Imagine living in azeroth, striving, suffering, dying, undying. Trying to find a way to preserver your life and life your people.
Then some guy shows up, tells you (with a proof and a huge power boost) that:
Mortal realm is a feeding ground. It produces anima for shadowlands and everyone here is a lifestock for the realms
Realms are unnatural and artificial, with powerful beings that seized control over the soul flow to gather more anima for themselves
Dead souls are getting squeezed out of anima and either: a) getting assimilated into one of realms and forced to work for that realm or b) going into the maw cause they’re useless
And Jailer asks Sylvanas help to fix the natural order and dethrone the usurpers
Let’s say Natural order is - Life>Death>maw> (?rebirth?)
And current order is - Life>Death> [GIANT SOUL FACTORY THAT USESS MAW AS GARBAGE BIN] > maw (new souls are too weak to reborn even if it was a possibility, only winter queen now gives this gift)
So, why Sylvanas? Probably cause she’s the only person angry enough with strong enough will to do evil things and want to live forever
Burning of Teldreassil clearly dealt damage to Winter Queen
Breaking helmet would unleash undead, but also open the door to Shadowlands (THIS WORLD IS A PRISON, member)
Basically what happens right now in SL is a Revolution and players are not on the right side.
We already know Sire Denathrius is “evil” and part of Nathrezing “take over the galaxy” plan
Winter Queen seems to like being a queen and sacrifice anything to stay in power.
Arbiter is a fake robot that “judge” souls (shouldn’t be any judgement, only true death)
I don’t think it’s tinfoil to think that what Sylvanas is trying to do here is actually good and what should be done. I think the story will (hopefully) bring into question her methods and how she insisted on going it mostly alone the entire time.
We’re quickly finding out that the Shadowlands sucks, is a broken and cruel system, and everyone should just go to the afterlives they expect/want like the Light and, for orcs, being with their ancestors.
Arguably only Bastion and Revendreth are the terrible afterlives featured. Bastion because it strips away your identity and Revendreth because it’s effectively a bunch of snooty nobles oppressing the lower class(anima batteries). I don’t think your assessment of the Maw is accurate either from what I understand. They don’t just dump people there for being useless, they mulch souls they can’t reform or some such.
Agreed. Ardenweald does not appear to be terrible by design, but rather appears to be in a situation where the Winter Queen is being forced to make hard choices due to circumstances outside of her control.
My understanding of Maldraxxus is just that it is a place where martial souls can go to fight forever, alongside an army of skeletons. Not my idea of paradise, but not inherently terrible either. If fighting is your thing, you probably won’t be too unhappy here.
Has Revendreth always functioned this way? Or has it’s leadership only become corrupt and decadent over the course of several millennia, and the problem has been exacerbated by the apparent anima drought? Was Sire Denathrius always the leader of the Venthyr?
Unfortunately they are fighting amongst themselves thanks to the Anima Drought which has caused the 2 Traitor Houses to invade Bastion and the other Houses.
They were supposed to fight outside of the Shadowlands where dying would simply send them back to Maldraxxus! Maldraxxus becoming a war ground has turned it into a death trap for the Souls there!
It’s probably not exactly like you describe. But I’m willing to bet your speculation is going to end up being close to what Sylvanas’s actual motivations are. Her character has always been about “free will” dating back to WC3, she calls the world a prison in the CGI for shadowlands, and her theme is literally called “Free Will” and has heroic overtones throughout.
She’s probably done everything since Edge of Night to avoid entering into the current cycle of death and maintain her own freedom.
I trust Blizzard will make the mass slaughter of innocent people, soldiers who were lied to, and causing of a world war a justified cost to knock a nebulous cosmic entity down a peg or two.
tbh, yeah. People acting like Sylvanas can’t be redeemed in any way when they uninfested Kerrigan and copped her out of taking responsibility for all the blood she had on her hands by saying “She was in control the whole time, but idk she kind of wasn’t herself or something maybe?”
This could be true. Though, I would find it rather disappointing.
The main thing I have against it is that I’d be surprised if Blizzard would have us become so involved in these groups only to say ‘they’re all actually in the wrong’. Flawed, perhaps. But not fundamentally flawed.
More likely if they go this route is that Zovaal would want a natural way of things, but that that natural way is worse for the souls involved. But he supports it for the sake of how things were. I think the Primus message is important because if he’s been defeated, he doesn’t have a great motive to lie both in-character and as a narrative thing.
Ages ago, the Eternal Ones punished our brother Zovaal for his treachery.
I always saw some sort of similarity between the Nathrezim and the Wild Gods. The way they die and respawn and have their own sort of realms. I guess that is more and more common for everyone… but they just seem similar and opposite. I dare say there may be a connection.
Maybe the Winter Queen is a Dreadlady. But a nicer Dreadlady. And her vexing sister is like, a Dreadful Dreadlady.
Maybe the Winter Queen uses some of her knowledge as a Nathrezim to bolster the rebirth cycle of Ardenweald. Maybe she went against the majority of the Dreadlords long ago, and sided with the current regime of the Shadowlands.
is any one gonna point out that its just the titans vs sargeras again lmao.
sargeras thinks the titans are flawed the world is flawed, so turns on them with the burning legion to undo their creation. hmm i wonder what these eternal ones and shadowland and the jailer breaking it being all about.