In the new cosmology undeath and life are not really all that different, its a matter of the cosmic force binding you to your body. Or, if you will, what color is your duct tape and how sticky is it.
Living people are bound by the power of Life, and undead are (imperfectly, save high level undead) bound by the power of Death.
Calia is apperantly bound by the Light.
The cosmic forces are oddly utilitarian.
Death is not meant to bind people to the material plane, it’s meant to remove them from the material plane. The fact that it can be used to bind them to the material plane doesn’t mean that it’s an intended part of the natural order.
This is why you generally don’t see people crawling out of their graves and wandering around unless there’s an evil wizard involved.
That is true, yes. The Great Dark appears to rather abhor the Undead, as the elemental force of Decay tries to rot them away. It honestly abhors all extraplanar beings, and the souls of the dead appear to have that label applied to them upon death.
So yeah… When applying maldraxxian magic, having a body of real flesh instead of Anima flesh is the pits, I guess.
Part of me wonders if anima is responsible for the process of aging. The longer you’re alive, the more you experience, and so the more anima you attain, and after you’ve been alive for a long time your body starts to break down and eventually you die. If anima is a force of death then it stands to reason that accruing it will tilt the scale of your existence from life to death.
I don’t know how that would apply to immortal races but it’s an interesting thought.
Maybe like you said, the reason that undead naturally rot is because their anima is running rampant with nowhere to go and no longer contained by the force of life.
Although decay being an element in itself has always struck me as kind of odd because if decay were an element it would actually be aligned with life, because decay is the process of life consuming death to create new life (via bacteria and other natural scavengers like maggots)
But then again maybe I just have a different perspective on death, because death being chaos adjacent and life being order adjacent never sat right with me either. It should be the opposite. Things don’t get much more chaotic and unpredictable than those that are alive, and things don’t get much more ordered than those that are dead.
Not really, unless they are planning to remove the Night Elves from being playable soon which would make sense lore wise.
That was the basis for my desire of six First Ones in a mythological family fashion:
Each First One = 3 Central Cosmic Force + 2 periphery Cosmic Force - 1 “Opposite” Cosmic Force
Elune as centered on Order/Shadow/Life (in the way the Night in a Forest is Dark, in the way that there is Life among the Stars, etc), peripheral Light (Moonlight) and Death (wisp stuff), but opposite to Chaos
An’she as centered on Light/Chaos/Life (in the way Light brings warmth and life but can also burn and destroy), peripheral Death (Tauren lore) and Order (Forging, elements), but opposite to Shadow
Each Cosmic Force has an angular intersection with each other cosmic force that allows for thematic nuance and a way that is already present across IRL mythologies and cultures in very obvious ways if the writers bothered to read more mythology anthologies
Reposting my big dramatic cosmic force diagram
Instead the devs are invoking “Sacred Geometry” themes for a *checks notes * 3D Printer
I actually think there is a sort of energy cycle within the WoW cosmos.
Light → Life → Death
Stars are giant chunks of crystallized Light with a mantle of elemental fire, that energy gets radiated out and transduced into Lifeforce, and the experience of living as a sapient being transduces Lifeforce into Anima, the energy of memory and emotion.
When it comes to Stratholme, by this point im sure they can find a way to deal with that. I mean apparently the Blight can be cleaned up finally as we’ve been told from Southshore. So i don’t think its outside the realm of possibility Stratholme can be resettled by one of the two factions.
Naaru life cycle ends in Void. They “bleed” Light when injured forcing them into a void state, in a void state they die and are reborn in the Light.
The Grimoire of the Shadowlands discribes the pendulum of Light and Void as seperate from Life and Death and what we see of the conflct between the Devorers and the Atoma is the Light and Void represent a Syntheic vs Organic life cycle. Opposed to the Cycle of Life and Death. The Cycle of Life and Death was created out of this automation process of trying to Order organic life into existance from a 3D printed hologram. Organic/Void consumes, therefore Death was created to keep organic life from consuming itself, Life’s nature is similar to Void, it consumes…
This is my present cosmology layout, with placeholder names where they are missing, minus the elemental spheres which I just have not gotten around to adding. There are basically the primary forces which represent a scale of extremes with a third force as the fulcrum in the middle.
So three zones of influence, with four more realms born where those overlap.
So Alliance “loses” the Night Elves…and Horde “loses” the Forsaken…/shrug
By their very nature, most sentient life isn’t “part of the natural order” nor are the things they create.
Life is a cosmic force, and as such is very much part of the natural order. Like any other part of the natural order, it’s possible for it to get out of balance and run rampant (see: the evergrowth)
Sapient life I would agree seems to only have one foot in the natural order, but the existence of a natural order is the only reason that sapient life can exist.
Would be a lot cooler if they did.
Thank you! Ive been trying to screech this. We have a giant Forsaken lore hole now that we no longer have Sylvanas or her Val’kyr. Theoretically this means the Forsaken are slowly dwindling in numbers and disappearing with each perma death. Sure, probably for the best as a cursed race but a very confusing situation as a playable race.
I can totally understand your character or MY character wanting Sylvannas’ head on a pike. Whether I feel that should happen depends on what the totality of the story is and that’s not been told yet.
Most likely reverted to the status quo of being “Contested”.
Good. Night elves are the worst race. The more they are humiliated the better will the game for all other races be.
Uhh…victory for the Horde?
All it costed us was the moldy Forsaken. Good deal I guess…?
Horde doesn’t get victory. Last victory the Horde had was back in Warcraft 1. Blizzard seems to be allergic to give the Horde anything which is why they take all away the stuff which made the faction cool. The faction is dead and it should be deleted before Blizzard can ruin it even more.