While the news had already been leaked multiple times over the last few weeks, Blizzard Entertainment Inc has finally made its official announcement for the next expansion for its incredibly popular digital collectible card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

The new expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods, delves once again into the lore of the world of Warcraft (pun 100 percent intended) with the introduction of the Old Gods, powerful Lovecraft-inspired monsters with a habit corrupting the minds of Azeroth’s inhabitants.

Who were the Old Gods?

The Old Gods figure prominently into Warcraft lore, having been directly and indirectly responsible for nearly all of the major events in Azeroth’s history.

Warning: Super geeky Warcraft lore below

The Old Gods were responsible for corrupting the Titan Sargeras, who then created the demonic Burning Legion. They later corrupted the dragon Neltharion, turning him into the terror known as Deathwing. Both of these actions directly led to the events of all of the original Warcraft real-time strategy games.

They also led to nearly all of the major events that occurred in the original World of Warcraft, as well as its expansions:

• The Burning Crusade: Pretty self-explanatory. No Burning Legion, no Burning Crusade.
• Wrath of the Lich King: The Lich King, Ner’zhul, had been corrupted by the Burning Legion.
• Cataclysm: All of the events in Cataclysm were the result of Deathwing’s actions.
• Mists of Pandaria: The Sha were created by the Old God Y’Shaarj, whose heart also corrupted Garrosh, MoP’s final raid boss.
• Warlords of Draenor: The events of WoD were caused by the actions of Garrosh after he had been corrupted by Y’Shaarj.
• Legion: The upcoming WoW expansion once again focuses entirely on the Burning Legion

New cards, new mechanics

Like the previous card expansions, Goblins vs Gnomes and The Grand Tournament, Whispers of the Old Gods will introduce a new mechanic to the game that should lead to some interesting new deck types.

Using the idea that players are “awakening” the Old Gods, the new expansion introduces a number of cards that strengthen the Old God cards before they are played.

With their use of the Battlecry mechanic, cards like C’thun and Beckoner of Evil will have a number of interesting interactions with existing Hearthstone cards, especially Brann Bronzebeard, which causes all friendly Battlecries to happen twice. There are also cards like Shadowstep that return a card to your hand, allowing you to play it again, which is incredibly powerful with Battlecry cards.

Building on the theme of the Old Gods’ corrupting influence, the expansion also adds a number of familiar cards that have been slightly modified.

For example, instead of the Antique Healbot, a card being phased out of the new Standard game format, Whispers of the Old Gods will introduce the Corrupted Healbot, a more imposing version of the same minion that heals your opponent on death rather than yourself.

In addition to all of the exciting new cards, Blizzard has some good news for Hearthstone players who are not fans of spending actual money on the game.

Anyone who logs into the game within a limited timeframe after the release of the expansion will be gifted three card packs for free, one of which is guaranteed to contain C’thun and two of his cultists.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment Inc