I wasn’t around when Shadowlands was current and I am finishing it up now on my DH, and I’m assuming that this encounter was the first revelation/reveal of the plot twist that the Eternal Ones from the Shadowlands were constructs/robots and not actual Deities, right?
How did that revelation go down at the time among the playerbase? was it a whole lot of WTF in a good way or WTF in a bad way? was it a “big deal” kinda of revelation/lore drop for ya’ll back then or nah?
or did ya’ll know they were constructs already before that encounter?
maybe i should be asking this in the lore forum, but oh well, whats done is done.
I’m not really that upset about it tbh, but I am a fairly large fan of Science-Fantasy and Deities that are actually constructs is something I would vibe with.
I’m disappointed that you couldn’t talk to any of the Eternal Ones about it afterward tho.
SL and especially ZM had already stunned us with the awful lore bat, so there was not much reaction, barely smiles and sighs. Reacting to it would have been making it real.
As a machine I felt… ś̶̡̡͕̞̳̬̱̺̕y̶̛̩͗͋̎̏̈́̋̂n̵͓̤̈͛̒͊́̃̓̚͘ṯ̸̮̩̲̞̲̳̻̮̹̫̿͑̈̆̏̔͑a̵̢̛̙͍̦͙͓͕̪͆̅̅̒̚͜x̷̥̤̆͛͌̅͗̽͊̅͂͐͗̒̚̚͝ ̷̺͙̞͇̫̯̉̆̂̉͒͆̅́̂̓̄̕͘͠͝ȩ̷̪͚̮̙̞̲͚̊͒̈̃̕r̷̨̻̘̠̄̀̓͆r̴̛̦̀̋͂̊̔̉̏o̶̮̰̭̲̮̪͇̤̥̪͌̐̾ŗ̵̛̥̞̰̥͖̘̗͓̙̃́̉̒͌́̄͌̊̔̚͝ ̴̦̹̀͠n̶̬̟̰̺̘̟̫̬̣͓̙̈́̓͆̃̓o̵͇̯̾̔̏͋͐͋̈́i̶̢̥͉̘̤͑͌̀͗̈ͅs̶̡̨̡͉̘̺̩̪̗̝͖̠̦̦͑ͅe̵͓̱͕̜̬͈̗̭̼̝̐͊͒̊̆̌͂͑͋̽̀́̓̚͜s̵̡͖̯̜̙̤͉͓̹̙̤̠̅̍̃̅̈́͆̾̃͌̿̏͗͝
It was a non-reveal basically. I saw almost zero speculation about who made them even though that’s maybe the highest tier deity we’ve heard of. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Shadowlands induces the most pronounced state of lore ennui that the playerbase has ever experienced.
IMO, Shadowlands was some of the worst lore I’ve seen for any franchise, not just WoW. Sometimes a little mystery goes a long way, not everything has to be spelled out. If you are going to give us everything, don’t chalk it up to “every god/pantheon is a stupid robot”.
I can’t remember the exact timing of when certain plot details came to light in game vs were revealed by data mining. But I believe we knew they were constructs before the prototype pantheon hit the scene. It was very much mocked by people. Though if you ask me, not for the most righteous reasons. After all we’ve had titan constructs bopping around azeroth this whole time and no one batted an eye. I think it was more the fact that most people were completely checked out in regard to shadowlands lore. So any new “big” details were thrown in the crap pile with the rest of it no matter how benign.
