Update: Matt London now states that he did not intend to confirm this. We're leaving the article as-is, just take it with a grain of salt.
Hearthstone's lore just got a bit deeper! It looks like a few of our new mercenary friends arriving in Forged in the Barrens at one point were led by Elise Starseeker back in Journey to Un'Goro!
It all started when /u/TEnOTT made a post on reddit stating the mercenaries had reminded them of some of the kids found in a piece of art from the Journey to Un'Goro set. This was brought to the attention of Hearthstone Game Designer and self-proclaimed Interactive Narrative Nerd, Matt London, who was then able to confirm that this was indeed no coincidence. Here's the piece in question with the assumed grown-up explorers:
Even though Hearthstone plans in advance, this wasn't likely to be the case back when they were creating Journey to Un'Goro. It's a very cool way of bringing back some old characters though and it makes you wonder what the mercenaries were up to during their times in Un'Goro with Elise and now their battles in the Barrens. Perhaps we'll learn more about this period of time in their lives when Book of Mercenaries releases chapters for them all.
Super cool! Let us know what you think about it all. Personally, I'm wondering if Aranna is the Night Elf on the right side of the image. She is Elise's younger sister, and we aren't 100% sure how much younger, nor what the timeline of the Hearthstone universe looks like.
Quote From Matt London Ok this is a pretty good find! The kids are all grown up? :D (From Reddit)
WTF!??? I need answers @themattlondon @Songbird_HS
No coincidence ;-)
Quote From Matt London This was not intended as confirmation. Sorry! You’ll have to wait a little longer to learn more about the mercenaries.
Comments
You know they've actually said it was not true after sometime. I just don't know what to believe anymore
Richard Garfield had a famous quote, that I can't quite find, that was something in the way of, "Never deny cool." Which is to say if someone finds a really cool coincidence or story link or thematic link, claim it. Maybe the kids are just some random kids of different races (not like different races are unheard of or anything in WoW) and some of the mercenaries just so happen to match those races, it makes for a far more compelling narrative if you say those kids then are our mercenaries now.
Wait, Varden Dawngrasp looks more feminine looking as a kid.
TRANSGENDER CHARACTER IN HEARTHSTONE POSSIBLY :o!?! That's absolutely based I love it
Apparently that is precisely what's going on--the Hearthstone twitter account RTed this, saying Varden is non-binary.
https://twitter.com/SinWhoe/status/1372952623301726209
<3
Yeah, it's been confirmed they are the first openly non-binary character in hs! Awesome right?
Indeed
Wasn't the tauren given a name other than guff runetotem though? Iirc they were the one writing the un'goro lore teasers
Edit: The name I was thinking of was Eddie Malone, can't see if they were confirmed to be the tauren so maybe I just made that assumption at some point?
I mean, it's pretty obvious that they weren't making a galaxy brained move and planned 3 years ahead with these characters.
What's more likely is that they just chekced all their previous original characters and thought "these 3 don't have established names or lore, let's use them again". Wouldn't be surprised if they just overlooked some of the promotional material.
What happened to Guff's glasses?
started wearing contacts
No, Druids have regeneration magic. He pulled out his eyeballs and grew new ones that work better.
canon until further notice
Okay now that really begs the question what the fuck the actual Hearthstone timeline is
It's Jeremy Bearimy
In a word: fluid.
I feel it's less a time line, and more a time abstract shape
It's the same shape as all stories told by a somewhat inebriated tavernkeeper who's primarily interested in keeping the audience engaged.
Is the girl on the right Aranna? Still remains the question