Very basic SL lore question

[oldgeezer]

When I kill mobs in the Shadowlands, are they permanently dead? (Or, rather, more dead then before?). Or does the soul/anima/whatever get reincarnated again? I note that Venthyr appear to release anima when they die.

[TheFirstOnes]

Whatever you kill in the Shadowlands, it's permanently gone. Yes.

[Razion]

Anima is a collection of experiences and memory, so whether you consider this collective as potentially an intelligence, even when it doesn't exhibit any agency of itself, is up to your own moral interpretation. You have at the very least destroyed the host of the anima and sent it to become one with the land. Does the self die when it is absorbed to a larger sense of self? It's a philosophical question.

[Villager720]

From what we’ve been told, dying in the Shadowlands ends existence for that being.

Which means when we’re merrily killing forsworn aspirants who fell to doubt in world quests - we’re actually ending existence for folks who just didn’t want to forget their families.
The Shadowlands are a bad place.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Which means when we’re merrily killing forsworn aspirants who fell to doubt in world quests - we’re actually ending existence for folks who just didn’t want to forget their families.

Maybe they shouldn't have joined a murder cult like the Forsworn. Aspirants can eventually return to the Arbiter to get reassign if they don't want to forget everything.

[Caerule]

There's a few exceptions here, but overall yes. Like an elemental in their home plane, or a demon in the Nether, once they die, their soul will slowly disperse into the essence of the plane, and never returns.

I mentioned exceptions. Mainly you'll find those in Maldraxxus. For it is through necromancy that you can escape this fate. If you die on Maldraxxus, they can just reanimate you. In your own body. In a lesser body, if your house won't spring for a good one (those small guys made from scraps), in a fully constructed body. Or if you've obtained the power to ascend to Lichhood, by having your soul tied to a container that can manifest a new necromantic one with time. Necromancy is at the core of what makes Maldraxxus such a great eternal army. And their forms seem specifically designed to be compatible with necromancy. You could probably necrotize a Venthyr or Kyrian as well, if you get to them on time. Though the physical difference between a living and dead one would be way more obvious, I should think.

[fatgunn]

There's a few exceptions here, but overall yes. Like an elemental in their home plane, or a demon in the Nether, once they die, their soul will slowly disperse into the essence of the plane, and never returns.

I mentioned exceptions. Mainly you'll find those in Maldraxxus. For it is through necromancy that you can escape this fate. If you die on Maldraxxus, they can just reanimate you. In your own body. In a lesser body, if your house won't spring for a good one (those small guys made from scraps), in a fully constructed body. Or if you've obtained the power to ascend to Lichhood, by having your soul tied to a container that can manifest a new necromantic one with time. Necromancy is at the core of what makes Maldraxxus such a great eternal army. And their forms seem specifically designed to be compatible with necromancy. You could probably necrotize a Venthyr or Kyrian as well, if you get to them on time. Though the physical difference between a living and dead one would be way more obvious, I should think.

There are quests that talk about constructs made from kyrian bodies and how it makes them more powerful.

[Caerule]

Maybe they shouldn't have joined a murder cult like the Forsworn. Aspirants can eventually return to the Arbiter to get reassign if they don't want to forget everything.

Pebrocks is right, there. As we learn in a Necrolord campaign quest, the Arbiter selects souls for the role of Kyrian that would be better off forgetting their pasts. For whom they are a weakness, rather than a source of strength. It's still a hard thing to do, and not everyone ends up able to walk that path successfully. There was the option to return to the Arbiter and get judged again, if your chosen realm doesn't work out. I assume the same option exists for Necrolords that grow tired of fighting.

Instead, the Mawsworn played on these feelings of dissatisfaction to recruit them into a murderous army, promising them a shortcut to earn their wings without sacrifices, while actually just using them as fodder. They may have been misguided. But their fate was going to end up a bad one either way. We've killed for less.

- - - Updated - - -

There are quests that talk about constructs made from kyrian bodies and how it makes them more powerful.

Yeah, those get featured in quests. But that's not really reanimated Kyrians, but constructs forged out of Kyrian flesh. Which do have some flashy strong abilities, due to containing the power of many Kyrian forged into a single being. Individual Kyrian are quite powerful, comparatively. In fact, the blue construct we encounter in the main questline still has fading Kyrian souls within its flesh, that we unify and get in control of the construct, rather than letting them put in a Maldraxxian soul to overwrite them.

[huth]

Instead, the Mawsworn played on these feelings of dissatisfaction to recruit them into a murderous army, promising them a shortcut to earn their wings without sacrifices, while actually just using them as fodder. They may have been misguided. But their fate was going to end up a bad one either way. We've killed for less.

Probably the most insulting part of them as well. They keep accusing the Archon and Kyrian in general of being liars and hiding the truth, yet it is the Forsworn and Mawsworn that are constantly lying and hiding their real nature and constantly doing all the stuff they accuse others of.


But regarding the basic question, death in the Shadowlands means cessation of existence unless proper precautions have been made, at least for soul-based beings. Some of the servants created directly seem to either not be bothered much by it or be indefinitely rebuildable, like the Dredgers.