wow How We Get to Zereth Mortis Cutscenes

[Starym 3,800]

 

We've now seen how big Zereth Mortis actually is, so now let's find out how we get there! Here are two datamined (and very much work in progress) cutscenes that cover how we manage to enter the new patch 9.2 zone, as LeystTV gives us a look! We find out how the final sigil is crafted as well, where exactly we cross over into Zereth Mortis, and who's coming with us:

 

[Teufel 331]

Uhm... So instead of a questline where we can look for remnants of Zovaal's former power with or without Sylv's help/intel to reforge the Arbiter seal, with possible characterization along the way for either, the attendants simply fart it out of thin air...

Yay. Can't get rid of the expansion fast enough.

[Arcling 898]

4 hours ago, Teufel said:

Uhm... So instead of a questline where we can look for remnants of Zovaal's former power with or without Sylv's help/intel to reforge the Arbiter seal, with possible characterization along the way for either, the attendants simply fart it out of thin air...

Yay. Can't get rid of the expansion fast enough.

Maybe there is some introduction before this cutscene? Unless there isn't and we simply go there. It's like they want to be done with it as soon as possible. Though one may question why this idea wasn't brought before, perhaps the only way to get there was to use those sigils?

[Starym 3,800]

2 hours ago, Arcling said:

Maybe there is some introduction before this cutscene? Unless there isn't and we simply go there. It's like they want to be done with it as soon as possible. Though one may question why this idea wasn't brought before, perhaps the only way to get there was to use those sigils?

The sigils being needed to get there is the entire setup of the raid. Basically it's why the Jailer has been going after the Eternal ones the whole time. Then the Primus just says NP I CAN MAKE NEW ONES IN 15 MINS. So if the above cutscene has no pre-quests, it's pretty much par for the course, as expected.

[Nym85 72]

To be fair

For the Sigils of the individual realms to be crafted, each of the realms needed to be in good condition, something they definitely were not early on. For the Venthyr and Kyrian that was honestly accomplished through the campaign; we get all the medallions which hold a substantial part of Denathrius' anima so it makes sense we can make a new sigil out of them and we have control of all the Temples and replace Devos. It makes much less sense for the Necrolords given that we only have two Margraves around in Draka and Sin'dane (Emeni and Vashj could perhaps become the other two but Marileth is still insane so no one for Plague yet). With Ardenweald it's somewhat explained I guess? I don't even see how Ardenweald can recover tbh.

As for the Arbiter's Sigil, we do NOT get that from what I see in the cinematics. We have her Voice and higher ranking attendants, all of which should be carrying a decent amount of her anima (like the Paragons, Margraves, Droman and Harvesters do for other Eternals) use some of their anima to power an unstable Sigil long enough for us to fly through that gate but I don't think that gate is in any way stable. They can make it more dramatic by having Tal Inara die doing that (though given how important they are for expansion questlines/mechanics, I don't think they can really do that for practical reasons)

 

I assume once we get inside Zereth Mortis with Pelagos, we find a way to create a new Arbiter and a new Sigil so that we can have a more stable portal and allow more people to come inside

Edited November 28, 2021 by Nym85

[Starym 3,800]

1 hour ago, Nym85 said:

To be fair

For the Sigils of the individual realms to be crafted, each of the realms needed to be in good condition, something they definitely were not early on. For the Venthyr and Kyrian that was honestly accomplished through the campaign; we get all the medallions which hold a substantial part of Denathrius' anima so it makes sense we can make a new sigil out of them and we have control of all the Temples and replace Devos. It makes much less sense for the Necrolords given that we only have two Margraves around in Draka and Sin'dane (Emeni and Vashj could perhaps become the other two but Marileth is still insane so no one for Plague yet). With Ardenweald it's somewhat explained I guess? I don't even see how Ardenweald can recover tbh.

As for the Arbiter's Sigil, we do NOT get that from what I see in the cinematics. We have her Voice and higher ranking attendants, all of which should be carrying a decent amount of her anima (like the Paragons, Margraves, Droman and Harvesters do for other Eternals) use some of their anima to power an unstable Sigil long enough for us to fly through that gate but I don't think that gate is in any way stable. They can make it more dramatic by having Tal Inara die doing that (though given how important they are for expansion questlines/mechanics, I don't think they can really do that for practical reasons)

 

I assume once we get inside Zereth Mortis with Pelagos, we find a way to create a new Arbiter and a new Sigil so that we can have a more stable portal and allow more people to come inside

But it isn't the Arbiter's sigil at all. Never was. It's Zovaal's. The Arbiter is just a shell that housed it so the attendants shouldn't have any access to it at all. And even if we ignore that, the literal plot trigger for the entirety of the Shadowlands (and, depressingly, for the entire Warcraft plot overall) is the fact that Zovaal wanted the sigils to enter the Sepulcher, when it turns out he could easily have just made new ones in a couple days np. It's just infinitely stupid no matter how you look at it. And even that COULD have been overlooked if it was just the plot to the Shadowlands, but no, they had to drag ALL of Warcraft with them...

[Nym85 72]

12 minutes ago, Starym said:

But it isn't the Arbiter's sigil at all. Never was. It's Zovaal's. The Arbiter is just a shell that housed it so the attendants shouldn't have any access to it at all. And even if we ignore that, the literal plot trigger for the entirety of the Shadowlands (and, depressingly, for the entire Warcraft plot overall) is the fact that Zovaal wanted the sigils to enter the Sepulcher, when it turns out he could easily have just made new ones in a couple days np. It's just infinitely stupid no matter how you look at it. And even that COULD have been overlooked if it was just the plot to the Shadowlands, but no, they had to drag ALL of Warcraft with them...

Yet the Arbiter housed it. She was pretty much powered by Zovaal's original Anima. Probably the entire concept of the Purpose, with the Arbiter and her Attendants were created by the other four Eternals and powered up using Zovaal's sigil. And no, Zovaal could not have made entirely new sigils unless he had complete control of the other four realms, which he never was close to.

I mean the story is not good at all but let's not try to invent reasons why it's not good. Just because we see new Sigils created either directly by their respective Eternals or in Venthyr case using the Harvester Medallions which we are told had been invested with a significant part of Denathrius' power doesn't mean Zovaal can just go replicate that at will. He'd need to get to the individual Eternals and FORCE them to create those sigils for him (and he had to create a very specific Mourneblade and use Anduin in order to be able to steal them in the first place, something he could only do because he still had the Primus under his control at the time).

[Arcling 898]

37 minutes ago, Starym said:

And even if we ignore that, the literal plot trigger for the entirety of the Shadowlands (and, depressingly, for the entire Warcraft plot overall) is the fact that Zovaal wanted the sigils to enter the Sepulcher, when it turns out he could easily have just made new ones in a couple days np.

If Primus knew how to make new sigils, then it's weird how Zovaal couldn't order him to do so when he held him captive. Unless he didn't know Primus was capable of doing that, and Primus never told him (or did he forget?). Anyway, this is too convenient for him to just make sigils for the portal. Easy design solution to not have to make some longer introduction. I, too, would prefer if they made Zovaal independent from other story lines, instead of inserting him to nearly every important event in the lore.

Edited November 28, 2021 by Arcling

[Teufel 331]

1 hour ago, Nym85 said:

To be fair

For the Sigils of the individual realms to be crafted, each of the realms needed to be in good condition, something they definitely were not early on. For the Venthyr and Kyrian that was honestly accomplished through the campaign; we get all the medallions which hold a substantial part of Denathrius' anima so it makes sense we can make a new sigil out of them and we have control of all the Temples and replace Devos. It makes much less sense for the Necrolords given that we only have two Margraves around in Draka and Sin'dane (Emeni and Vashj could perhaps become the other two but Marileth is still insane so no one for Plague yet). With Ardenweald it's somewhat explained I guess? I don't even see how Ardenweald can recover tbh.

Missed the point a bit here. The Primus states that the Sigils are representation of the Covenants' purposes, and reforging one requires reaffirming their dedication to them. Kyrian switched up their virtues a bit, Winter Queen strengthened the cyclic bond of Life&Death with Elune, Venthyr have forsaken the Sire's indulgement in sins they should be redeeming and returned to their function under the Court. Only Maldraxxi stayed relatively the same, since they've never really lost their way, just cleaned up a few traitor Margraves.

...but there is a severe lack of anything concerning the Arbiter, reason being she's just a sophisticated construct build by Eternals, pumped full of Zovaal's anima, not an actual Eternal. So the way to remake one must also lie within him, something Sylvanas could be of use. Discovering his remnants of being the Arbiter, the downfall and imprisonment, characterization for all five Eternals... maybe finding Nathanos' soul along the way, so Sylv would be more cooperative.

With that, even what is shown here would look better because the Eternals created the Arbiter, and the Primus just does so again on the sigil-scale, and the quest would provide him with something of Zovaal to not make it look THAT lazy.

[Starym 3,800]

8 hours ago, Nym85 said:

Yet the Arbiter housed it. She was pretty much powered by Zovaal's original Anima. Probably the entire concept of the Purpose, with the Arbiter and her Attendants were created by the other four Eternals and powered up using Zovaal's sigil. And no, Zovaal could not have made entirely new sigils unless he had complete control of the other four realms, which he never was close to.

I mean the story is not good at all but let's not try to invent reasons why it's not good. Just because we see new Sigils created either directly by their respective Eternals or in Venthyr case using the Harvester Medallions which we are told had been invested with a significant part of Denathrius' power doesn't mean Zovaal can just go replicate that at will. He'd need to get to the individual Eternals and FORCE them to create those sigils for him (and he had to create a very specific Mourneblade and use Anduin in order to be able to steal them in the first place, something he could only do because he still had the Primus under his control at the time).

My comment was more along the lines of how insignificant the sigils were made by the fact they remade them in 2 days with little to no effort, when they were the entire reason the Eternal Ones had to lock Zovaal up. They were made by the First Ones and given to the Eternal Ones. If the Primus can just whip them up (no matter how) in THAT short a time period, to me it absolutely takes away any meaning of them. Zovaal spent... tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions? of years locked up over these sigils and his desire to use them, and then when he finally succeeds, even grabs his own out of Mr. Robot, they just go NP let's just make new ones! It's incredibly poor writing on every level and I really don't have to invent anything to add to it's crappiness. And you're telling me neither Zovaal nor Denathrius had ANY clue the Primus could just do this - create new sigils whenever he wanted to - the entire time Zovaal has been imprisoned? While ALSO having the Primus imprisoned for a (much shorter) amount of time? I mean come on. Am I really inventing anything here?

[Tarostiel 0]

I never got the quest! I have logged out and in twice