Afterlives: Maldraxxus

 The second of the four Afterlives shorts is now out!

In this short, we get an explanation of Draka's place in the Shadowlands, and a preview of the storyline of Maldraxxus.

I'll confess, this is somewhat underwhelming after the holy-crap revelations from the Bastion short. Essentially, Draka died protecting her son from Gul'dan's assassins, and her warrior spirit sent her to Maldraxxus, where she found herself somewhat ironically sent to the House of Eyes - Maldraxxus' spy and stealth wing. After the House of Plagues fell to some sudden betrayal, she's sent to deliver a message to the leader of the House of the Chosen (which is kind of the warrior/death knight/paladin wing of the covenant) only to find that her own house, the House of Eyes, was similarly struck.

This certainly sets up the plot for Maldraxxus, but you're not going to find yourself gasping in awe at any big moments here.

One thing I'm really curious about regarding the Shadowlands conceptually is whether, in normal times, individuals can travel the realms at their leisure. While the Kyrians wind up purging their own identities, there's no indication that members of other covenants do so (though obviously those sent to Revendreth can't leave until they've finished their atonements and passed their evaluations.) But it makes me wonder if Draka, for example, was able to travel to Oribos and meet up with her husband, Durotan. We have no indication of which Shadowlands realm he wound up in (there are far more than the four we've seen, so it would stand to reason that he'd be in some other one, likewise most of the other NPCs who have died over the years) but I'd hope that Draka could, you know, see her husband in the afterlife.

We do sometimes see people from other realms in certain Shadowlands zones. While the Kyrian found during some quests in Maldraxxus are prisoners of war after the invasion that makes up the Necrotic Wake dungeon, there's also, I believe, a Venthyr in a remote part of Bastion (part of the zone I'm sure is meant for max-level content.)

It is interesting to me that the Warcraft afterlife certainly doesn't seem to prioritize "rest" as a post-life reward. The dead all seem to be put to work, the exception being those who are sent to the Maw (though I think the monsters in the Maw might also be the souls of evil people bound there.)