So something that’s cropped up a few times in WoW is infusions of magical energy alters both the world around the source of the infusion, and the life-forms within that area.
Pandaria has the Golden Vale, and the Valley of the Four Winds, the former being turned into a paradise of rich fields, golden trees, and mystically-enhanced waters, the over-flow of which heads down into the Valley of Four Winds and creates an environment so saturated with Titanic Magic, Order Magic, that it infuses the water and the soil with so much vitality that the Pandaren crops there grow to enormous size while still maintaining both their flavor and their nutritional content.
In the Broken Isles, we come across Suramar, where the Leylines of Azeroth’s arcane energies (which may or may not be natural to the planet at this point …) have actively mutated much of the indigenous life-forms, from the mana-sabres and turtles to the fish and insects and even to a lesser extent, the plant-life. The more densely ‘energized’ regions of the area, this becomes so prevalent that even the trees become thick with arcane energy, glowing purple and blow, and we see the prime example of this with the Shal’dorei, who have diverged significantly from their Kaldorei ancestors, both the original generations and their descendants.
We see this with the Dark Irons who have been transformed by their enslavement by Ragnaros and his Fire and Magma Elementals, giving the Dark Irons a quasi-elemental nature that leaves them vulnerable to water and ice but not to the same lethal extent that ‘True’ Elementals do, and also gives them an innate connection to the Spirits of Earth and Fire that Wildhammer and Bronzebeard Dwarves lack.
We see this with the Ren’dorei and Lightforged Draenei, who were infused with the Void and the Light respectively and has altered them enough that they are considered sub-species of their original peoples now.
The Orcs were altered by the Fel to the point of turning green and developing thicker bones and a pronounced aggression beyond even that of their original nature, but in the case of the playable Orcs, this trait seems to be fading with time and with interbreeding with normal Orcs amongst the Mag’har of Outland, and from the Alternate Universe that migrated here during the War of Thorns.
To a point, we also saw this with the Kaldorei, who were rendered immortal and almost entirely resistance to diseases and infirmities by their connection to the World Tree, which was a font of both Titanic energies via the Dragon Aspects, and the power of the World Soul via the 2nd Well of Eternity. They also altered their environment via druidic arts that we’d see expressed more openly when compared to the environment of Ardenweald in the Shadowlands, a visible link between the Wild Gods the Kaldorei followed and the life-cycle of such Wild Gods between the Material Plane and the Shadowlands.
We can also see this limited infusion process in the Sin’dorei, who were Fel-tainted by Kael’thas and his allegiances, and were then Light-infused by the inclusion of a Naaru Core into the Sunwell, giving them a blend of Light and World Soul/Arcane energies to draw upon. We’ve also see the Fel-born, Sin’dorei so infused with Fel that they started to grow wings and other avian characteristics, as well as turning red and dark grey with Fel-green eyes and wet membranes. And the Sin’dorei actively altered their lands via infusing it with the energies of the original Sunwell, and altered the animals and plant-life to better suit their needs, creating the Lynxes, the Mana-Wyrms and the Dragonhawks, the eternal-autumn forests and subservient treants to tend to them all.
My question is, given we’ve seen that the Primal Powers tend to react violently when coming into contact with one another and not tightly controlled by very skilled individuals or under the control of some very powerful Titanic installations, since we’re all at peace and nobody’s pushing and shoving here, what’s happening to the World Soul as all of these conflicting powers trickle down and affect it? Are we giving the World Soul a mixture of competing ‘medication’ here without realising it, and is that why the successful worlds like Argus only had a singular power to them, or at least aligned powers?
Argus was a world of the Arcane, with an undercurrent of Light due to people like Velen and the Ata’mal Crystal, competing forces but also Order-focused forces.
Azeroth is a Chaotic-aligned world, that was ruled by the Elemental Lords, a native Chaos-aligned faction, that was then conquered by the Old Gods/Void, a Chaos-aligned faction, who were in turn overwhelmed and captured by the Titan Watchers, a Order-aligned faction, who have spent tens of thousands of year attempt to force Order on the World Soul, ‘for its own good’ (which may actually be true, compared to what we’ve seen of the Black Empire…), and we’ve had limited amounts of the Light, a major push by Death, both Order-aligned forces, trying to either claim or convert the World Soul via the Sunwell and by the events of the Shadowlands.
In short, Azeroth keeps being injected with Uppers and Downers while she’s comatose and the Radiant Song might be her screaming out to us to stop it all because being torn back and forth, and left with chunks taken out with each change of ownership, is tearing her apart and she might be at the very cusp of collapse, or be willing to lash out regardless of the cost to all forms of life upon her surface.
We’re trying to contextualize the Radiant Song in terms that entities native to the Material Plane can comprehend. Entities from outside the Material Plane, like the Void-scarred Naaru that Alleria consumed back on Argus, might see it as something else, something closer to what the World Soul is trying to convey to us, and that’s why Alleria is seeing different visions, not just the Void trying to influence her, but the Naaru within her trying to ‘paraphrase’ the Radiant Song into something its new Host can comprehend without going completely insane.
Velen isn’t, at this point, getting anything along that line because he stopped listening to the Naaru during the events of Legion due to what happened to his son, and his people, and without the Naarus’ guidance, he no longer has prophetic visions. Turalyon isn’t getting visions because he’s Light-Forged and he did not avenge Xe’ra. He’s still an agent of the Light, but I don’t think the Naaru, who are the acting leaders of the Light’s agents in the Material Plane, trust him nearly as much as they used to because of this, even if it did save Azeroth in the end from the Legion.
I’m worried that all these different Infusion processes, some ordered, some not, some planned, some random, are going to tear at the World Soul and either create a dysfunctional entity, or worse yet, split the World Soul into intrinsically linked but diametrically opposed sub-entities who will spend eternity fighting each other, but unable to overcome, or slay, each other due to that interconnection. One cannot die without killing all the others, and likewise, anything that affects one will in turn be expressed by the others.
What are your thoughts?
