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    Moderator Aucald's Avatar
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    [Spoilers] Shadowlands Maw Map and Theories

    Anyone else feel like the Maw and its environs looks strangely non-organic, like some form of construct?



    Especially the northern-most area, seemingly wreathed in some form of energized anima.
    "We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

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    Pit Lord Magical Mudcrab's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aucald View Post
    Anyone else feel like the Maw and its environs looks strangely non-organic, like some form of construct?

    <snip>

    Especially the northern-most area, seemingly wreathed in some form of energized anima.
    I get what you mean. To me, it sort of looks like something that has fallen into disrepair over time, and there's a vague symmetry between the two halves of it. That said, it looking like it was built could simply be because we don't know how the Shadowlands actually work, or it could be that the Maw was built for the Jailer, and simply ended up becoming the place to send dangerous souls and has fallen into disrepair.
    Sylvanas didn't even win the popular vote, she was elected by an indirect election of representatives. #NotMyWarchief

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    Not to jump too far ahead, but this "intelligent design" aspect of the Maw (and by extension the Shadowlands itself) would seem to play into the idea of the Shadowlands being the location/a part of the "Machine of Death".

    Given the way Blizzard described it being a "Machine", it would seem the Shadowlands were created with a specific purpose/intention in mind, perhaps by whatever forces created the Warcraft cosmos as a whole. With this in mind, it may give us a clue as to what these greater Warcraft entities' motives are, and why they created the Shadowlands in the first place. Perhaps the machine of life and death serves to pump out an endless cycle that somehow sustains these Greater Entities (similar to the process of Ragnarok in the Marvel comics - think of the Warcraft Universe as a farm of sorts; they are ones reaping the harvest).

    If so, then maybe Sylvanas's words during the Shadowlands cinematic make a lot more sense: "This world is a prison." - and maybe her intention is to break the machine of death further to "set us all free" and deprive these Greater Entities of being able to maintain this endless farm of strife and Anima.

    Perhaps that's why it's called the "World of Warcraft" in the first place - it's a universe bound for endless war/conflict/strife simply to facilitate a cycle/machine that serves to feed the masters who created it.

    Alright, tinfoil hat speculation over - but it is all very curious if you ask me

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    Herald of the Titans TigTone's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by luigisp View Post
    Not to jump too far ahead, but this "intelligent design" aspect of the Maw (and by extension the Shadowlands itself) would seem to play into the idea of the Shadowlands being the location/a part of the "Machine of Death".

    Given the way Blizzard described it being a "Machine", it would seem the Shadowlands were created with a specific purpose/intention in mind, perhaps by whatever forces created the Warcraft cosmos as a whole. With this in mind, it may give us a clue as to what these greater Warcraft entities' motives are, and why they created the Shadowlands in the first place. Perhaps the machine of life and death serves to pump out an endless cycle that somehow sustains these Greater Entities (similar to the process of Ragnarok in the Marvel comics - think of the Warcraft Universe as a farm of sorts; they are ones reaping the harvest).

    If so, then maybe Sylvanas's words during the Shadowlands cinematic make a lot more sense: "This world is a prison." - and maybe her intention is to break the machine of death further to "set us all free" and deprive these Greater Entities of being able to maintain this endless farm of strife and Anima.

    Perhaps that's why it's called the "World of Warcraft" in the first place - it's a universe bound for endless war/conflict/strife simply to facilitate a cycle/machine that serves to feed the masters who created it.

    Alright, tinfoil hat speculation over - but it is all very curious if you ask me
    That wouldn’t be a bad idea, only thing I don’t like about is it that means shadowlands is the end of WoW or second to last expac with the end being the heroes finally ending the war between light and void.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TigTone View Post
    That wouldn’t be a bad idea, only thing I don’t like about is that means shadowlands is the end of WoW or second to last with the end being the heroes finally ending the war between light and void.
    It does seem that the next expansion will potentially delve into the cross-cosmic conflict of the Light and the Void. Does that necessarily mean the end of WoW? Probably not, given there's still a lot of story to be told and they've just opened up the door to a lot of potential new story threads with Shadowlands (a whole other universe on the other side of ours? Hot damn).

    Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if just like before: they only give us so much information to move the story forward while not doing so too quickly or too much at once, so as to keep it interesting.

    While my theory may end up being correct, that does not mean we will discover all of the pieces that it is comprised of in Shadowlands - more than likely, this is a story they'll stretch out over a few expansions.

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    Moderator Aucald's Avatar
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    I was reminded a bit of Legion/Titan construction, as if some kind of ancient complex fell into the Shadowlands and embedded itself there, around which the Maw accreted over the eons. It doesn't seem at all natural in the way Bastion, the Ardenweald, or Ravendreath looks - even Maldraxxus looks more like a landscape. The Maw's territory looks oddly like a machine, or if it was a machine at some time.
    "We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

  7. #7
    Interesting the colors are completely different from the maps to ingame.




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    Moderator Aucald's Avatar
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    Looks more like what I'd expect of an area in Revendreth, but the architecture does look Torghast-like.
    "We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

  9. #9
    The shape with its "eyes" does kind of remind me of Naaru.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Magical Mudcrab View Post
    I get what you mean. To me, it sort of looks like something that has fallen into disrepair over time, and there's a vague symmetry between the two halves of it. That said, it looking like it was built could simply be because we don't know how the Shadowlands actually work, or it could be that the Maw was built for the Jailer, and simply ended up becoming the place to send dangerous souls and has fallen into disrepair.
    Good eye on the symmetry. Just blew my mind realizing it.

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    Moderator Aucald's Avatar
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    So apparently the true name of the Jailer is "Zovaal," and based on his model and accompanying metadata it appears he is or was a Titan - or at least related to the Titans. While all this is still conjecture at the moment, it does neatly dovetail with the presentation of the Maw and Torghast, and perhaps the Jailer Zovaal's realm is actually the remnant of the world his world-soul was part of, having somehow found its way into the Shadowlands. Perhaps Zovaal was killed in some long-ago struggle or fight, and wound up in the Shadowlands as the shade of a fallen Titan in unrecorded time before Aman'thul himself was born to begin tracing the history of the universe.

    Perhaps destroyed worlds even have their own echoes in the infinity of the Shadowlands, meaning that the Legion's Burning Crusade may well have expanded the scope of the Shadowlands exponentially as they put countless lives and worlds to the torch.
    "We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

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