Or something along those lines. The Shadowlands expansion introduced us to the new plane of existence, the cosmic realm of Death and its multitude of afterlives. The theme of Death magic has always been a Warcraft classic: there are skeletons running around in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994), the “Spirit Realm” lore from Wrath of the Lich King (2008) is still pretty accurate, and this place finally got the name Shadowlands in Warlords of Draenor (2014).
◉ The Realm of Death meets the Realm of the Pandaren
Yet, until the current expansion, we knew virtually nothing of note regarding the cosmic realm of Death. Patch 9.0 introduced us to pretty much a new, fresh setting within the larger Warcraft universe. In this vein, Mists of Pandaria (2012) was the same: and while the southern continent of Azeroth might feel like a less alien concept than a group of floating islands that form the universal Machine of Death, in terms of aesthetics Pandaria was a riskier move. The Shadowlands builds upon familiar visuals like the Icecrown Citadel architecture or the Halls of Valor reimagined in Bastion. But Pandaria? Previously, Warcraft rarely tackled Asian-inspired cultures, and never to that extent: the expansion got severe backlash during the announcement back in 2011 because the players didn’t understand how a place like that could fit in the Warcraft universe. Mere months after the release the air shifted, and by the time of patch 5.2 that introduced the mighty Thunder King Lei Shen, Pandaria was largely accepted as the mainstay. Right now it remains one of the most beloved expansions.
Both expansions introduced the players to completely new settings within Warcraft. Logically, both faced the same dilemma: new continents had to be connected to the larger World of Warcraft, they had to feel like they belonged there, that they weren’t just something thrown there from a random evening D&D session. But the approach was very different.
◉ Mists of Pandaria: everything new is a local branch of something old and familiar
The bestiary of MoP was very diverse and huge, and yet all the new creatures, no matter how strange they look, were connected to the phenomenons that the players had encountered before.
• The Mantid? The lost colony of Aqir, first mentioned in vanilla WoW (2004). Cruel and arrogant, but also extremely intelligent and caring about the local forests that bring them life-giving amber. The Pandaren themselves view them as part of their land and its balance.
• The Sha? The dying breath of an Old God. Yet, they lack purpose or aim, and their malice forced the Pandaren to let go of negative emotions, achieving new heights of enlightenment.
• The Mogu? The titan-forged creations. Yet, they are brutal warmongers and necromancers.
The list can go on and on, from the Jinyu, an offshoot of murlocs ascended in a vein similar to the night elves, to the Yaungol, a darker (and, admittedly, maybe too villainous) take on the nomadic tauren.
All of these races and monsters were effectively new and challenged our expectation of just what an Old God spawn or a titan servant can become in a very different environment.
◉ Before we dig into the Shadowlands: a credit where it’s due
The Shadowlands gets a lot of critique for its story, but it also did a fair share of things right. It might be harder to notice because the main plot regarding Sylvanas and the Jailer casts such a long shadow over everything else, but there are decent developments too.
Mainly, the Covenants worldbuilding. Each of the Covenants’ zones works as its small magical kingdom with its own set of rules and a surprisingly big cast of fleshed-out recurring characters. You get a better feeling of how the Venthyr society operates than, say, the Tol’vir of Uldum.
Essentially, this is how I view the better part of the Shadowlands: it’s a very solid D&D-like setting that sadly suffers from tackling very heavy philosophical questions of life and death, but also from very questionable attempts at fitting this setting into the bigger Warcraft franchise.
In my opinion, it falls apart when you are reminded that these places are also universal afterlives that hold the entire mechanism of Death together. Think about it, now every person on Azeroth might know what actually awaits them on the other side. Something like that can irreversibly change entire societies and religions. But it won’t happen, because that’s not what this expansion is about, and the new one after that will be about some other thing. But it’s a whole different topic. What’s actually timely in this thread is to say that such a grand concept as the afterlife is bound to be connected with pieces of the previously established lore, and here’s how the Shadowlands does it.
◉ Shadowlands: everything new is actually the source of the things you thought you knew.
Shadowlands went in a completely opposite direction compared to MoP. The expansion introduced lots of new concepts, claiming them to be the progenitors and true roots of the things that were well established for over a decade.
• The Scourge architecture. Now, it comes from Maldraxxus, which was specifically designed as the proto-Scourge and its progenitor. In the interview for Forbes, Steve Danuser, Narrative Lead on WoW, also said, “Now we get to see where that comes from, where the Scourge draws its aesthetic from."
As fun as it sounds, it was never really a question, since the background of the Scourge’s aesthetic is as old as the Scourge itself: 20 years old. Since Warcraft III, it was known that the Scourge had adopted its architecture from Azjol-Nerub, and even possessed an ability to summon forth corrupted Nerubian ziggurats located deep within the Spider Kingdom.
The Nerubian architecture from Wrath of the Lich King was also designed with that detail in mind. Azjol-Nerub was created as the place where the Scourge got its aesthetics (as explained in the Blizzard concept retrospective video by Trent Kaniuga). One can’t quite retcon this detail completely because the Nerubian buildings in Northrend are still in-game.
Steve Danuser later referenced this issue in his interview with judgehype, “Perhaps one day we will learn more about what the Nerubians were up to in their vast kingdom, and what terrible wonders might have inspired them.”
Meaning, the Nerubians were also inspired by Maldraxxus. Yogg-Saron, aranakk, Nerubian mummification etc. I guess, there are some ways to handle that. But is this connection going to be explored? I don’t know.
• The Spirit Healers. Now, they are a subgroup within an entire race of angelic beings called the Kyrains who bring souls of each and every mortal in the cosmos to Oribos for judgment. The process is completely manual and wasn’t put to a halt even during the Maw crisis. Within the veil, the Kyrians may encounter even the spirits of other cosmic beings, but their law forbids them from interfering with them. In life, a Kyrian could be a tauren or a gnome, but in the afterlife, all Kyrian aspirants are molded into giant blue humans.
Before the Shadowlands, the spirit healers were largely an enigma, thought to be some strange Azerothian phenomenon: spirits similar to the Val’kyr who would occasionally save heroes from death. The Chronicle vol.1 (2016) established the spirit healers as a rogue group of Val’kyr who refused to serve Helya. “These Val’kyr would at times guide the dead back to the land of the living.” Is this description now even remotely canon? I don’t know.
• Ardenweald is an afterlife realm created to uphold the cycle of Life and Death via the resurrection of powerful Wild Gods, great spirits of Nature. The likes of Cenarius all crossed this kingdom on their way back to the living world.
Previously, the Wild Gods of Azeroth would resurrect via the Emerald Dream, which was a very long process that was sped up only thanks to the Cataclysm weakening the barrier between the material world and the Dream. So, the concept was firmly introduced in Cataclysm (2010) but first alluded to in WotLK (2008) with the story of Zul’Drak and its loa. How does the Dream fit into the new lore of Ardenweald? Who knows.
• Everything connected to the Jailer’s grand plan. He’s the character introduced in the Shadowlands, and supposedly (don’t quote me on that) developed midway through Battle for Azeroth in order to salvage Sylvanas’s story arc in the next expansion and serve as its villain. Numerous major events are now revealed to be all part of the Jailer’s machinations. Effectively, everything about the Burning Legion itself, from the moment Sargeras set out to oppose the Void lords to the birth of titan Argus, was all part of the Jailer’s scheme. At least, indirectly. Yet, Zovaal the Jailer himself will die in a few months. He was artificially made so important only to die two years after his introduction.
One of the more curious cases here is Kel’Thuzad, who in patch 9.1 stated that now he can finally drop the facade and stop pretending to serve false masters, for he was the Jailer’s agent all along. Since patch 9.0? Since WotLK? Since vanilla? Since WC3? No one knows, really.
Or just Frostmourne. Now, it’s a creation of the Runecarver, the Primus.
Back in Warcraft III (2002), Tichondrius stated that this runeblade was forged by the Lich King. But the novel “Arthas” (2008) by Christie Golden had this quote completely rewritten to state that the sword was forged by the nathrezim’s brothers. Since then, the newer version was referenced both in-game and in the Chronicle, and we were even introduced to a number of dreadlord-made weapons similar to Frostmourne. Well, then Warcraft III: Reforged (2019) happened, and Tichondrius’s quote remained there as it was back in 2002. So, is the demonic sword Apocalypse a mourneblade too? Or Shadowmourne?
• The nathrezim. It’s now revealed that they have been the servants of the Jailer all along, and they converted themselves into demonhood as part of their spy routine.
Previously, they were thought to be one of the original demonic species from the Twisting Nether. They also had some curious lore back in MoP (which suddenly makes more sense with SL), but let’s leave it for another time.
The nathrezim plot twist is one of the more interesting ones in the expansion, and a dreadlord’s letter to Sire Denathrius admittedly remains one of the best moments in the current story arc. But there are still a lot of questions: are all the dreadlords subservient to the Jailer, or are some of them loyal to their demonic masters, are some of them corrupted by Fel to bring Disorder? How did they hide their scheme from demonic overlords with telepathy like Kil’jaeden and Sargeras? How is it so convenient that the traditional demonic features of the nathrezim (hooves, bat wings, etc.) are from Revendreth and not Fel corruption?
• Death magic. In Shadowlands, Death magic is represented by, at least, six different types of anima: one for each Covenant (with the Bastion one looking nearly identical to the Oribos one), stygia from the Maw, and Domination magic. Yes, even the druidic anima of Ardenweald is Death magic, and the owl-like Stewards of Bastion are beings of Death.
Previously, Death magic was thought to be a thing of entropic decay (just as the Shadowlands were described as “nightmarish realms of decay”). Now, it’s the only magic school with such a diverse variety of subtypes. Makes you wonder if other cosmic forces can have such a diverse show as well? Water-based Light?
• The First Ones. Basically, the titans on top of the titans and other cosmic pantheons. Creators of the universe as we know it.
Yes, they weren’t really a thing before. To make sense of it, the Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond (2021) describes how the titans inherited the work of the First Ones and thought to order that which was created before them, for even the words “create” and “order” are the same to them.
◉ So, what’s the big deal?
What’s the issue with this formula beyond the Shadowlands’ introducing its concepts as the original prototypes of the things we knew? Beyond invalidation of the older lore? It’s that we don’t know how many previously obvious things work now. What’s the role of the Emerald Dream in the Wild Gods’ resurrection? How did the Nerubians adopt the Maldraxxian architecture, and what source inspired the Scourge the most? How did the nathrezim outplay Sargeras and Kil’jaeden? What exactly was Kil’jaeden role in creating the Lich King? Are the spirit healer-val’kyr, who broke free from Helya, even remotely canon now? Etc.
It all means that your knowledge of some event that had happened a couple of expansions ago has little value because the truth of this event can be changed on a whim, even when retcon isn’t even required to tell that particular new story.
Of course, retcons and Warcraft have always been best friends, but the Shadowlands especially created the feeling that only the events of the most up-to-date patch are actually set in stone.
◉ I’m a bit scared of the future
Let me share one little fear of mine. If the Shadowlands is the new trend, the potential Dragon Isles expansion can be about a great struggle against some unknown Dragon God Galakrion, who molded Galakrond into a monstrosity and manipulated N’Zoth to corrupt Deathwing. The expansion after that? The Fallen First One, Not’A’mon.
Meaning, I’m afraid of more cosmic villains like the Jailer who lack any non-artificial connections to the previously established narrative.
Warcraft’s strongest point is its sheer age and scope. Both as a game and as a story. Of course, to an extent, it’s also a detriment. It’s difficult to keep up such a lengthy story, especially when the writers are changing over the years. But still, the audience that follows the story of Warcraft enjoys the ride because, well, it’s Warcraft. Maybe if the developers want to introduce something completely original and new that has no connection to the old world… they should do it in a new IP, what do you think?
◉ Why any of that is important? It’s just lore.
That’s a very fair question some of you might have. The lore isn’t important to many players, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But both lore and story still create a level of immersion for the player, and with the simplest tweak, Shadowlands could’ve been way easier to immerse oneself into.
Let me derail this thread for a second. For the greater good. What if this expansion had the very same zones and monsters, but the story had a wholly different context? Islands within the chaotic realm of the Twisting Nether instead of the actual afterlives within the underworld. A brutal design of a soulless machine and a struggle of the Jailed King to attain freedom. I have a text with this concept, so feel free to ask me for the link elsewhere.
◉ Shadowlands lacks continuity with the larger Warcraft universe
In the previous thread, I talked at length about an unreliable narrator storytelling tool, about how Warcraft fans slowly lose suspension of disbelief. This thread, at its core, follows the same issue: continuity is no longer a part of Warcraft lore’s equation. If there’s no continuity, a player’s knowledge in the lore has no value. If their knowledge lacks value, why should they follow the story? Anything in it can be changed in the blink of an eye.
Once again, the old team was nowhere near perfect. We are in this situation because for them retcon was always the answer to any problem, even if there were smarter ways to solve the issue. So, if the old guard lacked care, I can’t expect newer developers to treat the lore as any more sacred: their attitude, just as an unreliable narrator system, serves as the logical answer to the legacy left by the older writers.
But even if the roots of the problem have been there for a very long time, the fruits of this tree are very fresh, and they should be dealt with.
What if the bar of Warcraft story can actually go up other than down? I surely hope so.
P.S.: A couple of my next threads will be short: not even a page long. I was trying to adjust both my latest threads with questions I’ve been getting from various people. So, if you have some ideas you want to see discussed on the forum, feel free to contact me anywhere. There’s a chance that I won’t respond, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t checked what you have to offer. *)