Zovaal as he appeared through out the game is coated in domination magic. The only time he isn’t is during the SOTFO ending cinematic when he is being condemned by the other Eternal Ones. We see every single covenant leader through the Zovaal’s point of view. We see the Zovaal through the Primus’ point of view(Where we see the jailer before he is thrown into the maw for the first time, No Domination runes on his face.) As the jailer dies, the Domination Magic fades from Zovaal in exactly the same way it fades from Anduin during his cinematic.
The Primus is a character who has never seen defeat, knows the future, and considers short term losses as a deterministic route to long term victories. He invented Domination Magic, is a master of undeath(Hence why everything in Maldraxxus looks like it came from the scourge and why the scourge looks like stuff form maldraxxus. The Primus is likely the only one who heard Zovaal’s warning about the cosmos being divided, and using this information about the bigger threat concocted to have Zovaal framed for going against the path and thrown into the Maw, the Primus then used Domination magic on Zovaal and used him and Denathrius to reach the sepulcher of the first ones. As for what the primus intended to do there, I have no idea.
The only consensus I can make of the Shadowlands story is that the Primus is the true Jailer, and the story we are told is a carefully constructed ruse by the primus to attain “SOMETHING” for good or ill, we do not know. But we do know that the crown of wills does not go to Pelagos, so the next best candidate is likely the Primus or Calia.
“A Cosmos Divided… will not survive what is to come.” Are the final words Zavaal says before dying and his imprisonment in the Maw. Where in he spends an inoridnate amount of time using Dreadlords to divide said cosmos? No. He was being Dominated. The Primus is the Jailer.
The runes are still there so the magic fading was the magic the first ones used to make him. The domination magic scarred his very soul so his body / shell still had it.
Yes but the runes are no longer active. He repeated the same lines he said to The Primus to the player character. It was the first time he wasn’t speaking in his big bad menacing tone, and that is a sure sign that he was being dominated like Anduin. The Stonewright even calls the Primus an “Old Tyrant.”
The issue is that gives the writers to much credit to plan a twist that subtle. I could see it, don’t get me wrong as he is the creator of domination magic. Either A. Zovaal imprisoned him because of his grudge against The Primus or B. The Primus had Zovaal capture him to throw suspicion off his plan; whatever it might be.
But again, that gives the writers far to much credit.
I don’t think it’s that far fetched. Why would they show the jailer undominated from The Primus’ POV if it didn’t mean anything? That wasn’t a random choice. They show Zovaal from the primus’ pov LAST, and Zovaal is saying the same stuff about the cosmos to The Primus as he is to the players. Zovaal then proceeds to divide said cosmos for no reason. It calls into question everything we’ve been told about zovaal from the ending cinematic. It also is telling that denathrius seems disappointed that Zovaal didn’t join him? Watch the raid cinematics again. The true story of what happened is not even subtle. The Jailer was dominated shortly before the chaos in Maldraxxus happened. The being Sylvanas was in touch with after Arthas dies was THE PRIMUS.
Well that woulda been a better twist making the expansion ending better…especially since the jailers desires in the book dont align with the game at all.
Was about fixing the flawed system not many familiy or loved ones are together in the afterlife.
We see this with thralls mother and fathers missing.
The book discribes sylvanas seeing this and that was one thing the jailer talked about changing.
In game we get the same old final boss saying it was to prepare for ANOTHER mysterious threat that even death god bald nipple mans afraid of now…
Feels like a Saturday cartoon cop out…this expansion deserved to be so much more then what we got… So tragic.
Zoval was the rune carver originally the reason he looks like a withered zoval in armor.
Its all so dang mixed and confusing I dont get why they swapped from the original concept and got everything scuffed
But don’t we know it was the Jailer that imprisoned the Primus as the Runecarver? Are we to believe a dude that was imprisoned by the Jailer was pulling strings? He would still be Zovaal’s play thing if we hadn’t come along.
It’s called a ruse. Zovaal was already dominated by that point. The only problem with this theory is we don’t know exactly when the runecarver was capture by Zovaal. And again, the primus is a character “That sees losses as necessary in order to secure future victories.” We got played.
Being someone’s mindless slave for eons is a terrible ruse.
Also, if the Primus was pulling strings it means the Jailer’s goal was the Primus’ so why would he prevent that goal from being accomplished when he was so close to fulfilling his plan. If the Primus hadn’t helped us, we’d have lost.
Eons? Are you sure about that? Draka makes the Runecarver’s disappearance seem like a relatively recent thing. Draka died some point after the first war. So that is the timeframe for the primus to be in Torghast. Draka had time to know the Primus, but Zovaal had enough time to have him craft the helm of domination and frostmourne as the runecarver.
The Primus could have Dominated Zovaal, and put all of this Lich King/Sylvanas stuff into motion. As for the dreadlords they were one of Denathrius’ first creations. Likely created before Zovaal’s imprisonment. The Primus could have done all of this through Zovaal without ever having to reveal himself.
I added it on later so I’ll state it again: if the Primus was pulling the Jailer’s strings, then the Jailer’s goal is also the Primus’ goal. Why would he prevent the Jailer from accomplishing his goal?
The WoW writing team isn’t good enough for this twist at all. They have more straightforward plots that can be finished at the start of a xpac. You want good plot twists play FF 14.
