I can’t remember where Blizzard originally said it, but they mentioned that time passes differently in the Shadowlands—and it was also confirmed in the Jailer’s conversation with Sylvanas in her novel. I remember it sparked a lot of discussion about how much time would pass in Azeroth while we were gone. Some people even theorized that the Old Gods would take over during our absence.
But from what I can tell, time didn’t really move forward all that much when we returned. We kind of just headed off to the Dragon Isles like nothing major had changed… or did I miss something?
If I recall correctly, the time dilation aspect of the Shadowlands was the most significant when it came to the Maw.
Jaina, Baine, Thrall, and Anduin were being tortured long enough to become familiar with the area by the time we arrived, with Jaina making a comment about having lost count on how many times she’s escaped from her initial prison only to inevitably be caught again.
I am willing to bet that this “time passes differently in the Shadowlands” aspect wasn’t meant to have any real implications but rather existed only to explain why the characters in the expac intro would have any idea what they’re doing, and could partially exposition-dump about how bad WoW Hell is.
Shadowlands takes place in year 35, but ends in 36. Then DF starts in Year 40.
You aren’t missing anything, I really wouldn’t worry about it.
It’s the very same pointless addendum that was telling us that Turalyon has been fighting the legion for “a thousand years.”
It changes nothing. One thousand, ten thousand, or even fifty thousand years won’t grant a character a single mote of wisdom, or aptitude, or even change them dramatically if the writer can’t be bothered to actually make use of it.
And that’s why twenty-thousand year old Draenei are going to be sleeping in human farm cottages come Midnight.
While Tyrande immediately begins planning how to continue Sylvanas’s penance because she stated that saving the Souls in the Maw are the start of Sylvanas’s penance.
I’ll explain it simply: Each realm of the cosmic forces has different laws corresponding to their force’s nature. Arcane is order and thus has time, as demonstrated by Nozdormu and Aman’thul.
Fel is DISORDER and thus time flows sporadically and chaotically in the Twisting Nether, meaning a week can be a year of normal time on Azeroth and the Great Dark Beyond.
Death is not bound by time at all as time is a vector of order and Arcane, and therefore no time passes in the Shadowlands.
This is due to what Kyrestria said in Bastion: “Neither Void nor Light hold any sway in the Shadowlands”.
You know what would be cooler than the warcrimey Windrunner sisters showing up and hogging the spotlight in Legion?
Blizzard hard swerving expectations and having Loa of Kings Vol’Jin showing up with an army of Amani he convinced to fight the void forces on their doorstep rather than bunkering up and laughing at the elves.
Vol’jin is the best catalyst for doing anything troll related coming Midnight. The blood elves and Nightborne can take the rest. I feel like the coming revamp will be huge.
If anything they might bring her back just to kill her off for good by making a sacrifice play. Blizzard sure loves their callbacks. There is also the fact that she has no Val’kyr left. Her next death is the final one.
Sacrificing/killing characters is overplayed. Blizz needs to use a new avenue to move the story.
Just lost a few notable goblins, tired of it.
Also
The whole clease the maw “is just the start of your penance” is also kinda bleh. Just words to show Tyrande would never forgive her.
Cleaning the maw in my opinion makes up for more then what Sylv did to the NE’s. All it would take is someone or some group (forsaken) to push back and the “continued penance” would be over.
“Your grandparents were immolated alive then had their souls tortured out of existence because an edgy goth bikini archer was really sad that she wouldn’t get to spend her Afterlife with her zombie boyfriend. But she did a bunch of community service in GarbleGarbleNippleHell for a Cosmic week or two, so everything is okay now.”