Two years ago, Blizzard Representatives mentioned during a Fansites Q&A that the Dark Portal would be opened by Warlocks performing a ritual spell as a World Event. However, the recent article released by Blizzard titled: Burning Crusade: The Story So Far seems to have buried the Closed Beta Q&A coffin. A major setback to fans who expected the Dark Portal world event.
Here is the old transcript of the Fansite Chat (Feb 6, 2004)
Flashback Quote:
Q: We’ve seen from an older screenshot that the Dark Portal has been rebuilt (after being destroyed in Warcraft 2 expansion pack). Can you give us any background on why it’s back or what role it’ll play in the game?
Katricia: The foundation of the Dark Portal was never destroyed even though the connection between the worlds was severed; and while it is no longer open, there is a legend of a ritual contained within Medivh’s spellbook which might one day allow powerful Warlocks to open a portal.
Below, a fan was concerned of this drastic change from what we expected last two years, to what the event will be now. Not only that, lorewise in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal expansion pack – Khadgar sealed the Dark Portal from the side of Planet Draenor using the Book of Medivh.
Furthermore, the last time the Spellbook of Medivh was seen, it was on the hands of Kel’Thuzad. Kel’Thuzad used the book to open a portal in Dalaran to summon Archimonde the Eredar demonlord into Azeroth, which triggered a new invasion of the Burning Legion—as told in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos RTS Game. Everything led to think that Kel’Thuzad would have a unique (one per server) World drop of the Spellbook of Medivh at Naxxramas to open the Dark Portal, once the Burning Crusade expansion had been released, allowing everyone serverwide to access Outland. There are many a fansite and even wikis who now need to update their pages concerning the Dark Portal world event. Including us. Should game mechanics justify the assassination of Warcraft III lore? Let’s see what fans said on the forums.
Source: Wow Forums
Kailyyn @ Blackhand realm: “With the future in peril, a relic of the past has also surfaced, radiating renewed energy. This relic has enabled Lord Kazzak to activate the current Dark Portal”
I apologize if this has been brought up already, but I didn’t see a post about it.
I’m a little annoyed about this particular bit of information in the Setting The Stage feature. When WoW was released, there were considerable hints dropped that Medivh’s spellbook would be needed to be retrieved to open the Dark Portal once more. Rumors even went so far as to say the book was in two parts, one of which was held by Kel Thuzad in Naxxramas.
It was thought that what would be needed was a world event in which many warlocks performed a ritual to reopen the stargate… er… Dark Portal.
This seems to have been dropped in favor of some minor demon tinkering and finding a way to open the portal on his own.
As a lore aficionado, I find this sweeping aside to be somewhat drastic.
I understand the stress put on the servers for world events that was realized during the opening of AQ, but the last world event, the Scourge Invasion, was handled much better. I’m sure dimensional rips or someother plot device could be employed on a global scale.
And come release day, we know the servers are going to take a serious hit in three spots; Silvermoon and Draenai Island (can’t recall the name atm), and the Dark Portal.
So why the change? This was shaping up to be a magnificent addition to the chronicles and now it will be only a footnote in Azeroth’s history.”
Nethaera: “Things change in the progression of ideas and development. What you refer to was something that was batted around as a possible idea. What you see now is what is being implemented because we feel it works best for what we want to accomplish.
I’m sure some people are disappointed because they felt it was a sure thing or at the least had hopes it was a sure thing.”
