In the latest raid cinematic, the Arbiter disintegrates as her orb gets ripped out and the Jailer refers to it as his “once again”. Does this mean that the Arbiter was part of the Jailer? Or that the Arbiter is a construct infused with the Jailer’s power? Or that the Arbiter could be restored if we rip the orb from the Jailer?
Was the Arbiter even a being, or just a construct at this point?
The Arbiter is whatever the writers arbitrarily decide she is once they’ve finished playing with their current piece of shiny paper.
Until then…wait and see!
Whatever it is, it’s certainly not an omnipotent, omniscient eternal judge of souls. It’s just a thing. An invention of the Eternal Ones.
(also that was obvious since Blizzcon 2019, but it was fun to see people act like it was the true “god” of the Shadowlands or even an Eternal One even though the Purpose Cult was obviously a lie from the beginning)
I never considered the Arbiter the true god of the Shadowlands, the setting’s big-G God or omnipotent. Just a divinely appointed judge.
So at this point I’m inclined to believe that Zovaal was jailed because he rebelled against the First One’s plans in someway, shape or form. It was probably originally his job to sort souls and he probably deemed he deserved more power for such a task etc, ect. The other Eternal Ones ripped out his heart and constructed the Arbiter to serve in his place, as they probably can’t truly replicate what the First Ones can create.
The Arbiter, using Zovaal’s power did Zovaal’s job until she broke. While I’m still inclined to believe that the Jailer had more of an influence to Sylvana’s seeing the Maw than it actually being her predetermined fate, the Arbiter being a Construct and not the original judger of souls would at least help with the argument that the cycle is “broken”. It’s just a computer running a program.
Just my take from what we’ve gotten from the “lore” of Shadowlands so far.
I don’t even know if the Arbiter was a Eternal One at this point. I guess we may never know about the Arbiter being it’s own thing.
My guess is that he began to question why souls had no choice as to where they go (like, why a family would be split up in the afterlife instead of being able to be together). He questioned the purpose, the others couldn’t have that so they banished him and created the Arbiter with his heart to keep the system going.
His intentions could have been noble at one point, then Void Lord whispers start and here we are.
She doesn’t have a face, unlike every other member of the pantheon of Death. She’s not supposed to be doing that job.
Arbiter was clearly an artificial construct built around the Jailer’s heart. She disappeared when he reclaimed it, and he achieved his true form which had a gaping hole where the other Eternal Ones probably ripped his heart out from.
That was my interpretation as well.
Seems likely that all of the residents of Oribos and Korthia are constructs made by the First Ones.
But the thing is, we know the Arbiter crafted(?) specific afterlives for individuals if they didn’t fit the mold. Hell even in Bastion it is implied that if a soul fails the trials they are sent back to be reprocessed.
I don’t think the Arbiters sorting system was as oppressive as it has been made out to be. Throughout the questing we learn that something was very wrong and souls were going to Afterlives they had no business going to. For example, the Forsworn are souls that never had a chance of passing the trials. They were brought there to disrupt and cause chaos.
I really do think the Arbiter is nothing more than a program that was infected, and then shut down. A lot of people like to think that she’s some authoritarian being that “played-God” when all evidence so far has pointed towards her just being a construct with a, for lack of a better term, “purpose”.
And as for the Jailer, I mean, these are beings of untold ages. They are literally timeless, forces of nature. The life a mortal lives is but the drop in the glass of the greater scheme. I can’t imagine he would necessarily care about “mortal families”. I just think he has a way he wanted it done, tried to do it and was sealed away.
I think the take-away here is that the Zovaal likely had the the Arbiter role until he was “Jailed”.
I would guess Zovaal has a “tragic backstory” around giving souls free will in choosing which realm of death they are sent to rather than judging them himself but was punished for going against the grand plan.
His power was removed and given to an unfeeling construct to make the decision instead (think plankton putting spongebobs brain in a robot).
He gets sent to hell… I mean the maw and learns their power (domination) like Goku learnt Instant Transmission from the Yardrats.
Then sometime (later but to us recently) some evil soul that we killed recently (my money is on Xavius because we gotta keep Elune in the story) gets sent to Arbiter for judgement and it short circuits sending more souls to the Maw.
More souls more power and the Domination magic in the Maw becomes a real threat which is then pushed over the top with Sylvannas killing all the Night Elves. Zovaal now adept in domination magic breaks his chains and plans his revenge.
Bringing us to now.
Problem is, Xavius has been killed before when he was a Satyr (well tree but whatever). Malfurion kills him in Stormrage and his soul was sent to the Twisting Nether, as implied by blizzards post about Val’sharah. Considering they say that Xavius was resurrected by the Legion.
"“Ok there’s Xavius again and the Legion has empowered him. They’ve kind of resurrected him and now he’s impacting this force.” " - https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20248569/legion-zone-preview-valsharah
Then again, blizzard has flip flopped on whether demonic souls do go back to the Twisting Nether (or Argus) in the past. E.g. Velens son is considered dead after we killed him. Even though he is a demon at that point.
But we know this isn’t true.
It’s revealed in the storyline that Zovaal wasn’t content at his role (whatever it was) and sought out greater power (I suspect the power of the first ones/Creators themselves) and is Jailed to prevent him from obtaining that.
It is implied though that Zovaals role was most likely the judge of souls. However it probably felt that he was lied to. Just like what Deathwing felt about his “gift” from Khaz’goroth or Amon being ascended to a Xel’naga in Starcraft.
Oh, it’s possible that he was and he convinced himself that he was being lied to/used.
But that doesn’t excuse his attempt to subvert and usurp that Order.
Thinking he knows better/can do the job better then everyone else is a classic tale of hubris.
And that’s giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Zovaal seems pretty keen on the absence of free will, to me. To him it seems, it is the biggest flaw in the cosmos, and by removing it he will have created the perfect system.
As for the Arbiter I’ve always suspected she was the creation of the Primus to replace Zovaal, which is complicated by one of the cutscenes which infers she was created by the first ones.
Who knows?
I would be kind of ironic if Zovaal was being manipulated by the Old Gods, especially considering Death is the only thing the Old Gods actually FEAR.
But lore bits throughout the questing suggests that Zovaal is working with OR FOR other parties. Either that, or the Dreadlords are being deceived as well, which would by every MORE ironic and hilarious!
The Broker Book Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond states that the Arbiter used to be cruel(I.E. was Zovaal).
Zovaal was created by the First Ones to bring Order to the Shadowlands and he plans on doing it no matter what the other Eternal Ones want!
The Eternal Ones were opposed to Zovaal’s goals and are shown to be flexible enough to change their rules to be less Orderly which pretty much puts them against the First Ones’ grand design.
The Broker Author is even suspicious about why the Arbiter was deemed fit for her(his) position.
Zovaal’s ancient allies might very well be the First Ones themselves which may explain why he knows of the secret that they sought to hide: The Sepulcher.
The cinematic highly implies that the Arbiter was just an automaton created to replace Zovaal and replace his role in the Shadowlands, using his Sigil as its power source.