Torghast Preview blogpost:
Anyone worried about it being timed due to that ‘vitality’ system that WoWhead initially datamined:
Dying repeatedly is essentially a ‘timer’ since dying will ‘release the hounds’ so to speak.
The Tarragrue is only alerted to your presence if you die repeatedly. Otherwise, he will not appear/hunt you down.
The Pandaren started out as a huge joke but were so popular that eventually, like years later, were developed and given to us to play. SO yeah. Blizzard can and will get that silly about their super serious lore.
The developers had been wanting to add Pandaren for yeeeeeeeears. It’s one of the reasons their lore is probably so good because they had been working on it. They were supposed to be the Alliance race in BC, so give them between this time and Pandaria for development and you get a really great race in the end.
That preview doesn’t really make one of the biggest conflicts in the Bastion storyline clear, which is that “cleansing your burdens” is actually wiping your memories of everything—both good and bad. There’s a quest where you erase the memories of a former tauren, starting with his people, continuing with the friends he fought alongside in war, and ending with his family. Throughout this process he expresses a great deal of distress, especially when you get to his loved ones.
The enemies of the zone, the Forsworn, are Kyrians that either refused the process and fled or are “Ascended” Kyrians that completed the process but are angry that it was done to them. They’re portrayed fairly sympathetically—see this quote from the Wowhead overview:
Lysonia: We all suffered a thousand little deaths at the hands of your temple, Eridia.
Eridia: The process of purification is not meant to be easy. But we are better for it. You were better for it.
Lysonia: And yet I cannot remember who taught me compassion. Or bravery. Or loyalty. Do you?
Eridia: The lessons remain! You are still a whole being, Lysonia.
Lysonia: No, not whole. But someday, all Kyrian will be.
Ultimately, however, the Forsworn are being manipulated by the Maw (you see their leaders taking orders from Mawsworn, which are Kyrians that have sworn allegiance to the Maw) and are causing the Shadowlands to crumble even more quickly, so it looks like it might be a conflict that is actually morally grey, unlike what we were told about Battle for Azeroth—the Forsworn have legitimate reasons to be angry, but we’re forced to fight against them for the sake of the world.
It’s unclear what Uther’s motives ultimately are, but given his personality in life, I’d lean towards him fighting against the brainwashing because he legitimately thinks it’s unjust.
ok i like the kyrians the more i hear about them
They’re really gonna need to double-check the French translation of this. 
Kyrian: “You need to have your mind wiped in order to join us.”
Uther: “How can you even consider that? There’s got to be some other way”
“Come join us Sintagon, forever and ever and ever.”
sint sniffs, “huh”
slams the ascended archon’s head into a sink
Did anyone else think of the Count of Monte Cristo when they read “we’ve suffered a thousand little deaths”?
I saw some of that on WoWhead (the link I posted, obviously), but WoWhead stated that the storyline just kind of… vanishes.
I got suspended once for making this joke. >:(
It’s more so that the leveling experience sets up the conflict but doesn’t resolve it. There’s max-level areas in Bastion that you don’t go to during the 50-52 Bastion storyline (including the Citadel of Loyalty, the main base of the Forsworn), plus a max-level dungeon (the Spires of Ascension), that will likely continue it after you hit level 60, especially if you choose the Kyrian covenant.
It’s similar to how Tiragarde Sound set up the conflict with House Ashvane, but it wasn’t really resolved until you hit 120, did the Jaina questline, and unlocked Siege of Boralus.
Yeah, the Ashvane/overall Jaina/Katherine stuff is what I had in mind when they said that it might come back at max level - though they speculated that it might only show up if you are part of the Bastion covenant specifically.
I’m sure you’ll do world quests in the level 60 areas in Bastion even if you’re not a Kyrian. Each covenant has an upgrade that lets them get to the other zones more quickly, which would be useless if you only did world quests in your “home” zone.
Additionally, the dungeon journal says that the final boss of the Spires of Ascension dungeon is the Paragon of Loyalty, who in the Bastion leveling quests is revealed to be the Forsworn leader. So at the very least a non-Kyrian will be exposed to some content related to this storyline at max level.
Yeah, but I was kind of thinking about it in the same way as how Alliance characters, for instance, just kind of queue into the Temple of Sethraliss or Underrot or whatever, without any connection to the storylines of those dungeons. Or how you get WQs that mention or reflect story things, but don’t in any way elaborate upon them.
That’s possible, although I’m not sure if they’d do something like that again because there’s no reason a Necrolord couldn’t help the Kyrians, unlike in BfA where a Horde member helping Alliance NPCs wouldn’t make much sense because of the war. Sure, there’s Maldraxxus troops attacking Bastion, but we learn that the covenants historically have worked together and that the faction invading Bastion are enemies of both the Necrolords and Kyrians.
Yeah I don’t think that war is going to be anything of actual note in the grand scheme of things.
Credit where it’s due: that’s actually a really compelling conflict.
Skoldus Hall
Warden Skoldus oversees this wing of Torghast. He is a cruel warden who uses rats, dogs, and other beasts to torment his quarry.
There’s something…vaguely underwhelming about a villain who oversees an actual jail of hell using something as mundane as rats and dogs? No? Just me?
he should really be using the general forums as his method of torment