How many cosmic entities have we destroyed? How many realms have we invaded? How many gods have we slain? Even the dreadlords themselves called the adherents of life the;
“…most insidious of opponents, perhaps because their nature is so antithetical to our own.”
But what does this mean? What nature is the author referring to? Change. Emergence. Life. The inhabitants of the Shadowlands represent an end. The end of a thread, of a journey. They are beings of finality and eternity. Beings of life reinvent themselves every moment. They can grow, strengthen, and most importantly, change. Life adapts. Within us lies the strength to subjugate all others.
What evidence is there to suggest life’s supremacy? Well, us firstly. It’s also likely that life magic is the source of domination magic. It’s also possible ‘domination’ magic really is just life magic itself.
- Consider that the Heart of the Forest was the source of power that imprisoned the Jailer; ie domination magic.
- Consider that the Winter Queen has been described as having an ‘uncomfortably close’ relationship with the forces of life - and her unique magic alone holds the secret to returning a soul to true life. No other in the Shadowlands can do this.
- Consider the Primus, the only other master of domination magic we know of (apart from the Jailer) is creator of Maldraxxus; birthplace of what? Necromancy. Undeath. Specifically the magic of death as it affects life. This source of magic alone provides the majority of the Shadowlands’ troops outside their home realm.
- Consider that Yogg-Saron brought life to the lifeless via the Curse of Flesh, which I truly believe Yogg (and the Void) considers a gift., as they rightfully see life as the horse to bet on - where life exists, so too does the variability the Void needs to thrive.
- Consider the Burning Legion’s entire purpose was to rid the Great Dark of life, not void. Interesting, yes? Sargeras’ mighty fel magic, its destructive potential unrivaled, is fueled by none other than life. Life has a way of tapping into a greater potential within all magics. It strengthens them. Enlivens them.
- Azeroth consumed her planet’s spirit. Azeroth was also home to an incredible abundance of wild gods. Azeroth is a Titan, though her essence gave rise to literally every non-titanic race, and Eonar used her blood to create some of the most fertile places on the planet. Yes, I believe that when Azeroth awakens she will be a Titan of Life, though this is only part of what makes her so powerful.
- Consider the Dragonqueen was the aspect of life itself. Lifebinder. Her leadership directly acknowledges the sovereignty of life and its importance. As Azeroth’s life thrives, so too does she. Azeroth’s life is critical to her (and so potent we have become as to eclipse even the Lifebinder as Azeroth’s preservers of life.) The Titans recognize this as well.
- The cosmic forces have slowly (finally) began to realize life will win and are trying to find champions among the forces of life as rapidly as possible. The Void has always suspected life’s victory, and thus has always taken precautions.
- Elune is one of the most fervent supporters of life among the Light, and thus, has placed several key individuals within the court of life to represent the Light’s interests.
And that’s not even getting into the Drust and what those connections imply (hint; a very far-reaching tentacle has found the cookie jar.) Wake up people. Death is at its peak when it uses life. Fel is at its peak when it uses life. Strongest champions of the light? The living. Velen reignited a dying Naaru on his own. Apparently the living make the most powerful demons too.
Every cosmic force is scrambling to life because they’re beginning to realize it can’t be stopped. Within every spark of life is the essence of domination; to dominate ones environment and survive. It is fluidity and ambition given form. In the same way spirit subdues and brings balance to the elements, I believe life is destined to (continue to) dominate and subdue all other cosmic forces.
This is but a small taste of the limitless potential of the spark of life.
The most insidious of opponents.
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While I wouldn’t like to see life be an evil force, I do wonder what their motivation would be.
Would the problem simply be overpopulation? Yet overpopulation in the end would lead to more death.
Maybe it would be a universe in which everything keeps growing, but nothing dies.
It would be a torturous existence. However, wouldn’t those in the life domain be aware this would cause suffering?
Death is symbiotic to life. To me, Life and Death’s opposite should be Undeath-stagnation.
I still think endless overpopulation would probably be the greatest sin of the life domain.
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If life were to win that doesn’t necessarily make it evil. Being more powerful than the others doesn’t make it inherently bad. If anything, I believe part of its strength comes from its ability to harmonize with other forces. It’s quite likely life would accept and even support the continued use of others magics. This diversity is what makes it strong in the first place.
For all we know, a universe dominated by life would be a utopia; with all forces kept in check and balanced. Or it could look like a flood invasion. Who knows. Regardless, when life thrives so too does death. It would be a gargantuan influx of anima to the Shadowlands.
Perhaps the trees in Ardenweald would grow to their true size again.
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If Elune is part of the Pantheon of Life (as sister of the Winter Queen) and Life ends up being a villain, do you realize how many Night Elf fans would quit?
I expect they would schedule regular “die-ins” in Orgrimmar and/or Stormwind with a bunch of characters flying up high and then dismounting and all dying to falling damage.
Also, I don’t buy it. I suspect the plan is to show us each force as amoral instead of moral/immoral. We will try to help certain parts and protect ourselves from others (akin to A’dal’s portrayal vs X’era for the Light).
Within Death we have found “good” and “evil” but those moralistic definitions are based solely on fulfilling the purpose of the power, not on “Azerothian” morality. If we found islands on Azeroth where they were torturing people to atone for crimes, wiping their memories because it’s deemed necessary, or competing in perpetual bloodsport brawls where the losers become part of abominations, we’d probably send in the murder hobos without thinking. In Death, these aspects serve a … I hate Oribos … a Purpose.
I REALLY hope Blizzard won’t do some New Atheist trite nonsense like “Champion, we must kill your gods. Elune and Anshe must be taken down”.
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Killing your gods is a time-honored JRPG tradition.
Except for the genre grandfather, the Dragon Quest series, oddly enough.
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What’s interesting is that the fantasy universes this genre is ultimately derived from (Tolkien, Lovecraft, etc) would reject the notion on principle.
But games have always had the trope.
*Insert another one of my sociocultural analysis rants here *
But yeah killing Elune and Anshe would 100% kill huge chunks of the playerbase.
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It’s the philological origin of the Kill Your Gods trope
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Maybe it’s like the story version of power scaling and the ultimate “you can’t tell me what to do, dad”? The gameplay loop of making your characters get stronger has to have a stopping point somewhere, and I’d guess it’s too easy to take that to its logical conclusion and aim the characters straight at the top because there’s nowhere to go from there. Just talking out of my butt, though.
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Ending WoW by killing Elune & Co would kill whatever sequel may come imo
I think ever since WoD, the mistake has been it is actually our characters who are canonically doing things. It shouldn’t have been us defeating Archimonde, or Xavius, or Kiljaeden, or Argus, or Nzoth, let alone Denathrius
So we’re being written into a ridiculous corner.
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It sadden me how much they’ve widdled away at Azeroth’s theism. I want gods to be gods again. Powerful and mysterious. Is that too much to ask?
So many religions, cults, and conclaves have been left in shambles over the course of various expansions and we’ve heard virtually nothing of them since.
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Yeah, this.
- Shadow / Cult of the Forgotten Shadow.
- The Light
- Shamanism / Elements and their manipulation
- Elune
Blizzard sorta ruined their appeal with their explanations about them. Sure, it added to the lore, but it wasn’t always good for immersion.
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You are right. A utopia would be nice.
I just figured with Wow’s theme of “balance” having one domain defeat the others would be seen as a bad thing.
Wow now likes to push that we need the other domains.
I’d totally be cool with some life overlords though. Spring/Early Summer is my favorite season.
Well, in fairness, if Elune is NOT a First One, then you can end WoW by destroying all the “Eternal One” tier minions - and have the First Ones decide to start fresh.
Not that I think this is a good idea (and I don’t think Elune is going to become a villain or anything, as I stated). But it also is unfortunately an issue they seem to face. They’re constantly upscaling the damage - and at this point the entire “Disorder” force seems to be beaten.
It could be similar to the Botani from WoD. Their goal is basically to grow and nuture plant until it cover everything but in doing so they basically ignore all balance and some npc (forgot which quests i did in wod) talked how it would just kill the world basically since most life can’t thrive in the perfect botani jungle and said jungle will just drain up all nutrient from ground and die off eventually.
So in a similar way, too much life can mean end of the world kind of scenario perhaps?