Warcraft/Characters/Shadowlands (Death)

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Death is a cosmic force that holds sway over every living thing in the Great Dark Beyond. Acting as a counterbalance to life, it is an unavoidable force that breeds despair in mortal hearts and pushes everything towards a state of entropic decay and eventual oblivion. It manifests in the form of necromantic magic and is represented by the Shadowlands, the realm of the dead.

The Pantheon of Death

Arbiter

The Arbiter is an ancient, mysterious being who dwells atop the city of Oribos and judges all the mortal souls that enter the Shadowlands. Her existence predates all memory—even older than the titans, according to some accounts. When a soul is brought before the Arbiter, all of its contents—deeds, misdeeds, thoughts, accomplishments, and failures—are instantly laid bare, absorbed, and understood by her. The Arbiter then sends the soul off to one of the infinite realms of the Shadowlands, determined by the soul's character.

• The Faceless
• Living MacGuffin
• No Name Given
• Physical God: An ancient supernatural being integral to the settings cosmology, and capable of judging the history of a soul's deeds through a single glance.
• Sealed Good in a Can
• Time Abyss

The Jailer

An ancient being who rules the realm known as the Maw in the Shadowlands. Very little is known about him, since nothing has ever escaped the Maw and no one has ever seen the Jailer himself — or at least, no one has seen him and lived to tell the tale.

• Bald of Evil
• Big Bad
• The Dreaded
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Outside Context Villain
• Physical God: Whatever he is, he definitely has an important role in the cosmology of Warcraft. The developers have described him as being at least as powerful as a titan.
• Revenge
• Rule of Symbolism: Chains are a recurring motif with the Jailer. In addition to being in charge of the Maw, the Jailer himself is all but stated to be its prisoner as well. He also has numerous chains coming off his armor and his servants use shadowy chains as weapons or to capture foes.
• Sealed Evil in A Can
• Suspiciously Similar Replacement: The Jailer serves as this to Sargeras. He's a titan-like being with a massive supernatural army under his command consisting of corrupted races and plans to upset the order of the cosmos. Both of them also consider the titan Azeroth integral to those plans. This is further lampshaded when one character theorizes the Jailer's army could rival the Burning Legion for numbers.
• The Man Behind The Man: To Sylvanas, Kel'thuzad (following Wrath of the Lich King), Helya, Gorak Tul, Mueh'zala and Sire Denathrius.
• Your Soul Is Mine

The Primus

The founder and supreme ruler of Maldraxxus who presides over the Five Houses. The most tactical and long-thinking of the Eternal Ones, and a master strategist nearly unbeatable on the field of battle.

• Dark Is Not Evil
• HAD to Be Sharp: Invoked by the Primus, via modelling Maldraxxus around The Spartan Way.
• Fling a Light Into the Future
• The Ghost: Death pun aside, despite being the ruler of Maldraxxus he's been missing for awhile.
• Modest Royalty: Implied. Despite ruling an entire afterlife, statues of the Primus depict him wearing only a simple robe, occasionally also with a staff and a mask.
• Old Master: Has shades of this.
• The Smart Guy

Sire Denathrius

Sire Denathrius is the creator and leader of the realm of Revendreth and its inhabitants, the venthyr people, which he rules from Castle Nathria. Calculating and methodical, Denathrius is ancient beyond measure and one of the most powerful beings in all the Shadowlands.

• Co-Dragons
• Deal with the Devil
• Faux Affably Evil
• Final Boss
• The Heavy
• Horned Humanoid: One of the few Venthyr to have this trait. Implied to be part of his link to the Nathrezeim.
• Monster Progenitor: To the Venthyr race as well to all vampires, such as the Darkfallen. It's also implied he's this to the Nathrezeim.
• Motive Decay: Originally fulfilled the task of purging sinful souls of their evil and having them go to another afterlife or become a Venthyr, only sending those who refuse to be redeemed to The Maw.
• Obvious Judas: Denathrius is introduced dictating a letter about how everyone needs to tighten their belts to get through a famine... while he lives in luxury and a civilian who gives their rations to beggars instead of the authorities is shown being executed. He's also a vampiric being with horns who dresses mostly in red.
• Spanner in the Works: To the Primus' plan to save the Shadowlands. The Primus' message said it was essential for the various leaders of the Shadowlands' afterlives, including Denathrius among them, to join forces to defeat the Jailer. Unfortunately, he didn't know that Denathrius had turned traitor and was serving the Jailer.
• Talking Weapon: Denathrius' greatsword Remornia is sentient and talks to him with a female voice, usually about her desire to be used for bloodshed.

Kyrestia the Firstborne

The first of the winged kyrians, one of the Eternal Ones, and the Archon of the Kyrian Covenant.

• Bare Your Midriff
• Blade on a Stick
• Chooser of the Chosen One: Downplayed. The Archon is the one who decides when a perspective Kyrian is ready to ascend.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Downplayed. Though her name is known to them, Kyrestia is almost exclusively referred to by Kyrians with her title as a sign of respect.
• Fire-Forged Friends
• To Be Lawful or Good: A bit more on the Lawful side, but is firmly a good character.
• Super Prototype: Of the kyrians.

Winter Queen

The Winter Queen is the creator and ruler of the realm of Ardenweald and its inhabitants, the Night Fae, who defend the spirits of nature. She is charged with the sacred task of maintaining the cycle of rebirth: restoring perished Wild Gods, Ancients, loa, and other nature spirits and returning them to the mortal plane.

• Fisher King: The Winter Queen and Ardenwald are one; when the land thrives, so does she and vica versa. However, the same is also true when one suffers.
• The Needs of the Many
• I Did What I Had to Do
• Reasonable Authority Figure

Oribos

The Eternal City and a place of the First Ones, Oribos is connected to every realm of the Shadowlands via transport gates tethered to the soulstreams of In-Between.

The Attendants

Tal-Inara

Tal-Inara the Honored Voice is the Arbiter's spokesperson and usually serves as an intermediary between her and the other entities.

• Mouth of Sauron: A heroic example.
• You Are in Command Now: Due to Arbiter being incapacitated, Tal-Inara is now de facto the highest authority of Oribos that works together with the former Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon to restore the natural order of things in the Shadowlands and thwart Jailer's machinations.

Bastion

The Kyrian Covenant as a Whole

• Crystal Spires and Togas
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven
• Psychopomp

Mikanikos

• Gadgeteer Genius: The inventor of numerous automatons that are tasked with various functions around Bastion's important facilities.

Kleia

• Cool Big Sis: Considered this by Pelagos

Pelagos

• Super Gender Bender: Being able to choose your form in the Afterlife led to Pelagos choosing a male form as a Kyrian, a choice Pelagos is greatly pleased by.
• Transgender: Born a woman as a mortal but identified as a man later in life and through death and becoming a Kyrian.

The Forsworn

Devos

• Fallen Angel
• He Who Fights Monsters
• Irony
• The Paragon Always Rebels: A literal example, as her former title was the Paragon of Loyalty.

Maldraxxus

Necrolord Covenant as a Whole

• The Spartan Way: The Primus made Maldraxxus this by turning the realm into a system of great houses, barons, and eternal war games to weed out weakness and allow the army of the Necrolords to continually improve. The reason for this was to make the armies of Maldraxxus as effective as possible at defending the Shadowlands. A better system than most, as troop losses are less important when everyone has access to necromancy.

Revendreth

Venthyr Covenant as a Whole

• Uberwald