Afterlives Could Have Huge Implications for the Forsaken in WoW: Shadowlands
The Forsaken are one of the most interesting races in Warcraft lore. The series of animated shorts Blizzard is releasing in the run up to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, Shadowlands Afterlives, could have some huge implications for them in the WoW lore and the upcoming game.
Not only have the Forsaken been abandoned by their Banshee Queen and found themselves without her clear leadership for the first time in their entire history, but the nature of death in the Warcraft universe as revealed in the shorts could mean some very interesting things for the undead in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
In Afterlives: Bastion it is revealed that when Uther the Lightbringer was slain by Arthas, his soul was split in two. Part of it remained in Frostmourne, Arthas’ runeblade, as previously established. At the end of Lich King fight in Wrath of the Lich King, all of the souls trapped in Arthas’ blade are released, including Uther’s. However, the Bastion short establishes that another part of Uther’s soul was taken to Bastion, but was unable to ascend due to the part of Uther kept trapped in the runeblade.
Sylvanas was also killed personally by Arthas’s runeblade, as seen in Warcraft III and the Warbringers: Sylvanas animated short made in the run-up to Battle for Azeroth. It is unclear if the fact that Sylvanas was raised as undead means that her soul was not taken by Frostmourne, but the Bastion short makes it seem entirely possible that the undead who were raised as part of the Scourge experienced a similar split in their souls to Uther the Lightbringer.
It is possible that the part of their soul that remained in their undead bodies was analogous to the part of Uther’s soul that was not kept in the blade, while another part of their soul was kept in Frostmourne and was not truly released until the death of the Lich King. Another possibility is that the Lich King’s necromancy tied their souls to their undead bodies instead of keeping them in the blade, while another part of their soul went to the Shadowlands.
In either case this makes it seem possible that characters like Sylvanas may be able to be reunited with a part of themselves in the Shadowlands that they have not seen since their dark rebirth. This could even provide the cure to undeath that characters like Mani Winterhoof have been trying to find for years.
The fact that the Forsaken are a playable race makes it less likely that players will be able to meet their own spiritual other halves, though the Bronze Dragonflight quests in WotLK did see characters face a version of themselves from the future. What is quite likely, however, is that exploring the Shadowlands will reveal far more about the nature of undeath and what exactly happened when Arthas rose the Forsaken into undeath than has ever been revealed before. With Arthas’ soul imprisoned in The Maw, it is possible that players will have the opportunity to ask him themselves.
Blizzard has a big task ahead of it if the studio wants to develop a story that explores the afterlife without making death feel cheap. Many fans, especially players who have rolled as a Forsaken character since vanilla, will be interested to see what the new expansion reveals about the race, and how these revelations shape its uncertain future.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC. At this point, World of Warcraft Shadowlands releases on October 26 or 27 (depending on time zone) for PC.
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