So let me get this straight, Tauren souls, in fact any souls that go to bastion assume the form of humans?
I just started playing shadowlands but that’s ridiculous on so many levels. All the belief in ancestral spirits etc. is basically inconsistent with all of that. Besides, how can souls in a parallel plane look like humans who supposedly evolved as one of the last races in warcraft history lol.
I’m sorry but the quest in which you were forced to witness a tauren in human form being forced to forget that he used to be a tauren through insufferable pain was beyond stupid. The whole premise of bastion is very disappointing, I had infinitely more fun going through the BFA story. Come on, this is so inconsistent and silly.
I agree with you, but i think for example Cairne Bloodhoof spirit went to Ardenweald were he reincarnated has a female cow. Maybe blizz will fix it, by letting humans milk that cow to replenish mana.
It is not inconsistent. All your issues are resolved simply by the Tauren being wrong about the afterlife, and the fact that the Kyrian are not humans, just creatures that look sort of like humans.
no because there were multiple quests throughout the game where you had to summon or consult the spirits of your ancestors. You can’t summon the spirits of your ancestors from the bastion because
A) They were forced to forget their pasts
B) Spirits can’t be summoned back from the shadowlands
It doesn’t make sense and is very inconsistent even if you forget about the appearance issue which is also just wrong.
Because if I were a tauren ancestor turned a blue human that forgot his past and someone summoned my spirit from the shadowlands my first reaction would be wtf and my second reaction would be leave me alone, who the hell are you and why are you summoning me?
It’s obvious tauren spirits whose pasts were erased from their memories can’t be summoned and even if they could they couldn’t help you.
Well fine, let’s assume tauren spirits can be summoned from Bastion, how do you work around the issue outlined above?
No. Other locations are probably fine(or maybe not so much either? I haven’t gone that far in the story yet). But we know that some tauren go to Bastion for sure, so assuming soul distribution across realms used to be somewhat uniform 20% of tauren spirits(those that went to Bastion) can’t ever be summoned back.
You could say, well fine, at least 1/5 of tauren spirits(probably 2/5 because spirits from the maw can’t be summoned either and even if they could they’d probably all be mad already because of the eternal torment they endured) can’t be summoned or spoken to, they’re basically gone forever. And yes, so far that’s the only plausible explanation, but it still sucks because it means that a significant number of ancestral spirits can’t ever be summoned or counselled and you have to be lucky enough and hope that the arbiter sent your chosen forefather to one of the 3 realms that are compatible with tauren belief system.
Not all tauren, or for that matter any other race, souls go to one of four playable zones after death. The 4 we visit are key realms with important roles in keeping the cycle of death going. Chence we visit them. Remember when you were sent to Arbiter floor in Oribos? Those thousands of “Doors” floating all around that place? Each door is different realm of the dead. Among them is most likely the default Tauren afterlife where those ancestral spirits you summon reside. Or maybe there are many different realms to which Tauren spirits go. Anyway they all dont go to Bastion.
Souls in Shadowlands create their own forms, usually its the form they had in life. But those few who are chosen to join one of the covenants ritualy shed their old form and instead embrace new one, fitting their new role. In case of Kyrians they also shed their memories of old life to make sure that those soul bearers are neutral and unbaised.
Why Kyrians look like humans? They are shaped after their archont. But really, why does Titans look like humans aswell one might ask. Or Elune - Cenarius has gotten stag parts from his father so humanoid parts must have come from his mother. Other Eternal Ones are human like aswell. Moreover humanoid animals in WoW tend to be more human like as they evolve - murlocs and jinyu. Wouldnt surprise me if it was all because First Ones themselves were human like and therefore made all in their image. It’s also more user friendly look for all those beings. Would you prefer if all metaphysical creatures were as abstract as Naaru?
No but the creatures in Oribos make much more sense, forget humanoids like elves or titans, the blue things in Bastion look exactly like humans, I mean their ears etc…
Even if they could magically assume their old form they still can’t remember anything which is why it’s inconsistent. The magic argument doesn’t make sense when it comes to memories because it’d be totally stupid. Imagine spending years or eons on training in that blue human form just to forget your memories and then they’re magically restored for a brief moment when someone summons you. It doesn’t make any sense and clearly wasn’t thought through by whoever came up with that afterlife story.
What magic? look above. If you magically restored these souls’ memories it’s like conjuring a new being. Once their memories are gone they’re a new person and can’t be restored to the old form, it simply doesn’t make any sense. Very poor storywriting right there.
Maybe, that doesn’t really matter, the point is that there is some portion of tauren souls that can never be summoned back. It just turns out that the whole tauren religion is a sham.
For the first paragraph, it is already described that there are many forms of afterlives. You can even see a physical example of this if you go outside into the outer ring of Oribos and see the many soulgates? realm portals? whatever those floaty things are that transport you to different realms of afterlives.
As for the second paragraph, he might be referring to that one Bastion storyline that involves the transcending of a Tauren who has been at his meditative task for a long while now, only to end up suddenly as a full-fledged Kyrian Aspirant when the Forsworn attacks.
Not a sham, just probably not involved in this narrative. The only remotely cultural ones we see involved are Night Elven (to some degree) and a showcase of Trollishness from De Other Side.
It is only inconcistent if every Tauren goes to Bastion and has their memory erased by the time they are summoned in Azeroth, which you have stated is not the case.
You are right. Stupid writing would be highly incosistent with Blizzard.
Yeah, you would need some kind of magical force in order to do that.
And as we all know, such problems in fiction cannot be resolved by magic, which is a froce that can do literally whatever the writers want it to.
If you notice that in the 4 SL zones, characters take a different look and form. Some look like their old selves and that is probably done so we can recognize them, examples are Draka and Uther. But as we can see from the Primus, one can have a different shape, remember how he looked as the Runecarver and his original form as the old necromancer.
The official take of the current narrative team is that “there wasn’t much” of the lore related afterlives, they could not use it as basis, so the Shadowlands was made “from the ground up”.
Which is hella ridiculous statement, but that is what we have. Revisionism at it’s finest.
As you unlock fast travel across Bastion, when you use the teleportation network, it gives you a speed buff. The buff is called Unburden. Is just turns the body into anima, so maybe changing the shape is possible.
It had the potential and some peculiar ideas. But needed different narrative team to make a compelling story out of it.
It’s so strong, that not only Uther’s influence changes the Bastion (Eternal Ones are the pantheon of Death ), but even a titan++ is not enough to stop it (hence Anduin was able to drop his compass at the right time even under the influence of the “full power” “titan++”.
), but even a titan++ is not enough to stop it (hence Anduin was able to drop his compass at the right time even under the influence of the “full power” “titan++”.