I'm interested to know what would be the links between Shadownlands and Legion, especially since afterlives maldraxxus and the use of the same scene as Harbinger Illidan (afterlives 0:58 and Harbinger 2:10).Also, Il'gynoth's whispers : "Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path." are intrigating me since Margrave Akarek speaks about Draka as "the Key".Maybe the 4 keys are the 4 heros Uther (Bastion), Draka (Maldraxxus), ? (Ardenweald) and ? (Revendreth)And the fifth one is "we" the champions of Torghast (the Maw).
I really liked the facial expressions in the cinematic, they were brilliant!
(I deleted my previous post, as it just asked some generic questions of intrigue about how this all relates to Sylvanas. Here I want to update after more analysis of the short.).Everything in Shadowlands seems to be leaning to an investigation and eventual defeat of the cosmic force of Death. You probably can't defeat a cosmic force, but you could bring it back into balance, say, by defeating the Jailer. The cosmic force of death, mainly through the Jailer, has been manipulating every other cosmic force for quite some time. The recent Enemy Infiltration tome makes this more manifest. The hero's journey in Warcraft is to eliminate corruption and injustice, in whatever form, wherever it may be. Warcraft is a product of Western culture, which is influenced by a multitude of streams and sources over the centuries. Whatever those origins are, they influence our story-telling and the lens through which we see the world. I'm not going to argue that Shadowlands or WoW, in general, is some kind of product of Christianity. That's too on the nose and not appropriate. The point is that our culture reflects the yearnings and ideals of centuries of human experience. To this end, I cannot help but see Shadowlands and the question of the cosmic force of Death (and the Jailor), to see the current task of our heroes as: "the last enemy to be destroyed is death."Intrigue with Death has been building for some time. It is the mastermind cosmic force, deftly manipulating all the others. It has affected and manipulated many of our beloved major characters. This short develops the continuing manipulation in Arthas, Uther, and Devos. Most interesting to me is how this relates to Sylvanas and her motivations. This short reveals that Bastion is capable of being corrupted by Death. If the Shadowlands itself, with its cosmic judgment of souls, is corrupted, it is a system of oppression and injustice that must be dealt with. Especially if that system is unaware of the presence of corruption. Then the system blindly serves the purposes of another. In Shadowlands, via Devos speaking with Uther, we see a long-standing idea of mythic story-telling: that the realm of mortals is short and insignificant when compared with the afterlife. Sylvanas knows that the Shadowlands are broken, that they are serving an unknown nefarious purpose. Her disdain for the petty squabbles and existence of the Alliance and the Horde (culminating in the famous "you are all nothing") is her desperate attempt to wake up the world of mortals.Of our three BfA heroines (Jaina, Azshara, and Sylvanas), Sylvanas has not yet been "resolved" in the sense that her story is on-going. Jaina and Azshara had to deal, with great difficulty, of how to protect their people. Azshara, referencing the deep past; Jaina the present. Sylvanas' protection of the Forsaken, and the larger project of freeing mortals from the influence of Death and a corrupted afterlife "system" is a story-arc that still continues.As I wrestle with what class and race to main in Shadowlands, to reflect my place in the lore and my interest in Sylvanas, I struggle with the idea of what one could use to combat a cosmic force such as Death. Presumably there are no other cosmic forces, so Sylvanas would have to either wield death magic to conquer Death, or use another of the existing. I don't know what will happen to Sylvanas. Like a void lord, I can see many possibilities of the truth, but none of them ring out to me. Two stand out the most: either Sylvanas is empowered and working with Azeroth itself, or she is a kind of secret agent for Bastion (after her second death and being saved by the Val'kyr). No one should stand alone, and while Sylvanas has always been fiercely loyal only to herself, I think it is now the time that her lonely and isolated journey comes to an end in a real way.
Afterlives:Bastion was very intresting in a lot of ways . And it gave us so many information and it was so good i really liked it from every perspective . It explained a lot of things too . It gave us a new intresting character Devos and her past and it showed us how she questioned the great system that was from the beginning , she did not wanted any harm only to protect others and help but after being rejected she only wanted to have vengance and she disobeyed her entire covenant and betrayed them for revange . By this she started a whole new system , something new , something different then the one everyone in Bastion was used to . And i loved how in the video her appereance changed throught the video as in the start she was helping Uther with hope and a unbreakable will and her wings were pure white and she started to doubt the system and their leader her appereaance slowly started to darken . Of course what she done was wrong but still she done something new and it was done in an amazing way as she abused her powers to help Uther have his (revange) justice . So i think Devos looks like a pretty intresting and promising character with a lot of potential . And for Uther . In this video a lot have been explained about him yet still questions remain . I really liked when Uther could not ascend since he was paladin who would do anything for the greater good but he was not done with his mortal lives because he wanted justice and could not let go and also because Arthas shattered/wounded/split his soul and that affected Uther in a lot of ways . Then when Devos wanted to make Uther ascend before the time has come Uther wanted justice and even he knew he was not ready but he wanted justice for everyone . In the end from the whole Uther you would have expect that he would forgive Arthas because he knew him well but since this wasnt that Uther , this Uther only wanted (revange) justice he was blinded by that and he was not himself and he did the opposite what he would actually do and he let Arthas to suffer forever for his sins in the maw and he did not redeemed him . Im looking forward how will Uther´s story will develop , that will he become his trueself or he will be consumed by his justice . It was amazing how Arthas´s last words were explained in this video . That why he said he only sees darkness before him .As Devos and Uther claimed Arthas and made him suffer for his sins and they banished him in to the darkness Arthas talked about . But im curious that how will it turn out , will Arthas be saved from the Maw and will he be redeemed or he will stay there and suffer for all his sins until the end of time . As for Shadowlands . Im really looking forward to it because it has so much potential and it is looking great . Characters are returning and the new characters are looking very intresting and the story is getting more developed . I cant wait to see how will it turn out .
The thing that really fascinates me about the Bastion video is the questions it raises, particularly about souls, and how the Shadowlands works.In the video, we see Uther's soul being split in two when Arthas kills him, one part being taken by Frostmourne, another being sent to Bastion. From the reaction of Devos towards Uther's wounded soul, we can assume this doesn't exactly happen a lot and so *most* souls killed by Frostmourne are likely consumed in their entirety. If every soul was split in two and one half was trapped and the other half was sent to the Shadowlands, surely there would have been a sudden appearance of many wounded souls across the Shadowlands due to Arthas's actions.Or perhaps, most broken souls end up going to the maw, what with Frostmourne bearing the power of the maw?Did the light intervene to save part of Uther's soul, and prevent him from being trapped fully by Frostmourne? Or was it another force, perhaps the Arbiter? The Jailer, even?Did the Arbiter notice that Uther's soul was wounded when they sent him to Bastion? If yes, why did they not send some instruction on how this was to be dealt with? If the Arbiter did not notice this, how was such a wound concealed from the very being that decides which afterlife is best suited to each and every soul?Devos states that all evil was locked away in the maw aeons ago: exactly what kind of evil is this? Is it just the Jailer, or some intrinsic, universal force? Is this evil part of the Shadowlands? Or is it part of the greater cosmology, with the Shadowlands, for one reason or another, simply being where the container for the evil, the Maw, is located?In Bastion, a soul is meant to shed the burdens of their past life and in doing so become worthy of the higher purpose they have been called to serve, however, Devos, who has already done this, is still able to turn away from 'the Path' and in doing so both ascends Uther before he is ready, and encourages him to take revenge in such a way that bypasses the Arbiter entirely, something that most Ascended would never even consider in the first place, never-mind how horrified they would be at the prospect. In the game, I think this results in the creation of the forsworn, a faction turned away from the path.What are the consequences of ascending someone before they are ready, aside from their becoming forsworn? Is it possible to go back to the path? What are the impacts on a person's soul, not just for being broken, but then to be wrongly ascended and commit an act of revenge? When Frostmourne breaks, does the missing part of Uther's soul rejoin him or is he forever wounded? If not, is it even possible to heal a soul without its missing piece? If his soul is whole again, how is he going to reconcile himself with what was done to him and what he has done in response, once the anger fades?When Frostmourne was broken, did the other souls go to the Arbiter? Did they go straight to the maw? Did they simply get destroyed along with the blade?One more wide-ranging question: it's pretty clear that the Shadowlands has been working like a well oiled machine, or at least, appearing to do so, for literal aeons. Only recently has this machine become 'broken', with the Arbiter suddenly becoming dormant and all souls heading straight into the maw. Yet, it would seem that it was fairly easy to throw a spanner in the works of something that has worked so smoothly for so long.Exactly how long a game has the jailer been playing, and what is the end goal?And, have the workings of the Shadowlands been farcical all along? Is the faith in 'the path' and the Arbiter, completely unjustified? Does the Shadowlands have long-standing problems that are only revealed now because of the Jailer's actions?I am really, really looking forward to finding out the answers, and how in the hell our characters, as mortals treading the soil of the afterlife, are going to help fix this, hopefully without throwing several more spanners into the gears.
Im wondering if at the end of shadowlands xpac we find out that turalyon is gonna be next bad guy and we would have to take him down in "Siege of Stormwind" raid (might be last raid in shadowlands idk...) along with other bosses like some of lightforged draenei liutenants or Commander Halford Wyrmbane (because he's kinda Light fanatic as well). I also hope there's gonna be some plot twist like Jailer killing The Arbiter and becoming even more powerful (hope he's gonna kill Sylvanas Game of Thrones style after that)
I'm the most interested in seeing how Kael'thas' story will continue: does he still identify as a Sin'dorei and what does he think of the modern, Horde-aligned Blood Elf society.
When it comes to Afterlives: Bastion, the thing that piqued my interest was the connection between the Lich King and the Maw, specially Frostmourne itself.In the book Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, Frostmourne was said to have been forged by the Nathrezim, so if we assume that it stands true then the Dreadlords could be even more deceiving that previously thought (shocking, I know!), for they would need to have access to the powers of the Jailer's domain. The book that was recently found in-game, that implies the Nathrezim weren't loyal to neither the Legion nor the Void, only seems to reinforce the idea that they are actually under the Jailer's thrall.All in all, I really do love Dreadlords and look forward to see what machinations they will cook up next!
I want to know what now happens, Devos has turned her back on the Kyrian ways, ignored what she was told and taken it upon herself to thrust Arthas (via Uther) into the Maw. Why did she feel she had to intervene? Was it because she knew that even the worst people would have a final chance of redemption by going to Revendreth (Venthyr) and didn't want to give him that chance due to her own rage of him hurting Uthers soul? What now happens to Arthas now he can have no redemption? Is this all just part of the Jailers plans? is Devos corrupted? I have so many questions...
All of Shadowlands! Tih has been awesomely planned for many months on the part of the sotry creative teams, many little things that tie most of the things literally or figuratively unknown are being revealed, frankly speaking, SLis a breath of fresh air in the lore and so many things contribute to the expanding and twisting Lore of this fantastic univers, as many thigns are answered som many more are introduced "new and fresh". The dualit/duplicity of this great effort doen't go unnoticed! Loveit all!
What intrigues me about Bastion how orderly the process of ascending souls seems to falter once Uther enters the Bastion realm. Not only is Uther's soul wounded but slowly but surely that wound symbolically erodes Devo sense of judgement. That Kyrians themselves ( esp Devos) are not immune and infallible as once thought since the dawn of time. So it will be very interesting to see Bastion arc plays out in Shadowlands. I am really interested in diving headfirst into the shadowlands lore once it goes live on the 26/27th of October.
I want to see Wow's story move away from the past and toward the future. Shadowlands seems to be the first story to break away from the Warcraft franchise and write a new one. The story of Usher seems to be a link between the past and the future. I want to see wow moving forward anew, forgetting the past.
What excites me most about Shadowlands is the choice to choose which Covenant to join, the pets for pet battles to collect, the mounts to collect, and the lore that has always been held dear to my heart. Love the lore. Also, leveling faster. :)