The story of World of Warcraft Dragonflight has been one where its main villains have consistently played a factor.
In contrast to other WoW expansions of the past—where one solitary “big bad” dominated the playing field—Dragonflight has four main villains known as “the Incarnates,” and each of them has their own distinct traits that keep the story moving. This change of direction in regard to storytelling has resonated exceptionally well with the player base—and it’s been doing well with Blizzard, too.
“I absolutely love how fans have really enjoyed these characters … and I think it helps in this case that we have a very not just distinct aesthetic, but a very distinct personality for each one,” Rachel Vought, assistant lead quest designer on WoW, told Dot Esports in a group interview. “The council gives us a lot of flexibility with how we can give each one their specific strengths and weaknesses, and just like people can identify with different elements in general, they may gravitate towards particular elements with the Incarnates.”
The four Incarnates—Raszageth, Iridikron, Fyrakk, and Vyranoth—have been present since the very beginning of Dragonflight, and one of them (Raszageth) has already been a raid boss. It’s likely that we’ll fight the other three at some point in a near-future raid, especially considering how heavily they’re being pushed in both in-game content and promotional cinematics.
Especially since the release of Patch 10.1 in May, the three remaining Incarnates have played a major role in Dragonflight’s story as they’ve become emerging antitheses to the ever-present Dragon Aspects (Alexstrasza, Nozdormu, and Kalecgos) who have been major players in the WoW lore for well over a decade. In almost every major cinematic since that point, we’ve seen at least one of the Incarnates physically, and if we haven’t, the fallout from their actions has definitely been present.
What’s also been a major factor in the development of these characters, according to Blizzard, has been the frequency at which content updates are being rolled out during Dragonflight. The expansion has seen a new update, without fail, every eight weeks during its lifespan, and with each new patch, new story elements are added to the game. These frequent updates act as vehicles that allow players to stay up-to-date with the story at an increased rate without having to wait for massive updates to get new bits of information.
“In the past, you might only get an update in a big release where we’re doing big story content, but now we’re able to do it almost every content update, which means we can keep updating you with what’s going on with them, and we can keep showing you glimpses of their thinking and their motivations,” Maria Hamilton, lead WoW game designer, told Dot Esports.
“We’ve been really excited about the ability to continue the story in these more frequent iterations,” Hamilton said. “It helps us keep them front and center in the players’ minds, and I think the community has really appreciated it.”
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What the player base has also appreciated is how different the Incarnates feel from previous WoW villains. While characters like Deathwing, Garrosh, the Lich King, and others have been typically painted as headstrong and brash, the Incarnates are more reserved. A character like Iridikron, for example, actually shows constant respect to the “adventurers,” which is something that most WoW villains fail to do.
Plus, the fact that there are multiple Incarnates present in the narrative allows for their contrasting personalities to shine. Although a character like Fyrakk does represent that headstrong, typical WoW villain, he’s consistently counteracted by his fellow Incarnates as characters like Iridikron and Vyranoth are far more collected villains. That balancing of the scales allows players to get a more complete, three-dimensional view of the characters—something that was rarely done with some of WoW’s more short-sighted villains.
Players should expect the story of the Incarnates to heat up immensely as Dragonflight nears its likely conclusion at some point within the next year. The game’s next content update, Patch 10.1.7, will be released on Sept. 7.
