It makes me wonder.
Now WoW is centered around the idea of multiple planets with different inhabitants. Simple logic dictates that they should have different levels of technological and magical advancement. Some of them could be advanced far into Sci-Fi and Arcane Punk with advanced magics to solve any problem.
Afterlife is united. So every soul from every world comes into the same Shadowlands. Therefore why didn’t souls of more advanced races brought to afterlife ideas of advanced warfare etc. Like, I don’t know, anima-fueled helicopters and hover-tanks and laser rifles. Why is the afterlife of the entire universe centered around primitive technology and relatively primitive magic (even in Azeroth there are magic brooms etc, where owls have to clean Bastion manually)?
Also it is not quite clear now, if Burning Legion swept against multiple worlds, didn’t it encounter any, where doomguards had to face not horsemen, but war robots and armored vehicles carrying battlemages? Same question goes to the Army of the light, didn’t it encounter any advanced weapons and armaments beyond pointed wooden sticks and sharp pieces of metal?
Well, so far, there was always an event of something that makes us go to another planet. Garrosh opened portal to alternate Draenor. Illidan cracked sky and brought us closer to Argus, Sylvannas broke Helm of Domination and shattered the veil between mortal realm and Shadowlands.
I like that part. I mean, I like that it’s not “I wish it, so it must happen”. So, I am rather at peace that WarCraft has possibility to push story to other worlds.
The way I see it, souls in afterlife are not really powerful unless covenants give them ability to be so. Like, Kael’thas was nothing as a soul until they decided to make him redeem. So there is this feeling that in Shadowlands, or Afterlife, mortals cannot be equal to forces of covenants and their leaders and as such, they cannot really benefit from those technologies because Primus, Kyrestia the Firstborne, Winter Queen alone can fight of hordes of armies that are apparently more powerful than anything on Azeroth.
I think it’s rather strength in numbers that they push here. Because even Primus, Kyrestia and Winter Queen cannot be at two places at same time. I wouldn’t say it’s primitive technology, I think it’s rather that we are not up to it’s level.
When it comes to Anima, well, there have been a drought of it, so you cannot really think of making military vehicles when resources are going thin.
Well, my point is strength is ideas. For example, why did a new soul, that became a maldraxi warrior, not bring knowledge of modern military tactics and military equipment with him to grant advantage to his new House? As reality clearly shows, rapid firing ranged arms have advantage over swords and axes, especially considering the lack of foliage in the Maldraxus. I did not mean that souls should build anima-fueled hovertanks and overthrow Primus and Winter Queen. I wonder why advanced tech and magic is not present at all.
Well, I surely understand why, it is a game after all and a fantasy one, so no giant robots and laser rifles here, but then I`d say that this Pandora’s box of a large universe should not be opened at all.
It’s a good question but this made me ask another question - Since souls can come from different planets other than Azeroth what would make “advanced tech and magic” of one soul more important than the other?
I would guess they simplified this so that it’s much more acceptable for audience.
Practice and practice alone. Better ideas trump less effective ones and become the norm. Especially, considering how centralised Shadowlands regions are (each is united as a single entity under single leader). Cavalry is not used in modern armies solely because of little efficiency on the current battlefield. Therefore it is safe to assume that if any way or war occurred on the battlefield of Madraxus it would dominate the fields until some counter tactics arrive. And tactics are dependent on the armaments available.
Yes, since there is fighting in the Shadowlands that is merely physical, technology should be important. Especially in Bastion.
But it obviously isn’t.
We can of course try to invent some deeper reason for that, but the devs certainly haven’t. So why not just take the easy answe: The devs were more focused on style than logic here, and a sci-fi-wonderland would feel less warcrafty than Scourge aestetics and Ballistae.
It’s hardly uncommon for WoW. The themepark approach has given us a kobold’s sticks and stones next to draenei spaceships for quite some time.
Some races in cosmos already had “arcane punk” level of developement. From mortal races we had Eredar/Draenei with their soul enchanted constructs and all purpose arcane crystals.
When non mortals are corncerned than we have Naaru with interdimensional vessels like Tempest Keep, Titans who are masters of artificial life and Legion with soul and life essnce powered fel technology. Yet all of them also relied upon classical melee arms aswell. It’s a lot like Warhammer 40kilo where next to spaceships, gigantic robots and tanks you have people (and gigantic robots) running with swords and axes. So “out of character” expleantion would be “its cool” and “in character” one would be “magic” sensu lato.
Is it though? Bastion aside of all anima-forged armour and melee weapons have vast array of fully sentient “centurions” capable of blasting targets with beams of raw anima (by the way Valinor, the Light of Eons wants to have a word with you about “no giant robots”). Also when it comes to magic which is more impressive - enchanting a broom or lantern to perform one simple task themselves OR creating self replenishing race of workaholic loyal servants who loves doing all your chores for you. You dont even have to think about it, they’ll take care of everything!
Maldraxxus aside from some elite infranty and master necromancers, have pletchora of flesh constructs made for war alone. From small battlefield scavengers and suocide bombers to massive colossus. Not to mention their necropolis which can bombard area and deploy troops. Even their ballistae envelop it’s missiles in green glow of anima if I remember it fire animation correctly.
Venthyr while not really meant as front line fighters have an army of anima-infused golems of all shapes and sizes, capable of anima spellcasting aswell as enchanted sentient weapons which fight by themselves (beats magic brooms imo). And also they can and have in the past, weaponize their big dredgers.
From all covenants Night Fae seems the weakest. Which isn’t much of a surprise seeing as they in normal condidtions shouldnt have to fight anyway. They mostly rely on magics (anima seeds exploding like bombs), various animals they control - sylvian dragons for example and their super weapon, Lady Moonberry!
As a side note, cavalry was being used in various conflicts all through XX century. It wasnt rapid fire ranged weapons that made it obsolete but cheap pickup trucks.
You seem to try to use logic. That’s not quite what can be seen in the wow story. It’s more about the idea of where the devs want to take the story, then picking characters / themes that somewhat fit those goals. The rest is placed in stasis regardless of how it should’ve interact.
The most of what was confirmed about the Burning Legion were aldrachi, where Sargeras had to step into fight personally. Not aware of anything else.
With the army of the Light, not quite sure what you mean. According to the former info most of their forces are long time destroyed, just like most habitated worlds (which is contradicted by the Grimoir info which state that there are suddenly many worlds full of mortals somehow). According to Thousand Years of War Sargeras supposedly considered the forces of the Light defeated. Which could have a peculiar implications on his “original” quest, but who knows how it all would fit the current narrative direction.
As for the Shadowlands, it’s just odd. According to Danuser it’s a part of the setting built from the “ground up”, so it’s going to only loosely fit the older lore. There is Craftenium somewhere. Research might not go well in the Shadowlands given the dreadlords all over the place.
gl hf
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