What is the definitive answer to this? I remember Ion saying during the ceremony that it was somewhere around just before BfA because all the casualties from Teldrassil and the Fourth War have gone to the Maw.
However, I also read that during the Q&A apparently one of the developers said that souls of the dead have been going to the Maw for a few years. So which is it? And what does a few years mean? From BC on? Did it start after Wrath of the Lich King?
Since the start of BFA for sure, we know that.
All The Night Elves, all The Horde and Alliance soldiers, Saurfang probably.
Very good question. Most QA responses were in regards to lore for 9.0.
To be fair, the only thing we know for absolute certain is that they’ve been going there for a while “including all the casualties from teldrassil and the 4th war”. Nothing was said in that statement regarding any sort of time table, so both that and “a few years” could be accurate… depending on what a few years actually means as you said.
Definitely, we know everyone who has died in BfA is now in the Maw, but I wish they would directly state when the Maw started sucking up all the souls instead of them being judged and sorted.
I wonder if Sylvanas ended up in the Maw in the Edge of Night, and I wonder if she was meant to end up there. Does the broken death engine in Shadowlands predate Sylvanas’ death in WoTLK? Or was it something Sylvanas and her allies caused?
Well we see Kael’Thas in Shadowlands in Revendreth and he died in Burning Crusade, so it was at least after that. I definitely think Sylvanas ended up in the Maw when she died, that’s how she supposedly met the Jailer and began scheming with him according to the Q&A.
The question is, like you said, was she meant to go there? Or was the Shadowlands broken already and she ended up there for that reason? I wish they would specify.
They said souls have been going their for a few years, but what does that mean? 3 years? 4 years? WotLK was 6 years ago in lore so I’d say that’s more than a few years.
Maybe the death of the Lich King and the destruction of Frostmourne is what broke the Shadowlands? Prior to Cataclysm I can’t recall her doing anything that would get her sent directly to the Maw. Maybe Revendreth but before Cata and Teldrassil she was still redeemable. If Frostmourne and the Helm do have a stronger connection to the Shadowlands than we previously thought maybe that is what set off the chain of events?
Cairne died in the prelude to Cataclysm, and he moved on normally. Uther’s soul was freed when Frostmourne was shattered, and he moved on to Bastion like he was supposed to. The earliest cutoff point we know of is Edge of Night, with Sylvanas striking her deal.
Hmmm. Well Edge of Night supposedly takes place right before the Shattering during the Catacylsm, so the beginning that expansion because Sylvanas shows up to lead the attack on Gilneas. That would really suck if that’s when souls started getting sucked into the Maw…
Wasselin brings up the most valid question here.
Well we know it doesn’t predate Sylvanas’ death in WotLK because Cairne dies in the prelude to Cataclysm and we see his soul is free and not in the Maw. So the broken death engine in the Shadowlands could have started anywhere from after the start of Cataclysm?
ALL souls started going there somewhere in Legion.
Cenarius made it to Ardenweald and we saved him from the emerald nightmare during Legion.
I’ve heard it theorized that Argus was the Titan of Death and that killing him has changed something, or it could just be that they chose that time when we were away from Azeroth to start enacting their plan.
Good point. I forgot about Cenarius dying in Legion, so him ending up in Ardenweald definitely gives a timeline that all souls started going there during/after Legion.
5 years. Say’s so somewhere.
I don’t know, I just go to the spirit healer. Maybe that’s why my server seems so empty, though.
Oh, Cenarius died via orcs and axes pre-dating vanilla WoW, and was resurrected during Cata in the Mount Hyjal quests, along with Malorne.
He was affected badly by the bad stuff going on in Valsharah, but he didn’t get killed off again in Legion. He even greets us at the end of the Emerald Nightmare raid and says visiting the dream is our reward, if I remember right. He’s got a pretty cool model.
It was poor Ysera that got killed off, but I noticed an interesting tidbit on WoWhead the other day, saying (Spoilers) that Tyrande was gonna travel to Ardenweald and get some answers as to wtf was going on with Elune.
I think it was that same article that said something cryptic about Ysera maybe going to the Ardenweald too, but that implies that she isn’t there already. Which is a HUGE red flag for me (and confusing since she was turned into a constellation and all).