Blizzard has been exciting the World of Warcraft‘s next expansion, Shadowlands recently. One of their stunts includes a free mount to whoever plays the afterlife-themed patch. Four options were included for the players to choose, such as the Soaring Spelltome, Curious Caterpillar, Nerubian Swarmer, Gooey Slimesaber, and the Wandering Ancient. Voting has closed, and the winner announced!
The voting poll garnered over 259,000 votes, 87,000 of which went to the Wandering Ancient. Both the North American and Europian regions wanted the tree mount to come on top of the competition. The blue post announcing the mount winner says, “Thanks to the hundreds of thousands of players around the world who voted in polls over the last two weeks, we now know which of the proposed mounts you most want to ride in 2021.”
[embed]https://twitter.com/Wowhead/status/1307079162142830592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/embed]Described in the original voting post as an ancient that is not interested in lore or war, the druid-themed mount “just wants to travel the world (of Azeroth, of course). Noted to be large and leafy, players will be riding the tree mount on top as they hold the branches for grip. There is no official design yet for the Wandering Ancient. The blue post indicates that Blizzard artists will be working on the mount in time for early 2021 for everyone with Shadowlands.
To be fair, though, there are already numerous Ancient of Lore and Ancient of War models in the game. Unless these Ancients are of totally different origin and figure, players can already expect what the mount will look like. Several fans of WoW have tried to predict what the Wandering Ancient would look like.
[embed]https://twitter.com/Peterodox/status/1302846300770062336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/embed]A sketch by an illustrator, Peter Yu, puts the Ancient on a wooden skateboard. With leaves and flowers growing out of its body, the giant is also rocking a reading glasses. What’s interesting about his design is that the player is faced forward while the left side is holding onto the branches.
Though this free mount for the community is just for fun, it has incredibly opened up controversies and debates. Streamers and content creators have chimed in which mount they wanted to win, and used their followers to vote. Known personality Zack “Asmongold” is a petitioner of the Curious Caterpillar. He points out that there is no mount model yet in the 15 years of WoW, similar to the insect.
Asmon tweets, “This was rigged.” Several fans also detail that these large mounts feel sluggish when moving around and inefficient at going through doors. But the heart wants what it wants. In this case, Azeroth and the Shadowlands better be ready for Wandering Ancient-filled adventurers.