I’ve had discussions before on why I’m not too keen on the setting, though I’ve been thinking on it a lot more as to why it generally bothers me.
What follows is that of my own personal opinion based on what we know before Shadowlands launches.
I think ultimately, it boils down to definitively defining the afterlife in such a way that it appears that the covenants more-or-less rule the entirety of it.
In something like a single player game or in Greek mythology, where the afterlife is defined, it’s run as a natural progression of the life cycle. People go into Hades, get judged, and go from there and it doesn’t feel like it’s in the way of the living world.
With Shadowlands, as far as I can tell, the afterlife is composed of several covenants with their own politics that, I assume, squabble with each other over different aspects. This begs the question of “Is this what I get to look forward to when I die?” for characters.
Keep in mind, all the races on Azeroth have their own beliefs and customs of death, and seeing one definitive afterlife…seems to render most of them moot. It seems like if I’m a jerk in the living world, I get tossed into the maw after getting judged by whoever, but otherwise I get judged by individual covenants based on…some criteria. If I’m somehow viewed vain, then I get to go to the Venthyr, who potentially could milk me (Bagzak brand 1% Lowfat Anima: Now with 30% less GMO!) for all eternally. If not that, I get to be forcefully inducted intho the Kyrian order, turning into one of them and losing my identity while being forced to fight for their own political beliefs and gains and so on.
I want to say there is more to this afterlife than this, but from what I can gather, this seems to be the focus. Death to me shouldn’t be something this defined. Even Greek mythology had its afterlife defined to a point with some things left to find when you actually die (even if Hades had a revolving door that mortals seem to come and go as they please.)
I feel like Shadowlands just downplays the whole life cycle. Before, you had spirits that managed to even avoid going to the afterlife, much how a named Troll you kill in one of the desert areas (Thousand Needles I think) that comes back to haunt you until res him. There wasn’t an understanding of how it worked for some spirits. Here, it’s just a place I get to tra-la-la with its own ecosystem and so on. The mystique just feels…gone…and it also downplays danger if someone can die, go to the Shadowlands, and somehow come back as a Kyrian or something.
Gone also is that of the dillema of the Forsaken and even the San’layn. Becoming undead while still having free will has a huge impact on character, where some beings want to pass on somehow while others are scared for what aways them. Now they get to walk in, look around the Shadowlands, and go “Yup, I think I’ll just die and hang out here -urk-” or just “Nope!” their way out of there. Kind of kills a lot of their character in more ways than one, in my opinion.
As I said, it could be more than all I’ve stated here, but this is a big chunk of why I’m not too fond of the afterlife as a setting. I just feel like the way it is defined just really downplays the life cycle as well as removes what makes the Forsaken, San’layn, and other undead creatures with free will who they are.
Again, all my personal opinion. I’ll see if I still feel the same way when I go through Shadowlands.
I’ve prolly shared this guy a few times, but I’m improving slightly so there’s that.
Won’t be long now. 7 hours from me posting it, roughly, is it? Neat. I’m glad I have work off for most of the week, aside from tomorrow and Wed.
