As I’m murdering beings of the Shadowlands, it struck me, where do the denizens of the realm of death go when they die? Do they go straight to the Maw? Is there a deeper realm of death? Do they just truly die, and turn into Anima? Reincarnate later in their realm?
Just the thoughts of a sleep deprived Warlock.
Pretty sure they just poof out of existence altogether.
Stuff like Stygia and Soul Ash are what’s left behind though.
Utter oblivion
UPN
To superhell.
From the inhabitants section of the Shadowlands wowpedia article
" If a being of Death is killed on the mortal plane, their essence returns to the Shadowlands to be reformed, similar to how demons reform in the Twisting Nether.[10] However, if such a being—either the soul of a former mortal or a native being of the Shadowlands—is destroyed in the Shadowlands, they die permanently and their soul is lost forever. Their energy then disperses and joins the greater whole of the magic of Death.[36][73][74] If a “workforce” creature like a dredger or steward dies, another member of the same race will eventually manifest to take the place of the one that was killed.[71][72] Interestingly, Thanikos ordered to blast the corpses and sunder the souls of House of Rituals in order to prevent them from being raised by death magic to fight again.[75] A person that is still alive when they cross the veil into the Shadowlands, however, has a tether to their homeworld that might nudge them back to life when killed there.[12]"
I’m still a little confused on how there is so much ‘physical material’ in these realms. Just seems like another world really, or dimension. Your soul goes to the Shadowlands and gets a new alien shell, may or may not look like the original you.
I say that because there were Kyrian taken to Maldraxxus to have their body parts harvested. Not their anima, but body parts. The one had his eyes removed. Do those grow back, can he ask the quartermaster for new ghost eyes?
I get that Maldraxxus are special form of necromancy, but how are they harvesting parts from other entities?
Ardenweald itself points out that there is Physical Material in the Shadowlands which when lacking in Anima is loved by the Gorm! Furthermore the Brokers mention the Death Realms as being the Multiverse!
Basically Death Realms are stable AUs within the Realms of Death while the Alternate Timelines are unstable AUs within the Realm of Order!
The various Universes of the Shadowlands are Physical Universes that have been built upon by the Eternal Ones and First Ones to serve as a safe haven for Souls!
I feel like it just trivializes “dying” to be coming just another form for life and Death is just another hodgepodge of all the other cosmic powers, losing it’s own identity.
The actual Afterlife is the grey area where Souls normally end up!
The Kyrian take Souls to the Multiverse to either find a place to stay or a place to Reincarnate!
From a naturalist perspective, an afterlife must consist of ‘physical material’ in a sense, even in real life: if events in a place occur with some level of predictability, then a logic exists. If a logic exists, there is a form of physical law that governs it. Were it otherwise, there would be nothing but pure chaos with zero degree of coherence or predictability, and as such no life or consciousness.
For anything to make a kind of ‘sense,’ it must obey some form of mathematical law/physics. Thus matter sneaks in.
They go to the empty and sleep. Man I hope somebody gets this reference
yeah but it’s a little weird that basically everything works the same as before you’re dead in the exact same way
Bastion gets closest to being real-afterlife weird and there’s still wildlife, sleeping, eating, etc.
Except this is fantasy and filled with retcons.
N’zoth could show up in the Shadowlands but this time as an evil butterfly. The Dark One has a sense of humor
No one ever suspects the butterfly.
It genuinely does. The Shadowlands doesn’t feel like it has any finality at all. Just the concept of someone dying, going to Maldraxxus, then dying again at the end of some guy’s spear and staying dead somehow is so bizarre to me.
What the Shadowlands strikes me as is just…Azeroth, but with a different history, different rules for physics and magic, and its native races are just used to dealing with aliens from all sorts of other worlds dying and providing Anima. The concept is sort of horrifying. Souls are essential to the Shadowlands, right? So do the native creatures of the Shadowlands…just not have souls? Are they immortal? What’s the purpose of their existence if not to just serve as set pieces in the afterlives of the worlds from which the souls originate? What afterlife do the afterlife-attendants get? Nothing? What if they don’t want to participate in their eternal purpose? Why be given sentience at all if they have no choice?
Go take 5 more baths. Say 20 hail Magtheridons and then ring 60 bells aspirant. You serve the purpose not question the purpose.
oblivion.
10char
That’s not at all uncommon in depictions of the afterlife. Particularly ones from old mythology which stuff like SL and pretty much the entire fantasy genre is borrowing from.
It’s most reminiscent to me of the various afterlives in Dungeons and Dragons. If for example you’ve made a personal enemy of a devil in the material plane - they will come after you forever. Respawning in whatever layer of hell they’re native to. Unless you go to hell and kill them there, wherein they are gone for good.
They do not, no. No more than an elemental has a soul, or a voidwalker. Native beings of the Shadowlands are manifestations of Anima, which is what the realm is made of. they have a core ‘essence’ which can return if they die outside their home plane to reform slowly, but if they die in their home plane they simply dissipate into energy to be recycled.
It honestly is no different than how our physical corpses are consumed and turned into energy for other living things.