The covenant campaign this week is especially for long-time Warcraft fans. Pure nostalgia and plenty of flashbacks.
In World of Warcraft, a new questline of the campaign is unlocked every week. Although many players are not pleased with the gradual unlocking, I have found enjoyment in this kind of time-gating. But there is something else that is extremely good this week – the questline around one of the most well-known WoW characters is finally reaching a (temporary) conclusion.
Spoiler warning: This article is about the current campaign of WoW: Shadowlands. If you do not want to know how it ends, you should not read further.
This week it is about the restoration of the Kyrian seal. However, even if that is the goal of the quest, there is another character who is in focus: Uther the Lightbringer. He is known as a Kyrian in Shadowlands and one of the founders of the “Forsaken” – Kyrians who still have their memories and are therefore plagued by doubt and worry.
The mission begins with a visit to Torghast. There, the missing piece of Uther’s soul is to be retrieved, which is needed to heal the wound. Even here, there are first, cool details in the quest. Because there is not just a piece of Uther’s soul to find, but Blizzard has also included references to other characters who were once slain by Arthas and Frostmourne.
Although the soul fragments do not have a distinct name, long-time WoW fans immediately know who is behind the designations:
- The Betrayed Father (Terenas Menethil II)
- The Champion of Peace (Gavingrad)
- The Golden King (Anasterian Sunstrider)
- The Archmage Mentor (Antonidas)
- The Grand Magister (Belo’vir Salonar)
- The Blood Queen (Blood Queen Lana’thel)
- The Holy Life Giver (Halahk)
- The Guardian of Naxxramas (Sapphiron)
These may be small details on the side of the quest, but for lore fans like me, they add a lot of atmosphere. The fact that Blizzard still thinks about all these characters, even if it’s just through small soul crystals on the side, makes me satisfied.
Although the questline continues the story of Uther, there are numerous flashbacks and memories from Uther’s past to consider. You can see Uther being sworn in as the first paladin of the Silver Hand and dedicating himself to the virtues of Light.
Later, more scenes are added: The purification of Stratholme, private lessons with Arthas, and the decisive battle in Lordaeron that ultimately costs Uther his life and robs him of a piece of his soul.
At least in the English version, Uther’s voice fully conveys the experience. The regret he shows for having thrown Arthas into the maw, the realization that he acted against one of the virtues of Light – all of this is wonderfully communicated through the voice acting and sound ambiance.
For me, this questline is one of the best that Shadowlands has to offer, and I say this completely unironically without a “It’s not difficult in Shadowlands either”. It was fun and as a lore nerd, in the end, I was primarily one thing: satisfied.
Even in the World of Warcraft subreddit, the questline is praised. There, “Bad Writing” of Shadowlands is often criticized, but the current Uther questline is well received by many players. For example, flyingepeto writes:
This felt like the natural continuation of a story that has been well developed since the launch of the expansion, quite the opposite of this poor version of Infinity War for the poor.
I also liked the interactions from last week, between the Night Fae and the Venthyr, the way they think differently about things and that showed in their dialogues. Whoever writes these side stories mainly does a good job. Everything that isn’t part of the main quest line is pretty good and feels like real effort was put into it.
Personally, I also like the main questline, but it’s nice that other players also find enjoyment in the current missions.
If you like Uther and want a little nostalgia flashback, you should definitely play the covenant campaign this week. It’s worth it – especially because of the brilliant voice acting of Uther.
