Help me understand the afterlife

Lore Story Forum
#1

I am playing through Shadowlands, and I have so many questions. I’m not finished with the storyline yet, so maybe more will be answered on the way, but some of this stuff is really bothering me, so I was hoping for some help understanding the lore here…

  1. So when a person dies in Azeroth, their soul gets turned into something completely different in the afterlife? Like a blue angel that carries people to the Shadowlands, or a skeleton/zombie fighting in an eternal war, etc.? Why does Draka still get to look like an orc, but no one else?

So there is no chance of a happy afterlife with your loved ones? No eternal hunting ground for the Tauren, or halls of Dwarven ancestors, etc.?
That’s terrible!

  1. I don’t understand “anima” either. Are some souls just ground into paste to power machines, never to return? That doesn’t fit the description, which says that powerful souls contribute more anima.
    So do they just suck a bit of anima out of everyone when they arrive, like how they’re still draining poor Garrosh? Did Uther have to contribute any? Did Draka? I just don’t get it.

Or is there some kind of cycle of rebirth/reincarnation, where anima gets turned into new people in the living world, and that’s the “machine” of the afterlife?

I’m just so confused. Sorry if I’m being obtuse.

#2

There are an infinite number of afterlives, the four that we are visiting are simply the most important, the ones that set the state of balance for the whole enchilada.

So unless you heroes can fix the situation, the Happy Hunting Grounds, which do exist, are doomed.

1 Like
#3

Hmm, okay. I must have missed that detail in the conversations. Thanks.

Still don’t get the anima thing, but that helps at least.

#4

Think of Anima as a form of energy produced by experiences a soul undergoes in its life. The longer and more experience filled a life you lead, the more Anima you have. Souls can slowly replenish the energy, but the cap level you have seems to be set at the moment you die.

There are an infinite number of Afterlives, and the body you are provided suits the afterlife realm you were assigned to. A Kyrian on the inside could of once been any number of things. Think of it like wearing a uniform. The realms we are visiting compose the core mechanism which makes the shadowlands tick. Should they collapse everyone else will go down with them.

You can eventually earn retirement for an afterlife of service. For example some day Draka could go and reunite with her husband, who is off in some pleasant afterlife hunting with his wolves.

#5

It seems like there is a realm for you if:

If You were really bad
If you are an animal or had a purpose in life to defend nature
If you are a warrior at heart
Or if your purpose in life was to protect others

Now normal civilians will probably have their own kind of happy ending realm (which in this situation the shadowlands is in probably sucks really bad)

I am hoping for zones in future patches to be like, a mage realm, a shaman or elemental realm (not sure if the elements go to the shadowlands), I also want to see if they make the brawlers guild have a realm