Question is in the title!
The various cultures and people of Azeroth all have their different views on what happens after we die, so for some of them, actually seeing the afterlife in person will no doubt come as a shock. How will your characters, especially those on the more faithful side, handle seeing the Shadowlands in all of its various flavors? Will it affect their faith or change what they believe?
Personally, I can’t get over the thought of a Scarlet Crusader ending up in Maldraxxus and just… screaming.
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Most of my characters aren’t going to the Shadowlands IC and even if they did wouldn’t have anything change, but I do have a troll DK who is basically a priest of Mueh’zala, and it’s probably going to be a “never meet your heroes” moment.
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Kina has, in a way, already been through the wringer with this. She’s had to come to terms with the idea that myths she as based her whole life and world view on are probably just stories. They may be based on a perception of truth, but they probably don’t represent the truth of the events. So in a way she’s been trying to reconcile which is more important, the “truth” of the story, or the “spirit” of the story and the lessons they teach.
She’s had to come to terms with the fact that the “gods” of Azeroth are fallible, corruptable, and mortal. The ancestors have been her refuge, she’s taken solace in them and the Emerald Dream. Whelp, that’s about to be all over. And that’s why she’ll be going to Shadowlands ICly, she will go to defend and protect the ancestors.
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My Forsaken is a Necromancer and a Cult of Shadows member. If anything I think Maldraxxus will reaffirm his belief that life and death are a delicate balancing act that must always be maintained. I think he’d probably see the Shadowlands as a whole as holy ground.
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Bates would look at it all, see how corrupt all the covenants are under the surface and go “well shoot, maybe being stuck in Duskwood ISN’T so bad afterall.”
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Sarestha, an ex Scarlet Crusader, is going to end up in Madraxxus, see her hero Alexandros Mograine, and probably start screaming.
That said it’d be happy screams. Like “Omg death IS the solution! Power to the Forsaken! We’re the real Lordaeron!”
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It would really depend on what you were hoping for an afterlife, I guess.
Would most worshippers of the light want to go to Bastion? Is that the end-game for light worshippers now? So would ending up there be more preferrable to a paladin than ending up in Maldraxxus? Is Bastion heaven? It’s hard to see Revendreth as anymore more than purgatory lite along with Maldraxxus. Ardenwald is basically “heaven” for druids/nature focused people.
So I guess it’s hard to see it changing anyone’s beliefs unless they end up somewhere else they weren’t hoping to go to.
As far as the living entering the Shadowlands, however, that just seems hilarious in that you go from a place of conflict and thinking that it all just ends and your soul gets to rest you’re suddenly having to kill even more stuff when you die. Really sucks to be in the worlds system of Azeroth, never catch a break.
If we don’t see Bridenbrad in Shadowlands I’m going headcanon that there’s a non-shadowlands light based afterlife, and that can be the endgame for light worshippers.
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Malokhs entire character revolves around him trying to prove himself to his ancestors even in death, as he thinks they abandoned him when he was raised. Finding out that literally none of that matters will probably be jarring.
I had completely forgotten about Bridenbrad.
I almost wonder if they themselves had completely forgotten about him, considering the way the afterlife seems to be now.
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They probably have, which is unfortunate, as that’s one of the best self contained questlines in the game. Stabs you right in the feelings.
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I’m gonna punch Elune in the face.
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Garrovihn wants to see how many other members of the doomed expedition he can find who weren’t turned into undead horrors like himself and let them know their families and friends knew they were very brave.
And then he’s gonna think
“Oh man I get to fight forever in the afterlife too?? HAW.” because he’s a rowdy Kul Tiran boy, our Garrovihn.
Not gonna derail the thread but that quest was one of the reasons why I don’t really gel with the whole “The Light is also not good!” like don’t canonize someone in spirit and then leave us wondering if they’re just soulstuff used to mind control orcs in another dimension.
See I think there’s heaven and hell elements to all of them. Bastion more or less requiring you to forget your past, for example… that’d be hell for some people. Our past defines us, and to simply cast aside memories of loved ones… Not fun.
Bastion sounds like a bit of an oof for me. Pure service, with no sense of self at all.
The Shadowlands has been a fairly important part of Dawnsky’s history. When she joined the Shadowhoof Tribe originally she took up the totem for the Greatmother Carrion Bird, and even though she is no longer apart of that tribe anymore she continues the practices with her current tribe.
The Greatmother Carrion Bird, from the lore that I remember bestows a Tauren follower with enhanced life to be able to serve them longer. In exchange they must perform last rite rituals that involve them crossing into the Shadowlands in order to guide recently deceased tribe members to the other side. The best way I’ve described it, she’s a Spiritual Mortician. When she performs the crossing on our realm, she appears to die. Eyes closed, heart rate slows, breathing stops. When she completes the ferry she then reawakens back at her body.
So the Shadowlands itself is an interesting expansion for my Paladin, and it will be interesting to see how her faith manifests from what portion she crosses compared to being physically/waking in the realm itself.
There also might be an old antagonist character I have in the Maw that I might bring back and start up some conflict with. I hope people like wraiths.
Most of my characters worship Death in some form or another. One is actively attempting to attain status as the God of Death. The Shadowlands is like their Promised Land.
Gen is a Shaman.
Gen has been taught all his life that the Spirits of the Ancestors become a part of the Unseen World that overlaps our own, and from there guide their mortal descendants, hence why it is normally so difficult to physically see and/or encounter an Ancestor Spirit.
And then we go to Shadowlands.
After he’s gone through literal hell and back to regain his Shamanistic abilities and all that nonsense.
Expect a psychological breakdown and/or regular freak-outs, especially when we meet storied characters and he gets to realize that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you believe, if the Arbiter needs you to do something, you’re gonna do it, regardless of what you were promised in life.
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The truth is quite disturbing.
If Clemant were to choose a role for himself in the afterlife, it would be guiding other souls like the Kyrian do. But he empathizes with others because he too is a flawed person who screws up, and apparently he’s supposed to forget all of that? And if he doesn’t, he’s going to end up blackpilled apparently?? Is this really how it all works???
Bridenbrad is “soft lore”, like Ahab Wheathoof or Peep’s Whistle. They exist as considerate tributes to real life people and, for the sake of good taste, don’t exist as anything else.
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