The Purpose

The Purpose seems to be going under the radar. The wowpedia page sucks; can we list the facts and speculations here?

Facts(according to in-game text):

  • The attendants are guided by and serve the Purpose.

  • I haven’t seen this yet but on the WoW page it says that some of the Attendants question their faith in the Purpose

  • The covenants are seemingly at odds with one another which is part of the Purpose

  • The attendants believe that the souls being sent the Maw is part of the Purpose or interference

  • The Purpose keeps the realm at balance

  • The Purpose has a path and all beings serve the purpose unknowingly or unwillingly.

  • We all serve the Purpose; its everlasting

  • The Purpose directs all

Edit: I also read that the Purpose is infallible.

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Trust the Purpose friend. The Purpose guides us all.

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I don’t feel like the Purpose is really going to matter at all. At best it’s a MacGuffin but we never learn much about what it is in any detail. I suppose it could be what Sylvanas is specifically looking to derail but I think if it’s any sort of actual story-transparent deterministic fate, that’d be a mistake on par with the War of Thorns.

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Normally I don’t think this is true. I think the people in Oribos are just “brainwashed”, or it’s Blizzard’s way of playing off religious people who are like, “Everything that happens is God’s will.”

So yeah, everything that happens in the Shadowlands the people of Oribos are going to be like, “It is all part of the Purpose.” I believe it is because these people are “robots” or servants to the Arbiter so they just follow the rules set in place by her, which is likely the rules set by the First Ones.

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the purpose sounds a lot like the force of star wars and I am a big fan of darth kreia and her ideologies

now that I think about it , sylvanas sounds a lot like darth kreia in some ways ? because she has the same goal kinda , just as kreia hates the force and wanna kill it because it seems to controle us and everything in general to achieve “balance” so does sylvanas hates the “purpose” and wanna destroy it and wanna be freed from it

Kreia settled for death while reduced to a Force Vacuum(thanks to Nihilus and Sion turning her into a Void in the Force). I wonder if Sylvanas would settle for oblivion!

Kreia dying incidentally restored the Exile’s connection to the Force when before she was just siphoning off of her comrade’s Force Bonds. Kreia’s Force Bond probably was keeping the Exile in the same Force Vacuum state as Kreia!

heu okay what does it have to do with what i said ?

Just an FYI, the french version calls it “the design/le dessein” which implies someone created it for them(obviously the First Ones) and hence why these guys have a cult like mentality about it.

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Since the First Ones created Oribos, it’s not a hard stretch of the imagination to think the attendants were also created by them. The First Ones are literally the omega gods of the universe, and their word would be super duper law, and they created the Arbiter. The Arbiter is the one that the attendants more or less worship.

RE The Purpose: I think of it as just ‘fate’, except the The Arbiter is the one that ‘controls’ it. It’s similar to some IRL religions, where some people may go “it’s God’s will” or “why has God given me so many trials?”.

Basically, to them, The Purpose is just fate or the passage of time, and everything that happens is the will of the Arbiter, even the bad. It’s more or less The okey smokey Christian belief that God’s behind everything, don’t question it, it’s all a part of his plan.

I doubt strongly that it’s an actual system or technology.

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Sounds like you need to trust more in the Purpose my friend.

But seriously, I’m 99% sure the Purpose is their religion or guiding philosophy. Definitely not a physical thing, though they might iconize a physical thing as representing the purpose.

Edit:

As soon as I walked away from the computer, I realized we’ve fought demigods, old gods and titans. The physical manifestation of a belief system isn’t too far a stretch from that.

The Purpose raid boss 9.3, calling it now.

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“PC you can’t kill a metaphysical belief!”
“Can’t I?”

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I suppose the Purpose isn’t as infallible as they thought if they believe that someone could interfere with the system. I don’t know, these guys just don’t seem very smart. All the souls entering Shadowlands are being funneled to the Maw and they believe it could be the Purpose. I think it was the Fatescriber* who flat out believe its the Purpose. lol

I’m just really thinking out loud here.

I see what you did there lol!

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The Purpose I believe has been left vague intentionally.
While I have nothing to back up my claims something tells me that everything isn’t quite as it seems in SL. We will be no doubt having plenty more revelations and discoveries then the ones found within Castle Nathria, hopefully more about this “Purpose”.

The Arbiter represents the purpose.

The Attendants will find out Sylvanas shut down the Arbiter and will do as she commands since Sylvanas has become the new representation of the purpose

It’s probably just your good old capital-V Vagueness that’s supposed to give them a sense of mystique.

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PC: Guys, hold my beer, I’mma about to wreck this whole mans belief system.

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YAAAAASSS!!

Attendants: Nothing to see here all souls now belong to the Maw because its their purpose. Trust in the Purples ahem** I meant Purpose*

Edit:

Vagueness is fine, Elune is Vague, the Afterlife was Vague, The Purpose is downright offensive.

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The purpose is basically just “anything that happens that is positive is the purpose.” At least that’s my interpretation of what the attendant’s interpretation is.

Some NPCs even mention that the souls currently being funneled into the Maw is part of The Purpose.

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Okay then everything is the purpose which was my original thought, buuut thought I’d soften that up lol.

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