So real quick before I go to the company Christmas party, I wanted to share a theory my friend Yana had on Maiev’s Avatars of Smoldering Vengeance (I don’t know if Yana posts on here).
Anyway, his idea was that Avatars of Vengeance, and thus Avatars of Smoldering Vengeance, aren’t actually spirits on their own (with AoV I think that’s actually canon). Sure, AoV can raise Spirits of Vengeance in WC3, but the Avatars themselves come from the Warden. They are manifestations of that Warden’s hatred and vengeance-lust, and thus take that Warden’s form. Carry this concept through to 8.1, and it would mean that the Avatars Maiev summons aren’t actually the spirits of dead civilians. Rather Maiev, now feeling vengeance on their behalf, is manifesting Avatars in their image. It’s a neat concept that could speak to Maiev’s emotional development beyond what she was, and expand on what emotion-based magic can do.
Now carry this idea through even further with Sira’s Avatars of Suffering. Her Avatars are manifestations of the suffering she personally feels. That is why they take her image, because she is the subject of that emotion.
This opens up a new range of possibilities for different Avatars in the future. If we look at the WC3 Reforged Maiev concept art, we see an Avatar that burns white instead of the usual AoV black. It makes me wonder if this is another kind of Avatar we will see in WC3 with the revisions they’re doing.
https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/maiev-jpeg.308890/
Anyway, to wrap it all up I’m completely ok with either theory (the AoSV being actual ghosts or just manifestations of vengeance), but I thought Yana’s idea was interesting enough to share here and get opinions on. Good idea or bad idea?