What’s in the realm of Death? Who controls it? We know more about the void than we know who’s behind the curtains of Death at this point. Or is it formless, mere magic to be wielded by necromancers, death knights, and others? Helya? Bwonsamdi?
Every source of magic in the WoW universe has some powerful being(s), who represent that magic/wield it. Except Death…
It’s likely that Death does have its own elemental lord of sorts, and it seems likely that whoever the ‘master’ is that messed with Vol’jin’s soul after his death is that elemental lord.
It’s possible it could be Mueh’zala… a being the Sandfury trolls worship as the loa of death, but who operates somewhat differently from Bwonsamdi and seems to be a shapeshifter who’s true form may be made of living shadow flames.
Personally I’d like to think the serpent Odyn defeats in his legend, Ysildar, has something to do with it but that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
Death has an actual realm, the Shadowlands, an equal but opposite realm to the Life magic-based Emerald Dream. It seems to be a generic afterlife as well, where people end up if not claimed by another realm (like Light worshippers joining the Light, or Druids going to the Emerald Dream).
You name some of those powerful beings, though. Bwonsamdi and Helya both have their own realms carved out of the Shadowlands. The Lich King has connections to it as well, and other entities likely hold sway over parts of it too, like Gorak Tul and Mueh’zala. I also theorize that part of Sylvanas’ grand plan is subverting her own torturous afterlife by carving out her own domain in the Shadowlands, similar to Helya.
If there’s something bigger than them, that runs the whole thing, we don’t know for sure yet. Though, Bwonsamdi mentions having a “boss” of some description. I imagine we’ll find out soon. Bwonsamdi and Bolvar both mention a “balance” Sylvanas threatens to upset, and the Tauren heritage armor questline emphasizes a need for balance in the spirit world. From the Tauren heritage armor questline, as well as other questlines, like Uuna’s, it seems like something is going wrong within the Shadowlands that’ll probably be relevant and need resolving at some point.
Extremely insightful response. Thank you for that!
That right there is the only part of all the lore in BFA that I care about.
And boy are they making us wait to find out. >:(
Are you not enjoying all this waiting and seeing ™?
On one hand, I would like to see who’s in charge of the Shadowlands, if anyone. On the other hand, a single line from Bwonsamdi doesn’t feel like adequate build up for such a major player. But, I guess they wouldn’t be the first character to come out of left field, or be made up on the spot.
Shadowlands is the realm of Decay not the realm of Death(despite what Odyn thought before he gave up his eye and decided to create the Valkyr).
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Spirit_Healer#Quotes
The Uuna storyline revealed the Shadowlands to be where the barriers between the realms of Life and Death are thin and spill into the mortal plane I.E. the Great Dark Beyond.
Of course finding out whose in charge of the Shadowlands(probably whatever made a deal with Odyn) as well as whose in charge of the realm of Death would be nice.
The Shadowlands is also the border of the Void as well(explaining why so many Death manifestations have Void in them). The Shadowlands is the Edge of Reality serving as the border of the realms of Death, Life and Void.
Death has a large number of entities in charge. The entities we know of seem to be in truth more like ‘middle management’, or like feudal vassals. They have their own fiefs in the shadowlands carved out where they care for the followers of their specific ‘people’ (i.e Bwonsamdi with the trolls). These powers of death seem to have a lot of control over their domains, and they don’t seem half bad to go to normally.
However, it seems like outside of these domains there is a general shadowlands where the unclaimed go to… we know little about it other than it is apparently not all that pleasant. Chronicle describes it as:
“A nightmarish realm of decay, a labyrinthine spiritual plane teeming with the souls of the dead who have passed from the world of the living.”
So… it seems it is not very pleasant to be dead if you have no Power of Death shielding you from that.
We are thus far unsure who the ‘upper management’ is. It could be a singular entity such as the loa Mueh’zala that has been hinted a time or two, or it could be a collection of entities like the void lords.
Blizzard is building up the warhammer version of the god pantheon aka every force has his own god, surely the god of death will be like Nurgle since he is associated with death, decay and undead which are the domain of death magic.
There is also mentions of others entities like the void lords who probably will be based in the four outer gods from lovecraft and the light has something above of Xe’ra if she was created after the universe
Xe’ra is stated to be created by Elune as are the other Naaru Prime.
As for why Elune is a being of Order rather than Light… Order/Mana(which Arcane is the Steam Pressure form of) is the result of Cosmic Forces mixing I.E. Light consuming Life(like how the big sparks of Light AKA the Titan World Souls became Arcane beings from feeding on Life energies).
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Gravity_Spiral
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Mana
Where did Elune get enough Life to become a being of Arcane?.. She probably got it from trying to consume the Life Realm(it is said that the Shadowlands are where the Life, Death and Void realms spill into the physical realm I.E. the Great Dark Beyond).
That’s only a theory of Khadgar because the tears of Elune managed to wake her up and also we saw the arcane is seen as neutral or useful among the lightforged and even the naarus who are very jealous people.
Elune also has power over the death since her night warrior phase manage to pull the souls of fallen night elves to the skies and the magic of Tyrande is very similar with the void now, if anything she can be a bastard goddess who can tap with the 6 cosmic forces but to a low degree compared to others gods who are more especiallized
Elune acts much more a true legit deity than any other entity we have seen in WoW thus far. She seems to be between all the forces yet above them, sort of like a mostly aloof overgod.
…which is why they are so cautious about using her: Elune is a legit Deus ex Machina when she intervenes.
next expansion will tell, probably.
Honestly the between thing in particular has long felt pertinent to me. A lot of the ideas attached to Elune fit into themes of balance between opposing states and forces. Like she may well be an outright “goddess of balance.”
It’s why I lend at least some credence to the theory that she might be Bwonsamdi’s alleged “boss.” Who but something like a goddess of balance would be responsible for making sure the agents of Death - and likely those of Life as well - adhere to and preserve the natural cycle between both?
So much so that Death-related entities in particular seem almost forced to make deals and honor their side of said deals to if they want to intervene directly with the living world, with free agency only to control and direct the dead as they wish. Bwonsamdi can call up the fallen to fight for him, but must make deals with the living to make them do things or to do things for them. When Odyn reached into the realm of Death, he had to offer up his eye as payment for the knowledge he sought.
We even encountered it with Helya during Stormheim questing; she was compelled to set the our soul free once we met our side of the bargain we and Ashildir made with her for our release from Helheim. It was like she had no choice; once the deal was made, fulfilling our obligation forced Helya to fulfill hers, and some third agency seemed to step in and make sure it happened despite her protestations and attempts to stop us from leaving. Like some greater power might have taken a hand in making sure Death was following its own rules.
Moreover (and this may mean something or it may mean nothing) the player’s and Ashildir’s souls in that quest are lifted up from Helheim in halos of silver light. Not gold as one would expect from Odyn or the Holy Light, but silver.
Silver like, perhaps, moonlight?
Speaking of Death Magic: I just noticed that Zandalari Death Magic that even Bwomsamdi uses in the Rastakhan Raid is the same Turquoise color as the Ghost Elementals in Vol’dun(the model is literally called Ghost Elemental in the Model Viewer) and not the Ghostly Green Color of Proper Death Magic like that used by Yogg-Saron and Apocalypse(https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/540226-apocalypse.jpg)…
So for Death Magic we have the Green Death Magic(used by Yogg-Saron, Lady Deathwhisper and Apocalypse), Purple Spectral Magic(used by various Death Magic users), Turquoise Ghost Magic(used by Zandalar Death Magic users) and Blue Soul Magic(used by Admiral Taylor as Soulscythe, Timeless Isle’s Foreboding Flames and Thros-aligned entities)!
I have totally thought along these lines too! Rather than a Void Lord, or a Light Lord as some suggest I have long thought Elune fit best as some manner of ‘Balance Lord’ whose primary duty is keeping physical reality stable by seeing to it that no one force ever overwhelms the others.
For example, Perhaps she created the Naaru to balance the influence of the Void and Light in physical reality as they have life phases that make them champions of both. It also sort of fits with her, given how themed Balance druids are with Elune.
Have you considered the possibility that there is no “upper management”?
Well, we know Bwonsamdi has a boss, which confirms there is something. What that something is we have no real clue though. Blizzard itself seems to be figuring it out themselves as they go tbh.
I’ve always wondered how the lichking plays into all of this. Bawn and the valks of odyn seem to dislike undeath as it disrupts the balance. The lich King binds souls to their corpses disrupting the balance to a large degree. His necromancy also comes from the dread lords largely binding the forces of death to their will by force. When slyvanas dies she also sees arthas being tormented for all eternity as if in punishment.
My belief is that the lichking is a usurper to the forces of death and their is a being the
That runs the shadowlands that’s why arthas was being tormented, slyvanas is afraid of death and the current lich King is rebuilding his strength. Because the price for disrupting the balance is eternal torment
Bolvar is for the most part the jailer of the Damned; it is his self imposed duty to keep the scourge from running rampant and destroying life on Azeroth. Now as of Legion he has started doing some shady stuff, but it seems like it is mostly meant to further those goals.
Sylvanas is raising the dead wholesale and arguably means to hijack control of death itself from whatever force commands it at the highest levels.