Why the heck was Sylvanas subject to eternal torture?

In Edge of Night, she was totally sent into that nightmare dark void realm or something, until those lich king valkyr pulled her back.

But WHY was she sent there in the first place? I mean, yeah, even then, she did some shady stuff like undercity experiments on humans and forsaken, but still it was nowhere near the level of evil that the Lich King did to everyone. I think the universe has a pretty cruel sense of justice, TBH, she just wanted her rest, and it gave her even MORE pain and torment, where is the fairness in that? then at least I think she at least deserved maybe a second chance, but as we know, things didn’t work out after that

whether you like her, hate her, or couldn’t care less about Sylvie
you have to feel at least a bit sorry for her, even she with all for her hate for him (and she hated him a lot) felt for Arthas suffering there.

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It has nothing to do with justice. That seems to be the fate of all who die without a special Naaru or Loa escort.

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Whatever sympathy I may have once had for Sylvanas has long since evaporated. I’d love for her to be a loot pinata just so I could be part of the group that sends her to eternal damnation.

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Um, that is speculation, we don’t really know that. the short story at least implied that it was a particularly dark place of torment for certain individuals
remember her beginning vision of sinking into a warm bed of rest or something? both when arthas killed and her and then her suicide?

then it was ripped away from her?

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I personally role with the theory that such an afterlife is the default state of the Shadowlands where people are sent to if they don’t have a patron deity of the afterlife (the loa, Odyn/Helya, Emerald Dream, the Light, etc.). Morality in life is irrelevant.

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To be honest I’ve always suspected that the Val’kyr tricked her, and showed her a hell that wasn’t actually her fate, so that she’d become their new leader.

That said, the whole afterlife debacle reminds me of where I thought this expansion should have gone with Sylvanas. No faction war, but instead Sylvanas realizing that the realms of the dead are all ruled by godlike beings, like Helya and the like, and making it her goal to kill them and save her people from that hell.

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The thing is, we don’t know what it is she actually saw. Frankly the fact that the val’kyr were able to pull her out of there and the fact that Arthas was there being tormented as well makes me think it might have been the Damned “host of souls” within the Scourge, driven mad by what was done to them and seeking to afflict anyone else they can with their own suffering.

After all, the link between Sylvanas and the Lich King wasn’t completely severed with her freedom. She could still “sense” Arthas’ presence through the lingering connection that was left over from her time as his minion. So it may be that while free in undeath, when Sylvanas dies her soul could end up yanked back into the Scourge along that residual link.

For that matter, such a thing could be the case for any Forsaken. We know that over time some of them can eventually degenerate mentally until they revert to being mindless undead again. Such a thing raises the possibility that some of the built-in “mechanisms” for binding and recycling the souls of the Scourge’s undead minions might remain in effect to some degree even after they regained control of themselves.

Were such the case, Sylvanas being subjected to that experience might not have been a result of her actions or “moral alignment” as the Banshee Queen at all. It could basically be an unfortunate, albeit horrifying consequence of her having formerly been one of the Scourge.

Especially when one considers that the need for there to be a Lich King to keep the Scourge in check - as opposed to one who could just destroy it from within and let those souls finally rest - rather suggests that something about the Damned souls claimed by the Scourge (including, perhaps, the Forsaken) may have left them damaged or otherwise altered in some way that would make it dangerous to just let them pass on to a proper afterlife.

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but one of them sacrificed themselves to take her place there, that seemed pretty real enough

That really IS kinda creepy then
to not lose only your life forever, but also your afterlife, in a way.

Sylvanas very specifically falls on Saronite (Yogg-Saron) before having her vision of Hell. I suspect that is completely coincidental and has no meaning whatsoever in an expansion that is clearly, for all reasonable observers, completely unrelated to Old Gods in anyway whatsoever. Gift of N’zoth? What Gift of N’zoth? Are you sure you’re quite well?

Blood of Azeroth Azerite? Blood of Yogg-Saron? Next you will be telling me there is a giant sword that has just pierced the prison of C’thun.

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arthas was also there

not true, i believe when sylvanas first died to arthas before being brought back she was greeted with a pretty good and peaceful afterlife (i believe that was in edge of night)

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It’s either WoW underworld or WoW hell.

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I don’t have a hard time imagining Sylvanas going to the WoW equivalent of Hell.

By that point in time she was responsible for a lot of terrible things. Overall, she’d more than earned her place in hell. Just because she was a victim, does not justify her making more victims. There’s an argument to be made that she had an unfair handicap (Undead very rarely feel any kind of positive emotion), but I don’t imagine there is some kind of entity overseeing what Souls go where.

A lot of the cosmic forces in Warcraft act more as laws of physics than sentient entities. Sentient entities can exist from these cosmic forces, but the forces themselves are just that; forces. With this in mind, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that in the case of death, the way one lives their life can determine where they end up in the Shadowlands. Being a nice person, good, honorable, honest, etc
 and your soul is, ‘Attuned,’ a certain way and you get dragged somewhere nice. Behave like Sylvanas or Arthas and, well
 you saw where they ended up.

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  1. The only “proof” we have of this is when a Scourge unit known for mind control desperately wanted her to make a deal she just rejected, and put it’s hands on her head, she had a vision of the thing she feared the most unless she did exactly what that Scourge unit wanted.

  2. If it’s real, it would probably be because her soul is “owned” by the Scourge, not because she was mean to puppies in life.

  3. When she died again later, her soul didn’t go to WOWHELL, she saw “only darkness”.

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Strange
 you know, I swear I’ve heard those exact words before. Hrmn
 Yes, it’s very, very similar
 Where though? It puts me in mind of Wrath
 Ice Crown Citadel, I think. Some boss said something like that I think


Bah, my memory must be bad. Sylvanas doesn’t have ANYTHING in common with the Scourge, let alone anyone from the Icecrown Citadel Raid.

CoughsWarbringersCinematicCoughs

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well i hope that it was actually a falsified vision of yogg-saron who manipulated her, because she fell on his blood, i think that would be the most interesting

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Absolutely with you there. I also think it makes a bit more sense overall as well, with how the shadowlands is described usually, it doesn’t seem like a particularly evil place, and I doubt there’s any sort of “Wow hell” as described in the Edge of Night.

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My guess 
 the afterlife she was sent to was a real place; but it wasn’t the one she was meant to go to originally. Vol’jin recently showed us that its entirely possible for another entity to drag/abduct someone’s soul from their destined (or in Vol’jin’s case, contractually obligated) corner of the shadowlands/light 
 to another; if something/someone has the juice to do so.

As such, Sylvie died (crucified herself on Yoggie’s blood) then got sent to a hell that she would have done damned near anything to escape (and she has tbh). Seems a little too convenient that she now has connections with Helya (who was turned by the Yogg corrupted Loken) and has been uttering silly things like “Hope is a disease and I will cut it out” and claiming she can “Kill Hope” lately, don’t you think?

What was Yogg’s title again? Yogg-Saron, “Hope’s End”; the self proclaimed “God of Death”?

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Nobody knows for sure.

The universe has no sense of justice.

Life is not fair.

Unfortunately false.
I assume you’re talking specifically about the undead.
You free the souls of undead ghouls in the Plaguelands who thank you and remark on going into the Light, without any kind of special escort.

Other instances are shown as undead being thankful for their demise and that they see their good afterlife awaiting them. Sylvanas (and her Dark Rangers who we kill) going somewhere dark are likely products of their own affinity to wickedness.

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Warcraft in general is really famous for disproportionate punishment for crimes. Remember when Ner’zhul was still a decent guy who started doubting the information he was being fed by the fake ancestors so he went to Oshu’gun to discover the truth?
The dude gets tricked by an entity thousands of times smarter than him, that also tricked every single other shaman on the planet, and instead of the ancestors being glad they finally have a chance to tell someone what’s going on
 they reject him, the elements cut him off, they refuse to help against Gul’dan, etc.

The irony that he would have had a much better life if he didn’t seek the ancestor’s help is sad.

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