As it turns out, we were correct about yesterday’s “ok” reply being a teaser. Because the actual mini-set teaser just dropped and it looks like Therazane will be a part of the mini-set after all.
The teaser doesn’t tell us much, it only shows the silhouette of Therazane in the classic “Who’s that Pokemon” style (Edit: Someone said that it’s more of a Smash Bros reveal style, I couldn’t tell because I have never played a Smash Bros game, haha). But there’s no guessing, she’s pretty unique and hard to mistake for another character. Other than that, however, we don’t have much to work on. There’s a cryptic “a worthy opponent appears” message, and a text confirming that it is indeed a mini-set teaser.
We don’t yet know the actual mini-set’s name or the release date. The former should be revealed soon (probably tomorrow if we base it on the previous mini-set teasers) while the latter is almost surely sometime next week.
But who’s Therazane and why she’s important? I’ll just copy the explanation from yesterday’s post
She’s the final Elemental Lord, long missing from Hearthstone. Elemental Lords are the most powerful elementals ruling over their respective Elemental types. Ragnaros – Fire, Neptulon – Water, Al’akir – Air, Therazane – Earth. Well, technically two of them were replaced in Warcraft lore (the new ones are Smolderon – Fire and Thunderaan – Air) but the former are way more iconic. As you can see, two of the original Lords were present in the game since launch (Ragnaros the Firelord and Al'Akir the Windlord), while Neptulon launched a bit later in Goblins vs Gnomes (with a new version – Neptulon the Tidehunter – being added in TITANS).
The only one missing was Therazane, the Earthmother. Players have been asking to bring her to Hearthstone for years now. It got to the point that every time we had an Elemental-themed expansion, many players were hopeful that it was finally time. It’s not a big deal, but it just felt weird to have the other three (some in multiple versions) but not her.
If Therazane is confirmed, it might mean two things. Either only she will be tied to the Badlands story somehow, or we’re going all-in and visiting Deepholm, where she resides in WoW. While Deepholm has no connection to Badlands, it really has no physical connection to any part of the world. It’s a pocket dimension that you get to through a portal in WoW, so it should be quite easy to explain going there in Hearthstone.
Deepholm itself is the plane of Earth Elementals, as well as other related races (Earthen, Stone Troggs). Together with three other Elemental Planes, it was created eons ago by Keepers (including the likes of Ra-den, also known as Highkeeper Ra, and Helya, who we know from the recent TITANS expansion) to imprison Elementals. Back then, Elementals were used by Old Gods to wreak havoc across the world. It’s actually a cool narrative tie-in between TITANS and Showdown in the Badlands if they decide to go that way.
I always thought that Elemental Planes would be a theme of a full expansion, but picking one of them to fit into a mini-set also makes sense.
