so if lich king's purpose is to hold the pillars between two worlds, how did the world look like before LK was thrown into azeroth? blizzard just retconned 99% of wow lore lmao
I don't think that it was original always that powerful, not from the start. The Lich King grew in power by devouring countless souls over the years. Something I doubt Bolvar did - instead it seems that Sylvanas may have been causing the wars to feed that power of death and souls into her new master, making him stronger.
Also, it's more that the helm had power over death, and for a while now has been holding death back. All that 'jailer of the damned stuff'.
Shattering the helmet caused the rift not because the helmet always had that power, but because the control over the power of death that it did have is now gone. So Death is fully unleashed, with no Lich King holding it back from the mortal realm, and stronger than ever from all the wars Syl caused.
Blizzard destroys her own game . Sylvanas one shot the Bolvar and then destroys the helmet
I still don't see it:
1) If Bolvar was weaker, this would make it even less likely for him to have enough power to open a hole into the afterlife.
2) The Nathrezim would not want to mess with this balance because they themselves would have had their crusade weakened. Demons don't go where mortals go. They go to the Twisting Nether. To bind such a power to a helm and then give it to mortals on the possibility that it would cause a disruption in the balance would make absolutely no sense at all. I highly doubt the Nathrezim are that stupid.
3) Being the jailer of the damned was always about undeath, not actual death.
1 - Bolvar's power didn't open the hole. Bolvar's power was the last thing keeping the hole from opening.
2 - The Nathrezim didn't fully know what they were dealing with, is what I'm saying. Their work with necromancy started in the mortal realm long after they'd joined the Burning Crusade, they were just searching for more power and ways to make more weapons for the Legion. They would not be the first beings in the cosmos to fool around with powers they didn't fully understand, or appreciate the true scope of. The fact that demons are sort've immortal might've made them even less capable of really appreciating the balance of life and true death.
3 - I'd say undeath and necromancy are all tied into the greater scope of the cosmic power of Death, as described in that WoW cosmology powers chart thing. I think the helm had a bit of the power of Death in it, and Bolvar was using it to hold back Death from overwhelming the world. With the helmet destroyed, now nothing is holding Death back.
Anyway, not meaning to harp on all this or anything, I'm just speculating and trying to find the most reasonable answer to what I'm seeing from all this.
An entity that existed for maybe 40 years was the last thing keeping the Shadowlands at bay? How does that make sense?
The Nathrezim race has been on this crusade for such a long time, that within the last 50 years they create an artifact that they didn't completely understand? Sure it's an explanation. It's still stupid.
Same answer as to 1. The Lich King as an entitity only existed for at most 50 years. Doesn't really make sense. And then, even if you argue that because Death had gained all this power from Sylvanas' help, Bolvar shouldn't be able to keep up because he's weaker than Arthas ever was.
Well, the Nathrezim were experimenting with necromancy before that. Ner'zhul was basically used as a focus for the culmination of their efforts. They bound Ner'zhul and then juiced him up with death magic in order to turn him into a weapon and sent him to Azeroth, and Ner'zhul became a soul-devouring lich that increased in power as he caused more death.
When Arthas took over, all that power remained tied to the helm. The helm had become a focus for the power of Death, a means to command vast necromantic energy and hold sway over the undead. But we learned that even Arthas was holding back the full power of Scourge, not unleashing the full measure of Death's power, for some reason.
Then Bolvar took over, and became the Jailer of the Damned. Even more so, Bolvar was a being that was holding back the power of Death, maintaining a balance between life and death.
Then Sylvanas starts a war that causes mass death, feeding untold souls into the hungry dark. Bolvar did not become stronger from the increase in death. Something else did.
The power of the helm that Bolvar controlled was the last thing holding back Death's full might. With it destroyed, no one can stop Death from bursting into the world.
The power of the helmet didn't tear open the barrier. The power of the helmet was the last thing keeping the barrier from being torn.