I'm excited to hear about how the Lich King (Arthas) was fused to the Jailor.I have a sneaking suspicion that Nerzhul was either long dead, or being used as a cover-up for the jailor to speak directly to Arthas.The thought that all these years we thought that Nerzhul was talking to Arthas, but it could actually be the jailor is exhilarating. I cannot wait to hear about how that story developes.Also, I think there is no way we're going to fight the Jailor unless we are super buffed by the other leaders of the Shadowlands during the boss fight.A super powerful being, more powerful than a titan (of which players only barely defeated a baby titan)Powered by eons and eons of the anima of evil souls (of which most are very powerful and carry a lot of anima) There is no way he isn't the most powerful being to exist in any Warcraft universe or dimension of Warcraft.
What excites me is the return of Arthas, possibly giving him a redemption story arc. And this cinematic raised questions, for example : If victims of Frostmourne have part of their soul absorbed by the sword, as it did with Uther, does that mean that other victims of Frostmourne also have thier souls split, such as Sylvanis. We saw the same thing with King Terenas at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. Does that mean that Sylvanis also has a portion of her soul in the Shadowlands as well as the physical verision of her walking Azeroth? Also does that mean the Banshee Queen has an incomplete soul, as Uther's was when he died. And when Frostmourne shattered and souls were released were they sent to the Shadowlands or are they stuck on the material plane here on Azeroth? So many questions arise from this cinematic, it makes me super excited to see the rest and even more excited for the storylines in Shadowlands.I also want to hear the story of how the Nathreziem (dreadlords) came to find the Shadowlands, steal knowledge from the Maw, the proceed to find and steal the Armor of Domination and Frostmourne. I am also interested in seeing how Arthas connects with the Jailer, and who the Jailer really is, since he has been stated to have more power than the Titans. And who the First Ones were that he has been referencing in the opening zone in Shadowlands.Is the Jailer on the same level as Elune, and how will having the Avatar of Elune's Wrath in the Shadowlands affect it. What part does Tyrande play in this all. Will having an avatar wreak the same havoc as Arthas did on Azeroth all those years ago? There are alot of questions I hope to see answers to in the near future and man does it have me pumped.
I'm excited to learn about the Arbiter, how they choose which part of the Shadowlands each soul is sent to, and guessing which lore characters ended up where. I hope as patches go on, we see cameos by lore characters from history and can see if our predictions match their afterlives!
Interested in the origin of the Kyrian and Spirit Healers, as well as how many more setbacks Kael'thas will have!
The most exciting lore reveal, in my opinion, from that short is that the runes upon Frostmourne are from the Maw. It makes sense that runes with the power to bind so many souls came from the Maw, as the Maw itself is an inescapable vortex for the dead -- much like Frostmourne until it was shattered. I feel this reveal re-contextualizes the powers of the Lich King in a whole new way, and deepens the relationship between the Maw and the realm of the living, but also hints at some exciting history with the Maw and the other denizens of the Shadowlands. Honestly, the implications of Devos' words and shock that the powers of the Maw are on "a mortal world" is incredibly exciting as it deepens the multi-dimensional feel of the setting - how many mortal worlds has Devos seen? How terrifying is the Maw that its power managing to escape the Shadowlands was such a powerful reveal it completely shattered Devos' faith in the ways of the Shadowlands. The implications of the "Maw Runes" ripple across the cosmology of WoW in such an exciting way despite being such a small touch, and I felt really excited that Blizzard slipped that seemingly innocuous line into the short!
Finally I can see my favorite Warcraft 3 characters!
I'm excited at the prospect of Arthas having been denied his chance at fair judgment and getting that chance at some point and... still ending up in the maw.
I am very interested to see how Arthas' story will be dealt with, with his soul within The Maw, and Blades of the Fallen Prince. As well as how Uthers will progress now that he threw his closest apprentice, and son figure, into The Maw. Wonder how the Kyrian are going to deal with Devos, when she went against their wishes.
One thing that excited me was seeing how they managed to explain Uther's soul seemingly being in two places at once - in Azeroth, trapped in Frostmourne and later freed, and in Bastion. I'd definitely be interested in seeing how they explain it - was Uther's soul split partly by the Jailor's death magic that makes up Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination (which in turn would make the Lich King even more insanely powerful than we thought)? Or was it split thanks to the Light interceding on his behalf, managing to spare at least a part of him from the horrors of Frostmourne. It's also pretty interesting that Bastion Uther seemingly still has some sort of tether to his tortured soul that was in Frostmourne, which makes me wonder if that reverse is true too. Either way, great animation that opens up lots of interesting ways in which souls & spirits work in Warcraft.
They managed to make Arthas cooler just by 'killing' him for the third time.
the chance to see Arthas return in-game in any way.
I'm really curious to see if they really "redeem" arthas or not. I think he has the potential for it. I think it'd be really cool if they actually gave us the personal option to save him from the maw or not and have it affect our quest progression for our character, but that may be asking for a lot lol
one thing that excites me about afterlives is how we will learn where certain characters end up and how the covenants function as societies.
The most exciting thing about Shadowlands is seeing some old characters show up and just seeing what blizzard will do.
One of the things that has me the most excited for Shadowlands is to learn more about how the Council of Death plays a part on a cosmic scale. Its very intriguing that the Arbiter is seemingly dormant during all of this, so I really want to learn what happened. As a Night Elf fan, its extremely interesting to find out more about the Night Warrior and how it relates to Elune, so I can't wait for Ardenweald!. Not to mention that we'll finally, and hopefully, see what happens to Arthas in the Maw. As Wrath of the Lich King was my favorite expansion ever, its great to see his story return and makes me wonder if he was truly deserving of the Maw or if he was meant to go to another of the planes, which was mentioned that there were more besides the ones we get to play in!
I really liked Afterlives: Bastian, to be honest I'm really looking forward to seeing Ardenweald's Afterlives, because it's the area that I just loved everything about, about Afterlives: Bastian, I was really surprised because I didn't expect uther I would go after the arthas soul and throw it in the maw, just as I was also surprised to see that most kyrians did not believe the words of Devos.
What was most exciting for me to find out was that the Archon, and most of the denizens of Bastion in general, are very rigid about this "Path" they have to follow. So much so that despite being told that there was an agent on Azeroth carrying around a sword with the runes of the Maw on it, wreaking havoc and leading an army of undead, the Archon ignores it completely. It makes me wonder whether they're actually just following this "Path" blindly, with severe repercussions for even questioning it. Sounds like a prison, and one we might be wrongfully be hindering Sylvanas from unraveling. *takes off tinfoil hat*
Of course I'm most excited about seeing where all the dead people ended up. Like, why is Durotan not with Draka? Did he end up in Bastion? Are we... are we going to see Bluerotan?
Arthas has one of the greatest stories in WoW lore - literally anything to expand on that and offer him possible redemption is going to be amazing. It was heartbreaking to watch Uther throw him into the Maw, but the thing I was most happy to see was the thread to follow when he said "I see only darkness before me", and now seeing what he saw. That was powerful for me.
The thing I'm most looking forward to Lore wise is discovering why certain characters are where they are; why certain characters were sorted into various realms. Like the conversation about Mograine being in Maldraxxus versus Bastion really helped enlighten me about what both Covenants were about. I'm really excited to see other lore characters be revealed; I hope Blizzard pulls from their plethora of characters that can make appearances to appease fans.Like Renault Mograine in Revendreth, or Kingslayer Orkus in Maldraxxus, or Korialstrasz in Bastion or Ardenweald.