Way before Shadowlands ever came out, I thought it was weird that the clouds in Icecrown’s sky looked like a mouth - specifically, Yogg-Saron’s mouth. I never really gave it too much thought, since I wasn’t as deep into the lore as I am now, but recently I’ve started thinking.
In Shadowlands, the sky shattered after Sylvanas broke the Helm of Domination, leaving a window to the Maw in place of this mouth shaped part of the sky.
another word for a mouth is a Maw
“The veil wanes, his crown will open the way” -N’zoth
The Yogg Saron mouth thing might be true (idk, haven’t looked) but he has absolutely nothing to do with the Maw, nor the realms of death.
He’s a void lord toe.
Icecrown Sky: https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_03/WoWScrnShot_032822_140900.thumb.jpg.aa3bbeb1aff8f2090f4f22e5114574e5.jpg
Yogg-Saron: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wowpedia/images/d/da/Yoggsaron.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090503013456
The two mouths are clearly distinct. Yogg-Saron’s mouth has an Overbite while the mouth of Icecrown’s sky has a Cleft Palate.
The jagged Cleft Palate mouth of Icecrown therefore must represent the Maw and be separate from Yogg-Saron.
The border to the Maw hanging over Icecrown’s sky shaping the clouds with it’s presence to shape a Jagged Cleft Palate Maw as frightening as yet distinct from the Jagged Overbite Maw of Yogg-Saron is ominous to say the least.
I assume they always wanted to do SOMEThInG with the sky in Icecrown.
You have this creepy structure pointing upwards, you have this skybox shaped like a mouth.
And the last bit, is how convenient that since WC3 northrend is called by Malfurion the “roof of the world” and Illidan almost broke it, while this can be just a roundabout way to say the “north”. It feels to me like an open plot point they banked with in Shadowlands
I mean, wasn’t there a quote about Shadowlands being the culmination of WC3’s story or something like that?
There was. It was by one of the lead devs at the time. I forget what interview it was from though
There was, but it was pretty obviously not the developers who felt that way. That was 100% the PR/Marketing guys trying to compete with FFXIV closing an actually earned massive multi-year story arc by saying “B-but our saga was even longer! …please buy our stuff.”
Fair. That said, the more I look into Shadowlands and the lore that came before it, the more I think that at least some of Shadowlands was an idea around Wrath of the Lich King.
I’ve seen a lot of people use the Jailer concept art (the one where he looked like The Primus) to say he only started being a thing when Shadowlands started development, but people seem to forget that N’Zoth was a character in Cata (2010) and didn’t have any official art until the Hearthstone expansion Whispers of the Old Gods (2016).
The Jailer’s old design suggests that Blizzard originally had Zovaal simply be the Arbiter(what with the old Arbiter Concept Art gave her Orb’s Anima the same color as Mawsworn Anima) while the Jailer was the Runecarver.
Who was the Primus supposed to be then? Akarek. Notice how the Primus’s statue resembled Akarek.
Of course Blizzard went and said that the Jailer was the Final Boss of Shadowlands rather than a prisoner of the Final Boss(who was released by Sylvanas not expecting him to be as bad as the previous ruler of the Maw) and rather than admit their mistake they decided to make their accidental lie a reality and have Zovaal get the Nathrezim to forge Frostmourne with knowledge stolen from the Primus.
An accident in speaking to the fans combined with an unwillingness to admit to making a mistake in speaking to the Fans resulting in a cool design for the Primus and the removal of the Runecarver as a unique character(changing the entire storyline) is quite amusing.
To be sure their idea most likely was long in the coming but their idea evolved over time thanks to rolling with the dice despite having a goal in mind.
This only adds to my theory that the “First Ones” who built the Shadowlands were actually the Old Gods, pre-corruption.