For me the most exciting part was seeing Uther in the state of pretty much a depression. He was just sitting there not being able to do anything. Person that was portrayed as a ideal Paladin, unbreakable was sitting there broken. In this vulnerable state he was pushed do something he said Paladin's shouldn's seek. Vengeance. He denied it, he called it Justice but it was Vengeance.
Honestly the most interesting part of Afterlives: Bastion and Shadowlands' expansion on the lore is the Split version of Uther's soul. We have seen Uther's spirit in Azeroth at least five* times since his death. The question is how and which version of his soul is each appearance. The first comes at his Tomb during a leveling quest. This one came in TBC. So BEFORE Frostmourne was destroyed and the "dark" half of his Soul was released back into the world. Back in TBC we did not understand the realities of Frostmourne and its capturing of souls or if we did understand that 14 yrs ago, we did not believe that Arthas had done anything other than struck Uther down.The second and third come in the Halls of Reflection. Once to the "Hero" of your faction, the second to the player on the Quel'Delar questline. Again these 2 are the Dark half of his soul. The fourth after the fight with Arthas atop Ice Crown. With Uther appearing standing stoically at the entrance of the Citadel along with the other heroes/npcs.The fifth time, he appears once again at his Tomb where he tells the Paladin player where to search for Tyrion and the Ashbringer in the Legion artifact questline.If we actually consider the First as being retconned out of existence with the addition of The Cataclysm revamp. We can assume ALL of the versions of Uther's Spirit we have seen since the launch of WoW has been the portion of his Soul that was held within Frostmourne.So 2 questsions arise about the nature of Souls and Uther's Split Soul in specific. 1) If we do not consider the TBC version of his soul retconned out of existence... This would have been him crossing into our world as a ghost and speaking to us. and 2) What has happened to Uther and his Soul in the Shadowlands since the sword broke and his Soul released? Is there in fact a second half of Uther that we will eventually see?Futhermore... the entire existence of the Shadowlands begs the question as to what the many spirits we have communed with on Azeroth over the years have to do with the Shadowlands. Are these souls too angry to exist in any part of the lands? Do they cling too strongly to their former lives? Or am I just overthinking this too much?
I'm hoping to see our characters reunite Uther's soul halves: the half that was "eaten" by Frostmourne and the wounded half that was taken to Bastion. It would be a really cool lore-centric quest for the player to escort Uther's freed soul fragment from Azeroth to where he is in Bastion, in order to finally bring him some semblance of peace.
For me, what I find exciting and interesting is that the jailer could actually be the original Lich King, and that Arthas was possibly used as his puppet. Bastion showed us that the runes on the sword are the markings of the jailer. With that said we know that the armor and that sword belongs to the maw. I'm excited to see if we find out how the Dread lords got the armor and sword. The Maw is for pure evil people and beings right? Arthas was being manipulated by the jailer or so we think, Arthas was supposed to be judged and he wasn't. Devos and Uther threw Arthas in the maw, giving the jailer his weapon of destruction back. That is what I'm excited for, lore-wise.
I absolutely love the new insight we are getting about the "souls being split" , like how they show in the Afterlives: Bastion cinematic. Did the Uther that forgave Arthas merge finally with the "petty" Uther who was in the Shadowlands since the body of Uther's unholy death?I wonder if before Uther dropped Arthas into the Maw, the Uther who forgave Arthas tried to hold back, but vengeance overtook any semblance of "let go from this dark path"? I love this new realm we're going to explore , and hopefully gain more answers about it.
I am interested in learning about the lore of race-specific afterlives. We are getting a dungeon that takes place in De Other Side. Do the Draenei have an area specifically for them? Do the Orcs and their ancestors often go to a place that looks similar to Draenor? Even if it is just tiny tidbits, this is the kind of lore which I wish to learn more of.
I love lore, so I'm very excited with Shadowlands for not only making new lore but also going back and tying loose ends from old expansions. Learning what happened to Arthas after I looted his body in ICC a long time ago was awesome. I'm looking forward to the Jailer story, the Frostmourne and Helm of Domination story, the Death Pantheon story. I think Arthas should have been sent to Revendreth if Devon hasn't stolen his soul and Uther is now regretful of what they have done. Also, the fact that his soul split into two opens a lot of questions. The Maw seems broken, like Outlands, I want to know what happened there, the Eternal Ones broke it when they chained the Jailer? I have a lot of questions I hope they get answered in Shadowlands. Also, I'm with the Jailer, I'm sad the Maw is not a covenant we can choose. I'm hoping the next Afterlives be as good as Bastion.
Honestly just looking forward to maybe seeing my light man Tirion again. I don't play paladin so the last time I saw him he got fel fried by Krosus. He's the only character I've read up on lore for really, and I hope we get to see a reunion between Tirion and his wife and son. At the end of the Death Knight order hall campaign the light protected him from being raised as a horseman, so since the light loves him so much I'm also wishing for some super light powered Tirion, guiding me through The Maw with his glorious incandescent glow. I'm sure there will be other lore points that I'll love, but I'll be thinking about Tirion the whole time.
The part about Afterlives Bastion I would say I like the most is how we see how Uther has changed over the years. He was always a flawed person that was defined by his faith, so much so that he stayed in Lorderon when Jaina and most of her soldiers fled to Kalimdor even knowing he had no chance to win. We see in his final moments of life that his faith never wavered until the very end. When he dies however we see his soul splitting into two and the part that went to the shadowlands was very different then how he lived. He is now a man after vengeance and forsook the ideals he lived by. Even when Arthas was in his hands the words he had were not of ones of a paladin giving him fair judgement, it was ones of an entitled zealot who refused to believe he could do no wrong and became the evil he had fought so hard against in life.They say you either die a hero or you live long enough to be the villain.Uther my dude you have fit both sides of that now.
This cinematic is interesting as uther was the paladin of light. However it just seems like now he’s falling from what he once was and going to a darker path, not for justice but for vengeance.
From the Bastion short in particular I was excited by the concept of the split soul of Uther when he is killed by Arthas. This opens up the case of either was this some kind of a intervention from the Light, for good or for ill, or do all souls killed by Frostmourne (and other soul ripping items) get split in some way? King Terenas was only one of the more prominent souls trapped in Frostmourne. Was his soul also split? If not, did his spirit move on after the destruction of Frostmourne?My gut reaction is that Uther's plea of "Light, save my soul," is the key. If Uther was split on purpose by the Light, what is the motivation there? And were his halves rejoined later? Because his spirit shows back up during the Paladin order hall campaign in Legion, long after Arthas' death.
With the reveal of shadowlands Bastion and Uther dropping Arthas into the Maw, i have been ever more curious if that is the reason why Sylvanas i working with the Jailer. She has been hellbent on revenge ever since Arthas turned her into a banshee. If the jailor offered her his soul in exchange for her breaking the machine known as shadowlands that is keeping him at bay that does sound like a trade she would take.I am very keen on learning what exactly her (Sylvanas) motives are for going through all the troubles during BFA and breaking the helm of damnation as well. Personally i do believe that Arthas's soul is something that can motivate her enough and would love to find more about this.
JUSTICE
the Chance that Uther can get back to live
There are several things. The implication that Arthas was never meant for the Maw to begin with, Uther having a newly twisted view of “justice”, the fall out of Uther having his souls split in two one for shadowlands the other for frostmourne, also did the light do that save his soul? Why the Archon was refusing to trust Devos. Did the Archon already know but made a deal to allow Frostmourne etc to go to Azeroth? There appears to be more questions than we got answers hahaha
After seeing the Bastion animated video, I wonder if something similar happened to Sylvanas when she was struck down by Arthas, except he actually brings her back to life as a Banshee. Did her soul still split in half, with a "living" and "dead" part? Would that mean that there is a part of her inside the Shadowlands? Maybe everyone that was brought back to life by the Lich King only has half their soul. That would also explain why it is so hard to accept your new identity as a Forsaken, because your dead part isn't with you but in the Shadowlands. Maybe we can then have some quests given by some NPCs like Saurfang, searching for the broken soul of his son. Also, if Frostmourne is empowered by the Maw, then does it mean that, at some point, the Legion worked with the Jailer to bring death to everything? Then that would mean that every soul killed by Frostmourne would actually also empower the Jailer since he would collect anima this way. Maybe Sylvanas is only in search of herself ; one feet in the Shadowlands and the other on Azeroth. What if all Undeads can actually travel to the Shadowlands as they wish if they're strong enough? I'm also wondering about Ardenweald ; how does it connect to the Emerald Dream? I always considered both of those the complete opposite of the other ; one being pure life and the other being pure death. It seems somehow they are intertwined in a certain way. And, mostly, I wonder what will happen on Azeroth while we're gone. Does someone in the Shadowlands has enough power to heal our planet? With the time flowing differently, will we face a completely different Azeroth, or not that much? I mean, we still have a giant sword right into Silithus...As a Druid, I really can't wait to know what's that giant tree in Ardenweald that we see in the Shadowlands trailer. Very intriguing! In the end, this brought so many questions ; that's why I love WoW's lore :)
I'm really excited about how we will get know Uther more and more and i wish he will tell us about his relationship between him and Arthas, also excited about we will meet the old characters that die and we will unite with them in the shadowlands.
Uther character development is always nice. The opening portion to Afterlives gave me chills.
What I think is the most interesting is the potential conflict between the two halves of Uthers soul if or when they become one. Would both parts of Uther be alright with casting Arthas into the maw, and how would the ascended soul of Uther react to the merging. We know that after a while the ascended basically forget their past lives, but I'm assuming the two halves coming together would mean the memories of both combining. Could this present an internal struggle for Uther if a part of him believes Arthas to be redeemable.while the other doesn't?
I just really need to know who the Jailer is, and who's going to die this time