Azerothian presence in the Shadowlands

[Selastan]

1. Titans. The pantheon paid special attention to Azeroth, and introduced a number of species indirectly with great potential.

2. Azeroth. Lots of magical things there, either by the Titans or naturally occurring on Azeroth itself. Magic mortals can use to gain great fame and power.

3. War. Lots of it. Hard times make hard men, and Azeroth has been in a hard time for quite a while. Even Lorewalker Cho comments on this in Pandaria, 'you've seen a lifetime of warfare haven't you?'

4. It's not as much as you think. This expansion has had more 'original content' than Pandaria, creating a whole new universe filled with backstory, characters, creatures, and places. We see a lot of familiar faces, true, but we also haven't been introduced to so many new characters for a while.

[javierdsv]

Look, you don't have to think about it too much, the only sole reason this is the case is because we know them and it's easier to create sympathy with characters that you already know or cause you nostalgia.

Draka shouldn't even look like an orc to start with.

[Izalla]

it doesn't look like anyone has talked about this part yet. so here is the thing. in wod, a trans-dimensional portal was connected to our timeline which was connected from a different timeline at a different point in time with different happenings. this alone scientifically says that the wow universe is actually a multi-verse and therefore infinite in size. i kind of need to use a thought experiment to get show why this is the case.

so, let's say i have a cup of water to my right and a cup of water to my left. the chances of me taking either cup is 50/50. now i take the cup on the right. because of that action, a different timeline is created where i take the cup on the left. so one choice results in 2 different timelines. now let's go one step further. if i put the cup back (regardless of which one i took before), i now have another 50/50 choice, right? so two different timelines are made again right? semi-right. you have to consider that if i took the left cup first and then took the left cup again or if i took the left and then the right which is also expanded to the other side. but this also happens if i took the right side cup and then the right side cup or the right side cup and then the left side cup.

basically, because there are an exponentially increasing number of decisions and changing factors, there is an exponentially increasing number of universes to the point where it is effectively infinite.

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also this. keep in mind, there are absolute tons of new characters in the shadowlands. it just so happens (or really not since this is a fictional universe where the story writers have to try and tie this all together for no apparent reason) that all the major characters are from azeroth. except for draka. she died on azeroth but she is from draenor. so draenothian? draenite? draenon? draenish? probably draenish.

That's actually not how it works. The only stable "real" timeline is ours, and the rest are basically hypothetical and fleeting. Kairoz picked a potential Draenor timeline out of the sea of potential ones and forced it into existence. 30 years later and the planet itself is dying, more than likely because that timeline itself is decaying and the only thing that kept it going so long was the connection it still had with us. That alternate Draenor is not from a timeline where an alternate Azeroth also exists. It exists in a bubble, glued to our reality.

As for the topic at hand... almost everyone you interact with in the Shadowlands zones are the dead of the different planets. Every blue human looking Kyrian used to be someone else, as evidenced by the one we look into the memories of who was clearly a tauren. And why do they look like humans? Who knows. The titans look like humans and made their constructs in their own image, so looking "human" isn't exactly Azerothian. Humanoid creatures are probably a given on any planets the titans visited, and the titans very likely have some kind of connection to the Shadowlands.

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It's been stated that Azeroth's world soul had an impact on all life on the planet. Beings from Azeroth are more special than other beings by virtue of that. We fought off the Legion how many times? The draenei simply had to flee until they found us, and nobody else could stand on them.

This is a good point too. Blizz has given a vague specialness to Azeroth since who knows when, and it retroactively was explained that it's because of the world soul. It makes sense that a lot of Azerothians would be special enough to have a presence or high standing because of the connection to the most powerful titan to ever be found.

[loras]

it doesn't look like anyone has talked about this part yet. so here is the thing. in wod, a trans-dimensional portal was connected to our timeline which was connected from a different timeline at a different point in time with different happenings. this alone scientifically says that the wow universe is actually a multi-verse and therefore infinite in size. i kind of need to use a thought experiment to get show why this is the case.

so, let's say i have a cup of water to my right and a cup of water to my left. the chances of me taking either cup is 50/50. now i take the cup on the right. because of that action, a different timeline is created where i take the cup on the left. so one choice results in 2 different timelines. now let's go one step further. if i put the cup back (regardless of which one i took before), i now have another 50/50 choice, right? so two different timelines are made again right? semi-right. you have to consider that if i took the left cup first and then took the left cup again or if i took the left and then the right which is also expanded to the other side. but this also happens if i took the right side cup and then the right side cup or the right side cup and then the left side cup.

basically, because there are an exponentially increasing number of decisions and changing factors, there is an exponentially increasing number of universes to the point where it is effectively infinite.

- - - Updated - - -



also this. keep in mind, there are absolute tons of new characters in the shadowlands. it just so happens (or really not since this is a fictional universe where the story writers have to try and tie this all together for no apparent reason) that all the major characters are from azeroth. except for draka. she died on azeroth but she is from draenor. so draenothian? draenite? draenon? draenish? probably draenish.

I know that, but i also know that every non-prime copy dies out and fades away, while devs have already stated that every soul and its alternate copies merge in the shadowlands.

[Kyux]

For an in-universe explanation, I think it may be because we're from a titan world soul planet, for some reason we're more powerful or more important.

Also, while there are heaps of Shadowlands realms, there are only 4 Eternal Ones it seems. There's only space for 4 at the Arbiter's platform, and only those 4 are called for that final cinematic. I think the ones we visit are the main Shadowlands realms, the rest are just random holding pens.

[Kathranis]

Azeroth is pretty much the center of the Warcraft universe, and they even address that it's a world that "produces many powerful souls" or something like that in Maldraxxus.

I imagine that Azeroth's world soul has imbued the denizens of the world with power beyond what is natural. We basically have canonical in-universe plot armor.

[Rendark]

They can't come up with any good new characters so they have to fall back on the "remember this guy!" crap.

[Selastan]

Look, you don't have to think about it too much, the only sole reason this is the case is because we know them and it's easier to create sympathy with characters that you already know or cause you nostalgia.

Draka shouldn't even look like an orc to start with.

I just think they didn't want to give EVERYONE a unique model, so not everyone looks like their original races unless that race already existed.

[Uzkin]

Sent this to a wrong thread, so I'm copy-pasteing it here:

If a soul dies in Shadowlands, it dies permanently. Therefore, SL is only a momentary "extra life" between life and True Death of an individual. Azerothian heroes are typically far more powerful than the other lifeforms in the universe and, therefore, can survive in SL longer than most: that's why they appear to be over-represented in SL. Indeed, these OP Azerothians are quite often the ones who send the other unfortunate denizens of SL to their final oblivion.

[aceperson]

I know that, but i also know that every non-prime copy dies out and fades away, while devs have already stated that every soul and its alternate copies merge in the shadowlands.

that i didn't know. but then that raises the question, is all the "azeroth" people actually our people? if all of them merge into a single being, who becomes the 'real' person in the shadowlands?

[Cronovey]

Well, we learned from Legion that the demons use souls as fuel, and they need a LOT of fuel. It's possible the Legion prevents you from reaching the Shadowlands entirely as your soul is consumed, likely the same deal with the void.

Would explain why the Shadowlands hate the legion so much.

That's a pretty fair point honestly, especially since we know that Draka (during the Maldraxxus short) invaded Legion worlds to steal/stop their plans so it's clear that even before all this really started the Shadowlands were working against the Legion as well. I always just assumed that the Nether the demons spawn from was basically their Shadowland if that makes sense, which is why killing demons in the Nether makes them perma-dead, so I wonder if the way they worked was doing something similar to what is happening now where it was funneling souls into their "zone" of the Shadowlands to respawn the demons faster, like an evil Ardenweald. Would explain quite a few things: why demons were able to respawn similar to the Wild Gods of Azeroth, why souls power the Legion's army, why Maldraxxus was making moves against the Legion, and also explain how the Nether seemingly transcends all timelines and space if it's actually a part of the Shadowlands.

[THEORACLE64]

Why is everything so Azerothian?

Because we're from Azeroth and probably the first/most mortals that have ever stepped into the Shadowlands - that and the Jailer is after Azeroth's world soul.

[Quaade]

With all due respect, but how certain are you that there are millions of living planets? We've seen only a handful confirmed and it might be that their universe shares one theme with ours: that it may be relatively very empty and underdevelooed for the most part, in spite of a few highly developed planets.

Or to put it in another way: perhaps most planets know only a handful of lifeforms, thus leaving no meaningful impression on the shadowlands.

Azeroth has been confirmed to be the only planet left in the universe with something resembling societies.

Between The Burning Legion, The Lords of Light, and The Void Lords, pretty much every other planet in the entire universe has been wiped of life or been reduced to a post-apocalypse.

Azeroth is special by virtue of being the only place left in the universe with a functional society.