Shadowlands Update: Bastion and the Kyrian Covenant
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
When Sylvanas Windrunner pierces the veil between life and death, you and your allies are pulled into the Maw, where the most wicked are damned to suffer for eternity. Yet Azeroth’s Champions are able to escape and soon make their way to the noble Kyrian in Bastion. Long has it been since a soul has been sent to their gleaming realm, and the locals are astonished by the arrival of a living mortal. However, it quickly becomes apparent that underneath Bastion’s glistening veneer lies unrest: The Kyrian’s anima—the soul-born essence that fuels their eternity of service—is on the verge of being completely depleted.

Before you can help them—and make them take your warnings of Sylvanas and the horrible truth of the Maw seriously—you must prove your worthiness as an aspirant and overcome all trials to earn your Kyrian wings by Ascending.

Unsure if you truly have moved on from the world of the living? We understand that this new reality may be difficult to accept. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to question the nature of your own existence.

Your first stop in Bastion is the Vestibule of Eternity. Akin to other Kyrian sites, this pristine sanctuary is patrolled by anima-fueled Centurions and is kept clean and shining by diligent Stewards, who scrub each cobblestone by hand until it has a polish that only feathered elbow grease can achieve.

It is here that you begin your Ascension training, purifying your soul through ritual cleansing by shedding the flaws of mortality.

Listen to the soothing chimes of floating bells as you wash away the dust of life in sacred pools.

As you prepare for Ascendance, you will journey deeper into the resplendent fields of Bastion—your opportunity to demonstrate your value to the Kyrian.


Home of the Pure

Bastion is brought to life by its inhabitants and, if you wish to untangle the Banshee Queen’s nefarious plans, you’ll need to earn an alliance with them.

Bastion’s Inhabitants

Meet the denizens of Bastion.


Kyrians
The noble inhabitants of Bastion who shepherd the souls of the dead to Oribos so that they can be judged by the impassive Arbiter before being sent to their final destinations. Fresh arrivals to Bastion will become Kyrian Aspirants—wingless beings who train for eons to one day earn their wings and join the ranks of the Ascended.


Stewards
Born of the magic of Death, these otherworldly groundskeepers and artificers keep Bastion pristine. Along with maintaining the realm, they assemble Centurions—the anima-fueled guardians that train Kyrian Aspiriants and defend Bastion. Each steward dotes on a Paragon and keeps mementos of their achievements. Perhaps you will catch their eye and they’ll pledge themselves to you!


The Forsworn
Rarely, an Aspirant will fail to complete a rite of passage. These once-bright souls darken and become lost, wandering the plains of Bastion to lament. Containing the Forsworn is key, for if left unchecked, doubt can spread like a disease . . .


The Centurions
A legion of anima-fueled automatons that drill Kyrian Aspirants in meditative combat as well as defend Bastion.

Praetor: These flying automatons are charged with training Aspirants who show particular martial promise.
Goliath: Unyielding bulwarks and powerful warriors that enforce order in Bastion.
Colossus: Eternal protectors, these guardians have stood watch and defended Bastion for ages.


Memories
As the Kyrian shed the burdens of their past lives, physical manifestations of their tormented thoughts are expelled from their bodies. Only by striking them down can the Kyrian cleanse themselves and achieve ascendance.

These are but a few of the entities you’ll encounter in Bastion. While adventuring, it's best to stay vigilant—you might even cross paths with Uther the Lightbringer and other long-passed heroes of Azeroth who now wander this world. . .

Kyrian Covenant

When players reach maximum level and have explored the first four zones, they’ll be able to pledge themselves to a Covenant, like the Kyrian. Each Covenant offers its champions abilities, along with other powers and cosmetic rewards that can be unlocked through a Covenant Campaign—an epic storyline unique to the faction—and other activities over time. This alliance also gives the player access to a Covenant Sanctum, a city only open to players who have forged a pact with its rulers.

Power of the Kyrian
If you choose to join the Kyrian Covenant, you’ll gain two unique abilities—one class ability used in combat, as well as a signature ability that summons a steward to assist in your adventures.

Here is the signature ability that the Kyrian bestow upon their champions:

Summon Steward: Call your steward to bring you a Phial of Serenity that can be consumed to restore some of your health and remove all Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed effects. Your Steward additionally offers access to a selection of useful amenities, each once per day.

To give you an idea of what to expect, you can view a list of the Covenant signature and class abilities. Please keep in mind that all these are a work in progress and may have additional changes during the course of development and testing, so all abilities shown are subject to change.

Soulbinding
When you join a Covenant, you’ll be able to undergo an ancient rite to bind your soul to some of its most powerful members. By doing so, your character harnesses their power, gaining access to powerful bonuses. Over time, you can unlock new tiers of power and even switch Soulbinds when strategy demands it.

Kyrian Covenant Spoils
For your contributions to the Kyrian Covenant’s cause, you’ll be rewarded with several cosmetic rewards including: a mount, a pet, Kyrian-forged armor, and back attachments that rival the beauty of Kyrian wings.

Armor Up
Don specially crafted armor forged in the heart of Bastion.


Pictured: leather (left), plate (center), and cloth gear (right).

There are more mysteries yet to unravel in Bastion, and not all as it seems—a shadowy force threatens the peace in this realm. Perhaps some of Azeroth’s greatest heroes can champion the cause of the Kyrian and drive back their adversaries!

Necrotic Wake and Story Spoilers


The forces of Maldraxxus have invaded Bastion! Thirsty for anima, these monstrosities have ransacked the Temple of Courage. Heroes must thwart these invaders lest this paradisiacal place crumbles.

Difficulties: Normal, Heroic, Mythic

Level: 50+ (One of four level-up dungeons*)

Blightbone
The corpulent mass of rotting flesh known as Blightbone was lovingly stitched together by Surgeon Stitchflesh to lead the vanguard of the assault upon the Temple of Courage.

Amarth, The Reanimator
Amarth is the powerful, sadistic leader of the necromancers of Zolramus. He oversees the harvesting of corpses from atop his flying mount, the undead monstrosity Bonefang.

Surgeon Stitchflesh
Surgeon Stitchflesh is the mastermind behind the grisly abominations that are deployed from the floating fortress of Zolramus. He bends to his task with maniacal fervor, crafting the flesh of fallen enemies into undead amalgamations to be used in Maldraxxus’ wars in the Shadowlands.

Nalthor the Rimebinder
As a commander of the House of Rituals, the conniving Nalthor the Rimebinder leads the attacks upon the unwitting Kyrian forces.

*Necrotic Wake is a 5-player dungeon inside Bastion.

We look forward to sharing more information as development continues, and we hope this preview prepares you for Bastion and perhaps selecting the Kyrian Covenant!

Will you be joining the Kyrian Covenant? Join the discussion on the forums.

Rewards and abilities are still in development and subject to change, so be sure check back for periodic updates on worldofwarcraft.com as we approach the release of Shadowlands.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Shadowlands Update: Bastion and the Kyrian Covenant started by Lumy View original post
Comments 54 Comments
  1. Nerovar's Avatar
    I still don't understand why Uther didn't go to the designated light afterlife and ended up in the shadowlands instead.
  1. keyboardshinobi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nerovar View Post
    I still don't understand why Uther didn't go to the designated light afterlife and ended up in the shadowlands instead.
    Well Arthas killed him, so he spent much of his time in Frostmourn and he wasnt lightforged and it seems that bastion is kinda the "light" for mortals in death.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nerovar View Post
    I still don't understand why Uther didn't go to the designated light afterlife and ended up in the shadowlands instead.
    1. this may be the "light" afterlife, we dont know what that actually is
    2. arthas kept him in frostmourne for a long time, maybe too long to the point he was unable.
  1. Gurahk's Avatar
    Imagine being a devout follower of the light for years, only to die and become an owl slave for eternity.
  1. Nerovar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    1. this may be the "light" afterlife, we dont know what that actually is
    2. arthas kept him in frostmourne for a long time, maybe too long to the point he was unable.
    All the spells are linked to the arcane spell type and we see nothing that resembles the light in any way.

    Quote Originally Posted by alosiboy View Post
    Imagine being a devout follower of the light for years, only to die and become an owl slave for eternity.
    Pretty much this lol

    Poor Uther. I thought he was safe from the writers...
  1. Voidism's Avatar
    Sounds like a place for my paladin.
  1. Psykho's Avatar
    Can I just say that the Necrolord in the picture for Necrotic Wake is riding a freaking zombie Jersey Devil

    That's kind of Awesome
  1. TickTickTick's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nerovar View Post
    I still don't understand why Uther didn't go to the designated light afterlife and ended up in the shadowlands instead.
    Because Shadowlands is a retcon of all that we so far knew about afterlife.

    Things that no longer make any sense:
    - undeath
    - ressurections
    - souls coming back to talk
    - Emerald creatures like Ysera, Cenarius, Wild Gods, never ever mentioning stuff like Anima, Shadowlands, or anything really. These are the only beings that legitimately come back from Shadowlands to live again
  1. Michael Jackson's Avatar
    ugh....i dunno....i went from my grandma to my parents' appartment when i was 8 and stumbled upon my brother loading Warcraft 2 on our first ever computer
    it was the classic image of a Human Footman facing an Orc Grunt

    now i'm going to fight the spirits in the afterlife and Sylvanas....again....again....

    not really feeling it
  1. Newname1234567890's Avatar
    Interesting so the Covenants are in conflict with one another
  1. Cosmic Janitor's Avatar
    They really couldn't have picked any worse races than those 3 to show off the item sets (also why leave out mail? <<).

    Nothing looks good on fat humans, trolls have no proper shoe and glove models and twigborne look only good in their own heirloom set (because it hides their twiggieness).
  1. Redroniksre's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keymil View Post
    Because Shadowlands is a retcon of all that we so far knew about afterlife.

    Things that no longer make any sense:
    - undeath
    - ressurections
    - souls coming back to talk
    - Emerald creatures like Ysera, Cenarius, Wild Gods, never ever mentioning stuff like Anima, Shadowlands, or anything really. These are the only beings that legitimately come back from Shadowlands to live again
    1. Souls get trapped and are unable to go there, and/or do not have souls to begin with.
    2. Souls being pulled back from the Shadowlands
    3. I don't know
    4. Yeah no shit, because Shadowlands wasn't even fleshed out back then, it was just a word.

    There will be explanations likely in the actual expansion, and i suppose you could call it a retcon (not that it is bad, otherwise you couldn't create any new lore, ever)
  1. Gravity2015's Avatar
    lets all take a moment and pray we never see denizens of Bastion or Kyrians become the next playable allied races lol
  1. TickTickTick's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Redroniksre View Post
    1. Souls get trapped and are unable to go there, and/or do not have souls to begin with.
    2. Souls being pulled back from the Shadowlands
    3. I don't know
    4. Yeah no shit, because Shadowlands wasn't even fleshed out back then, it was just a word.

    There will be explanations likely in the actual expansion, and i suppose you could call it a retcon (not that it is bad, otherwise you couldn't create any new lore, ever)
    They can create new, good lore, that is based on already pre-existing lore. Not basically throwing away all the current rules. The worst offender in all of this is that not a single character who has anything to do with afterlife / Shadowlands mentioned anything about how the Shadowlands function. Nothing about anima, nothing about Arbiter, nothing about the journey of the souls. Characters that keep the souls for themselves, characters that came back as souls for a moment, characters that come back regularly. Noone. There was just the afterlife.

    Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the story will be interesting. I'm actually intrigued how this all works out. But it's throwing away current rules and creating entirely different ones.
  1. Newname1234567890's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keymil View Post
    - Emerald creatures like Ysera, Cenarius, Wild Gods, never ever mentioning stuff like Anima, Shadowlands, or anything really. These are the only beings that legitimately come back from Shadowlands to live again
    Its not like the player usually interacts with the demi-gods of nature in times when shit isn't going sideways. I doubt as the Fire elementals were burning hyjal that we had time to ask cenarius how his life cycle work.

    Also maybe they don't remember thier time there or a thousand other possible justifiable reasons for not telling mortals how the mechanism of death work.

    Stop claiming it completely recons something when you have no idea if it does.
  1. Nevcairiel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keymil View Post
    Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the story will be interesting. I'm actually intrigued how this all works out. But it's throwing away current rules and creating entirely different ones.
    There really weren't that many current "rules" that can't fit into any new lore. If the only complaint is that resurrected people didn't tell us all about Shadowlands beforehand already, thats really a weak argument. They didn't tell us about anything else concrete either. Does that mean there was nothing? No, it means it was just not specified/mentioned.

    They already touched on many points brought up here. For example how the demigods like Cenarius go to Ardenwald to rest before they get resurrected/reborn into the world, with the help of the Night Fae that live there.

    You should not view it as "replacing" the old afterlife (which was never really build up lore wise), but as specifically exploring what was there all along. The afterlife is mysterious, a living being would likely never know all of its defails, as such its not surprising if what we've been told so far might not be entirely accurate to what we see now. We mostly experience the world through the eyes of our own characters and the storys told by NPCs - who might just get it wrong sometimes.
  1. reacher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by alosiboy View Post
    Imagine being a devout follower of the light for years, only to die and become an owl slave for eternity.
    owl bet that would suck
  1. Nerovar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Redroniksre View Post
    4. Yeah no shit, because Shadowlands wasn't even fleshed out back then, it was just a word.
    I don't really know about that one. There were lots of hints about the Shadowlands. Also weren't the Shadowlands originally just a mirrored version of our world?

    We also know that time passes differently in the Shadowlands (which means there'll probably be a timeskip after Shadowlands). For example, Salanar the Horseman (the guy who taught Death Knights how to summon their pony back in Wrath) tells us in Legion (which is roughly 5 years after the events of WotLK) that merely a few days have passed for him.
    "Greetings, Deathlord. Years have passed since we first met, but for me it has been mere days."

    Also the "Aggregates of Power" quest tells us to send our DK order hall followers into the Shadowlands to harvest souls. So, I guess at least DKs should be familiar faces around there?

    The thing is: the Shadowlands were never presented as the actual afterlife but more of a spirit realm that exists parallel to our dimension where restless souls gather temporarily.
  1. Redroniksre's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keymil View Post
    They can create new, good lore, that is based on already pre-existing lore. Not basically throwing away all the current rules. The worst offender in all of this is that not a single character who has anything to do with afterlife / Shadowlands mentioned anything about how the Shadowlands function. Nothing about anima, nothing about Arbiter, nothing about the journey of the souls. Characters that keep the souls for themselves, characters that came back as souls for a moment, characters that come back regularly. Noone. There was just the afterlife.

    Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the story will be interesting. I'm actually intrigued how this all works out. But it's throwing away current rules and creating entirely different ones.
    Right, again no characters said anything because there was nothing to say. They never fleshed out the afterlife before Shadowlands, only hints here and there. So, as i see it, they have complete creative freedom to do what they want, because there are no rules and no toes to step on when creating it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nerovar View Post
    I don't really know about that one. There were lots of hints about the Shadowlands. Also weren't the Shadowlands originally just a mirrored version of our world?

    We also know that time passes differently in the Shadowlands (which means there'll probably be a timeskip after Shadowlands). For example, Salanar the Horseman (the guy who taught Death Knights how to summon their pony back in Wrath) tells us in Legion (which is roughly 5 years after the events of WotLK) that merely a few days have passed for him.
    "Greetings, Deathlord. Years have passed since we first met, but for me it has been mere days."

    Also the "Aggregates of Power" quest tells us to send our DK order hall followers into the Shadowlands to harvest souls. So, I guess at least DKs should be familiar faces around there?

    The thing is: the Shadowlands were never presented as the actual afterlife but more of a spirit realm that exists parallel to our dimension where restless souls gather temporarily.
    Specifics will certainly get retconned, mainly thinking of the time difference, i can bet they will forget all about that. They threw in base stories for all the other "zones" in Azeroth, like the Emerald Dream, because they weren't really going to touch them. Now we have reached the point where we have been everywhere, so they have to dig up these old bones and give them new life so its actually interesting (since a mirror reality would kinda be boring, though Torghast mirrors ICC)
  1. Darknessvamp's Avatar
    I'm not sure how I feel about people arriving at Bastion, being forced to become Kyrians against their will and then having the possibility of just failing and becoming a reject because they didn't destroy who they were enough and are thus not virtuous enough for them. Heck they're even suggesting Uther doesn't actually get respite in this place after all he did. Also lol this zone of undead order and purity is literally at war and in chaos with it's own inhabitants, kinda an oxymoron there don't ya think Blizzard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Nerovar View Post
    I don't really know about that one. There were lots of hints about the Shadowlands. Also weren't the Shadowlands originally just a mirrored version of our world?

    We also know that time passes differently in the Shadowlands (which means there'll probably be a timeskip after Shadowlands). For example, Salanar the Horseman (the guy who taught Death Knights how to summon their pony back in Wrath) tells us in Legion (which is roughly 5 years after the events of WotLK) that merely a few days have passed for him.
    "Greetings, Deathlord. Years have passed since we first met, but for me it has been mere days."

    Also the "Aggregates of Power" quest tells us to send our DK order hall followers into the Shadowlands to harvest souls. So, I guess at least DKs should be familiar faces around there?

    The thing is: the Shadowlands were never presented as the actual afterlife but more of a spirit realm that exists parallel to our dimension where restless souls gather temporarily.
    You're correct, the Shadowlands literally were just the mirrored world the player could see upon Death and explained why spirits and ghosts could stick around and how people can be resurrected or come back if they hadn't passed onto the "afterlife". Now they're retconned that to say the Shadowlands is the defacto afterlife and another realm entirely which completely botches all previous mentions that don't fit with spirits having "gone to the shadowlands" but still being able to come back.

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