Shadow and Death

I have yet to get a Horde character to 120 (my Shaman has done Nazmir and Vol'dun, but is at 116 - I'll probably start Zuldazar on him today.) Still, I've now done all six leveling zones (the Rogue did Zuldazar first - urban intrigue seems right for him,) and I know a little about what happens with the Zandalar plot later on.

SPOILERS AHOY





There are two major cosmic forces that seem to be major themes in both continents. Obviously, we've taken Chaos and its Fel magic off the table for now (aside from a single demon I've seen in Zuldazar that Tehd and Marius were hunting, demons have been unseen outside of Warlocks and Metamorphosed Demon Hunters.)

The Void has a very clear presence in Zandalar given G'huun. We have G'huun himself in Uldir, with the Blood Trolls that worship him. In Vol'dun, we have Jakrazet and Korthek plotting to revive Mythrax, a Cthraxxi minion of the Old Gods. And of course, in Zuldazar, we have about half the Zanchuli Council (the ministers of the empire) following Zul in worship of G'huun.

In Kul Tiras, we have a somewhat less widespread but nevertheless explicit connection with the corruption of the Tidesages in Stormsong Valley (and northwest Tiragarde Sound.) It's not entirely clear (I may be remembering stuff from the Alpha that has been changed,) but Lady Ashvane's attempted coup seems to be supported by Azshara as well (the fact that Viq'goth shows up again at the end of the Siege of Boralus dungeon implies this to be the case, though the fact that Ashvane surrenders when she's surrounded by the Kul Tiran fleet suggests she hasn't totally drunk the Old God kool-aid.)

With all of this going on, not to mention the many hints in Legion that we were going to be dealing with Old Gods next, and indeed, G'huun is sometimes referred to as such, the presence of eldritch nastiness is certainly clear.

Now let's talk death.

Outside of the Scourge (which was sort of an off-shoot of the Fel Burning Legion,) we haven't explored much of the underlying nature of Death as a cosmic force in Warcraft. We know that Necromancy's a thing, and Death Knight clearly employ its power in their abilities. We often see it tied to the other forces - not only was the Scourge created by the Legion, but Second War Death Knights and Necrolites of the Old Horde seemed to employ its power. We've also seen it come from Void-worshippers, like Ner'zhul-B in Draenor (though perhaps this was implying that Ner'zhul had always had a bit of necromantic skill regardless of what force was controlling him?)

The only entity we've ever seen to employ death magic that wasn't affiliated with the Old Gods or the Legion was probably Helya (though her tentacles might imply that she was, actually, connected to the Old Gods some way. That or it was just an aesthetic choice.) She was, of course, tied to the Arcane power of the Titans as well.

But in BFA, we seem to be encountering some entities that seem purely affiliated with Death.

In Zandalar, we have Bwonsamdi. Bwonsamdi is a really interesting character - he's a Loa, but unlike Rezan (before the events of Zuldazar,) Gonk, Hi'reek, Shadra, etc., he's not connected to Life magic, but instead is a Loa of Death. He's not really good, per se, but he's reasonable - willing to bargain, and is not interested in taking people before their time is done. He's a Loa of natural death - he knows everyone's coming over to the Other Side eventually, and it's really just the violations of that natural order that he takes issue with - but given that it's his domain, he also has the ability to preserve life when it suits him. If you die in Zandalar, rather than a traditional spirit healer, it's Bwonsamdi who meets you at the graveyard, sometimes commenting out loud that you shouldn't be there because it's not your time.

In the end of Zandalar's storyline for this patch, after Rezan is slain and Rastakhan loses his Loa-based gift of longevity (he's hundreds of years old, when Trolls appear to have a similar natural lifespan to humans,) Rastakhan makes a deal with Bwonsamdi, making the Loa of Death the most venerated in Zandalar and thus giving Rastakhan the power to rule again. But in doing so, he binds himself and all of his successors (including Talanji) to Bwonsamdi. Again, not necessarily an evil Loa, but not really good either. And creepy as hell.

In Kul Tiras, the land is haunted, quite literally, by the Drust. There's only one truly living Drust we know of, namely Ulfar, who is the sort of "Shan'do" of the Thornwatchers, Kul Tiran's order of Druids. Unfortunately, he's always in Bear form so we can't really confirm whether the Drust are also human or if they're Vrykul or something else. The story goes that when the first Kul Tirans settled in the Sound (having sailed from Gilneas,) the Drust attacked them without warning. The war that followed saw the Drust seemingly exterminated (mind you, the story is told by a Kul Tiran noblewoman, so take it with a grain of salt.) It turns out, however, that Gorak Tul, the Drust leader, had used death magic to escape into Thros, the Blighted Lands (which has to be part of the Shadowlands.) It is here that we eventually discover Jaina has been imprisoned, and after she is forced to confront her doubts and fears, we fight Gorak Tul within and restore her to her sane mind, allowing us to escape.

But let's also not forget probably the most obvious Death-aligned figure in BFA: Sylvanas Windrunner.

Originally, Sylvanas wanted only one thing for the Forsaken - revenge. She wanted a place for them to call their own, leading them in carving out territory in the ruins of Lordaeron, but always preparing for the eventual fight against Arthas. The Forsaken had allied with the Tauren in the hopes that their druidic magic might eventually cure them - restoring them as living humans once again. Their methods were ruthless, but the motivation seemed sound.

But when Arthas was slain and Sylvanas climbed to the top of the Frozen Throne only to find a new Lich King sitting in Arthas' place, she was seized with a nihilistic despair. She had done what she meant to do, and with a new Lich King, it showed that it had not really meant much at all. So she killed herself.

I wonder, sometimes, if that's really where the Sylvanas we knew ended. She wasn't exactly a good guy, but there was a certain restraint.

When she was revived by the Val'kyr, she came up with a new goal: in death, she has seen only a dark expanse - the same abyss Arthas appears to be lost to. Believing that this would be the fate of any of her people if they were to suffer their final death, she decided that there was no choice but to ensure that there would always be a way to revive them. Undeath was not a good state - "what joy is there in this curse?" she tended to ask - but it was preferable to that oblivion, and so she would ensure that her people could be preserved indefinitely.

But that, in itself, would be somewhat defensible. But let's look at other issues: She was ordered to take Gilneas by then-Warchief Hellscream, and while she was only following orders, she waged this war in a cruel and brutal fashion, particularly in the use of plague. She also had her Val'kyr revive fallen human soldiers and immediately press them into service for the Forsaken.

This goal has expanded to the point where Sylvanas apparently wants to do the same to all of humanity. Will she stop there? What about the rest of the Alliance?

What about the rest of the Horde?

When she demonstrated her ability to raise the dead to Garrosh in Silverpine Forest, Hellscream expressed a rare moment of shock - brute though he was, this felt just... wrong. He asked Sylvanas what difference there was between her and the Lich King at this point, to which she responded, "I serve the Horde." That's not exactly comforting to hear, but it gets a lot worse.

Now that she is Warchief, she has absolute power within the Horde. Which means she does not really serve the Horde - the Horde serves her.

Now, not much longer after her ascension, she has done something that Xavius, the Legion, and Deathwing couldn't do - she destroyed Teldrassil. Sure, she lost Undercity, and while normally I'd chalk losing your own city up as pretty bad, she clearly intended it as a trade in the hopes of trapping the Alliance leadership in her Blight-infested ruins. That plan failed, removing any real positive for the Horde from that battle, but she has still seriously crippled the Alliance's ability to threaten the Horde's territories in Kalimdor.

Still, given her methods and her aggression, she is sewing discord among the Horde. Saurfang straight-up refused to even be rescued from Stormwind, believing a cell in the Stockades to be a better place for him than at this Warchief's side. Sylvanas has shown herself very capable of operating separately as Warchief and for her own motives (see Stormheim,) and so there's a big question mark over what her plans are in the long run.

But there's one more connection we need to talk about.

Upon arriving in Kul Tiras, one of the first two friendly faces that we Alliance players meet is a young woman named Taelia. She is a member of the royal guard, a squire to an old knight named Cyrus, who was kicked upstairs to become the harbor master. Taelia was not born in Kul Tiras - she's from the Eastern Kingdoms, but she was sent to Boralus to be raised while her parents were fighting the Scourge. Her mother died, I believe, in the Third War, and her father in the campaign in Northrend... or so she believes.

After we defeat Lady Ashvane's coup attempt and Jaina is named Lord Admiral, Taelia is introduced to Anduin, and we first hear her last name: Fordragon.

Yes, Taelia is Bolvar Fordragon's daughter. And in a lot of ways, she reflects his strength, honor, and courage. But something she sure as hell doesn't know is that Bolvar is, you know, the Lich King now.

That means we have the daughter of the Lich King serving House Proudmoore.

There is absolutely no way that we're not going to be revisiting that issue.

First off, how do you tell someone something like that? And do you? It's not entirely clear to me who knows that Bolvar is the Lich King. Player characters do, of course (especially Death Knights and Mages, who met with him in Legion.) But does Anduin know? Also, would Taelia find it messed up that Bolvar was acting as a surrogate father to Anduin while Varian was missing?

Does Bolvar know that Taelia's there? What does he want with her? Are we going to get Death Knight Taelia, or perhaps Paladin Taelia to counter her father? We still don't really know what Bolvar's longterm goals are - the Scourge seems to be under control for the most part (though not entirely) - which is of course his main purpose, but he also assembled a lot of power during Legion.

Given the rise of Sylvanas and her aggression, would Bolvar take steps to oppose her? Does she fall under his jurisdiction as Jailor of the Damned? And if there is a fight, who would win?

So, prediction time:

I think BFA is largely going to revolve around the Old Gods. We'll probably get some major PvE feature (like a raid) that is themed around the faction conflict, but my prediction (again, I've been wrong the last two expansions) is that we'll be facing N'zoth by the end of BFA.)

But I think that the expansion that follows will probably focus on the Shadowlands and Death Magic. There's just so much of it being talked about in BFA in so many different aspects and angles that I feel like it must be hinting at something to come. And if they follow the class-every-two-expansions pattern, maybe we'll get Necromancers!