If souls are stolen by the Shadowlands, what about wisps?

[Zarc]

I think I am wrong on multiple accounts here, but I'm just gonna go ahead and riff anyway.

The Shadowlands is the realm of Death, right?

The Emerald Dream the realm of Life, or?

Ny'alotha the realm of Shadow? (I guess "Shadowlands" was taken so they went with something more exotic I suppose)

The Twisting Nether is the realm of Disorder?

Then certainly there exists a realm of Order and one of Light, too.

If the beings of Disorder (Demons) go to the Twisitng Nether when they die, and mortals go to the Shadowlands, does that mean that mortals are beings of Death? Is Death our team, that we are supposed to be playing for?

Night Elves used to be immortal. What if they were immortal because they are are beings of Life, the reason wisps exist is because they are beings of Life, so they don't go to the Shadowlands, they go to the realm of Life, as wisps. (I'm sure somebody can poke a pin into this whole thing by pointing out a dead Night Elf character that I don't know about that will be appearing in the Shadowlands.)

But wait, if they go to the realm of Life as wisps, and they stay in reality, doesn't that conclude that reality is in fact the realm of Life?

But what about the Emerald Dream? Didn't the Titans, the beings of Order, build the Emerald Dream? They created Freya who supposedly built it. Their lieutenants in the ordering of Azeroth is the Dragonflights, they are aligned with the Emerald Dream. Wouldn't it make sense that the Titan's lieutenants are beings of Order too, not Life? Is the Emerald Dream in fact the realm of Order? (Probably not since they already did the Cosmic Chart, but why should this stop me from speculating?)

So there is no neutral ground called "reality". There are 6 primal forces, each with their own realm, and reality is one of these 6 realms, or planes of existence. Everybody is playing offense and and defense on each others' turfs all the time.

[cwowtbang]

The lore is a messy nightmare, its full of plot holes and revisions, etc. I cannot take this expansion seriously. I want to like it, and I've tried. I just don't understand the point of the shadowlands.

[Ringthane]

Honestly, I think this expansions is just going to be another WoD. Like how they said that a time travel expansion, and then it wasn't, or maybe the other way around, and first we were going to be stuck there with no way to get back until we solved everything, and then it was "Here's a portal every ten feet to take you back to Azeroth", and nobody really ever figured out exactly what was going on. Same thing here - we'll probably be told fifteen different things about what's happening here before this thing is done.

[Captain Proton]

Night Elves used to be immortal. What if they were immortal because they are are beings of Life, the reason wisps exist is because they are beings of Life, so they don't go to the Shadowlands, they go to the realm of Life, as wisps. (I'm sure somebody can poke a pin into this whole thing by pointing out a dead Night Elf character that I don't know about that will be appearing in the Shadowlands.)

They were immortal because of the Well of Eternity, otherwise Trolls would be beings of Life too. Even the Wild Gods go to Shadowlands.

[TheRevenantHero]

Good question. I also wonder how Blizzard will explain all the other ghosts in the game.

Spoiler alert: They won't because they don't give a flying fuck about consistency anymore.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Then certainly there exists a realm of Order and one of Light, too.

Technically the Great Dark Beyond would be the realm of Order, but it's simply the physical universe where Titans are also born from.

But what about the Emerald Dream? Didn't the Titans, the beings of Order, build the Emerald Dream? They created Freya who supposedly built it. Their lieutenants in the ordering of Azeroth is the Dragonflights, they are aligned with the Emerald Dream. Wouldn't it make sense that the Titan's lieutenants are beings of Order too, not Life? Is the Emerald Dream in fact the realm of Order? (Probably not since they already did the Cosmic Chart, but why should this stop me from speculating?)

It's sort of be retconned to this:

Some believe that Freya wove the Emerald Dream into being from nothing. Others claim that this strange place had always existed in some form, a dream born from Azeroth’s slumbering world-soul. It is said that Freya tapped into this realm and molded what would become known as the Emerald Dream as a way to commune with the nascent titan

I believe the Emerald Dream is just a part or imitation of the Plane of Life, similar to Helheim which is a imitation to the Plane of Death.

[RCA]

I always found it funny that in WC3 you ''train'' these wisps from your Tree of Life and then force them to sacrifice themselves to make another building or to harvest gold and lumber. Even when they are dead they were still working for their people.

Don’t forget the actual “detonate” skill too. So yea laborers, seedlings and kamikazes, oh the afterlife of a night elf, of course before this new chapter.

[Razion]

Typically what we hear about with Wisps and Vengeful Spirits tends to follow a similar pattern: they either have an especially strong tie to a given place/location (like nature, or the place they died). These spirits could lash out against those who would retrieve them. And it could be part of the process that the spirit has to not be tied down in order for them to receive their proper sorting, because even as a spirit they're interacting with the mortal world - so Undeath in this case is still part of their life and the experiences they accumulate and would be part of their judgment, so taking them preemptively may interfere with where they would otherwise end up.

Like, we don't see Forsaken being plucked up by Bastion - so in the same vein, if Wisps or other Vengeful Spirits are still "active" in Azeroth in Undeath, that's probably still part of the life that is going to be sorted in the Shadowlands. So until the spirits move on or fulfill their purpose (in a Wisp's case, perhaps tend to the grove so that it is satisfactory, or in a Vengeful Spirit's case, cause a lot of harm or be exorcised or through self-reflection move on.

It could also just be inefficient with however many are dead in the universe, multiverse, and the entire cosmos that while it is Bastion's job to retrieve souls, wasting time trying to bring back souls that will struggle like perhaps a Wisp or Vengeful Spirit would maybe not only result in wasted time, effort, but also in the case of hostile Wisp or Vengeful Spirit action could result in the harming or killing of an agent of Bastion - which would hurt the collection of souls in the long run seeing as how it can take so long in Shadowlands to make new agents.

[LemonDemonGirl]

There's also ghost trolls that kind of 'linger' in places like Zo'bal, maybe not all of them go to the Other Side upon death?

[Vampire Communism]

The lore is a messy nightmare, its full of plot holes and revisions, etc. I cannot take this expansion seriously. I want to like it, and I've tried. I just don't understand the point of the shadowlands.

It's one of those moments the devs had where they thought "hey wouldn't it be cool if there was a place like this and we could go there"

[Aeluron Lightsong]

It's one of those moments the devs had where they thought "hey wouldn't it be cool if there was a place like this and we could go there"

Just because the answers aren't aware the second you learn of it doesn't mean its bad writing. -.-

[oplawlz]

In the words of Ryan George, I'm gonna need you to get AAAAALLLL the way off my back about logical consistency in World of Warcraft lore.

[WintersLegion]

Just because the answers aren't aware the second you learn of it doesn't mean its bad writing. -.-

Well just from doing Bwonsamedi's quests we know that souls don't necessarily go straight to Shadowlands instead they are sent there so no reason other things wouldn't interfere with the process.

[oplawlz]

Just because the answers aren't aware the second you learn of it doesn't mean its bad writing. -.-

No, the fact that it's bad writing means it's bad writing.

[Die]

Even good writers are scared to delve into the mythology of the afterlife. Pretty bold for Blizz to dive in and give it a shot.

[Dundebuns]

There are plenty of ghosts about. Easiest explanaiton is that they haven't yet been ushered into the Shadowlands yet, or have been forgotten or hidden.

[dope_danny]

"Shh don't think about it" is going to be showing up a lot.

[Selastan]

Well, ghosts are just spirits that refuse to move on. I don't see how Shadowlands changes this, it just explains where they are supposed to 'move on' to. Wisps are just night elf ghosts.

Of course, if they are something special, they could be what a night elf spirit can become after spending time in Ardenweald. Wisps could also be something else entirely, and not truly a 'soul'. A manefestation of memory or magic, perhaps. Or it could be some sort of Elune fuckery, since she doesn't seem to play by any of Warcraft's Cosmology rules and WE NEED AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT SHE IS SOON OR I WILL DEDICATE MY LIFE TO BECOMING A BLIZZARD WRITER SO I CAN GIVE HER ONE MYSELF!

[TEHPALLYTANK]

"Shh don't think about it" is going to be showing up a lot.

I'm having flashbacks of when they tried to pull the "WoD isn't a time-traveling expansion" line, despite the fact that it totally was a time-traveling expansion+alternate universe.

I gotta say, at least it is way more entertaining watching Blizzard trying to explain any of their lore inconsistencies than hearing Ion spout off 7+ paragraphs that amount to "We're doing X system this way, and we're going to ignore any negative feedback even if it is constructive criticism".

[Dimmak]

Night elves are intimately tied to the world trees. It was the source of their immortality. Their essence or part of it stays tied to Azeroth.
Given the trees are sustained by Azeoth possibly by bleeds from the well of eternity or the maelstrom it makes sense their wisps are held on the plane of azeroth.


Another possibility is their souls get shredded and the wisp part stays behind.

Look at Uther. Part of him is in WPL, another in the shadowlands.