Confused about the shadowlands

[Jindujun]

I've been trying to wrap my head around some of the concepts of the Shadowlands and figured that I'll just try asking the questions here instead.

How is the plane of shadowlands itself structured? Am I correct in thinking of something like this:
"Top" - Oribos at the top, takes in souls from the entire universe and then passes them out to a suitable place in the shadowlands.
"Middle" - The realms of the shadowlands, of which we visit four, are countless and houses the souls of dead beings from the mortal realm.
"Bottom" - The Maw, eats any souls that are deemed unredeemable.

If this structure is correct, does that means that there is only one "beginning" and one "end" ie. Oribos and The Maw or is the maw the bottom of our four realms of the shadowlands? If so, why should we care about it if there is an infinite amount of other maws out there.

Since every soul is judged and sent to a suitable realm in the shadowlands, is it just a fluke that the souls from Azeroth seems to end up in the same place?

If the realms of the four realms we are sent to serve a purpose, what is that purpose? Seeing as the shadowlands main function is to take the anima from the worlds of the living and then use it to... power the shadowlands? It seems like the whole place is pointless or am I missing something here?

Is the Jailer the person tasked with managing the Maw from the beginning or was he a prisoner who was forced to manage the place? Seeing as there are quests that talk about "his chains broken" it seems odd, would he be chained there if he was created or tasked by the First Ones to manage it?

[The5thVegetable]

the answer to most of these questions is simply, "We don't know." Granted, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the thing about beginning-end thing, but I'm fairly sure the Maw is the only realm like it.

As for the purpose of the Shadowlands as a whole... to be a functioning ecosystem, really. It has no more reason or purpose than any other civilizations in the Warcraft universe- it simply is.

[Aucald]

The Shadowlands doesn't really have a hierarchical structure, per se; it is more akin to a vast shoal of diffuse and mist-like anima in which multiple island masses exist that constitute the various realms such as Maldraxxus, Bastion, or Revendreth. You can think of Oribos as a kind of center of this arrangement, a proverbial sun around which these realms are arrayed - although whether its in a more geographical center is sort of moot. The Maw is just another realm within the Shadowlands, made special in the fact that it is a prison for the Jailer and those consigned to it. You could think of it as essentially "under" Oribos, although it's probably not literally so. The Covenant realms are special because they serve the greater whole of the Shadowlands in some capacity (e.g. supplying a military, providing essential services, reforming damned souls), but beyond that they're just realms amidst the infinite of realms you could find.

Azeroth also isn't special in terms of its relationship to the Shadowlands - all worlds and beings native to the physical universe are drawn to the Shadowlands naturally on death, brought by the Kyrians to the Arbiter in Oribos for judgment and then assigned to realm in the Shadowlands to dwell within in death. The Jailer (originally named Zovaal) was one of the pantheon of Death alongside the Arbiter, the Primus, the Winter Queen, Sire Denathrius, and Kyrestia the Firstborne. At some point eons in the past Zovaal enacted some form plan that betrayed his peers and apparently threatened the metacosm (all the realms of the Warcraft cosmos, including the physical universe), and for his transgression he was imprisoned by the Maw for all time, and a portion of the anima of the Shadowlands spent to ensure he remained forever sealed away so that he couldn't complete his plans. He however had outside help these plans, and somehow a way was found to slowly but surely allow him to escape the Maw bit by bit, and at this point he's very nearly free and able to do whatever it is he plans on (which may well doom all things).

The purpose of the Shadowlands are to provide continued existence to the souls of the dead, and also to keep the Jailer sealed away within the Maw.

[Kharli]

As far as we know, nothing was ever meant to go into the Maw, apart form the Jailer

[shimerra]

As far as we know, nothing was ever meant to go into the Maw, apart form the Jailer

That's literally one of the things we know for sure isn't true. The maw was always the place for the worst of the worst souls that even Revendreth couldn't save to be sent. We have never been at any point told it was made just for the jailer.

[Aucald]

As far as we know, nothing was ever meant to go into the Maw, apart form the Jailer

We know of two cases that can send someone to the Maw - failure to be redeemed in Revendreth, and if a given soul is judged by the Arbiter to be a threat to the Shadowlands. We don't know if the second criteria has ever been used (beyond the Jailer originally), but it does seem to have happened to some souls sent to Revendreth.

[Caerule]

It's not a fluke that we're seeing many Azeroth characters we know, even though we're only exploring 4 realms out of the thousands.
Revendreth, Maldraxxus, Bastion, Ardenweald, these are realms that serve big purposes for how Death operates. The "celebrities" of Azeroth are the powerful heroes and villains with the strength of personality to find themselves in these sorts of realms. It's natural we see those in these prominent realms, while the 10.000 nameless Azerotheans we don't care about, head to other non-defined realms.

As for the purpose of The Shadowlands, it is a place for souls to live out their earned afterlife. Their eternity. The realm of souls where all spirits return and shed their gathered strength.
The five realms we visit have specialized purposes too. Bastion, ferrying souls safely to the Shadowlands. Maldraxxus, defending the Shadowlands from enemies. Revendreth, redeeming souls of their sins so that they may pass to destined afterlife unburdened by evil and pride. Ardenweald, maintaining the cycle of reincarnation for the forces of nature. The Maw, the prison where the most destructive souls are contained.

It seems like The Jailer was himself banished to The Maw. Whether he once had a more beneficial role as Jailer, or is merely keeping souls jailed there because it empowers him, is for now unknown. Maybe it is just enough that it is a prison, and he is in charge within.

[me4again]

Read the bible and you will understand , on a serious note (or perhaps i should be).
Its basically a story about heaven , earth, and hell.

[huth]

Makes me wonder...does the Bible indeed explain this or isn't it really really vague and shouldn't we rather look to Dante's Inferno or Milton's Paradise Lost?

I don't think the bible actually explains any of it. None of the realms are based on biblical accounts from what i can see, although some may be using christian ideas(like the Venthyr categorising souls according to the seven deadly sins).