This illustration is just kind of… meh to me? Generic spooky man with some type of skeletal part and chains.
It’s good, don’t get me wrong, it just doesn’t feel like I’m looking at some massively powerful death god. I feel more like I’m looking at some random named goon from Diablo that you meet for the first time and kill in about an hour.
He looks alot like harbarons grandfather or something like that.
Trying to make sense of WoW cosmology is like listening to Who Made Who by AC/DC.
Really, the image looks great. If Bolvar is the Lich King, this guy looks like the Lich God.
Except ya know, the part where he blatantly said “Sylvanas be tippin the scales too far, she has a habit of keeping what she kills, aint a friend to Ol Bwonsamdi”.
Xal’atath made statement that she thought his kind was incorruptible and his being corrupted by Yogg-Saron is a lesson for her brothers(who aren’t the Old Gods according to Blizzard) she supposes.
Harbaron is the Charon of WoW. Charon is a God… The Old Gods corrupted a weak Full God into Helya’s service! Xal’atath judging from her statement is clearly having cogs turn in her mind over the whole thing.
She must plan on corrupting a Full God(or many) at some point while also seizing Legion tech for herself.
Doesn’t Bwomsamdi say that he is against Sylvanas during the 8.1 Vol’jin quest chain?
Bwonsamdi’s comment about his “Boss” is about Vol’jin’s soul being held captive. He didn’t know Vol’jin soul was missing until it was supposed to go to him, and he thought his boss would be mad that he didn’t have it.
Yet, the Jailer is by far and large the most likely one to have taken Vol’jin’s soul to begin with.
The only comment we have about Bwonsamdi’s boss goes against the idea of it being the Jailer.
He also didn’t like what Sylvanas was doing, saying she was bending the balance too far one way.
What do you want to bet he blocks everyone who posts that tweet?
Ultimately, all loa serve Bon Dieu, aka the Abrahamic God. Since Bon Dieu doesn’t interfere directly with mortal affairs, the Loa are empowered to do it instead- making them spiritual intermediaries.
Papa Legba is a member of the Rada, which is different from the Ghede, over which Baron Samedi rules. Papa Legba is the one who oversees crosswords/communication/etc and as such, opens the way for Loa to be summoned, which does makes him super important, but not any kind of ruler.
I mean, he rules the Crossroads, him and Kalfu, who in some Houses is Legba in Petwo, but that’s besides the point.
Like you can’t serve or call upon the Ghede without honoring Legba first, ergo why I gestured to a sort of hierarchy, if processional. Unless you’re a bokor.
Actually wait…
Assuming Blizzard is going to borrow in a lazy in your face manner, Muehzela probably has two “faces”, a Rada Legba face and a Petwo Kalfu face, and the Legba face is the one that’s cool and chill and an ally and the Kalfu face is the one allied to the Jailer.
But that doesn’t make him in charge. He’s the doorman/envoy at most (not to diminish his importance). In fact, it’s not uncommon when invoking Legba to open the way for a certain other Loa, to have the Ghede “crash the party” instead. They’re notable for having little regard for matters of ceremony and decorum.
But outside of Bwonsamdi’s name, being associated with the dead, and being a jovial kind of guy, the loa in WoW are very different from their real world equivalents. I’m surprised they kept as close to his depiction as they did compared to when he showed up in the scenario to retake the Echo Isles (he was a more traditional “Voodoo Grim Reaper” figure). I doubt they’re carrying any other stuff.
I mean so far they’ve copied to a high extent Norse mythos re: Odin and Hel for Odyn and Helya, and in general to me it seems anyone that deals with the afterlife they’re just stealing plot lines from real life.
So it stands to reason if Odin/Hel was copied and slightly twisted for the narrative, Ardenweald is a copy of Unseelie Fae myths, and even The Archon of the Kyrians in Bastion increasingly appears to be a Freyja vs Odin copy, Samedi/Legba are going to be copied probably. They aren’t creative enough not to do so lmao
Yeah, Blizzard draws on real world mythology on a surface level to inform the look and general feel of its characters, but when it comes to actual relationships and plots, they more often draw upon serialized forms of modern genre fiction: super hero comics, sci-fi franchises, popular post-Tolkien fantasy works.
They use the names and more well known iconography, but not the actual relationships or stories except in the vaguest of senses. Odyn and Helya are clearly based on Odin and Hel, but their actual relationship with one another and place in the cosmology is different.
The Ardenweald are indeed a reference to Unseelie Fey, but I don’t expect them to have all the same traits or recreate the stories.
Bwonsamdi is the only troll loa we’ve ever seen that is a legitimate reference to real world Loa, and he just takes the general trappings of the Baron, but none of his actual relationships while excising all the parts that aren’t rated T for Teen. We’ve already seen him and other Troll loa, who exist in the corporeal world, interact with mortals without requiring a Papa Legba-liked figure to intercede.
WoW’s use of real world mythology is largely skin deep.
I’m willing to bet the Jailer is supposed to answer to the same boss as Bwonsamdi (and all other Death entities) as well, and his deal with Sylvanas to funnel souls into the Maw in order to empower the two of them- pointed out as a big and unwanted shift in how things normally work- is him shaking things up because he either wants things to change. Whether that means taking over the Shadowlands in general or just doesn’t want be the Jailer anymore is still up in the air.
So he looks like some sort of death titan and has a resemblance to Aman’thul. A stupid theory I can come up with is that he is the son of Eonar and Aman’thul as Life+Time=Death.
But on a serious note I am pretty sure that he has some sort of connection to the titans and he is “locked” away. Maybe they’ll pull a switcheroo on us and have us work with the Jailor at the end of the expansion.
Makes sense: In Greek mythology Hades (God of the Dead and the Underworld with Helmet) is the son of Cronos (Time TItan) and Rhea (Ground/Earth/Flow/Cycle Titan)
I thought they already said he predates the Titans.
Mueh’zala is called the Son of Time and Night’s Friend.
The Jailer as Blizzard has stated is a new character and thus not Mueh’zala.
Incidentally the Jailer looks like a Kyrian and their Totem is called the Vesper Totem and Vesper means Night in Latin.
The Jailer is the Night that Mueh’zala is friends with.
“The fall of night reveals her true face. She will bring only ruin.”
The Arbiter wears a mask to hide her face… The Jailer and Mueh’zala are impersonal forces that seek to consume Azeroth yet Mueh’zala tells the kid in traveler that if he fails then Mueh’zala will consume reality.
Mueh’zala’s statement indicates that he wants the kid to succeed in their destined confrontation and will consume reality only if he fails.
The Jailer and Mueh’zala may be good guys with the Arbiter being the Big Bad of Shadowlands. Of course Sylvanas is another story considering she is willing to backstab everyone for her goals and would probably backstab the Jailer too.
The Arbiter’s hands resemble the Lightforged Undead Calia’s hands indicating relation to the Light…
Indeed the Jailer predates the Titans according to Blizzard… Of course that leaves questions on whether his friend the Death God Mueh’zala predates them and if so than who is Time? Is Time’s name Chronos possibly?
I remember something about Oribos predating the Titans but maybe I’m wrong.
IIRC it was the Arbiter who predates the Titans they’ve said nothing on the Jailer in this capacity?
Yep, I stand corrected.
I googled a bit and nothing mentioned what I said about the Jailer.
However, you’d think that if the Arbiter predates the Titans, there’s no reason why the Jailer shouldn’t. You know, both jobs seem to be about the Dead, and it would be dumb for both of them to be able to ‘‘die’’ by normal circumstances, ergo he is immortal.