What happened to Gul’dans soul?

After some talk involving Gul’dan in another thread, it got me wondering as to what exactly happened to his soul.

It’s certainly possible that he’s one of those ‘workhorses’ in Revendreth which would be pretty funny and fitting, but it also makes me wonder if he’d even go to the Shadowlands at all.

Given how steeped he was in fel power especially by the time we were fighting him in Nighthold, I’d venture a guess that he had become more demon than Orc like Illidan had.

And as mentioned by Illidan, his soul went to the Twisting Nether when he died as do all demons apparently and seems to represent the only place said souls can actually be destroyed.

So what do you think? Is he getting disciplined with a spiked paddle in some Revendreth dungeon like Garrosh, or do you think his soul is in fact slowly regenerating or trapped in the Nether?

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considering Demon Hunters consume the souls of Demons, pretty likely Illidan just om nom nomed his soul, or flat out destroyed it when he turned him to dust.

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It really depends on if fel and turning into a demon would change the standard Shadowlands policy on AU characters. Blizzard, in an interview, revealed that Death is about eternity, not time, and thus when AU characters pass on their spirits become threads within their MU counterparts.

So in this instance if the standard policy was at play, then the Gul’dan we fought at the Nightfold, from what I understand, ceased to exist and become a thread within main Gul’dan’s rope.

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I’d say he’s probably in the Twisting Nether. If only because I don’t see him showing up this expansion.

I don’t believe that Gul’dan was a demon.

This is so in-the-weeds in terms of nitpicking that it made me stop and smile at the community’s “dedication” to consistency, but it’s also a really good question!

If Gul’dan was a demon by the end of the Nighthold fight, are there now canonically two Gul’dan souls, since the AU is no longer able to merge with the Shadowlands thread as a demon?

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Why not? Plenty of creatures steeped in fel became demons, at least to the point where their souls traveled to Twisting Nether death. Heck, Illidan became a demon by consuming the power of Gul’dan’s own skull.

Purely because when important characters become demons, Blizzard makes a note of it in the story. No note was made.

I don’t believe that’s accurate. Illidan had been directly infused by Sargeras himself. I don’t think Gul’dan’s skull, even if he was a demon, meant anything compared to that.

Gul’dan was covered in orange fel flame by the end of the fight with him, which, if we’re being honest with ourselves here, represents a direct infusion from Sargeras, as orange fel flame is usually the marker that Blizzard uses to differentiate Sargeras from other demons.

EDIT: for clarity, AU Gul’dan is probably a demon. I definitely wouldn’t claim MU Gul’dan became one.

By all indications Gul’dan was never a demon (in either universe.) Minions like him, Kael’thas and Ner’zhul are deliberately not made into demons specifically so they can do things on behalf of the Legion that its own creatures are prevented from doing themselves by their demonic natures.

Had the Legion won he may well have become a demon eventually as a reward along with more power, but as long as he was most useful to them on Azeroth, he was kept as a mortal orc who could do mortal things without fear of running afoul of various barriers (both literal and metaphorical) that hinder actual demons.

As for the Skull of Gul’dan, the Legion had pumped it full of a bunch of fel energy so it could corrupt the entire region of the Felwood, so it was massively more powerful than it had been when Gul’dan died or when Ner’zhul and then Khadgar used it as a spell focus back on Draenor. That’s why consuming it turned Illidan into a demon, not by deign of Gul’dan himself having been one. We know that MU Gul’dan especially wasn’t a demon before he died, as being a mortal orc was a necessary condition for him to be able to bypass the wards on the Tomb of Sargeras.

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Well, nowadays you gotta specify which Gul’dan soul. MU Gul’dan had his soul nibbled on by Illidan, so where it is right now is likely somewhere between his intestines and his liver.

Now AU Gul’dan, we don’t know. Could be, like a DH, he was “demon enough” to go nether-bound, but I’m doubtful. He was a powerful warlock to be sure, but he wasn’t exactly chewing demons and consuming their essence the way DH’s do. He just used Fel, which doesn’t necessarily turn you into a demon-kin (though I believe Kanrethad suggests it could). His soul could be in Revendreth or the Maw, depending when the Arbiter Blue Screened. Or maybe the nether.

I’m sure we’ll find out when Blizzard inevitably brings him back for round 3 at the universe.

Main universe Guldan is in the Shadowlands.

Alternate universe Guldan was obliterated via fel same as Varían.

If they reveal AU Guldan is in the Shadowlands, then so is Varian, and vice versa, and it would be a retcon.

Given this expansion so far is heavily themed around Parents And Children And Siblings (Shandris and Tyrande, Thrall and Draka, Alexandros and Darion, etc) I’m willing to bet they are planning to retconing that.

Varian will save Anduin in some capacity. Or help do so.

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Wait, demons couldn’t get in? Then how were demons in there? Did Aegwynn put up the wards after a bunch of demons had jumped in? Based on a quote from the Heathstone website

“Gul’dan and his minions were torn apart by the demons that had long ago been drawn to the tomb through the dark magics that emanated from Sargeras’s remains”

Granted, this is not necessarily the most reliable source of canon, but it does seem to imply that the demons wandered in after the remains were placed in the Tomb, and so after the wards were placed, or somehow bypassed them by travelling directly from the Twisting Nether into the Tomb. I just thought the wards kept out Azerothian races.

The demons within the Tomb had been pulled there from the Twisting Nether by the imprisoned Avatar of Sargeras’ fel energies, so they were essentially trapped between Aegwynn’s entry wards and the Nightborne wards created with the Pillars of Creation to seal the portal itself, which Aegwyn had also further reinforced when she first discovered the Tomb.

That’s why they couldn’t escape the Tomb out into Azeroth and they couldn’t open the portal to Argus. They were stuck between two layers of defenses that were both explicitly made to be demon-proof.

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I think the fact that souls are consumed when used in a soul gem has somehow morphed over time into the belief that all people killed by fel magic have their souls destroyed really needs to be addressed on this forum, and we need to put our foot down. There is no concrete evidence that people killed by fel magic have had their souls destroyed, and it is just speculation.

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Sounds reasonable. It make it so that Fel, Light, Arcane, Void and Death fight over which threads become which Soul Rope.

There are 5 potential Soul Ropes for each Soul! Every AU’s version of a Soul goes to one of the 5 Ropes with Death being the default!

Illidan was infused by Sargeras but he didn’t go perma-metamorphosis until after absorbing the power from the Skull of Gul’dan. That’s what turned him into a demon and got him banished.

And notably, though he physically changed for a short time while Sargeras actively empowered him at the Nighthold, AU Gul’dan reverted back to his old self once the ritual was disrupted and their connection was severed.

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No it was a dev statement that told us varian was super dead, no soul left to see, obliterated

One guy killed by a strong warlock with one specific spell had his soul destroyed != all people killed by any kind of fel magic have their souls destroyed. Yet that’s the crazy conclusion most of this forum has jumped to over recent years.

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