Monday 21 December 2020

The Limbo quest: how the kyrians judge different souls - from dryads to flamewakers

During the world quest called "Limbo", an adventurer that has chosen the Kyrian Covenant can participate in a certain training, where they have to decide whether or not a soul should be taken to Oribos, or be allowed to resurrect instead. 

The souls judged by the hero aren’t actual souls of the dead, but the memories of those souls that had perished. As you might have noticed, the kyrians preserve memories as "holograms" stored in magic mirrors.

The quest is available only for the characters that belong to the Kyrian Covenant, and it unlockes after upgrading the anima conductor to level 2 (if I remember correctly, you have to move it to the eastern pathway). 

The training is performed by Watcher Jacintha and is overseen by Thenios, the Paragon of Wisdom. Jacintha summons a "hologram", and after hearing their story, the hero must ring one of the two bells: the first will "return the soul to life", the second will "send it to the Shadowlands".

"A Watcher must determine whether a soul is ready to be brought to the Shadowlands. Hone your skills with this trial." Thenios starts the quest

"A level head ensures our Bearers bring only ready souls to Oribos. Well done." — Thenios after the end of the quest 

Indeed, this is all work of the “Watchers”, better known to us as simply as “spirit healers”, the kyrians, whose job is to decide if the soul is ready for the afterlife, and if so, to summon a “Bearer”, who will ferry the soul to Oribos for the Arbiter’s judgement.

The list of the souls is being updated (for now, I combined both of Jacintha's comments about each soul into singular paragraphs):


• Prancing Protector (dryad):

"The grove is in danger! The little ones won't make it to safety without me!"

Watcher Jacintha: "Though some souls tied closely to nature do return after resting in Ardenweald, others spend their eternity within its boughs. As a nature spirit, she was sent to Ardenweald to further aid those in need. Such was her destiny."

Personal note: The Wild Gods's souls rest in the soulseeds of Ardenweald in order to return to the mortal plane. A dryad's soul is tied to the nature, but she's simply not a Wild God, she's more of a simple "druid" compared to their mighty state.

 

• Fallen Knight (female Forsaken death knight):

"The Lich King calls to me! I must serve him once more!"

Watcher Jacintha: "Though she bears the magic of the Shadowlands, its pull originates from the world of the living. She had to return. It must be so. Though she had died once before, her master's call had to be answered before she could return to us."

Personal note: So, the Lich King's resurrections of his champions are rigs in the system, because he uses "the Shadowlands magic" for them (the Lich King is a pseudo-Jailer, after all), or is it more of "we just don't interfer, stop poking"?

 

• Dessicated Lich:

"I have been at this crossroads countless times. I wish to be bound no longer! Grant me the peace of death!"

Watcher Jacintha: "So long as the lich's phylactery remains intact, we must send him back. That is right. No matter the soul's pleas, we must not change their fate."

Personal note: This case shows that we can turn down the overthinking a bit because the Kyrians approach can be summed up as, "We simpy don't interfere in all these questionable cases, like, 99% of the time. We''ll find a way to justify it!"

 

• Briny Brawler (female kul tiran sailor): 

"I was dueling my hothead of a brother and I... I couldn't bear to lose the louse! I drew me sword slow and paid the price."

Watcher Jacintha: "No matter how tragic, it was her time to go to Oribos and her eternity."

Personal note: This one was pretty random. @_@

 

• Battered Farmer (male human; the second quote from Jacintha is translated from Russian):

"Bandits ambushed my wagon and took my life. My family is doomed without me! They won't survive a month."

Watcher Jacintha: "You are correct. In life, this soul held his family back. He was overbearing, overprotective, and without him they have flourished and learned to fend for themselves. His death was timely."

"His soul hadn't done anything to be considered worthy of returning to life. Without him, his family had learned to fend for themselves and had only become stronger."

Personal note: And this one is a bit of a head-scratcher. Jacintha talks a lot about the morality of fate, and how it's not the Kyrian's place to judge it. So, this case doesn't count? Well, I guess, it is a bit different, but still... @_@

 

Valiant Sentry (male lordaeronian footman):

"I hear the dreaded call of the val'kyr. Please! Let me rest in peace! I beg of you!"

Watcher Jacintha: "Though the val'kyr not our true kin, their call back to the mortal plane must be honored. Well done. This soul came to us in time. Even the undead cannot escape death forever." 

Personal note: Sounds like another rig in the system, I guess. In of the next paragraphs, we'll learn of the Kyrian's view on the mortal necromancers. Well, when a necromancer raises the dead as zombies it's red alarm, but when a val'kyr does it via her "call" it should be honored "even if they are not their true kin". So a mimicked call by a pseudo-kyrian gets a pass somehow. 

 

• Unyielding Sentinel (female night elf):

"The tree is burning! I... can't breathe..."

Watcher Jacintha: "This was a troubling death, but it is not our duty to decide the morality of fate. It was her time. Unfortunately, the only eternity waiting for her was the Maw. Such matters are not our duty to decide, but the Arbiter's."

Personal note: Her soul was claimed by the Maw, since the machine of death had already been “broken” by that point of time (sometime during the Legion expansion). Yet, "it is not the kyrians duty to decide such matters, but the Arbiter’s". It's also a big part of the Kyrian Covenant campaign, but the morale remains the same: just do your job.


• Scarred Grunt (male orc; translated from Russian):

"A fierce battle rages in my city. I must return to protect the children before the beasts reach them!"

Watcher Jacintha: "Unfortunately, no. Indeed, those others had indeed perished without his aid. But he had fulfilled his destiny in the mortal plane. That is right, he had earned his warrior's death. He died with honor, and great glory had awaited him in Maldraxxus."

Personal note: Pretty brutal. I wonder, what are those "beasts" he was talking about?

 

• Mantid Warrior:

"I am a commander of a battalion. A necromancer has wreaked havoc in my home, raising my soldiers to fight each other. I must have my revenge, but I fell in battle due to my foolishness."

Watcher Jacintha: "This warrior was allowed to return to life, and he ended up defeating and killing the necromancer. If we had taken the warrior to Oribos, the necromancer would have continued disrupting the balance of life and death in that world. Some soldiers may die to their foolishness, but not this one. We allowed him to return and he killed the necromancer, who was upsetting the balance of life and death."

Personal note: It seems that the "morality of fate" includes "culling the necromancers from the universe". Not that such attitude doesn't make sense. But as we already know... if you are an aspiring undead overlord, simply try to invest in the winged viking-ghost women instead of the ordinary bearded death wizards. That's it: you are safe! One simple trick to fool the pesky Kyrian Covenant! Get your val'kyr now: 25% Christmas discount! *)

 

• Molten Champion (flamewaker, a breed of fire elementals):

"Invaders threaten the Firelands! I must return to my kin at once!"

Watcher Jacintha: "As this being is of Firelands magic, it cannot be sent to Oribos for judgment. Good! Creatures of another plane must return there upon death. The Shadowlands are not their destiny."

Personal note: That's pretty easy: he is not a mortal, he's from the Firelands. But it makes you wonder, did he die in Azeroth or in the Firelands? With the planes popping up for every major cosmic power, and that bizarre storyline about an attempt to resurrect Ragnaros during the Dark Iron's introduction questline... will we also get universe-scale versions of the Elemental Planes? @_@

 

• Ancient Naaru:

<The creature emits a cacophony of sounds.>

Watcher Jacintha: "This is incorrect. We must not ferry souls who bear ties to other forces. Correct. Souls with sufficiently strong ties to other cosmic forces must be allowed to return."

Personal note: Similar case: naaru, as magical beings, simply reform in their owm realm, in their case, it's the Light realm. To kill them for good, you would have to do destroy them within that Ocean of Light. Another note: it's just curious that this "Veil" isn't just the veil between the realms of the living and the dead... but, seemingly, between all realms. So, Kyrians can just travel there and meet all these strange cosmic beings... and if this quest is any indication, a Forsworn might as well steal a naaru. Maybe.

 

• Brave Companion (corgi dog; translated from Russian):

<Barks.>

Watcher Jacintha: "It might be painful, but we cannot keep this creature away from their eternity. Indeed, this creature had died a noble death and earned themselves a place in the Shadowlands."

Personal note: Regular animals also go to the Shadowlands, this bit is supported a few times in-game.

 

• Vile Fatedancer (Argus-type shivarra):

"Mmm! I haven't felt the sting of a blade like that in a while."

Watcher Jacintha: "Correct. Demons must return to the Twisting Nether from whence they come."

 

• Smoldering Sapper (female goblin):

"My Explodinator 5000 just, eh, explodinated the dam above my lab! All my experiments--I mean dear sweet pets--are in grave danger!" 

Watcher Jacintha: "Correct. Though her town's fate may have been altered had she returned, it was her time."


• Distraught Child (male draenei):

"I’m just a kid! I got sick and it just got worse and worse. Let me go back to my mommy!" 

Watcher Jacintha: "I understand why you chose to return the child, but unfortunately we can’t allow every child to return to life. They may not have much anima built up yet, but all children being immune to death causes much bigger problems."

"You are correct. Sometimes we nudge children back to life so they can accumulate more anima, but unfortunately even children cannot be immune to death."

Personal note: If Denathrius was the leader of the Bastion, he would send his unseen agents to the realm of the living, so they would build special human farms, where people are bred as the anima cattle: and in a way that assures the most accumulation of anima! Citizens of the Shadowlands, it's not yet over, you can still vote for your Master as the next Archon!

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