There is no retcon anymore.

[Radeghost]

So we learn that Lich King is the guardian of the rifts between two worlds and without him, the sky is basically shattered and the barrier between worlds of life and death is shattered. So, before Kil'jaeden created the Lich King and threw him into Azeroth, there was no barrier between life and death,r ight? So The War of the Ancients looked completely different, with Val'kyr, etc. And why there are no mentions in ingame books about The Happening - like "A meteor just crashed in Northrend and now everything looks completely different! People that died just vanished! Sky looks strange, it's not shattered anymore!"
Or did they just retcon Lich King whatsoever and Ner'zhul never existed and Lich King was always a being of the Shadowlands?

[Primoris]

I don't think its a full retcon as if removing its additive. They're just adding lore and stuff to the helm of damnation.

[Golden Yak]

I doubt the rift was always there.

The power of Death has been growing, especially during BFA with all the souls that have been fed into the hungry dark by Sylvanas. We see the Death Entity bound in chains, implying that he's been imprisoned for a long time.

Breaking the helm of domination and releasing the power inside it was probably the last thing needed to tear open the rift.

[Tharivor]

If we want to be optimistic couldn't we just say that the weakening of the veil was an unintended consequence of the Lich King's shenanigans and that Bolvar was just trying to do his best to keep things together until Sylvanas turned up and released a big blast of death energy in exactly the wrong place to cause the veil to rip?

I mean ofc this is Blizz, so the huge retcon is more likely, but at this point it still looks salvageable.

[DTJames]

Lore =! Story

They are expanding the story by adding more it as we goes.

[Naramag]

Were did we learn that? There was nothing said about it. The only thing we saw was, that by destroying the helmet and releasing the energies within, the veil between realms was being torn apart.
The power of the Lich King didn't come from the Legion. The Legion just used Nerzhul, Kel'Thuzad and Arthas to create the Scourge. And it was Northrend, were Kel'Thuzad started the work on the Scourge. So maybe he could do it there because it was always a point were the veil was thin and the energies from the Shadowlands were easily collectable?
Maybe Icecrown was just like a giant antenna/battery that funnelled energy from the Shadowlands into the power source of the Lich King, aka the helmet? And with destroying the helmet, all that energy suddenly went back were it came from? And because that happened quite faster than the other way around, it tore a hole in the veil?

[DemonHunter18]

it's just some random stuff that Blizzard came up with on the spot.

LK isn't even the biggest death entity.

Helya is way bigger than him.

[Velerios]

I think the veil was always there, and you don't know how Kil'jaeden created the Helm of Domination: maybe it was an artifact that the legion possessed somehow, forged it into a helmet, imprisoned the Soul of Ner'zhul and simply used it to create the Lich King, and the unlimited Power of undeath comes from the source in the Shadowlands. By destroying the helm, she actually ripped open the Veil between Life and Death itself. This does not say that the veil couldn't be opened before.

Another possibility is that the Helm of Domination thinned the barrier or that the barrier was already thinning, and just the crown itself can hold the dimensions apart.

- - - Updated - - -

Helya is way bigger than him.

Exactly. People are tent to forget Helia, but she possess her own realm, and she's very active during BfA.

[MrSaggins]

I’m not sure I’d call expanding upon great mysteries of stories yet untold retconning. It just gives the reader new perspective.

[Highelf]

I don't think its a full retcon as if removing its additive. They're just adding lore and stuff to the helm of damnation.

But what held back the Shadowlands rift or whatever it was before the helm that only came to azeroth 15 years ago? Wasn't it made from a titan, and sylvanas just ripped it apart with her bare hands lol. It's taking a dump on the lore.

[Magnagarde]

Don't worry, ReChronicle Vol. 1 will clear things up.

[Sanguinerd]

Maybe the creation of the Lich King is what started the imbalance of the Shadowlands to begin with.

[The Stormbringer]

But what held back the Shadowlands rift or whatever it was before the helm that only came to azeroth 15 years ago? Wasn't it made from a titan, and sylvanas just ripped it apart with her bare hands lol. It's taking a dump on the lore.

Maybe there wasn't a rift? Maybe it was sealed up nice and tight before, and the Helm acted as a way to weaken things and, when broken, create a rift?

[Goldielocks]

Yes. The Lich King was always a Legion pawn, who went his own way, just like how Sylvanas went her own way by breaking free from Arthas. This grand scheme they've placed onto The Lich King is just goofy retconning.

[Count Zero]

Until we see the end of BfA and how that ties into Shadowlands it's too early to speculate.

[Mehrunes]

Don't worry, ReChronicle Vol. 1 will clear things up.

The Ultimate Edition or the Omega Edition?

[Dannihilate]

I hope this xpac explains what Bolvar has been doing this whole time and WHY he was still the "Jailer of the Damned". On day 1 of him taking over, he could have (and should have) just marched every single Scourge unit into the nearest active volcano. Or had them fight each other until none were left. Or just dismissed their souls into the afterlife and let their bodies crumble to dust. There are a dozen different things he could have done so that there didn't "always need to be a Lich King". This is something that has never made any sense to me, beyond just keeping him around for funzies.

[Thontor]

But what held back the Shadowlands rift or whatever it was before the helm that only came to azeroth 15 years ago? Wasn't it made from a titan, and sylvanas just ripped it apart with her bare hands lol. It's taking a dump on the lore.

Why do you assume that the rift existed before? Who's to say that tearing the Helm of Domination apart didn't create the rift.

[Magnagarde]

The Ultimate Edition or the Omega Edition?

The $99.99 hardcover 15th Anniversary Edition, which will retain a certain degree of relevance untill the $99.99 hardcover 20th Anniversary Edition comes out.

[Trassk]

just to note, details are out with the helm destroyed, the scourge will be running rampant across azeroth just like pre-wrath days, only without anyone controlling them