Lore Watch Podcast 171: Delving into the origins of the Shadowlands
Added 2020-12-21 17:13:12 +0000 UTCThis week, Matt Rossi and Joe Perez explore what we've learned so far about the Shadowlands and its inhabitants including the role of the Maldraxxi, the inflexibility of the Kyrian, and the possible hand of the Eternal Ones at work.
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Comments
Bastion: it is definitely mentioned, in the levelling story even, that you can simply fail your Aspirant's training and go back to Oribos to get sent to another afterlife more suited to you. The Arbiter merely sends promising candidates, which are then tested, over literal eons, to become Kyrian. I don't particularly feel connected to Bastion's story, but I also feel that there are lots of misunderstandings here, starting with early Alpha reports of "urgh, they take away your memories!" without context, and those knee-jerk reactions somehow snaked their way into current discussions of the Kyrian. It seems to garner more mistrust despite being similar to the followers of the Light: duty, devotion and self-sacrifice for the (perceived) greater good. Although I can see how people (including me) would see loss of memory as a greater price than loss of well-being/life. And in general, the Shadowlands' "Purpose" is pretty on par with the Fantasy trope of "being guided by higher powers" - Warcraft's Light and even Nature definitely fit the part. Aspirants are being tested, among other things, as to whether their spirits can be impartial, without personal doubts or judgements. The short shows throwing Arthas into the Maw as something that should not happen, as the wrong action, based on personal attachments, no matter Uther's justifications. When Kyrian Aspirants doubt, it manifests, similar to how negative emotions can manifest in Pandaria. In regular times, this would be a sign that the Aspirant is failing, and would eventually get sent back to Oribos. But the connection was severed due to the Anima Drought, and the Forsworn apparently existed even before then, sabotaging the process. So doubting Aspirants remained, were given more chances even if undeserving - not a failure of the system, but the influence of the Jailer. That the sight of Uther's wounded soul planted doubt in Devos was likely a part of the Jailer's or the Dreadlords' plan, and I highly doubt he was the only soul who arrived in the Shadowlands in such a state, this is just a notable example relevant to our adventurers from Azeroth, or the initial point of corruption for Devos. There is a certain timeskip in the Bastion Afterlives short, during which Devos developed enough doubt to found the Forsworn.
Nulgar
2020-12-21 23:22:19 +0000 UTCJust to clarify - in the Kyrian campaign we participate in guiding a dead man's soul to the Shadowlands. The Kyrian are absolutely still doing that. Our companion, though, is shocked to find out that souls are going straight to the Maw. Whether she's the first Kyrian to notice or if she just didn't get the memo isn't clear, but that was the basis for the question I posted in the Discord (Keilis) - that it strained belief that she has this relationship with the PC but had no idea about the situation with the Arbiter.
Tom Bulmer
2020-12-21 18:34:33 +0000 UTC
