There are 6 fundamental cosmic forces fighting for supremacy in Warcraft universe. - Light, Life, Order, Shadow, Death, and Disorder. Each of these forces wants to rule over the others.
To do so, they obviously need to control material world (The Great Beyond). This war has been in a state of stagnation for most of the time, but sometimes we can see advantage of one of the forces. An obvious example are the Titans and their ordering universe, followed by Fel with the help of Sargeras. Little would’ve changed in the balance of power if not for the creation of Dreadlords. Agents of Revendreth literally manipulated cosmos to their liking, weakening rest of the forces before the arrival of Death. Dreadlords: The Unseen Guests, you probably think I’m talking about them. But there is a force that even such narcissistic creatures consider as a worthy opponent. And without irony, they have done a better job than Denathrius children themselves.
I’m talking about Life.
You must be surprised to see here probably most boring cosmic force. However, I’m going to clearly explain to you, why I believe the most underestimated opponent turned out, to be the real winner in this Great War. To understand Life’s methods, I’ll quote motto of the Tyler family from the Asoiaf series, "Growing strong. In the novel, this family uses the tactic of slowly and secretly planting roots in a new place, from which they cannot be removed after a while. This is Nature’s greatest tactic. They enter someone’s territory, not being considered as a real threat. They slowly strengthen their position there, and when enemy finally sees real danger, it is too late.
The best example of Life manipulation is Death. These two forces are quite unique. The rest of the players with passion hate their opposites, but death and life exist in strange symbiosis. It looks more like Death is dependent on Life. Without its opposite, Shadowlands couldn’t exist (if it was reversed, Lifelands would have some problems, of course, but it wouldn’t disappear like SL without Anima), if you look closely, the whole afterlife system is designed to please Life. Our biggest clue here is Ardenweald. This dimension exists only to serve nature, all the rest of SL works to keep this one realm functioning properly.
I know that each of the opposing forces represent other side of the coin, but I can’t imagine demons being reborn in Titanlands or Old Gods sleeping safely in the land of eternal light.
I think SL has been conquered by Life and changed to work for them. Mr Mushroom himself said that SL used to look very different long time ago, so something big must have happened. That’s why I believe Life Pantheon decided to solidify their control over Shadowlands. They conquer all main realms and change one of the dimensions for the purpose of respawning their agents, set one of their own as a ruler, and promote her as one of the Eternal Ones. (We have strong indications that Winter Queen comes from outside SL) We also see former Night Warriors (Priests of Life) holding high positions in SL, such as Lady Stonehearth leading the armies of Revendreth. Thinking about the dominance of Nature raises some questions. Why they didn’t destroy Death completely when they had a chance? Destroying one force would cause great chaos, and why destroy something that can be controlled and used? Second, why didn’t they change the entire SL to their design? It’s easier to control someones who doesn’t know they’re being manipulated, instead they made that dimension dependent on them. If the Lifelands were directly in danger, Death would be the first to come to the rescue. They cannot risk losing the energy source necessary for their existence.
The second force infiltrated by Life is Order. Thanks to Eonar. So far, only Nature has managed to take over the souls of the world, which once again shows the cleverness of nature. I believe this Titan was infused with essence of Life just like Old Goes wanted to do with Azeroth. Perhaps Titans didn’t see it as a bad thing, as I said Life is not aggressive in its actions, it slowly achievs its his goals without alerting enemies. Having a Titan on your side is a big win, but they didn’t make her a slave to their plans as Old Gods wanted. We don’t even know if Eonar would obey their orders. The Old Gods shown that the creatures of the void can have plans of their own, different from those of their creators. Order and Life aren’t really on such bad terms, Titans don’t remove Nature’s creations like they do with demons or Void minions, perhaps due to Eonar intervention, but we’re not sure. Titans believe that life on the planets make Titan soul stronger, which may be another manipulation to create more Titans like Eonar. Even one of their pillars involves Elune, a member of the Patheon of Life, Elune may have proposed an alliance through Eonar. These two have much in common such as similar names, Eonar soul was hidden from Legion on Elunaria. Speculate even further, perhaps through this collaboration, druids can use astral/titan magic, and mages have learned polymorph spells from Life.
Before we move on to the rest of the players, let’s talk about Elune. I think the moon goddess is the most important pawn in this theory. The one who combines all the cosmic powers within herself. She’s the most active member of TeamLife. About the previous forces in short, let me briefly remind you how in Legion and BFA Elune was shown to wield three of the six forces.
Order: They named one of the Pillars of Creation after her, she can literally control the moon (celestial object) and create constellations of stars. Overall, a very arcane aesthetic.
Light: We see her tear heal Prime Na’ru, her priestesses use a power based more on light than life.
Death: She pulls Ysera’s soul out of her body and sends it to SL, where it is clearly stated that it shouldn’t be. Wisps who despite being the souls of mortals, remain in the material world to guard sacred places for the Nature Gods. Only NE who lose faith in Elune can be resurrected as undead.
Now let’s talk about Light. Our first clue is the words of Velen, probably the most powerful Light user in the universe, considers Elune powers similar to Na’ru. Which automatically eliminates Elune powers originated only from the side of Life. Malfurion himself never considered Elune to be his goddess, so he doesn’t see Tyrande powers coming from nature. Khadgar found a tome in Karazhan about Elune creating Na’ru at the beginning of the cosmos, Xe’ra reaction to her tear confirms this theory, giving us her direct connection to Light. Elune as the mother of Na’ru, beings who represent Holy Light in reality tells us about the high position and merit of moon goddess for this particular power. Na’ru are rather unwilling to turn against their creator. Life may not control Light yet, but isn’t afraid being attacked by them. Just allowing Elune to create Na’ru shows the Light great trust in Elune.
About Shadow, we unfortunately have less evidences. Shadow and Fel are what life hates the most, but our first example was Elune cleansing Ysera out of Nightmare, she didn’t brutally tear Nightmare out of her body, but rather removed it like a doctor with corruption she already dealt with before. Control over shadow energy is also seen in Na’ru creation. Creator of beings with a Void side knows how to use it. Some believe that the Night Warrior powers come from The Void, but we have too little evidence. Xal’atath calls Elune an upstart goddess, I think she called her that because Elune is a beginner in the craft of Shadow and she’s fairly new god in that area, compared to the rest of the Void gods. In the last patch we got a trinket that talked about An’shull a space wanderer who opens portals to the Void, which could be, a hint that Elune’s brother was supposed to infiltrate this particular force. We will note the significance of the moon, it literally combines light and dark. Symbolism of balance. The Monkin Druid form created by Elune literally has a balance specialization.
There are only 2 Fel moments that show us tiny hints connection to Life. Life Agent Elune removes satyr curse turning him back into elf, revealing Elune some control over Disorder. In her temple Gul’dan start the legion invasion. I know it’s a weak point, but it’s interesting that out of all Azeroth, he started invasion from there. In Legion, we also have a boss called the Desolate Host whose core is somewhat looks like Elune tear, which despite obvious Fel contamination, hasn’t changed color like in the case of Void Corruption, which might indicate that this tear was created specifically to work with Fel.
Of course, that doesn’t mean she has full control over those powers. I’m aware that may only show her extremely powerful healing abilities.
Now I would like to mention less obvious allies.
Dragons. While we have 5 dragonflights created by Order, lore tells us that the Great Tree of G’hanir in Emerald Dream is where dragons should go after they die, yet we still have evidence of their connection to nature while they’re alive. Two of the dragon aspects are destined to protect life, and one was even chosen to be a queen of the entire dragon race. The other one control the Emerald Dream. That was easy. But, we can find connections to Life in the other flights. Elune as a being close to magic itself was present when new aspect of magic was chosen. The election of Kalecgos as a leader of the flight took place during Embrace, showing blue dragons direct connection to Elune, and another clue to her link to Arcane. The choice of this moment shows that the moon holds some big value for magic on Azeroth. Perhaps it was Elune who chose Kalcegos over his opponent. The other two flights have lesser ties to Life, but they still exist. Life has the ability to show minor visions of the future which may be related to Bronze dragons, but it doesn’t have as strong prophetic ability as Order, Light or Void. Black dragons also favor Nature due to their connection to the Earth element. Why? Let’s move on to the next point.
Another great ally of Life are Elementals. Though not under his control, they work closely with Nature. Druids using air spells, Fandrall Druids of the flame, Elune and Neptulon together control the tides of Azeroth. The elements work with Nature more than with any other powers. Taurens consider Elune to be the most connected to Water and Air, whitch Moonwells Reflect. Perhaps Elune is worshipped by Kul’tirans Tidemother, which may suggest the item , tablet of balancing Tides" and ,the Lost sailor memorial" in Drustvar. Many times we see how the Cenarion Circle and the Earthen Ring shared common goals. The balance of Life and fight against the corruption of other forces.
Spirit. Known as the fifth element, also called Spirit of Life maintains harmony among the others elements. On Draenor, we see how too much Spirit causes Sporemounds to form and slowly turning elementals into mortal beings. The raw beings of the elements become part of the Cycle of Life and Death over time. We can assume in their natural evolution, each Elemental should become a mortal being over time. One of the smaller examples this partnership is Shaman Sur’jan who used Life Energy in Nazmir to regain his elemental powers.
Mortals. Every race on Azeroth is part of the cycle of life and death. As we can see learn from story of SL, no matter what other power or God you believe in, 99% of you will end up in Shadowlands. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we have to try to make the whole cycle work properly otherwise it will end very unpleasantly for us. (Look at the Jailer)
Classes. Druids and Shamans are obvious examples, but so are Monks, who draw their energy from the Spirit of Life (Chi). Hunters may not use magic, but they live in harmony and respect nature. Even Envokers, who use the power of the red, green, and black dragons, can find their source of power in Nature.
Nature itself is a more powerful and darker force than some realize. Cenarius axe is currently the only weapon capable of harming Sargeras. Titans placed Life between Order and Light on their cosmology map, while Brokers placed it between Death and Disorder, even Kepper of Zereth mortis found Life to be as dangerous as these two chaotic forces. Odin consider Life as something too dangerous to be left unchecked.
As you can see Life found its way into 5 of 6 forces and its influence is still growing. Its roots are slowly spreading to other sides of the conflict and so far the rest of the big players have not noticed it. Their method is the complete opposite of Dreadlords. Instead of dividing the cosmos, they’re trying to unite it.
I believe the ultimate plan of Life is divided into two parts.
The first is the infiltration of each Pantheon from within. For now, we only have two examples : Eonar and Winter Queen, perhaps after meeting new Pantheons, number will increase,
Second is to create a hybrid of all six cosmic forces by learning and absorbing their powers. And this hybrid shall be Elune.
What I like about Life is that even they are extremely cunning and certainly have a lot behind their ears they’re probably the best side of this conflict, (but not perfect) Each force is not entirely good but if we had to choose which power should rule the universe it would probably be life. They have no ambition to brutal conquest, but rather prefer to stay on their own. You are on our side? Great! You’re against us, we don’t care, but stay away from us and our plans.
What do you think? did I convince you of my crazy theory? ? Or do you have your own thoughts and would like to add something? I’m curious about your opinion
Dude would still be in the Maw if Helya, Denathrius, and Mueh’zala didn’t helped him. Each of them alone is more interesting than Jailer, Three of them trying to take over SL themselves are a thousand times better story than the all-knowing Zoval.
