This morning, I got my Warlock caught up in his Necrolord covenant campaign. With what appears to be a 3-renown-per-week rate for those who are fully caught up, we're on week four.
The odd thing here is that the point in the plot where my Warlock is is behind where my Paladin is in the Kyrian campaign - there's an arc surrounding the Maldraxxi assault on the Temple of Courage (aka the Necrotic Wake dungeon,) which both the Kyrians and the Necrolords wish to retaliate against. But my Necrolord Warlock is still in the preparatory phases of that plot while my Kyrian Paladin has... well, landed a decisive blow in the fight to defeat the traitors of Maldraxxus.
My Warlock, who I don't think has run a dungeon since hitting 60, is actually by this point in decent enough gear to start heroics, thanks to the covenant armor set. Oddly, my Mage, who is also at 12 renown and thus just as caught up with his Night Fae campaign, has only like three pieces of that set to the Warlock's 5.
Meanwhile, my Death Knight cannot catch a break when it comes to weapon drops.
To recap, here's where the various plots for the different covenants are for week 4:
Spoilers ahead:
Kyrian:
The Kyrians by this point, while seeing soulbind Kleia get her wings, witnessed an assault on Elysian Hold by the Forsworn, which revealed Devos as their leader. We then go into the Spires of Ascension to canonically do that dungeon's story, killing Devos. We also face Uther (which my Paladin, who uses the Lightbringer title, felt very mixed feelings about) though he is still alive... er... his spirit has not been slain. I assume that the main plot for the Kyrians will be figuring out what happened to him and fixing his soul.
As Kleia is getting ready for her ascension, you help her take the soul of a man from Lakeshire who dies defending his family from the Scourge, only for her to discover that the souls are all going to the Maw. Hey, do we tell anyone freaking anything? (I've actually got to wonder if we'll get a clear reason why the Kyrians don't just hold off on collecting souls until this whole thing is fixed - there's got to be some way it's far worse to leave them on their worlds than to dip them into eternal damnation.)
Meanwhile, Lysonia (who you'll remember from the Temple of Purity quests in the leveling campaign) has assumed command of the Forsworn following Devos' death. Mikanikos has constructed a new Crest of Ascension, and this one will be powered by various things we'll collect over the campaign.
The next stage of the campaign has the Kyrians mobilize with the Necrolords to take down Margrave Garmahl, the leader of the House of Constructs in Maldraxxus. Fighting alongside Alexandros Mograine and Draka, we eventually take the big flesh-monster out, and claim his heart, which we use to power the crest (and man does a gross Maldraxxi heart feel out of place in Elysian Hold.)
Venthyr:
Things are very much in the early stages here. Renethal is trying to collect the various Harvester medallions in his bid to overthrow Denathrius and I suppose stem the tide of anima flowing into the Maw. At first, you send out invitations to the Tithelord, Stonewright, and Countess, who basically tell Renethal that he's got nothing to offer them.
However, you meet in secret with the Countess, securing her secret allegiance in exchange for exposing some of her enemies. The most recent week, you work with the Curator to discover her medallion, which she hid from Denathrius before he could chuck her into the Maw with Renethal.
Night Fae:
This campaign has a bunch of elements that feel somewhat independent, though we'll see if they come together. First, you work with Shandris to search for Tyrande in the Maw, eventually following her into Torghast. She's too obsessed with vengeance to come back with you, and already the Night Warrior power is showing a lot of wear on her. However, you are able to rescue hundreds of Night Elf souls from Torghast, who were lost at Teldrassil, and you bring them to Ardenweald for a much more fitting afterlife.
Then, you do some work with Bwonsamdi, finding out that his boss, Mueh'zala, has been stealing wild god souls from Ardenweald and empowering them with magic from the Maw (De Other Side dungeon clearly hasn't happened yet in canon.)
Then, you meet with Thiernax, a spirit in Ardenweald who died after the power of the Night Warrior overtook him, also killing his husband, Qadarin. On the plus side, they both went to Ardenweald together at the same time. While investigating some evil spriggans, one of them curses Qadarin with Soul Rot (the Warlock covenant ability, actually!) and so you need to travel to various places to break the curse, including back to Azeroth, where you're able to tell Alexstrasza that Ysera's spirit has been saved.
Necrolord:
Appropriately enough, this campaign is about gearing up for war. Salvaging some of the crew and material from the old House of Eyes necropolis, you set about capturing one that is being held by the House of Constructs. Naturally, all of this seems to be part of the Primus' extremely detailed contingency plan.
You then go to Bastion to make up for the fact that other Maldraxxi attacked the Temple of Courage, and you fight off the forces there, killing one of the Barons of the House of Construct. There's actually a pretty cool part to this chapter in which Alexandros Mograine, who has come with you to mete out justice, asks Xandria (Paragon of Courage) why the hell he wound up in Maldraxxus instead of Bastion. There's then a quest in which they basically explain that he draws strength from his love of family, and losing his memories as a Kyrian would have removed a core part of what made him such a champion in the first place.
It is curious that Bastion, which seems very much in keeping with the heavenly aesthetic that we've associated in this game with the Light, doesn't actually make use of that particular primal force. I also keep looking for hints of what might follow Shadowlands - we had tons of Old God stuff in Legion that hinted to the ultimate big bad of BFA, and then BFA was filled with Death Magic stuff... I wonder if there'll be a strong Light/Void theme to the next expansion.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I, admittedly, know where the Venthyr campaign is ultimately headed, having done it on the beta, though it all feels a lot more epic spread out over several weeks. And to that, I basically know who the "other friend" to whom Denathrius had promised Renethals Medallion of Dominion is, and who is likely the House of Rituals' new Baron. In fact, there seems to be a world quest in Maldraxxus that spoils some of the developments in Maldraxxus regarding Margrave Sin'dane and the... character in question.
What I am very curious about is what will happen regarding Arthas. We have yet to find his soul in the Maw. As nasty of a villain he was, I strongly think that Revendreth was his appropriate afterlife - his was a case of nobility perverted, rather than the kind of all-consuming malice of someone like Gul'dan.
But we are, of course, only in the initial patch of Shadowlands, and while Castle Nathria looms large now, it will ultimately be the Uldir/Emerald Nightmare of this expansion.
So rather than speculate on where things will go two years from now, I think it's worth considering where we're going sooner.
First off, there's going to be some spoilers for stuff I saw on the Beta (which can also, as mentioned above, get spoiled in-game.) Given that we're already behind the cut, this is all the warning I can give:
MEGA-SPOILERS AHEAD:
We know that Kel'thuzad is active in the Shadowlands, seemingly having taken a position as Baron of the House of Rituals. I believe he's in league with the Jailer, and seems to be manipulating a lot of things behind the scenes.
As such, it would make perfect sense for good old KT to be a final raid boss for an upcoming instance. Yes, that would make three raids for him as the final boss, though only if you count the original Naxxramas and the Wrath version as separate ones.
Also, I sure as hell hope this finally confirms he's the master that Ephial mentions in Warlords of Draenor - if we see Ephial as a miniboss or something somewhere in Maldraxxus I'll feel super-vindicated.
But, that gives us a nice big bad guy who is nevertheless not really final boss of the expansion material.
I could imagine there being a Maldraxxus raid - possibly using the already pretty well-laid-out for a dungeon House of the Chosen, or, preferably, a new area we haven't seen yet somewhere in the zone.
I imagine there will have to be a raid in the Maw at some point, though that could easily be the final raid of the expansion.
Of course, the big question is what role Sylvanas will ultimately play in all of this. I think we're not likely to see her again until later in the expansion.
The other huge question I have is what the whole deal with the Brokers is. They're 100% up to something, but we have yet to discern what it is.
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