, and end world hunger.

Personally, while I try not to be the sort of person who judges an expansion based on the name, I am dismayed by this news. Even assuming the nonsenical expansion leaks are false, I can’t see any concept for “Warlords of Draenor” that would appeal to me.

As a lore fan, my eye twitches whenever I think of Burning Crusade, and it still makes me wince whenever talk of the Legion or Outland gets brought up. It could also be a time travel expansion about Draenor’s past, but that just seems random and kind of pointless.

I suppose I could hope that it proves to be the awesome Legion and/or Outland expansion we deserved and never got, but I’d rather just focus on the Old Gods or expanding Azeroth’s storylines.

It’s still possible this is (another?) hoax. I kind of hope it is. The Dark Below still sounds far more interesting to me. Most people, including Boub at MMO-Champion, seem to think it’s legit, though.

Ugh, I’m so confused.

What do you think? Real or fake? Awesome return of the Legion, or a bold jump over many sharks?

The plot thickens again.

According to a post on MMO-Champion, Blizzard has just filed a trademark application for “Heroes of the Storm” in New Zealand. This is seemingly in keeping with their new habit of filing trademarks in odd places in an attempt to keep them secret. I believe “Reaper of Souls” was first trademarked somewhere in Africa.

Could this be the next World of Warcraft expansion? History has taught me not to make definitive statements, but I’m going to take a guess and say it’s not likely.

I’m still a believer in The Dark Below. Perhaps the fact I want an ocean expansion is biasing me, but that sounds more like a WoW expansion title to me. Expansion titles to date have generally had a feeling of mystery or peril to them. Heroes of the Storm sounds too “ra-ra” to me.

Yes, I may be reaching.

However, there is another possibility. Some have suggested this may be a new title for Blizzard All-Stars. I think that may be our answer.

First of all, Heroes of the Storm is an excellent name for MOBA. Secondly, several of Blizzard’s artists operate a site called “Sons of the Storm,” where they collect their art for Blizzard games, as well as some personal projects. Since All-Stars was supposed to include characters from all three Blizzard game franchises, there’s an obvious similarity to the purpose of Sons of the Storm.

Plus, they’ve already changed the game’s name once already. It’s gone from Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars. What’s another change? They’ve also done a total overhaul of the game to make it a standalone title rather than a mod for StarCraft II, so a name change would make sense under such circumstances.

And let’s be honest: Blizzard All-Stars was always a pretty lame title.

For the sake of argument, though, let’s say it is a WoW expansion. What might it be about?

A lot of fans are saying it could be a Burning Legion expansion, arguing that fire raining from the sky could qualify as a storm.

I think this is pure wishful thinking, though. People are so desperate for a Legion expansion they’ll take any hint as proof of one. Storm terminology has never been associated with the Legion that I can recall, so it seems a stretch.

Storms in Warcraft lore are generally connected to either Titans or shamanism. Cataclysm was a shamanism expansion, so if Heroes of the Storm is a WoW expansion, my bet is that it would be on a Titan theme. Didn’t Wrathion say something about rebuilding the final Titan?

We have done quite a lot of Titan-related stuff over the last three expansions, though, so it’s difficult to imagine an entire expansion focused on them that wouldn’t feel redundant.

What say you? Is Heroes of the Storm a WoW expansion, the new name for All-Stars, a hoax, or something else altogether? If it is an expansion, what might it be about?