With the raid end cinematic finally out, there’s plenty to talk about now. For this thread in particular, I would like to postulate a theory: Oribos was originally Zovaal’s place of residence.
During the cinematic, as the Jailer is reclaiming his heart, it becomes much more artistically defined and, as it is illuminated, we can discern a shape resembling infinity or a twisted ouroboros. A similar twisted serpent icon is repeated throughout Oribos and, obviously, the city name is a reference the ouroboros itself.
A more detailed inspection of the twisted serpent icon found in Oribos also reveals a striking aesthetic parallel to Zovaal’s armored helm after he reclaims his heart. On his helm are two blue crystals centered vertically and his eyes horizontal between them; likewise, on the twisted serpent icon in Oribos, there are two crystals above and below the serpent itself, with it’s eyes horizontal between them. Here is a side by side comparison between the heart, the helm, and the icon: https://imgur.com/a/mfQvA6r.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but I think the shared motifs between Zovaal’s heart, his new armor and the iconography found in Oribos allude to it being Zovaal’s realm or place of operation before his banishment.
He also always had a place in the main “throne” room where the Arbiter is (you can see the fifth podium that has a crack in it). So Oribos existed before he was banished.
Well, we know that because Oribos’ architecture is of First One design, so it likely predates all of the Eternal Ones.
Also having a pillar akin to the other Eternal Ones suggests he, too, originally projected an image of himself there when in counsel with them, rather than actually being physically present in Oribos.
I thought about that. It may be that the Eternal Ones didn’t originally project themselves there, but rather they attended in person at one time. Or maybe he just walked down the hall and stood in his position alone like a good boi.
It’s also worth noting that Zovaal’s platform is center and forward, almost as if the other four Eternal Ones would be offering him council or, alternatively, as if he answered to them. The platforms aren’t equidistant, which suggests that Zovaal had a unique or different role to play in mediation between them.
Yeah, the fact the Arbiter is literally his heart and the armor has a gaping hole… it seems pretty evident they ripped his heart out and created the Arbiter, and the fact that the souls defaulted to the Maw was likely the original design of the Shadowlands vs this new dam built by usurpers.
Keep in mind that Zovaal stated that “three keys remain” after the Chains of Domination reveal cinematic. Knowing now that he had two at that time (the Archon and Denathrius’ keys) and then got the Primus, Winter Queen, and Arbiter’s keys. It’s safe to say that he was the OG Arbiter. Or it could be something else. Who knows really.
The sigils consistently being referred to as keys remind me of Il’gynoth’s prophecy: “Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path.” While Old God related prophecies are notoriously unreliable as literary devices and can be applied to almost anything in the canon, the writers have been fairly explicit recently when their correlations are revealed (see: “the circle of stars” in the Azshara raid). If the Sepulcher of the First Ones is Zovaal’s destination, then we may be thrown into the grand cosmic conflict narrative far sooner than many of us anticipated, with the Void Lords waiting for us at the precipice.
I thought it would have been cool if Torghast was originally there in place of Orbios, portals that opened up to the other realms of the afterlife, but Zovaal began to twist the souls or keep them for himself, etc.
The Pantheon of Death then “marched” upon Torghast, breaching the castle, imprisoning Zovaal and casting it, along with him into the Maw.
Removing his sigil and creating the Arbiter to “take his place.”
Wait, so how is the 5th key going to be recreated? Is Oribos supposed to be an unspoken covenant as well? Zovaal kinda took off with his, so the heroes can’t exactly expect to go up to him and-
Oh no. They’re going to pull a new one from Sylvanas and Helya, aren’t they.
I think this idea has some merit. Bouncing off of it, it may be possible that Torghast was created as a facsimile of Oribos; an attempt by the Jailer to reconstruct his former seat of power, but twisted by the Maw. The reason his platform in Oribos is damaged may be because that’s where the other Eternal Ones physically struck when they imprisoned him and it was damaged as a result; it looks very much like it was impacted by something.
It seems his heart was his sigil/key; he says in the cinematic “at long last, the final key” as it returns to his chest cavity. Which means he has five sigils/keys now to do whatever he needs to do wherever he’s gone off to. I think his heart being a sigil/key suggests, like others have pointed out, that he originally served in a role similar to the Arbiter’s before his banishment and that Oribos was the “transitive covenant”.
The sigils for the Ardenweld and Bastion Covenants are being remade during 9.1.
The sigils themselves appear to be representations of the covenants, a portion of their power that they then use for whatever needs.
It appear that there isn’t only 1 sigil (key) per covenant and, for example, we don’t have to get the Ardenweald sigil back from Zovaal, as another will be made to take it’s place.
Why Zovaal’s covenant sigil couldn’t be remade, but the other covenants’ sigils can, is yet to be explained.
Who created the Arbiter, and why Zovaal’s sigil powers her, is yet to be explained.
Why the souls default to the Maw, outside of an implanted “Arugs titan soul trojan horse code” theory, has yet to be explained.
What the Sepulcher of the First Ones is, and what it contains, is yet to be explained.
Why the Winter Queen/Primus doesn’t just fill us in on this “forbidden knowledge” is yet to be explained.
How Zovaal plans to “reshape reality” is yet to be explained.
What Zovaal wants with Azeroth, is yet to be explained. (Death comes for your World’s Soul) Does he corrupt it like a void? How would that work?
Where do Titans go when they die, is yet to be explained.
Does killing a Pantheon of Death destroy the realm in which they govern, and how does this impact Revendreath now that Denathrius is gone(?)
How do titans of other pantheons interact with one another, like Winter Queen and Elune, Enoar and Elune, etc. is yet to be explained well.
I was actually thinking his realm was Korthia, given he knew exactly how to find it and what was stored there. He’s not the Arbiter, but his function was probably similar.
To pick out one point and throw my theory at it, I’m still of the opinion that Agrus’s soul is what broke the Arbiter when we killed him at the end of Legion considering he was a titan of death. So assumedly they’d pass on to the Shadowlands but Agrus was so messed up and twisted that he clogged and broke the Arbiter.
I am not actually sure that the Eternal Ones created the Arbiter. It is sort of weird how her design and Oribos’ are identical, and the entire city seems to of been designed with her at the center. I sort of wonder if instead it might of been one of the final times the First Ones acted directly, changing the design of the Shadowlands and creating the Arbiter to replace him.
Zovval’s realm might of been what became the Maw. It is super suspicious Torgast is basically a dark mirror of Oribos to begin with.
I think what happened is what happened to Helheim sorta, The corruption and distortion of Zovaal due to his rage and resentment at the ‘betrayal’ of his siblings for not letting him make everyone into mindless slaves and the magic binding him distorted the realm into a hellscape, including Torgast itself. He had total control of the tower, which I suspect means it was his to begin with.
It is likely why his form seems so distorted too, it reflects his present warped nature rather than that he once was made with.
In that cinematic, the Jailer said, quote; “At last, the final key is once again mine.” (bold for emphasis).
This means this isn’t the first time he’s gotten the Arbiter orb; either he stole it once before and it was re-taken from Zovaal, or it really was his at one point and was taken away from him. You might be right about Oribos being Zovaal’s realm.
This, right here, is good storytelling. A shame Blizzard doesn’t apply this to many other parts of lore.
Even Denathrius stated, the banish one was going to reclaim “what was his” during the Revendreth Ending Cinematic.
It is very heavily implied that the Arbiter’s Sigil was his, even his chest cavity suggests it.
However, nothing of him being the actual Arbiter or why his Sigil gives power to the Arbiter has yet to be explained. You’d think they would lock up his sigil better, and craft a new one if they didn’t need it.
This is just my theory on it.
Torghast was originally the Eternal City, Zovaal was the “Arbiter” but in the beginning of time, there were so souls so evil, so far beyond redemption that there needed to be a Maw. Beings didn’t exist that evil, until they did.
The first being that Zovaal, as the Arbiter, witnessed being so evil, so far beyond redemption, broke his psyche. He no longer believed in the First Ones’ grand design, as how could something so pure of evil be created.
Zovaal then believed that the First Ones were wrong, that their system was wrong, and that it needed to be rebuilt. In order to do that, he needed the sigils of the other Pantheon of Death in order to “defeat” the First Ones, to reshape this “flawed” reality.
He began to turn “evil,” and started dismantling souls in order to create weapons and an army to go against the First Ones. His siblings, then seeing his “madness” rose up against him.
Torghast was the original city, but during the battle it “fell” and eventually became the Maw. The First Ones created Orbios and the Arbiter we see today, to take Torghast and Zovaal’s place.
Zovaal, now banished to the Maw, sought revenge for this.
Denathrius, being the leader of Revendreth, somewhat understood the concept of “pure evil” beings. Revendreth was supposed to be for the “evil souls” to repent, but could understand why Zovaal thought any being more evil than Revendreth’s standards shouldn’t exist.
Denathrius aligned himself with Zovaal, created the Dreadlords, and the rest is history. The Dreadlords implementing a “virus” within Argus so that when it was slain, it would disable the Arbiter and reroute the Souls to Torghast, it’s original destination.
Continued speculation:
During all this, or shortly after, the First Ones died - somehow - maybe simply “old age” and entombed their Anima, their selves, within the Sepulcher.
Zovaal wants to reach the Sepulcher to absorb their cosmic force powers and reshape the cosmic universe.