Solarion covered this. I have completed the Bastion covenant campaign on my Night Elf Warrior, and the Kyrians never give an explanation or even complete a thought on what they’re doing.
There is a chapter in the Kyrian covenant campaign where you go with a the Kyrian Kleia - who was the first character you meet when starting leveling in Bastion as is with you throughout your Bastion leveling experience - to carry her first soul from the mortal plane to the Shadowlands, which coincidentally was a farmer from Redridged named Ben Howell who died because the rampant Scourge made it all the way to Lakeshire after Sylvanas broke the Helm of Domination.
You live through Ben Howell’s final moments in life trying to protect his family, and Kleia tells him how it’s time for him to move on and that she looks forward to seeing what afterlife he will be sent to - because somehow, despite that she was with you the whole time you were trying to tell the Archon about the Maw and the reason for the drought, Kleia somehow doesn’t know that all souls are going to the Maw. Kleia finds out when you bring Ben Howell’s soul to Oribos, and there she watches him get flung down to the Maw along with all the other souls still being carried into the Shadowlands by the Kyrians.
I have made a thread about how in the Night Fae covenant people can get special quests to save Night Elves who don’t deserve to be in the Maw, on top of the weekly souls you go into the Maw to save for sanctum upgrades. I expected a similar quest to save Ben Howell.
Such a quest never happened during the Kyrian covenant campaign. Even in the end, where you literally go into the Maw with Kleia to confront the new leader of the Forsworn being empowered by Helya.
After Kleia watches Ben Howell’s soul be sent to the Maw she says she needs a moment to think. She takes that moment. And then doesn’t think:
- Kleia says: Why do we continue to ferry souls when we know they are being sent straight to the Maw?
Polemarch Adrestes says: It is not our duty to ensure that souls are reaching their proper realms. It is our duty to bear them through the veil.
Polemarch Adrestes says: The Archon, along with the rest of the Eternal Ones, is working to solve the problem. We must support her by fulfilling our duty, no matter what.
Kleia says: …I understand. Thank you, Polemarch.
https://www.wowhead.com/quest=58793/faith-through-the-darkness
Kleia never questions it again, and the rest of the campaign focuses entirely on fixing the ritual device used to make new winged Kyrians and the Forsworn’s ever increasing radicalization and use of Maw powers.
I can only conclude the following:
The Kyrians are too low on the intelligence pay-grade. They do not seem capable of mentally tackling problems outside the scope of their magnitude. I suspect not even the Archon can wrap her head around the problems they face, and is completely dependent on the Arbiter. I would assume the Archon knows that she is incapable of experiencing the totality of each life of ever soul passing in the Shadowlands the way the Arbiter could, and seeing herself not up to the task has chosen to not do anything but try to wake the Arbiter up, though there is no indication that anyone has had any leads on how to do that (though I haven’t started the Necrolord or Venthyr covenant campaigns yet to say for sure).
The following is pure speculation:
It would unlikely end well for the Kyrians if they started placing souls themselves into the Shadowlands. I highly suspect (but without any lore citations to prove it) that Devos had been bringing souls that did not belong in Bastion to Bastion ever since Arthas’ death, and that this is the origin of the Forsworn. The Forsworn’s numbers are too great for the drought to have caused this much doubt in people just because they were bored waiting for their turn to get wings. The souls sent to Bastion were meant to become Kyrians - should have been suitable and willing for the memory erasing process, same as the souls suitable to be undead soldiers for the rest of existence being sent to Maldraxxus. That there are so many souls in Bastion for which the memory erasing process has such a negative affect on them indicates to me that these souls should never have been sent to Bastion in the first place. As there has been a significant enough time between Arthas’ death and whenever it was during Legion that the Arbiter stopped functioning, it would be during this time that I suspect Devos would have brought souls to Bastion to intentionally undermine the system so that people would see it as flawed as she did.
Would being sent to Bastion if you didn’t belong there be better than being sent to the Maw if you didn’t belong there? Almost undoubtedly. However, on the other hand, with the number of Forsworn that ended up in service of the Jailer as the Mawsworn, being sent to an afterlife one doesn’t belong to might make one susceptible to the Jailer’s propaganda and end up in the Maw any way.
Another piece of speculation I would pose is the possibility that the Kyrians trying to place souls themselves could leave to further unstabilization of the Shadowlands as a whole. Two of the houses from Maldraxxus attacked Bastion out of want of anima and body parts because of the drought - all playing into the Jailer’s hands, as the houses were talked into it by Helya and Kel’Thuzad. While the rest of the Necrolords vilify those houses for attacking Bastion, if instead the Kyrians were placing the souls in various realms, how quickly would their placements be called into question? How easily would the Necrolords be swayed by an argument that the Kyrians might be keeping the most anima for themselves, or otherwise unfairly distributing the souls, and rather than being against the houses that attacked Bastion would have joined in on the assault instead? All playing into the Jailer’s hands rather than the covenant realms allying together to oppose him.
But as I said, the last three paragraphs are pure speculation. The most direct lore answer on why the Kyrians keep carrying over souls when they know that all souls will go right to the Maw is that the Kyrians simply don’t think about it.