You might think that, but no. Before the introduction and spread of the Holy Light humanity had no real concept of what heresy even was, let alone a word for it. How could they have had such a thing? Humanity in their tribal age before the coming of the Arathorian Empire worshipped as part of cults too many to name or number, dedicated to everything from the Titans and their keepers, to spirits of the wild, their ancestors - and, some would say, darker deities that dwell far beneath the earth.
With the rise of the Holy Light as a religion words such as pagan, heretic, heresy and heathen entered the Common tongue as loanwords from Thalassian, and the very idea of such a concept was by itself taken from the elves.
The initial idea while Iâve it close to hand. I had a period of pondering about wings shape and the environment theyâre in. (Wings based on, from left to right, various sea birds type, golden eagle, and raven from memory.)
I also like to think of them as wild animals and actual predators first and foremost â and actually terrifying ones at that. Thereâs a reason why they went against the orcish dragon riders in the Second War and won.
The idea of them being tamed mounts is an outlier. The Last Guardian points out that the gryphons you see being used as mounts are on lease from the dwarves, and not in permanent ownership of humans (unless you figure how to tame them yourself, i.e. Kul Tiras with its local breeds).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0niE8EBjko
Orcs were by far the best part of the Warcraft movie, but gryphons are a close second. Look at that absolute beast fighting orcs in the background with ridiculous ease.
In the Last Guardian training gryphons seem to be so difficult that even Khadgar is outright surprised Stormwind would have access to six trained gryphons, because he wasnât aware that so many trained gryphons existed in the world.
Who also had the help of Boss Tak, a Wildhammer of Clan Doyle.
Maybe. But keep in mind this was pre-Alliance. What few gryphons the dwarves were willing to supply were a rare thing. With the formation of the Alliance - and the Wildhammers formally joining it - thereâs likely a greater supply of them now.
Still not something every common Joe has though. The Player Character is important enough to be given ready access.
Meanwhile, stormwind in game has full squadrons flying over the city on patrol. This, gentlemen is the other side of the coin where the writer is left to their own devices with no reference, giving us six rare trained gryphons and worgen tails, as opposed to flyover lore describing the gameworld as-is.
Flying patrols that were added in Cata whereas the Last Guardian is set during the First War, almost thirty years before Cata. Like Telaryn said, itâs before the formation of the Alliance and during the time Stormwindâs reputation was still that of an isolationistic kingdom.
I have some Shadowlands headcannon that for me helps smooth out the questions created by Shadowlands with the rest of the lore surrounding death. Chiefly the fact that we can quite frequently talk to spirits of the dead and they never seem to mention any hint of it, before or now after SL.
Option 1: The Shadowlands exist outside of the normal flow of time, being a separate plane of reality, and therefore when souls go there they go outside of time themselves. With this in mind, every time a being from Azeroth or Draenor who has passed on into death is contacted by the living, they are contacted before their spirit has been assigned to its Covenant (assuming it goes to one, and isnât just chilling in its own cultures afterlife). So for the living, 1000 years may have passed between the death of a being and a shaman attempting to contact their spirit, whereas for that spirit the call comes relatively soon after their death, before theyâve started the process to become a Kyrian for example.
Option 2: Another explanation for this phenomenon (which is incompatibly with the above) is that those spirits we contact in the living world are actually âechoâsâ for the soul before it left for judgment. Captured as they were at the moment just after their death for us to converse with, able to watch the living world and react to it, but unaware of what the realms of death actually hold.
I personally quite like Shadowlands, but feel they really did a number on the lore by creating more questions than answers with it. I feel all it would take is a few tweaks and additional quests to make it nicely fit with the rest of the universe. Like adding in a quest that has the Faction leaders all making an agreement to keep the events of Shadowlands secret from the rest of Azeroth outside of the Ebon Blade, and removing the random civilian NPCâs walking around Oribos.
I like to think we should take Bolvarâs line âThe shadowlands have things not meant for mortal eyesâ literally. Mortal perceptions do not see the true nature of things as they are still alive. Only death opens your eyes to the true nature of the Shadowlands.
What we see is an approximation, and only the four pillars of the Shadowlands that hold the cycle together.
I point to my musing on how our mounts change as we traverse the in-between; flying on an ardenweald moth, a bastion larion or any other creature used for local flight, it all turns into an everwyrm the second you pass through the gate to leave the realm and return to Oribos.
Simulation failure in action. Itâs all a machine.
