A Thousand Years of War and the Complex Questions of Light and Shadow

Many of our questions were answered in the recent audio drama, A Thousand Years of War, which tells the story of Alleria and Turalyon from the destruction of Draenor to our current interactions with them.

The revelations here are really interesting, and certainly make my feelings about my Paladin, as well as the Naaru and the Light in general, a little more complicated.

First off: We find that the reason for the weird time discrepancy is something to do with the Twisting Nether and something akin to real-world relativity. It seems that spending more time in the chaotic Twisting Nether has stretched out (or rather, compressed - depending on where you're standing) time so that Alleria and Turalyon have really experienced a thousand years in what for our characters would have only been about 40. This means that when we defeat the Burning Legion, they have far longer to prepare for a new attack than we have to prepare our defense (though this makes me wonder why they waited ten thousand years between the War of the Ancients and the First War to attack Azeroth again.)

Alleria manages to survive based on the residual quasi-immortality granted by the Sunwell (I guess that even when it's cut off by Arthas and Kel'thuzad, the effect is still on her.) Turalyon, on the other hand, become Lightforged, much like the various Draenei characters we see on Argus as well as Lothraxion.

We do learn a little more about this character. Lothraxion was a truly evil demonic dreadlord before his capture by the Army of the Light. But his role was actually hunting down the Void and its spawn even during his Legion career. We know that the Nathrezim/Dreadlords were servants of Old Gods before their capture by Sargeras, which makes this a pretty interesting history for him. We don't know how he converted, but his evil past make him somewhat more sympathetic to those who aren't 100% Light-Focused.

Alleria is very much the protagonist of this story, and she has a very complex and difficult path to walk - one that seems to end in her doom.

X'era knows somehow that she and Turalyon will survive their first journey to Argus, but she cannot see how. What Alleria discovers is that this is because it is the power of the Void that saves her. Later, she encounters the ethereal known as Locus Walker - a longtime thorn in the side of the Legion that even Lothraxion remembers hunting - she sees a strange new perspective on things:

The Void sees the Light to be as horrifying as those who follow the Light see the Void. It considers the order and tranquility of the Light as enslavement and stasis. As Locus-Walker explains, the Light sees only one path forward and everything else as a lie, while the Void sees all possibilities as equally true. This makes the Void seem insane, and its logic useless, but it also explains how the Light can seem blind.

This seems very on-theme for Warcraft in general - much as the Pandaren innkeeper explained at the end of the Mists legendary chain - you need both halves of the equation for a healthy life and a healthy universe.

Alleria sees many visions of potential futures granted by the void - one in which she submits to N'zoth, another where she slays it and takes its place as a queen of monsters, and another where she and her son Arator slay each other. This last one rings false, because she knows more than anything that she would never do anything to harm her husband or their son, even if she walks a very different path.

The creepiest vision she has, though, is one of her diving off some precipice into the Void with a smile on her face. This appears to be her true fate, or so she believes. This path she walks may allow her to defeat the Legion, but it looks like it will ultimately claim her. And what does that mean, exactly?

Simply rejecting the Shadow in favor of the Light does not seem possible: X'era (setting aside the fact that she's dead thanks to Illidan) is more of an elemental force than a sentient being, and just can't seem to even conceive of a nuanced view where some mixture of Light and Shadow could be the proper path forward.

Anyway, I recommend listening to the audio drama (it's on the World of Warcraft Youtube channel.) The voice-acting is superb (even though it's weird to hear Alleria and Turalyon speak with English accents - I actually like that Warcraft, a fantasy setting created by Americans, has medieval-style knights and such who speak in American accents. Though I far prefer the audio-drama's version of Locus Walker's voice.)

The Wound (Spoilers)

So there's a 7.3.2 PTR build up. We're going to be talking post-Antorus spoilers here. So let's... um... let's put up that spoiler warning.

SPOILERS AHOY!

Ok? Good? We all ready for the spoiler ride? Ok.