by Its_Immanis - 5 years ago     show comments

Even during a global pandemic Blizzard continues to churn out some of the high quality work they’re known for, in this case delivering the first in a new series of cinematics introducing players to some of the main story characters for the upcoming expansion, Shadowlands.

In the first entry of Shadowlands Afterlives we join Uther as he enters Bastion and is chosen to become an Ascended. The Ascended are tasked with ferrying the souls of the dead into the Shadowlands.

In spite of warnings to the contrary, Uther continues to thirst for retribution against Arthas for his death and believes that his work for the Light is left undone. As his training goes on Devos – a Paragon of Bastion and Uther’s guide through this process – begins to have doubts about Uther and his rightful place in the Shadowlands. Uther reveals that he still bears the marks of Shadowmourne and his guide sees Uther’s memory of his murder, recognizing that the marks on Shadowmourne mean there is a flaw in the path of entry to the Shadowlands that must be corrected. Devos takes her case to the Archon and other denizens of Bastion.

The Archon commands Devos to abandon her cause, but Devos grants Uther his ascension and they wait and watch for Arthas to fall, at which point they will claim his soul for their own.

After a call-back to the Fall of the Lich King cinematic, we see Uther and Devos flying above the Maw, having taken possession of Arthas’ soul after his defeat in Icecrown Citadel. Uther appears to have misgivings until Devos reminds him of what Arthas took, at which point Uther drops Arthas into the Maw.

From my perspective it’s not very surprising that Blizzard chose to lead with this particular Covenant and hero as their first cinematic. Many people anticipated as soon as Blizzard revealed that we would be seeing old heroes that Uther would be one, and him being a central character to this particular Covenant isn’t much of a surprise as one of the more well-known characters in Warcraft lore.

There are three more cinematics coming in this series, one for each Covenant, leading into the release of Shadowlands. We’ll bring you recaps of these cinematics as soon as they’re available.

UPDATED: Shortly after the release of the first cinematic Blizzard announced the release date of the remaining cinematics.

Afterlives: Maldraxxus will be released Thursday September 3rd

Afterlives: Ardenweald will be released Thursday September 10th

Afterlives: Revendreth will be released Thursday September 17th

Let us know what you think of them in the comments or on social media and thanks for watching!