How big is an island?
Two new continents were announced at Blizzcon - Kul Tiras and Zandalar. As these are both actually islands, it is apparent that they mean continents in a game sense rather than a geographical sense. Places in Warcraft are not really to scale, or it would take us days to travel from Stormwind to Silvermoon. So despite the new places being islands, I expect they will be pretty big game-wise.
The Seventh Kingdom
Kul Tiras! We've been waiting for Jaina's homeland to appear for a very long time. It is especially welcome after she was sidelined in Warlords of Draenor and unceremoniously replaced by Khadgar in Legion. It also means that all seven of the human kingdoms from Warcraft II are now in the game. (For those keeping track they are: Stormwind, Lordaeron, Stromgard, Alterac, Dalaran, Gilneas, Kul Tiras.)
The Banshee Warchief
How badass is Sylvanas in that trailer? Apparently she still has access to her old banshee form from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. I think Vol'jin was right to appoint her as his successor at the start of Legion - she was the only person with the knowledge, experience and drive to lead the Horde to victory against the Legion. We knew she would be a problem afterwards, but that was something we only had to worry about if we didn't lose to the giant demon army.
The Lion King
King Anduin Wrynn looks so young, because he is so young. King before his time...but he's stepped up in the wake of Legion. Its confirmed that despite his awesome lion-helmeted plate armour and considerable skill with his father's sword, the new king has not become a paladin. (I reckon he just transmogged Wrynn family heritage armour over his robes). The fact that he's a priest may be important for future story as it means he can access both the Light and the Void and understands that there can be balance between the two.
Who shot first?
You may have heard that it was 'confirmed' in an interview that the Horde starts the war by burning down the night elf capital Teldrassil - but that is just a rumour. We don't know whether the Alliance attacked Undercity in retaliation for Teldrassil, or if it is the other way around. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd actually go with the Alliance hitting Undercity first, as the siege of Undercity is what is depicted in the trailer, and the last few expansion trailers have shown how the story starts. I think it would be cool to do it that way around, as Genn has been pushing for an attack on Sylvanas since Cataclysm, and I got the feeling in Legion that Anduin's main reason for not attacking the Horde was that we had another bigger threat to deal with.
Counting the Cost
I feel for the night elves, as they have lost so much over the years, and now it seems they will lose their capital, and have to flee to the Eastern Kingdoms. But, they aren't necessarily going to be refugees. They provided a home to the Gilneans since Cataclysm, so I'm sure that they will be welcomed in kind. As for the Gilneans, they've now lost two homes to Sylvanas. If we can find some way to remove the taint from Gilneas, though, they can finally return to their original kingdom. There's also the possibility of settling in Duskwood which has an old connection to the Scythe of Elune, and thus to the night elves and worgen. Plus, Duskwood needs new guardians due to events in Legion. As much as I feel for them, however, I think taking out Undercity and reclaiming Gilneas, Lordaeron and Stromgarde is worth losing our holdings in Kalimdor for. The night elves only had true control over Teldrassil and Feralas anyway, most of their other holdings in Kalimdor were already lost, or too heavily contested.
A broken Circle?
One thing I am wondering about is what will happen to Moonvale and Mout Hyjal. Both have traditionally been held by the Cenarion Circle, which consists of not only tauren and trolls, but also night elves and worgen. We don't know how Sylvanas will view the druid organisation. Will she just let them be, or does taking over Kalimdor for the horde mean that Moonglade is tauren and troll only now? Will the night elves even want to keep working with tauren after the Horde burns down a dragon-blessed world tree?
Allies for the Horde
The most exciting news here is that the Horde are getting nightborn, a branch of the elven race that is obviously based on the drow in other fantasy games with their elegant cheekbones, dark skin, white hair, and strong affinity to arcane magic. This gives the Horde another 'pretty' race, but more importantly, is the first time we've been given a playable race after we played though a lengthy endgame campaign involving them. Their story was a major part of Legion's first half, and though the fight moved to Argus for the second part, Argus pales in comparison to the Suramar campaign. It is widely considered to be the best storytelling WoW has ever done.
Which is why I'm a bit sad that they went and joined the Horde. That said, the storyline reasons are valid, and I am happy they didn't make them a cross-faction race like the pandaren.
Zandalari trolls are cool. When they are not trying to murder us, that is. Remember that old trailer of Vol'jin walking away from the council of trolls all by himself? Oh how times have changed. Why exactly the Zandalari would join a faction that has largely been responsible for the downfall of four troll kingdoms remains to be seen - it's probably linked to events in the Horde campaign on Zandalar. It should be an interesting story.
As for the Highmountain tauren...as cool as they are, I really don't think that having moose antlers justified counting as a separate race. Why can't they just give the normal tauren race moose antler options?
Allies for the Alliance
We get Dark Iron dwarves! It's about bloody time we can play as them, as Moira's clan joined the Alliance seven years ago in Cataclysm, and more recently were instrumental in our victory on alternate-Draneor. Turns out they're actually decent chaps when they're not enslaved by Ragnaros, and they have turned out to be much better engineers than the Bronzebeards. We don't even need gnomes anymore!
We're not entirely sure what void elves are. They are the only one of the new races that we have not seen before, and they are associated with Alleria Windrunner somehow. Are they the high elves finally returning? Are they a group of blood elves who got addicted to void instead of fel and then defected back to the alliance? They certainly look cool, and along with the worgen and Dark Irons, make the Alliance just a little bit edgier.
It makes sense that Turalyon and the Lightborn would join up with their brethren.Turalyon is still the heir to Lothar's legacy, and there are not a whole lot of draenei still alive. But again, why are Lightborn a separate race? I doubt there is much difference between having a lifespan of over ten thousand years like normal draenei, and being immortal like the Lightborn, and the only visual difference between them is that their eyes glow yellow instead of white.
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