Who's the Boss?

No, it's not about that sitcom from the 80s (sidenote: I was born in the mid-80s which means I really think of myself as growing up in the 90s, and as a little kid I didn't realize how much of the sitcoms I was watching were actually reruns from the previous decade, meaning that I thought a fair number of 80s sitcoms were actually 90s ones.)

What we're going to be talking about here is a certain Warcraft character's mysterious boss. I'll note that I haven't actually done the quests surrounding this question - they require revered with Zandalari Empire and I think my Horde character is only just into Honored so far - but I've seen enough of (and done a fair amount of Zandalar content) to perhaps start to speculate.

Anyway, SPOILERS AHOY


Bwonsamdi is maybe the most interesting figure in Zandalar, and perhaps all of BFA. Nearly all Loa we've encountered are associated with Life and Nature. Rezan and the other dinosaur Loa certainly are, and the others we've seen in other parts of the world have had a similar magical alignment. Hakkar the Soulflayer is maybe another story, and I was hoping we'd get some elaboration on his nature in Zandalar, but apparently not (interesting that Shadra and Hi'reek, both I believe referred to in Zul'Gurub, at least originally, do play parts in Zandalar, but nothing of Hakaar.)

Bwonsamdi was first mentioned in-game during Zalazane's Fall, brief pre-Cataclysm events that had the Horde take back the Echo Isles from Vol'jin's treacherous former lieutenant. Vol'jin invoked Bwonsamdi to defeat Zalazane, and now Troll characters begin their adventures on the Echo Isles.

Bwonsamdi is a Loa, but seems fundamentally different from the others. Indeed, the other Loa seem to be just the Troll versions of the Night Elves' Ancients and the Pandaren's Celestials. All seem to fall under the category of "Wild God" which, again, puts them aligned with Life and Nature.

Bwonsamdi is a Loa of Death. Not only is he aligned with the opposite primal force, he's also the only Loa we know of that takes a humanoid form.

The Wild Gods seem to have once been mundane creatures who were empowered by Freya, linking them with the Emerald Dream and turning them into god-like figures. We get a bit of that in the artifact lore for some druid weapons.

Was Bwonsamdi a mortal once, who was somehow empowered to have domain over death?

Bwonsamdi is interesting - in D&D terms, he would be an ideal deity for a Grave domain Cleric to worship. He's associated with death, but in the sense that he oversees the passing. Unlike other death-aligned characters, he does not condone the undead. Now, he does make use of the spirits of the dead, for example summoning the spirits of fallen Zandalari soldiers to assault Zul's forces after Zul takes over the capital. But it seems that undeath as a permanent state appears anathema to him.

Which is why I'm eager to meet him on my Undead Rogue.

Anyway, Bwonsamdi is powerful, and by the end of the quests in Zandalar, he makes a deal with Rastakhan, who binds his royal bloodline to Bwonsamdi in exchange for the power that was lost after the death of Rezan. Bwonsamdi is now effectively the patron deity of the Zandalari Empire, and stands to be an important figure within the Horde as well - which again, seems like it will make things complicated for Sylvanas.

Now, the big mystery that pops up involves Vol'jin. At some point, Horde players are tasked with taking Vol'jin's ashes to Bwonsamdi. But when they arrive, Bwonsamdi exclaims that he has misplaced Vol'jin's soul. He expresses worry that his boss is going to be angry, as he hasn't lost a soul in a very long time.

So, setting aside the question of where Vol'jin's soul is (not having done the quests I really don't think I can speculate that much on that topic) or what might have happened the last time Bwonsamdi lost one, I think the biggest bombshell there is the notion that Bwonsamdi has a boss at all.

And who is it?

The first idea that comes to mind is one that we don't actually have a name for: the mysterious Shadowlands entity that now holds Odyn's eye. This individual taught Odyn how to create the Val'kyr, and thus employ what is essentially glorified necromancy to raise the souls of dead vrykul and have them serve in his eternal Valarjar. Previously I had thought that maybe this entity was actually Bwonsamdi, but now I wonder if there's someone else - some kind of lord of the Shadowlands to whom Bwonsamdi reports.

But this doesn't really answer the question of who it is - it merely creates two arrows pointing toward the same thing.

I actually think we can probably rule out the Old Gods. Odyn would probably recognize an Old God, having led the fight against them back in the Ordering.

Though Helya is apparently not as dead as we thought she was (according to a turn-in quest you can get from Island Expediitons) I suspect that if there are power-level tiers, she's probably on the same level as Bwonsamdi - if both serve, they probably serve the same entity.

Now here's the tin-foil hat where I bring back what you could reasonably call a debunked theory: the Lich King.

I had of course been speculating for a long time before Chronicle Volume III about whether Kil'jaeden had truly created the Lich King or merely placed it in a vessel that would be forced to serve the Legion. There was no mention of that, but I do think it would make a lot of sense if the Lich King had somehow become an avatar of some greater power within the Shadowlands. The Lich King, after all, claims to have dominion over the realm, and there's not a lot to contradict that.

Finally, and perhaps the most likely option, we may simply not have been introduced to this "boss." Though there are other rumors flying around, I feel pretty strongly that we've got some kind of Shadowlands-based expansion coming next. That might be the time to introduce this figure.

Actually, I lied when I said "finally." Let's throw one more tin-foil hat onto the pile:

Stepping back from Odyn's mysterious Shadowlands entity (or possibly not,) we have to consider something: the Shadowlands are the opposite of the Emerald Dream, and line up pretty closely with the D&D idea of the Feywild and the Shadowfell, both being weird sort of reflections of the physical world. On Azeorth, we know that Freya either created or opened the doorway to the Emerald Dream, and is thus closely linked to it. Is it possible that a different Watcher did the same for the Shadowlands? All the ones we know about are accounted for - most were bosses in Ulduar. Tyr we know died in Tirisfal Glades (though I suspect they weren't called that yet, for reasons I think should be obvious.) Odyn was locked away in the Halls of Valor, though he's free now.

Still, it wouldn't be all that shocking to see another pop up. We'd never heard of Odyn, for example, before Legion.

And what if that Watcher had not simply remained tied to the Shadowlands, but actually went there instead? Maybe he or she resides within the Shadowlands now.

Consider the following: Odyn was willing to make a deal with this entity in order to learn how to raise his Vrykul from the dead. As one so obsessed with Titanic purity that he refused to condone the elevation of the dragons, wouldn't it make sense that he'd only make such a deal with a fellow Watcher?

And if it's Freya who elevates exceptional animals to become Wild Gods, wouldn't it make sense for another Watcher to transform Bwonsamdi into a Loa?

So if we want to spell out our pure tin-foil theory: there is another Titanforged Watcher who is currently living ("living?") in the Shadowlands, who has dominion over death and necromancy, and who is both Bwonsamdi's boss and also the one who taught Odyn how to turn Helya into the first Val'kyr.