The afterlife options are all bad.

[Teleros]

wasnt ner'zhul simply intercepted alive by kil jaeden when he escaped with his follower?

Here's the WC3 manual bit, yeah maybe I'm misremembering:

Just as Ner’zhul and his followers entered the Twisting Nether – the ethereal plane that connects all of the worlds scattered throughout the Great Dark Beyond – they were ambushed by Kil’jaeden and his demonic minions. Kil’jaeden, who had sworn to take vengeance on Ner’zhul for his prideful defiance, tortured the old shaman mercilessly by slowly tearing his body apart piece by piece. Kil’jaeden kept the shaman’s spirit alive and intact – leaving Ner’zhul painfully aware of his body’s gross dismemberment. Though Ner’zhul pleaded with the demon to release his spirit and grant him death, the demon grimly replied that the Blood Pact they had made long ago was still binding – and that he would make use of his wayward pawn once again.

Still, there's always Bridenbrad to consider.

[Wildmoon]

That's why you practice druidism or become a demon.

[Shaetha]

I think the biggest tragedy will be with all the very obvious flaws in the afterlife, that sylvanas will somehow be redeemed in some shit like breaking down the pillars of the shadowlands and causing the broken systems in place to break fully and let souls choose their own afterlife, which will somehow redeem her despite her murdering thousands to do so.

I cannot imagine a more boring and cliche story than this. I know the incredibly boring and unoriginal people that infest these forums will be tempted to make a boring, unoriginal response to this comment, but Sylvanas needs to die. She doesn't need to be redeemed. There's been well past enough of that nonsense in WoW. Have the balls to let a villain be their own villain.

[omeomorfismo]

Here's the WC3 manual bit, yeah maybe I'm misremembering:

Just as Ner’zhul and his followers entered the Twisting Nether – the ethereal plane that connects all of the worlds scattered throughout the Great Dark Beyond – they were ambushed by Kil’jaeden and his demonic minions. Kil’jaeden, who had sworn to take vengeance on Ner’zhul for his prideful defiance, tortured the old shaman mercilessly by slowly tearing his body apart piece by piece. Kil’jaeden kept the shaman’s spirit alive and intact – leaving Ner’zhul painfully aware of his body’s gross dismemberment. Though Ner’zhul pleaded with the demon to release his spirit and grant him death, the demon grimly replied that the Blood Pact they had made long ago was still binding – and that he would make use of his wayward pawn once again.

Still, there's always Bridenbrad to consider.

i mean, brindenbrad's chain hardly can be taken canon, considering the reason it was made. anyway we only listen what a'dal say, and naruus hardly are reliable "narrators".
for all we know she could have sent him in the bastions and thats what she consider "paradise"

[naeblis495]

Yep , they are all horrible , and i like the concept.

But it won't last. Everything that make them horrible will be solved internally before the end of the xpac and everybody will hug .

[Teleros]

i mean, brindenbrad's chain hardly can be taken canon, considering the reason it was made.

I know the reason, but you have to suspend your disbelief otherwise the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

King Terenas: Antonidas, why do we have to build these expensive internment camps?
Antonidas: Because Chris Metzen said so.
King Terenas: And he is?
Antonidas: The controller of the big metal hand in the sky.

:P

anyway we only listen what a'dal say, and naruus hardly are reliable "narrators".

Not sure about that TBH. I mean they're not unbiased (!), and can be dogmatic, but for all that Xe'ra was very hardline, A'dal & co seemed much more relaxed. Not sure any of them have ever lied either, although I could be forgetting something there.

Besides, if we go by your thinking WRT that whole quest chain then it's even worse, because then instead of honouring someone who died IRL it's like pissing on their memorial.

[Maljinwo]

I'm still holding up judgement until I see how the Other Side works

[Friendlyimmolation]

I'm still holding up judgement until I see how the Other Side works

It's just Troll souls dancing with Bwonsamdi to Grover Washington Jr's "Just the Two of us."

[huth]

I know the reason, but you have to suspend your disbelief otherwise the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

That's not what suspension of disbelief is about. You need to suspend your disbelief to accept glowing windchimes talking to you, not to discern between canon and non-canon events.

Bridenbrad is likely not a canon event, but a sendoff and memorial for a real person.

[Maljinwo]

It's just Troll souls dancing with Bwonsamdi to Grover Washington Jr's "Just the Two of us."

And it would still be a better option that all the others!

[procne]

Well, maybe forgetting previous life is the best possible afterlife? If your previous life was bad then why would you want to remember it. If your previous life was good then remembering it, together with knowledge you cannot return to it, would make you sad. Unless your new life was better, but then you forgot the previous life anyway.

[omeomorfismo]

I know the reason, but you have to suspend your disbelief otherwise the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

King Terenas: Antonidas, why do we have to build these expensive internment camps?
Antonidas: Because Chris Metzen said so.
King Terenas: And he is?
Antonidas: The controller of the big metal hand in the sky.

:P


Not sure about that TBH. I mean they're not unbiased (!), and can be dogmatic, but for all that Xe'ra was very hardline, A'dal & co seemed much more relaxed. Not sure any of them have ever lied either, although I could be forgetting something there.

Besides, if we go by your thinking WRT that whole quest chain then it's even worse, because then instead of honouring someone who died IRL it's like pissing on their memorial.

WRT?
anyway im not considering brindebart canon, its only a nice allegory for a friend thats not integrated in any way within the setting. like an interactive fable.

[Ardenaso]

I know the reason, but you have to suspend your disbelief otherwise the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

King Terenas: Antonidas, why do we have to build these expensive internment camps?
Antonidas: Because Chris Metzen said so.
King Terenas: And he is?
Antonidas: The controller of the big metal hand in the sky.

:P

Night Elf 1: Why are we here in the Blood Elf lands?
Night Elf 2: Ask our Sentinel Leader
Sentinel Leader: Because Chris Metzen said so
Night Elf 1: Okay, but why are we sabotaging them as well?
Night Elf 3: Yeah, Tyrande is friends with Prince Kael'thas himself
Sentinel Leader: IDK, that's what Chris Metzen told me to

[Newname1234567890]

The afterlives are infinite, we only have access to 4/5 connected ones.

I do wonder, does Odin/Helya steal heroic souls for their own personal afterlife?

I still reckon Odin is linked with Bastion. Hence Kyrain and Val'kyr shared asethics.

[Teleros]

That's not what suspension of disbelief is about. You need to suspend your disbelief to accept glowing windchimes talking to you, not to discern between canon and non-canon events.

I think you need to do it for both though, otherwise how else to be certain of what is and isn't real in the universe - particularly when it comes to stuff like story quests and so on. "Oh yeah pet battles aren't canon" ... fine, I think most would agree that having our heroes running around using sapient murloc children to fight in arenas... not canon. But some of the other stuff? Gets a bit iffy if you start saying it's canon or not based on out-of-universe reasons.

WRT?

"With regard to".

[Tharivor]

i dont know how are labelled the npcs in shadowlands, but i doubt that anyone that reside here could be considered an undead abomination. they are dead, the form they have in death as nothing in common (other that aesthetic) with the undeads, that are deads that remain in the living plane.

Considering that the Deathlords have been described as a kind of "proto-scourge" and Maldraxis as being a favoured destination for necromancers, I don't have high hopes for this line of thinking. But I suppose its too early to say anything definitive, so I take your point. Still it seems an odd place even aesthetically for a shamanistic orc who would presumably prefer to join her beloved ancestors she spent her whole life following.

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True, they should've gotten an entirely different orc for this, or none at all.

Honestly, and maybe this is just me being pessimistic, but I feel at this point that unless they really focus hard on Draka, its going to be another Legion-style situation where playing an orc character is going to feel weirdly out of place. Which is a shame considering how Orcs are a race supposedly noted for their connection with their honoured dead. But still perhaps its too early to say until we see Maldraxis in more detail.

[leggomydairy]

It's likely we will get glimpses of other realms before this is over. The expansion is still a ways off, there will be tie-in media, and I wouldn't be surprised if they add additional endgame zones and perhaps at some point even do mini zones like Legion's invasion portals or BFA's islands.

I really hope so. I think it would be great for them to emphasize the vast eternal number of afterlife options in the Shadowlands. Letting us see and know there are more options than just these four is almost essential for this to not fuck up the afterlife of this franchise

[arandomuser]

see the shadowlands arent the real realm of death its a matrix type plane created by the titans to funnel anima to them to resphape the universe in their image! wake up sheeple, well they said it predates the titans, so maybe the titans remade the shadowlands in order to funnel them anima and the covenent realms are like a filtering process for the titans to use in their stoneforged which we know are made of anima

[Vakir]

There's kind of an impetus to create conflicts for zones before we enter them so we have, on a gameplay end of things, something to do, and on a story end of things, some kind of way to earn the trust and favor of each Covenant.

It's the same way that Pandaria is supposed to be this idyllic, untouched land of wonder and inner peace on paper in the way it's described and treated by the characters in the game, but then we get there and even ignoring the Sha it's a fucking shithole where farmers need to routinely murder semi-intelligent rabbit monsters, there's a constant cycle of aggression with a near-infinite army of mantis men, the goofy monkeys played for laughs also kill on sight in residential areas, there's remnants of a conquering empire still in a major campaign lasting long enough to make destabilized Middle Eastern regions blush, and other issues.

It's a wonder Kul Tiras and Zandalar could function whatsofuckingever without us for a week or two, let alone millenia in the latter case, and arbitrarily all of the major historical events that could have happened at any time just so happen to occur when we show up, such as Zul playing his hand, even if it wasn't required for us to be there. Despite this, the issues being described in all the zones, including struggles dealing with the absolute worst pirates imaginable that let you in immediately after bringing your own hat, are treated as somewhat recently hitting their fever pitch.

That's why I can't quite tell whether it's intended that the Shadowlands looks like this weird, passive-aggressive nightmare dystopia dreamt by Ted Danson or whether it's the framing being the framing because the game needs to be a game. But given they've confirmed in interviews we're going to peek into the Shadowlands before the Jailer showed up and the overall creation behind it, it seems like there's at least something they're going to acknowledge as screwed up in the machine beyond just where the Anima goes.

Still doesn't stop edgy brainlets for treating mass murder and eternal torment as a good thing.

[Syegfryed]

Strangelly, the warrior classhall seems like a fucking better place/afterlife to be, sadly is only for vrykuls.

Rly disappointing there isn't a valhalla afterlife in shadowlands, where all the OG warriors or honorable folk went, and the place where the ancestors go.

The problem with an expansion like this is how we re bounded to the afterlife the devs want to show/tell story, maybe there is tons of others afterlife, but we may never catch a glimpse

- - - Updated - - -

I still reckon Odin is from Bastion. Hence Kyrain and Val'kyr shared asethics.

thats something confusing and retcon related.

the spirit healers were supposed to be val'kyr, (dead vrykul woman) this was confirmed, and i think even in chronicles, who were working independent, choosing to stay in the afterlife, some shit like that, Arthas took then, and stat creating his own.

But now, they say the spirit healers are kyrian all along.

Same with the scourge, who design was supposed to be based on the nerubian kingdom, but maldraxxus is entirety scourge based, but it was supposed to be way before the Nerubians, how that even work?

Full of inconsistencies, and the explanations will be all lame