Sylvanas Windrunner has been inextricable from World of Warcraft lore recently. The on-again off-again anti-hero/villain went full villain in Battle for Azeroth, only for her to swap sides once more in Eternity’s End, aiding players against the Jailer.
RELATED: World of Warcraft: Zone Map Update Potentially Hints At Next Expansion’s Villain
The final chapter of Eternity’s End, called “Judgment,” aims to wrap up some loose ends in Shadowlands–most notably, what to do with Sylvanas. The datamined voice lines are shared between Sylvanas, Tyrande, and Pelagos, who became the new Arbiter during this week’s Eternity’s End chapter. Pelagos grants Tyrande the right to determine Sylvanas’s sentence, to which she declares death would be too good for Sylvanas. Tyrande demands the former Banshee Queen returns to the Maw and brings every soul to Pelagos so he can sort them to their proper afterlives.
Sylvanas’ fate is no surprise to those who pay attention to datamining from World of Warcraft’s Public Test Realm. WoW fans previously discovered an animation of Sylvanas leaping off a precipice, presumably from Oribos into the Maw, along with Dori’thur, Tyrande’s owl companion who will act as the former Banshee Queen’s warden. Between it and voice lines where Sylvanas submitted herself to Tyrande’s judgment, this new information confirms theories already held by fans.
Generally speaking, players are content with this ending. Fans of the Dark Lady are happy to see she was not executed. Most agree her penance is fitting, given many of the souls in the Maw are there because of her actions. Those who dislike Sylvanas are mostly happy to be rid of her, at least for the time being.
That said, there are still plenty who are dissatisfied with the ending. Many would have preferred her to have been killed off instead of placed in a “glass case” for later, while others hoped WoW would use the magic of Zereth Mortis to rewrite history and undo her worst actions–many of which were written by Alex Afrasiabi and others allegedly responsible for the toxic culture which got Blizzard in trouble last year.
Regardless of one’s opinion on Sylvanas and her ultimate fate, the final epilogue chapter arrives next week, and with it, the end of Shadowlands. World of Warcraft reveals its next expansion on April 19th, which will hopefully allow it to start with a fresh slate after learning from its mistakes from Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC
MORE: How World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Could End
Source: Wowhead
