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Lore Spotlight: Deep Dive into Sylvanas and the Jailer hints in Folks & Fairytales Book (Story Spoilers)
Live
Publié
28/05/2021 à 04:36
par
DiscordianKitty
We've already reported on the reddit discussion about
Sister is Another Word for Always
, the
Vereesa Windrunner Short Story
that appears in Blizzard's latest book, Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth. With the book now widely available, we're able to dig into this story a little more.
Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth is a collection of short stories set in Azeroth. What makes these stories unique is they are not just stories we are being told about the world - they're the stories that the people of the world tell each other. It's important to note that, while some of these stories are rooted in canon, they are still fables that should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Brief Summary
The story begins with the narrator feeling her sister's death. While neither of their names are actually mentioned in this story, it becomes clear that the speaker is Vereesa Windrunner, and that this story is set shortly after Sylvanas Windrunner died at the hands of Arthas. By this time, Vereesa had married the human mage Rhonin, and was one of the few survivors of the Scourge destruction of Lordaeron.
She would have been on the front lines of the Alliance conflict with the Scourge at the time of Sylvanas's death, but seems to leave her war camp to follow a "song" that leads her on a long and difficult journey to some sort of graveyard with a prominent statue of two elves - one named "regret", and the other "acceptance".
It's interesting to note this isn't the only story that speaks of the living following a mysterious sound after a loved one dies. The story "Lay Down My Bones", about a Vulpera death ritual that goes wrong, speaks of a "Wailing Bone" that begins to cry out when a Vulpera caravan approaches the destined resting place of their own recently deceased.
At this place, Vereesa meets the Spirit Healer Elomia, who agrees to allow her to enter the Shadowlands to find her sister, promising to restore Sylvanas's soul to the living world only if Vereesa can convince her to leave the afterlife through her own free will.
At first, Vereesa finds herself in a beautiful forest, presumably Ardenweald, but she is unable to find Sylvanas's soul. As she calls for Sylvanas, she finds herself falling into a terrible, torturous place - the Maw. Here she meets "The Banished One", very clearly the Jailer, who tells her that she won't find her sister here... but then smugly adds "Not Yet".
However, she sees a flash of silver leaping from his palm, which swims away through the river of souls like a fish. Vereesa is convinced this flash of silver is Sylvanas, and chases after the "fish-fragment", finally catching it to see it transform into Sylvanas as Vereesa knew her. However, the Jailer arrives again and banishes Vereesa from his realm, but first strikes Sylvanas with his mace, seeming to cause her great pain. Though Vereesa begs, Sylvanas is unable to return with her, as it's "against the rules of this place".
Vereesa comes to and finds herself wondering why she is where she is. It seems like the memory of what's happened has already faded from her mind, and she sets out to return to the war.
What This Means for Sylvanas and The Jailer
Sylvanas was supposed to go to Ardenweald
The first thing we can gather from this story is Sylvanas was probably originally destined for Ardenweald. We already suspected Sylvanas's intended afterlife wasn't always the Maw, as the short story
Edge of Night
showed her remember catching a glimpse of a peaceful afterlife before Arthas ripped her soul back into her body.
Sylvanas Windrunner drifts in a sea of comfort, physical sensations replaced by the purity of emotion. She can grasp bliss, see joy, hear peace. This is the afterlife, her destiny. The eternal sea in which she found herself after she fell defending Silvermoon. She belongs here. With each recollection, her memory of this place palls. The sound grows distant; the warmth, cooler. The vision takes on the pallor of a half-remembered dream. But with horrific clarity, the memory always ends the same: Sylvanas's spirit is wrenched away. The pain is so intense it leaves her soul forever torn. The grinning face of Arthas Menethil, with his lopsided smile and dead eyes, leers at her as he pulls her back into the world. Violates her. His laughter—that hollow laugh—the memory of it makes her skin crawl!
- Edge of Night
When Vereesa searched for Sylvanas in the forests of, we assume, Ardenweald, she was unable to find her. This would be because Arthas had already pulled most of Sylvanas's soul back into her body, turning her into a Banshee. However, he didn't get everything.
The Jailer has had a hold on Sylvanas since her very first death
Sylvanas supposedly made her alliance with the Jailer after her second death, but this story suggests he's possessed at least a fragment of her soul since her first death.
We already know that Frostmourne can create permanent damage to souls, and even rip shards off of souls. It's why Uther's soul is still damaged even when he's in Bastion. We now know that this exact thing happened to Sylvanas - and because the piece of soul was stolen through Frostmourne, the Jailer was able to take it straight into the Maw without worrying about any rules governing the destination of souls in the Shadowlands.
One thing that's interesting is we can clearly see just how abusive and one-sided the relationship between the Jailer and Sylvanas is here. We already touched on hints of abuse and manipulation in previous cinematics in
No More Lies and a Choice - What's Going On With Sylvanas?
In this story, however, it's a lot more blatant. Also, for the first time, we see Sylvanas show fear towards the Jailer.
But the man with the empty heart did not swing for me. He swung for her. The spiked head of that mace drove down through the thick, volcanic air, She stared for a moment. She clutched her chest, mouth open wide with no scream to fill it. Then she stumbled.
Her eyes slid toward the Banished One, and fear crept into their calm silver shine.
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
It's also clearly evident that having this sliver of Sylvanas wasn't quite the same as having full control over her - but that the Jailer fully planned to have both.
"You will not find her here," its voice thundered finally.
"I know," I murmured. "She could never be here."
"Not yet." Something like confidence and mockery simmered in the voice's tone.
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
This information gives us a whole new perspective on the meeting she had with the Jailer sometime during the events of the
Edge of Night
short story. Sylvanas believes she's been allied with the Jailer since then, and still seems unaware that he had been manipulating events for years. How often has Sylvanas made a "choice" that was never really her own?
Annhylde remained patient, her voice soothing and measured. "To show you the consequences of your passing, and to offer you a choice…"
"I've made my choice," Sylvanas interrupted.
- Edge of Night
Sylvanas's missing shard of soul - Courage? Love?
Throughout the story, Vereesa refers to Sylvanas as "Courage", calling herself "Sorrow". The Jailer tells her "Courage cannot be found here", but when Vereesa finds the sliver of Sylvanas's soul, it's referred to as "Courage". This part of Sylvanas's soul that Vereesa finds also still seems to love her very much - in a way that we haven't seen Sylvanas herself feel love for ages.
Courage gasped for air. But she found only blood and love. She did not struggle, but held me tighter, stroking my face with her hand, trying to memorize me, wanting the love more than life.
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
We have seen that Sylvanas's courage is directly tied to her love. It was love for her people that made her fight so fiercely to protect them, not only sacrificing her life, but fighting so long and hard and courageously before death that it angered Arthas enough to punish her as severely as he did.
“Finish it,” she whispered. “I deserve . . . a clean death.”
His voice floated to her from somewhere as her eyes closed. “After all you’ve put me through, woman, the last thing I’ll give you is the peace of death.”
- Arthas, Rise of the Lich King
We have also seen that Sylvanas's attitude to the people she fought for changed after this first death. Though she was the great champion of the Forsaken - enough that they loved and followed her with an almost blind reverence until very recently - she also wrapped them around her like armor. The sense has always been that she protected them and made them strong because they were her protection and strength. When Sylvanas chose to throw herself off Icecrown after Arthas's death, the story shows the Val'kyr arguing that the Forsaken still need her, but that she doesn't care.
"Your people will perish!" said the dark-haired Val'kyr. She had clearly been the youngest of the battlemaidens in life and was now the most impatient in her undeath.
Sylvanas thought about her people. They had been honed into the perfect weapon. Her weapon. And they had struck the killing blow for which she had built them. She cared nothing for their fate.
"Let them perish!" Sylvanas cried. "I am finished with them!"
- Edge of Night
Though traces of love very clearly remain - usually seen with affection towards her sisters - it's often shown to be selfish and self-serving. Certainly not the courageous love of the Ranger-General who died for her people. If the Jailer has been holding onto and torturing that aspect of her soul, the change in Sylvanas makes sense.
The Jailer seems to feel like he was the one who was betrayed by the Eternal Ones
According to The Eternal Ones, they were forced to imprison their own brother in the Maw when he betrayed them.
We recently learned more about their side of the story in a datamined 9.1 cutscene.
According to the Jailer, however, he's the one who was betrayed. It's possible that it's this sense of betrayal that makes him feel justified in "fighting back". It's also possible he's just a really manipulative liar - as his plans could certainly benefit from Vereesa forgetting and abandoning her sister.
"Family is only a title for those who can hurt you more piercingly than the rest," he said, and his voice was soft suddenly, as soft as the dust left at the end of destruction. "My blood kin betrayed me to this fate. I would not take a single step for the sake of their souls. Nor should you. There is no balm to be found in the blood that binds, only the blood that is spilled. You must go. Courage cannot be found here."
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
The gaping hole where the Jailer's heart is a key element of his design. Interestingly, he claims everyone has something like it.
"I have a hole in my heart like that," I said gently.
His glowing eyes burned expressionlessly into mine. Hot orange sparks from the million fires of the wasteland tumbled through the air, disappearing into the chasm of his chest.
Everyone does, he said slowly. "It is only that mine is easy to see."
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
How much can we trust this story?
One thing that sets this story apart from the others in this book, is the sense that it's never really been told. Most of the stories are presented as tales that are told to children, or around campfires - literally the folk and fairy tales of Azeroth. Uther Lightbringer's story,
The Paladin's Beast
, is presented as told by "old nans and old grans" to "fussy princelings and princesses who refused to sleep". This story, however, is told from Vereesa Windrunner's own perspective, and yet ends with her forgetting the story itself before she can share it with anyone.
Why had I come so far? For what? What could be more important that I would abandon the war of my people?
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
This gives us the impression that the story is reliable canon. Since no one on Azeroth has likely heard this story, the only audience that could possibly exist for it is us - the players of
World of Warcraft
. Which makes us feel like the ones who are meant to learn something here.
That said, we're fairly certain the story was a vision rather than something that actually happened. For a start, the journey Vereesa went on is long enough to change her physically - if it had really happened, we feel someone would have noticed.
I grew lean in those places. I lost the hardness and thickness of a soldier. My skin sank in against my bones.
- Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth
We also attempted to find an in-game location that matched the description of the graveyard she visits, even tracing her journey to the best of our ability. If this location is within the game itself, we haven't been able to find it.
It's described as a very long journey, leaving "fighting plains" (presumably in the Eastern Kingdoms, as this is where the Alliance forces were facing the Scourge) for "dense and deep" forests that became "deserts" which bordered a "vast river" surrounded by "thick-leafed oaks". Later the trees would change to "thin, miserly, needled pines" where "frost prickled the earth", then "snow, heavy and without forgiveness" - suggesting a mountainous area. Finally, she reaches "gates of black glass", behind which she finds "glassy volcanic crags" and "scattered tombstones and deep mausoleums". The pair of "Acceptance" and "Regret" statues are found in the center of the "abandoned place", and "snow piled up between their granite figures".
We believe this story is a dream Vereesa had, but one that still gave her a real vision of the afterlife. The descriptions of the Maw and the Jailer are too accurate to be a complete fantasy, and the information about soul shards also ties into a
9.1 questline involving Uther.
It will be interesting to see if Vereesa, who hasn't yet played a major role in
Shadowlands
, eventually visits Ardenweald or the Maw, or even encounters the Jailer, and remembers anything as a result. It will also be interesting to see if Sylvanas ever discovers just how much the Jailer has been manipulating her. And how she will react if she does.
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