Did you notice the Symbols on top of those pillars? two of them are recognizable covenant symbols but there’s one that’s different, it looks like it’s been smashed 3:49 5 pillars, containing the 4 covenant symbols, and a 5th covenant pillar with a smashed symbol.
it seems like the Jailer once had a realm of his own tied to Oribos, but it’s entire existence has been stricken from the records. it’s symbol smashed and unrecognizable.
Also remember what Blizzard said about how Sanctum of Domination’s ending would have a noticeable change to the Shadowlands after the Raid similar to Argus that would change everything we know about Death?..
What will we see? I’m expecting a big cracked sky in Oribos like the Maw but with the Black Forest instead of Icecrown(or in the Raid’s case: the Chains of Domination).
Just as foreshadowing for the boss beyond the Jailer…
This is like behind the scenes of creation of the Lich King.
9.0 - Sire Denathrius, progenitor of the dreadlords who passed the Helm of Domination to the Legion
9.1 - Ner’zhul … again … the first Lich king
9.2 - the Jailer, person who captured the Primus and made him create the Helm of Domination to pass to the dreadlords to pass to the Legion
9.3 - Death/whomever, person who helped … something something … Jailer… helm of domination …
9.3.5 - death oversees the creation of an assembly line of helms of domination … which are sent out … blah blah blah.
10.0 - scourge from around the cosmos under the rule of millions of Lich Kings have now developed space flight and are invading Azeroth to free the person who created Death…
I would like to point out to you that the Shadowlands is a macrocosm of the greater universe.
In A Thousand Years of War, Locus Walker explains the universe to Alleria in an allegory of an ocean. There is a whirlpool in the center of the ocean, not unlike the Malstrom on Azeroth. What Locus Walker is explaining is the universe has a massive black hole in it’s center which is devouring the known universe, the Maw is the reflection of that in the Shadowlands.
It seems like the Shadowlands were ordered in such a way that it was a stopper to this hole, but that seal is broken. Continuing the bathtub analogy the water is all going to go down the drain. The Black Hole will grow.
btw, given mentions of the WQ’s sister, shouldn’t she also have a place there? Hard to say.
Well, it was technically created by the Pantheon, so who knows what are the extra reasons beyond “accelerating cycles of growth and rebirth” (or what is the meaning for those things). Or why the Well of Eternity existed in a thousand places simultaneously.
The Well of eternity was created when Aman’thul recklessly tore Y’sraaj from the crust of Azeroth. What he didn’t know was by doing that he would kill Azeroth.
So they created the Well of Eternity as a bandaid. Dark Trolls found this well. This well was used to speak directly to Azeroth and they called this voice “Elune” and built a religion around her.
This is where NE and Tauren often conflate Elune and the Earthmother as one and the same being.
There are so many lore inaccuracies and question surrounding Elune. Now she may be a Naaru too.
Maybe. It’s not the only version of this story, and it’s known that the Chronicles are kind of PoV book written by somebody working / serving the Pantheon. So, who knows which details could’ve been ommited (also, Aman’Thul can see through time supposedly. So, “didn’t know” seems rather impossible for that charcter)
She might be somewhat connected to them. But it’s not a new thing. The oldest mention about the possible connection I saw was from 2008.
He actually argued that the Horde was inherently bad. That Sylvanas was the logical inheritor of Blackhand’s horde. That Thrall’s horde was an anomalous blip in the history of the barbaric, savage war-worshipping horde.
Sylvanas actually said ,“I believe this Horde is worth saving. Anyone who doesn’t, does not deserve to stand among us.” So she’s actually not antithetical to the Horde. She does actually believe the Horde is worth saving, despite her contrary and possibly intentional and misleading, “the Horde is nothing!” Statement, which was possibly only said to enrage Saurfang to attack her and cut ties to the Horde to prepare to follow her own path with the Jailer.
It’s possible that Saurfang only believed Thrall’s Horde could be redeemed, while Sylvanas thinks even Blackhand’s Horde could have been redeemed. Because Blackhand’s Horde could have been redeemed.
I spent a little time thinking about it and I have an opinion on what WoW’s path forward should be (some of this is gameplay, most of this is story). Again, this is entirely based on my opinion.
I tried to make this somewhat reasonable within time constraints (so very little in 9.1) and I just avoided mentioning Sylvanas in general because it would end up with everyone only focused on her:
9.1 - Chains of Domination:
Don’t add a timer to Torghast in any way.
At the end of the raid, we don’t stop the Jailer and “Death” is unchained. We see visual changes to the Shadowlands graphically (already in place) and we don’t know what the ramifications are.
9.1.5 - History of Betrayal
Picking up directly after the raid, an introductory cinematic (I don’t think they’ll have time to finish it for 9.1) has us sent to unravel the true history of Death and the Eternal Ones. Death and Zovaal disappeared, with nothing but a cryptic goodbye, our leaders realize we need more information and they have just the murder hobos to assign to the task!
We find out death oversaw the Shadowlands primarily after they were ordered by the First Ones. Originally, the leaders were the Archon, the Primus, Zovaal, Sire Denathrius, and Gorak Zhar.
The Primus was upset about how souls were divided (wanting more power for his army) and felt too much went toward Soul Ash. He conspired with the Archon (who only received souls to create Kyrians to get more souls), Gorak Zhar (who was suffering in his battles against the forces of Life), and Sire Denathrius (who wanted to collect more anima).
His plan - as he explained to them - was to capture “Death” and replace him with an “Arbiter” who would judge souls fairly, allowing them all to share in the anima, and prevent Zorvaal from wasting it. The others were skeptical they could capture Death but the Primus convinced them by showing them the macguffin! He even promised that Zovaal would only be banished because he was their sibling.
He didn’t reveal that the only way he could get the macguffin was by conspiring with the forces of Life. He offered them part of the anima they recovered, if they would use their powers to chain Death. They could return their Wild Gods to life and expand their influence. All of the conspirators always planned on betraying Death and Zovaal, but the Primus also planned on betraying Gorak Zhar as well, giving his realm to the powers of Life, who hated Zhar most of all due to their battles.
Once the dust had settled, Death had been chained, Zovaal had been trapped, Gorak Zhar had been removed, and Life sent the Winter Queen to oversee Zhar’s realm. The Primus convinced the Paragon it was for the best and while Sire Denathrius was going to help fight for Zovaal, Zovaal’s last comments to Denathrius were to maintain his position so he could serve to right this betrayal.
To maintain our “sanctuary” and expand in retaking the Shadowlands to serve their original… sigh… purpose… we finish this quest chain partaking in a small scenario to conquer Oribos and re-awaken the Arbiter and fix her programming, which flows downstream to the drones within Oribos.
9.2 - Destroying the Covenants
The events of 9.1 (and 9.1.5) lead to the shattering of the covenants. Instead, since we have freed Death who granted them their powers, we can choose which power we utilize and embark to regain control of their buildings. Sire Denathrius - loyal servant who explains he disabled the Arbiter by shooting a giant anima-macguffin at it - grants us access to Sinfall, after he “removes” the current occupant. Which he does. Again.
Players embark on a quest to “convince” the Paragon of her mistake and gain access to the Kyrian facilities/transmogs/mounts/whatever.
There is a mini-raid/dungeon/scenario/whatever where we aim to defeat the Primus. Thrall arrives to convince Draka of the Primus’ betrayal. Once we engage the Primus, we beat him up a bit, then he annihilates us, and then Death intervenes and basically says, “I brought you into this Realm and now I’m taking you out.” He gets poofed and Draka is elevated to become Primus in his place, warned not-so-subtly not to follow the lead of her predecessor. Players then gain access to the Necrolord facilities/transmogs/mounts/whatever.
Players work to figure out how to defeat the Winter Queen and free Gorak Zhar (without her being too upset that we beat her up very recently). Sire also threatens us more than a few times for that. Because her powers come from Life, Death cannot just poof her out. Our attacks manage to unseat the Winter Queen from the Heart of the Forest, but she shatters Ardenweald, escaping with wildseeds and anima. Gorak Zhar takes over a portion of the shattered land - but in the other portion of Ardenweald we see a very large green portal opening and green light flooding into the skies.
9.3 - Life or Death
The final confrontation with the Winter Queen.
Lots of references to “balance” in all things, which becomes the entire theme of the expansion. Even though we all want to live, if Life overwhelms Death, the imbalance will destroy the Universe. Even though we prefer the Light, if it overwhelms the Void, the same will occur.
Oddly, little discussion about Order vs Disorder. Hint hint, foreshadowing for 10.0 when the Titan Pantheon comes to reclaim the sword of Sargeras from Azeroth.
10.0 - The Titans on Azeroth
The Titans have arrived on Azeroth and want to raise Azeroth to become the Super Titan she’s destined to be. Since we defeated the Burning Legion, they’ve decided to order the entire galaxy. Their version of order involves a lot of extreme control of every population on the planet. The planet becomes heavily controlled, anyone using magic other than that permitted by the overlords is either destroyed or enslaved.
The entire expansion becomes a reference on the complexity of choosing between “Security” and “Freedom” with some references to Orc slavery (but not too much, please).
At some point, we get help from Xal’atath in reviving the Old Gods to combat the Titans as a stalling effort to find some way to bring in demons to combat the Titans to stall them even more for our last ditch attempt. We convince the Vindicaar and the Army of the Light to try bombarding the Titans. It all fails.
Azeroth is risen - she doesn’t destroy the planet while popping out thankfully, because she’s quite fond of us plucky murder hobos. Also, she’s a Titan, but she’s been stabbed by a Fel-infused sword; suffered extensive contact with void corruption; been invaded by the scourge from Shadowlands; has a giant gaping hole to the Emerald Dream courtesy of Life; and now she’s been zapped by the Light - a lot - like they actually make her face pock-marked.
Azeroth just utterly blasts the Pantheon away and is unsure of what to do next when Elune, An’she, and a few other folks we don’t know arrive on the scene. They tell her she has become empowered by all of the forces and is now one of them and she rides off merrily into the sunset, happy to hang out with the true deities. Before she leaves she lets us know that she’ll try to come back whenever she can (one of them shakes their head violently, indicating it’s a terrible idea and we’re an awful place).
Medivh shows up and tells us that something bad is coming. By freeing Azeroth, we lost the prize every power sought to control. We had something of value that the universe wanted. They wanted to conquer us. Now we don’t - we cost them that power - and they basically just want to annihilate us now. So… that’s probably not a good thing.
I have no idea what this means, but… okay? Do you mean I don’t know how to play the game well? Or don’t know how to program video game mechanics? Either way, I’m not sure why that makes you not like my story.
The Warlock bit is a pet peeve of mine. Blizzard only wants to portray Warlocks as evil, Demon Hunters stole our only unique niche since there is already a Fire spellcaster and a Shadow DoT spellcaster. I figure they might as well just write us off entirely. It has nothing to do with the power of my class (which is awesome in raids) or patch notes or anything like that. We just don’t seem to fit.
Zarrin has said that logically from a lore perspective there’s no reason Warlocks should serve the Legion anymore, they are a rogue faction not unlike Demon Hunters.
I think what he means is these two forces need to unify under a new cause.
Pretty much, plus we lack any real narrative (or heroes) as protagonists (and have a massive amount as loot pinatas). I appreciate the support though, but it’s not really worth spending too much time on it. It’s not all that important.
Not that me writing a hypothetical story for 2 years worth of content is important either, lol, but my issues with the Warlock narrative are my own. It’s just irksome to me personally.
