Kerxans, extinct giants of the Maw

Lore Story Forum
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One of my favorite bits of 9.1 and Shadowlands as a whole have been the recent Hand mounts and all the lore that comes with them. Just now I noticed they and their planet were named and given backstory that links to the Burning Legion.

With my shriveled hand do I, Varithoman the Penitent, recount the tale of four damned souls who, like me, were condemned to the darkest reaches of the Maw.

Yet while I learned humility through my suffering, these four carried on with their wicked ways. And answered for it.

May you, dear reader, trod a wiser path.

Hearken.

Kin from an ancient world were they. A place of power and might called Kerxan, where a race of giants dwelled.

Through guile and treachery, the four seized power. Commanded a vast army.

Two sisters and two brothers. Apart from each other, they trusted no one. Took no counsel. Showed no remorse.

Bahmethra was eldest. She was the cruelest, savoring the suffering of those she ruled.

Hrestimorak was the most conniving. He delighted in gaining trust only to betray it.

Salaranga was cunning. Mistress of mighty beasts that she trained to feed upon the blood of rivals.

Nilganihmaht was youngest, and by far the most arrogant and vain. He believed himself invincible. Untouchable.

Over the thousand years of their reign, they murdered countless rivals and gorged themselves upon the plunder. But their selfishness caused their own forces to weaken.

When the burning ones came, the armies of Kerxan were too depleted to defy them.

And even the four, for all their cunning, fell to the demon blades.

When the four arrived in the Maw, the Jailer beheld their litany of crimes and was pleased.

He bound their souls in massive armors, elevated them to become his chosen tormentors.

And how did they repay the honors bestowed by the Banished One? With treachery.

The four set out to usurp the Jailer’s reign. They used guile and might to build an army of their own.

But the Jailer’s Eye had witnessed their duplicity. Thus the master of the Maw was ready when they struck.

One by one, the giants fell.

The Banished One didn’t merely destroy these defiant souls. No.

First he claimed a hand from each. A token, he said, to remind others of the folly of defying him.

And he bade me, his faithful chronicler, to make a record of their crimes.

Do you see? Do you understand?

To defy the Banished One is folly.

Bahmethra. Hrestimorak. Salaranga. And Nilganihmaht, he of the many rings.

Your hands will serve him for all time, even as your broken souls ride the currents of Gorgoa.

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Hm. Telling about the events instead of showing them. Seems in line with how the devs approach the story.

Maybe it could’ve been an interesting story if it would be possible to wintess the events.

gl hf

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Since the Legion was a thing cooked up by the Dreadlord’s who served Danathrius (and through him Zovaal) then for all their wickedness the Jailer truly was the architect of their downfall. It seems he’s been plotting the gathering of powerful dark souls to his cause from the very start of his banishment to the Maw.

I wonder if this is the first time a pawn he elevated in the ranks of his forces tried to turn against him? More interestingly, does it for shadow another such betrayal in the near future?

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Zovaal has betrayed Denathrius so he is already not on Zovaal’s side so that leaves Sylvanas, Helya and Mueh’zala.

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Technically the Legion was formed by Sargeras; the Nathrezim guised Dreadlords merely infiltrated it as artificial demons… and were then used to deliver the Helm of Domination, Frostmourne, and the rest of the armor of damnation to Northrend.

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The Nathrezim were the ones who told Sargeras about the Void Lords seeking to bring everything under eternal torment though…

They wanted Sargeras to start a crusade against the Void.

Their infiltration of the Legion of course had the purpose of sending the Primus’s finest Mourneblade and Helm of Domination to Northrend to ensure the Mawsworn’s coming only to fail because Ner’zhul got usurped by Arthas’s Soulless Body(no thanks to it having a functioning brain unlike Sylvanas’s Body).

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He’s also discarded Mueh’zala based on the lack of rescue attempts in 9.0 and 9.1

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Pandragon from Mmo-champion had a cool find where this planet was named back in Legion.

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To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what it would have added. It’s a world destroyed by the Legion, we know thousands of those exist. It’s not a crucial story location, and they’re not important characters. If this is how they wanna add a touch of flavor to some new mounts, then it’s fine - nothing’s really lost by not seeing it, and nothing would be particularly gained if we did.

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Some emotional connection to the characters could’ve been added. Maybe we would like them and mourne the loss. Maybe we would hate them and be glad that they got what they deserved.

As is - it’s just a statistics and the event is of no more importance that, say, the NPC from Maldraxxus whose world, Naigtal, was destroyed. Or so it is perceived.

gl hf

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The book pretty much tells us what we need to know. These were bad guy who probably did get what they deserved. Ultimately not everything needs to be ingame. Somethings can just be relegated to background info.

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Why? They’re literally just there because they had big hands, and Blizzard made hand mounts. I absolutely believe that Blizzard suffers from too much telling rather than showing, but whoever the completely optional hand mounts belonged to? I’m not losing any sleep over never getting to see that play out.

… yeah. It’s meant to be that. The characters were brought into existence solely because of their hands, and they decided to give it a tie-in to something familiar. It doesn’t really need to be anything more than that. There’s a TON of stuff in the game that we read about rather than seeing - something that occurred likely ages ago on a completely foreign world with characters who were only written to explain the existence of giant hands in the Maw? The story does not lose anything from not witnessing those events, neither would it gain anything from it.

Also Naigtal wasn’t destroyed. We went to it, it’s fine.

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It’s an semi-related narrative issue that didn’t need to be addressed by these hands but I wish we’d see more actual characters in the Maw, people who deserved it and shows us why the Maw exists.

A few of the characters we’ve seen so far added in 9.1 just don’t feel that different from people we’ve seen sent to Maldraxxus or Revendreth.

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“Extinct Giants”

something tells me they’re not actually extinct.

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I think the reason we’re not seeing as many characters we recognize (in the Maw or otherwise) is because they want to give a scale to the Shadowlands - if it was flooded with Azerothians (or people from Draenor, Argus, or anywhere else we’re familiar with), it’d make the universe feel smaller. And mind you, thanks to the Legion, this is a universe that probably has more dead people than living ones.

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It’s not that simple. We get too much of telling instead of showing even about the important characters / plot lines.

It’s not necessary to lose any sleep over something to just note that something that could’ve been interesting instead is “well, what does that suppose to tell? Show “good” side of the Jailer? Tell that oh he’s so powerful? Show that the factions should cooperate (because of course that is how the story would tell that their separate existence is the core of the game)?”

To me it’s just one of thing that are there, but whatever. Nothing more, nothing less.

It does not need to (maybe). It can’t really be anything more either.

That’s speculative.

Depends on the execution. It could very well show some necessary details tying together, say, dreadlords and the Burning Legion, and showing a different angle in their interaction, more explicit with the current developments. And so on.

Possibly, idk. I know that it’s an invasion point of the Legion, meaning that whatever sentient was there, likely is not anymore. At least not in any capacity that could be called a civilization (otherwise could be a comical display of the Legion’s incompetence).

gl hf

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The Kerxan giants are neither of these things, they’re literally just people with big hands to explain hand mounts. You could remove this book entirely and nothing would change.

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Their entire planet was destroyed and I don’t think the Legion accepted any into their ranks. They’re extinct.

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We have about 20 minutes of cutscene focused squarely on Shadowlands events in 9.1. From the conclusion to the Kyrians, to who the Primus is, to how we get to the new zone. Those are the important plot points of Shadowlands.

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True. Which is the point of my 1st comment in this thread.

Not sure how is that related to what I mentioned. Cutscenes is one of narrative tools as an addition to the game-play experience. They are related to some plot point, vary in quality, etc.

gl hf