What if it is something way more mundane than that... we're mortals, in the Maw. The Waystone could have been an escape hatch built in for mortals in the unlikely event that one stumbled into hell.
Sounds plausible enough, though Argus did the same more recently and i'd argue that a death themed titanic power is more likely to disrupt the maw than some of its own magic. Plus Argus, as a titan, is certainly of closer kinship to these first ones than a fairly random shard of maw power is.
Though it could also just be that we've made too much use of spirit healers lol.
This is a signature of an ailing giant, boundless in pride, wit and strength.
Yet also as humble as health and humor permit.
Furthermore, I consider that Carthage Slam must be destroyed.
You are looking at it wrong. Just because you leveled that way means nothing. In-game story wise your character has been through all the events in BFA and obtained the Heart of Azeroth. Whether or not you actually had it doesn't mean anything. You can see this when you do the Night Fae covenant and they have you put on the play where it pulls your memories and have you facing Legion/BFA content meaning you experienced it even if your character didn't. For example, my hunter who picked it never killed any of the raid bosses but the play says that I did.
Threw up some spoiler tags in case someone hasn't done that part yet and didn't want to be spoiled. Ultimately it's nothing major, just a small side thing you can do, but still.
If that were the case, then it would've responded to any of the other four mortals that were with us when we escaped the Maw. But they make a point to mention that it's specifically the player character that the Waystone is reacting to, not Jaina, Anduin, Thrall, or Baine.
It could be the Heart of Azeroth. But my guess is that the full truth of the matter is something that the story has not made us privy to yet. Something besides the Heart of Azeroth that connects our soul in particular to the First Ones.
I like the theory.
As for the Allied Races and such, yeah doesn't make sense for those characters, but it doesn't have to make sense for every character.
This is the essence of Death, isn't it? We also lost against N'zoth, but he did not kill us, but subdued us. Because that's what the Void is doing.
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The heart is not completely dormant. Blizzard said that the connection with Azeroth has become much weaker, but it is not completely severed. And Blizzard said that we can escape the Maw because of our connection to Azeroth.
No worries. I was just confused when I was reading your comment and what you quoted.
I think lorewise the HoA is still active, or at least I believe that's what they said early on in Blizzcon and one of the reasons we go back and forth between everything rather than being in Oribos. They mentioned at one point the connection is weakened while we are in Shadowlands, but still an active one. Now if that is still true, no idea. Plus there's slight mentions of Azeroth and her soul being important in some of the dialog in Shadowlands.
I know typically most of the gear we get isn't recognized lorewise unless it's something like the past few legendaries like the ring, cloak, HoA and our artifacts.
In game it specifically says the portal is reacting to the champion. Not the HoA or anything else. It activated when the player came into contact with it, not the Heart. Now, that could be explained with some “yadda yadda the HoA flowed thru you,” but this was never stated.
It could be that being in contact with the HoA for so long left residual traces of Azeroth’s blood and powers in the body of the champion.
Blizzard will explain it eventually...maybe not. Will have to wait and see. It’s possible that thru all our travels, victories and defeats, and most importantly death (Arthas killed us after all), that somehow we have come into contact with something from the Ancients that the waystone recognizes. There’s a heavy Diablo feel to this xpac and I wouldn’t be surprised if Blizzard tries to state that we are born from some mortal and higher entity, which is how we’ve been the champion and chosen for so many things, such as even utilizing the HoA, instead of NPCs like Jaina, Kadghar, or Thrall.
Heart Of Aezroth - Probably not, do you really think none of the leaders got a heart? If Magni was willing to give Anduin Fearbreaker then you can be sure he got a heart just in case shit went down.
Connection to Azeroth - Maybe but how was the connection formed? Plenty of beings got their hands on Azerite so that is out.
Helm of Domination - Name a old school death knight that wasn't touched by the helm down to their very soul, if that was all it took then Mograine wouldn't have needed us to leave.
I think it's because we can rez. We (as champions) seem to already have some ability to skip death altogether and come back. Since the Maw is like death realm, we've always been the Maw walkers.
Last edited by slime; 2020-12-02 at 05:00 PM.
That's more a game mechanic than a lore one, in my view. While the Heart may be dormant in the Shadowlands it still contains the essence of Azeroth and is likely the reason for our "connection" to Azeroth that prevents a player from truly dying while in the Shadowlands. It would function as an anchor to our homeworld and plane of reality.
"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead