Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host for today.

I threw a pie party last night, and I'm still recovering. There were two pumpkin pies, courtesy of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and me, as well as two Ikea almond cakes, tons of cupcakes people brought, and lots of alcohol. There's this amazing bottle of Septima Malbec sitting on my desk and maybe ... just maybe ...

No, seriously, Malbecs are the best red wines. Even people who hate reds love Malbecs. Go purchase, now. Drink responsibly. How about some WoW questions?

ZodiacDragons asked:

I've been wanting to ask this for awhile because it seems like talk of faction leaders keeps coming up, but didn't Blizz say sometime at the end of wrath that Lor'themar was going to play some sort of role in cataclysm? I think I remember seeing a blue post about it in an article here but can't find it. I think if ANY faction leader needs lore development, it's that guy. At least Velen has that "end of the world" prophesy to fall back on.

So my question(s) are: did Blizz say he would play an important role in Cataclysm? If so, what happened with that plan? If not, what are the chances of him having an important role in MoP?

You're right. Blizzard was originally going to have a conflict occur between Lor'themar and Grand Magister Rommath, who was going to defect to Cho'gall's Twilight's Hammer cult much like Archbishop Benedictus did for the Alliance. Sadly, those stories did not play out in the game itself, and the Benedictus storyline was co-opted into the Christie Golden novel Twilight of the Aspects and the Hour of Twilight 5-man instance.

Also, an important fact that we all have missed could be the biggest takeaway -- we still have not seen Lor'themar's leader short story. The only other leader we have not heard from in story form is Velen, and he is thought to be just as useless as Lor'themar. Hopefully both of these characters' futures are spelled out in their stories.

kyle asked:

Should Goblins and Worgens have been neutral races? I think Gobs fit really well into the Horde but the more I see Worgen the more I feel it was shoehorned in.

I do not think that either the goblins or the worgen would have made very good neutral races in an expansion. The world is slowly moving toward sides, and the goblins' neutrality is still very much a slippery subject whenever you deal with ultra-capitalist, try-hard explosives engineers. The worgen are very much human and very much tied with humanity pre-Second War, so they would have never worked with the Horde, period. If you need further convincing, I can send Matt Rossi over to your house for a multi-hour lecture on the hatred King Greymane and his people had for the Horde and the orcs.

Philster043 asked:

Do you think Blizzard will go back and change anything else in the Old World in Mists of Pandaria (other than Theramore?)

Yes. I believe you'll see a lot of pandaren integration into the world in many ways -- breweries in cities, pandaren NPCs, some small settlements. Nothing like a new capital city or anything, but definitely some flavor and presence. One of the biggest complains about the goblins and worgen -- much more so the worgen -- from Cataclysm was that after their respective starting zones, the new race just disappeared. For worgen, the change was stark. One moment, you were fighting off the undead forces of Sylvanas, and the next you are fighting in Darkshore against rampaging trolls. It just felt jarring, and you never saw another worgen until Fiona in the Plaguelands or the denizens of Surwich.

Blizzard has learned from this cataclysmic (LOL) complaint and will give the pandaren a better presence in the game world than the worgen received. Breweries in the capital cities would be awesome, now that I'm really thinking about it. Dron's Distillery could actually exist in game! Make this happen, Blizzard.

zackwbrandon asked:

You have just been given Metzen's job. The first thing you do to the WoW storyline is...?

Reboot it, Christopher Nolan style. Metzen will play a much more meaner, leaner Thrall who wears all black, skin-tight clothing and trains at a snow-top monastery. The Joker will be voiced by Cam Clarke.

icepyro asked:

Will major US radio stations ever play innovative music again or will this kind of music forever be doomed to remain in the realm of college stations (which don't quite reach to where I live) and occasional, weekend features on sites I frequent?

Real, underground, new music can be found and found in mass quantities online. It's out there. You just have to be really lucky. And it's free on internet radio, too.

zomby_wc3 said:

Next neutral race: Ethereals

I wouldn't say no.

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Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!

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