The elements from looking at the cosmic chart show we’re beyond the elements so why do shaman powers work for shaman players in the shadowlands?
Seeing as Thrall can use it in Torghast, perhaps the power of the elements were inside us all along!
I don’t think the game says, so you’d have to headcanon your own explanation until (if) Blizzard adds a reason. Perhaps they carry some with them via totems or something. But the shaman class is also supposed to interact with spirits in general, not just the elements (think benevolent necromancy), so they should be able to derive some sort of power in the Shadowlands anyway.
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Shaman fantasy is both Dead People + Elements.
As of right now, it appears that either,
- “Elements” (ie Water Fire Earth Air) are the building blocks of every plane of existence, or
- Shaman’s dominion of elemental magics include “death elementals” and their variations; they can control the building blocks of all planes of existence internal to them.
I think the former is correct given the Dredgers recognize that the Muck Pools they come from produces Elementals (described as such) when they’re unstable.
And the process in which dredgers turn into bigguns is similar to how we’ve seen elementals combine into bigger elementals.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/We're_Gonna_Need_a_Bigger_Dredger
https://wow.gamepedia.com/It's_a_Dirty_Job
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If you haven’t been paying attention the elements are still present in the Shadowlands. There is water (or water like substances) in every zone but the Maw - there is earth, there is air, there are fires which we cook and forge by. Why do you think Shaman would have a hard time tapping into the Elements when they are all around us?
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Elementals also have spirits. But when killed in their elemental plane, they experience proper death which likely a shaman’s power calls upon the Elemental spirits within.
But other than Revendreth; Priests and Paladins are said to be too far to call upon the Light. But here we are… able to channel divine power that is said unpenetrable by such forces normally.
Is there, though? Being the plane of Death, one might expect that the entirety of that plane of existence is made up of the fundamental units of Death magic and nothing else. Like, it’s not like there are actually trees with Life magic in them in Bastion or Ardenweald, the environment and everything in the Shadowlands is “made of Death.” Those puddles of water only look like water. Just as the Void contains nothing but Void, the Twisting Nether contains nothing but Fel, and so on.
The Gorm are stated to eat substance that lacks Anima I.E. lacks Death!
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Nothing_Goes_to_Waste
The Shadowlands became the Realm of Death due to Souls filled with Anima/Death being brought beyond the Veil of the Realm of the Dead I.E. the Grey Realm of Shadows where Player Ghosts end up when they die outside the Shadowlands.
The Realm of the Dead is a dangerous place for Souls especially if they are dragged to the Black Forest like Uuna so Souls were taken to the Shadowlands which found a use for all the Death Energy the Soul accumulated after their Mortal or Undead Bodies died.
By finding a use for the Death Energy the Shadowlands became the Realm of Death.
Because it’s considered a bad idea that the players who have the Shaman class for the last few expansions be told that they can’t play in this one.
So Shamanism DOES work. If that’s a source of mental stress for you, re-interpret the world so that it works out.
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Because there are still rocks and air in the Shadowlands, hence why the PC doesn’t suffocate the second we hit the Maw. There’s still fire there too, as they forge metals. There’s also still plants and animals in the Shadowlands that are just native to they plane of existence, which is why druids can still cast.
Similarly there was still earth and air in the elemental plane of fire.
These planes aren’t composed of just one type of cosmic energy. Rather they seem to be dominated by that energy.
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To be fair, the elemental planes are less “Origen of the Elements in their purest forms” like in D&D and more “Interdimensional Prisons the Titans shoved the Elementals into because they were going crazy from a lack of spirit and Old Gods”