The Drust and Spoilery Details from a Blizzcon Interview

The southwest region of Kul Tiras is called Drustvar. Home of House Waycrest, Drustvar was the source of weapons and armor for Kul Tiras' navy, but the Waycrests have mysteriously disappeared.

In a Blizzplanet interview with Senior Game Designer Jeremy Feasel, in addition to details surrounding Uldir and the Blood God (see previous post,) he gave us more details about the spooky area of Drustvar, with an explanation of the witches and spirits there.

The Kul Tirans were originally Gilneans who discovered the islands that would become Kul Tiras and settled there. In the southwest, they encountered a race called the Drust and more or less wiped them out in the conquest of the land.

As it turns out (and here come the spoilers,) the Drust were hardy enough of a race that they managed to stick around in the area as spirits within the Death Realm (the Shadowlands, I assume.) Lady Waycrest, seeking more political power among the Houses, has chosen to make a pact with the Drust, who are trying to emerge from the Shadowlands (I'm going forward on the assumption that that's the "Death Realm" they're talking about.) The Drustvar witches are powerful spellcasters who infuse figurines with the souls of the dead in order to serve as their minions (those are the wicker-man-like creatures that you see in the videos.) The witches reach a certain level of power and then, at the behest of the Drust, slit their own throats to become these powerful monsters.

This is super interesting, and I'm really happy to see an expansion of the exploration of the Shadowlands. I'd like to hear an explicit confirmation that this "Death Realm" and Helheim are both part of the Shadowlands, but I'm operating on this assumption for now.

Notably, we haven't seen, as far as I can tell, the Drust themselves. I'm eager to find out more about them, and I hope to see some connection to the Scourge and the Lich King, but as of yet, there's nothing explicit.

Still, I love Warcraft's undead and spooky stuff, and I suspect Drustvar is going to be my favorite zone.