Lorekeeper lore Q&A steve danuser

[Combatbutler]

Given his ability to peer back into into time to a point before the physical universe even existed, I would say he probably does know his own origins - he relates the creation of reality from the primordial conflict between Light and Void.

And who is to say his vision is accurate, just considering Sargeras betrayal blindsided him completely. Titans are unreliable narrators, especially since they got stuff wrong.

[Piamonte]

And who is to say his vision is accurate, just considering Sargeras betrayal blindsided him completely. Titans are unreliable narrators, especially since they got stuff wrong.

if you read chronicles between lines you can easily see that they may come from another dimension.

[Aucald]

i meant before they become world soulds, when they are sparks of energy looking for a sun.

That would be more the celestial matter that world-souls actually come from, not the world-souls themselves. Similar to how stars are formed from cosmic gas and dust, but the gas and dust themselves are not stars until forged by the force of gravity.

[Combatbutler]

if you read chronicles between lines you can easily see that they may come from another dimension.

Reading between the lines the titans are an amalgamation of several cosmic forces.

[Harbour]

What i got is that we are going to go into Light Realm and kill some bad Light bosses in the next expansion for sure.

[Aucald]

And who is to say his vision is accurate, just considering Sargeras betrayal blindsided him completely. Titans are unreliable narrators, especially since they got stuff wrong.

Who's to say it isn't? For a creature capable of seeing all of time, perhaps Aman'thul simply acted in accordance with his own visions - the same way Nozdormu did/will. But then we're talking about something he would've witnessed firsthand, as well; so unless you're just casting aspersions on known canon there's no real way to know.

[Combatbutler]

Who's to say it isn't? For a creature capable of seeing all of time, perhaps Aman'thul simply acted in accordance with his own visions - the same way Nozdormu did/will. But then we're talking about something he would've witnessed firsthand, as well; so unless you're just casting aspersions on known canon there's no real way to know.

Because there are things they were wrong about, which casts doubt about literally everything they tell you about, as long as you do not have an outside of universe observer there can never be 100% accuracy, it is just that simple.

[Piamonte]

That would be more the celestial matter that world-souls actually come from, not the world-souls themselves. Similar to how stars are formed from cosmic gas and dust, but the gas and dust themselves are not stars until forged by the force of gravity.

oh my god....

[Aucald]

Because there are things they were wrong about, which casts doubt about literally everything they tell you about, as long as you do not have an outside of universe observer there can never be 100% accuracy, it is just that simple.

100% accuracy sounds like an arbitrary and impossible standard, which not even outside of universe observation has satisfied. Needless to say, they're probably the most informed and knowledgeable beings in the known universe of WoW - at least so far.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Wait, if there's an AU Garrosh in a better, less 'tormenting' afterlife, could there be an AU Rastakhan somewhere too? And an AU Other Side for trolls?

[Omedon]

they picked afterlives with problems because they are more important than happy heavens (which do exist in lore but don't make for good zones)

Would make a great "housing-esque" system though.

[Darknessvamp]

So apparently they don't know their own lore as WoD introduced the concept of all Demons going back to their realm (as well as apparently across multiple AUs), previously it was known as Dreadlords only being able to do that and that Wild Gods were able to something similar with the Emerald Dream and Loa had something similar going on. Now he's claiming that at some point they've claimed other things can do the same now. So do we take them (the writers in person, not the game) saying "The Old Gods are definitely dead" as a lie now or is it a retcon of that "lore" they believe they've "introduced" considering they're a "being of influence"? Do we take that as meaning Xe'ra is still alive in the Light Lands even though Illidan angry stared her to death? Does anything actually die in this game? Is it all Kael'thas? How to cheapen your lore to the extreme 101.

Also note how he said "if something destroys your soul" instead of if your soul dies, he's making an explicit difference between the two states meaning even if someone "dies" in the Shadowlands as long as their soul isn't "destroyed" they could still exist. Also also that non-answer for the Necromancy question. The nonsense that necromancy, the magic that brings people back from the dead is the "imperfect" method almost implying anything else is a better method. Here comes Calia, the perfect Dead's justification... I don't know how to respond to that other realms question "Anything you can imagine is probably there" Yeah so that's a pretty bad answer, "just imagine what you want" laziest justify our lore for us excuse they could have. They do realise they invented these realms only just as of this expansion as the main functioning realms for the Shadowlands, right? These realms didn't exist prior and they weren't forced to focus on these realms as Danuser seems to be suggesting.

I like to think of this expansion as opening a lot of doors for us, or at least creating lots of doorways that we could go through in the future. And that’s one of the most fun things about it and that it really sets up the universe of Warcraft to have even more alleys to explore and avenues in the future that’ll be really exciting.

They said that about Alternate Universes, see how that went.

Wait, if there's an AU Garrosh in a better, less 'tormenting' afterlife, could there be an AU Rastakhan somewhere too? And an AU Other Side for trolls?

If I understood what he said correctly there is no AU Garrosh, there is a Garrosh "Rope" that's destined to be beat and tormented in Revendreth till they're done with him. When AU Garrosh dies, he threads back into that Garrosh "Rope" regardless of his better deeds in life.

Those threads can be separated for a time, but sooner or later, they do combine to make one rope that is that character. You can think of it as the threads of that rope, all the individual threads, are just waiting. And over time, they will come together but they can exist as separate entities for a time. That still doesn’t change the fact that they are part of one rope.

[Sorshen]

Yet another can of worms with this 'exploration' of afterlife (more like a work in progress), since most answers we get now are hard to swallow - considering things they already established in previous content or books. No wonder they get slammed on facts they gloss over. It might be an issue of too many cooks in the kitchen.

I think the person that decided to open this door (seemingly to advance the Sylvanas plot hook) made a big mistake. Some things are much better as mysteries (see Elune).

[WaltherLeopold]

So, when AU Draka dies she will just merge with the Draka that's in the Shadowlands which was MU Draka?

Isn't there basically infinite timelines, so why does Draka in Shadowlands begin her "story" after she dies in MU timeline, surely there is a timeline out there where she trips and falls, one where she dies in childbirth, one where she gets a peanut allergy and dies etcetera

Also, how can there be an anima shortage, surely in some timelines Arthas never became the lich king and as such, never killed and raised Sylvanas, like with the Aedelas Blackmoore alternate timeline, so in that timeline no one makes a dark pact with the Jailer to starve the rest of the shadowlands.

[formerShandalay]

What I find interesting is that it seems souls do not necessarily stay where they went at first. Danuser mentioned that Draka may go to the Hunting Grounds after she is done with her work in Maldraxxus. Seemingly Bastion is really the only realm where that is kind of impossible. Or maybe even the Kyrians can move on if they ever really grow tired and know a place they'd rather be.

[Darknessvamp]

Isn't there basically infinite timelines, so why does Draka in Shadowlands begin her "story" after she dies in MU timeline, surely there is a timeline out there where she trips and falls, one where she dies in childbirth, one where she gets a peanut allergy and dies etcetera

Also, how can there be an anima shortage, surely in some timelines Arthas never became the lich king and as such, never killed and raised Sylvanas, like with the Aedelas Blackmoore alternate timeline, so in that timeline no one makes a dark pact with the Jailer to starve the rest of the shadowlands.

I think they mentioned earlier on that this is the only Shadowlands for all Timelines and Alternate Universes and I think the "...they usually say that time is not a construct of Death. Time and Death are not related. Death is about eternity, not linear time. " is a double down on that. So there's no need to bugger the Arbiter in multiple timelines' Shadowlands as there is only one. What I'm still trying to figure out is why the default setting for when the Arbiter gets broken is just send all the souls to the Maw.

[StationaryHawk]

Good to know Blizzard is also still wondering how alternate Draenor works.

[Xilurm]

Isn't there basically infinite timelines, so why does Draka in Shadowlands begin her "story" after she dies in MU timeline, surely there is a timeline out there where she trips and falls, one where she dies in childbirth, one where she gets a peanut allergy and dies etcetera

Also, how can there be an anima shortage, surely in some timelines Arthas never became the lich king and as such, never killed and raised Sylvanas, like with the Aedelas Blackmoore alternate timeline, so in that timeline no one makes a dark pact with the Jailer to starve the rest of the shadowlands.

Well theres only one Shadowlands so if only one Arthas does it then that's enough. Best not to think about it too much I guess.

[WaltherLeopold]

I think they mentioned earlier on that this is the only Shadowlands for all Timelines and Alternate Universes and I think the "...they usually say that time is not a construct of Death. Time and Death are not related. Death is about eternity, not linear time. " is a double down on that. So there's no need to bugger the Arbiter in multiple timelines' Shadowlands as there is only one. What I'm still trying to figure out is why the default setting for when the Arbiter gets broken is just send all the souls to the Maw.

This all sounds stupid as hell, so how does that explain linear time as we see it, Draka has only been in the Shadowlands since her death in MU, at the hands of some orcs in the year 1.

That means, she's been canonically in the Shadowlands for approximately 31+ years, even if time flow and feels different in Shadowlands, if this whole "other draka's from different timelines will merge with shadowlands draka on their death", surely in an infinite amount of timelines, then an infinite amount of different deaths and as such, there should be very different Draka's being merged into her and one should have been in the Shadowlands since before MU Draka arrived, because naturally if given, infinite timelines then she's died at infinitely different stages of her life.

Surely, there should be a timeline where she was a french maid to a draenei and died before entering the dark portal and as such, would not fit into Maldraxxus at all.

I hate this expansion, it's the dumbest shit ive read in all my life.

[Villager720]

Perhaps the alternate timelines don’t generate permanent souls (threads) until they’re connected to the main timeline; they’re possibilities, nor realities until made “real” by intersecting with the “actual” timeline.

Kyroz solidified MU Draenor when he meddled with it - and thus do we have repercussions from it in the main timeline/universe.

I believe Blizzard once said something about the alternate timelines just fading away if not touched on - the denizens just vanishing with that potential reality. I can’t imagine there are full-fledged souls constantly winking into and out of existence - which is how the timeways seem to work.

(All this is in reference to many AU Garrys not being bad yet him ending up in Revendreth - even though he wasn’t bad in most possibilities, that’s still all they were - possibilities. Possibilities glimpsed by the bronze dragonflight. They’re not “real” so those “threads” don’t feed into the real Garrosh’ “rope”.)