30 Domains in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

 Ravenloft, as a setting, is quite different from most because while it is all within the same plane (or rather, demiplane, as 4th and 5th Edition canon places it as a sort of partition of the Shadowfell) the lands are not exactly physically related to one another the way that, say, the major cities of the Sword Coast are.

While there is a continent, of sorts, referred to as the Core, on which many of the famous realms exist, each realm is separated by the Mists of Ravenloft, which act as an ethereal gateway as well as a boundary that prevents people from escaping. It's also the way that people arrive in the realms, and these Mists do not follow the normal rules for spatial relationships - they can arrive anywhere (well, I think anywhere in the Material Plane, other than the Phlogiston, which will only be relevant if you're doing a Spelljammer campaign) and sweep you into these realms of terror.

We've gotten a list of some of these 30 realms, so let's go through them:

Naturally, Barovia will be included. This is the realm of the Vampire, Strahd von Zarovich, who is trapped in an endless cycle. He drove the woman he is obsessed with to suicide when he killed his own brother - her fiancé - out of jealousy. Now, every generation he searches for Tatyana's latest incarnation as her soul is trapped in Barovia just as he is, but every time she is reincarnated, when he finds her, he always winds up killing her as she resists or he is overcome with bloodlust. Within Curse of Strahd, you resolve to help Irena, Tatyana's latest reincarnation, escape Strahd's grasp.

But we already know a lot about Barovia thanks to the expanded lore in Curse of Strahd, so let's move on.

Dementlieu is ruled by Saidra diHonaire, and is where a twisted fairy tale inspired in equal parts by the courts of the Feywild and Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death. Here, an endless decadent party continues while death and darkness stalk the realm.

Lamordia is home to Dr. Viktra Mordenheim, who chases her creation, Elise, across the land. Mordenheim is a take on Victor Frankenstein, and both the good doctor and her creation pose threats to the party, along with some of the mad scientist's other experimental crimes against nature.

Falkovnia is a land dominated by the tyrannical Vladeska Drakov, but which is now undergoing a plague of zombies, and endless and unwinnable war against the undead.

Kalakeri draws from Indian folklore (and was written/designed by an Indian-American writer, which... is for the best). This realm is the site of a constant war between three Darklords who each wish to dominate the region.

Finally, Valachan is a dense jungle in which the darklord, Chakuna, hunts people for sport - kind of a "The Most Dangerous Game" situation.

That's only six, though, meaning we only have a fifth of what is mentioned. There are plenty of other established regions that I'm sure will show up.

I am curious how detailed they will be with these settings. The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount I think really spoiled us for granular detail, giving us at least a paragraph and one or two quest hooks for every city, town, or even small village in the whole continent. I'd love it if we were able to get the same sort of characterization for the various settlements in, say, Lamordia that we do for towns like Krezk or Vallaki in Barovia, but I wonder how much room they'll have in the book for that.

Personally, the realm I most hope to see (even though canonically it might have dissipated given that its darklord escaped) is The Burning Peaks, which was a realm fought over between the evil Lich God Vecna and his lieutenant/nemesis, the vampire Kas. Vecna's side of the realm was called Cavitius, and was a massive, haunted desert wasteland with a city that stood inside an enormous skull.

The book will also have guidance on creating one's own domain in the setting, which is something I really appreciate as someone who prefers to homebrew settings. I'm curious to see what they say about the magical mechanics on Ravenloft, like how the realms relate to one another and how the threshold of the Mists can be crossed.

While I think I'd be most interested in running a straightforward campaign, I do have a concept for a campaign called (working title) Ingothicous Basterds (seriously, need to work on that) in which Van Richten recruits the party following the events of Curse of Strahd, to try to convince the other darklords to attend a big party at Castle Ravenloft after you've backed the crypts with enough explosives to destroy the castle with all the monsters Monster Mash-ing within.

The book will have a section about tailoring a horror game to the sensibilities and sensitivities of the players - one thing to consider is that horror, as a genre, isn't inherently an adults-only genre. Scooby-Doo is an example of a spooky mystery that's still perfectly appropriate for younger and/or more sensitive audiences. While most people I play with would automatically try to check in with players and make sure that people are having fun as the top priority, having tools like soft and hard limits and a general framework for players and DMs to talk about what they're comfortable having at their table is a good thing to have written into the official rules, even if it's a more philosophical chapter.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

 Yes, the new D&D book, coming out May 18th, is Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, a campaign setting book for the classic, gothic-horror-themed setting first introduced in 1983, and then formalized into its own setting in 1990.

With Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, this makes it the 6th Campaign Setting book to come out for 5th Edition D&D (7th if you count Acquisitions Incorporated).

The announced features are as follows:

The core of the book is the setting, which is the Demiplane of Dread, an extraplanar part of the Shadowfell that is composed of several locked in realms, each ruled by a Darklord who is also its primary prisoner. The realms are bounded by the Mists of Ravenloft, which draw in people (aka adventurers) and trap them there. The Darklords are trapped in an endless loop of failure and frustration, which they take out with monstrous acts toward the people in their domains. Van Richten's will detail 30 such realms, including Barovia, the setting for the Curse of Strahd adventure. Each realm takes on a different classic horror vibe. I don't have the names of all of them (which are weirdly hard to find on various wikis, despite many being long-established) but there's one themed around mad science and flesh golems (aka Frankenstein,) there's an Egyptian-themed one with mummies, and several others that have their own takes on classic horror stories.

One of these realms, Falkovnia, has apparently undergone some changes in this edition. Previously ruled by a figure named Vlad Drakov, clearly a take on Vlad Tsepesh, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka the real-life Vlad Dracula, this realm was mostly devoid of the supernatural (apart from its mystical isolation) in which its tyrant waged endless wars that always ended in defeat. Apparently, that realm has fallen to a full-on zombie apocalypse, and will represent more of that vibe in 5th Edition.

With 30 domains, I'm a little skeptical we'll get Wildemount-level detail on all of them, but as someone who likes to do a lot of homebrew even in established settings, I'm happy to get many ideas to work with.

Most exciting for players are new player options.

These include the new "Gothic Lineages," which take the place of your racial characteristics. You could be an elf or a gith or a tiefling, but these lineages give you a new identity. Assuming it's the same as the three released for playtesting in Unearthed Arcana, these three are the Dhampir, Hexblood, and Reborn.

Dhampir are half-vampires - perhaps your mother was turned when you were in the womb (like Blade!) or a vampire tried to turn you but the process was interfered with, or you bargained with a vampire to gain some aspect of their power. Either way, you gain vampiric attributes while still being able to walk in the daylight and potentially retain a good alignment.

Hexblood are connected to Hags. They might have been taken as a child by a coven or might have some curse on their bloodline, or they could have, again, bargained for this. Hexblood have some Hag-like attributes, as well as this weird sort of bone-like crown around their heads.

Reborn are people who died and then were brought back somehow, in some kind of mix between benign resurrection and necromantic undeath. You could play as a walking corpse - maybe you had previously been under the control of a necromancer or lich (WoW's Forsaken would 100% use this lineage to convert a character to D&D) or you were altered by some sort of horrific plague, or a resurrection went wrong. Alternatively, you might be a construct built from the remains of many different people or creatures. While you are a unique individual, the memories of the component people who make up your body might bleed into your consciousness.

Each of these lineages allows you to have two creature types at once - humanoid and other. Dhampir are Humanoid and Undead. Hexblood are Humanoid and Fey. And Reborn are either Humanoid and Undead or Humanoid and Construct. While some spells, especially healing spells, don't work on Constructs or Undead, the rules for these hybrid creature types is that if either part of you is eligible for the spell, it will work - essentially the "humanoid" part of you can be targeted. But it does also, I think, mean that Cure Wounds and Negative Energy Flood will both heal you if you're humanoid/undead.

Moving on!

The next character option is two subclasses. Again, we got these in Unearthed Arcana, which is the College of Spirits Bard and the Undead Patron Warlock.

The College of Spirits essentially has you use some form of fortune telling - typically something like a Tarot deck, though you could also use a "spirit board" (aka a Ouija board) or some other divination tool. This allows you to expend Bardic Inspiration dice to get various different effects you can then use to aid allies or hinder foes, based on the random roll/draw.

The Undead Patron makes your patron something like a powerful lich, a vampire, some ancient spirit, etc. (The Obzedat Ghost Council from Ravnica seems like they'd be a super-cool collective patron.) You get various ways to empower yourself by embracing undeath, and gradually gain the power to make your body merely a vessel for your powerful spirit. This one, I think, has a ton of potential, given that many of Ravenloft's Darklords are undead - you could derive your power from the very villain you are struggling against.

Finally, there's something called "Dark Gifts." We don't have anything very explicit here, but these seem likely to be a little like Supernatural Gifts found in Theros, but with a very clear trade-off of power and downside. (In fact, I think you might be able to get some of these in the Amber Temple in Curse of Strahd.)

For DMs, one of the most exciting things, in my opinion, is that there will be a chapter on how to build your own homebrew domain. I don't know how this guide will be structured, but having some guidance on what elements to include and how to build tension should be very fun to read.

Next: we're talking horror, and what's more central to horror than its monsters? Like any campaign setting book (except SCAG) there's going to be a bestiary - and I'm super excited for a new influx of undead and aberrations and the like. There will also be some guidance (though this could just mean new stat blocks) for horrific takes on existing monsters. As a pre-established example, there are things like Strahd Zombies, where if you cut off a limb, that limb keeps coming after you (a bit like the variant troll rules.)

I don't recall if this was an official example or a hypothetical one, but someone suggested Goblins with xenomorph-like inner jaws that can reach farther and infect the target, transforming them into one of them.

Ravenloft is apparently the first of three classic settings that will be getting 5th Edition releases in 2021. While I imagine at least one of these will be another standard fantasy world, I'm hoping they really push this otherworldly theme (give me 5th Edition Planescape and/or Spelljammer, please.)

New Ravenloft Book All But Confirmed

UPDATE: Amazon's webpage has leaked the title of the book and a brief description: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, which, I'll note, I predicted would be the title (not that it wasn't obvious.) The amazon page describes the book as a campaign setting book, and teases the following:

It will detail an "expanded Domains of Dread" with each domain given its unique flavor of horror, story hooks, and cast of characters.

It will give you guidance for creating your own D&D horror settings, with optional rules and advice for running a game that's "ghastly in all the right ways."

It will have rules to create characters with lineages tied to vampires, undead, and hags (the Gothic Lineages we saw in UA,) horror-themed subclasses (the Gothic subclasses in UA,) the Investigator background, and "Dark Gifts" that seem likely to be sort of like Theros' divine gifts but with a dangerous trade-off.

There will also be an expanded bestiary and a collection of mysterious trinkets (not sure if this is the "Gothic Trinkets" from CoS or if it's magic items).

And there will apparently be a standalone adventure that can either be run on its own or dropped into an existing game.

Read on for the older post.

 Wizards of the Coast has a page on Amazon for an upcoming book, and they just posted this image on twitter.

The image is a "spirit board" (aka Ouija, but that's a brand name.) The... uh, thingie with the lens you use with a Ouija board, whatever that's called, hovers over letters spelling out "The Mists Beckon."

This is almost certainly the announcement of a new Ravenloft book.

Combine this with the "Gothic Subclasses" and "Gothic Lineages" that have come to Unearthed Arcana in the past year, and the evidence seems to be stacking up.

The Ravenloft setting takes place within a place called the Demiplane of Dread. While I believe this was originally said to be located in the Ethereal Plane, the 4th Edition creation of the Shadowfell gave it a new home, and I believe the canon location of it is now in the Shadowfell.

Ravenloft is a gothic-horror themed setting, but rather than simply being a normal world of the Material Plane, it's actually a place bounded by magical rules and dark powers (known as the Dark Powers) that create a sort of endless punishment for the Dark Lords who inhabit the Domains of Dread.

The most famous, and first of these Dark Lords is Strahd Von Zarovich, the vampire who rules over the land of Barovia. Curse of Strahd, one of 5E's first published adventure books, recreates the original Ravenloft adventure from AD&D, but Strahd is just one of several Dark Lords in this realm.

The Mists of Ravenloft are a mystical barrier that prevents anyone from leaving these realms, and so a Ravenloft adventure typically involves a group of adventurers who get trapped in one of these realms and must find a way to escape, usually requiring a confrontation with the realm's Dark Lord.

One of the common elements of the setting is the Vistani people, who are... well, they've generally carried a lot of the problematic baggage of old Gothic Horror, namely racism against the Romani people.

In Ravenloft, the Vistani are an itinerant culture who have the unfettered ability to cross the Mists - returning to the material plane or journeying between the various realms of the Domains of Dread. While they can be allies for the party, many of them are said to serve Strahd (and I presume other Dark Lords, though their original connection to Ravenloft was through Strahd.)

This, unfortunately, brings in a lot of hateful old canards about the Romani people - that they cannot be trusted, or that they have magical curses they can place on you. It's not exactly the sort of positive representation that a historically oppressed people deserve.

WotC has been making an effort lately to try to address some of the racism that has been baked into a lot of D&D (something that they inherited from their source materials, to be fair, but we in the modern day have a responsibility to choose what cultural tropes we pass on).

My hope is that they put in a lot of effort to fix these issues. Because the overall Ravenloft setting is really cool.

While I think it's not impossible that this could be another adventure book, I think that 5th Edition already has a fantastic Ravenloft adventure, and given the shift in focus to sourcebooks, I am relatively confident that that's what we're looking at: a Ravenloft sourcebook.

What, then, can we expect from this?

5E's campaign setting books, with the exception of Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, follow a certain format.

Generally, they start with character creation. We typically get a couple subclasses, some new races, and sometimes some extra sort of affiliation the player can have - things like Guilds, Dragonmarks, Gods in Theros, etc. Then, we get something more for the DM (though useful for players writing a backstory,) which describes the world and its various locations.

Following that, things get a bit more DM-focused. We usually get a few magic items to throw into the mix, and then an extensive bestiary, giving us more monsters.

In terms of player options, I think we're likely to see these Gothic Subclasses (likely rebalanced - much as I'd love it, I don't think an Undead Warlock is supposed to do 2d10 with each Eldritch Blast attack), namely the College of Spirits Bard and the Undead Patron Warlock.

We're also probably going to get those Gothic Lineages - given that Ravenloft owes more to Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, and Bram Stoker than it does to Tolkien, there's less of an emphasis on a bunch of fantasy races, which makes variants on humans work a bit better (please give us playable werewolves!)

In terms of bestiary, getting more variants on lycanthropes, vampires, hags, and various undead creatures would help out a lot in this setting. It'd also be cool to get a bunch of Dark Lord stat blocks, similar to the Demon Lord and Archdevil ones in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

Other campaign setting books have also given us a short adventure (or four, in the case of Wildemount) to introduce the setting, which I think seems likely.

Anyway, we can expect plenty of new information once the announcement actually comes (likely tomorrow.) Until then, I'm going to be pretty excited and then start ranting about how the next one should be either Planescape or Spelljammer.

Is Shadowlands Heading For a Sharp Left Turn?

 Due to the cycles of WoW storytelling, it's rare that we get really big surprises. The first couple expansions were built around iconic figures we would face as final bosses, with Illidan (who got upstaged by Kil'jaeden when they realized that the final raid probably shouldn't come in the first patch,) Arthas (as always, I don't count Halion as Wrath's final boss, even if he was chronologically the last to be released in a 3.X patch,) and Deathwing. When Mists of Pandaria was announced in 2011, the details were very thin, but shortly before its release, we found out that Garrosh would be the final boss of the expansion, in the Siege of Orgrimmar.

That's the last time, though, that Blizzard has been totally up front about what an expansion's story is going to do. In Warlords, the fact that Archimonde would be our final boss was withheld. In Legion, we did find out we were going to Argus prior to 7.2's release, as a little quick teaser of 7.3 in that year's Blizzcon. And in Battle for Azeroth, N'zoth's status as final boss was intentionally obscured.

I'll confess that I'm not sure I love the way they've done this. Indeed, the presentation of the Jailer as a very clear final boss for Shadowlands was a bit refreshing - assuming that's actually the role he'll play.

At Blizzconline, many developers have hinted that the conclusion of the 9.1 raid, Sanctum of Domination, will be a massive lore development - one that they claim will shake the entire Warcraft cosmos. That's a pretty big deal.

But what does it mean?

In the past, most raids have had something of a pause between them. Looking at Castle Nathria, the conclusion to that raid is one of pretty unambiguous victory, where we capture Sire Denathrius within his sentient sword Remornia and imprison it within a tower under the watchful gaze of the Naaru Z'rali. Denathrius was apparently meant to die in Castle Nathria, but the developers loved the vocal performance by Ray Chase that they wanted to keep him on-hand - or at least that's the story they're telling.

In Legion, which I generally think is the expansion to beat for greatest ever (though Wrath is its rival - when judged within its own 2008-2010 context) the major "tier" raids ended with big events. The Nighthold saw the resurrection of Illidan Stormrage. The Tomb of Sargeras saw the opening of the gateway between Azeroth and Argus. And Antorus, the Burning Throne, saw the imprisonment of Sargeras along with the wounding of Azeroth.

Tomb of Sargeras in particular ended its events with a major crisis (engineered by Illidan to force a decisive conclusion to the endless conflict with the Burning Legion - because Illidan is hardcore Chaotic Neutral.)

Even though we knew we were going to Argus in 7.3, the reveal at the end of Tomb of Sargeras is a fantastic shocker - after we defeat Kil'jaeden as he flees back to Argus, Khadgar struggles to teleport everyone away before the Fel energy within the Deceiver destroys the ship everyone's on. Illidan uses the Sargerite Keystone that Demon Hunters helped him steal in the DH starting experience (meaning about a decade earlier, as that takes place during the Black Temple raid) to boost Khadgar's spell - or so it seems. So it's a great shock when Khadgar looks up and sees Argus in the sky above Azeroth, and the sense of horror at how much Illidan has just raised the stakes is palpable.

Ok, but enough recapping: what might we expect to happen in 9.1? Will the end of Sanctum of Domination be as jaw-droppingly crazy as the end of Tomb of Sargeras? And if we expect Shadowlands to have three major patches, can we afford to have such a major development at the end of what is effectively still Act One of Three?

Setting aside my worries that Shadowlands will only have two major content patches (it better have three or more! Surely Blizzard learned their lesson with Warlords?) let's talk about what might happen here.

The Maw has, seemingly, been set up as the ultimate final challenge to overcome, and is home to the expansion's Big Bad. While we've had Castle Nathria as a fairly substantial intro raid, it's a little surprising that we're getting to this so early. After all, we didn't go to Icecrown Citadel first in Wrath. Indeed, even if we were to compare it to Tomb of Sargeras, which was set up as what looked like the ultimate final raid for Legion, that one came as the second tier raid, or the third of four "big raids" (meaning with more than three bosses.)

Also, of note, is that not anywhere have they suggested that we have any meaningful encounter with the Jailer within Sanctum of Domination. While I had entertained the notion that Sylvanas might wish to try to usurp the Jailer's power, it really doesn't look like she has the opportunity or power to do so. Therefore, I think our confrontation with the Jailer must come later, and could very likely be the final boss fight of the expansion.

But that makes it weird that we're going to Torghast. After all, Torghast is essentially his castle within the Maw, which his his domain. To compare it with Wrath of the Lich King, it'd be like if we went into Icecrown Citadel first and fought Kel'thuzad, and that we had to go elsewhere to fight Arthas.

Our motivation to go there is, at least in part, to rescue Anduin. So, what is his fate?

It's clear from the cinematic trailer for 9.1 that Anduin is being controlled, rather than being corrupted. The Jailer speaks through him, and after he stabs the Archon, he has a moment of lucidity, in which he appears horrified at what he has done, before the runes on his armor flash and the Jailer's control is reasserted.

What's fascinating about Anduin's situation is the parallels with Arthas. When Arthas became a Death Knight, his skin was leeched of color, and he gained wrinkles that made him look like he hadn't slept in weeks, and his golden blonde hair turned white. All of these happen to Anduin as well while under the Jailer's control and with his illusions dispelled.

And this raises an interesting question: is this what Arthas was meant to be?

We know the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne were both created under duress by the Runecarver. Notably, when Arthas was first corrupted, it was only with Frostmourne, while the Helm of Domination (and the rest of the armor) remained within the Frozen Throne, inhabited by the spirit of Ner'zhul. Initially, Arthas acted as the Lich King's champion, and helped to decimate Lordaeron but also, notably, betrayed the Burning Legion and helped Illidan defeat Tichondrius. It wasn't until Illidan returned with his Blood Elf and Naga allies (coerced into this by Kil'jaeden) to assault the Frozen Throne that Arthas would become the Lich King himself.

But even the Lich King's intended role is now thrown into doubt. In the lore as originally received, Kil'jaeden created the Lich King by attaching Ner'zhul's soul to the armor (and Frostmourne, though I feel like this was a little inconsistent, even if Frostmourne was always implied to be brought to Azeroth within the Frozen Throne.) Kil'jaeden wanted to use the Lich King to create the Scourge as shock troops to soften up Azeroth for the Legion's invasion.

With the Jailer added to the lore - a figure who seems more on the scale of Sargeras than Kil'jaeden in terms of power level - the source of the helm and the sword is now shown to be something quite outside of the demonic forces of the Burning Legion. And it seems that he, too, meant for the Lich King to be his own champion within the world of the living.

The Lich King's rebellion against the Legion seemed to create a different, wholly independent faction on Azeroth - still a villainous one, but one that opposed another villain. Now, however, one wonders if Ner'zhul's decision to turn against the Legion was his own idea, or one programmed into the Helm of Domination itself. Not that the Scourge should be its own thing, but for it to be the vanguard for the Jailer, rather than for the Legion.

In that sense, the Lich King is not sovereign, but servant to the Jailer, who is the sort of Death Overlord.

Thus, it could be that Anduin is being compelled to act as the Lich King was meant to. Both Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination were shattered, and Bolvar proved that a Lich King could choose not to serve the cause of Death if one had a strong enough will. In Anduin's case, though, Lich King 2.0 now includes a system to prevent even the most righteously-minded, good-natured person from resisting the Jailer's direct control.

That we will eventually free Anduin from this is something I anticipate, though it remains to be seen whether we will accomplish that in 9.1.

What, then, would the big reveal be? What major development could happen?

The Jailer will not be there for us to fight in SoD. Sylvanas will, and I think she might wind up having a tragic end. She appears to be regretting her alliance with the Jailer, perhaps moved by Anduin's words, but if there's anyone who has dug herself too deep, it's Sylvanas Windrunner. Even if she wanted redemption (and I don't know even she thinks that's possible for herself) I don't think the world would be willing to give it to her. Maybe the Venthyr.

But there's a reason why Tyrande Whisperwind is currently in Torghast.

I think Sylvanas might make a move toward redemption, but Tyrande will cut it off - slaying Sylvanas before she has a chance to make things right.

Let's get back to Tyrande in a bit.

The Jailer is looking for "keys," one of which Anduin retrieves from the Archon (apparently not killing her, according to Blizzard.) What could these keys actually be for?

Given that the key he takes is a glowing rune in the shape of the Kyrian symbol, I suspect that there is one for each covenant. But I heard somewhere (and I really don't remember where) that there are five keys he's seeking.

And that reminds me of Il'gynoth, who has two quotes (one from Emerald Nightmare, one from Ny'alotha) referring to sets of five that will "open the way" or "light our path," one of which is keys. Sure, I had assumed these were the Pillars of Creation given their importance in Legion. But maybe this was something farther down the line.

But that raises a question: The Jailer seems to know what he's doing. We can tell because he's not telling us, and generally, the less we know about a villain's plan, the more likely it is that they'll succeed at it. But if that's the case, why would Il'gynoth, a creature of Void, be so eager for the Jailer, a creature of Death, to succeed?

Now let's get the Nathrezim involved.

There is a book one can find outdoors above Sinfall (it spawns sporadically) that reads as the account of an agent sent to infiltrate and manipulate the other major cosmic forces - Life, Light, Disorder, Void, and Order - on behalf of Death. There are many hints that the author is one of the Dreadlords, aka the Nathrezim. And much as been made of the fact that Nathrezim and Castle Nathira and Sire Denathrius all seem linguistically connected. Also, with his horns and hooved feet, pale skin and long ears, Sire Denathrius looks like he could be related to the Dreadlords (also the Accuser literally refers to him as "The Lord of Dread" - this is either a hell of a troll or some really major telegraphing).

Blizzard has actually said we're going to touch on the Nathrezim in 9.1, though we know almost nothing else about their role here. They did hint that someone might break Sire Denathrius out of his prison. Could be the Dreadlords do it?

And hey, if the Nathrezim really have succeeded in infiltrating the other cosmic forces, they have the perfect person to send: Lothraxion. While when he was first introduced, it looked like he had been redeemed by the Light, if the Nathrezim weren't even loyal to the Fel/Disorder in the first place, perhaps he's a triple agent, actually serving Death. But a light-redeemed demon might be the very thing that would cause someone like Z'rali to let her guard down.

All of this really rests on the following question: what does the Jailer actually intend to do?

In theory, the most obvious failure state for the heroes of the Warcraft cosmos is that when the Jailer takes over the Shadowlands, it turns the whole plane into the Maw, and all souls are destined for eternal torment. That is, naturally, a very bad thing that we should try to prevent.

But consider this: the Jailer rules the Maw, but he's also its main prisoner. He was cast down into it after some sort of fall from grace - like what might have happened to Sargeras had the rest of the Pantheon prevailed against him.

The Maw seems made in the Jailer's image, but perhaps Zovaal doesn't actually like it there. What if he's not looking to expand the Maw to make everything like it, but instead to absorb everything else?

Do the keys he's collecting allow him to escape simply the Maw and to enter the rest of the Shadowlands? Or is he planning instead on a total conquest of the cosmos entire?

Now, the "five keys to open the way" might suggest that these keys will allow the Void to be taken up by Zovaal, for him to absorb that power like a freaking infinity stone.

Ok, remember Tyrande?

For a long time, we had a sense that the Holy Light was good and the Void was evil. Given that the Naaru have generally helped us while the Old Gods are... terrifying, it made sense. Sure, we had weird edge cases like Sir Zeliek and the whole Scarlet Crusade, but these seemed to be cases in which the Light was being wielded in some remnant of goodness, just being kind of twisted by weird circumstances.

The first time we saw a real reversal of this narrative was actually in Spires of Arak. There, the Outcasts used shadow magic (which is Void magic) against the oppressive class that wielded the Light. While the source of that shadow was truly evil, it blurred the lines a bit.

However, never was there a bigger moment to rethink the Light than "The Gift Refused" cinematic, in which X'era tried to forcibly rewrite Illidan's being, replacing his Fel power with the Light. Illidan destroyed her for this, and I think it's notable that Velen, whose power is derived from the Light and who is a pretty unimpeachably good guy, basically said "yeah, man, I get it." Then, the introduction of the Void Elves suggested that perhaps the Void was not just evil, but misunderstood, and that inversely, the Light could be misused and harmful (which seems to be what happened on alt-Draenor, which saddens me dearly because I loved Yrel and hate that she seems to have become a villain.)

The Night Elves worship Elune, but while they seem to be unique among the people of Azeroth in that belief, we've now found that people on other worlds also worship her, like Therinax and Qadarin did in life.

Elune's precise nature, though, has been hard to pin down. She seems to have some connection to the Titans, as evidenced by the Tears of Elune, as well as Eonar's hideout on Elunaria, and even the fact that the Tomb of Sargeras, which had been the primary temple to Elune, was built over a Titan facility.

But she also seems to be connected to the Holy Light - Velen noted the similarities between the worship of Elune and that of the Naaru, and Khadgar believes that the Naaru were straight-up created by Elune.

And, of course, Elune has connections with Life. Cenarius is said to be the son of Elune and Malorne, the latter being a Wild God.

But hey, what about the Night Warrior?

The Night Warrior is a dark aspect of Elune. And generally, magically speaking, if we're talking about darkness on a cosmic scale, that could imply that the Night Warrior involves the power of the Void.

If Tyrande arrives to slay Sylvanas, which seems to me like a real possibility, she will do so with the power of the Night Warrior - a power that seems beyond what anyone else in Azeorth has wielded, except perhaps Sylvanas' use of the Jailer's magic.

Could she be, unwittingly, bringing him the power of the Void?

Now, one final thought:

If my theory is correct: that Zovaal the Jailer is trying to take the powers of the various cosmic forces... is he the first to attempt this?

Zovaal is referred to as the fallen brother by the other Eternal Ones. But the Winter Queen also, at one point, refers to Ysera as being her "sister's" pet. And the Winter Queen sure doesn't seem to show a lot of love in that reference.

What if Zovaal is trying to do what Elune had already done? What if Elune collected the various powers of reality to become a true Goddess, in a way that even the Titans never did?

If this is the direction the story is heading, it could mean that the Shadowlands expansion is going to soon become about something much larger even than the afterlives realms of Death.

Checking Back in With Il'gynoth, Pre-9.1 Edition

 Il'gynoth appeared twice as a raid boss in the last two expansions. In Legion, it was a blobby, misshapen mass of corruption in the heart of a world tree within the Emerald Dream/Nightmare's version of Un'goro Crater (notably, in a place where there is no such tree in the waking world.) Upon slaying it there, Il'gynoth claimed it was journeying to Ny'alotha.

And lo and behold, when we came to Ny'alotha, the Waking City, we fought him as one of the bosses in that nightmarish fleshscape. In this case, Il'gynoth looked quite different - more of a demon-like form coming out of a pool (I think using the skeleton from the Sunwell Plateau Kil'jaeden fight.)

Anyway, the evil monster is most famous for its cryptic, prophetic whispers. For those of us who are big lore-hounds, these whispers are like catnip.

The reveal of the Shadowlands has opened up a lot of new possibilities for interpretation. While we've had the rest of Legion and all of BFA for some of its first appearance's prophecies to come true, the latter iteration of him has had only the events of the first patch of Shadowlands to be reflected.

So, I'm going to, using WoWPedia's list of quotes as my guide, go through each whisper and speculate on whether this is something that has already occurred or if it's something that might occur, and wonder what and who it might refer to.

Big caveat: just because it sounds prophetic doesn't mean it's actually true. Beings of the Void like Il'gynoth basically see infinite different branching universes as equally real, so there's no guarantee that any of these are our timeline, not to mention that Il'gynoth could be aiming to deceive us. But let's get into it!

Starting with the Emerald Nightmare version, some of these will likely already have happened:

"Flesh is his gift. He is your true creator."

This ought to refer to Yogg-Saron, who wove the Curse of Flesh into the Titanforges of Ulduar, which then acted like an infectious disease that mutated the Titanforged into existing races.

"To find him, drown yourself in a circle of stars."

This is N'zoth - we fight Azshara in a room literally called the Circle of Stars, and by defeating her and draining the power of the Titan locks, we released N'zoth from his prison.

"The king of diamonds has been made a pawn."

Nice chess pun, eldritch abomination! This refers to Magni, and likely N'zoth's attempt to use the Heart Chamber he opened to infect the World Soul.

"The lord of ravens will turn the key."

This remains ambiguous. My best guess for the Lord of Ravens is Khadgar, as he's essentially the Guardian now, and wields Atiesh, inheriting Medivh's raven aesthetic. But I don't know of any keys he really turned, and we haven't heard much from him since Legion.

Actually, come to think of it, the 9.1 trailer does have Anduin retrieve a "key" from the body of the Archon (who I think one of the Blizzard folks said is actually still alive?)

"The boy-king sits at the master's table. Three lies will he offer you."

Oh boy. While he's probably in his 20s at this point, Anduin is the most likely candidate for boy-king. Given the very recent reveals of his current status - having been placed under some kind of mind-domination to serve the Jailer as a new Arthas-like Death Knight - I think the master could be the Jailer. Now, if we consider his surprise attack on the Archon to be a lie, maybe that's one of three (though he doesn't seem to actually lie to her in that scene.)

"Her heart is a crater, and we have filled it."

Ignoring the present tense, while this originally looked like it could refer to Jaina, it sounds a lot more like Tyrande. Given the dark aspect of the Night Warrior, perhaps there is something void-y to it. I'm not really confident about my reading here.

"Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path."

I thought this could refer to the Pillars of Creation, which we used to open a path into the depths of the Tomb of Sargeras. But five torches? Not sure. Teldrassil's burning certainly seemed torch-like. Now, keep this one in mind, as there's a whisper from Il'gynoth's later appearance that seems to refer back to this one.

Again, with 9.1's trailer, we know the Jailer is seeking to collect "keys" for some nefarious purpose. While it seems more likely there will only be four (one per covenant,) perhaps there's a special fifth one he'll need?

"At the hour of her third death, she will usher in our coming."

Maybe the most intriguing of them all, this has fueled speculation about female characters who have died twice and are alive again. Sylvanas seems disqualified given that she's actually already died three times (first by Arthas, second by herself, and third by Lord Godfrey). But we also have figures in the Shadowlands who, if we kill them there, would at least have a second death. Helya seems like a prime candidate here, not only because she has died twice (first by Odyn, second by us) and is once again active and likely to fall to us again, but also because she's a master of planar magic, and could be a hell of an "usher" for powerful forces.

But the other question, then, is who's coming is "ours?" Until we're told otherwise, Azeroth's Old Gods are all dead. I mean, could this be the Void Lords?

"From the earth, he draws strength. Our earth. Our strength."

If I had to guess I'd think that this refers to some sort of shaman - Thrall obviously being the most prominent one. But it also seems to imply that this shaman (if it is one) would be prone to corruption. Not sure.

"Its surface blazes bright, masking shadows below."

I'm at a loss. Elune, maybe? Perhaps a hint at her darker, Night Warrior side?

Anyway, those are the Emerald Nightmare ones. Let's move on to Ny'alotha. In this case, other than the subsequent bosses in that raid, the only content to follow these prophecies has been Shadowlands, so these are less likely to have already been paid off.

"Before the last shadow falls, the father of sleep shall savor his feast."

I don't know about what last shadows falling means, but we've definitely encountered the Father of Sleep - aka Mueh'zalla, the Loa of Death, who is an ally of the Jailer and whom we help Bwonsamdi overthrow. Does this suggest he'll escape Bwonsamdi's custody, or is that it?

"The golden one claims a vacant throne. The crown of light will bring only darkness."

If you've got an alliance character, go talk to Turalyon, who is currently sitting on the throne in Stormwind. He talks about acting as regent-lord, but also suggests that, given the victories in winning Stromgarde back (P.S.: the Alliance canonically won both warfronts,) that they should consider taking back more lost territory. Turalyon's zealotry looks like it could cause a lot of problems, so keep an eye on him.

"When their mistress beckons, nine ravens take flight. Each seeks a prize to earn her favor."

Oh man, yeah, no idea. We do have another reference to ravens, but who could be a mistress of nine of them?

"The vassal of life disguises treachery. Beware the eyes of green."

Given the way that The Winter Queen seems skeptical or dismissive of us when we ask her to save Ysera's life, only relenting after Aralon (whom she knows understands the grim necessity to allow some spirits to pass away so that the rest can live) joins the pleas, I could certainly see Ysera as a vassal of life. But her eyes, notably, are not green, but instead now glow with the blue anima of Ardenweald. Not sure we've seen what we need to for this one.

"Five lanterns now darkened. The flames they seek will light the Master's way."

Again, five light sources - though this refers to lanterns instead of torches. And these lanterns are darkened - perhaps disempowered? But the flames these lanterns seek will light the Master's way. If my understanding of the boy-king prophecy is correct, Master has been used to refer to the Jailer. But I really don't know. Again, I refer you to the possibility that it involves those keys in the Shadowlands, but it would also seem very odd if the Jailer was Il'gynoth's master.

"The cunning ones kneel before six masters, but serve only one."

Well, a Blizzard developer mentioned we'd learn more about the Nathrezim in 9.1, and the book that you can find at Sinfall seems to imply that the Nathrezim are connected to Sire Denathrius and have been infiltrating and manipulating other cosmic forces for a very, very long time. They seem to have studied the void specifically to pit Sargeras, the demons, and the Old Gods against one another, and it also implies that Lothraxion might be a spy as well. This sure seems like it would be that.

Finally, when slain, Il'gynoth says:

"Those who pass beyond... will drown... within the dark..." which I think could just refer to the fact that anyone who died during Battle for Azeroth went to the Maw (except some trolls that Bwonsamdi diverted.)

Blizzard claims that 9.1 will see some massive lore reveals and developments, and the way they talk about the finale of the Sanctum of Domination raid, it sounds as if we're going to get a shocking ending at least on the order of Tomb of Sargeras' Argus in the Sky (with Diamonds?)

This prophetic stuff, of course, doesn't need to pay off soon, and in fact, some of it might never pay off. That being said, it's very fun and satisfying when it does.

9.1: Chains of Domination

 With the start of Blizzcon, we have the trailer for 9.1, entitled "Kingsmourne," (which I guess means my "Shalamourne" name only lasted a day).

The trailer has a brief recap of what's going on in the end of the Torghast quests, but we get some real new developments:

So, um, that just happened.

We see Elysian Hold, the headquarters of the Kyrian. The Archon is discussing the fall of Denathrius and the needed efforts to restore the Shadowlands when Kleia arrives with good news: a benevolent king from Azeroth has arrived to lend aid.

Already, my alarm bells are going off. A living king coming to Bastion could mean someone like Genn Greymane or... hold on, I guess there really aren't that many kings left. Danath Trollbane counts, right?

But no, it's pretty obvious that it's Anduin, which... is worrying. Because Anduin's trapped in the Maw, isn't he? Getting turned by the Jailer and Sylvanas to do their bidding?

And we're not the only ones worried: we see Uther being taken away by his guards (presumably after some supervised meeting in the Hold before he goes back to his heavenly jail cell) and when he looks at Anduin, he looks utterly disturbed. He reaches to the wound in his soul where Arthas stabbed him, and it's obvious that from the look on his face, for a split second, he's convinced that Arthas is walking by him.

It's not Arthas, though. It's Anduin. Parallels between Arthas and Anduin have been a running motif in a lot of the cutscenes we've gotten over the past few years. In many ways, Anduin is what Arthas should have been. But now, well...

Anduin approaches the Archon and requests that she give him one of a set of keys. The pretense slips away swiftly: the Archon realizes that the person speaking to her is not the one who is meant to inhabit that body. She demands that the Jailer release his grip on Anduin's soul, but before any of the nearby Kyrian can act, Anduin pulls out his new mourneblade, chains the defending Kyrian guards just as the Jailer did to Thrall, Baine, and Jaina, and dives toward her, stabbing her through the chest, the sword drinking her soul and also, presumably, the key - which takes the form of an ethereal version of the Kyrian covenant symbol.

Anduin has also transformed, his skin pale and showing age lines, and his eyes glowing blue while his hair is sapped of color. It is, in fact, almost exactly the sort of transformation between the key art for Arthas representing him in Warcraft III, first when he was a paladin, and then as a death knight.

But Anduin, momentarily, snaps out of it. With his sword still buried in the Archon's chest, the color returns to him and he looks mortified at what has just transpired. But then, the runes on his armor glow again, and the cruel smile returns to his face.

We see him arrive at the Jailer's and Sylvanas' side as he produces the Rune he took to the Jailer, who now pulls a massive landmass down into the Maw with his chains.

So, there we go: the domination of Anduin is complete, and they've turned him into a weapon against the covenants. Furthermore, that's another of the Eternal Ones down - and in fact, might be the first two truly die, as Sire Denathrius is still sort of alive within his sword and the Primus is only missing (and possibly is the Runecarver.)

Things are not looking good, despite our recent victory in Castle Nathria.

Pre-Blizzcon Speculation and What Comes in 9.2 and Beyond?

"Leak" usually implies that someone surreptitiously and without permission gained knowledge of what a project team is working on and then shares that with the public. Today/yesterday's (it's late) "leak" of the 9.1 patch's content, thus, might not really qualify given that it was Blizzard itself that posted things to its own press release site. This was likely an accident, or less likely, an intentional hype-building strategy.

The info's out there and given that it comes from Blizzard itself, its credibility is very high.

But what does it mean?

Spoilers ahead, as this is not actually announced content yet: