I’m not sure if they ever explained this but how does stuff like necromancy work now with shadowlands. When someone is brought back to the world do they just disappear from the shadowlands? Do they keep their memory of what happened in the shadowlands? Also how does raising someone work if they were trapped in the maw. Also why don’t the shadowlands do anything to prevent their souls from being stolen back into the world of living.
I’m 99% sure this question has been asked 3 times on this forum and twice on reddit.
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8 days ago(even though the answer is left field)
What happens to the soul in the Shadowlands if someone is raised from the dead?
Undeath is a force that has definitely touched Azeroth throughout history. Obviously the Scourge, and the storylines from Warcraft III with the Lich King, Arthas and all of that, is a prime example of undeath in Azeroth. But actually undeath on Azeroth dates much, much, much further back. If you go back to books about the Dawn of the Dragon Aspects, you will see Galakrond, and the force he used also had Death magic, necromancy as part of his power.
Like all the cosmic forces, Death has touched Azeroth in numerous ways over the ages. And one of most visible and pronounced in the modern age of Azeroth is the Forsaken and the undead who are animated. That may lead you to the questions: “For people like the Forsaken, are their souls in the Shadowlands? Are their souls in Azeroth?” The active raising of someone like the Forsaken, someone who has intellect and mind intact, means that their soul is being anchored to their body.
In life, for a living being, the soul is anchored to the body through the force of Life. It is a living body, therefore Life is a force that’s holding the soul to it. But in the case of a Forsaken, in the case of someone who is raised from the dead, it’s a different force, because life isn’t present within them. And so that is the force of necromancy, that is anchoring the soul to the body. Now it’s a different process than a living being, than someone who is kind of held together through the power of Life (with a capital L, as one of the Cosmic forces of the universe). So that Forsaken person, that undead person is held together by the power of Death, and that can have an effect on the soul. And we’ve seen that being raised can result in certain different circumstances. One person who’s raised may be very much intact. They may essentially be the same person that they were in life. Others are more aggressive, more hateful or more scornful than they were in life. And part of that has to do with the manner in which they’re raised. There’s all kinds of factors that go into that. So I would say that being raised that way is something of an imperfect process. It’s something that isn’t as defined and easily categorized as the living is. But make no mistake about it: Someone who is Forsaken, someone who is an intelligent undead like that, they do have their soul anchored to the mortal realm. Even if for a time it had crossed over in the Shadowlands and was brought back. - Cdev
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ah thank you for that reply. However I’m still curious if any soul can be pulled back regardless of where in the shadowlands it is trapped, for example the maw. Is a soul judged each time it returns to the shadowlands? Also surely someone like Davos would have seen a soul be raised back and stolen. Which makes me wonder why would she be surprised someone could be using powers of the maw outside the shadowlands because someone could easily be raised from the maw and return with knowledge of what they might have seen or been taught in there.
Not neccesarily. Necromancy has been around for a long time, but not in the same magnitude as in the time of the Scourge. Plus, she would probably only notice if someone went missing from Bastion.
Bwonsamdi almost lost Zekhan in Shadows Rising, so once the Maw has you, I think you have to be friends with the Jailer to have access to those souls.
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Not clear. So far the examples we have confirmed, like whoever was pulled by the Light or that Devos story - only includes the souls that never reached the Arbiter. We’ll see what new can be learned in Shadowlands.
gl hf
My guess is that fresh dead are easier to raise than old dead. Old dead being risen is pulling the soul back to reality, whereas with fresh dead you’re taking it before kyrians can even lay a hand on them.
That’s basically my best guess with all the stuff I know about necromancy lore.
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so reread the posts a few times but the details on how this ‘afterlife’ works make no sense to me. I’m sure the zones and cities will look great so got that and the gameplay. haven’t been this unenthused for new warcraft lore since MoP
Danuser really likes to give long-winded answers when only a few sentences are needed. “When someone is raised by necromancy, their soul is forcibly retrieved from the Shadowlands and bound to their reanimated body. It’s an unnatural process though, so there’s a range of mental/emotional damage the raised person may now suffer from.” That’s really all he’s saying, he just took three paragraphs to say it.
Maybe I’m being unfair, but I suspect the dumb “think of AU characters as threads in a rope” thing only came about because of the person who was giving the answer. Someone else might’ve given a more concise, clear answer instead of waxing poetic.
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What a ramble just for only the last two sentences to matter to the question.
Though that’s par for the course in that interview.
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It’s been my headcanon that Gen 2 Forsaken, or any other sapient undead who was dead for a notable length of time, has hazy memories of the Shadowland reminiscent of a vivid dream that fades upon waking.
That seems as good a solution as any. Though physically going there could jog some memories. Between Slyvanas being a major player and every Forsaken having already been in the Shadowlands for at least a few minutes I really think they could do some cool story beats with the faction. Which is why I’m kinda worried so far we’re not seeing anything in that department.
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You mean the waxing poetic is not just for Sylvanas and Nathanos but every subject he talks about?
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