History Characters / WarcraftShadowlands

* BreakingOldTrends: The Jailer is the first BigBad in ''World of Warcraft'' that is not a previously-known character.

* MonsterProgenitor: To the Venthyr race as well to all vampires, such as the Darkfallen. The [[spoiler:Nathrezim are another creation but were banished long ago [[spoiler:as part of his plan]].

* ActionGirl: Perhaps fitting of an Ascended[[note]]{{exp|y}}ies of the {{valkyries}} of Myth/NorseMythology[[/note]], Kleia is an in-your-face fighter who even manages to impress the Curator during an excursion to revendreth.

* Mordor: Thros, a Lost Woods variant.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The anima drought became bad enough as to drive Maldraxxi to [[spoiler:break the ancient treaties and invade other realms, such as Bastion]] to replenish their own reserves. The [[spoiler:kyrian]] are naturally [[WhatTheHellHero not pleased with such betrayal]].

'''[[Characters/WarcraftTheAlliance The Alliance]]:''' [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceStormwind Stormwind (Humans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceLordaeron Lordaeron (Humans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceGilneas Gilneas (Humans/Worgen)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceKulTiras Kul Tiras (Humans)]] [[Characters/WarcraftJainaProudmoore (Jaina Proudmoore)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceHumanKingdoms Other Human Kingdoms]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceIronforge Ironforge (Dwarven Clans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceGnomeregan Gnomeregan (Gnomes)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceQuelThalas Quel'Thalas/Telogrus Rift (High Elves and Void Elves)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceDarnassus Darnassus (Night Elves)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceExodar The Exodar (Draenei)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceTushui Tushui (Pandaren)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceVindicaar Vindicaar (Lightforged Draenei)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceMechagon Mechagon (Mechagnomes)]]\\
'''[[Characters/WarcraftTheHorde The Horde]]:''' [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeOrgrimmar Orgrimmar (Orcs)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeDarkspearTribe The Darkspear Tribe (Trolls)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeThunderBluff Thunder Bluff (Tauren)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeTheForsaken The Forsaken (Undead)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeQuelThalas Quel'Thalas (Blood Elves)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeBilgewaterCartel Bilgewater Cartel (Goblins)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordePandaren Huojin (Pandaren)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeHighmountain Thunder Totem (Highmountain Tauren)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeSuramar Suramar (Nightborne)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeZandalariEmpire Zandalari Empire (Zandalar Trolls)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeVoldunai Voldunai (Vulpera)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeOther Other (non-playable races)]]\\

->''"We Venthyr remain committed to bringing eventual redemption for all who desire it."''

* LikeBrotherAndSister: She's soulbound with Pelagos whom she sometimes refers to as [[FamilyOfChoice 'her brother']] rather than the more formal 'her soulbind' -- it's rare for the two of them to be apart.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: In ''Shadowlands'' [[spoiler:it is revealed that Bwonsamdi was once a mortal Troll who was raised to Loa-status by Mueh'zala]].

[[folder:The Jailer]]
!!Zovaal the Jailer

* FinalBoss: Of the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid and Shadowlands as a whole

!!Sire Denathrius

* FinalBoss: [[spoiler: Of Castle Nathria raid.]]

* SiblingRivalry: Well, "rivalry" is a strong word, but she is not pleased towards having to spend the effort (and personal anima) to ensure [[spoiler: Ysera's]] resurrection, calling [[spoiler:her]] her "sister's pet".
** [[spoiler:While aiding in the ritual to save Tyrande from being overcome by the Night Warrior, she confirms this sister is in fact Elune herself. The Winter Queen's one-sided disdain is revealed to be caused by the belief that Elune turned a blind eye to the drought in Ardenweald -- while in truth, Elune's attempt to aid her sister was blocked by the Jailer.]]

!!In general:

!!Chyrus, the Paragon of Humility.

!!Devos, the Paragon of Loyalty [[spoiler: later Doubt]].

!!Thenios, the Paragon of Wisdom.

!!Vesiphone, the Paragon of Purity.

!!Xandria, the Paragon of Courage.

!!Pelagos

!!Lysonia

!!Uther

See [[Characters/WarcraftTheLight The Light]] for information on him.

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[[folder:Draka]]
!!Baroness Draka

See [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeOldHorde Horde -- The Old Horde]] for information on her.

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[[folder:Alexandros "The Ashbringer" Mograine]]
!!Baron Alexandros "The Ashbringer" Mograine

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[[folder:Vyraz]]
!!Baron Vyraz

!!Margrave Akarek

[[folder:Vashj]]
!!Baroness Vashj

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!!Kearnen the Blade

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!!Margrave Sin'dane

[[folder:Kel'Thuzad]]
!!Baron Kel'Thuzad

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!!Margrave Gharmal

!!Emeni the Slaughter Daughter

!!Margrave Stradama

!!Plague Deviser Marileth

!!Ysera

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!!Huln Highmountain

* BladeOnAStick: Talonclaw, the Eagle Spear, was Huln's runespear when he was alive and passed down to his descendants after his death until it fell into the hands of the Huntmaster in ''Legion''.

!!Thiernax and Qadarin

!!Bwonsamdi, Loa of Graves

!!Hakkar the Soulflayer

* FinalBoss: Of the original Zul'Gurub raid.

!!Uuetay no Mueh'zala, Loa of Death

* FinalBoss: [[spoiler: Serves as one for the Other Side dungeon.]]

!!Gorak Tul

* FinalBoss: [[spoiler: Serves as one for the Waycrest Manor dungeon.]]

!!Gorak Zhar

!!Ingra Maloch

!!Prince Renathal

!!The Accuser

[[folder:Theotar]]
!!Duke Theotar

[[folder:Draven]]
!!General Draven

!!Lord Chamberlain

!!Kael'thas Sunstrider

[[folder:Ve'nari]]
!!Broker Ve'nari

!! The Runecarver

* MasculineFeminineGayCouple: Downplayed, but the smooth-voiced Thiernax comes across as more feminine than his partner, who speaks with a BadassBaritone.

'''[[Characters/WarcraftTheAlliance The Alliance]]:''' [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceStormwind Stormwind (Humans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceLordaeron Lordaeron (Humans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceGilneas Gilneas (Humans/Worgen)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceKulTiras Kul Tiras (Humans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceHumanKingdoms Other Human Kingdoms]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceIronforge Ironforge (Dwarven Clans)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceGnomeregan Gnomeregan (Gnomes)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceQuelThalas Quel'Thalas/Telogrus Rift (High Elves and Void Elves)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceDarnassus Darnassus (Night Elves)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceExodar The Exodar (Draenei)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceTushui Tushui (Pandaren)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceVindicaar Vindicaar (Lightforged Draenei)]] - [[Characters/WarcraftTheAllianceMechagon Mechagon (Mechagnomes)]]\\

'''Other factions:''' [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeOldHorde The Old Horde/Iron Horde]] | [[Characters/WarcraftTheScourge The Scourge]] | [[Characters/WarcraftSylvanasAndFollowers Sylvanas and her followers]] [[Characters/WarcraftSylvanasWindrunner (Sylvanas Windrunner)]] | [[Characters/WarcraftKnightsOfTheEbonBlade Knights of the Ebon Blade]] | [[Characters/WarcraftIllidanAndFollowers Illidan and his followers]] | [[Characters/WarcraftTheHordeGarroshsHorde Garrosh's Horde]] | [[Characters/WarcraftPandaria Pandaria]] | [[Characters/WarcraftOthers Other mortals]] | [[Characters/WarcraftTheOldGods The Void (The Old Gods)]] | [[Characters/WarcraftTheLight The Light]] | [[Characters/WarcraftEternals Eternals]] | '''Shadowlands (Death)''' | [[Characters/WarcraftTitans The Titans (Arcane)]] | [[Characters/WarcraftTheBurningLegion The Burning Legion (Fel)]] | [[Characters/WarcraftTheDragonflights The Dragonflights]] | [[Characters/WarcraftWildGods Wild Gods]]\\
'''Individual media''': ''[[Characters/Warcraft3Heroes Warcraft III]]'' [[Characters/Warcraft3Heroes Heroes]] | [[Characters/WarCraft2016 Film characters]] | ''[[Characters/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft Hearthstone]]'' [[Characters/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft characters]] | ''[[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftUniverse Warcraft]]'' [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftUniverse characters in]] ''[[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftUniverse Heroes of the Storm]]'' ([[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftAssassins Assassins]] - [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftWarriors Warriors]] - [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftSupport Support]])-]]]]]

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Upon going through the Shadowlands intro on a second character, Roh-Thal offers the PlayerCharacter the choice of either going through the same path as 'Those who came before you', or chosing a different path of going through the Shadowlands. It makes Roh-tahl with all his TimeMaster abilities and knowledge of the fate of everyone ''very close'' to a FourthWallObserver without being it.

** Or rather "The Path before reason" given their rather moronic dismissial of Devos's claims involving Frostmourne's Maw-powered Runes.

** For as much as The Kyrian require their aspirants to give up the identity, memories, and biases they had in life before they can ascend, they see absolutely nothing wrong with individuality between them. Love, friendship, camraderie, wants, desires -- everything that makes a person an 'individual' is not only not shunned, but outright encouraged, and the Stewards are happy to provide the Kyrian with everything they need while they figure out who they want to be without their mortal baggage.

* LossOfIdentity: Becoming a Kyrian means surrendering everything that you were in life, from your body's shape, your old personality, and eventually all of your memories of your past life, both negative and positive. The game sidesteps the moral questionability of this afterlife by pointing out the The Arbiter [[OmniscientMoralityLicense doesn't make mistakes]], so only souls that ''are'' that self-sacrificing for the greater good would be sent there to begin with and if an Aspirant truly gives up and decides they can't make it as a Kyrian or sacrifice all that they were, they get sent back to the Arbiter to go to another afterlife. The sacrifice of one's past memories is also mandatory to facilitate impartiality; as the ones to guide souls to the afterlife, the Kyrian cannot permit biases to cloud their judgment. All of that said, it's also shown that this process can be wildly traumatic, spirit breaking, and [[spoiler:the Forsworn and Mawsworn are a result of souls who were given Kyrian power by other means, who feel as though giving up their senses of self is unjust and unfair]]. This also isn't perfect as you can find a Kyrian body in Maldraxxus with a note describing how she found a trinket of her past life's mate she made before she lost her memory of him, and it made all of her memories return and left her rightfully embittered. [[spoiler: After the Spires of Ascension dungeon and during the Kyrian covenenant questline, all of these factors make Kyrestia begin to wonder if maybe this part of Ascendance might not be wrong after all, and after more consideration in 9.1, she decides to make this part of Ascendance optional -- those who want to forget can, those who don't want to have a harder path to walk, but can still become Kyrian.]]

* SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology: At first glance, the Kyrian use tech that would make a gnome weep for the lost potential. Scrolls for record-keeping, quills for writing, forges for smithing, stewards for manual labor, but look deeper and the 'sufficiently advanced' part of the trope starts to show: the [[HumongousMecha Centurions]] are peerless mechanical constructs which normally don't require recharging, capable of passively absorbing ambient anima; teleporters are everywhere; and their forge-crafted weaponry is strong enough to kick ''[[GreaterScopeVillain The Void]]'' out of their realm when it invaded in force; the scrolls shift and change their symbols to display more than what could ordinarilly be on an equivalent punch card and the quills used to write on said scrolls never need to be filled, drawing on the anima of the scribe instead; even the stewards are shown to be a ''lot'' stronger than their size would suggest, capable of carrying more than six of their kind on their shoulders, with all the equipment that entails, while being more worried about the ''balance'' than the weight itself.

* UnfeelingHeavens: Downplayed -- The Kyrian is reality's anglic {{Psychopomp}}s, it is an assigned afterlife by [[JudgementOfTheDead The Arbiter]] only to the souls who were truly selfless in life... Because you ''have'' to be truly selfless to become a Kyrian: It entails giving up ''everything'' that made you, you; Your mortal identity, relationships, biases, doubts, and memories have no place in a {{Psychopomp}}, and thus everything you once were must be removed or forgotten before you can take on the impatial AboveGoodAndEvil role of being a {{Psychopomp}}; but they are not antagonistic, fulfilling an important role in the cosmos, and The Arbiter [[OmniscientMoralityLicense doesn't make mistakes]].

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Xandria's temple of courage comes under attack by Maldraxxian forces of the houses of Rituals and Constructs early in the Shadowlands questing. When Mograine shows up in Bastion asking for help to take out the house of Constructs and their Margrave, Xandria doesn't need much in the way of persuation to show up in person with an army at her back.

* FishOutOfWater: By his own words, he spent eons serving the Archon willingly as an overseer. In all that time, Bastion remained unchaging - so when he is named [[spoiler: Paragon of Devotion, a temple and tenet of the Kyrian that ''didn't even exist'' for those eons]], even he is uncertain what the future brings - but he's ready to lead it onward through the trials of change.

* GladiatorGames: Held frequently in the Theater of Pain. The Maldraxxi use the arena fights to always hone their fighting skills in what is supposed to be a safe enviroment of friendly competition.

* NatureHero: Aardenweald is an afterlife for not only wild gods, but also those who spend their life in service to nature and said Wild Gods. Their reward for a life spent in this kind of service to nature is to be given the approval of the Winter Queen and gain the ability to shape their bodies into any animals they wish whenever they wish to help the natural residents with whatever tasks they're needed for, while in their downtime getting to remain in the bodies of whatever animals they always wished to be in life, a sensation described by Te'zan as being incredibly liberating and paradisical.

* EvilLaugh: He's not evil, but he let's out a pretty evil sounding laugh before he kills Zalazane.

* UngratefulBastard: After Mueh'zala helps resurrect him, Hakkar abadoned him and sought to destroy both him and Bwonsamdi in order to become the loa of Blood and Death.

* {{Druid}}: Drust magic is druidic death magic, constrasting the red and black nightmare druidism of the void.

* OurGargoylesRock: The Stoneborn are statues given life from stone via Anima. They range from the familiar bat-like gargoyes used by the scourge, to tiny imp-like messengers, to anthropomorphic bat/lizard people that wouldn't look out of place in the [[{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}} Disney show]] with some minor changes.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: He's aware that the player and Lord Chamberlain are in a carriage together and he doesn't want Denathrius to deceive the Maw Walker into fighting on his side. However instead of trying to seperate the two and get the Maw Walker to help the rebellion, he attempts to kill the both of them by picking up the carriage and dropping it from great height. Naturally the pair survive, and the now player now has legitmate reasons to ignore the other rebels attempts to warn them about siding with Denathrius.

Ruled over by The Jailer, Zovaal, the Maw is a normally inescapable final destination for souls that do not recieve the Arbiter's judgement, or were so irredeemably evil in life that they deserve nothing more or less than eternal torment. It is a bleak realm where the Jailer and his servants torment and break the souls that arrive there for all eternity, and where the only way to make the torment stop is to join with the Jailer and become tormentors themselves.

* TheDreaded: Any mention of him presents him as the boogeyman of the entire Shadowlands. Nobody even knows how he looks, but everyone fears him.

* ArchEnemy: To his former brothers and sister for banishing him to the Maw.

* PhysicalGod: An ancient deity capable of judging the history of a soul's deeds through a single glance.

* TimeAbyss: The Arbiter is supposedly even older than the Titans, making her one of the oldest creatures in existence.

* TheManBehindTheMan: To [[spoiler: Helya and first two Lich Kings, [[UnwittingPawn Ner'zhul and Arthas]]]].

* FiveManBand: The leaders of the Undying Army.
** TheLeader: Draka, the coolheaded and determined leader.
** TheLancer: Lady Vashj, who dislikes Draka and is held back by honor far less than she is.
** TheBigGuy: Lord Mograine, the legendary Ashbringer and one of the strongest paladins in history.
** TheSmartGuy: Plague Deviser Marileth. Despite his insanity, his mastery of plagues, slimes, and soulbinding help the covenant immensly.
** TheChick: Rathan the Stichmaster. While no slouch in combat, he's more comfortable making abomination bodies for other souls to fight in.

* FiveManBand: The leaders of the Venthyr Covenant have this dynamic.
** TheLeader: Prince Renathal, the organizer of the rebellion against Denathrius.
** TheLancer: Duke Theotar, Renethal's friend who, while far wackier than him, is still the prince's most staunch supporter.
** TheSmartGuy: The Accuser, by far the most strategic of the group.
** TheBigGuy: General Draven, the huge gargoyle who is naturally the strongest physically of the group.
** TheChick: The Curator/Rendle the dreger, the only two members who are purely support.
** TheSixthRanger: Kael'thas Sunstrider, who only joins their efforts to save the Shadowlands quite late into the covenant storyline.

* DarkseidDuplicate: Shares quite a few traits with Darkseid: ancient, widely feared, bald, towers over others, rules over a stygian wasteland, seeks out {{MacGuffin}}s to become more powerful, and has reality-conquering ambitions. However, most people are quick to compare him to the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse version of ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, especially after his goal of claiming the other Eternal Ones' sigils came to light.