Ho. Ly. Shit.
First off, let's get this out of the way: the expansion drops in exactly two months. That means we're likely to get the pre-patch within the next couple weeks or so. Very exciting, yes yes. But let's talk about this short, which I assume you just watched.
Holy Crap, guys.
Never did I expect myself to be on Arthas' side when it comes to his relationship with Uther. But we got something really, really big.
So, here's the thing about Bastion. The Kyrian are the psychopomps of the Shadowlands. A psychopomp is a spirit or deity whose role it is to take the spirits (in Greek: psyche) to the afterlife. Hermes and Charon could be considered these in Classical Myth, the Valkyries in Norse myth, and you could argue kinda sorta St. Peter in his conception as the gatekeeper of Heaven and Hell in Christian belief.
Mortal souls arrive in Bastion if they lived a selfless life of duty. Beginning as aspirants, they gradually purge their memories and old identities to take on a new life as a Kyrian - eventually ascending with angelic wings to perform their role.
Devos is one of the highest-ranking and oldest Kyrian, and when Uther the Lightbringer shows up in Bastion, she takes a special interest in him.
Uther, meanwhile, is confused as to why he's there. Surely he was meant to go to the Light, not this admittedly pretty realm. And he's stewing in rage and sorrow over what Arthas has done. For all his beatific serenity, Uther does feel anger at injustice, and Arthas' actions were the greatest crime and betrayal he'd ever witnessed.
So Uther resists the purging process, and furthermore, he feels that the Kyrian are mistaken if they think that evil is truly sealed away in the Maw. Despite it not being her job to help new aspirants (it's funny to think that Uther is just another poor schmuck in Bastion) Devos takes a special interest in Uther. She begins to question whether he was really sent to the correct afterlife - which is a big no-no in perfect heaven world.
When she finally coaxes Uther's memory from him, she discovers that the blade that he was killed with (Frostmourne) was, in fact, inscribed with runes from the Maw. That evil has escaped it, and is running rampant on Azeroth. Furthermore, she finds that even Uther's soul is wounded by the blade - it looks as if it was torn in two, with part of it trapped in the sword and part of it ascending (which explains how we were able to interact with him in Wrath - it also might explain why this version of Uther lacks that beatific, all-forgiving quality. Maybe it was lost to Frostmourne.)
Telling the Archon (the leader of the Kyrian) that this whole system is broken and flawed, Devos is spurned, and so instead she decides that she needs to make Uther an ally, giving him wings ahead of time and then traveling to Icecrown Citadel... at the moment we strike Arthas down.
As Arthas lies dying on the top of the Citadel, it is Devos and Uther who take his soul to the Shadowlands.
And they bypass the Arbiter, flying directly over the Maw, where Uther chucks Arthas' soul in there - no trial, no evaluation. Just damnation for all eternity.
Is it Justice?
Because here's the thing about Arthas. He's one of the greatest monsters ever to exist on Azeroth. But to what extent was he actually to blame? How much agency did he have?
Can he be held to account for things he did after Frostmourne ripped his soul away? After all, it's his soul that is being punished, not the body that committed those acts. Arthas' soul was present when he purged Stratholme, when he fought his way to Northrend and betrayed a group of mercenaries he'd hired - blaming them for burning his ships, which he had done to prevent them from being recalled to Lordaeron.
But he did not know what Frostmourne would mean for him when he took it up. Arthas was obsessed with vengeance and retribution, but surely such sins are the kind of thing Revendreth could iron out of a soul. The truly monstrous, apocalyptic vision he had did not come until Frostmourne had taken his soul.
So did he really deserve the Maw?
I think that very few people we've met in the Warcraft story actually deserve that fate. Gul'dan is the only one I'm certain of (I've always wondered if the reason that his village's chieftain hated him wasn't because he was weak, but because he could detect the evil lurking beneath the surface). Maybe Cho'gall as well.
But this makes Uther's actions - condemning Arthas without respecting the (admittedly flawed) authority who actually makes those decisions - a seriously problematic act.
And hey... isn't it shortly after that that Sylvanas first made contact with the Jailer?
We might have stumbled onto something here. Did Uther tossing Arthas into the Maw break death?
We know of two individuals who died relatively recently and are going to be showing up in Shadowlands. Lady Vashjj and Kael'thas Sunstrider are found in Maldraxxus and Revendreth, respectively. Both died pretty close to one another - Vashjj in Serpentshirne Cavern during BC, and Kael'thas in Magister's Terrace, also during BC, which just so happens to have been the expansion before Wrath of the Lich King.
Could Uther's act, defying the system of the Shadowlands, have been what broke the Arbiter?
That being said, it's pretty obvious the system was already broken. Kil'jaeden had clearly entered and left the Maw if he was able to create Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination. But damn if this doesn't really get the lore wheels spinning!
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