I think part of the problem was that parts of the Drust storyline were Night Fae campaign exclusive. So if you didn’t play that campaign you missed chunks of the storyline and without those pieces it doesn’t really make sense.
Oh the Chronicles. That’s right, the books that were the “undisputed bible of Azeroth” until they weren’t and became the “Titan’s view of Azeroth”.
What does your view of spirituality have to do with Blizzard and the rest of the millions of people who play this game?
The Blizzard view of the afterlife is very similar to the Ancient Greek, Roman and Norse view. Should all Ancient Greek and Roman literature be condemned for having this view? Do you realize some of the days of the week are named after Norse gods?
Also the robot gods you mentioned were created by “The First Ones” who are still a mystery and were not described in much detail at all.
That is because prior to us going to Shadowlands they knew nothing about it. By the time Shaowlands ended they were not longer being hunted and killed on Earth, they were being accepted. The Alliance and Horde are no longer at war.
Shamanism as described in World of Warcraft or somewhere else? If it’s somewhere else, why would that restrict a gaming company from using their own definitions?
They wanted the power of reincarnation.
Like how the wild gods have it.
You can mock it all you want, but it seems to me that you completely fail to understand the answer:
You asked what was the thing about death that had been established in the game that was changed in Shadowland?
It was my answer so i will tell you again with different words:
BEFORE the expansion, The Shadowlands either ingame or with Chronicle were only depicted as a dark blueprint of Azeroth where the souls usualy stay. (at least the bad ones as far as we could see ingame)
The expansion changed this to a fully fledged plan with its own worlds as well as how death work.
Regarding your answer about the spirituality to me and Furrfist make me think that you are completly oblivious to the concept from an ingame perspective, its place in a fantasy world and why it’s important to have some.
That’s what we are talking about.
Shadowland shattered nearly all the mystic around it, turning WoW far more toward the sci-fi side of the game.
It’s an artistic choice but i don’t like it as it ruins a good part of the lore from my point of view, simple like that.
As for the First ones, we all know that’s just Danuser inserting some Marvel delirium into WoW (Zovaal being a low cost Thanos), therefore what’s next? Those above them? And even above next?
Frankly even if they are reduced to robots, i’m far more interested to see any unknown Pantheon than those so-called superior entities that could be robots built by someone else as well.
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Sure, that’s the way they were depicted because no one had been there. During the “Age of Exploration” books like Gulliver’s Travels depicted undiscovered parts of our planet as having huge giants and miniature people. But once they got there the Fantasy was replace by SciFi which was replaced by reality.
I agree that people may have had beliefs on Azeroth as to what the realm of death really was, just as people on Earth have varying ideas on the subject but as Hamlet says, “The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will”. Opinions vary so everyone can’t be right.
And please stop talking about the Chronicles. This is a video game. It’s nice that someone has written background material but Blizzard themselves admits it is just the Titan’s view of what happened on Azeroth. It is not established in the game.
What shadowlands?
Do you believe in life after love?
I am actually mad about that, he was the best character in the expansion and they made him a villain. It would have been amazing if they subverted out expectations but actually making the accusor/curator and the prince be the villains. It would have been fun if denathrius went, well of course they are the villains I have been telling you that since we first met
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Honestly, and I believe this to my core, BFA/SL are Non Canon… They are filler. Chris Metzan left Blizz before the end of Legion and didn’t come back until near the end of DF. He’s our Lore Master. This is his Lore. And the first expansion he works on he Brings Anduin back, reverting the end of SL for him, brings in the other two Windrunner sisters with mention of Sylvanas near non existent. The closest thing we have to confirmation of any of BFA/SL lore is the Black Blood. We can’t yet confirm who it originates from. Could be N’Zoth, could be a mystery 5th Old God, could be another already defeated Old God. Either way, with the way this Expac is starting, I fell 100% assured in believing BFA/SL (outside of main characters dying that might have needed to be a part of this final war) aren’t worth stressing myself about at all. Just like I ignore filler in my anime 
So, I’m unable to answer your base question, merely offer some insight that might help you relax on the SL lore a bit.
If i have to be honest, i’m really annoyed to see essential pieces of lore told from the books instead from the game, the most recent one being “War of the Scaleborn” for DF.
And these books can be easily retconned with ingame events.
Also if i cited Chronicle I, it was to make you understand the context of the period before Shadowland and Chronicle I was still reliable at this time.
Regarding the “Titan point of view”, it’s a bullsh… from Danuser to avoid dealing with Chronicles I to III with… Chris Metzen as a co-author.
These books are not devoid of mistakes of course, but it doesn’t means that everything is false either.
So is canon anything not contradicted by the RTS and WoW, that’s all i can say.
What is funny is Chronicle IV: I’m still waiting for my french version but i heard about the BfA parts… yeah, i bet that many parts of this new book are not even canon if the events described are as messy as the BfA chapter.
For a recent book, it’s a real feat of incompetence.
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I try not to think about it. I encourage you to do the same. Don’t look it up. Let it remain a mystery. That weird, unexplainable stuff happening there. That’s good horror stuff.
I would’ve taken that storyline in a heartbeat honestly
Again you may not like it but … thats just a fact.
“Shadowlands Lore” is an Oxymoron.
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That too. The fact that you were missing large chunks of the story is just another reason covenants were stupid.
I’ve heard this argument before. It basically goes: “One Blizzard guy says the Chronicles are canon and that makes me happy. Another Blizzard guy comes along and says they are only the Titan view and that makes me unhappy.”
And that’s fine. You have every right to like the parts of the story you like and dislike the parts of the story you don’t.
Here I agree with you 100%. If I wanted to read a book I’d buy the book and read it but if I want to play an MMO I don’t want to be given required homework involving background material.
And quite frankly, I’d be surprised if more than a single digit percentage of the millions of people who play this game read the Chronicals down to the “trekkie” details and insist it’s canon.
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While this is true, most of the content we “missed out on” was actually removed before SL even began, that’s why the plot initially makes no sense, initially the storyboard and content devs had to cut half just to make the deadline for release and thus we have a confusing Zovaal, who had to have his story truncated and stitched back together, Dneathrius rushed in one zone chapter, confused Sylvanas, etc.
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Interesting theory. What evidence to you have to back it up?
There are many datamined files from Blizzard’s inner workings:
Basically what we got as 9.1 was actually supposed to be a 9.2 release with the original 9.1 being scrapped.
Most of what was scrapped was: Drust and other zone subplot development, Zovaal’s actual motives and some story developments between him and The Primus that explained MUCH more of Zovaal’s goals and gave him more details, etc.
Korthia was originally a Drust zone alongside a raid that ironically enough… still has a portal entry in Ardenweald despite not being accessible. There is just literally a useless raid porta in Ardenweald. Speaking of Ardenweald, it was originally not even it’s own zone, and much like Korthia had some mid development changes, namely making it it’s own zone instead of a part of Bastion instead, where it was originally just another area of the Kyrian zone.
Open slots for portals all over the Oribios portal room, inaccessible raid portals here and there in zones, the tatters of the story plot etc… all of it is a tangible proof of cut parts and pieces of the end result.
WoD suffered similar, with a cut end patch or mid patch that also screwed the story and even made the gameplay feel empty. In SL’s case the solution is simple: Just pickup where SL 1 left off, we still haven’t resolved Denathrius, the crack in the First Ones’ designs, etc.
While Zovaal is a complete nothing burger due to the cut content this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because we still have Denathrius who we KNOW it would be in character for someone like himself to use the Arbiters as dispensable pawns to grab the position for himself.
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