Wizard101 Announces New World: Mirage!

Today on KI Live, KingsIsle semi-officially announced their next world. They did officially, however, confirm that that next world will be Mirage! They teased players with a short trailer and a concept piece for several of the characters within the world. 

What's in Mirage?

If you hadn't picked up on it from the number of lore bits we've gathered over the years, you definitely got it from the teaser concept - Mirage is a desert world, with more of an Arabian feel than Krokotopia, which revolves around Egyptian history.  It was one of the three worlds in Old Cob's prophecy (he described two others that were not named), so it isn't a huge surprise to players that this is a world we're seeing. 

What is a surprise is the fact that it's the next world. Polaris was the first world Old Cob mentioned and the first one we visited in the third arc. Naturally, many assumed Empyrea would be next, having been mentioned next in the dialogue lines. Mirage was the third world mentioned. Now we can expect Empyrea next.  

What to Expect

Mirage is home to several NPCs we already know, including the Death Professor in the Arcanum, the Spiral's advanced version of Ravenwood. With Bartleby having a cold, some wizards theorize that he is on the decline and that the Arcanum will be the new center of the Spiral. Qismah Shasa, the Death Scholar, talks about the Desert Star, and discusses much of Mirage. I'll talk more about that later.

It's also interesting to note that there are an abnormal amount of humans in this concept. Though one is likely a genie and another likely a god or the Scorpion child in a false form, we usually see animals depicted. Malistaire and Sylvia were obvious exceptions, but they came from Wizard City. Morganthe was an oddity. Rasputin turned out to be The Rat in disguise. It would seem, however, that we're moving into more human characters. But rest assured, there'll be plenty of fun and whimsy based on some of the character art. 

The Villain

The primary villain, pictured next to Old Cob in the background, must surely be one of Old Cob's Children. He had three - a spider, a rat, and a scorpion.

The Rat was defeated in Polaris (though he will likely return for the final battle with Grandfather Spider), the Bat may fit in with an extension of Darkmoor or Empyrea (being a sky world), and the Scorpion fits perfectly with Mirage. While the staff the villain holds looks a little bit more like a crab than a scorpion, my guess is that it's an indicator of his true form.

More to Come

Right now all we really got out of the preview is a single concept piece and a title. As more details inevitably unfold, I'll be doing some additional theorycrafting and sharing updates as they're released. This is definitely going to be an interesting world for Wizard101. It's going to confirm and establish some trends we might have been picking up on in Polaris, iron out the remainder of the story arc, and introduce a lot of exciting new mechanics based on what has been said by KingsIsle employees.

What are you most excited for in Mirage?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!