I am gonna have to end up repeating myself as usual I see.
They could have let the maw stuff grown super big, especially with the stuff in revendreth, hell things would have looked faaaar worse for them if we didnt get there in time,
Maldraxxus would have literally consumed itself in a war, Ardenweald would have dried up, ysera dead etc. revendreth would have been fully under control of Denathrius.
so why did sylvanas have to “Meet the jailer” if the stuff that is happening in 9.1 and 9.0 could have happened much faster, hell the situation could have been FAAAAAR more dire than it ends up being, but because jailer needs to have 1 brain cell instead of a brain it doesnt end up being this way.
And again, the Maw Walker is an anomaly. You’re not picking up what I’m putting down.
So she and the Jailer could abduct key leaders and use them to get the sigils. Just like what they did to Anduin. They were winning, they just needed to make their final move and were prepping for it.
The brokers that are in the Maw don’t seem to be able to leave it either, and as far as we know the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne were never in the Maw (as they were crafted by the Primus, apparently sometime before his capture). All we know for sure is that those two items left the Shadowlands, not that they left the Maw. And they left through the Dreadlords, which are Denathrius’ gimmick.
Well… mortalS, as canon wise there are many Azerothian Maw Walkers. Azeroth has a unique ability to tether the souls of those she sees as her champions. It is the same thing that bound the soul of Vol’jin so he could not be tossed into the Maw. Instead he just ping ponged out and drifted in the Death waiting room we go corpse run in until he finally got summoned back.
I have been thinking… and I have this theory that the First Ones are the Titans. Sort of. So, the idea goes that when the First Ones finished Creation they were totally expended. Perhaps some of them managed to escape to the plane of Order in a diminished state, but most most of them perished outright. Except a tiny spark remained, that drifted in the Great Dark and grew into a world soul, that gathered a planet around it, that eventually became a Titan.
That might explain why as champions of Azeroth, touched by her blessing, we can activate relics of the First Ones
The only people we know who can do that is the Mawsworne Kyrian (and those with MORTAL bodies), the prior of whom as far as we can tell can only shepherd souls in and out.
We know that most likely, at least one First One died. Azeroth is probably just that First One waiting to be reborn. That would explain it easily.
Perhaps one First One is designated to each section of the cosmos, and when Azeroth fell the First Ones crafted a cosmology designed to help facilitate her return.
It would also explain why she’s the center of Reality on the cosmology chart.
I had high hopes for this story and the Shadowlands, but the more we learn about the Eternal Ones and Zovaal the less interesting they become. And Zovaal didn’t really have any interesting-ness to spare.
My hope was that he somehow used domination magic to kill a first one. I’m a bit let down by this reveal on his betrayal though, but I’m not going to pass judgement yet. I want to see what he does in 9.2/9.3.
It occurred to me a moment ago the sigils are basically just an infinity stone parallel. Each of the core realms is a foundational pillar of the the Shadowlands, and the Sigil of each realm is an embodiment of that function granted by the First Ones. Put them together and you effectively claim the power of the Shadowlands.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the Jailer’s agents were already digging under the Undercity…
The fact that the Jailer targeted Undercity indicates that someone found out that the Sepulcher was there.
If the Light is one of the oldest Cosmic Forces then they would have been the first to narrow down the Sepulcher with the Jailer convincing them to share their knowledge.
Denathrius did say the only power to emerge from the torrent of change would be Death and those who shaped it’s victory.
Every major player(Yogg-Saron, the Light, Denathrius and Azshara) is converging at Undercity and is probably already digging while the Jailer brings the Keys to the secrets of creation!
The First Ones even have attacks called Hyperlight(which deals Arcane Damage) that they share with the Brokers! It is Golden-White in Color.
Remember Babylon 5: The Vorlons made it out that they were the only First Ones remaining withholding the fact that the Shadows were also First Ones and that there were other First Ones in the Galaxy including one of the First Born(a name incidentally used by Protoss in StarCraft 2).
The Vorlons created the Arbiter and the Shadowlands.
Funny how the True Light deals Arcane Damage while the Holy Light(one of the 6 Cosmic Forces created by the True Light and the Shadows) deals Holy Damage.
And it all started with Sargeras. I still stand by my theory that Sargeras only appeared as his pre corrupted self to manipulate Kil’jaeden. Sargeras had studied the Eredar for a while. Archimonde was power hungry so he would’ve said yes regardless. Velen could see visions of the future and were close friends with the Naaru. He would’ve said no. Kil’jaeden on the other hand would be on the fence. He respects Velen but he also hungers for power but for different reasons, mainly his envy towards his best friend. So Sargeras plays towards that and it worked.
tbf, it did start with the Draenei retcon in TBC and the rise of the horde novel, which did go into some detail with Kil’jaedens relationship with Velen and Sargeras. Legion just expanded it.
Meh, his whole gimmick has been to work through proxy forces up until now. I’m “hoping” with so many of them stripped away at the end of 9.1, and him reaching his own objective (and getting that new model), its time for him to actually stop out of his proxies shadows and serve as a direct antagonist. His game seems to sort of be convincing all his minions that HE is the means to THEIR goals; but in reality they are all likely just means for his. Once that reality is out of the way, he can just be … our badguy.
And this is exactly why the Jailer didn’t see us as a major threat anyway. By the time we started to interfere, most of his proxy forces had already completed their tasks, or were on the verge of doing so. Which explains why he didn’t give two cents about Denathrius being defeated. Daddy D did what was asked of him. Drain the main realms of anima and funnel it into the maw. By the time we closed the tap (by killing Inerva), a large majority of that anima had already gone into the maw.
Pretty much. He’s already gotten what he wanted out of Mueh, Kel’Thuzad, Denathrius, Davos/Lysionia, and the traitor Maldraxxi forces. He’s probably on the cusp of getting the last thing he wants out of Sylvanas in the Raid here; now that she’s effectively “trained” her own replacement in Anduin. It remains unclear exactly what his deal with Helya is, but I’d wager she’d be cool with whatever he wants so long as he smashes Odyn while doing it. There really wasn’t much risk our interference would prevent 9.1 here.
For sure. Zovval for all his personality blandness seems like he has very carefully planned stuff out for a really long time, and is very good at smooth talking others into following his script while thinking they are using him instead.
Sylvanas is for sure next on the chopping block. The real question is will she manage to escape once she gets left for dead or not.
EDIT
This suddenly stood out to me, and I sort of wonder if the Arbiter WAS either a First One at one point, or at least the head Eternal One and Judge of the Dead… and Zovval slayed her. But, her essence was saved from oblivion (that floating core) and placed into a construct body to allow her to continue on in some form. It explains why all the Eternal Ones held court before her, including Zovval at one time.
It also lines up waay back in the last real blizzcon with what they said about the Arbiter being there first and the shadowlands being built around her.
Interestingly enough Lordaeron has been the center of many strange things and while we all assumed it to come from the dead C’Thraxxi are we sure it came from it and not something worse?
If the First Ones from Babylon 5 are the inspiration of the First Ones of WoW(the fact that the Arbiter has a Light Sigil along with Xal’atath’s statement of Locus Walker flaunting his defiance of “the Shadows” implies that they are) then they must include Shadows.
Shadows lurk invisibly whispering into their agents as well as into the ears of pawns. If there are Shadows in WoW then they whispered the name Arthas and have been whispering into everyone in Lordaeron’s ears from the beginning and are responsible for all the incompetence happening in WoW including that of Zovaal and Sylvanas!
When the Big Bads are walking around every Major Leader and General how does one stop them?
When Sylvanas grabbed Xal’atath her eyes temporarily darkened and similarly when Delaryn told Sylvanas she could not kill hope there was a ominous flicker in her eyes.
What if it was not Zovaal that the Void was afraid of but the Shadows standing right next to her whispering into her ear unbeknownst to her?
Why would the Void fear the Shadows? Xal’atath called the Naaru beloved brethren who have wandered from the True Path. The Void Lords are just as much a creation of WoW’s Vorlons as the Naaru and thus are also an aspect of the Light(and not the True Void that clashed with the Light)!
The Void, the Light, Death, Life, Fel and Order all are supposed to be Obedient Cogs in the Machine of the Vorlons while the Shadows embody the Cycle of Conflict. The clash is Obedience(Vorlons) vs Conflict(Shadows).
Obedience is Stagnant while Conflict is all-consuming and vampiric just as the Chronicle described the Void that clashed with the Light in the Great Clash of Light vs Shadow.