#wow: shadowlands

[breekio]

rewatched the shadowlands cinematics (sadly) and wanted to sketch

and you know what, maybe attempting to choke Sylvanas wasn't the best idea but its the principle that counts, everyone say thanks Tyrande

[whitecat-art]

Humanization of Remornia😈

[athame-san]

Fallen angel Sylvanas

[thelearnedsoldiertoo]

Watcher Fenixia

Originally a Ranger of Silvermoon, Nixxie died the first time in Arthas's attack on her people, being raised as a Banshee with her sisters in their last stand near Fairbreeze; one of the original Dark Rangers of the Forsaken, she was a devoted follower of the Banshee-Queen and a skilled soldier and assassin--ultimately driven by duty and loyalty, when she died for the second time as a result of the Fall of Dalaran over Dornogal, she first found herself in Revendreth for her crimes, but later in Bastion, where she became a Kyrian Watcher-of-Souls, able to provide comfort and companionship in the final moments of the dead in a way she never had.

Which is extremely sweet and a good high note for her arc I feel. She's in a really good place, and her devotion is now being applied to helping others, instead of just her superiors in the Forsaken. She has a task, and a way to help people through that task.

...but that doesn't stop her from being very horny in her free time. Have you ever done it in mid-air with a ten foot tall buff blue woman with wings? She has.

Credit to the lovely @cadhla182 for this delightful commish!

[druidonity2]

Fallen Angel

[panfaristo]

Maldraxxus' food is disgusting.

[mikaila-orchard]

How to fix Shadowlands.

So awhile back, I made a post on how to fix BFA which I largely still stand by. I mentioned possibly doing a followup for Shadowlands as it was the culmination of all the bad decisions Blizz made in BFA prior and over two years later, I'm keeping that promise.

1. Fixing the setting.

The Shadowlands themselves are going to have to get perhaps the biggest overhaul. First and foremost, we're nixing everything to do with the First Ones. Zerith Mortus is fucking out. The idea that all the dieties are 3d printed robots? Also out. In their place, we're gonna have it that Titan traveled to the realm of death in an attempt to bring Order™ to the place Mortal Souls go. They created Oribos to organize the souls based on deeds and nature, Bastion where they put the souls to work upholding the grand vision, Revendreth to 'rehabilitate' discordant souls, and the Maw for those deemed too undesirable. And naturally, they left keepers here to oversee everything, including Kyrestia, Denathrius and Zovaal.

Also, yes. This means that Domination magic is Death magic + Titan magic, which is honestly very fitting.

What about Maldraxxus and Ardenweald, M'kay?

Well, we're nixing Maldraxxus because it's awful. But more importantly, Ardenweald is going to represent what the Shadowlands were before the Titans swooped in. It's a safe haven for mortal souls who don't prescribe to the Titans ideals, like the trolls and the Night elves. Loa, Wild Gods and Elune all have a presence there and are crucial in saving the Titan Realms from the mess they made for themselves.

2. Fixing Zovaal

This one's surprisingly easy. First, we stick with Zovaal's look in the concept art because it's way cooler and the Primus has been written out of this version anyway. This is what the Progenitor of the Lich King should look like.

Second, we fix his motivation. Rather than trying to reforge all of reality which is a goal the lore had to break itself in half to give him, we're gonna give him the same motivation as all the other cosmic forces. Dominion over Azeroth's world soul.

So everything from giving the Scourge to the Legion to disrupting the machine of death to pull all those souls into the Maw to the veil being shattered above Icecrown, all of it is done so that Zovaal has a clear shot to channel enough death magic through the Forge of Souls, straight to the core until Azeroth emerges as an entity of Death and Domination. This keeps the stakes ceiling on par with expansions like Legion rather than trying to one up it like a tryhard.

3. Fixing Sylvanas (MOST IMPORTANT)

Fortunately, since we already fixed BFA, most of the work has already been done for us in terms of characterization. We just have to tweak a few things.

Firstly, we're going to make her the hero of this expansion leading the fight against Zovaal while Bolvar is going to be his lackey, as was set up back in Legion. We keep the fight on Icecrown, we keep Sylvanas shattering the Helm. But this time, Bolvar is going to retreat to his master, having been long since been swayed by him. And Sylvanas is going to take the fight to the Maw rather than trying to run from it as she had been since Edge of Night.

To better focus on this task, she names Baine Warchief and names Nathanos regent of the Forsaken, trusting them to handle things on Azeroth while she wages war against the Jailer.

Also, to no one's surprise, the whole split soul thing is getting completely scrapped. I don't care if there was a clever way to do it. It's just not worth it as a story beat. The Sylvanas we've spent 22 years getting to know is the Sylvanas. Full stop.

And there we are. That's all you need to change to make the story work. Everything else, you can keep. Wanna keep Anduin becoming Zovaal's discord kitten? Go right ahead. Wanna keep Torghast? Sure. Wanna keep the Dreadlords being Denathrius' little bitches? Sure. Just stick to these three reworks and you'll have a good expac.

[badmojotroll]

Shadra, the Spider Loa

Shadra, known formally as Elortha no Shadra, is a revered and feared loa, worshipped by various troll tribes as the spider loa. Representing cunning, venom, and shadow, Shadra’s influence spans generations of troll culture, from the ancient Gurubashi to the mighty Zandalari.

Worship of Shadra is often marked by ritualistic sacrifices and the use of her venom, which is considered a sacred and potent weapon. Her presence is strongest in locations like Shadra'Alor in the Hinterlands, where her altars still stand, and in the hearts of those who venerate her power. High priestesses such as Mar'li and Yazma served as her mortal representatives, channeling her will and power in times of conflict.

However, Shadra's fate took a dark turn during the Zandalari civil war. Yazma, once her loyal high priestess, betrayed her. Trapping Shadra within the Shrine of Shadra in Zuldazar, Yazma consumed the loa’s blood and essence, transforming herself into a spider-like being and killing Shadra in the process. This act echoed the sacrificial practices of the Drakkari trolls in Zul'Drak, who also fed on their loa in a desperate bid for survival and strength.

Though Shadra is now considered slain, the memory of the spider loa endures in the stories of trolls, the lingering power of her venom, and the eerie silence of her once-sacred shrines. Her tale remains a haunting reminder of the dangers of unchecked ambition—even among those who claim divine favor.

[thegreatyin]

honestly shadowlands is just one of those things where i'm not sure non-WoW players will ever understand just how fucking catastrophic it was without like. at minimum 10 hours of in-depth analysis summarizing its effect on the playerbase at every possible level. shadowlands was a work of art in the genre of how not to make an MMO expansion. shadowlands was an evil nefarious fucked up and twisted awful miracle. anyone who ever compares any FFXIV expansion to shadowlands just straight-up wasn't around for shadowlands

[sinfulpepsi]

This was the first thought came to mind upon watching the new World of Warcraft cinematic lol

https://x.com/imnotoyku/status/1720537091203817813?s=46&t=UcPicw4K3WGIKMOhLA_aIA

[vspin]

[whitecat-art]

[scourge-lover]

WoW Shadowlands ardenweald moth sketch

[ursacircusart]

They got straight-married in the Shadowlands

[raguonmynieceandnephew]

I fucking love Shadowlands and I am tired of being silent

This is probably gonna be long. TL;DR at the end.

Look, Shadowlands is the second worst expansion this game has ever shipped, besides WoD. I know this is a WILD opening sentence for a defense argument, but I am a romantic, not fucking delusional. This is a fact. Point blank period. The content drought was absurd, the legendary system was completely fucked, the maw in general, the lore reduced Arthas and Garrosh quite literally to dust, The Jailer as the main villain and FUCKING THORGAST, the overall alt unfriendliness, borrowed power cranked to a million, and I have expressed how much of a fucking joke I think putting Pelagos as the new Arbriter was.

It was bad.

This has been stablished, not just by me, but by the entirety of the wow community.

But even though I agree, all these things made the game worse, I still enjoyed my experience, and I have a positive outlook on the expansion overall, which seems to be the greatest sin a World of Warcraft player can commit: I liked Shadowlands. I dare to say I liked it more than I did Dragonflight, if I think really hard about it.

You simply cannot say you liked Shadowlands in the any circle of the WoW community online, from what I have seen. I remember Kraken Latte put it in first place in a rank she made of all expansions and got shit on for days on twitter, with people failing to see what she saw in the game.

Now, I feel like I have pointlessly yapping till now, so without further ado, here are some of the Shadowlands features i like the most:

1 - THREADS OF FATE

I am a simple man, who likes to do 2 things in wow: Mythic+ and leveling. That is pretty much it. I don't PvP, I rarely raid and I occasionally indulge in RPing as a Tidesage on Moonguard. And let me tell you, this baby right here was lifechanging.

Threads of Fate is by far, the single best feature (before Warbands, lol) in my entire World of Warcraft experience. I loved it. I loved it dearly. I don't think I have ever had so much fun leveling 60-70 through Revendreth and Ardenweald with ToF. I still have the route I took memorized, it was SO good. So many bonus objectives back to back to back, world quests and that goddamn gorgeous blue forest had the FATTEST questing hubs in the game.

I was so excited to play this combined with Chromie Time, like IT WAS ON BETA, until it was ruthlessly taken away from me for no goddamn reason AT ALL. Like, what the actual fuck blizzard. Y'all don't understand how delightful it would have been to level like that in ardenweald in the mid thirty levels, right after clearing Loch Modan (or the Silverspine and Hillsbrad, for horde). I barely touched SL since it got removed.

BRING IT BACK BLIZZARD, I AM BEGGING YOU, JUST DO THIS ONE SOLID FOR ME.

2 - COVENANT CALLINGS

Speaking of features I thoroughly enjoyed that were pried from my hands, we have the best iteration of daily quests this game has ever had. They actually worked as good dailies that gave actual gold, was a good reliable source of reputation and was amazing for anima and cosmetics.

This + the recent nerfs to the Dragonracing WQs make me feel like blizzard doesn't like when players make their gold independently, like, jesus christ not all of us have time to be profession moguls.

3 - THE 4 ZONES

What inspired this post was the fact that SL raids are now on legacy loot (if you didn't know, now you do) and I had to go to Bastion to buy the weapons with the thingy that drops from Nathria and...look at this. Just look at this.

This place is one of the most beautiful things this game has to offer. Like, the entire zone is gorgeous byt seeing this for the first time since DF came out legit moved me bro, LOOK AT IT.

And while the covenants were kind of a shit show gameplay-wise, in EVERY SINGLE OTHER ASPECT, it was a 10/10 feature, argue with your mom. Aesthetics, themes, everything, simply gorgeous. Also, it got bonus points from me bcs i really do not like to use training dummies in current expansions because of the sheer amount of people blasting them at any given time, so each covenant having their own Dummy Room, was a ++++ for me.

4 - THE NECROLORDS OF MALDRAXXUS

The Necrolords were the best covenant, their campaign was the best and their characters were the best. Like, come on now.

Draka? Mother. Vashj? Mother. Emeni? Mother. Sin'dane? Mother Stradama? Grandmother. Like, are you kidding me? I know lore was one of the Weakest points of SL overall, but you are insane if you include anything involving these guys. Even the Korthia campaign was enjoyable when they had the spotlight. And I only listed the female characters lmao, don't forget The Primus, Krexus's meme death, the five houses, Morgraine, Grahmal, Marileth, like C'MON!

5 - THE DUNGEONS

Except for the Theater of Pain, and arguably the De Other Side (I personaly love it), Shadowlands has the best overall roster of dungeons in the entire game.

Sanguine Dephts is, in my opinion the second best dungeon in WoW, period, behind only Freehold, Tazavesh is the best Mega Dungeon they ever made. Mists is a banger, Plaguefall is a banger except for the tentacles, Halls of Atonement, Spires (controversial take, ik), Necrotic Wake is amazing, like, you can say whatever you want about SL, but you cannot talk shit about its dungeon design.

Except ToP.

Fuck ToP.

Now, it's getting late so imma speedrun the rest of the items:

6 - COSMETICS

SL changed the transmog game, and all cosmetics from it (all the mounts and sets from all sources) look phenomenal, and if you disagree you are simply lying to yourself.

7 - ZERETH MORTIS

The zone was good and had tons of stuff to do and collect, plus, the introduction to the Catalysts was a plus.

also, nothing will be funnier than Taelia fucking Fordragon being the talking quest bubble for WQs in THE REALM OF ULTRA DEATH

8 - RAIDS

CN: Vibes? Immaculate. SoD: Horrible systems, cool mechanics SoFO: Cool systems, mid mechanics overall a positive for me

9 - CHARACTERS

Already mentioned a lot of characters from Maldraxxus, here are my other faves: Lady Moonberry, the gay unicorm, Denathrius, Theothar, basically ever steward, The Accuser, Kael'thas, General Draven, Remornia and many more.

There are probably more reasons to list to justify my love for SL despite all the bad it has in it, but I simply do not have the mental fuel to keep going rn, i need sleep.

TL;DR: I like Shadowlands despite it being bad and would appreciate it if ppl didn't throw a fit everytime someone talks about it in any sort of positive light. I then listed Threads of Fate, Callings, the first 4 zones, dungeon design, the fuckton of collectibles, characters and the beginning of the shift in game philosophy as positive and valid reasons to be a SL enjoyer.

[bloochouli]

rare wow art in 2025?

I guess the reaction would be

'wow'

goodbye forever