It's funny, about Val'kyr.
When we were first introduced to the idea of Val'kyr, it was purely in the context of the Scourge.
The Vrykul underwent two transformations. First, the Curse of Flesh afflicted them, transforming them from ageless constructs of metal and stone into beings of flesh and blood. The Vrykul civilization lasted long enough after this to develop a distinct culture, separate from the Titanforged one that they had started with. Thanes and Kings arose, and there was a sort of Vrykul diaspora across the seas. The Vrykul were already around, of course, by the time of the Sundering, and the Curse of Flesh obviously came before that event. So that suggests that the Vrykul witnessed the destruction of ancient Kalimdor.
We've seen the Vrykul show up in a few regions, though most are on the eastern side of Azeroth. Northrend was clearly their primary home, with settlements ranging from Howling Fjord to Storm Peaks to Icecrown. We found Vrykul in Stormheim on the Broken Isles as well, apparently a group that had followed Odyn in his departure from Ulduar. We also know that some branch of their culture went to the islands that would come to be called Kul Tiras and became known as the Drust. It's not clear why they took this separate name (Blizzard was a little coy with their origins until more recently.) And while those like Gorak Tul consider their people to have all died out following the conquest of the land by Kul Tiras, the towering, bulky build of the Kul Tirans (at least the playable ones) suggest that, in fact, it's far more likely that many intermarried with the humans and produced mixed offspring.
But that brings up this second transformation, and it's the reaction to that that led to the vrykul becoming pawns of the Scourge. King Ymiron, convinced that their people were cursed after they gave birth to what we would now recognize as ordinary humans, elected to have his people sleep under stasis for thousands of years - to wait out the curse and presumably hope that the Titans would return to fix everything.
Of course, the Titans were busy being sort of dead and imprisoned in Antorus by that point. Instead, what came was the Lich King and the Scourge.
As players, having sort of Viking-themed giants to fight made some kind of undead equivalent to the Valkyries sort of thematically fitting. The Lich King convinced the Vrykul that he was a Death God (which... might not have been exactly a lie) and used the Val'kyr to create a kind of vetting process to empower his most elite champions. The Vrykul, reawakened after all these years, basically built their new culture around impressing the Lich King enough to be chosen as one of his elite Ymirjar.
The Val'kyr would continue to play a significant role in the story moving forward. Nine of them chose to serve Sylvanas, ostensibly to be free of the Lich King's control. And it was really after they joined Sylvanas that the Banshee Queen started transforming from problematic antihero into full-on villain.
Still, at the time, the story was really just that these were some undead vrykul women whom the Lich King had empowered to raise people from the dead.
Legion (and Chronicle, which came out shortly beforehand) threw us the first huge curveball in this story.
After meeting a number of Titan Keepers themed after the Norse Pantheon, it was perhaps funny that there wasn't any real clear equivalent to Odin (I think back then I had thought Hodir might have been it, though then I later realized there is also a Hodir in Norse myth.) In Legion, we met Odyn and discovered that the entire ritual - of Vrykul warriors proving themselves and being judged by the Val'kyr to be raised as elite warriors beyond death - was stolen by the Lich King from Odyn. It was Odyn who had discovered this power (and we're going to get to that part) to create Val'kyr, and thus he was able to create an army of his legendary Valarjar. The pieces were all in place, and now it makes perfect sense that the Vrykul would key into this practice when the Scourge woke them up - they'd already known about it.
Somehow, the Lich King had usurped Odyn's position in this process and tradition, but the end result was not entirely dissimilar.
But here's the thing:
Odyn didn't invent it either.
We knew even as of Chronicle that Odyn had only gained this power by journeying into the Shadowlands and meeting with a mysterious figure to whom he gave his eye in exchange for knowledge. The whole "trading his eye for knowledge" thing is straight out of Norse myth, though what that knowledge contained and to whom he traded it are quite different.
Odyn's actions were then totally heinous - he forced Helya to become the first Val'kyr against her will, essentially both murdering and enslaving his adopted daughter. Odyn might not be Arthas, but he is not a good person.
It's really odd, though, to think about the idea of appropriation and perversion. After all, the Scourge was all about perverting the sacred into the profane. And it looks very much like the creation of the Ymirjar was a perversion of the creation of the Valarjar. But the Valarjar were already a profanity in their own way. Helya would go on to create her own profane version of the system in stealing the souls of the Vrykul to create her Kvaldir (who are, oddly, not considered undead for some reason.)
There are some major questions to be asked, and that look like they could be answered, in the upcoming Shadowlands expansion. We have yet to know who Odyn gave his eye to. We know that the Kyrians of Bastion - the heavenly realm of the Shadowlands where souls who dedicated themselves to service live on in light and righteousness - are somehow related to the Val'kyr, perhaps as sort of inspirations or prototypes.
So was it here that Odyn learned how to make the Val'kyr? That seems like it's probably only partially true. One imagines that a place like Bastion would not promote the kind of perversion of death as Odyn created it. After all, while it's a benign and good place, Bastion is still a place of death magic, and as the place where the souls of the selfless go, they would probably not be happy about someone diverting those souls.
Which suggests to me that some more sinister entity was probably helping Odyn as part of a plot against the Kyrians - stealing their power and ways for this entity's own ends, and likely using Odyn as a pawn.
Now, setting the Val'kyr aside, we also know that Maldraxxus had a deep connection to the Scourge. We have yet to learn a ton about this place or its Necrolords covenant, but the aesthetics of Maldraxxus are extremely reminiscent of the Scourge. It is said that it was from here that the Scourge drew much of its power and even forces. While obviously most of the Scourge was made up of the people it had killed, I'd assume this means that its ghostly spirits - those that had nothing to do with Azeroth's dead - were drawn from here.
And so I wonder, then, if this power was also stolen.
We know Kil'jaeden put Ner'zhul's spirit into the armor that would be the first Lich King (I wouldn't be shocked if they retconned it to really just be the Helm of Domination that held the Lich King.) We don't know how a demon - a being of Fel that, while once mortal, was no longer bound for the Shadowlands once it became a demon - managed to get there, or what kind of deals, manipulations, or strategies he employed to forge the Helm or Frostmourne (I could be misremembering - it might have been some Nathrezim who did the actual forging, but the scenario remains.) Kil'jaeden was obviously very powerful, but I do wonder if perhaps he also had to make some kind of a deal. Maybe a deal to... steal some of the power of another important covenant.
We know that the Jailor is the big bad of the Shadowlands expansion (unless Sylvanas takes over that role.) So it might be coy not to simply say that the Jailor could be the one who is helping others steal these powers of death.
But given that we know next to nothing about the Jailor - basically, that he's an incredibly powerful entity from the Maw that the rest of the Shadowlands treats like the bogeyman, and that Sylvanas has been working with him since the end of Wrath of the Lich King - it's really interesting to consider what his M.O. is.
If he is both the being that taught Odyn to make Val'kyr and the one who helped Kil'jaeden create the Lich King, that suggests that he likes to help beings from outside the Shadowlands steal its power.
To what end?
Well, that's a very open question. But it is remarkable to see that he's already helped weaken two of the Covenants in this way. Is it possible that he's doing the same with the Venthyr and the Night Fae?
And is it possible that we've already seen some of the results?
I think Shadowlands has the potential to be one of those expansions that brings together a ton of very long-running plots and connect them in ways we wouldn't have suspected.
With WoW's multiple, unrelated big bads, there is always a chance for the major evil powers to step on one anothers' toes. I don't think it's likely that the Jailor has anything to do with the Void Lords or Old Gods, and I suspect his only potential connection to the Burning Legion was making a deal with Kil'jaeden (and man, there's a negotiation between very powerful figures.) Still, not only are we going to have a chance to talk to characters who have been long dead, but we might also discover things we hadn't really thought about for a while suddenly getting picked up again. Like Ephial!
Or, Mueh'zalla!
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