Is The Maw Z’ha’dum? And is the Jailer an amalgamation of The Shadows or a dark Lorien/First Born?
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I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of any of those in WoW.
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WoW gets inspiration from lots of IPs one is Babylon 5 with Prophet Velen /The Exodar being parallels to Jeffrey Sinclair (‘Prophet’ Valen)/Babylon 4. Also entities like the Old Gods, Dreadlords, Titans, Naaru all being representations of Chaos vs Order ie the Shadow vs Vorlon conflict.
Yes, probably. Shadowlands is stuffed with Babylon 5 references, even more than the rest of WoW.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/sl-pop-culture-references-and-future-implications/758963
Oh wow that is interesting I didn’t know about those NPCs as I haven’t played retail since cataclysm but keep pseudo-updated via Bellular and such.
I totally get what you mean Pellex with wanting to see something original but I’m excited about the possibility of more people watching Babylon 5 due to stuff like this! =]
But from what I understand of The Jailer he operates similar to a Shadow or Shadow agent by seducing key figures to their cause with promises of wealth/power/status. The Lich King or Sylvanas are like Londo Mollari in this way. Another interesting thing about him now that I took a second look is his name, Zovaal, which with a bit of stretching could be a Varn/Zathras/Draal amalgamation by extension making The Maw more like the Great Machine of Epsilon III (which both is and isn’t a weapon) and that Oribos you mentioned with those NPCs Babylon 5.
Actually, looking at Oribos for the first time it is a floating cylinder just like Babylon 5 and this is now farther reinforced in my mind as wow.gamepedia describes it as ‘sacred neutral ground’ where alliance and horde are forced ‘to set aside their differences while inside its walls’. Which is very similar to the B5 intros such as season one’s:
“It was the dawn of the third age of mankind. Ten years after the Earth Minbari war. The Babylon project was dream giving form. It’s goal to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It’s a port of call. Home away from home for diplomas, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanders. Humans and aliens wrap in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it’s our last best hope for peace. This is the story of last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.”
All very interesting to ponder for sure, but in the end I’m glad to meet another Babylon 5 aficionado!
EDIT: a follow up thought on Oribos I had was it as a reference to ouroboros and how the Babylon 5 time loop is very much like a snake eating its own tail.
So if Zovaal and Sire Denathrius are the Shadows and the Arbiter, Winter Queen and Archon are the Vorlons then what are the Void Lords and Naaru?
Does the Void Lords and Naaru being part of the Dread Lords’ manipulations make them both the Shadows’ Pawns?