wow Where Do Alternate Universe Souls Go, Naaru After Death, Necromancer Class Rumors, Additional Realms and More: The Lorekeeper Shadowlands Interview

[Starym 3,800]

 

We have a big one today as Lorekeeper.net got a hold of Narrative Lead Steve Danuser and got a whole lot of new info from him on many different aspects of the Shadowlands. We even got an answer to the very frequently asked question about what happens to Alternate Universe souls when they die, aka is there an AU Shadowlands! And even thought the answer is somewhat vague, it's a definitive one - there is only one Shadowlands and all souls from any parallel universes end up there.

Quote

We’ve done some stuff that’s involved with time travel and alternate realities. What happens to those souls when they pass on? Do they go to the Shadowlands?

This is a complicated question. How do you deal with things like alternate Draenor? There was a Draka there. What is that Draka? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she related to the Draka in Shadowlands that we see? Or is there another Draka? We know that in Warlords of Draenor, Velen of that universe died. Does that mean there is a Velen in the Shadowlands? But what about the Velen in Azeroth? All these things are very complicated questions.

The way I would have you think about it is think of a rope… If you look at a rope, it is one thing, right? It’s something that you can grab onto, you can hold it, you can see it; think of that as a character. Think of that rope as Draka or Velen.

If you look at that rope more closely, you can see there are different threads that make up the rope. There are different twines that pull together, and you can pull off one of these threads if you want. But it’s still a rope, and each of those threads you can think of as one of the realities of the character, one of the streams of time… There is a thread that is the Draka from Draenor we visited in the Warlords of Draenor. There is another thread that is Draka on Azeroth as we know her… And there are many other threads that could be other realities that we never peered into. But all of those threads at some time come together to make that rope. And remember also that, as you’ll see, that there are many characters in the Shadowlands when they refer to time, they usually say that time is not a construct of Death. Time and Death are not related. Death is about eternity, not linear time. The manner in which these threads come together, that can take a very long time from mortal perceptions. Those threads can be separated for a time, but sooner or later, they do combine to make one rope that is that character. You can think of it as the threads of that rope, all the individual threads, are just waiting. And over time, they will come together but they can exist as separate entities for a time. That still doesn’t change the fact that they are part of one rope.

We also learned a lot more from the interview, like:

• Time is different in the Shadowlands and that affects everything else (related to most of the other answers below).
• Other cosmic force characters (Life, Death, Order, Disorder, Light, Void), like the Naaru, don't go to the Shadowlands when they die, as they go back to their point of origin and reform over time, barring any intervention.
• Some Necromancer class rumors were dispelled, Maldraxxus wasn't intended as a tease for it.
• We got an explanation as to what exactly happens when someone is raised from the dead, with the Forsaken in focus and their relationship to Death as the cosmic force that now anchors their souls to their bodies, whereas Life served that function when they were alive. And so their souls are not in the Shadowlands but simply bound to their bodies by a different source than in life.
• We also found out what the relationships of couples and close relationships are like after death in the Shadowlands - with another relatively vague answer with Draka's example - basically she's busy with the events in the Shadowlands to think about her mortal life, and since time is different she doesn't really perceive it as an issue.
• There are additional parts of the Shadowlands the team didn't get to explore, but will in future updates.

There's a whole lot to more unpack and read about in the massive interview, and all of it is extremely interesting, and not only for lore enthusiasts, as the Shadowlands really does act as a big setup for expanding the Warcraft universe. Definitely go check out the full thing as it's full of pretty huge revelations, even in addition to the highlights we pulled out above.

[lindelmelian 0]

Hi Starym,
Just a quick correction.
"We got an explanation as to what exactly happens when someone is raised from the dead, with the Forsaken in focus and their relationship to Death as the cosmic force that now anchors their souls to their bodies, whereas Light served that function when they were alive."

It needs to be "Life," not "Light".

[Starym 3,800]

3 minutes ago, lindelmelian said:

Hi Starym,
Just a quick correction.
"We got an explanation as to what exactly happens when someone is raised from the dead, with the Forsaken in focus and their relationship to Death as the cosmic force that now anchors their souls to their bodies, whereas Light served that function when they were alive."

It needs to be "Life," not "Light".

Hah, thanks, too many Light and Life terms in my head at the same time, obviously you're right! Was even literally looking at the cosmology chat when writing it  ?

[Arcling 898]

So if both versions of Draka died, they've merged? And where is Durotan? They won't even address where alternate Velen went. I guess we will never know how exactly alternate universes work, doesn't seem like they have any concrete idea. Like Legion existing outside of all different universes, yet when we've traveled in time (Caverns of Time or Rhonin and Krasus in books), there was Burning Legion in their past version (I think it was Rhonin in one of these books, who mentioned Hakkar being killed in altered War of the Ancients, meant that he wouldn't appear during Third War, but it was of course in older lore). Wouldn't they disappear or get "sped up" to their current version, if only one Legion existed? If past version of demon died, would they merge in Twisting Nether? 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Arcling

[Dejo93 1,023]

Imagine if we get not one, but two new classes announced for the next expansion :

Tinker and Necro ?

and let's be real. Whenever timetravel or parallel universes are involved, it's always just a needless complication