Shadowlands presents a very unique challenge for writing in World of Warcraft, so I thought I’d tackle the three biggest questions I’ve seen bouncing around. As always, this is just my general musing about the subject, and by no means a hard and fast rule book. Take what you like, drop what you don’t, and have fun.
Keeping death permanent!
Why not just pop over to the Shadowlands and hang out with a deceased loved one? Bring them back home for some tea? - Someone on the forums who was expressing a valid concern about story direction.
I take your question as a challenge, good poster!
As Orpheus traveled to Hades to find Eurydice, visiting the afterlife to talk to your loved ones is a tremendous feat from which legends are forged. Even with a gigantic hole torn through the material of the sky and making an opening to the other side, I imagine most people don’t have the mettle to travel there. I imagine it takes the intervention of a powerful entity, physical prowess to endure the strain of travelling across realms, or mental resilience to handle the traumatic sights at the end of reality. That doesn’t even begin to cover whether or not someone would trust you to go in the first place. Overall, you’re likely going to have a hard time getting there at all. We also know that as of launch, the PC will be the first soul to escape the Maw -ever-, or at least in a very long time. Travelling there is like an astronaut going to the moon in our modern day. Vetting, preparation, rituals, and all sorts of obstacles that make average travel impossible. Even the wealthy and influential can only start a mission to the Shadowlands, and by no means can they guarantee anything.
And to this end, it seems like very few things can come back from the afterlife. The Night Fae specifically hold the power to bring the spirits of nature back, such as Cenarius and Malorne, however the rest are there to stay. Or wait until their souls are allowed to move on and cycle once again. Kael’thas has died, Kael’thas will stay dead. We will interact with his soul and legacy in the vampire zone, but that’s about it.
You do not get to and from the Shadowlands lightly.
What is the average person doing in these times?
Which brings up its own question. How in hell are you supposed to RP in an expansion where the story is custom fit to the best of the best, the most exceptional legends and heroes? Well, I’ve got advice about that, too!
Azeroth is a vast, open world. The events in one area are not the only problems going on at a given moment. We know that swarms of the scourge will be loosed now that the Helm of Domination has shattered… And there are intelligent scourge who will prove a very dire threat if they are left unchecked. Your guild is free to move about and counter these terrestrial threats as the veil unravels. You can still be connected to the Shadowlands at that! Even on Azeroth, your enemies will be informed by the happenings in the Afterlife.
Maybe Tyranil the Lich is a Necrolord who seeks to further his master’s will, personally collecting souls by killing innocents on Azeroth. He hopes to ensure they are not sent to the Maw and plans to bring them to his master directly, increasing his power and by extension, elevating both of their positions in the Maldraxxus hierarchy. Your paladins rally on horseback and ride into the heart of the Plaguelands to bring Tyranil down, campaigning viciously against him tooth and nail, sword and board.
Maybe an ancient spirit of your clan is peeking through the veil. The afterlife promised has become unstable, and she needs her descendants to intervene. They are to be sent to gather powerful relics across her ancestral homeland and bring the souls back into tune and give them peace once again.
These ideas, and many like them, can extend the Shadowlands plot into Azeroth, and give you something to do with the set pieces on Azeroth. You don’t have to be goofing around in the Maw to engage in this thrilling campaign to come. If you don’t want to bother with Shadowlands at all? Don’t! Do craft fairs, engage in political intrigue, do archaeology, so on and so forth. This conflict is incredibly open ended, and leaves almost the whole of Azeroth untouched to do with whatever you will.
What about my afterlife?
The biggest concern I’ve seen is the worry that the four afterlives we’ve seen-that of the Necrolords of Maldraxxus, the Kyrian of Basion, the Night Fae of Ardenwald, and the Venthyr of Revendrath-aren’t really inclusive of your afterlife headcanons. This hearkens back to the ancestor plot hook I mentioned in the last section. It’s -critically- important to note, the arbiter and her four afterlives are not the only domains in the Shadowlands. These are merely the four realms that are most relevant in the current story, and thus are the only ones we visit.
We see that afterlives are still as they have always been, largely reliant on your race and religion. The trolls still have Bwonsamdi’s sacred halls in “The Other Side”, the Tauren have their ancestor worship seen just in the Heritage Scenario and probably have an afterlife of great endless pastures or something of the sort. It seems you go to one of the four covenants if you’ve nowhere else to go. Say if you’re an orc without any sacred places to rest your soul, like Draka.
Of course, over the past few years, all souls have gone to the Maw. That might be interesting to handle, hm?
Regardless, those are my thoughts on the three most expedient RP questions I’ve seen thus far. I hope you all have a great time writing. Blizzard is in hot water now, honestly for good reasons in a lot of ways, but I adore this community and the amazingly creative people who represent the best of what it can be. You all keep me going. Have FUN RPing in this story, enjoy the company of one another, embrace the writing and genius that RP can bring. Dress up in cool mog, make your characters smooch because you’re hopeless romantics. Just have fun <3