Zovaal = A Unique Creation or the Pawn of Primus?

Community General Discussion
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For a character that is forbidden to enter Zereth Mortis, I find it strange that the Primus knows so much about it; including how to open a gateway there. Because of that, and the fact that the lead writer confirmed there is more to the story, I have to wonder…

It’d be interesting if the Primus was the real bad, and the Jailer was basically his dupe. Maybe I’m being a wild eyed conspiracy theorist, but it was telling to me that there was no Arbiter archetype in the Prototype Council, not even when it deals with the Mythic difficulty.

Because of this, and the fact that Sire Denathrius did not become a robot upon being defeated, this leads me to wonder… if Zovaal might actually of been a machine from the start, or shared a similar origin as the new arbiter to be revealed next week?

By this I mean, he was a hero that stepped into a role to stop something terrible, and then after ages of doing his duty saw a problem, tried to take steps to correct it; but instead got reformatted by the Primus’ Domination magic?

If this is what Domination does, could other Eternal Ones could also be dominated?

Also it begs another question. Was the Arbiter even a part of the original plan for the realms of death? Or was it an Orb that sat in the heart of Oribos on it’s own doing it’s thing?

Remember, the core of the Arbiter is an ORB, which we see all over Zereth Mortis. Granted it was saturated with Zovaal’s anima, and yet it remains after his death in the same state it was while it sat in the other Arbiter we first met. Additionally all of the other sigils were all energy formed of anima.

This makes me think that there was something unique to Zovaal I think, or something more tied into the First Ones than the others. Denathrius seems to show that an Eternal’s death doesn’t leave a robot corpse, yet he does?

Also if Zovaal was a part of the original plan, why is he absent on the prototype council? If the First Ones are such master architects, then why would one create constructs to run things but not fabricate the heart or the proverbial mother brain?

Something doesn’t add up.

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There is the paradox. They have all mind controlled each other into an ouroboros…oribos…light bulb moment!.. eureka!!!

:ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon:

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My curiousity is whether the Primus subtly dominated the other Eternals to condemn Zovaal instead of him. If that is the case, when Zovaal got free finally it would make sense if he decided to adopt the “Do unto others as they have done unto you” philosophy.

Mind you this doesn’t change the fact that he turned into an angry vindictive gray King Piccolo, but it would explain some of his thought processes; of which we possess very little.

Alternatively the fight between the Primus and Zovaal could of been the most elaborate theatrical production we’ve seen in the game at least since Katrana Prestor’s revealment.

I dunno. I just am glad the lead writer confirmed the Shadowlands ending of Zovaal was intentionally underwhelming and there is a tangible ‘ending’ coming beyond that.

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I don’t get any bad vibes from Primus. But the winter Queen looks terrifying. She and Elune I think are sketchy and up to no good.

Zovaal was probably a Primus lazy mistake to solve the arbiter problem and it got out of his hands.

:ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon:

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Didnt see him in the cinematic either!

/equip tin foil hat

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True that, you only see his shadow looming over Zovaal. Intentional or just a time saver?

His name seems out of place also. D&D has beings similar to what live in Zereth Mortis.

And they are led by… The Primus.

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There is a cinematic of the robotic shell of the Arbiter later on that we can see on the PTR when [retracted] becomes [retracted]. :robot:

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I am looking forward to seeing this next week.

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I shall only warn you it just gets weirder than these other cinematics. :bomb:

Its timeline is also before confronting the Jailer which actually explains the Jailer’s shell. :thinking:

edit: Also so much context is missing if you haven’t every covenant. I can help explain some of it if you need it. :world_map:

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Cut content, I’m guessing. Which is sad but we need to get away from this dumpster fire asap.

I’m willing to believe 99% of the playerbase would be perfectly content if this all gets retconned when Steve Danuser is fired.

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Is that really a realistic goal though? I don’t think asking for anyone’s firing is reasonable.

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He can become the janitor. I’m not picky.

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He’s forbidden to return to Zereth Mortis. But all the eternal ones were created there, so of course they know about it.

They all have keys to the place!!!

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You know Zovaals “original” model is closer to the Primus and was suppose to be the big bad…GASP wait what if blizzard really knows how to tell a story and planned this all along and Zovaal WASN’T the big bad and you are right! Just a pawn of the primus and now that Zereth Mortis is open, And Zovaal is taken care of to wrap his lose ends up he will make his move!

it ALMOST could redeem how horror bad shadowlands story was and it’s not that Zovaal had “all these plans” in motions, its just the Primus knew of these events, force fed them into Zovaal like they where all his great doing to make him the focus enemy. the Primus also wiped his memory to make him appear more of the Victim - But if the Primus is so powerful how did he lose to Zovaal in the first place? and even when we JUST freed him (when he should be at his weakest) he was able to hold off Zovaal in the chamber…IT COULD TIE TOGETHER NICELY!

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I don’t think it matters who’s content or who’s in charge. 99% of the Warcraft “story” is already retcon. I’ll be surprised if they’re still committed to (or even remember) anything they wrote last week come next.

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Yal grasping so hard for straws. It’s sad to watch. Copium

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What I don’t get about the Primus is he’s a military mastermind, able to replay battles over and over in order to simulate a best possible result and yet somehow he got caught by Zovaal and imprisoned in Torghast.

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Not that different from Sylvanas being a 5D chess master tactician yet being completely oblivious to the fact that she was being used.

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No I like Sire :frowning: best new villain they’ve introduced since Thunder King.

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There’s a lot of really lovable memorable characters from Shadowlands, for sure.

But Blizzard has always shown a willingness eagerness to dispose of memorable characters out of hand; as if they grow on trees.

Just in this expansion alone, we’ve got Ner’zhul, Kel’thuzad, (Mal’ganis?) and Arthas.

I’m okay with them retconning this dumpster fire of an expansion.

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