At least part of the disconnection people feel is a result of Blizzard utilizing very few Azeroth denizens, which to me seems like a serious and bizarre missed opportunity.
I mean, there’s a giant lore-price to be paid in setting an expansion in a corporeal afterlife at all - it devalues the concept and moral weight of “death.” (Instead of death being an end with a mysterious and unknown future, it’s now a world we know about that we can visit through a portal).
But once you’ve embarked on that course of action and thus paid that price, you should try to get the most out of it by playing deeply on the history of the world. And Blizzard hasn’t done that.
This really is a point that deserves more consideration in these discussions. Blizzard decided that the Shadowlands wasn’t just connected to Azeroth, but to all the universe. The different covenant realms, therefore, just treat Azeroth as one world among many, and not one with a necessarily high presence either.
Imagine instead of Blizzard had styled the Shadowlands as the afterlife realm for Azeroth specifically. If all the denizens of it had a history and connection to Azeroth. For instance, what if Maldraxxus - instead of being an endless war of disconnected combatants, was filled specifically with combatants from old wars on Azeroth. (Not just from the RTS wars, but older ones in lore too).
What if every named Kyrian you met was a hero of Azeroth, some you might have encountered living in WoW, others you’d know from general lore within WoW, but basically you’d be aware of their OWN history when they themselves had been brainwashed to forget it (which would add more drama).
What if most Venthyr you met were reformed villains from Azeroth’s history specifically. Discovering “true names” and their sins would result in link after link to Azeroth. You could get more surprises upon finding out you’ve been unknowingly working alongside some old foe.
Yeah yeah, I know, they have Kael’thas and Uther and Draka show up for Venthyr, Kyrian and Necrolord. But speaking overall, direct connection to Azeroth in these covenant zones is the exception rather than the rule. Azeroth figures are rarities, special cameos, the zones and population as a whole within the zones doesn’t treat their connection to Azeroth as exceptional, just one of many.
And as a result, you don’t feel very connected to Azeroth in this expansion, and the presence of some big figures (like Kael’thas) has the additional effect of highlighting the absence of other big figures you’d think our factions would inquire into (for instance, where is the FATHER of Kael’thas - the “last king” of the high elves?)
If it had been my call, I probably wouldn’t have set an expansion in the afterlife, but if the decision had already been made, I’d definitely have leveraged a lot more Azerothian history in the general populating of the zones.
