The Shadowlands didn’t exists in the lore until WoD. Whenever NPCs refer to the afterlife in previous expansions, they call it the nether, as in the Twisting Nether, which is confusing because that’s where demons are from. It would be great if Blizzard used a search tool on their quest text and replaced Twisting Nether afterlife references with the Shadowlands. 
This is objectively wrong
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I’m almost positive this is incorrect. I don’t have a link proper at the moment, but I seem to remember the term Shadowlands was first mentioned in BC. Technically when you corpse run, you are in the Shadowlands, so it’s actually been around since Vanilla, but it wasn’t named then.
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The horse guy in the DK starting area talks about the shadow realm, but I don’t think that was the Shadowlands. Shadowlands as the afterlife wasn’t part of the lore. It was referred to as the nether.
A few characters have referred to it as the “World of Shadows” or “Shadow Realm” before, but they’re referring to the same place. It’s like how Outland is also Draenor, or, using a real world example, how our planet has been called Earth, Terra, and Gaia.
The key difference between then and now is that we’re going to parts of the Shadowlands that don’t coincide with parts of Azeroth.
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The shadowlands existed as a gameplay mechanic intially, but have recently been canonized into the lore. Prior to that, it was just assumed that spirits who didn’t have an afterlife simply wandered Azeroth through the shadowlands, but we had little confirmation on how death works.
I don’t think characters ever meant the literal Twisting Nether is where the dead go.
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They’ve actually been known for a while, and Blizzard themselves knew about its existence FAR before we learned of its true name. It was originally intended for max level characters in Vanilla WoW to enter the Shadowlands as end game content. It’s not really a retcon when it’s been taken into account for the entire duration of the game, and has always been called some variation of “realm of the dead” or similar.
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I’d like to see some examples of this. As far as I know I’ve only seen it referenced that demons go to the nether when they die (which is still correct).
If there are quests or text stating it is the afterlife for non demons that would need a correction.
Didn’t the Tauren and Trolls specifically mention “The shadowlands” a few times? Not as we know them now, but as typical “realm of death” type places?
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It’s only a mess to those that don’t bother learning bud.
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sigh I was with you until this moment. If you had said Emreald Dream? Sure. Dragon Isles, right with you. Shadowlands? No
This was the planned dungeon lineup from April 2003. Pardon the blurriness. This was taken at a Blizzcon with a camera pointed at a screen.
It should be noted that wow released in 2004.
So again, if you can point to a source lore… I would appreciate it. Like I honestly would. I follow this stuff and you are mentioning new info to me.
I wouldn’t consider it retconned so much as more fleshed out.
The Great Dark
The Twisting Nether
The Shadowlands
All different places.
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That’s personally how I view the Shadowlands as well. Blizz writes this stuff so far in advance, it actually makes it really hard to course correct on a blunder. I mean, they do course correct, but doing so can throw off other stuff they are already working on or may have finished.
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I feel like they really need to hire 2-3 people to maintain the lore as librarians to prevent these constant “blunders” in their stories. It helps maintain continuity of the universe and would streamline their ability to write the story going forward.
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They do, it’s whoever writes The Chronicles series.
And no not everything needs to be explicitly stated in Chronicle before the time that said content appears. And you also need to consider the position of the author of said stories. They are not omniscient nor unbiased.
I will bet that the Titans have a dark aspect we will find out during shadowlands.
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" The Shadowlands were originally intended to be a fully playable zone in World of Warcraft , designed for high-level play. The idea was that as deceased characters made their way back to their corpses, they’d see high-level players battling creeps in the area, which would inspire lower level players to increase their character level so they could experience the zone for themselves."
- Game Informer 308 - The World’s #1 Video Game Magazine - December 2018 - Warcraft III: Reforged - Recrafting A Masterpiece Single Issue Magazine – 2018
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Which was rightfully canned and turned into the gameplay mechanic of mixing high level mobs throughout most zones and allowing the dead to see the living while corpse running.
Actually Chronicles has been known to retcon. An example would be the Wrathgate. No not did Sylvanas order it… no no, this is more esoteric than that. Saurfangs SON.
Watch the Cinematic. Time Stamped for your convince. Just press play.
So who killed Saurfang Jr? The LK! Cool. But why do I mention this?
Chronicles Vol 3: Brace Yourself
The Lich King emerged from the Wrath Gate, joining the fight himself. The very sight of him could have shifted the tide of battle in favor of the Scourge. Yet the Alliance and the Horde refused to flee before his presence. They grimly dug their heels in and fought on.
*If the Battle of the Wrath Gate had reached its conclusion, it might have spelled the end of the Lich King. But that was not to be. *
*From a rise overlooking the Wrath Gate, a barrage of plague cannisters rained down on all armies and stopped the fighting dead in its tracks. A lethal green fog, capable of killing the living and the undead alike, enveloped the battlefield. The Lich King instantly understood what was happening, and he retreated without hesitation. Everyone left on the field of battle was killed: Bolvar and almost five thousand Alliance soldiers, and Dranosh Saurfang and over four thousand loyal Horde followers. *
You see that? Chronicles RETCONNED A CINEMATIC. He died to the Blight, not the LK. Ain’t that something? Why make this change? I don’t know.
Double checked. You got me. Thank you for providing the source I requested. You’ve no idea how I appreciate that.
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Yes because that is what Chronicles is supposed to do. Create the canon.
Are you going to be surprised that Onyxia died during the Wrath era and not during Vanilla? And that Varian Wrynn was the one to do her in?
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an expansive afterlife has ALWAYS been known about beyond just the “nether”, demon hunter souls go there so if THAT’S where the afterlife references came from then obviously that’s where they’d say their souls “go”. But if we’re talking druids it has always been known that the “Emerald Dream” was in fact a spirit realm where dead druids and animals and wild gods/some Loa go, same with other classes though I imagine Maldraxxus was forgotten about or intentionally hidden from global knowledge by necrolytes and lichs. this is simply the first time we’re seeing the “full” afterlife in Shadow lands, and even then we’re not being shown the “entire” place because its it’s own reality which encompasses thousands of individual realms held within the same dimensional universal border.