Shadowlands Plothole?

[huth]

The Kyrians out in the field may be unaware of what's transpired, and doing their appointed tasks not unlike automatons (which is sort of what the Kyrian process does to Kyrians at the end of the day).

For all we know, they may not have been home since before all of this transpired, and Bastion likely doesn't have the resources to send anybody out to tell them. They barely have enough to keep the place from collapsing entirely.

[Deathpony]

Are you guys saying that stealing the robust and detailed Planescape campaign setting and doing a hacked bastardized version to try and backdoor shoehorn it into WoW isn't going well?

[Jastall]

So, I just watched the cinematic in which the Winter Queen and the Archon learn of Denathrius' betrayal. Can someone explain to me why the leader of the Kyrians is surprised that the Maw is growing when her blue bloys were literally yeeting every single soul in there for years now? How can the leader of a major faction of immortal beings be this retarded?

They yeeted the souls to the Arbiter, which stopped functioning and thus ever soul went to the Maw. The Kyrians themselves had no hand in it and presumably aren't used to caring what happens to the souls they deliver, hell part of their duty probably mandates that they do not know.

[Vladier]

They yeeted the souls to the Arbiter, which stopped functioning and thus ever soul went to the Maw. The Kyrians themselves had no hand in it and presumably aren't used to caring what happens to the souls they deliver, hell part of their duty probably mandates that they do not know.

The entire system is actually set up in such a way that the kyrians who actually have to bond with mortal souls in order to check if they are ready to cross the veil are completely separate from those who carry souls to be judged.

The Watchers aka Spirit Healers spend millennia floating over the same spot in graveyards, evaluate souls before them to see if they are ready to cross into Shadowlands, or if there is something that requires that soul to continue living (by doing basically the same thing the Arbiter does, peering into the soul, although they only see the last moments, judging by the initiation trial). The Bearers are called to collect the souls that are ready and deliver them for judgement, and they do that and then leave without hearing the verdict or even seeing the Arbiter.

So, essentially, from the point of view of the Archon there's nothing really wrong with the Drought - the Watcher called the Bearers to take a soul, they deliver it to Oribos in a fly-by, what happens to the soul in question is none of their business. Sure, there's a massive vortex of souls going directly into the Maw, but maybe mortals just got very bad recently, it's not her place to question the Arbiter's judgement, if she's even at all informed of all souls going to the Maw by the Bearers (who do their duties as normal, there's nothing interfering with them). And the Arbiter's aides don't question anything, they believe everything happens for a Purpose, so they don't even warn anyone until there's evidence of a foul play and a plan by the Death Satan to escape. And the covenant that was all about doing stuff about the dangers to the Shadowlands was rendered leaderless and in internecine conflict.

Meanwhile, Bastion is starved of anima, but that's alright, they can coast for a time on their reserves and rationing. Nothing bad actually happens until after the player arrives, because Devos kept her treachery and massive army of the Forsworn under wraps. The Jailer's plan was long in the making, but he actually kept it well hidden from the parties that would know to do anything about it until now. If anything, most of the plan happened on Azeroth and in Revendreth, with a surgical strike in Maldraxxus to eliminate the only person in all of Shadowlands who had foreseen it but was too slow to do something other than set up a contingency.

[Nerovar]

They yeeted the souls to the Arbiter, which stopped functioning and thus ever soul went to the Maw. The Kyrians themselves had no hand in it and presumably aren't used to caring what happens to the souls they deliver, hell part of their duty probably mandates that they do not know.

To claim that they had no hand in it is pretty disingenuous. It's like saying the German Reichsbahn (German National Railway) had no hand in the holocaust.

[Nyel]

It's like Rise of Skywalker. Don't pay attention to details. LOOK IT'S UTHER! Just keep moving through the story. Thinking about the details will just make your head hurt. LOOK!! KAEL'THAS!!! The more you think about it, the less sense it makes. LOOK, SYLVANAS HAS A PLAN FOR ALL OF US! THERE IS DRAKA!! MEMBER DRAKA?!?!? It is one giant clusterfuck the second you start poking and prodding the tapestry. JUST KEEP MOVING, DON'T THINK! LOOK, THE ARCHITECTURE IS LIKE IN IIIIICECROWN. MEMBER ICECROWN??? Level up, get loot, have fun with friends overcoming the raid encounters, revel in the great work the Art department did. The story is... not even tertiary at this point. LOOK! CUTE OWL-SERVANTS! JOKES ABOUT TALKING TO THE HAND. MEMBER URSOC??? MANDALORIAN REFERENCE!! PLEASE DON'T THINK ABOUT THE STORY OR THE ILLUSION OF COHERENT STORYTELLING WILL FALL APART!!! MEMBER YSEARA???

Fuck this Add-ons story. For all the interesting changes to gameplay, seriously, fuck the story. It picked up right where BfA left off, high-school levels of fanfiction.

So much this and it's a shame.

Shadowlands sounds neat but it's contradicting so much in the Warcraft universe - that's why I generally hate Afterlife stuff in every entertainment franchise. It never, ever makes sense.

[Wyattbw09]

If millions/Billions are dying every day across the stars, what kind of significance does burning teldrassil even have?

That is up to some debate. According to the Legion (consider the source) Azeroth is one of few remaining planets with sentient life on them. The Legion seemed to think that they were pretty much on mop up duty by the time they invaded Azeroth.

[huth]

To claim that they had no hand in it is pretty disingenuous. It's like saying the German Reichsbahn (German National Railway) had no hand in the holocaust.

Only if the Reichsbahn had been a completely seperate organisation that was fully unaware of what was going on and just kept doing the same thing it had been doing for millenia before. Which is... inaccurate, to put it mildly.

That is up to some debate. According to the Legion (consider the source) Azeroth is one of few remaining planets with sentient life on them. The Legion seemed to think that they were pretty much on mop up duty by the time they invaded Azeroth.

The fact that there's so many still arriving may actually indicate that the Legion was far overestimating their own effectiveness. Given that they were fighting a Void threat while the Void was merrily setting up shop right in their central stronghold, that may not be all that surprising.

[Nerovar]

Only if the Reichsbahn had been a completely seperate organisation that was fully unaware of what was going on and just kept doing the same thing it had been doing for millenia before. Which is... inaccurate, to put it mildly.

Repeatedly denying that they're aware of the state of the Shadowlands won't make it true, my dude. They're doing it in spite of knowing what happens to the souls and they're justifying it by saying "lol not my job to question it".

(timestamp somehow doesn't work. Go to 2:12)

[huth]

Repeatedly denying that they're aware of the state of the Shadowlands won't make it true, my dude. They're doing it in spite of knowing what happens to the souls and they're justifying it by saying "lol not my job to question it".

That still doesn't make them similar since the Kyrians are doing the exact same thing they have been for eons, while the Reichsbahn was doing something decidedly different than its original job. You'd have a point if the Kyrians were delivering the souls to the Maw directly and under orders of the Jailer, but they aren't.

[Nerovar]

That still doesn't make them similar since the Kyrians are doing the exact same thing they have been for eons, while the Reichsbahn was doing something decidedly different than its original job. You'd have a point if the Kyrians were delivering the souls to the Maw directly and under orders of the Jailer, but they aren't.

I never claimed that the two are completely analogous so how does that matter at all? You're pivoting so incredibly hard. You went from "the Kyrians have no hand in it" to "b-but they're unaware" and now you're saying "ok they're aware but they're only doing what they've always been doing and they're not directly working for the bad guy so it's ok".

The point is that they're doing insanely horrible shit at their leader's behest because of their unquestioned obedience to their cause. This argument that "they're just following orders/doing their job so it's not wrong" is completely insane.

[Jastall]

To claim that they had no hand in it is pretty disingenuous. It's like saying the German Reichsbahn (German National Railway) had no hand in the holocaust.

Been a while since someone pulled a Godwin on me, let alone when discussing WoW lore of all things. Read what the poster right above you said.

[Aucald]

Let's drop the real-world political discussion and return to the topic at hand concerning the Shadowlands lore.

[Jujudrood]

In a vacuum, I don't mind each zone's story.
They felt different and such, but as a whole, in terms of WoW and prior (WC1-3+), it really doesn't make sense.

But, at the end of the day, I don't play to try to make sense of some fantastical story and be wow'd (pun intended) by the twists and turns, I play to have fun with friends and raid and such.
As a functioning game, it's pretty fun.

As far as souls for DKs, maybe Bolvar just grabbed up a bunch that fell off the Maw and ended up in Westfall...
New character being rolled? Dig into the bag of souls like a twisted Santa.

[Super Dickmann]

The fact that the entire plot happens because worker drones are performing some kind of braindead holocaust on a cosmic scale because no one figures there's anything off with every soul being sorted to super hell is at once the most absolutely retarded and hilarious plot point we've had in a long time. Cheers for this thread I legit would never have thought of it.

@Combatbulter

Cheers for the link, Christ, this is actually canon and intentional. I'm kind of impressed.

[Soon-TM]

Because the Kyrians are like UPS, in they don't give a damn what happens to the package or what shape it's in, they just deliver it.

I mean, turning the noblest, most selfless souls in the entire multiverse into what amounts to functionally mindless delivery vessels is a quite wicked/idiotic affair. So the question would be whether these blue folks are evil or just huge morons.

[Super Dickmann]

I mean, turning the noblest, most selfless souls in the entire multiverse into what amounts to functionally mindless delivery vessels is a quite wicked/idiotic affair. So the question would be whether these blue folks are evil or just huge morons.

I can see why Devos decided to join the Jailer. She'd be working for him by proxy anyway if she continued doing her job, might as well get the perks of the position.

[Logwyn]

Don't forget to throw in time travel aspects and multi-universes! We could see two or three Thralls all confused as to who is the real one!

[Super Dickmann]

Don't forget to throw in time travel aspects and multi-universes! We could see two or three Thralls all confused as to who is the real one!

Every day, the Kyrians deliver a theoretically infinite number of Thralls into the Maw.

[Feanoro]

I mean, turning the noblest, most selfless souls in the entire multiverse into what amounts to functionally mindless delivery vessels is a quite wicked/idiotic affair. So the question would be whether these blue folks are evil or just huge morons.

At last, consistency from these writers! Think about it, they always portray lawful good as stupid, see the entire Alliance. Now we see the lawful good afterlife, morons. Morons everywhere!