We have the first patch of Shadowlands and its first raid all available for testing on the Beta, and going live (at least the first patch) in but one week.
There's a lot of story to recap, particularly given that we've got four covenants with their own subplots that are likely (if the Revendreth 9.0 campaign is anything to go by) to continue over the course of the expansion.
But, in a nutshell, here's what's happening:
Sylvanas, as revealed, has been in league with a figure known as The Jailer since her resurrection at Icecrown following the death of Arthas. This has empowered her profoundly and seems to have pushed her to far more villainous levels of diabolical evil than before (I think you could read her pre-Cataclysm as more of an anti-hero, though still very questionable.) Though it was hinted that she might steal the Helm of Domination and become the Lich Queen, giving us a more direct Wrath 2.0, instead she tore the crown apart, ripping a hole into the Shadowlands. Her reasons for doing so remain a bit shrouded, but she definitely seems to not like the current system of life and death.
The Shadowlands have been experiencing a drought of anima - the life-essence that the souls of the recently-deceased bring there, and which powers the magic of the place. The result has been a sort of breakdown in the afterlife, with Ardenweald unable to nourish the souls of nature spirits to allow them to reincarnate (forcing them to make tragic decisions about which spirits are preserved and which are culled - hence the permanent death of Ursoc) and other realms generally breaking down in other ways.
The reason for the drought is that the Arbiter - the judge of incoming souls, who determines where a recently-deceased person is sent off to, based on their personality and deeds in life - is incapacitated. Rather than sorting the dead and giving them their proper eternal homes, every soul is instead being sent to the Maw - a realm of torment and darkness that is the home of the Jailer - a figure who seems to stand among the other masters of the various Shadowlands realms, but is also a prisoner within the Maw. The Maw is unlike the other realms of the Shadowlands - there's no grand purpose for souls here. Instead, it is meant as an inescapable prison for the truly irredeemable souls who come there.
The Jailer, perhaps having done some great evil that warranted his assignment to that realm, seems to have arranged for this to occur, possibly with Sylvanas' help.
Within each Shadowlands zone, there are antagonistic figures who seem to either be in league with the Jailer or at least not making things any easier.
In Bastion, a breakaway group of the angelic Kyrian known as the Forsworn reject the way that they are forced to lose their personal memories to become the Shadowlands' psychopomps (which is a term for a mythological figure that takes the souls of the dead to the afterlife, like St. Peter or the Grim Reaper, Hermes and/or Charon, the Valkyries from Norse myth, etc.) It's possible that this movement was started because of, of all people, Uther the Lightbringer. As we saw in his Afterlives animated short, Uther's soul was sundered by Frostmourne, and the fragment of him that actually made it to the Shadowlands was inconsolable and filled with an unquenchable thirst for vengeance. At the moment of Arthas' death, he and his Kyrian mentor took Arthas' soul and dropped it into the Maw, without allowing it to be judged by the Arbiter first - which might actually be what broke things. (Despite being one of WoW's top villains, there are arguments to be made that Arthas' soul is not quite so irredeemable, especially when one considers that his soul wasn't even really present once he took up Frostmourne.)
In Maldraxxus, the five houses since time immemorial worked together to defend the Shadowlands from other cosmic threats. However, the realm has fallen into civil war, as the House of Constructs and the House of Rituals have sided with the jailer, destroying the House of Eyes and House of Plagues in sneak attacks. Now, only the House of the Chosen remains to fight off the traitors and restore Maldraxxus to its true purpose.
In Ardenweald, the lack of anima has left much of the beautiful nighttime forest blighted and dying. Either helping to hasten this or just taking advantage of it, the Drust - spirits of the dead from Kul Tiras, who have their own realm of Thros that may or may not be part of the Shadowlands - have invaded, and seem to have cursed many of the Night Fae to serve their purposes. Meanwhile, the death loa Mueh'zalla is revealed as a major ally of the Jailer, having convinced Vol'jin to make Sylvanas Warchief and is now fighting to wrest control of De Other Side from Bwonsamdi.
Finally, in Revendreth, the purgatorial realm where the vampire-like venthyr attempt to break down and rehabilitate the souls of the prideful sinners - ultimately determining if these souls can be redeemed and sent on to a different Shadowlands realm, stay in Revendreth to become Venthyr, or be cast into the Maw - has also fallen into a civil war, where Prince Renethal fights against Sire Denathrius, the ancient creator of this realm. Ultimately, we discover that Renethal is actually in the right, and Denathrius has cast his lot with the Jailer (there's also some deep lore suggesting some really crazy stuff about the Nathrezim and their connection to Revendreth.)
The first raid is Castle Nathria, where we fight through Denathrius' loyalists to face against him, taking out one of the Jailer's key allies.
But beyond that, what else might we expect to happen?
Once again, I find myself in a similar position to when we were speculating on the relationship between Azshara and N'zoth. Once again, we have a powerful elvish woman who has aligned herself with an otherworldly entity. In that case, there was clearly little love to be lost between them, even if they were staunch allies for 10,000 years. N'zoth seemed to ultimately have the upper hand, but thanks in large part to us, Azshara wound up being the one to survive while N'zoth was destroyed.
We don't really know the nature of the Jailer/Sylvanas relationship, and for that reason, we don't really know who is likely to be the final boss of the expansion. On one hand, the Jailer is profoundly ancient - maybe even older than the Titans - and so it seems unlikely that Sylvanas, whose power largely derives from him, could take the top spot. But on the other hand, the Jailer is a brand new piece of lore, while Sylvanas has been around since WCIII. We've spent two expansions really building her up as a major villain.
So I think if we're ever going to fight Sylvanas as a raid boss, now's the time.
One thing we know is that there are many Shadowlands realms that go beyond the 5 we see in 9.0. It would not shock me if there's some other realm for us to explore in a later patch.
That being said, it also seems like we must have some kind of raid in the Maw at some point, and possibly the final raid of the expansion. That would really seem to tilt in favor of the Jailer as the final boss, though it's not a guarantee.
We know that part of the ongoing plot of the expansion will be rescuing the four faction leaders who were kidnapped, though it seems we'll be able to get at least 3 of them out through running Torghast in 9.0.
Another wildcard here is Tyrande. While it was super awesome to see her hand Nathanos' ass to him in the world boss cinematic, it's clear that this vengeful quest isn't exactly giving her the closure she seeks. What is the Night Warrior, exactly? And what is the endgame here? Is there a point where that power gets sent back to Elune? And furthermore, we still, after what, 18 years? (When did WCIII come out?) We still don't know what Elune is. She's clearly got some connection to the Titans, but also to the Naaru... so what is she? And why is it that only the Night Elves really care about her when she seems to be this profoundly important cosmic figure?
Being the (fictional) conspiracy theory nut that I am, I'm really, really hoping we find out some shocking things about the Nathrezim. I mean, it's even implied that Lothraxion might be some kind of triple agent, which is devastating because I think he's so cool as a Dreadlord Paladin, but also super awesome.
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