Is there any lore that confirms if the mortal souls stay forever in their designated realms or if they someday cycle back into the living realms and reincarnate?
At least Ardenweald seems to show some cycle happening but I am not sure if it is just for the wild gods or the mortals as well
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I have seen in many quests quotes that animals and others we kill are not just disappearing, they are returning to the cycle.
But Steve Danuser told, that if the soul dies in Shadowlands, it is gone forever. One of the souls threads of course, since according to his interview, soul can have many threadsā¦
instead of dying the souls seem to need to gain some power over time to be reborn, I do not think this is a second life that they move on only when they die
If you look at the cosmology chart it definitely looks like thereās a too and from the shadowlands and Reality. Same with the Emerald Dream and Reality on the opposite side. It almost looks like you could overlay and infinity sign there.
Itās just pure speculation at this point but, I wouldnāt be surprised if all living beings are supposed to eventually reincarnate. Although, in what form and how much they remember of their previous selves is up for debate if this is the case. Along with the question of is there a point where they archive some goal or some form of enlightenment and are supposed to exit the cycle?
Youāve then got the question of what happens to mortal souls that die in the Shadowlands.
Do they just cease to be? and if thatās the case does this mean mortals are a finite resource?
Or alternatively are new souls/mortals getting constantly churned out in the Emerald Dream to some grand plan or āintelligentā design?
The Shadowlands has definitely been ordered for some time, we know certain worlds in reality like Azeroth have as well. I wouldnāt put it past it that the Emerald Dream was also ordered.
Something put the three together as part of the same system, and not everything has been revealed to us yet about who did this or why this was done.
The Titans had a hand in ordering Reality.
The First Ones / Eternal Ones had a hand in ordering the Shadowlands.
Not quite sure if it was the Titans who ordered the Emerald Dream or if something else is at play here too.
Itās still a mystery for the most part.
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Most denziens of Shadowlands mention an oblivion as next destination for them to go if killed.
However those of Ardenweald upon death mention āgoing gack to the great cycleā. Is it because mentioning cycle of life fits their theme (even when it makes no sense from pointn of view of those already outside it)? Or is there really another cycle for souls aswell going on, that those of Ardenweald know due their knowledege of rebirth? Maybe itās just really small cycle - your soul dies in Shadowlands and disperse into raw anima used for another soul to be created?
Thatās at least what we are told happens to stewards and dredgers. One can assume it might work same for normal souls too.
Regarding mortal souls in Shadowlands, you mean living mortals like Maw Walker or just mortals who died? Maw walkers upon death have their souls anchored by First Ones relics which just serve as graveyard for game mechanic purposes.
I meant about what happens to the regular souls who are not wild gods. They seem to hang around as animal shaped spirits but I am not sure if that is supposed to be their eternity or just another journey.
Huln Highmountain has been there for over 10000 years
Well than, I havent seen anything suggesting souls send to specific afterlife by Arbiter ever leave it. Exception being Revendread(th?) where souls after attonement get 3 outcomes: into the maw if they are too evil, on to another afterlife selected by Arbiter for good this time and last they can stay and become one of the Venthyr.
Those spirit animals in Ardenweald are there for good.
I do not know if it is cannon but the Queens conservatory seems to do a lot of rebirths. Amongst them only 4 seem to be divine spirits.
I admit my conservatory is still at lvl 1 but didnāt it said in itās description that weāre helping wild gods be reborn (cant check it ingame atm)?
Werenāt we told during quests in Ardenweald, that wildseeds all contain powerful nature spirits awaitng rebirth?
They are pretty vague about what a powerful nature spirit is though.
The way the Shadowlands is set up, when things were working the way they were supposed to and anima was plentiful, all this machinery of Death was functioning the way it was supposed to, there was an opportunity for souls sometimes to travel to, have completed one obligation and be able to move around whether that was to travel to Oribos and encounter someone there, or maybe to travel to some of these infinite afterlives that are out there in the realms of Deathā¦ So, donāt give up hope that Draka and Durotan might be reunited someday.
Ā© http://lorekeeper.net/en/maldraxxus-shadowlands-and-beyond-interview-with-steve-danuser/
It seems that before the drought one was not necessary bound to just 1 of the afterlves.
Within this eternal forest, massive dream trees draw in precious animaāthe essence of souls that flows through the Shadowlandsāto feed the spirits of nature awaiting rebirth into the cycle.
When it comes to mortals (and itās not clear what makes a soul āmortalā), it does not seems like the souls can escape the place. Only souls influenced by āhigh magicsā can end up being reconstituted: demons in the Twisting Nether, naaru in the plane of Light, etc.
From the above mentioned interview:
Mortal souls are different. Mortal souls begin in the mortal plane: Azeroth, other worlds etc. And when they die, that soul with all its anima that itās built up in life, crosses over into the Shadowlands. And in the Shadowlands, the threat to your existence is real. If everything goes the way itās supposed to go, you should be able to exist for eternity; either enjoy or endure whatever afterlife you are a part of.
(eternity in the Shadowlands I suppose)
Life seemingly uses anima from the Death plane to get some creatures back into the mortal plane. Which could be related to some kind of special role of this power, since those who are resurrected by the Light or Void are sustained by the Life, not Light / Void.
To my knowledge the topic of the origin of souls was not brought up yet.
gl hf
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One could argue that one of moons on the cosmology chart does not allow to see if the link from the Shadowlands goes back to the physical reality. In goes into the Shadowlands, sure, but who knows if itās linked back.
Supposedly, there is no afterlife after the Shadowlands. So, I guess something like what happened to Ursoc - anima is just ārecycledā for the needs of a realm in the Shadowlands.
One of things mentioned in the Chronicles about the Dream is
Some believe that Freya wove the Emerald Dream into being from nothing. Others claim that this strange place had always existed in some form, a dream born from Azerothās slumbering world-soul. It is said that Freya tapped into this realm and molded what would become known as the Emerald Dream as a way to commune with the nascent titan.
Which makes the whole thing even more complicated rather than answers something. (For example, if the Dream is a way to commune with Azeroth, why was Magni changed, and is this Azeroth heās talking to? Like, he describes Azeroth speaking as almost a song. We never see singing titans. But we see some windchimes. And theoretically connected to them Elune. But I digress)
gl hf
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