The Meaning of Korthia, the Sepulcher, and What's To Come in Shadowlands?

FYI: Spoilers for the end of Sanctum of Domination and 9.1 campaign quests below.

Timing-wise, 9.1: Chains of Domination came when we'd usually be getting a 9.2 patch. X.2 patches often come with a big new zone with outdoor content to do - in Cataclysm, we got the Molten Front. In Mists of Pandaria, we got the Isle of Thunder. We'll skip Warlords (even though we did get Tanaan Jungle in 6.2). We got the Broken Shore in 7.2, and we got Nazjatar and Mechagon in 8.2.

Given that, it's maybe not unreasonable to imagine that Korthia and 9.1 are the equivalent content and patch, respectively, for Shadowlands - these X.2 patches typically came out in the summer after a fall release of the expansion proper, and X.1 patches have usually involved more of an elaboration of sorts on the opening patch along with the first "tier" raid.

Now, that idea of a tier raid is actually pretty meaningless in the current era without tier sets. Raids like Mogu'shan Vaults, Highmaul, and the Emerald Nightmare were certainly raids, but they were considered "minor" "intro" raids primarily because they did not drop armor sets with set bonuses for the class they were designed for. The introduction of Azerite Armor in BFA made doing tier sets a bit redundant as well as a bit more difficult to build around. It also meant that the art team could work on a single armor set per armor type.

Now, I felt strongly that the armor sets in BFA were mostly very underwhelming, with anything below mythic gear looking little more interesting than the blue dungeon sets. Shadowlands' raid armor has been way more exciting, but at the same time, I miss the class themes - and I think I'm not alone, as Blizzard has said that they want to bring these back in the future.

But I'm getting off-topic.

9.1 is a fairly substantial patch. While I don't think Korthia is doing all that much differently from other post-release endgame zones typically do, building that zone and the creatures and content we find there is no small task. And really, it does feel like it's the big "new zone" that we get in the penultimate patches of most expansions.

That being said: Blizzard was adamant to say that Korthia wasn't actually a new zone, and was instead an expansion of the Maw (I disagree with this definition, but I guess that gives Blizzard more credit.)

I think the biggest question on everyone's minds regarding this expansion is whether we're going to see both a 9.2 and a 9.3. After the crushing disappointment that was Warlords of Draenor, I suspect Blizzard is very reticent to have another truncated expansion. Warlords, despite having a big step up in the leveling experience, had a problem that reminds me of an old New York joke: "The soup is terrible!" "Yes, and such small portions!"

Shadowlands, on the other hand, has had very good soup, so to speak, but after 8 months, the 9.0 soup, to belabor the metaphor, had grown cold. Some have complained that 9.1 has not really been enough interesting stuff to justify the wait, but I do wonder if people would feel that way if this had come out in, like, March, when it was probably supposed to.

Given the way that the Sanctum of Domination raid ends (and I'll be clear here that I have really only seen the cinematic, not experienced the full ending,) we obviously have a couple of hints at what is coming in the future. But are we fully in the endgame now, or was this just the midpoint shift?

(For those of you who didn't study screenwriting, the a movie script is typically broken into three acts. In a 2-hour movie, the first act is about 30 minutes, the second is an hour, and the third is 30 minutes. The midpoint shift happens smack dab in the middle of act two, usually at the centerpoint of the movie, and generally involves a significant shift in the stakes and framing of the story. The clearest one I can name is in Jaws, when the action goes from the community of Amity to the three men on a boat hunting the shark.)

I suspect that Blizzard intended for Shadowlands to follow the typical WoW-expansion four-patch cycle (X.0, X.1, X.2, X.3,) but the delays caused by the pandemic could change that. Now, do they hold fast to the two-year expansion cycle and either truncate Shadowlands to fit it in, or do they potentially wait until early 2023 or even later to release whatever comes next? Remember that typically, we'd be hearing about the next expansion this fall, but I, for one, am not ready to start looking beyond Shadowlands. I want this expansion to be a legendary great one up there with Wrath and Legion. (I mean, I'd like that for all of them, but I've always been really interested in the lore behind the Scourge and all the undead/death themes in WoW.)

So, this is all probably being determined by development schedules. But let's also look at the story and see if we can figure out what might be coming.

In terms of antagonists, the big rogue's gallery for this expansion has included: The Jailer, Sylvanas, Denathrius, Helya, Kel'thuzad, and Vyraz. Denathrius was defeated in 9.0, and while there's a good chance that the Nathrezim will somehow free him, I doubt we're going to see him playing a final raid boss role again.

Kel'thuzad and Sylvanas are both fought in Sanctum of Domination, and it appears that we finally target KT's phylactery this time, killing him permanently. Sylvanas is abandoned by the Jailer and her soul is restored, thus suggesting that A: she's our prisoner and B: she will likely be more of a useful asset to us than an antagonist moving forward.

Vyraz has been defeated in the campaign quest this week. While I don't think she was killed (re-killed?) it appears that The Primus was able to very easily take down Helya, making me skeptical she'll get top billing in an upcoming raid.

So, who does that leave?

Well, the Jailer seems like the obvious final boss of the expansion. At this point, it seems his primary "champion" is Anduin, who is fully dominated by the Jailer's magic, and used as a puppet more than a lieutenant (and appears, in his brief moments of lucidity, to be horrified at what is happening to him.)

Could Anduin be a raid boss? One in which we have to beat him to within an inch of his life to save him? I think that's possible, but we can consider other possibilities.

Another is the Nathrezim. Now, I believe Tichondrius is the official leader of the Dreadlords, but the last time we saw him, he was a side-boss in the Nighthold. Mal'ganis made an appearance in Wrath of the Lich King before disappearing, and could play a bigger role (of all the Dreadlords, he was the one most closely tied to the Scourge.)

One thing I think the expansion really needs to touch on is the connection between the Scourge and the Burning Legion. Prior to Shadowlands, the death-magic of the Scourge was said to be purely the artifice of Kil'jaeden. But everything we've seen in Shadowlands itself has made it look like the Scourge was purely the work of the Jailer. The revelation that the Dreadlords served Denathrius and, through him, the Jailer all this time is a huge lore bomb, but big twists like that need to be explained for them to earn their shock value.

In fact, one thing I'd love to get into is how much the Legion knew. When we fought Varimathras in Antorus, he had been tortured, seemingly just for his failure to turn Undercity into a portal for the Legion to invade during Wrath (in a quest line that is sadly no longer available since Cataclysm came out). But the revelation that the Dreadlords were always on Team Jailer (or at least that's how it seems) suggests that maybe the Legion figured out that Varimathras was up to something, and was trying to get the information out of him.

Next week's campaign quest is "The Unseen Guests," which is the name the Nathrezim gave themselves. (Notably, the spire where Venthyr covenant folks plan their parties with Temel for the Ember Court is called "The Spire of the Unseen Guests," and you can sometimes find the big lore book there that strongly suggests the Nathrezim's true loyalties and how far back Denathrius' fall from grace was). So we might learn of their importance moving forward then.

In the end of Sanctum of Domination, the Jailer steals the orb from the Arbiter's chest, causing her to disintegrate and taking it into his own chest cavity, which then allows him to seemingly armor himself (or is he taking on his true form?) While our failure to protect the Arbiter is the big loss in this patch, it also appears that he can now open the way to the "Sepulcher."

This is something we've been hearing about since 9.0, but the game has been extremely cagey with what it actually is. Presumably, it's a location (and not just the Forsaken quest hub in Silverpine Forest.) I would not be shocked in the Sepulcher became a zone or raid for us to visit in 9.2.

But then, we also have another question: what is the Jailer's ultimate plan? We know he wants to make Death the dominant force in the cosmos, and the version of it that is hateful and allows him to dominate all other creatures. But how does he intend to do that?

Well, when the expansion started, we heard a phrase "death comes for the soul of your world." Remember, over the previous two expansions, the power of Azeroth's titanic world soul was a pretty key plot point. Sargeras and N'zoth both sought to possess her and turn her to their side. So, does Zovaal just want to do the same, and make Azeroth into a Death Titan?

I love the "outer-planar" feel of Shadowlands, and hope that we're going to explore much more of the Warcraft multiverse moving forward. But I also think there's a strong chance that this expansion might actually end with us coming home and fighting the Jailer on our own home turf.

Anyway, this is all speculation, of course. We have a couple weeks left to see the campaign quests in 9.1, and I hope that Blizzard will give some indications of what's coming after that.