We now know how the story of Sylvanas ends in World of Warcraft. Her fate has already been revealed through datamining.
While players are currently unlocking the double Legendary in WoW, data miners have already found exciting content for next week. A long-awaited verdict will finally be rendered, and there will be a confrontation with Sylvanas that players have been waiting for for several years.
Spoiler warning: If you don’t want to know how things will continue with Sylvanas next week, you should not read on. You’ve been warned.
Anyone who has played the covenant campaign already this week knows that Pelagos has ascended to the new Soul Judge and will henceforth guide the souls to the Shadowlands and transfer them to their respective realms. But one soul has yet to be judged by anyone: That of Sylvanas Windrunner.
Sylvanas has committed many war crimes and was largely responsible for the genocide of the Night Elves. Worse still, she contributed to the fact that the souls of all the deceased have been banished to the Maw in recent years. There, they are tortured for all time or have been remade into new creatures as part of the war machine by the Jailer Zovaal, serving his army.
In the final bonus chapter of the covenant campaign, Sylvanas confronts her fate and appears before the new Soul Judge. He concludes that a verdict cannot be rendered without compassion.
Here are a few (translated) voice lines from the dialogue. Note that the order of the sentences may not necessarily occur as such in the game, so this is a presumed sequence of some conversation parts:
Pelagos: Sylvanas Windrunner. There can be no true justice without compassion, and I see that your actions bear the mark of the Jailer’s influence. An influence from which we have failed to prevent.
Sylvanas: My actions were my own, and I accept the consequences, and I do not expect mercy.
Pelagos: Then you know in the depths of your heart, before whom you must answer, by imposing the decision of justice upon your most fervent adversary.
Tyrande: The Sylvanas that I hunted would never surrender to the blade of an enemy. Your newfound remorse might be genuine. There will be no peace for you, Windrunner.
Tyrande: Down there lies the Maw. Every soul lost in its depths, be it betrayed or condemned, you will find and lead before the Soul Judge. Under the watchful eye of Dori’thur, you will toil down there. Thus, you will bring renewal to your victims.
Sylvanas thus stands before Tyrande and is ready to be killed by the Night Elf for her transgressions. But Tyrande has a better use for Sylvanas. That the former Banshee Queen simply surrenders and accepts her final death is at least a sign to Tyrande that something in Sylvanas might have truly changed.
Tyrande has a new task for Sylvanas: Under the watchful eyes of Tyrande’s owl, Sylvanas is to search the Maw and lead all souls unjustly thrown into the Maw to the Soul Judge. This primarily includes the countless Night Elves who perished in the burning of Teldrassil. Only when Sylvanas has rescued the last soul from there will her task be complete – and she alone in the Maw.
Sylvanas’ task for the foreseeable future is clear: To scour the Maw and liberate all souls from it that have been hurled into damnation by their deeds. A task that will likely take a very long time. Although one should not forget that the concept of time works differently in the Shadowlands, we will likely hear little to nothing more from the Banshee Queen in the next expansion – because she will be in the Maw.
When is it playable? Already next Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Then the epilogue of the current campaign will be unlocked, and you can witness Sylvanas’ judgment yourself. Whether a new cinematic will also be shown remains to be seen – at least datamining from the past suggests so, as both Tyrande and Sylvanas have received updated models for it.
What do you think of Sylvanas’ punishment? Can she make amends for her mistakes? Or has the Banshee Queen done nothing wrong?
