World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis the upcoming expansion for the long-running fantasy MMORPG, and Blizzard is releasing a series of animated tie-ins to the game, calledShadowlands Afterlives,in the run up to the expansion’s launch.
The first installment,Shadowlands Afterlives: Bastion, aired today at Gamescom 2020, leading many fans to ask who the characters involved were and how they will tie intoWorld of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
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Uther the Lightbringer
Uther the Lightbringeris one of the most important characters in theWarcraftseries. Despite this, he has made a very limited appearance inWorld of Warcraft, being killed by Arthas inWarcraft 3on the Death Knights’ journey to become the Lich King. Uther the Lightbringer had originally been an extremely accomplished and zealous Paladin and served as the mentor to prince Arthas Menethil all the way up to the Culling of Stratholme featured inWarcraft 3andWrath of the Lich King’s Caverns of Time instance.
After the Culling, Arthas eventually slew his former master. It was established at this time that people killed by theLich King’s iconic runeblade Frostmournehad their souls trapped in the unholy weapon. This included Arthas’ own father, the former king of Lordaeron, as well as Uther, both of whom appear inWrath of the Lich Kingas ghosts during the final raid.
Shadowlands Afterlives, however, establishes that at the moment of death, worthy souls in Azeroth ascend to Bastion in the Shadowlands. However, because Uther was at once deemed worthy and was slain by Frostmourne, part of his soul was trapped in the blade while the other part went to the Shadowlands but was unable to fully ascend, as shown in theBastionanimated short.
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Implications for the Warcraft Lore
This is a huge amount of information for fans of theWarcraftlore, not only revealing that the cosmology ofWorld of Warcraftas understood was completely different to previous assumptions, but also providing a completely new perspective on old events in theWarcraftlore. At the end of the animated short, Uther reclaims Arthas’ soul at the point of his death, and the “darkness” Arthas claims he saw inWrath of the Lich Kingis revealed to be the reaching hand of one of the beings come to claim and punish him.
This first animated short makes it likely that theShadowlands Afterlivesshorts will explain some of the charactersWoWplayers can expect to meet in the Shadowlands by tying them back into key moments inWarcraftlore from the other side of the life-death binary. By creating an entirely new plane of reality,Blizzardrisks it next expansion feeling like yet another addition to an already crowded universe.
By establishing that the Shadowlands have always existed and by giving them meaning by tying the Shadowlands into key lore events, Blizzard likely hopes to introduce a huge new place for players to explore without retconning too much in the game’s backstory. It is likely thatShadowlands Afterliveswill continue to avoid retconning by simply explaining another perspective of the some of the same storymoments inWorld of Warcraft’s historywith characters players already knew shown in a new light on their journeys after death.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC, with theShadowlandsexpansion launching on August 01, 2025.
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