Why is it called shadowlands? I mean, shadow magic is supposed to be a variation or the same thing as void magic, which has pretty much nothing to do with death, wouldn’t deathlands make more sense? Or is this on purpose? And they are trying to tell us something.
To be honest, there could be the option that they just thought it sounder cooler.
Land of the shadows is a common name for place like this.
To compete with FF14: Shadowbringers. They even chose to include a mandatory linear messenger boy questline as well.
Because they need to turn off the lights so that you don’t notice how nonsensical the plot is.
What annoys me is when they say: “The Shadowlands is in danger!”
“is”? Singular? But it’s the ShadowlandS isn’t it?
The Shadowlands has been named and established in the first Chronicle book in early 2016, and likely existed in concept documentation way before that. Making it a deliberate reference to Final Fantasy expac released in 2019 would require either supernatural powers of divination or time travel.
And it mean, it’s not wow that needs to compete with ff, it’s the contrary if anything.
Imagine how bad the other mmos must be if wow is still the king.
It’s like wow. Literally.
Not necessarily, there is a real-life analogue of a place that is technically called a plural name, but the gramatically correct way of referencing it is as though it was singular: the United States. You say ‘The United States is in danger’, not ‘The United States are in danger’.
It’s definitely the united states are in danger, it just sounds better.
Anyway, it’s the shadowlands because there are different pockets of it.
Just like it’s called united states because there are many different states inside.
It might sound nice to you, but it is incorrect. You can google it pretty easily, it’s a common misconception, the search engine even autosuggests the question as you type it.
Presumably because a shadow is a “dark reflection” of an object that is attached to that object, follows it around, reflects it, but is not it, and does not share the same qualities as that object, only the outline/shape of it.
And given the shadowlands is pretty much a realm of death that “follows around” several living realms and presumably has superficial qualities to them, this fits.
Also re: the FF14 comment, just no. Shadowlands was established well before FF14 titling in warcraft lore and the realm of death was named specifically as “the shadowlands” nearly ten years ago i believe.
WOTLK released in 2008…wotlk mentions the shadowllands specifically (DK starting experience) and refers to it as the realm of death, so whenever this idea was concieved of, that’s when the name was applied probably, so we’re talking at least 13 years ago, probably closer to 15.
Short answer: in contemporary English, both USA and the long form United States of America are treated as singular nouns .
It seems you’re correct, i am not native English so some things escape me.
to edgy i cut myself
And shadowlands isn’t?
Because World of Warcraft is a shadow of its former glory of course!
These things irk me, both in English and my native language.
When a mistake is repeated so often it becomes “the correct way”. Kind of like how the word “literally” has lost its meaning over the past few years.
I think Shadowlands has been term in the Warcraft lore for quite some time.
Though I think it was originaly something to do with N’zoth and Nya’lotha so I guess they just didn’t have name for the afterlife and decided to take this term, since they didn’t really use it in BFA
So it was a mistake? But since people did it so much they just said f it?
Well, that’s how language works. It is not a closed immutable system, it constantly changes and evolves. The switch from plural to singular in the United States example is theorized to have happened around the 1900s. That would mean it has been plural for roughly the same amount of time it has been ‘repeated as a mistake’ in singular.
Check out a basic presentation of Middle English vocabulary:
Given that, would you call the entirety of contemporary English a ‘mistake’?
Then try Old English:
How much of a ‘mistake’ is Middle English now?
Those are roughly 500 years apart and another 500 years between Middle English and now, and that’s enough to make a language difficult to understand due to gradual changes. But even two hundred years or a hundred is enough to note significant changes in any language. Grab a book written in English, or even your native language, from a century ago. You will probably be able to understand it, but the grammar and vocabulary will seem quirky and archaic. Same will happen when your great grandkids read whatever you are reading now.
(Btw can you tell I’m a language nerd by now?)
Google “wow magic schools map” and select images. Should give an idea of how different magic schools are connected. In there are 3 places linked together called Emeral Dream, Reality and Shadowlands. This map was not created after the thought process of creating an expansion called “Shadowlands”.