Oh, no source. I was speculating.
Again, look at it from the Kyrian perspective. A King sent to them? That would be a King who was selfless and devoted to his people. Or Queen in the case of women.
You brought up Azshara, Elisande, Arthas, Kael’thas… people like that wound up in Revendreth, because they weren’t selfless and devoted, but selfish, proud, arrogant, etc…
Is it just me or does the afterlife in WoW kind of suck?
So far all these realms strip others of their name, identity and some even ones race (The idea of night elves turning into blue skinned humans makes me laugh). It just seems ppl in mortal worlds have more freedom than in the shadowlands.
With all this I’m even more convinced Sylvanas raising night elves into undead was doing them a favor.
It’s just a theme IRL that disproportionately a lot of Saints in the Apostolic Churches are Monarchs or Generals.
WoW is using that theme because it is High Fantasy Based.
Monarchs are Special.
Yeah being an aristocrat/oligarch is not inherently selfless or devotional lmao
In fact, it inherently tempts the person to darkness.
“Cannot serve God and Mammon”, “it is easier to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven” etc
Exactly. But you said, “being a king is the most selfless thing someone can do”, and that’s just not true because there are plenty of rulers (kings or king-adjacents) who are the most selfish and callous people in the world.
The most selfless and devoted? What about philanthropists, medical staff, live-organ donors, soldiers, first responders, foster care parents, I mean… Hundreds of kinds of people are, by default, more selfless and devoted than kings.
Being a king is what happens when an embryo rolls six consecutive Nat 20s before being spat out into the world.
Someone hasn’t been to Ardenweald or Maldraxxus. Thus far, only Bastion and Revendreth (realms that require a certain degree of impartiality to properly do their jobs) are centered around a level of “stripping of identity”. Granted, both of them succumbed to ideologically corruption and extremism, but there is a function to their form when operating properly.
Neither Maldraxxus nor Ardenweald require the purging of identity. In fact, quite the contrary, the souls there are chosen because of their identities; traits; drives; or ambitions. They also, to some extent, are allowed to choose their forms (in both zones) as far as we can tell. Frankly, neither of these afterlives are particularly bad for the departed. Even if … odd at times.
Souls sent to Ardenweald are slowly stripped away into nothing and its mostly because they are guilted into it by their love of nature.
And I think while it is not overt, Draka has definitely experienced a form of change in her identity and personality. There is no tangible reason she should be as attached to Maldraxxus as she is and have completely seemingly forgotten about her family who you would think most people, especially someone who was from a family/clan centered life, would want their eternity to be.
It may not be as overt as Bastion, but it is somewhat tragic.
All of the Covenants are…wrong.
Where did you get this headcanon lol
Oh Kat, lovely to see you.
Ardenweald is fueled by the Anima of mortal souls who wander the groves until they are “out”
She hasn’t forgotten anything about her life. She even has side commentary discussing it with Alexandros; and makes comments of it with Keal’thas. But she has also been living in Maldraxxus for like 30+ years at this point? Its not that she’s forgotten, its that she’s lived an entirely new “life” since she died. There is a difference. Alexandros and Vashj mention similar phenomena.
I already know Maldraxxus lets people keep their memories (I joined it after all), but it doesn’t changed the fact they are destined to fight for all entirety and be a military force for the Shadowlands as a decaying corpse. and Ardenwaled some end up as someone’s care taker.
Ultimately, everyone so far ends up being a cog in a machine.
Thats not the lore for ardenweald lol
Yes it is, that’s the whole point of the little animal spirit things. They are Anima batteries. I may be surmising that they give Anima until they are gone, but then why the need for a never-ending supply of souls? What causes the drought in Ardenweald if not the slow death of their Anima batteries?
You know not everything is spelled out for you in black and white.
You dont have to be a animal spirit lol, some people choose that, and if you actually knew the lore theres literally characters that have been tending the gardens for thousands of years, like Hulan Highmountian.
and I know you like most sylvanas fans play some imaginary verison of the game that doesnt exist
Again Kat, Huln would be akin to “old reliables” in Revendreath Garrosh, just a powerful soul with a lot of anima to give.
Did you miss the quests in Ardenweald where characters sacrificed themselves to give Anima? It happens several times.
Huln been dead for over 10000 years, and its not just him lol, there are random nelves who also keep there fourms, Lady moonberry literally says you dont have to be a animal spirit to work there, that SOME people do it.
Well, under normal circumstances, sure.
Except at the moment nobody who comes to the Shadowlands is going where they’re supposed to go for the reasons they’re supposed to go there. And that’s well known by this point. By definition a king showing up in Bastion right now would just be another Maw Walking mortal who happens to be a king of some place somewhere in the living world.
How does Kael’thas or Uther become Sire/Archon? There’s like, 10 characters above them in their hierarchies.
Golden has used Anduin as a Insert for her son for a while. She has gone on twitter and stated that he has been written as a role model for him.
Its why her new self insert Jaina is basically his adoptive mother and basically treats him as such. Its why BFA went to such dramatic lengths the firstly justify her actions and get her character back on Anduin’s cheer leading squad after Legion made her pretty much the opposite of this.
Please don’t accuse individual writers/authors/C-Dev folks of having “self-inserts” or having singular control of the story. They do not operate that way. Christie Golden only writes dialogue for cinematics, and she does so for every Blizzard property, not just WoW. She also writes commissioned books as a freelance (formerly freelance) author. She does not have any control over the story decisions, and as far as I can surmise from following her on twitter the story decisions we are seeing today were made before she even worked for Blizzard as an employee. (also she does not have a son AFAIK, though she does have 2 cats named Anduin and Sylvanas)
The same for Steve Danuser. Steve only just got promoted and has only been at Blizzard for a few years. He did not single-handedly make any story decisions. Like I said what we are seeing today was decided years ago. Just look at the Ilgynoth prophecies.
That just isn’t how C-Dev works.
EDIT: I don’t mean to single you out on this, a lot of people on these forums and on Reddit and Wowhead do this and I wish I could correct them all.
I really need to get into video game story writing. Its pretty clear that the bar for employment is abysmally low.