Devos, the Forsworn... what an illogical mess

Lore Story
1

So, here is my problem : Devos is a Parangon of Bastion, and she probably is one since quite some time. Centuries, millenia, who the f**k knows. In all of this time, she never integrated the whole point of the Kyrian : purging the memories of new aspirants to make them perfectly neutral during their future duties, aka “soul taxi”.

She meets Uther, who was stabed by Frostmourne, and all of the sudden, after a looong a*s time of service as the Parangon of LOYALTY (yeah right, Blizzard wanted to do the whole “the most loyal is the one to become a fallen angel”), she goes “THE PATH IS FLAWED”. Why ? Because an ““agent of the Maw”” (Arthas) is on a mortal world. That’s it. It has absolutly nothing to do with the Path, at all. Uther’s soul was wounded by a soul stealing weapon, that’s the problem with him having a hard time to ascend. That’s Arthas’ fault, that’s the Maw’s fault.

And yet, the illogical conclusions of Devos didn’t end here. Because, sure, I can accept that she starts to doubt the Path (for some reason), but why does she go straight up from “the Path is flawed” to “I’M SERVING THE JAILER, THE GUY WHO WANTS TO KILL US ALL AND TORTURE US IN THE MAW FOR ETERNITY” ??

During the leveling questline, it was quite the rollercoaster : I thought to myself “Huh, the Path is grinding the aspirants. But hey, whatever, they have litteral ETERNITY to do this” (you can read soooooo many times through out the zone that the Ascension is a personal journey that can take a random amount of time depending on the individual), then “Huh, some Kyrians are not contempt with the whole situation, why not” … and then, the newly revealed Forsworn declare the most cliché villain thing to say --> “Join us OR DIE”. Wow. What an amazing choice.

Bravo Devos. Bravo. That’s some brain cells power you have here girl. “I’m not contempt with the system, so I will make a new system with the help of Satan and kill everyone who stands between me and the destruction of the Path/the Archon”.

Devos, wtf was that ?

2

It’s a little bit more complicated than that. Devos became a Forsworn not only because she peered into Uther’s memories, but because when she did, and saw that an agent of the Maw walks on Azeroth, reported it to the Archon, and was pretty much told to shut up and obey, forget this whole stuff.

That triggered her quite a bit. For many millennia, she followed the Path, she is the Paragon of Loyalty. And when she reports quite troubling news, she gets told to shut up and forget, After so many, many years serving, without troubles, just doing memory erasing business, the first time something Truly Bad™ happens, she’s told to just ignore it.

I think her getting a tad angry at that is understandable. She started to doubt everything, questioning everything she was doing up until that point. With doubt plaguing her mind, she listened to the Jailer (and his luscious lips can say things so sweetly…), and was convinced that the Jailer isn’t the bad guy. He probably went against the others and they bound him to the Maw in return, in a fit of tantrum. When she sees the Kyrian as liars, as people who send innocents to the Maw, she wants to tear it all down. Joins us or die is an understandable stance to take. A tad harsh, but… not harsher than the Kyrian “you will eventually forget everything and ascend, your only choice is how long it takes”, to be honest.

The chain of events does make sense, if you look a little deeper.

3

She was pretty much told to look away yeah, like some big conspiracy or something that you aren’t supposed to know about… She got triggered I mean I would be too, so I understand her

4

Just no. The entire plot literally hangs on everyone who’s anything in it holding the idiot ball as if it was a treasured family heirloom.

  • Devos could have brought Uther and told others to see the wound for themselves. Instead she just ramps up the theatrics over relevance, then pulls a Sargeras.
  • The other Paragons, at least, if the Archon was too unwilling to listen, could have wondered what got Devos so agitated. Instead, they brush it off as if it’s a completely mundane sight without thinking twice about it. I mean, sure, Kyrestia might have told Devos “Shut up and do what I say”; but how the hell am I supposed to suspend my disbelief at the fact that not one person ever wondered “Now what the hell was that all about?”
  • The entire “New Order” rhetoric is just such an overused cliché, and completely out of left field. It just doesn’t fit into the setting. To say nothing of the fact that writers are going out of their way to not explain anything about what anyone means by that.
  • Finally, the forced vagueness of the entire fiasco, to say nothing of the “Ancient Illuminati conspiracy” that seems to be behind the Jailer’s motivations (and probably, by extension, Devos’), that’s some creative writing with trailblazing new concepts in storytelling, right there.

It all comes across as if (well, not “as if”; I’m reasonably confident that this is exactly what happened) someone decided that the plot needs to adapt to “this cool cutscene we made”; instead of more logically make a cool cutscene that’d follow a coherent plot.

It also comes across as if the writers are only capable of delivering any sort of a twist by deliberately keeping information away from the player, which kind of defeats the point of a twist. Now add the fact that the said “upcoming twist” seems to largely rely on everyone being a completely brain-dead imbecile, and what we have here is no better than some B-grade teen drama writing.

It actually hurts my mind, that’s how bad it is.

I mean, the idea behind the plot and the conflict is good, and as a storytelling element, completely valid and even interesting. It’s just the execution that’s terrible. We, the game, and the plot deserved better.

5 Likes
5

She probably tried, but Uther was denied audience with the Archon.

They blindly follow the Path. Whatever the Archon says, they do. Just witness the other blue guy (Thenios? I think that’s his name) in the Afterlives cinematic. If the Archon said Devos to drop it, and she didn’t, that’s Devos’ fault, not that of the Archon. Devos is the only one with a working brain.

It’s vague, because why would anyone tell us what happened to the Jailer in the ancient past, when we literally arrived 4 weeks ago, and noone knows anything about us? Except that we can escape the Maw, which is seriously suspicious if you ask me.

The entire Kyrian leadership is blind, they follow the Path, whatever that is. It’s the core of the covenant, total obedience and service. Everything that happend, makes total sense. Devos is the only one that peered into Uther’s memory, because she’s the only one who dares to think, and for that, she gets told off. Frustrated that the rest are unwilling to listen, she goes “screw you, I’m going to make my own covenant!”, and then gets charmed by the Jailer.

6

That’s the point of the Kyrian. Staying neutral. In the end, Arthas was defeated, and Azeroth was saved. So there is that. As for “the first time something Truly Bad happens”, my a*s : do you think that it is the first time that something horrible happens to a soul ? Across all reality ??

What are you even talking about ? She had her tantrum before the whole “All souls go to the Maw”. And, in fact, it’s the dark kyrian too who take the souls of innocent to the Maw. So, huh, yeah, still absolutly stupid.

7

When in doubt, don’t think too much about it and assume magic. Uther was enough to make her question the Archon’s wisdom, that was enough to make her go black, and black Kyrians go magically crazy and possibly are open to outside influence.

That’s if you prefer a bad story to a senseless one. You won’t get to a good one either way.

8

Heh, you are probably right. “It’s magic”. And it makes kind of sense : just like in Warhammer 40k, the emotions of the Kyrian can corrupt them. But nothing too subtile here, and no Chaos Gods, just Kyrian turning retarded when they doubt too much. I dig it.

9

I doubt it. Not once is it alluded to. Besides, it wouldn’t be “Uther’s audience with the Archon”; He’d only be there as “exhibit A”.

We don’t see the Archon telling anyone to stop thinking about it.

So when Devos is talking about it to Kyrestia, or when we’re picking up Lysonia’s pamphlets, they’re being intentionally vague, “Just in case so these mortals don’t overhear something important”? Come on.

According to Devos and the Jailer, because of course they would say that. Unfortunately, not even the Archon’s side ever explains much. We know the Kyrians are supposed to ferry the souls to the Arbiter, impartially (that’s why they need to kick their memories; so that they don’t do something of the sort that Devos and Uther pulled). That’s all. That doesn’t seem to be all that our characters know, it seems to be all that there is about it in the meta-story in the first place.

She’s so good at “daring to think” that she literally gets charmed by the first sleazy good-for-nothing that comes her way, indeed.

No, I’ll just go with what Wimbert said. A wizard did it because someone needed an instant plot device just add water.

3 Likes
10

No explanation so far as far as I am aware.

Because

Attendant Scribe says: The gates are reopening. This is good news at last. I hope these strangers can be trusted.
Attendant Scribe says: The Purpose is guiding them as it does us. I am sure of it.

gl hf

11

Whole point Devos starting to doubt the Path is because, she believes erasing memories comes with the risks and great sacrifice. Had Uther let go of his memories, there would be no knowing that Maw powers leaked outside of its domain. That was the reason for her betrayal and not the fact that it was Arthas, or even the Maw had escaped. But the flaw in the system she was taught to be perfect…

With that little incident she saw how whole their path of letting go also blinds Kyrians to eternal servitude.

And for anyone who said she could have proven Archon that she was right, it wouldn’t matter - the leaders of Covenents are bound to their duties to make sure their subordinates do their task so Shadowlands cycle is preserved. Each covenant has their duty and it did not fall upon Kyrians to resolve it. That’s where the denial comes from.

At first I doubted her sudden change of heart myself, but then it made sense since Devos sought the truth her whole deathtime she spent in lie, so in seeking the one - Jailer offered some part of it, so I assume she bought it and joined in to reshape the unjust system she believed Arbiter and her pantheon has forged.

Shame though she fell so early into the expansion.

12

She “sought the truth” by believing every single word the Jailer told her…

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As I said - she was already onto something and I can guarantee you that Jailer does ha e some sort of truth in his story. So yeah I cannot see how already doubtful servant went even further with that.

She’s not the first nor last character who suffered from deception, or maybe she fully stands behind his agenda.

14

But you just have to believe one thing to side with the Jailer.

That you’ve been told lies.

That’s it.

15

Indeed. You need to “believe”; rather than “think”.

Because if you were “thinking”, then you’d figure. “Wait. I believed everything the last guy told me, and that was a lie. And now this next guy expects me to believe everything he says, just because it’s opposing the first guy. HMMMMMMM.”

3 Likes
16

You perceive it too much from the perspective of what you would do as the rational and all-knowing player you are, who sees events from the outside through the wonder of hindsight.

Devos has basically been confronted with evidence that the world is not flat.
The Archon tells her to ignore it and maintain the doctrine that the world is indeed flat.
The Jailer shows her that there’s an alternative – it’s round.

To question one’s religion entirely is reasonable if you’re presented with a truth that shows it to be a lie.

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17

Yes. But that is not sufficient to subject yourself to another religion.

18

By what measure do you conclude that? I would say that the real world history is filled with examples of people converting from one religion to another, or adopting various philosophical views.

But in regards to WoW, then The Archon represents the zealous doctrine of Bastion and the Shadowlands – the path, the purpose, the way, and so on. Follow it, don’t question anything.

The Jailer is more of a confrontation with reality. Enlightenment.

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19

By the measure of “Hey I just realized I shouldn’t blindly believe everything someone says”; I won’t blindly believe what the next guy says.

Really? He seems like just another blind doctrine. Has anyone questioned him, and lived? No? See.

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But she is not believing blindly in what the Jailer reveals. She believes based on what she saw when she peered into Uther’s memories.

Yes, really.

I’m not sure if you just don’t get it, in which case I don’t want to spoil it. But suffice to say, then you as a player should be getting the same enlightenment as you play through the Shadowlands. What you see doesn’t add up with what you’re told.
As a means of foreshadowing, various characters of course realize the truth of it all far before we do (and like any Hollywood movie, they of course die before they can reveal the truth to us). We’re still stuck with a bit of a mystery as to what the truth is, the revelation yet to come. I believe that’s called suspense.