As you all know, soon there will be a book available about world cosmology forces.
One of the most important picture there is a new updated map of cosmology:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6TzVVrVIAQTPXQ?format=jpg&name=large
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Hm. Neat art I guess. The only real notable difference is no longer having “representatives” of the forces, I guess. Which makes sense since some of those were iffy (the Scourge is one faction on one planet, why are they the universal representation of death?)
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At this point, Blizzard should marry retcons given how much they love them.
Why was Void renamed Shadow and why have Life and Death become the most prominent two forces, rather than the previous vaunted equilibrium between all 6?
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Honestly it probably just comes down to Light and Shadow sounding better than Light and Void.
Much as I wish there was a distinction in-lore between Shadow and Void because that would be neat, realistically, there hasn’t been one for years.
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How does Light and Shadow sound better than Light and Void? Especially since the canon states that one cannot exist without the other.
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Because Light and Shadow are antonyms. Hence why “Light and Shadow” is a fairly common phrase in a variety of stories and Light and Void…isn’t, really.
Also looking at the old chronology chart, they didn’t actually rename it, it was Light and Shadow then too. Holy was positioned as the opposite of Void. Which…I think doesn’t make sense but whatever.
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Now they have Order next to Shadow and Disorder next to Light, which makes no sense either.
Fair point about antonyms, though Dark and Darkness are more widely used antonyms of Light, like hot and cold. Shadow is a type of darkness.
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Incidentally the Chronicle never states the origin of each Cosmic Force aside from possibly the Void(from darkened patches of Light) but only states the origin of the Physical Universe AKA the Great Dark Beyond and that the most Chaotic Energies resulting from it’s creation coalescing into the Twisting Nether(which is the same thing that happened with the creation of Outland: most matter remained in the Great Dark Beyond while the most Chaotic parts coalesced into the Twisting Nether).
It is quite possible that the Gardens of Life(where Mortal Life probably exists in before the Great Dark Beyond was created) and the Shadowlands(which existed since Mortal Life first did) are the oldest Cosmic Forces in WoW next to the Hyperlight of the First Ones.
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Chart is meant to be Shadowlands centric because it’s a perspective of the broker:
- order symbol is broker symbol
- Life central symbol is an Ardenweald Tirna Tree + a runestag
- Death is on top (and thus most central)
- the cosmology is centered on the Great Cycle (ie dynamic between life and death).
What’s interesting to me:
- Death Snake passes through Light/Shadow
- Life Snake passes through Order/Disorder (not using Chaos is cowardice)
- They rearranged the elements completely
- They kept the four corner motifs: one chained, one flower, one solar, one lunar (new moon)
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Why in the hell should I ever buy another lore book if anything and/or everything in it is subject to be changed or discarded on a whim?
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to have ground to criticize the game with nuance as it slowly descend into decadence due to the hubris of the execs and devs 
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What is with the devs pathological aversion to lore consistency?
Retcons don’t equal nuance. If the story has to be rewritten after it’s released, mistakes were made.
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A symptom of how the United States education system erases and whitewashes its own history (Danuser apparently learned about the Tulsa Massacre this past month, as an example) in combination with a lot of these folks giving me “spiritual but not religious” type vibes and the general death of ethnic-based cultural identity among White Americans and replaced with Cult of State (Federal Holidays, “National” Holidays that are just watered down ethnic practices, etc) that are internalized by the Story Developers without them challenging whether or not that hermeneutic is sustainable for an MMORPG (let alone their life)?
They don’t believe themselves stewards of a world that needs to bring dignity to these in-game persons and peoples based partly on real-world peoples and cultures.
They’re just dudes having fun, don’t wanna be held down and constrained
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Which probably means Hyperlight is Order not Death… The Brokers use the First Ones’ Order Magics yet don’t realize that it means that Order is above Death!
Fire is still next to Disorder and Earth is still next to Order. Decay is still next to Death and Spirit is still next to Life. Air was shown between Death and Disorder and Water was shown between Life and Order so neither was exactly assigned to an actual Cosmic Force until now(Air is Light and Water is Shadow).
Back onto the First Ones and their ties to Order: remember Babylon 5’s First Ones? The first of them introduced are the Vorlons who are all "There is only Order and Obedience! You will do as you are told!"
The fact that the Broker Book found in the Veiled Market mentions a 7th Cosmic Force indicates we will see the Vorlons’ Rivals: The Shadows(not to be mistaken for the Void Lords who would infact embody Nothingness not Shadow) who do infact embody Chaos.
Disorder is not the same as Chaos as many Forum Goers pointed out to me and others: Disorder is the breaking down of Order while Chaos is Randomness.
The Vorlons might very well have a system where things break down while abhorring a system where everything is random!
If the Shadows are indeed pulling the strings then we will see them announcing that "There is only Chaos and Evolution! You will fight when we tell you!"
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Here’s some food for thought about the Vorlons. In way, the Vorlons were ultimately right and won their conflict with the Shadows. The Vorlons’ story ends with them getting everything they wanted — their goal to bring the races together eventually leads to the Interstellar Alliance. While its the younger races who of their own come up with it, it’s the Vorlons who initially led the ground work (using the Minbari and Rangers). And ultimately humans and Minbari both evolve into Vorlon-like beings. The younger races may have turned against the Vorlons, but ultimately it’s the Vorlons’ method, not the Shadows’, which wins the day even if the Vorlons didn’t get kudos for it.
That means if Blizzard goes that route, people will turn against the naaru while simultaneously still using the Light and the naaru’s methods, which would be terrible writing.
I’m not sure of everything else you said. Maybe Blizzard will do that, maybe not.
I don’t understand why people are acting like this is some egregious retcon… it’s literally almost exactly the same as before? I honestly don’t think the ordering of the forces is super relevant (i.e., I really wouldn’t think too deeply about which force is placed close to which).
Also, I fully expect Baal to recant his “Blizzard has literally retconned Decay out of existence, simply because if they don’t mention it for [amount of time here], then it is officially retconned”? 
EDIT: also, guys… why do people on this forum keep psychotically keep bringing up Vorlons? That is not a Blizzard franchise, wtf?
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? I never said they retcon’d decay? I think you’re conflating my complaints that Blizzard ignored the death aspect of in-game religious shamanism in this whole expansion.
This is just self parody at this point.
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If there is one thing I appreciate from all this it will be the art.
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But the Vorlons are First Ones and the First Ones powers used by the Brokers are Order not Light!
Wouldn’t Blizzard going that route simply have the Factions go against the First One Vorlons who would be using Order Magic.
The people would reject the Vorlons yet still use the Vorlons power and find their own way to Order without the Vorlons’ help!
Because there is a group of beings called First Ones in WoW who use Hyperlight(which as shown by the new Cosmology is Order) and First Ones come from Babylon 5 and include the Vorlons(aligned with Order) who are the Light to the Shadows’ Darkness!
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