Again, we already know it’s Arthas based on voice lines in the Anduin encounter.
Anduin Wrynn (Corrupted Voice) : Your existence was one failure after another, old man!
Anduin Wrynn (Corrupted Voice) : At Andorhal, you failed your kingdom and your prince.
Anduin Wrynn (Corrupted Voice) : Today, you fail not only the boy-king, but your entire world!
Varian had nothing but respect for Uther. So these lines make no sense if Varian is somehow the ‘Remnant of the Fallen King’. It perfectly suits Arthas though, as Arthas was at Andorhal and was extremely bitter towards Uther after he refused to follow his orders and ‘failed his kingdom and his prince’.
Gul’dan fill his body with such a large amount of fel it cause his body to burst. It very likely that his sould was also burned up. If there was any portion of his sould left Gul’dan would have captured it to have leverage.
He was killed before the shutdown in SL, so he would not end up in the maw. He should have been encountered, most likely in Bastion, but there has not been one mention of him.
If Varian had found out that Jailer was using his son he would have come out to fight. His soul is either destroyed or fragmented.
You’re assuming, there’s no lore supporting you at this point.
There are an infinite number of afterlives, Varian could have been sent to any one of them. Or he’s potentially watching over Anduin in the same way that Cairne is currently watching over Baine.
Listen, I am probably not right and this is just a fun little fan theory, but like I said before, I believe we are being misled on the PTR.
Also those voice lines could easily be a Dominated Varian talking as well, because Arthas was Varian’s best friend growing up, so he would have known Uther as well, he would also have reason to said ‘your prince’ instead of “You failed your kingdom and you failed me”
Also, it would be just terrible…terrible writing, to have Arthas be semi redeemed after we kill him, only to turn right back into an evil jerk without ever seeing him before hand.
However, this is Steve we are talking about, so you are probably right.
There no lore supporting that his soul is still around. I seen his death seen and can speculate that he was exploded from the inside. He didn’t burn up he just popped.
But that was never Varian way. He never stood back and watched. He would be in the Maw looking for Auduin. If he was in SL we would have seen or heard something about him. Even Arthas has been mentioned and shown were he went to. Varian just too big of a lore character to on the side line.
If he is in SL there a small chance he been saved for the Anduin fight, and he breaks the Jailer’s control. However, there is nothing that supports that Varian soul is in SL, nor what has happened to him.
Could be him simply remembering his father or imagining him standing there. If Varian was standing there he would have been a ghost as his soul would had gone to the SL by then.
Second thought is that part of his soul is in Shalamayne, and his wrestling with the will of the Jailer. Have to see the Anduin fight to see the outcome.
Yes there is, we have the entire lore of Shadowlands supporting that when a soul dies, it goes to the Shadowlands. There’s no lore supporting the idea that Varian’s soul was obliterated, so by default, it goes to the Shadowlands according to the lore we have.
Who says he even knows what’s happening? If he’s in the Shadowlands, in his chosen afterlife (which clearly isn’t one of the four we get access to), then he likely has no idea what’s happening to anyone outside of that afterlife. Additionally, he’d never be permitted to go into the Maw, the Attendants in Oribos would never have allowed it, as he is not a ‘Maw Walker’ and would have no way of returning from the Maw without one. It’s a one way trip.
There are a TON of lore characters in the Shadowlands that we haven’t heard from. Anduin Lothar, Antonidas, Orgrim Doomhammer, Durotan, Saurfang, Broxigar, Anasterian, Rhonin, Grom Hellscream etc.
Just because they’re not mentioned, doesn’t mean they’re not there.
Again, there’s no lore supporting that his soul is gone. You’re assuming. Until Blizzard goes on the record and tells us what happened to Varian’s soul, we have no specifics, so we have to go with the default lore, which is that his soul either went to the Shadowlands, or, it is watching over Anduin in the same way Cairne’s soul is watching over Baine.
In the four afterlives that we’ve visited, not all of them. There are an infinite number of afterlives, and there isn’t enough anima to open connections to all of them to share the news.
So is Grom Hellscream, so is Durotan, so is Anduin Lothar.
Blizzard stated really early on that they didn’t want to overload the Shadowlands with major lore figures and were only picking a few to show up here and there. Clearly Varian was not one of the ones picked.
If you still have a soul left. The argument is that his soul was destroyed, so by him no being in SL would strengthen that his soul is gone.
Everyone heard about the Maw walker. He would have heard that some mortal had come from Azeroth, and come looking for us to ask questions.
Again Varian is too well-known to just be forgotten about. Even Garrosh got a final scene. You saying Blizzard just left the King of Stormwind out cause they ran out of time?
Well after watching the cut-scene that Apricotsr posted. There is also a good chance that Varian’s soul is now in Shalamayne in some form of limbo.
After Anduin hold the sword he has a flash of his father and they are in some kind of Valley of Heros. It all white and they have a conversation. This could be why Varian is not in SL.
