Shadowlands Cinematic - The Arbiter

Guess that was Argus the unmaker.
Same red/black color of his attacks and the time makes sense aswell.

Someone pointed out that the Venthyr say Denathrius is directly responsible.
And he's related to the crration of the dreadlords.
Who directly affected if not caused the creation of the Burning Legion.

And given how Xavius (red corruption) is either demonic or void in his nature, Gul'dan (red portal, red second form) is demonic in his nature (see the alliance quest in shadowmoon), Kil'jaeden is demonic, that only really leaves Argus, Helya, Azeroth (~) and Sargeras (~) as likely culprits.

Given Helya's lack of redness, Argus seems the most likely candidate due to the following:
- Link to Denathrius through the Legion
- Originates from the mortal plane
- Red
- Suffused in death magic
- Dies during the only truly vulnerable stage of a titan's existence: birth (and we know that titans can truly die, as Sargeras has killed corrupted world souls)

Neither Azeroth nor Sargeras are confirmed dead after all.
Also Gul'dan is not the first one to "die twice" due to AU draenor, that honor goes to Tharbek.

Originally Posted by tromage2

Guess that was Argus the unmaker.
Same red/black color of his attacks and the time makes sense aswell.

His soul appears as blue after the fight in the cinematic.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Necrosaro123

This lore is kinda lame. I can't believe this is the lore for Shadowlands. I really wonder how is this expansion going to keep up with that content. I think for the first time, that WoW lore is actually terrible, to the point that is not even interesting to watch.

And Cataclysm was interesting?

quickly how people forget that Argus's soul was used to seal away Sargeras with the rest of the titans.
shame

Originally Posted by clevin

/yawn... wake me when one of these actually tells us something. The idea that after 'uncounted eons' ANY single thing would break this is idiotic. After all that time, everything would have happened. But this is special! yeah, right.

The idea that after 70 years 1 bullet could just kill someone is idiotic! Hey look i can talk out of my ass too! Lol.

I guess the red soul was Varian Wrynn actually. Perfect timing. So much pain. Or maybe Guldan? Since he was not from our timeline.

when did we stop wondering about il'gynoth's quotes?

Her heart is a crater, and we have filled it.

what if this doesn't relate to azeroth, but the arbiter instead? isn't her heart supposed to be that of the jailer that was ripped out, thus leaving a literal "crater"?
that means somehow the void is directly responsible for the shortcircuit of the arbiter. still, that doesn't answer the question what that thing exactly is.

Betcha it's Sargeras' sword in Azeroth that caused it, possibly in conjunction with Denathrius stunning the Arbiter for maximum damage to the entire universe. The sword embodies the darkness that exists in all beings, even noble ones. And, we've yet to discover how the titans fit in with the Shadowlands, what would happen when one is mortally wounded or dies. Ie. where did the taint on Argus' soul end up?

Originally Posted by Ethas

I guess the red soul was Varian Wrynn actually. Perfect timing. So much pain. Or maybe Guldan? Since he was not from our timeline.

It can't be Varian because he died before Ursoc and Ursoc still got to Ardenweald.

As others said - possibly Argus although I like the Gul'dan theory - can't judge the same soul twice. I doubt that he would've made reappearance though.
About Argus theory though - were there any more dead titans before?

Hard to say. Argus makes the most sense to me, timeline and impact-wise. But as people have said, his soul is there in the Antorus ending cinematic, and it's blue and used to imprison Sargeras.

Still, considering the revelations with the dreadlords serving the Jailer, it's easy to imagine it being Argus. They could've easily set the stage for a lot of what happened during the Legion. Not only Legion-affiliated Dreadlords, but also our very own "holy" Dreadlord.

why does it need to be a soul that broke her?
why cant it be that she got attacked?

*SPOILERS*

What if... the red light was Ysera's "corrupted" soul crashing into the shadowlands? She passed through the Arbiter before the engine stopped working and ended up in Ardenweald. The massive amount of pain, agony and despair of an Aspect-sized corrupted soul could have done the damage.

My theory is that it was more a deliberate attack by Denathrius, under the command of the Jailer, than a soul naturally passing through. Souls from Revendreth that have been redeemed can be sent back to Oribos to be re-judged, so I assume he has access to the soul stream. In Castle Nathria, the ritual conducted on Kael'thas is to infuse him with the burdens and sins of others to basically turn him into an unstable anima-bomb -- radiating with the same red energy that disables the Arbiter. Maybe Kael is the second soul-bomb to be created, after one used to disrupt the machine. Bonus points if said hypothetical soul-bomb was someone we knew.

Originally Posted by Darksong

*SPOILERS*

What if... the red light was Ysera's "corrupted" soul crashing into the shadowlands? She passed through the Arbiter before the engine stopped working and ended up in Ardenweald. The massive amount of pain, agony and despair of an Aspect-sized corrupted soul could have done the damage.

Doubt it, she's too weak in my opinion to deal a massive blow to the orbiter. There were bigger corrupted souls that died beside her so her being the one soul would be very underwhelming.
Argus or the second Gul'dan soul sound like more likely versions.

Its obvious that its Sylvanas.

Theres several reasons.

1. The soul makes a feminine scream as it crashes into the Arbiter, it proceeds to yield several vicious wails of pain and suffering which suggests this is Sylvanas soul, likely sent to the maw after her suicide from Icecrown.

2. Sylvanas first met the Jailor after her suicide after something went supposedly wrong with her death...

The most likely logic here is that Sylvanas killed herself not caring where she would end up, there is also the scar caused by Uthers soul via Frostmourne, this to me suggests that Sylvanas soul was scarred by the maw.

Further confirming that is the fact that while this coulda been Argus and the World Soul story, that plot was dealt with by the titans themselves.

Also, Zoraal, the Jailor clearly had help from the light because it states the "Light has struck a bargain with the enemy of all" which implies to me... that they freed him in order to upset the balance of death and try to change the game for the cosmic war... keeping other factions such as the Fel and Arcane and Life away from the field by stirring different chaos while prepping for its own war with the Void.

It just put Turalyon on the throne of Stormwind, and almost certainly this means he will summon the army of the light and its grand fleet, which is somewhere in the stars to Azeroth.

1. The soul makes a feminine scream as it crashes into the Arbiter, it proceeds to yield several vicious wails of pain and suffering which suggests this is Sylvanas soul, likely sent to the maw after her suicide from Icecrown.

2. Sylvanas first met the Jailor after her suicide after something went supposedly wrong with her death...

The feminine scream is the Arbiter not Sylvanas and also we know death broke sometime in Legion not before it this theory isn't correct.

Originally Posted by Proudmong

My theory is that it was more a deliberate attack by Denathrius, under the command of the Jailer, than a soul naturally passing through. Souls from Revendreth that have been redeemed can be sent back to Oribos to be re-judged, so I assume he has access to the soul stream. In Castle Nathria, the ritual conducted on Kael'thas is to infuse him with the burdens and sins of others to basically turn him into an unstable anima-bomb -- radiating with the same red energy that disables the Arbiter. Maybe Kael is the second soul-bomb to be created, after one used to disrupt the machine. Bonus points if said hypothetical soul-bomb was someone we knew.

This is actually very interesting indeed! Didn’t know how redemption from Revendreth works so it might make a lot of sense.