Why is Vol'jin important?

Sad story. Sylvanas and the Jailer did our poor old troll dirty and killed him before his time, leaving her in power to lead to “countless” deaths. So far so good. But then the “hand of valor” touched him and prevented him from taking his place in Old Bwonsamdi’s cushy corner of the Shadowlands. Of course, no one told Vol’jin what the heck was going on, so he looked around on Azeroth for a bit before deciding to talk to the Shadowlands customer service considering this matter, and we haven’t heard from him since.

So… why him? Obviously someone has some plan with him but… why?

  • His most obvious attribute was his leadership of the Horde, which is why I thought he would play a role in the Horde leadership contest of BfA. Well… he doesn’t. And it sounds like the 8.3 council is there to stay, so I don’t really expect them to just bow out if Vol’jin should somehow make his return in the future.
  • He is a great Shadowhunter… But why would that be relevant? This mostly means he has an open line of communication with the Loa and is inecting their will on the world, doesn’t it? How could that come in handy in a Shadowlands plot? I can’t see it yet.
  • He is a well-liked character. I guess that might be Blizzard’s explanation for choosing him, but it would be really disappointing, wouldn’t it? After all the hints that his death actually had meaning… he was just randomly chosen without some lore excuse? Or because some powerful Shadowlands creature liked him? Meh.

Any ideas of where this could be going and why he specifically would have been chosen by something?

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He was chosen by Elune because she thought he was Tyrande. After all, they look rather similar. Night warrior’s power is an apology for this oopsie.

Didn’t he have a special relationship with Bwonsamdi (Not in a mucky way!) which may have averted him from going to the Maw? I mean Vol’jin himself is questioning of what is happening, so it could just be as simple as Bwonsamdi playing games, which lets face it, doesn’t sound that far fetched, we know he has a wicked (In both senses of the word) sense of humour.

I can’t think that any of the Covenants would have intervened, I mean he is heroic, but not exactly Bastion material, He is skilled in combat, but not a mere soldier, so that rules out the Necrolords (Worst name ever), He doesn’t actually seem (from reading Shadows of the Horde) to be the sort of person who deserves to go to Revandreth, and I don’t think he is enough of a Nature boy to go to Ardenweald.

Its really tricky, I’m wracking my brains but I can only see two possibilities.

  1. It is Bwonsamdi who did it, and Bwonsamdi is just being a d*ck (In which case -Why?-)
  2. Vol’jin has himself become a Loa, but does not realise it yet. Consider this, (I know the timing isn’t spot on, but hey, spirits and ghosty shiz) There always has to be a Loa of Kings. We know Shirvallah has more or less fulfilled, in the Zandalari’s eyes at least, the role that Rezan held until his destruction. Shirvallah is however -Not- a Loa of Rulership. He is not Rezan.

What if Vol’jin has actually become the Loa of Chieftains, or Kings even, an interesting counterpart to Bwonsamdi, eh?

Just a thought.

And Eyir would identify Bwon’s magic as “the hand of valor”? That woulnd’t just be misleading by Bwon, but from Blizzard as well. Not impossible, but I don’t think the hints we have fit here.

I guess that makes more sense. Blizzard has stated repeatedly in the last years that while beings like Ragnaros and Loa could die a final death under certain conditions, something would in the long term fill the void they left and take on the same energies.

But as far as we heard Vol’jin never made it to Bwonsamdi’s realm, and Rezan’s death was much later than his. I guess the idea would be that Bwon just kept him secret all this time, anticipating the loacopalypse of 8.0? Hrm, also sounds a bit far-fetched to me.

Or do you mean that he was freed from the Maw after Rezan died, by somehow being chosen by his essence and falling outside the Jailer’s dominion (depending on the Loa’s relationship to the Shadowlands works…)? That actually sounds more plausible to me. Though it would still not give his death any meaning, really.

Yes, that is what I was thinking, because Vol’jin rather famously died at the start of Legion, and Rezan in BfA, it would have to be some sort of retroactive thing, and that whilst Vol’jin the man(troll) may have went to the Maw, Vol’jin the nascent Loa, would have been freed. It is tricky, I have a massive vocabulary but I can’t quite explain what I mean. Sort of The ‘Idea’ of Vol’jin, survives, and becomes a Loa. in the same way that Troll NPC’s used to shout “Vol’jin Lives!” Even when all known evidence said that he was very very dead.

Oh well, I guess that would mean a ton of confusing Loa lore in Shadowlands… but sincer we already know that we will get a glimpse at the rebirth process Cenarius went through, and will visit Bwonsamdi’s realm as a dungeon, I guess there could actually be thematic room for that.

I don’t think it excuses throwing Vol’jin away for nothing in Legion at all, but I guess we can’t expect something on that front anyway. Him specifically being chosen is still a bit random, but that never stopped Blizzard before.

Here is my take:

We learn that Jailer was behind his death and manipulating him to pick Sylvanas as successor, even against Vol’Jin’s better judgement. And from the description we learn that he was thrown directly to the maw.

Once Bwonsamdi learned that his spirit was gone, he immediately went to his boss- and I assume it’s the Arbiter. And it was Arbiter who pulled him back.
What for?

I believe that he will play a key role in stopping Jailer and Sylvanas. Arbiter saw that he was done in awful way, saw that in life he was champion of the wild gods, and resourceful being, so his talents and skills could be used to stop either.

I also thought he would be used more in Horde internal struggles, but I guess he gave up on this faction - cannot blame him for that.

As a Shadow hunter- their arts are ancient, and he had very strong ties to Bwonsamdi. and Bwonsamdi is one of the Heralds in Shadowlands. Maybe he could invoke the power of the fallen Loa within Shadowlands to stop the Jailer?

From meta point of view: Blizz received a massive outrage over Vol’Jin’s death and they had to pull something with him. Even if that meant to backtrack on previous decisions.

I don’t know what they’re planning. And I don’t know how to even feel on this matter - it’s almost like no matter what they will do with him, the damage they did cannot be undone.

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Nice bucket transmog.

He was chosen to choose Sylvanas. That’s it

We know there was a third party incolved, though. So… no, doesn’t seem like it is.

He was a spiritual leader, that got himself into one of the strongest positions to be had in the games setting, which made him the obvious target.
Because whoever wanted to cause all this, could exploit the former and benefit from the latter.

And whoever wanted to revert the situation, would obviously want him back for the same reasons.

Sorry, I don’t see what’s obvious about that. We can theorize about it and come up with some kinds of answers, but they sure weren’t obvious to me.

Yes it does. Sylvanas and the Jailor are the third Party. That ist, if I am not mistakebn with all those leaks.
Didn’t Sylvanas flat out say it?

No, apart from #TeamSylvanas there is another party. The one that brought Vol’jin back. The “Hand of Valor”, as Odyns Val’kyr called it. As I mentioned in the original post.

That’s posdible. But it still leaves the comment about Sylvanas manipulating events so she could take over the position of warchief.
Odyn could have a deal with the Jailor. I think there could exist some link. But that’s nothing sure.

Yes. And that’s the easy part I didn’t ask about. What I do ind surprising is that Vol’jin personally is important enought to be brought back by anyone, not that someone would kill a Warchief.

Why would the Jailor want Vol’jin out there? Yes, there is a connection between him and Odyn. Odyn went to the Shadowlands and exchanged his eye for knowledge of how to create Valkyr with an agent of the Jailer. But the Jailer would be kind of the last party I would expect to want the guy it arranged to kill roaming free.

The only thing I can imagine is because Vol’jin was pawn in all of this.

Perhaps forces alined to the Jailor presented Vol’jin from entering Bwonsamdi realm to silence him. Right know he dosen’t remember much. But if he could rest in Bwonsamdis realm, perhaps he would’ve kept his memory and could have told what is happening.
This would be simple enough.

But going by the Blizzcon souls that died were all funneled to the Maw, the Jailer’s realm anyway, since the start of Legion. So Vol’jin would have been in his power either way.

I think for now Brigante’s idea of Vol’jin somehow getting Rezan’s powers/Loa status after his death might make most sense.

That’s the problem yes. Perhaps it is conected to the fact Bwonsamdi could protect the souls of trolls from this fate (after some time). It is valid and on the table.

The idea of loa Vol’jin is not new and I think it is possible. But I don’t know why this would be so complex, going arround as a ghost and not straight up becoming a loa. It seems odd to me. But we’ve also never seen how it happens before.

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Why would anyone read beyond this point when this itself is wrong?