Cosmic forces and their incarnations [spoilers, speculation]

[Explorer]

So, if we just summarize what we now know about the 6 cosmic forces, the picture will be: each of the forces has different types of creatures, those that differ in power.

About dying and rebirth.
An obvious pattern says that a creature, destroyed in the reality plane, goes to its natural plane, to later respawn if possible. If it is killed in its home plane, it's permanently dead, dissolving into "matter" of the energy said. That's the case for demons (and Disorder), Old gods (was confirmed in some interview), Titans (they have respawned after their death by Sargeras). For mortals like us: we, creatures of Life, go to Death realm (shadowlands), loa and wild gods (higher level Life creatures) as well - to Ardenweald. Elementals, creatures of 'lesser planes' if we say so, also follow this 'destruction pattern'.


Creature tiers.
My hypothesis says that, for each force, he can point out several tiers of creatures that have different scale of power.

Tier 1 is the strongest creatures, that are the ultimate beings of the Force, with godlike powers, able to create lesser beings at whim. They are pure manifestations of their force and are vulnerable to the opposite one to some extent. Some have shown to have ability to assimilate energies of other forces. Probably that essentially turns them into beings of other forces (Sargeras turned to Disorder, Eonar - to Life, Argus - to Death(?), Azeroth was about to be turned to Shadow).

Tier 2 creatures are usually the creations of the T1, made to serve some exact purpose. There may be its own tiers within this tier, including creations of creations etc. They are made of the pure force by T1 normally, some can be called prime ones (T2.1), like titanic watchers, some are lesser ones (T2.2).

Tier 3 is some mortal races that turned into beings of the said force. The turning is complete when the dying creature goes to the said plane instead of Shadowlands. Note: by tiers I do not automatically mean power level, as sometimes a turned mortal becomes stronger than T2 creature. But normally T2 creatures are stronger than t3.

Finally, the mysterious First Ones, as I suppose, may be the 6 ultimate creatures, T0 level, that surpass even T1, and have complete control over their respective force. They seem to have established rules of the game.

Note that power levels of tiers seem to be slightly different for different elements.

Why can this scheme be useful? Using it, we can chart the missing parts and predict appearance of new beings we've not seen yet.

So let's go.


Arcane

This is nearly the best known force.

T1 - Titans. They have godlike powers and order everything they see.

T2 - all the titan creations. T2.1 are the Keepers like Odyn, Ra etc. T2.2. are: mogu, meachagnomes, dwarves, vrykul, etc. Breakers line, down to orcs, are also part of titanic T2.

T3 - dragons and dragonkin. They are living creatures granted with titanic powers. Races like dwarves, humans, orcs, mogu are not - they are rather T2 Arcane creatures "corrupted" by the Life.


Shadow

This one we know well, too.

T1 - Void lords. Probably at titans level or even above, since they can't even manifest. Though it's not necessarily the reason.

T2 - Old gods are T2.1 creatures of Shadow, and they seem to be stronger than their Arcane counterparts - it took several Keepers to imprison a single Old god. T2.2 are the faceless ones and voidlwalkers. They seem to be of different lines though, voidwalkers are more direct manifestation of Shadow, faceless are creations of Old gods.

T3 - all the manner of void-corrupted creatures like ethereals, k'thir, akir (probably), naga, and lot more.


Death

We're about to learn more of it. From now:

T1 - the Eternal ones aka the Death Panteon. They are said to be a bit weaker than the Titans, though Zovaal (and probably Arbiter) are Titan++ level of power. Still, the Jailer is confirmed to be one of the Eternal ones.
They created their respective covenants and its inhabitants.

T2 - creatures like Stewards, Gargoyles, Fawns, etc. Those that are born from anima and serve some duties in Shadowlands.

T3 - creatures that are made from deal mortals. Undead, first of all, but also Kyrians, Ventyr, Malraxxus warriors. The Lich King is a mixture of both, being made from a mortal, but bears power of T2.1 level creature. Also, the nathrezim are either T2.2 or T3 death creatures, created by Denathrius or Zovaal and tapping into all other 5 powers.


Disorder

Though it seems that we know much about demons, in fact it's almost nothing actually. We see a lot of T3 types, and very few T2. Let's see.

T1 - unknown. Sargeras technically is one, but he's alien to the force. Let's call this a Demon Lord, as to Void Lords. Somehow a titan was able to become a Fel-creature, and managed to bring order to a disorder plane - an organized army of demons. Probably a true Demon Lord in somethins uncontrollable, living in Twisting Nether, extremely chaotic and violent.

T2 - probably the annihilan, pit lords, are one of the few creatures that are pure disorder creatures, born from Twisting Nether, not a corrupted living creature. Also the infernals are, probably imps and felhounds too, but not for sure.
We don't know about the inquisitors, jailers, felguards, sayaad, shivarra. My guess is that inquisitors and ered'ruin vere some Arcane creatures originally.

T3 - all the manner of fel-corrupted mortal creatures, from eredar and fel orcs, to felsworn elves and whatever else. I suspect that felguards and succubi were mortals too, as they look humanoid, like the eredar. Also, dreadlords are the Death creatures from Shadowlands, who willingly turned into demons to play some big game with the forces. Technically, Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were T3 creatures that acted as T2.1 for Sargeras.
All in all, our knowledge of Disorder is really bad, we have huge uncharted territory here, so I expect to see demons in more of the future expansions, to learn of their origins and T1 creatures of cause.


Light

Even less we know about the Light. So few for now:

T1 - unknown, but hinted. Some suspect that Elune is the "Light Lord" type of creature. They probably made the Naaru.

T2.1 - Prime Naaru, like Xe'ra. Seem to lead the way for others. T2.2 - usual naaru.

T3 - all the Lightforged\touched creatures. Prophet Velen, lightforged Draenei, Tyralion probably, Lotraxion (shadowlands agent), Yrel and her crusade. Lightforged orcs, too.

All in all, much more is to be revealed.



Life

Strangely, the least known force, though we are part of it.

T1 - no hint at all yet. If Elune is not from the Light, she must be T1 Life force creature.

T2.1 - one thing that comes to mind is the Overgrowth from Draenor, the supergiants of Life, from whom the Primals come. T2.2 are Wild Gods, loa, lesser Primals.

T3 - mortal races, those who were not titanborn. These are trolls, all kind of stuff that spawned form Wild gods like furbolgs, harpies and so on. Mortals seem to be most flexible as they can assimilate and wield any other force with ease.
I do expect to learn more information about Life creatures in further Shadowlands patches.

Elements.

T1 - unknown, probably none, because these are not the 6 main forces, just some lesser ones.

T2.1 - elemental lords. These are biggest elementals seen yet, they even surpass titanic watchers, as it takes 2-3 to take one down.
T2.2 - regular elementals, with their own power levels.
T3 - ascendants, both from Twilight's hammer and shamans, druids of the Flame, creatures like Alysrazor.


So, what can we expect? We are yet to see all 6 types of T1 creatures, and my bet is that they will be major foes from now on. We'll get to see 'panteons' of Disorder, Light and Life, Void Lords and other types of creatures. That's what we can expect in future expansions, time to cover all the missing parts from this chart.

[enigma77]

I would say Disorder doesn't necessarily need to have a top dog, other than Sargeras who as you pointed out simply aquired that position. Hierarchy and structure are after all antithetical to Chaos.

[Hobbidaggy]

Regarding Elune: Something I have considered for a while and I’m sure I’m not the only one. If you look over blizzards history and shared lore aspects across multiple games, Diablo looks to me to be the perfect example of Elune and the Void equivalent of what she is.

Anu was the first entity of the Diablo universe, arguably the creator god from which everything stems. Before anything of the universe existed there was just a pearl, and this pearl was the unfathomable spirit Anu, who was the sum of all things: good and evil, light and dark, physical and magical. When Anu contemplated itself, it decided to cast off all of its imperfections to become pure. What remained was a diamond warrior, but the cast off parts assembled themselves into Tathamet, a seven-headed dragon of death and darkness. The two beings battled with each other within the pearl for countless millennia. As the two beings landed their final blows, their deaths created the universe and everything in it.

I believe Elune is a being like diablos Anu and the creator of all things and spread her light across the universe. The areas the light faded became the void as we know, and I believe Elune saw a glimpse of the future after creating the Titans and saw what would come to pass with the void and Sargeras etc and create Azeroth as the saviour of all. That is why Elune is so embedded into Azeroth history because she is ensuring as much as possible that Azeroth survives to help the universe as the Titan Azeroth is the last hope that Elune could provide.

[Golden Yak]

The Aluneth greatstaff artifact also had some kind of sentient arcane entity inside - maybe it was just some kind of super arcane elemental, but such beings might also represent some kind of major aspect of the realm of the arcane and Order.

[Golden Yak]

Also, the Postmaster! Where do they fit into all this?!

[huth]

Also, the Postmaster! Where do they fit into all this?!

Clearly from the hidden 7th force, Mailorder.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I have a feeling it will eventually be revealed that there are more Prime Naaru out there, and they are in fact the "keepers" being referred to in the Enemy Infiltration letter.


Much like the Void is it's own dimension as well as cosmic power (manifesting as Shadow) the Light will more than likely have it's own dimension where the Prime Naaru dwell.


And where as the Void Lords "rule" over the Void, the Prime Naaru just dwell there not necessarily lording over it.


? Or I'm most likely wrong and there will be a new creature revealed to be made of the Light. Probably a "light lord" equivalent. Seraphim or some shit.

[huth]

And where as the Void Lords "rule" over the Void, the Prime Naaru just dwell there not necessarily lording over it.

Given the natures of Light and Void, i'd expect the opposite, actually. Light favours static order and hierarchy, Void is far more anarchic in its nature.

[Soon-TM]

@Explorer you forgot about T0, who are the First Ones and/or the Jailor, who predate even the Titan, at least in the latter's case.

[Explorer]

@Explorer you forgot about T0, who are the First Ones and/or the Jailor, who predate even the Titan, at least in the latter's case.

I most certainly did not. Just please read the text before replying to it.

"Finally, the mysterious First Ones, as I suppose, may be the 6 ultimate creatures, T0 level, that surpass even T1, and have complete control over their respective force. They seem to have established rules of the game."

[Die]

All will bend the knee to the adventurer that is me.

[huth]

All will bend the knee to the adventurer that is me.

Only if you don't break them first.