What gave Zo'vaal such a strong army?

[Soulwind]

I vaguely remembered them mentioning them showing up in the past too, but looking into it it seems more that they were just known of, and only started to really show up more with the drought since they're seeking anima to devourer. Which makes sense.

Although I do still swear that they said the damage to Revendreth in the lower areas was due to the devourers and that doesn't seem like a short term issue with how bad it is there.

They already seemed a bit too out of place in 9.0, with how present they are everywhere, and how little is known about them. But then I got to Korthia and saw the more humanoid Devourers, who only appear around the Attendant ruins, and now I think that they could be a hook for future content, maybe connected to the Void Lords, maybe to K'aresh, maybe to something entirely new. That is, if the writers wants to, of course.

[Jester Joe]

The Shadowlands isn't supposed to be just the Kyrians/Night Fae/Venthyr and Mawsworn. There are supposed to be many, many more afterlives. We only see a miniscule fraction of the entire Shadowlands. That's what I was talking about. If you add up everyone else, the Mawsworn should be tremendously outnumbered.

There's more afterlives yes, but not more covenants. There's only 5 Eternal Ones. Not including the Arbiter considering recent story events.

[aceperson]

mostly bad writing. yadda yadda, kyrians ferry souls, yadda yadda, kyrians saw that all the souls were going to the maw, yadda yadda, the path is all that matters even when the path is clearly not being adhered too, yadda yadda, jailer has army. certainly would've been a lot more believable if the mawsworn/forsworn were secretly ferrying souls to the maw.

[Jester Joe]

They already seemed a bit too out of place in 9.0, with how present they are everywhere, and how little is known about them. But then I got to Korthia and saw the more humanoid Devourers, who only appear around the Attendant ruins, and now I think that they could be a hook for future content, maybe connected to the Void Lords, maybe to K'aresh, maybe to something entirely new. That is, if the writers wants to, of course.

I was honestly hoping they'd be involved in some sort of raid/patch, like how Legion had Trial of Valor. At the rate the story is going, I would think it would be a weird break from chasing the Jailer.

Could be a dungeon though at least I guess if they decide to do another.

[Aucald]

That would make sense. I knew that Revendreth and Ardenweald were hit the hardest but they're also seem to be the more anima wealthy zones under normal circumstances too. Or at least Ardenweald is far more dependent on it.

Ardenweald specifically has the Heart of the Forest, which was a huge collection of anima acting as the recycling "engine" for the Wildseeds and so forth. The Devourers in Ardenweald seem focused on eating what's left of Tirna Scithe at the moment, but they've probably been drawn to the zone by the Heart.

[Nosnogard]

I adressed this in another thread, but perhaps it fits better here:
I'm also wondering how Zovaal got such a huge army. Back in the Shadowlands intro in the Maw, Baine says something about the Jailors army size rivaling that of the Legion. Any lore expert who can explain how that is possible when the following is true about the Legion:

- The Legion has been going for 10,000 years at the very least.
- Has conquored countless worlds.
- Has access to, as Malchezaar puts it: "All dimensions, all realities". This is further reinforced by the fact that they recruited Gul'dan twice at the very least and that they attack AU Draenor.
- Exist outside time, meaning it is the same Legion which recruited Gul'dan several times and in theory could recruit any creature in all the realities it exist in

I realize that it's probably filler text to make Zovaal the next big baddie, but I'm really curious if I missed some sort of lore ingame which could explain this. The machine of death has been broken for some time, sure, but compared to the Legions lifetime, it seems weird to me. I know that time in Shadowlands flows differently but the souls for Zovaals army has to come from somewhere.

I hope this isn't considered hijacking the thread when asking a question about something related to the OP.

[Aresk]

I adressed this in another thread, but perhaps it fits better here:
I'm also wondering how Zovaal got such a huge army. Back in the Shadowlands intro in the Maw, Baine says something about the Jailors army size rivaling that of the Legion. Any lore expert who can explain how that is possible when the following is true about the Legion:

- The Legion has been going for 10,000 years at the very least.
- Has conquored countless worlds.
- Has access to, as Malchezaar puts it: "All dimensions, all realities". This is further reinforced by the fact that they recruited Gul'dan twice at the very least and that they attack AU Draenor.
- Exist outside time, meaning it is the same Legion which recruited Gul'dan several times and in theory could recruit any creature in all the realities it exist in

I realize that it's probably filler text to make Zovaal the next big baddie, but I'm really curious if I missed some sort of lore ingame which could explain this. The machine of death has been broken for some time, sure, but compared to the Legions lifetime, it seems weird to me. I know that time in Shadowlands flows differently but the souls for Zovaals army has to come from somewhere.

I hope this isn't considered hijacking the thread when asking a question about something related to the OP.

The Shadowlands is also across all realities, and all the dead for the past several expansions across all realities has been going to the Shadowlands to be twisted into tools for the Jailer; this doesn't count anyone sent to the Maw naturally before that point. While the Legion is large, they recycle their agents; it's not clear how many new demons they gain versus just rebirthing previous ones that have died. Given those details, it's reasonable that the Jailer's forces could exceed the Legion's.

[Darknessvamp]

The writers to put it bluntly. We only have direct confirmation that he has been receiving souls into the Maw since sometime in Legion (prior we have no concrete clue what happened aside from Arthas getting randomly chucked in in a trailer) which he was able to form into his current army somehow.

I mean we don't actually know a lot about how the Jailer got most of his power like:
- How he was able to learn domination magic and somehow free himself despite actively being restrained by it and ignorant of it beforehand (since it was created by the Primus)
- How he was able to convince Denathrius to help him
- How he got the Eye of Odin from Mueh'zala or why he even gave it to him and then how he was able to turn it into the 'Eye of the Jailer' (while seemingly also unaware that Brokers can just negate it)
- How he was able to just chain and pull landmasses created by the Arbiter into the Maw with no one noticing
- How he was able to get one over the Primus even though he was supposedly clued into what the Jailer was up to and was the reason for why he 'disappeared' and left his houses behind and all while supposedly having some form of future sight that makes him a great military commander
- Where the Nine came from after their origin was changed to be the Jailer's lackeys that he used to 'bind' Sylvanas as the start of the Mawsworn isn't clear.
- lol Kel'Thuzad
as well as some other things I'm probably forgetting.

[Powerogue]

Maldraxxus is supposed to be the military powerhouse of the Shadowlands. They've defended against huge threats, and won, yet Zovaal and his maw forces manage to beat him.

How did this happen? Did he turn every soul sent to the maw into a soldier? But shouldn't Maldraxxi tactics, which they've honed for a an infinite amount of years, still manage to beat them?

Am I just thinking too too much about it when it's in reality just a "the story needs to go this way, that's why!"-reason?

Nearly every faction of Maldraxxus turned on each other, did you forget that chapter of the quest storyline?

Granted once our covenant got a hold of its own brand new Necropolis they've been a force to be reckoned with, they're still highly reduced in number. Only combined with the other convenants are they managing to turn the tide.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Sargeras I think and the whole Dreadlord game. Destruction of Darnassus and Undercity as well. The Jailer basically has been juicing out of everyone for centuries. We have to stop him!

[shadowmatrix]

Because captured souls. Shifting the question from what allowed him to obtain these souls so easily in the first place which the game hasn't answered yet.

1. The worst souls were sent to the Maw, his domain and the worst beings tend to be very powerful.
2. Since the Arbitor broke all souls have been going to the Maw by default, how many powerful heroes died in other worlds that didn't have the option of release and run back?

[Kathranis]

Well, Zovaal's forces are comprised of newly captured souls (and just generally any souls that had been sent to the Maw in the past), plus defectors from the other realms. He's got a bunch of defectors from Maldraxxus (from the House of the Chosen and House of Rituals), Revendreth (including the nathrezim), and Bastion (the Forsworn).

[Skirdus]

How did this happen? Did he turn every soul sent to the maw into a soldier?

Pretty much.

His army consists of most characters who died during the events of BfA (including all the victims of Teldrassil), and then some

[Derpules]

The Shadowlands isn't supposed to be just the Kyrians/Night Fae/Venthyr and Mawsworn. There are supposed to be many, many more afterlives. We only see a miniscule fraction of the entire Shadowlands. That's what I was talking about. If you add up everyone else, the Mawsworn should be tremendously outnumbered.

The other zones are for lesser spirits, and not much of a threat to the Jailer. Think potato people, toaster ovens, broken rubber bands.