World of Warcraft finally explains Sylvanas’ secret plot

World of warcraft fans spent most of Battle for Azeroth ask a big question: What exactly was the infamous Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner planning? It was clear that she was playing some sort of five-dimensional chess involving genocides, betrayals, and surprising secret magical powers. The latest extension, Shadowlands, also focuses on the Sylvanas plots. But thanks to a new cutscene, we know what she really does, and that’s probably really bad news for everyone.

This article contains spoilers for Shadowlands‘first end-game content, especially Dungeons and Torghast.

Why is Sylvanas so crazy about the afterlife?

Blizzard Entertainment

Sylvanas is one of the last remaining characters from real-time strategy games; she was introduced in Warcraft 3, where she was quickly murdered by Arthas on his journey to become the Lich King. He resurrected her, and when she freed herself from his mind control, she took on a leadership role on the Forsaken with the intention of getting revenge on Arthas.

After the death of Arthas at the hands of the players Wrath of the Lich KingSylvanas decided it was a job well done, and there was no point in staying like an undead banshee. In the short story Edge of Night, published early Cataclysm in 2010, she threw herself from the top of Icecrown Citadel and died. In an upsetting turn, she ended up going to the worst hell possible for reasons currently unknown.

Sylvanas has made a dark contract with the Val’kyr, the winged servants of death, to come back to life and escape her fate. Since then, she has made it her goal to never, ever go back. Most players interpreted this as she didn’t want to die. Turns out she’s a bit more ambitious than that.

Attack and dethrone God

From Shadowlands, we now know that Sylvanas has been in league with the Jailer, a brand new villain in World of Warcraft. The jailer was one of the bosses of the Shadowlands, but his colleagues decided he was sucking him and banished him. He’s the root of all trouble in the Shadowlands, and his machinations are why players have hours of quest content to complete. He and Sylvanas have created a league of evil brains linked to death, including LegionIt’s Helya.

The villains have joined some of Azeroth’s greatest heroes, including the golden boy of the set, King Anduin. Sylvanas and Anduin finally have a chat, and Sylvanas explains that death in World of Warcraft is rude and unfair.

We find out on Quest that when someone dies, they go to the Referee, who is essentially Hogwarts Sorting Hat in the form of a Grand Lady Angel. She organizes souls to their final destination without their contribution. So you can die, then suddenly wake up and find yourself in a rehab program from vampire torture, or a giant pit of Eternal War. It’s a second life, perhaps eternal, and most of the characters we meet seem to be pretty much in agreement with the referee and his judgment. Sylvanas, on the other hand, thinks this is ridiculous.

She has a point here! The spouses are separated, as are the parents and children. The Kyrian, one of Shadowlands“Four biggest factions, need new souls to erase their memories of life.

Anduin gets one of the best moments in the expansion so far, as he points out that it’s not exactly a good time for Sylvanas. On the one hand, her outfit is absolutely covered with skulls. Second, she keeps Anduin in a terrifying, austere prison carved with death-related runes. Sylvanas shrugs her shoulders and says “the ends justify the means!” Which, Sylvanas, I have a hard time associating myself with this argument considering that your means are mind control, genocide and letting people down.

Additionally, we still don’t know exactly what its purposes are. Sylvanas wants to set up a new death system, presumably one with more agency that will allow her to fuck her goth boyfriend for all eternity. But we don’t know what that means or how it will do it.

So far, I’m okay with finding out what other story stuff Shadowlands has up his sleeve. There’s a lot of potential in the expansion so far, and the Jailer looks like a good villain to add to the game’s rogue gallery. It’s still early days, so there’s plenty of time for the plan to go on. Sylvanas goes horribly wrong thanks to player interference.