Shouldn't Shadowlands screw up many cultures belief systems?

[Trassk]

So, lets use a real world example quick. In the real world, cultures across the globe and across time follow systems of faith in the afterlife, and many of them form the structure of their culture and society around those beliefs, in how they operate in life determines what happens to them when they die. Some even go to extremes in this with sometimes violent methods all just to obtain some form of salvation after they die.

Obviously anyone who doesn't believe in any of this is a separate matter, its just the example of what we see in the real world.

Now in a fantasy world like warcraft, with actual magic and demons and many mythical concepts, the afterlife is as much a real thing as the magic our characters use to fight one another with.

Throughout warcrafts lore, we've seen many races who follow their own separate belief systems, many who believe in what becomes of them once they die. Orcs seem to have a belief in dying in glorious battle means they get to see their brethren in the afterlife, and only dying with honor will achieve this.
Tauren and night elves believes in a similar thing of spiritual entities like the earthmother or elune will lead them into a peaceful afterlife.
Draenei and humans believe in the light being thing that will guide them, more so humans because draenei live so long the concept of death is few and far between them natural order outside of battle.
Trolls follow the spiritualism of perhaps loas being the guides into the afterlife.

But yeah point is, many races hold some form of belief within their races cultures into what becomes of them when they die, and given how spirits exist in wow as entities, they have no reason to doubt an afterlife did infact exist and was waiting for them when they die.



Now going into the shadowlands lore, its obvious from the onset, the planes that exist in the shadowlands are not quite the ones many races on azeroth have thought of when they think of their afterlife. Most of these are new concepts thought up by blizzard recently, mostly to make sure people have interest in something new as a way to keep players invested in the game.

But, as many of the details have come out, its obvious there are just about no concepts that go in line with our playable races versions of afterlife. Someone might argue the excuse that because the shadowlands is meant to have countless planes of existence, that they are out there, blizzard just didn't include them. Personally I don't think this kind of issue will ever be addressed in this expansion or anytime after, and we're suppose to just accept this as the norm when it comes to a spiritual afterlife.



Given this though, shouldn't the discovery that many of the races belief systems in how they believed what their afterlife would be like to be false, shouldn't this in itself screw up the very foundation of many races beliefs? Imagine in the real world, if there was an afterlife, christians and muslims and hindus all died, and came before the flying spaghetti monster, but they were allowed a second chance at life, wouldn't this mess up everything they held to belief?


It just feels like blizzard in their attempts again at trying to make something 'cool' are just happy to forgo anything they created previously without much care.

[Ghostile]

I wonder if any races have their afterlife described with enough detail to be impacted by the information coming from shadowlands.

Then again, the average guy probably doesn't even know whats going on during shadowlands.
And the top military people, us included, have seen enough shit to not be shocked by afterlife not being what we thought.

[emil133]

You have to remember that even in a world full of magic, people can still be wrong of the afterlife. Lets say there is a after life in the real world. There is roughly 4200 religions, each with there own story of a afterlife. But of all of them, only one can be correct, or all incorrect. So just because taurens believe in one thing, doesn't mean its true

[A Chozo]

shouldn't the discovery that many of the races belief systems in how they believed what their afterlife would be like to be false, shouldn't this in itself screw up the very foundation of many races beliefs?

No, because only the Champion, Bolvar, Sylvanas and some select few are traveling to the Shadowlands with power to come back.

All the other people of Azeroth don't have a clue and their culture will continue the same.

Hell, even if the Champion went on a world trip telling everyone the truth, they would simply brand the Champion as some weird-ass blasphemer spouting bullshit / hit too many times in the head. Similarly, they wouldn't trust the Lich King's or Sylvanas' words, and since no one save those three and maybe some more can confirm things, in the end it has zero influence.

Not enough mouths nor proof to change the status quo.

[TigTone]

Shamans and death magic users can talk with spirits.

It’s just blizzard never bothered to have them ask the spirits about the afterlife hence the no info on it.

[Feanoro]

The current "writers" have made it very clear they want to write whatever they find cool without the slightest regard to existing lore.

[shise]

You have to remember that even in a world full of magic, people can still be wrong of the afterlife. Lets say there is a after life in the real world. There is roughly 4200 religions, each with there own story of a afterlife. But of all of them, only one can be correct, or all incorrect. So just because taurens believe in one thing, doesn't mean its true

Multiple could be correct, or all incorrect, could also be.

[Darknessvamp]

It also raises several questions about what was going on with the spirits we've summoned back from the Shadowlands over the years considering they're supposed to have been "processed" after having arrived there. Heck Uther is a huge hole considering he's been a freed spirit since Wrath when he finally passed on to the afterlife and returned from there for a visit in Legion but has only just become a Kyrian in Shadowlands.

I wonder if any races have their afterlife described with enough detail to be impacted by the information coming from shadowlands.

Then again, the average guy probably doesn't even know whats going on during shadowlands.
And the top military people, us included, have seen enough shit to not be shocked by afterlife not being what we thought.

Well I'm sure Paladins and Priests would be losing their shit over the devotion to the light seemingly being worthless if they just end up in the Anima sorting bin anyway.

No, because only the Champion, Bolvar, Sylvanas and some select few are traveling to the Shadowlands with power to come back.

All the other people of Azeroth don't have a clue and their culture will continue the same.

Hell, even if the Champion went on a world trip telling everyone the truth, they would simply brand the Champion as some weird-ass blasphemer spouting bullshit / hit too many times in the head. Similarly, they wouldn't trust the Lich King's or Sylvanas' words, and since no one save those three and maybe some more can confirm things, in the end it has zero influence.

Not enough mouths nor proof to change the status quo.

Not sure about the Horde but as for the Alliance I'm pretty sure the person who is publicly known for opposing a Titan led army, having ousted the heretical head of a death cult and was a large part of the opposition against several aggressors has slightly more support from the people than immediately being believed to be a "weird-ass blasphemer". Especially when the literal sky over Northrend is getting torn open and the Scourge go nuts at the start of the expansion.

[Kithelle]

The current "writers" have made it very clear they want to write whatever they find cool without the slightest regard to existing lore.

Care share all the existing lore facts about the afterlife? We aren't talking about beliefs of the various races I mean facts that are proven and shared.

[Jester Joe]

It confirms it if anything?

Bwonsambi has his own section that he brings the trolls too.

Safe to bet the Light would be considered the Kyrian.

The Night Fae area has been shown to be pretty close to a nature style afterlife like the Tauren and Night elves would believe in.

It's pretty vague what the afterlife actually entails, but I don't see how it's screwing up everything, especially when this isn't ALL of the Shadowlands.

[Nerovar]

You're completely right of course but I wouldn't count on Blizzard actually dealing with the logical implications of the story they've created.

[Maljinwo]

Prepare for a mindfuck unless you are a troll

Once again, master race

[Saltysquidoon]

The current "writers" have made it very clear they want to write whatever they find cool without the slightest regard to existing lore.

Maybe it's only existing lore from the titan's PoV.


Here's a question, what even are the naaru? They're clearly not equal to the titans or the voidlords but they also seem to have no impact on the shadowlands despite the light being directly presented as a religion consistently and being shown to have some control over the souls of the dead.

[Raetary]

Here's a question, what even are the naaru? They're clearly not equal to the titans or the voidlords but they also seem to have no impact on the shadowlands despite the light being directly presented as a religion consistently and being shown to have some control over the souls of the dead.

The Shadowlands have had void incursions in the past, and there is a Naaru imprisoned in Revendreth who's getting experimented upon.
Not to mention that Light harms Venthyr and Maldraxxi.
They definitely do have an impact, just what kind of impact and to what extent remains to be seen.

[A Chozo]

Not sure about the Horde but as for the Alliance I'm pretty sure the person who is publicly known for opposing a Titan led army, having ousted the heretical head of a death cult and was a large part of the opposition against several aggressors has slightly more support from the people than immediately being believed to be a "weird-ass blasphemer". Especially when the literal sky over Northrend is getting torn open and the Scourge go nuts at the start of the expansion.

That's only if we assume the champion would even campaign to change people's mind about the afterlife - which I doubt. And even then, people are interestingly resilient into changing core beliefs like that. An well-accomplished mercenary like the Champion of Azeroth would need a crusade to change some minds.

Also, not only barely any relevant society currently resides in Icecrown Glacier, but also there's no indication that the gap in the sky leads to the afterlife for anyone except - again - Champion, Bolvar, Sylvanas & immediate associates.

[Super Dickmann]

Yes, and it would be very interesting to see the races react to their beliefs being empirically proven wrong and their afterlife being decided for them by some omniscient bint, ditto all their leaders going to hell. But recent statements have all but stated the focus will be on the Shadowlands plot exclusively, not the reaction to it, which is a massive wasted opportunity. This is societally cataclysmic shit right there.

[Kyphael]

Yes, and it would be very interesting to see the races react to their beliefs being empirically proven wrong and their afterlife being decided for them by some omniscient bint, ditto all their leaders going to hell. But recent statements have all but stated the focus will be on the Shadowlands plot exclusively, not the reaction to it, which is a massive wasted opportunity. This is societally cataclysmic shit right there.

Deserving of a complete overhaul of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor quest story lines like in Cataclysm, but for Blizzard it's just an episodic threat with no worthy fallout to explore that will be forgotten when filed along with the other expansions as leveling fodder.

[Darknessvamp]

That's only if we assume the champion would even campaign to change people's mind about the afterlife - which I doubt. And even then, people are interestingly resilient into changing core beliefs like that. An well-accomplished mercenary like the Champion of Azeroth would need a crusade to change some minds.

Also, not only barely any relevant society currently resides in Icecrown Glacier, but also there's no indication that the gap in the sky leads to the afterlife for anyone except - again - Champion, Bolvar, Sylvanas & immediate associates.

Yeah you're not wrong about that, as much as the Player might desire to inform people of the truth I doubt that Blizzard will have that as a possibility for them, not to mention that 50% of the classes that the champion could be are somehow religion or spiritual related and wouldn't exactly be eager to tell everyone that everything they believed in about the afterlife was proven wrong by one field trip to the underworld whilst the rest of them probably don't really have any reason to do so or really care about it all. The only class I could see going through with it is the Death Knight as they could arguably make the case that being risen by the Lich King was a better alternative to going through the Shadowlands process especially because of what they previously believed their afterlife would have been like. Also I wouldn't say that the Champion would need a crusade to convince people considering how gullible and easily swayed the whole populace of Azeroth seem to be towards new ideas e.g. Twilight Hammer, literally any NPC you just tell to believe you as evidence for something you've found out, etc.

I'm sure it'd eventually make it's way around the grape vine of Azeroth like how civilians in Boralus who weren't at Orgrimmar when Sylvanas left and Anduin gave his "the war is over, go home" speech instantly knew everything that happened there as soon as you returned even though most of the army present were from Stormwind and information shouldn't have traveled that fast. I fully expect "The ghosts coming out of that tear over Northrend really unsettle me." and other choice lines as soon as you get back to Stormwind/Orgrimmar after the intro scenario is finished and Anduin/Thrall end up lost to the Maw.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Prepare for a mindfuck unless you are a troll

Once again, master race

RIP Mueh'zala though if you're Sandfury.

But thankfully Bwonsamdi is Based

It might also be a mindfuck that Bwonsamdi seems to be working with a Fairy Queen too, but that might change

[Razion]

People that don't believe in anything now have even more proof, in addition to all the magic being performed by those with faith in their beliefs.

Those with faith can still provide tangible proof of their own religion, so it's more like they'd come to the conclusion that all faiths are true, or the Shadowlands has a place related to their faith or belief system or that they have something to do with one another. The Shadowlands are infinite, after all.