The War Within is coming this year and promises to finally address Battle for Azeroth's biggest hanging plot point, the giant bloody sword impaled on a planet. We know this because of a few subtle hints from the cinematic trailer for the expansion, like when the camera pans to the giant bloody sword. The one sticking out of the planet.

For those who don't know, the sword was placed there when the leader of the Burning Legion, the Dark Titan Sargeras, was finally killed in the Legion expansion. This caused Azeroth to spill out a substance called Azerite, which capped off the events of Battle for Zeroth, another unpopular borrowed power system (giving players a new toy, only to yoke ink off of it at the end of the expansion ).

Only, everyone forgot about it during "Shadowlands" and it has been gathering dust ever since. Like a fancy galactic hood ornament.

An Easter egg discovered by Twitter user Korrin/Hammerman753 (thanks, WoWHead) doubly confirms that this blade will be important again. Transmogging an item from one of the trading posts to Siritas and talking to a lone NPC in the middle of the desert brings up a special dialog.

The item itself is available from the Cosmic Weapons Cache, available in November. This NPC is called the "Twilight Hermit," a character plagued by visions, which stopped when Sargeras made his great stab.

If you approach him with a goridar or ceterus - a weapon not far from the two of you, much like a large, looming sword - he will ask:

"Why did [Sargeras] attack this place?" he will ask this target by accident. He was too masterful a tactician to choose. His crusade sought to eradicate all life in existence. Do you think that his last act before his capture by the pantheon was not for that purpose?"

On the other hand, if you approached him with Thesavia or Mutras (a titanic dagger), he would say: "The Dark Titan had a pattern of behavior. A cold logic to impose his vision of perfection and a willingness to eradicate his existence if he could not achieve his goals. Do you think the rest of his race is the same?"

Finally, Void Song, once the staff of Zar'atas and now an ancient dagger in the body of an elf, we know she will be important because she appeared at the end of the feature overview in The War Within.

"There was a time when this whole world was ruled by the Black Empire. It was beautiful. The masters gave gifts to the faithful. That staff was one of them. One day she ...... She ...... What? I wasn't going to tell you. I... I..." And then, as if "chastised by an invisible presence," she fell silent.

Several important things can be learned from this. First of all, it is more likely that Sargeras' stabbing of the earth was part of a larger plan rather than gamer rage. That's what Thrall says in that fancy cinematic trailer." They were after something." While Shadowland and Dragonflight distracted the entirety of Azeroth from the bloody greatsword, the 4D chess game after Sargeras' death would have been ticking away.

Second, Zar'atas, or her masters, are up to something. The hermit was definitely talking to someone and was gagged before he could snitch. Don't worry "about their plans," it's probably fine. After all, this is a pretty cool Easter egg and a sign that the WoW storyline won't be as scattershot in the future. After all, we are promised a long arc of three expansions.