Azerothian presence in the Shadowlands

[Season2mask]

Does anyone else find it a little strange that we Azerothian's have such important roles to play in the shadowlands? I mean, Drakka, Lady Vashj and Alexandros are important to the culture of Maldraxxus. Uther is doing some stuff in Bastion. And maybe there's more. (No spoilers please, I'm just now starting Ardenweald)

Since Azeroth is but one planet out of millions, isn't it odd we seem to have influenced the shadowlands so much? In fact...we don't even see people from other planets and yet the shadowlands is where all dead come in the end. As I write this thread I'm starting to think I got things wrong. Is the shadowlands actually just the home for azeroth's dead? Because it certainly seems like it.

And as a sidenote: Why do the denizens of the shadowlands bare such striking resembleance to our races? We see lichs that look like our lich's, faerie's that we've seen on Azeroth, etc etc. Why is everything so Azerothian?

[Osmin]

Well there are supposed to be just about endless other realms in shadowlands too, of which only 4 are playable. Maybe these are the 4 for the worlds in our neighborhood?

[loras]

Does anyone else find it a little strange that we Azerothian's have such important roles to play in the shadowlands? I mean, Drakka, Lady Vashj and Alexandros are important to the culture of Maldraxxus. Uther is doing some stuff in Bastion. And maybe there's more. (No spoilers please, I'm just now starting Ardenweald)

Since Azeroth is but one planet out of millions, isn't it odd we seem to have influenced the shadowlands so much? In fact...we don't even see people from other planets and yet the shadowlands is where all dead come in the end. As I write this thread I'm starting to think I got things wrong. Is the shadowlands actually just the home for azeroth's dead? Because it certainly seems like it.

And as a sidenote: Why do the denizens of the shadowlands bare such striking resembleance to our races? We see lichs that look like our lich's, faerie's that we've seen on Azeroth, etc etc. Why is everything so Azerothian?

With all due respect, but how certain are you that there are millions of living planets? We've seen only a handful confirmed and it might be that their universe shares one theme with ours: that it may be relatively very empty and underdevelooed for the most part, in spite of a few highly developed planets.

Or to put it in another way: perhaps most planets know only a handful of lifeforms, thus leaving no meaningful impression on the shadowlands.

[Ophenia]

Plenty of planets were already wiped out by the Legion or the Void (or reset due to Algalon-like processes).

The number of planets lucky enough to avoid that many annihilations to finally see Heroes like ours is probably extremely limited.

[Cronovey]

Plenty of planets were already wiped out by the Legion or the Void (or reset due to Algalon-like processes).

The number of planets lucky enough to avoid that many annihilations to finally see Heroes like ours is probably extremely limited.

That actually works against your point though; planets that were wiped out should theoretically have already sent ALL of their people to the Shadowlands so there should be more of them.

But to the main point, I feel like there's definitely a lot of stuff we don't have details on. For all we know, only planets with world souls send their beings to the Shadowlands. This would explain the limited amount of "zones" we have to see and explain why Azerothian characters are so prominent.

The other thing of note here is that the majority of Azeroth related characters in fact belong to Maldraxxus, the sitting army of the Shadowlands. Is it really that far fetched to believe that a planet constantly engulfed in world threatening conflicts and faction wars produces high quality fighters and spies for the army of the Shadowlands? Or for that matter, that we have dictator-like characters that end up in Revendreth (Garrosh, Kael'thas) considering the way Azeroth has been going for the last ~50 years or so?

[Powerogue]

Because the point is to have familiar faces we can recognize, and we've only ever been to three planets.

[Eggroll]

Yeah, this annoyed me, too... you will be in for an even more unpleasant surprise in Ardenweald, though.

[Arrashi]

Because the point is to have familiar faces we can recognize, and we've only ever been to three planets.

More like "The point is to go harder on fanservice than they ever did before".

[haiyken]

I'm sure Azeroth have been pumping souls into the Shadowlands like crazy. So much war, so much conflict. I'm sure not all planets were like this before been wiped-out by the Legion or corrupted by the Void.

The other thing is... We only know characters from Azeroth. How could we know that some of the characters we meet were not as famous in their respective worlds ?

[KainneAbsolute]

Considering every force on the multiverse has a deal with the world soul of Azeroth and our characters come from Azeroth. Yeah, I guess we are special.

[Jester Joe]

That actually works against your point though; planets that were wiped out should theoretically have already sent ALL of their people to the Shadowlands so there should be more of them.

Except they specifically said that only souls of great worth (AKA- Accomplished a lot in their life) are the ones who become important figures in the Shadowlands.

Ending everyone's life prematurely on a planet would decrease their worth by quite a bit, no matter what they did do.


Either way, there's still a lot of figures that we don't know either, I don't see much wrong with having a handful that we do. A bit funny to note that it's mostly Maldraxxus that has Azeroth citizens.

[Krowth]

Because the whole point of this expansion is using familiar faces as fanservice. Also there's that one bear in ardenweald thats from another planet.

[Cronovey]

Except they specifically said that only souls of great worth (AKA- Accomplished a lot in their life) are the ones who become important figures in the Shadowlands.

Ending everyone's life prematurely on a planet would decrease their worth by quite a bit, no matter what they did do.


Either way, there's still a lot of figures that we don't know either, I don't see much wrong with having a handful that we do. A bit funny to note that it's mostly Maldraxxus that has Azeroth citizens.

I suppose that really depends on the definition of "great worth" being used though. Are we talking compared to other beings from other planets? Are we comparing only among individuals on a single planet? Like, if your planet got wiped out but you were your world's greatest warrior before death (ie Toranaar of the aldrachi from the Vengeance DH artifact) are you still considered as being of great worth, or are you just garbage because you lost the war against the Legion and going to be relegated to a mindless drone in Maldraxxus?

They word things so vaguely like that on purpose so they can pull whatever random character they want at any given time to fit the situation they want to make, it's quite frustrating really. Again, realistically speaking if you wipe out a dozen worlds as the Legion, you have to expect that at least a handful of those people must have made it into the Shadowlands as important people bare minimum if not a large quantity when we're talking on the scale of billions of lives.

[Ardenaso]

I'd rather not have too much "Hi I'm Zorg from the planet Pluto"; I'd rather have more familiar characters

[caelestum]

Err almost every important NPC we meet in the Shadowlands was most likely someone from another planet who died and then pledged to the covenant/faction when his soul was sent to their respective afterlife.

....And the Liches look like azeroth Liches because they are the OG Liches...

[Oneirophobia]

That actually works against your point though; planets that were wiped out should theoretically have already sent ALL of their people to the Shadowlands so there should be more of them.

Well, we learned from Legion that the demons use souls as fuel, and they need a LOT of fuel. It's possible the Legion prevents you from reaching the Shadowlands entirely as your soul is consumed, likely the same deal with the void.

Would explain why the Shadowlands hate the legion so much.

[Dahak]

Does anyone else find it a little strange that we Azerothian's have such important roles to play in the shadowlands? I mean, Drakka, Lady Vashj and Alexandros are important to the culture of Maldraxxus. Uther is doing some stuff in Bastion. And maybe there's more. (No spoilers please, I'm just now starting Ardenweald)

Since Azeroth is but one planet out of millions, isn't it odd we seem to have influenced the shadowlands so much? In fact...we don't even see people from other planets and yet the shadowlands is where all dead come in the end. As I write this thread I'm starting to think I got things wrong. Is the shadowlands actually just the home for azeroth's dead? Because it certainly seems like it.

And as a sidenote: Why do the denizens of the shadowlands bare such striking resembleance to our races? We see lichs that look like our lich's, faerie's that we've seen on Azeroth, etc etc. Why is everything so Azerothian?

Draka's from Draenor. Yes, she died on Azeroth, but Vashj (Azerothean) died on Draenor. And, as someone else mentioned, of all the dead characters we meet, chances are many of the ones we don't recognize are from other worlds.

[aceperson]

With all due respect, but how certain are you that there are millions of living planets?

it doesn't look like anyone has talked about this part yet. so here is the thing. in wod, a trans-dimensional portal was connected to our timeline which was connected from a different timeline at a different point in time with different happenings. this alone scientifically says that the wow universe is actually a multi-verse and therefore infinite in size. i kind of need to use a thought experiment to get show why this is the case.

so, let's say i have a cup of water to my right and a cup of water to my left. the chances of me taking either cup is 50/50. now i take the cup on the right. because of that action, a different timeline is created where i take the cup on the left. so one choice results in 2 different timelines. now let's go one step further. if i put the cup back (regardless of which one i took before), i now have another 50/50 choice, right? so two different timelines are made again right? semi-right. you have to consider that if i took the left cup first and then took the left cup again or if i took the left and then the right which is also expanded to the other side. but this also happens if i took the right side cup and then the right side cup or the right side cup and then the left side cup.

basically, because there are an exponentially increasing number of decisions and changing factors, there is an exponentially increasing number of universes to the point where it is effectively infinite.

- - - Updated - - -

Because the point is to have familiar faces we can recognize, and we've only ever been to three planets.

also this. keep in mind, there are absolute tons of new characters in the shadowlands. it just so happens (or really not since this is a fictional universe where the story writers have to try and tie this all together for no apparent reason) that all the major characters are from azeroth. except for draka. she died on azeroth but she is from draenor. so draenothian? draenite? draenon? draenish? probably draenish.

[Eapoe]

Does anyone else find it a little strange that we Azerothian's have such important roles to play in the shadowlands? I mean, Drakka, Lady Vashj and Alexandros are important to the culture of Maldraxxus. Uther is doing some stuff in Bastion. And maybe there's more. (No spoilers please, I'm just now starting Ardenweald)

Since Azeroth is but one planet out of millions, isn't it odd we seem to have influenced the shadowlands so much? In fact...we don't even see people from other planets and yet the shadowlands is where all dead come in the end. As I write this thread I'm starting to think I got things wrong. Is the shadowlands actually just the home for azeroth's dead? Because it certainly seems like it.

And as a sidenote: Why do the denizens of the shadowlands bare such striking resembleance to our races? We see lichs that look like our lich's, faerie's that we've seen on Azeroth, etc etc. Why is everything so Azerothian?

Drakka is from Draenor.
Kyrian ascend and become blue human like beings, regardless of what they were before. It’s entirely possible the majority of them are from alternate worlds/realities.
Maldraxxus is full of abominations and skeletons, not all of which resemble humans or Azerothians. Aboms are literally stitched together creations which could be made from anything. There are also stitched together walls with pieces of skin bigger than most of Azeroths dragons, which could clearly indicate they are from other planets.
The 1 out of billions of planets is misleading. There is nothing to show every planet is inhabited, let alone even more than a handful of having life.
You’ve also possibly connected it yourself when you mentioned “our” dead. Blizzard stated there are more zones/realities to the Shadowlands than what we are encountering.

Side note: Ardenweald creatures look nothing like Azeroth denizens. The faeries and satyrs that are there are nothing like what is on Azeroth. Maybe you could make an argument about the Ardenweald Satyrs and the Satyrs of Azeroth, but they are nothing alike and only bare a resemblance. The Aboms and Lich of Maldraxxus possibly resemble Azeroths due to the LK being so closely tied to the Shadowlands now that we know where the helm and sword were forged there and could obviously be taking the same mechanics of creation and servitude from there.

[cparle87]

Does anyone else find it a little strange that we Azerothian's have such important roles to play in the shadowlands? I mean, Drakka, Lady Vashj and Alexandros are important to the culture of Maldraxxus. Uther is doing some stuff in Bastion. And maybe there's more. (No spoilers please, I'm just now starting Ardenweald)

Since Azeroth is but one planet out of millions, isn't it odd we seem to have influenced the shadowlands so much? In fact...we don't even see people from other planets and yet the shadowlands is where all dead come in the end. As I write this thread I'm starting to think I got things wrong. Is the shadowlands actually just the home for azeroth's dead? Because it certainly seems like it.

And as a sidenote: Why do the denizens of the shadowlands bare such striking resembleance to our races? We see lichs that look like our lich's, faerie's that we've seen on Azeroth, etc etc. Why is everything so Azerothian?

It's been stated that Azeroth's world soul had an impact on all life on the planet. Beings from Azeroth are more special than other beings by virtue of that. We fought off the Legion how many times? The draenei simply had to flee until they found us, and nobody else could stand on them.