Summary
Hearthstone’s new Titans expansion brought 145 new cards into the game earlier this month that are based on Warcraft’s legendary pantheon of planetary protectors, the colossal Titans.World of Warcraftplayers have long been dealing with the Titan’s creations on Azeroth along with the traitor titan Sargeras, and many of these characters are making their first appearance inHearthstone. Along with the established pantheon of Titans,Hearthstonealso created a never-before-seen Titan for the Paladin class.
Lead Narrative Designer Valerie Chu and Lead Designer Chadd Nervig held an interview with Game Rant to discuss Hearthstone’s Titans expansion, particularly the brand-new Titan, Amitus. They discussed the team’s gameplay and narrative goals when designing Amitus and how her character fits in amongst the other established Titans that players are already familiar with. Additionally, they spoke about whether or not they expected Amitus to eventually become part of the official Warcraft canon.
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Hearthstone’s Amitus Fits In Warcraft’s Lore
When coming up with the character Amitus forthe Titans expansion, theHearthstoneteam wanted there to be a reasonable explanation as to why this Titan might not have been encountered previously in Warcraft’s narrative. Each Titan represents certain traits like Eonar and her relationship with nature and life, or Norgannon, who is a master of knowledge and arcane magic. Amitus' role in the pantheon was as a peacekeeper and a “champion of harmony,” and Sargeras' betrayal of the pantheon broke that harmony, leading Amitus to mysteriously disappear.
We’re excited to add another female character – Eonar is a little lonely there – and explore what those different personality archetypes could look like to fit with the Paladins, and the idea of having someone who’s very powerful but tied to peace or harmony could potentially be an explanation for the characters in the tavern wondering who these Titans are like, “Oh, this is why that Titan isn’t around anymore! Because harmony was lost with Sargeras who betrayed the rest of the Pantheon.”
So it sort of works as a possible explanation for why there was this type of Titan, and now she’s not around anymore.
Despite players mostly only seeing some flavor text and card art when it comes to Amitus, Blizzard appears to have put a lot of thought into how to bring in an additional Titan forHearthstone’s Paladin class. There are only a handful of known Titans and naming a new one is a big deal, so it makes sense that they’d pay special attention to this particular character.
Hearthstone Characters Don’t Always Become Warcraft Canon
Although Amitus has lore justification for existing and Blizzard has established a backstory for her, it’s important to note that she is not currently regarded as part of the official Warcraft canon. While based on Warcraft,Hearthstone’s charactersand goings-on are largely isolated from Warcraft, and only on rare occasions doesHearthstone-original content make its way intoWorld of Warcraft. That being said, Blizzard still made sure that the character could fit believably in the setting.
We try to create characters that fit within theWorld of Warcraftworld, but they’re not necessarily official canon. We want to verify they feel natural. Rafaam feels like a character that you could imagine seeing inWorld of Warcraft. They’ve still got theHearthstoneflavor and their personalities are on the wacky side but as long as it doesn’t feel off, it feels like it could fit, I think we’re in the right place.
Naturally sometimes that inspires theWorld of Warcraftteam to be like “Oh, well we’ll take Elise and Reno Jackson,” and it’s cool to see those characters make their way into the official canon. In Amitus’ case, I don’t think there’s an expectation of that, but we did want to just make sure that it feels like the sort of character that is plausible.
There are references in Warcraft to the existence of unnamed Titans throughout the universe. Since Titans are born from world souls like Azeroth, it’s almost certain that there are others that players have yet to encounter. WhetherWorld of Warcraftplayerswill ever meet Amitus remains to be seen, but there is certainly room in the narrative for new Titans to join the fray.
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