As we continue to hear rumors, mumblings, and hushed whispers regarding the Shadowlands, my mind drifts to what past characters we may see there (should Blizzard takes us down that route).
One that particularly stands out in my opinion – and I’m sure of others – is Arthas. I imagine he’s somewhere in there just enduring an eternity of lonely torment.
I’d be curious to see who else we may see and what kind of roles they would play. All speculative of course.
Thoughts?
The Death Knight campaign tells us that Daelin Proudmoore, Soulbinder Nyami, Grand Apothecary Putress, Archmage Arugal, and Grand Empress Shek’zeer are in the Shadowlands. It stands to reason that we’ve built up a very large cast of characters in the land of the dead, suitable for an expac.
I’d rather them spend effort on developing characters that aren’t in the shadowlands than show us the fates of old characters in the shadowlands, suffering or otherwise.
arthas should stay dead forever, stop reviving old characters, end the character arcs of the wc2 and wc3 legends and develop new ones, or at least that is what i hope.
I feel like the reveal of the next expansion’s villain being Death itself is going to be based around the fact Death is pissed they can’t keep anything they take.
Every time I think of the emerald dream I imagine some sorta massive forest with greenery everywhere, and we kinda got some of that with the nightmare raid or any time we go to NE lands. So for me the shadowlands seems like it would be a desert with some dead trees and nothing as far as you can see. Like voldune but in gray.
I think it would be super interesting to run into random characters wandering the wastelands being attacked by specters and stuff. I could see us encountering a ton of people we killed before as like ghosts that just show up randomly to attack you.
Think of how many were just thrown away though. They could make each race encounter ghosts of their past and be forced to fight them. Like arguel coming at worgen players claiming he made them to save gilneas and was thrown out. Or Putress claiming he wanted to elevate the forsaken and take over the world.
I dont think we’d see Arthas in the Shadowlands because my DK saw enough to think he’s too busy being all up in Bolvar’s mind. Whether its just Helm corruption or legit Arthas, time will tell.
I feel like the Shadowlands has some rather amazing potential, especially depending on what living characters are able to travel there, if it does become an expansion.
As an example, let’s look at Jaina. In the Shadowlands there are quite a few characters who’d have a strong connection to her. Her father, of course, would be someone to meet to resolve her guilt. But imagine if she met Antonidas there, her beloved mentor? I wonder what he would say to her? Arthas is quite obvious. I could see Jaina end up saving his soul somehow.
What about Lor’themar? The obvious thoughts here are Kael’thas and Anasterian. What would Rommath do if he met Belo’vir? Or Liadrin if she met Vandellor?
For Anduin, imagine meeting his mother, his father, his grandfather, etc… a whole ton of Wrynns. He might even meet his namesake.
Of course this ALSO opens up some interesting potential futures. Imagine, for example, that a character is NOT there. Let’s say, for example, Kael’thas’ soul is not in the Shadowlands. Well, where is it? Or let’s say Varian’s soul isn’t there because he got disenchanted. Is there a deeper layer of death than the Shadowlands his soul may have gone to?
The issue with a Shadowlands expansion is that there is going to be so many potential stories told, and only so much time to actually tell said stories. Not only that, but who knows if players will like the stories told? Imagine if Lor’themar, Rommath, and Liadrin go to the Shadowlands, meet Anasterian, Belo’vir, and Vandellor, and those three tell Lor’themar and company that they’ve utterly disgrace the legacy of Quel’Thalas by allying with monsters such as the Horde? I cannot imagine Blood Elf players would like that one bit, or Horde players in general after all the brow-beating this expansion has done. Yet, the characterization of those three characters strongly suggests that they would condemn the modern leaders of Quel’Thalas for their decisions.
So would Blizzard just skip them to spare the Horde players? I can only imagine endless cries of Alliance bias, that Horde content didn’t make it in, would fill the forums as they did in Legion.
Title of next Expansion: World of Warcraft: Let’s go to Hell!
Absolutely, past icons of lore should stay dead. I’m merely suggesting an exploration of their (non)existence in the Shadowlands and what they experience.
Seeing Arthas plagued by the specters of his countless victims might be interesting.
Edit: What I don’t want is soul redemption and all that. Villains should remain villainous.
Should they?
Let’s say, as a hypothetical, we go to the Shadowlands, Horde players accompanied by some characters, one of whom is Saurfang, and within the Shadowlands, he finds Dranosh. Bwonsamdi offers Varok a deal: his soul in exchange for Dranosh’s. Saurfang stays in the Shadowlands, Dranosh can return to Azeroth, living once more.
Would that be so terrible for the story if that happened?
I don’t know, not sure if Blizzard is capable of those writing levels, but it’d be interesting. Bwon does love a good deal…
Indeed, and I feel like he would come out on top there. Dranosh had potential that was never realized. I imagine Saurfang’s soul would be more valuable to Bwonsamdi than, say, Dranosh’s, and Dranosh himself was supposed to be Thrall’s first choice for the position of Warchief.
The Horde desperately needs a strong Orcish leader right now. I think Dranosh could fill the bill quite well.
Additionally, I’d be interested to see if there is a power struggle between the various death entities, ala Bwonsamdi, Eyir, and The Lich King.
When characters die, to whom do they go?