Sunday, October 25, 2015

Order and Chaos: Anveena as keystone to understanding the ancient war between the Old Gods and the Titans

1. Krasus (or the red dragon Korialstrasz) molded the remaining energies of the Sunwell into a human avatar.  Surprisingly, that avatar became more than an illusion, and gained emotion and thought.
2. The Sunwell came from a vial of the Well of Eternity, stolen by the surviving Highborne who had rejected the requirement of druidism upon elves.
3. The Well of Eternity was the massive lake which legend has it, transformed the dark trolls into the kaldorei, and possibly created the silithid, the intelligent insectoid race that later evolved into the Nerubian, Qiraji, and Mantid empires (due to the actions of the Old Gods).
4. The Vale of Eternal Blossoms is also rumored to have either a similar or same source of water as the Well of Eternity (according to elven researchers who teleported to Pandaria after the mists dissipated).  According to patch 5.3, below the Vale are the remnants of the blood of Y'Shaarj, the slain Old God.
5. The Sha are massive avatars of the blood of Y'Shaarj (which flows underneath most of Pandaria), seemingly created by Shaohao in coordination with Yu'lon in his attempt to protect Pandaria (and more importantly, the Vale) from the eyes of Sargeras and his army.  They are avatars of pure emotion - in this case, negative emotions such as fear, despair, anger, and so on.
Postulations:
1. If the Vale's waters were "blessed" by the blood of Y'Shaarj, then it's possible the blood of Y'Shaarj was also used to "bless" the waters of the Well of Eternity.
2. If the blood of the Old Gods is potent enough to transform and evolve creatures, then they truly are chaos - death and life co-mingling in "destructive harmony".
3. The blood of Y'Shaarj, as shown in the scenario "The Dark Heart of Pandaria," has taken on a living form (primal slimes).  The blood of Y'Shaarj has also shown intelligent thought and explosive emotion through the Sha, although this is perhaps primarily because the Sha were created in order to purify Shaohao of his negative emotions so that he would be powerful enough to shield Pandaria from the fallen titan's army.  Anveena, as a being of the energies and waters of the Sunwell (a remnant of the original Well), also shows thought and emotion although as she wasn't formed as a vehicle of negative emotion, shows far more restraint in destruction.
4. If the waters of the Well and the waters of the Vale both have these "life qualities," it is feasible that the waters themselves are alive in some respect, thus intermingling with creatures and through that process (much like the act of reproduction) creating new life out of two different elements - the life in the water, and the life drinking from the water.

5. Therefore, the Old Gods are not necessarily evil, and while they use a shape that is horrific to most people, that doesn't mean the shape in itself is horrific in an absolute sense.  The Titans are prime Order, while the Old Gods are prime Chaos.  Order's intentions are to enslave and control life, while Chaos's intentions are to let life and death both free in anarchy.  In this sense, it is perfectly reasonable that Anveena and the Sha were both born from the same conceptual beginning, but because of their formation, resulted in vastly different outcomes.  This also says that much like Anveena was used by Kael'thas to summon Kil'jaeden, the Sha could be used (if controlled) by mortal hands (say, Garrosh) to create massive rifts in space-time.  Just as Kael'thas wasn't corrupted (although you could say he was swayed by his lust... at least until his end), neither is Garrosh, but both are attempting to use those same powers for personal gain.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Light's crystal hand: the god-naaru, ley lines, and finding freedom for the soul

The following is merely a theory, one among many.

1. The original Sunwell was created using one of Illidan's stolen vials of the Well of Eternity.

2. When Arthas placed the dead body of Kel'thuzad into the Sunwell, he was given life again, but because Tichondrius assisted in this event, Kel'thuzad emerged as a lich, a terrifying creature.  What is interesting about the lich, however, is that they don't actually exist as physical creatures; the soul of a lich is trapped inside a phylactery which magnifies the power of the soul and allows it the power to form a physical form to protect itself.  This is why a lich cannot be killed unless the phylactery is destroyed.  What this means is that Arthas used the Sunwell to regenerate Kel'thuzad, but Tichondrius interrupted the resurrection process and destroyed his physical body, leaving only his intact soul; however, because of his tampering with the powers of the Sunwell, the waters were corrupted by the nathrezim.

3. After Kael'thas destroyed the Sunwell (because of the corruption of Tichondrius), the high elves used the powers of a dragon (again, gifted by powers from the Titans) to capture the essence of the remaining waters and form them into a sentient being.

4. Velen used the energy of M'uru to re-ignite the Sunwell, transforming it not only into an arcane but also a divine pool that could be used by the blood elven paladins as a source of power.  Previous to this, M'uru had his power drained on the streets of Silvermoon itself as a public ceremony by the blood elves to empower their new elite warriors, the blood knights.  Quite a spectacle.

However, what is more interesting is that blood elf priests kept their powers of the Light without resorting to sapping M'uru's energies, because "they kept the faith."  In other words, the Light itself is sentient, and responds to belief.

This leads to a very interesting conclusion.  Let's follow the train of logic for a second:

Sunwell = Well of Eternity {Power A}.

{Power A} can restore life (Kel'thuzad), transform/evolve life (night elves), has the ability to magnify and empower arcane ley lines (evidenced by the Highborne's great arcane power as well as the Sunwell being located on an intersection of arcane ley lines, this giving the high elves great power), and even has sentient thoughts (evidenced by Anveena).  This lends credence to the notion that the Titans placed the original Well of Eternity on a nexus of ley lines as well, given the Highborne's amazing amount of power with the arcane.

Nathrezim can control flow of {Power A}, but end up corrupting {Power A} through contact {becoming Power B}.

{Power B} instead of healing, acts as a poison (or sponge) and saps life from the land and people.

A dragon used power granted by the Titans {Power C} to capture the remaining energies and hide them in a sentient form.  {Power C} and {Power B} both can control the flow of {Power A} but while {Power B} transforms it from life to death, {Power C} transforms it into an actual life form with flesh and blood.

The naaru seem to possess an element of power {Power D} that can interact with    {Power A} and restore it (evidenced by M'uru) in a similar way as {Power C}.

The Light {Power E} has sentience (as evidenced by the lack of faith by blood elf priests/paladins, leading them to the draining of M'uru).  Interestingly, {Power E} more or less equals {Power D}, just as draenei priests and paladins receive their power from {Power D}.

{Power D&E} both have the ability to restore life, while {Power C} has the power to sap life, and works in a very similar (if not exactly the same) as a shadow priests powers.  M'uru has these same powers in his darkened state (as Entropius), and even has the power to summon voidwalkers, previously considered to only be in the employ of warlocks or the Burning Legion.  This leads me to the following conclusion:

E'lune, as a naaru or god-naaru, is a source of Light much like other naaru are, as conductors and storage facilities of Light (or perhaps she is the Prime Personification of Light, the ultimate Anveena or Awakened Anveena).  Light is a prime power in the universe that has both the power to restore life and to take away life.  Life, however, is merely a physical state in which the soul can operate freely as being part of matter rather than being separate (such as the undead or a lich, whose physical matter is constantly rotting away or non-existent and must be constantly reformed).  The Light is a sentient being, who is also in a state of transformation from light to dark, who also rewards belief with power and sometimes refuses those power.

The Well of Eternity is a source of Light transfixed upon a huge number of connecting ley lines, just as the Sunwell was a source of Light transfixed on a huge number of connecting ley lines.  The Titans as well as the Legion both understand how to manipulate the Light, albeit in different ways.  Whereas the Titans utilize the powers of the Light to transform and evolve matter into sentient and mortal beings, the Legion uses the powers of the Light to free the soul of material bondage, grant immortality, and become paranormal, essentially by freeing the body of what holds it back, the shell of matter.  Even a shambling undead is free of worrying about whether he or she will die one day, and sees life in a totally different paradigm.


Conclusion: The Well of Eternity is Light itself.  E'lune is god-naaru, the pure sentient awareness of Light.  Shadow is a part of the Light, and as the naaru are conductors of the Light, they must also go through the transformation from Light to Dark to Light.  Both the Titans and the Burning Legions are manipulators of the Light, but they manipulate the Light from different opposites; the Titans use Light to transform matter into sentience but the Legion uses Light to release the soul from bondage.  Azeroth is special because of the confluence of ley lines (which are amplified by the Light) as well as the presence of the Old Gods exerting their chaotic powers by manipulating the elements to their bidding and transforming Titanic creations.  The Old Gods have little power, but because they made contracts with the Elemental Lords exert tremendous influence over the basic manipulation of matter; however, the Old Gods do have the power of bonding with matter, as evidenced by their bonding with Azeroth, Azeroth's denizens, and Azeroth's elements; thus satisfying and securing their fate.

Thrall: a study in romance and the art of image crafting

1. He left his people at the mercy of a hot-blooded Mag'har (with whom he was constantly at odds with), because the dragons were calling him to super-herodom.

2. While the rest of the world was literally burning to the ground, he had a lavish, international wedding. While finding love is important in times of war, perhaps he should not have held such a public spectacle, so public that he was kidnapped and killed at his own wedding. Or maybe he could have waited, but no... He had to have his wedding at THE WORLD TREE. BECAUSE HE COULD.

3. While the blood elves lavished themselves in luxury (after his warriors helped to cleanse their land of the scourge), his people continued to live in hovels made of crude stone and wood. He made no apparent attempt to better the lives of his people, even while his elite soldiers protected his allies.

4. After the establishment of Orgrimmar, he named notable locations after the war criminals who helped to destroy the orc home planet, because he had a romantic fascination with them. It would have better to name the locations after orcs who helped free the orcs but captivity and set them free, but Thrall is a romantic fool who cares more about image than reality.

5. He kept the name Thrall for most of his life. You may argue, yes that was his name, and I would argue he kept that name primarily because of the power it had in reminding his people of their painful history. He was a literal living image. He kept this name even after meeting Drek'thar, who knew who he was.

6. Most of his life, he has tried to live up to the expectations others had for him. Whether it was being the first shaman, becoming Doomhammers second-in-command, becoming Warchief, acting as the troll's savior, or even becoming the World Shaman, Thrall has continually submitted himself to the dreams of others and their expectations. Even his former master as he lay dying after Thrall had killed him in anger, claimed that Thrall had lived up his every expectation and he could not have been more proud. Thrall has always struggled with this.

7. Thrall chose Garrosh because he saw in him his father, not because he saw Garrosh. Thrall continued to invest himself in Garrosh and Garrosh continued to prove him wrong.  Thrall continued to defend him and even gave him the most powerful seat in his country, because he saw the image of sacrifice Grom made against the Legion. Would Doomhammer have been so blind?

8. As he grew older and more respected, the image others grew more powerful in his mind. He laughably took on Archimonde by himself in the battle at Hyjal. He placed the Warchief's throne at the entrance of Orgrimmar, instead of the rear like nearly every other racial capital. He felt it was his right to kill Garrosh, when others had done the work. He held the maelstrom alone, inviting the personal wrath of the elemental lords.  He alone wielded the Demon Soul, when there did exist others who could also wield it. (Rhonin, as example, who not only used it but destroyed it. And he WAS alive during the battle at Dragonblight.)

Finally: Thrall is an absolutely fascinating character study of how image and perception affect even those with hearts of gold. I believe that Thrall is in-fact, in thrall to the hopes of who he should be by those who surround him. This explains so many paradoxes in his character, such as his slaughter of alliance soldiers after meeting Aggra. He is powerful, no doubt, but strangely carries the insecurity of finding his self-identity and meaning from who judge him.