One is an undead army. The other is a rehab prison for sinners.
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Venthyr seems to have the most RP potential because its where flawed souls to go redeem themselves. Has some great potential for your characters to develop.
Its the themes.
Maldraxxus = survival/power
Venthyr = redemption
Bastion or aredenweald for me
So far, it sounds like Ardenweald has the most plot threads.
Personally, though, the most interesting plot thread looks to be the Forsworn (and Utherâs place in it), because thatâs the only thread I donât think has a clear and obvious ending - there seemed to be a line drawn between the Forsworn and the clear-villain Mawsworn, after all. (Or at least, I hope itâs not just the plain olâ âtheyâre all ~corrupted~, go kill for purplesâ.)
I would personally say Revendreth, if mainly because we donât often explore gothic landscapes to any significant degree as this. Sure we have Duskwood and Drustvar, but they donât look aesthetically the same at all as this place will. It all looks like it was ripped straight from a Hammer Horror film or Castlevania, and itâs excellent.
Next off I would say I actually would place Bastion as my other favorite area so far, mainly because I do really like angels and heavenly theme, itâs very cool to me. To anyone saying itâs just Halls of Valor, I personally think the other two regions have that same problem as well. Ardenweald is too much like Shadowmoon Valley to me, just with a Night Elf twist to it and some unique looking denizens that help it out a bit more whereas Maldraxxus is basically any Legion or Scourge-corrupted zone to me, too grossly green but they do have awesome armor set designs to make up for it.
So overall, I am most excited for the vampires and the angels, as ironic as that is given how their themes would clash, but I do enjoy duality like that.
But why undead vampires of all species to run a ârehabâ clinic for sinners? What do vampires have to do with redemption?
Well, why not?
âŚbut what do vampires have to do with redemption?
Usually nothing. Why is that an issue?
Blizzard loves irony I guess, just like there are holy demons or elves that sleep with Orcs. Vampires tend to symbolize a fall from grace of sorts, so I guess they wanted to make an afterlife with vampires that try to âupliftâ the sinners that go there so to speak, even if itâs by horrific methods.
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I was excited for Ardenweald when it was announced, but like other posters have said, I find it thematically dry. Even the interesting parts of Ardenweald come from the fact that Tyrande and Volâjin/Bwon have stories there. The nature theme there is very generic and reminds me too much of SMV. But this is all preliminary and Iâd like to wait and see what it holds.
Iâm currently more interested in the Bastion storyline because I love a good rebellion story. Somehow I donât believe that the Kyrians would be eliminated, so I canât wait to see how they resolve that conflict.
Now you see, if they took out the vampires, that actually sounds like a covenant I would like to join. But as it stands, they arenât all that much different from Maldraxxus. Theyâre just a different flavor of undead.
And I hate deaders.
edit: If anything, they should have had the vampires be the one leading the undead army in Maldraxxus.
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I agree, their whole concept puts me off from joining them on a Paladin though I really like them and their whole gothic exterior for a Worgen character and it seems like they will have connection to Blood Elves due to Kaelâthas being there.
But I think they and the Necrolords do have too much of a similar Scourge flavor, one is basically Sanâlayn and the other are Lich and DKâs when you get right down to it even if their characterization is wildly different.
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Itâs just aesthetics.
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âRehab,â especially a benevolent sort of rehab where they donât electro-shock your until youâre incontinent, is a very modern concept, and trying to apply it to a fantasy afterlife is obviously going to fail.
Revendreth is one rendition of the concept of Purgatory - itâs important to specify âone rendition,â because Purgatory is a concept that has been remixed a thousand times since its inception. While some Purgatory concepts are pretty bland and uneventful, with sinners just waiting around until some arbitrary clock ticks and their sentence runs out, there are plenty of more hell-like depictions of purgatory wherein the Sin is purged by fire.
Having your sins tortured out of you so that you can be purified and go on to a better afterlife is not an alien concept.
We also still donât know enough about how the Shadowlands came to be to judge it in this way. Maybe the realms precede their purposes? Maybe the Arbiter found the Venthyr, a bunch of vampire jerks, and decided to use them to torture, rather than them being purpose-built for that role.
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Then either this expansion isnât for you, or you should consider the remaining two covenants. Hopefully their rewards suit hunters.
Which is why this expansions announcement had already started off on the wrong foot for me.
As for the other two covenants, itâs either heavy on nature or heavy on self-righteousness, neither of which really fits what this character is (although I am starting to lean towards Ardenweald, albeit reluctantly).
Are you your toon irl?
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No, I just try to keep things logical in an increasingly illogical world for my characters. For my alts, I think I have a pretty good idea which covenants they end up in though.
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