Shadowlands Update: Bastion and the Kyrian Covenant

[Darknessvamp]

I'm not sure how I feel about people arriving at Bastion, being forced to become Kyrians against their will and then having the possibility of just failing and becoming a reject because they didn't destroy who they were enough and are thus not virtuous enough for them. Heck they're even suggesting Uther doesn't actually get respite in this place after all he did. Also lol this zone of undead order and purity is literally at war and in chaos with it's own inhabitants, kinda an oxymoron there don't ya think Blizzard?

I don't really know about that one. There were lots of hints about the Shadowlands. Also weren't the Shadowlands originally just a mirrored version of our world?

We also know that time passes differently in the Shadowlands (which means there'll probably be a timeskip after Shadowlands). For example, Salanar the Horseman (the guy who taught Death Knights how to summon their pony back in Wrath) tells us in Legion (which is roughly 5 years after the events of WotLK) that merely a few days have passed for him.
"Greetings, Deathlord. Years have passed since we first met, but for me it has been mere days."

Also the "Aggregates of Power" quest tells us to send our DK order hall followers into the Shadowlands to harvest souls. So, I guess at least DKs should be familiar faces around there?

The thing is: the Shadowlands were never presented as the actual afterlife but more of a spirit realm that exists parallel to our dimension where restless souls gather temporarily.

You're correct, the Shadowlands literally were just the mirrored world the player could see upon Death and explained why spirits and ghosts could stick around and how people can be resurrected or come back if they hadn't passed onto the "afterlife". Now they're retconned that to say the Shadowlands is the defacto afterlife and another realm entirely which completely botches all previous mentions that don't fit with spirits having "gone to the shadowlands" but still being able to come back.

[Kyphael]

Imagine being a devout follower of the light for years, only to die and become an owl slave for eternity.

Haha, this is like the most glaring flaw in the logic of how Bastion works. Sure sucks for Uther and should be an eye opener for all devout Paladins and Priests across Azeroth. This is your ultimate fate after a lifetime of servitude to The Light. Yikes, better off being a villain and enjoying the hell out of life before having to settle for a boring ass existence. This concept of heaven always bewildered me. I'm not saying do bad stuff, but I mean, don't limit your joys to ground rules set by what is obviously, in Azeroth's case, an afterlife that isn't that great a payoff. They should have been way more imaginative with Bastion. Hell, they could have simply just watched What Dreams May Come and come up with a more satisfying Bastion.



Instead it looks like a boring ass place where you forsake free will, full of convoluted rules and sucked of all joy.

[Halfaheart]

Also the "Aggregates of Power" quest tells us to send our DK order hall followers into the Shadowlands to harvest souls. So, I guess at least DKs should be familiar faces around there?

One of the DK's initial questswas going into the shadowlands to get your mount. I'm sure Bolvar will be doing something similar for the new DKs in training

[Woadnson]

Lost me at Vestibule of Eternity.
Porch of Perpetuity would have got less laughs.

[TuhoCthun]

Wooooow.....I can't wait to see BLUE HUMANS be the next allied race....

[SkyTides]

Its such a gorgeous zone, can't wait to see the mounts and back armour for the Kyrians, I could see myself chilling here

[TheRevenantHero]

1. Souls get trapped and are unable to go there, and/or do not have souls to begin with.
2. Souls being pulled back from the Shadowlands
3. I don't know
4. Yeah no shit, because Shadowlands wasn't even fleshed out back then, it was just a word.

There will be explanations likely in the actual expansion, and i suppose you could call it a retcon (not that it is bad, otherwise you couldn't create any new lore, ever)

It absolutely was fleshed out. There are a lot of quests that had you entering the Shadowlands. This expansion retcons the fuck out of so much lore and has made me lose all faith in the writers.

[Toubacos]

The anthem for the denizens of Bastion is Eiffel 65 - Blue

[Venziir]

ugh....i dunno....i went from my grandma to my parents' appartment when i was 8 and stumbled upon my brother loading Warcraft 2 on our first ever computer
it was the classic image of a Human Footman facing an Orc Grunt

now i'm going to fight the spirits in the afterlife and Sylvanas....again....again....

not really feeling it

That's Warcraft 1 though, Warcraft 2 has the image of an orc sailor facing Daelin Proudmoore.

[Nerovar]

It absolutely was fleshed out. There are a lot of quests that had you entering the Shadowlands. This expansion retcons the fuck out of so much lore and has made me lose all faith in the writers.

I mean, to be fair the current writers haven't been on board for a long time if I recall correctly and it's much easier to retcon stuff instead of taking your time to develop something that actually fits all previous lore. Legion and BfA were also completely full of retcons so this is the new standard, I guess.
Just look at how long it took them to retcon their own lore compendium.

[MrLachyG]

so the 4 realms are at war with each other? or at least Maldraxxus and Bastion are. so we defend Bastion then move on to helping Maldraxxus eventually? interesting

[Starfals]

Aside from that cool plaguelands like zone, this expansion seems to hype me less than Legion and BFA... Maybe because we had an oldschool baddy to look forward to. The boss of Sylvanas is someone completely new with nearly 0 backstory. Unlike Nzod and the leader of the Legion. We kept hearing things about them for years.

[TheRevenantHero]

I mean, to be fair the current writers haven't been on board for a long time if I recall correctly and it's much easier to retcon stuff instead of taking your time to develop something that actually fits all previous lore. Legion and BfA were also completely full of retcons so this is the new standard, I guess.
Just look at how long it took them to retcon their own lore compendium.

Shadowlands, so far, has had the most egregious retcons. Other expansions have had retcons but Shadowlands is ESPECIALLY bad. Also, the current writing team has been there for years. The only new addition has been Christie Golden. Which doesn't surprise me that suddenly the writing has gone to absolute fucking shit.

- - - Updated - - -

I honestly have no clue what the Shadowlands are supposed to be. really the place where everyone goes when they die? https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2016/02/...jpg-c74967.jpg - on this pic it is just a small area.

Also...do we go there as living beings? Just because Sylvanas did whatever she did on the Frozen Throne? And ofc we will have a Herathstone and Inn and mailbox there and port back and forth as we see fit. That alone ruins it from an immersive point just like it ruined the AU of WoD. Started out nicely...you went into this 30 min intro were you were told that you can't go back and in the end...whoops..yep here is the portal to your main city and now you can freely timetravel.

Up until this upcoming expansions, the shadowlands were established as being just a misty, shadowy, and grey version of whatever world you were on. This was established in SEVERAL quests. Now all of a sudden it's a massive realm with different lands. Makes no god damned sense.

[TickTickTick]

I honestly have no clue what the Shadowlands are supposed to be. really the place where everyone goes when they die? https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2016/02/...jpg-c74967.jpg - on this pic it is just a small area.

I specifically like how Emerald Dream and Shadowlands are two different planes.

Like... previously it was established that Nature beings regenerate in the Emerald Dream. Now it turns out they regenerate in Ardenweald - which is NOT the Emerald Dream according to the Chronicles.

But then, in Legion at the end of Emerald Nightmare you can see a few Nature beings you killed during Val'sharah questing or in EN raid. Their souls are instantly there. And by the way, they should go straight into the Maw after Sylvanas meddling.

This is going to be a head scratcher on the level of AU.

[Michael Jackson]

That's Warcraft 1 though, Warcraft 2 has the image of an orc sailor facing Daelin Proudmoore.

[Nerovar]

I specifically like how Emerald Dream and Shadowlands are two different planes.

Like... previously it was established that Nature beings regenerate in the Emerald Dream. Now it turns out they regenerate in Ardenweald - which is NOT the Emerald Dream according to the Chronicles.

But then, in Legion at the end of Emerald Nightmare you can see a few Nature beings you killed during Val'sharah questing or in EN raid. Their souls are instantly there. And by the way, they should go straight into the Maw after Sylvanas meddling.

This is going to be a head scratcher on the level of AU.

It's almost as if all of this shit was made up on the fly and has little to no basis in the actual lore of the game. We're literally reaching levels that are below fanfic. But whatever. It's Blizzard's property so they can do whatever they want with it.

[Venziir]

Ah, that image. Fair enough, I thought by "classic image", you refered to the cover art and not the loading screen - which is, arguably, more classic and iconic.
https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpe...x-WC2Cover.jpg
https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpe..._I_-_Cover.jpg for reference

[Michael Jackson]

Ah, that image. Fair enough, I thought by "classic image", you refered to the cover art and not the loading screen - which is, arguably, more classic and iconic.
https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpe...x-WC2Cover.jpg
https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpe..._I_-_Cover.jpg for reference

"i was 8 and stumbled upon my brother loading Warcraft 2 on our first ever computer, it was the classic image of a Human Footman facing an Orc Grunt"

As to: https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpe...x-WC2Cover.jpg , I reply to you:

[Cosmic Janitor]

Maybe mail is not done yet? Also I would like to know if one character unlocks all cosmetics or do I have to have 16 characters (4 of every armour type) go through all the covenant stuff to unlock. o_O

And yeah...Several abilities for the classes in any covenant are "in progress" - I wonder how far that x-pac really is...guess we will hear soon from the lucky ones in alpha.

I want to know if you can actually unlock them in the first place. I'm very concerned that we can't unlock them at all or even if we do we need to be allied with the respective covenant to use them, like with seasonal event transmogs. They could also use the faction flag system that is currently in place.. Blizzard has the means to lock these and this feels like the place where they would actually do it for stupid reasons.

[Phuongvi]

Is this World of Warcraft ?