In Shadowlands we saw the souls of some old NPCs, but what actually happened to Cairne? We didn’t see him anywhere, and Baine was literally left in a corner, frightened… shouldn’t Cairne have appeared to set him straight?
Another question: why is Cairne so different in Classic, or even today, compared to WC3? It’s very clear that the WC3 version of Cairne is a visually distinct tauren, almost like a powerful oracle… so why is he just a regular tauren without golden eyes in WoW?
I was actually glad we didn’t see him anywhere. Cairn was always my favorte Horde character (I really don’t like the Horde) so it was a bittersweet thing not having him because that way Blizzard had no chance to mess up with him.
Also he deserved a good afterlife and I want to believe he is in one where nothing bad happened during Shadowlands.
They already messed him up.
During the tauren heritage armor, his ghost says he’s proud of Baine. My theory is, and nobody will change my mind, that that was Blizzard giving the middle finger to tauren fans.
Leaving the obvious aside, all parents are proud of their childre so I don’t really think badly about their interaction.
That being said I feel bad about Baine. Blizzard doesn’t know how to write Horde characters that seek peace.
Cairne was perfectly fine. He wasn’t licking the elbows of the Alliance but he wasn’t out murdering them either.
I have no idea why they had to remove and replace with him with Baine the Alliance sympathizer.
I have no idea either. If Baine wasn’t so friendly with Alliance he could have been a better character. And of course in SL, he’s sitting in a corner for that time. What a shame.
Yeah, that’s what’s most infuriating about Cairne’s treatment. He played a big part in Warcraft 3, but then did almost nothing from Classic to Wrath. Then he’s finally given a starring role in a novel, only to be killed in that same novel just to make way for Baine, the Horde’s biggest peacemonger.
We don’t even get to see the mak’gora in game as an event, like we did with the one between Thrall and Garrosh during Wrath.
Probably in a different afterlife.
There are thousands of other afterlives we don’t see, such as the Heaven-like afterlife where people are reunited with their departed loved ones Sylvanas was originally headed for before Arthas dragged her back to un-life.
Cairne was presumably sent to one of those instead of one of the afterlives we visited.
i dont know much about Cairne aside from his hearthstone card.
did he die twice?
Remember the opening trailers? There was one scene where a guy in Ardenweald was working in his orchard taking care of souls, feeding them anima, and the Winder Queen came along saying they had to shut down his orchard and take the anima.
He told her he had given his word to one of the souls that he would take care of it forever. The Winter Queen said she would respect his promise and it was his decision. He decided to shut the orchard down and he took the anima basically sending that particular soul off to oblivion.
Was that the same soul that was Caine, the mentor to Malfurion? I thought it might be.
No. That was 100% Ursoc.
They showed Ursoc dying and speaking at the beginning of the short film.
Baine wasn’t really frightened. He actually appears during a final push in the Shadowlands against the Jailer’s forces and rallies the troops “For the Shadowlands!” despite having done literally nothing the entire expac.
The reason is that they intended for Baine to have a larger role in the expac. But Covid and corporate drama cut that plotline.
WC3 had this a lot. Blood elves and Orcs also had completely white eyes sometimes. It’s not something he actually had.
Be glad they never touched Cairne cause if they did he’d end up in some sort of anima burger
He was such a good leader that he was found in the Ardenweald gardens reincarnating. 
Also, did Thrall, Vol’jin or Chen have golden eyes? No, none of them did so that maybe why. 
I need to play WC3 again because I remember Vol’jin and Thrall having normal eyes… I do recall the Blood Elf priests having white eyes, though.
I always saw Cairne as something mystical, a golden-eyed oracle with immense strength. His model was very different compared to the regular taurens around him — as if he were an… elder or some kind of mystical elder tauren.
When I saw the whole thing about Malfurion and Illidan being born with golden eyes, I thought Cairne was the same — someone special.