Shadowlands Afterlives: Ardenweald

[Ladey Gags]

I just can’t get into this new story. It doesn’t feel like WoW anymore. Oh well

[Aerisot]

Where did you get the idea all souls go to the Maw after Artha's death? Blizzard has said the "Machine of Death" was broken sometime in Legion.

They actually said during the events of Wrath of the Lich King, and one could assume it was when Sylvanas jumped off the tower and met with the Jailer.

[Darknessvamp]

At this point I honestly can't tell if you're being intentionally obtuse or there's a genuine language barrier. To anyone watching the same cinematic I did it was clearly a difficult choice to cull the grove. That is literally the opposite of malice. Enjoy being wrong I guess...

"It must be done. Reclaim everything from this grove. Everything."
"The Queen has called the Wild Hunt." "We have culled your grove so that others might live." "Will you sacrifice one soul for the forest entire?"
They literally have no qualms about culling the grove and destroying the souls therein. The fact they gave the Caretaker a choice for the last one is admirable but they heavily imply that he would be in the wrong for allowing it to survive instead of destroying it for their sake. That is literally malicious.

Person doesn’t understand that if they don’t act ALL the groves die.

The groves are already dying as shown moments before the culling. They're not fixing the problem, they're delaying it at the cost of lives they're 'saving'.

[iamthedevil]

This is Harambe all over again!

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

They actually said during the events of Wrath of the Lich King, and one could assume it was when Sylvanas jumped off the tower and met with the Jailer.

Again where did you get this notion it happened in Wrath?

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Maw

Around the time of the Burning Legion's third invasion of Azeroth, the machine of death was broken, and all souls who enter the Shadowlands now pour directly into the Maw.

[Kumorii]

Even if that wasn't their only purpose their thinking is still "we must destroy these souls so that we might survive", there is clear communication of opposition and disregard from one party towards the other, not to mention an idea of superiority and inferiority considering they are caretakers who are deciding which of their charges lives or dies seemingly by worth, which is facilitating their desire to harm others which sounds pretty malicious to me. Although as you said they dress up their motivations as "The Greater Good" and "Saving the whole" which could then become an argument about what is morally wrong and right and whether that justifies their actions as lacking in malice but considering the Shadowlands largely paints itself as amoral I believe that would be a wasted discussion to have. Perhaps my issue is more with the fact that the Night Fae are assuming the fates of the souls and deciding for them rather than allowing them to consent to the fate of their Afterlife. After all "we have decided you must be destroyed so that we can live" sounds far more malicious than "we will give ourselves up for the sake of Ardenweald".

And this is going towards your own morality and ethics as I mentioned. Doing something without malice doesn't mean it's the right thing. Malice just means doing harm with ill intent, which is different to doing harm, and doing harm with good intent. Hell, doing harm for self preservation isn't really malicious in of itself depending on context.

Though I'm not sure with the bolded part. They said they were doing it so other groves don't have to die. It ends with "Save Ardenweald" or something akin to that. Which is pretty clear that they are doing it with good intentions or at least appear to.. I also interpreted that they seemed to not specifically target certain groves. Sounded like he had regret when he said "chosen your grove" as it's a tough decision. Whatever the factors I'm sure we will get more knowledge how groves were picked and if it's for the greater good in the end or egotistical.

But Blizzard is really painting it up so you can speculate both points of view. If what they said were coming from either saving Ardenweald or saving themselves. Which I think is the point and makes it good. I'm excited for the Ardenweald questline now because I want to know .

I'm sure they are trying to paint them as people who tragically has to make tough decisions for us to discover there is more to it than that. Or it was a bait and it was for the greater good and she acts stoic and noble for the peoples sake. Or it could be from a malicious motive. It's intriguing.

We will see.

[baskev]

as druid , as night elf this hurts so much.

[Fullmetal89]

Found it very boring tbqh, the first one is still the best.

[Hipnos14]

Damn, I think this is the first time I felt sad for the death of a character in Warcraft. I think that the reason why this death hits so hard is because we know wthat it's hard to really die in Warcraft, your spirit simply goes to another place, that's not death really, but this, oh man...this was real death, Ursoc got erased from existence, we will never see him again in any shape or form.

[Ielenia]

This one reinforces my opinion that Draka was completely unnecessary in the Maldraxxus' video, and was actually detrimental to the video itself. If it was a random Maldraxxus character, in my opinion, it would be a much better video.

Why?

Because here we have a video about a random Ardenweald character, and I find it much more compelling story. In contrast, I kept waiting to find something new about Draka... yet nothing was given other than "hey she's a rogue now".

[iamthedevil]

If they kill Garrosh in the ravendreth one im going to be very upset.

[TigTone]

Mission accomplished by Blizzard. Cheap emotional tricks and superficial pathos work like charm every time.

What do expect from a game that has never been Noble prize winning literature or even close to great writing.

[Xilurm]

That was actually his 3rd death. Once in the War of the Ancients, once in Wrath, and finally in Legion.

Did he have to go to Ardenweald each time? Did Cenarius also have to there until he came back? If so, is Ardenweald the only place in the Shadowlands where you can go back to Azeroth from?

[intrinsc]

Damn, I think this is the first time I felt sad for the death of a character in Warcraft. I think that the reason why this death hits so hard is because we know wthat it's hard to really die in Warcraft, your spirit simply goes to another place, that's not death really, but this, oh man...this was real death, Ursoc got erased from existence, we will never see him again in any shape or form.

This one hit me like a truck as well. Like, literally weeping.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Did he have to go to Ardenweald each time? Did Cenarius also have to there until he came back? If so, is Ardenweald the only place in the Shadowlands where you can go back to Azeroth from?

I believe the answer to all 3 questions is yes but that is only based on the info we have, or lack thereof. It's safe to assume any Wild God would have to go to Ardenweald. However, since Shadowlands is known as being a "infinite realm" there could possibly be other realms that can bring you back to life.

[Zyky]

This was super depressing seeing Ursoc die his last death.

[EternalBany]

This one reinforces my opinion that Draka was completely unnecessary in the Maldraxxus' video, and was actually detrimental to the video itself. If it was a random Maldraxxus character, in my opinion, it would be a much better video.

Why?

Because here we have a video about a random Ardenweald character, and I find it much more compelling story. In contrast, I kept waiting to find something new about Draka... yet nothing was given other than "hey she's a rogue now".

cause STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER FOR POSTERITY LUL
everyone hates her already and is bored

[Queen of Hamsters]

Not sure how I feel about this "there's FURTHER death"-stuff though... If the Shadowlands are supposed to be the end station, where do souls that were destroyed over there, go? They just cease to excist? Poof?

Well, that I can at least relate to on some level, as long as it's a "Nobody knows..."-situation as seen in Coco...

[Inukashi]

Damn, I wanted to play my Venthyr Priest, but I guess my Bear-Druid needs to save Ardenweald first. Liked it the more then the others.

[Kagdar]

The video was pretty great for a druid video. My biggest concern with it is that since i don't play a druid, it didn't make me want to be in Ardernweld in the slightest.