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The Story of the Ethereals with Nobbel87
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由
DiscordianKitty
发表于
2024/06/02,17:59
Who are the ethereals, what do they want, and what is their history? Nobbel87 answers these questions and more in the Story of the Ethereals.
The Ethereal Home Planet of K'aresh
Locus Walker and the ethereals come from K'aresh, a planet somewhere in the great dark beyond, the term we use to describe Warcraft's space. Not a whole lot is known about the world that they come from. It's a planet with at least two suns in the sky and its people were seemingly pretty advanced in their technology. The old stories, and we're talking about the
Burning Crusade
period here, said that the ethereals are astral travelers who dwell within the Twisting Nether. They are known to be collectors and traders of arcane items and artifacts. Now drawn to Outland, many ethereals are seeking to track down its treasures and steal them back into the Twisting Nether. They are liars and scoundrels who will stop at nothing to pursue their mysterious aims. The ethereals have no care at all for the
Burning Crusade
. They would even play both sides of the conflict against each other if doing so would serve to further their own goals.
Throughout the expansion we get to know the ethereals a little bit better, make some enemies, make some friends. They did not always look like the mumified creatures we see them as now. Their forms are a result of their war with a Void Lord called Dimensius the All-Devouring.
In pursuit of knowledge and arcane technologies, they had doomed themselves and their home: the K'areshi had torn open a rift into the Void and drawn the wrath of Dimensius.
Dimensius had bathed the world in volatile energies that slowly tore it apart, and the K'areshi had desperately tried to shield themselves from harm. Their efforts had only partially worked. Their magic had blocked Dimensius's shadowy power, but raw arcane energy had shattered their physical bodies. All that remained were their souls, bristling with magic. From that day forward, these incorporeal creatures called themselves ethereals.
But is that the whole story? Well, probably not, as they're adding more. The world of K'aresh rang out with a song of warning similar to what Azeroth is doing right now, and Xal'atath the Harbinger is known to someone like the Locus Walker even though she went by a different name. We also know that Xal'atath has been busy manipulating some events throughout Azeroth's history. Could it be that she did a similar thing on K'aresh? Manipulating the K'areshi's until they brought in Dimensius? All things to be revealed, but for certain is the aftermath.
Becoming Ethereal
The K'areshi, transformed into the Ethereals, splintered into different factions. Some had become nomads and traders, roaming the cosmos in search of sources of magic and powerful artifacts. Some had sworn to destroy Dimensius and the creatures of the Void to avenge K'aresh. And others decided to embrace the powers of the Void and tried to master them, turn them into their favor. These factions saw Outland as a realm where they could pursue their interests. Merchants hoped to ply their trade and discover new wealth, while the more militant ethereals sought new weapons to fight their war against the Void.
Their commercial nature would have the ethereals go even beyond Outland and provide services like Transmog or Void storage... for a price... while their militant attention was drawn on claiming vengeance upon Dimensius and destroying him.
A quest that took them a thousand years, maybe more.
A quest that lead some off the deep end and far into darkness like their Nexus King Salhadaar - former ruler of all of K'aresh and now leads the Ethereum, the ones that once served as the ruling class of K'aresh. Their lust for vengeance has taken him down a rather dark path, even going as far as infusing himself with the Void. Seeing this go down, several of their Nexus-Princes and fellow ethereals abandoned the Ethereum and formed their own groups like the Protectorate and the Consortium.
The Consortium is lead by Nexus-Prince Haramad, a loosely affiliated cartel of ethereal smugglers, traders and thieves that has come to Outland to benefit from its riches. Opening up your reputation tab shows that this was one of the factions that we proved ourselves too during the Burning Crusade by doing things like taking out the competition and slaying Nexus Prince Shaffar, all for sweet rewards, of course. Haramad is incredibly careful, considering that they deal on all sides, which makes them a lot of enemies - and so they only use projects to talk with us and hand out quests. Quests like retrieve one of the Ata'mal crystals, which is a powerful magical crystal connected to the Naaru and the draenei... different story.
Point being, the Nexus Prince is so surprised by our might and skill in being able to do such a thing let alone actually handing it over to him... do we even know how much power this crystal contains? It rocks him to his core, he has much to think about, and Ambassador Solannas agrees. Such as turning that Ata'mal crystal over to master Kael'thas. But no, says the ethereal. Instead, it will go to the naaru A'dal in Shattrath, which Kael's ambassador does not like - tries to take our head for it - and at risk of his own life and limb, Haramad steps through the portal and takes care of business in person.
Dimensius the All-Devouring
The Protectorate, lead by Commander Ameer, feels that the Ethereum is as much a threat to their existence as Dimensius is, and so both must be stopped. Something we get to help them with by clearing out the Ethereum staging ground and slaying their king. Then we set our sight on Dimensius himself who's currently linked to the Void through the tear in the Nether from which he came. This makes him immune to physical harm, but by collecting fragments of Dimensius from the Void creatures that he sends out to do his dirty work, we can hone in on the conduit that Dimensius is using to keep himself phases out of this plane of existence. Destroy it, and Dimensius is vulnerable to our might and magic. Avengers assemble, it is time to follow Captain Saeed into the jaws of hell and confront Dimensius the ALL-DEVOURING itself! The being responsible for bathing K'aresh into unspeakable eldritch horrors was slain by us and a group of brave ethereals.
For a thousand years, all we have known is conflict. We have defended our people from the attacks of both Void creature and ethereal alike. Now, one of our most hated enemies lies dead - finally.
I give you the thanks of a hundred million ethereals, fleshling.
How can this possibly be? How could we have taken care of a Void Lord - the things responsible for shooting out the Old Gods - and there are a couple of answers.
First is the time period in which this takes place, the
Burning Crusade
, hover the Void creatures around here categorises them as demons.
Agent Ya-six of the protectorate is on the mission of finding another Void Lord - in this case Arconus that we take out as well.
Pandemonius is a Void Lord we face in the mana tombs; This infamous Void Lord is also known as the Duke of Chaos, the Eater of Nations, and Worldslayer. Pandemonius was one of the commanders serving udner Dimensius when the ethereal homeworld of K'aresh was destroyed. He was later bound by Nexus-Prince Shaffar and forced to continue sating his unending hunger in service to the ethereals, “To the Void once more”
Warlocks have been able to upgrade their summoning spell to bring in a Void Lord themselves.
The term Void Lord can mean multiple things, and yet the ethereals celebrate this as a massive victory. Millions of them are celebrating, after a thousand years of hunting and fighting it is finally done, so this must be the real deal right?
I long for the day our masters can truly pass into this realm. You have only seen fragments, shadows; the faintest of echoes. Ask the Ethereals what one of these manifestations are capable of.
That's Xal'atath whispering to shadow priests. What they've seen is only a fragment of the real power. Assuming that the players character is the same one that helped the ethereals on Outland, that means what they saw was only a small fragment of what Dimensius was able to get through and the true being, the true Void Lord is still out there somewhere.
Locus-Walker
Apparently now being hailed over by its Harbinger, that same Xal'atath - if we can believe the Locus Walker. This ethereal has jumped deep into the paths of the Void, become a master of it, and yet completely free of its grasp - as far as the
Burning Legion
knew anyways. They've lost countless lives trying to capture him, a story told by the dreadlord Lothraxion to Alleria in the audio drama
A Thousand Years of War
which, if you haven't heard it or read it yet, I would highly recommend. Not only because it seems to be super important for what's to come, it's also just fantastically done by Blizzard.
Lothraxion was nearly one of the demons taken out permanently. To his surprise though, the Locus-Walker gave him a death from which he could come back - sensing that Lothraxion had a unique destiny about him - and the Locus-Walker
wanted
him reborn. A part to play....
Following Lothraxion's story, we'd see him be converted to the Light and join the Army of the Light. Under the naaru Xera's guidance, he would pick up two of our heroes, Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner, to fight with them in their thousand year war against the Legion. Turalyon would embrace the path of Xera and dive deep into the powers of the Light, which is what allowed this human to survive so long considering time that deep in the Twisting Nether does not work the same as it does for us on Azeroth. While for us they've been missing for around twenty-five years, Alleria and Turalyon have experienced a thousand years of war in that time. A war which would see the two of them walk different, opposite paths.
As I said, Turalyon is the wielder of the Light, and while Alleria tried to follow his path and powers for a bit, she was ultimately drawn to the Void. Its whispers called to her, showed her that the Light did not know the truth of destiny either. Only through the Void would she be capable of doing what had to be done, do what she valued most - which is secure a future for her loved ones. Keep Turalyon and Arathor safe. Surrounded by the Legion, it was not the Light that offered them salvation, rather it was the Void - and so Windrunner decided to follow Lothraxion's tales of the Locus-Walker and tried to track down the ethereal. Eventually, after five hundred years or so, succeeding and be accepted as his new student. Again, as it was with Lothraxion, the Locus-Walker could sense a touch of destiny upon Alleria Windrunner.
Her attachments to Turalyon and Arathor, her holding on to the light that she had known kept her out of balance yet at the same time it also kept her anchord and allowed her to overcome the whispers that might drive others to madness. While it also pushes her further away from her loved ones, The Light and the Shadow cannot exist together.
Perhaps one day she would fall to madness. Perhaps one day she would betray her allies. She was capable of it. But she would never, not in any possibility, not in any circumstance, harm her son. She would never lift a finger against Arator. Even if he killed her for what she had become, she would accept it gladly. The weight of that truth kept her afloat. And she could feel the Shadow's confusion. It did not understand the bonds between mortals. It did not understand that there were some things that could not be corrupted.
During training she gets visions, follows the voices, and figures out that while she might be ready to plunge into the Void, it wasn't quite yet her time - and Turalyon is in danger, so she calls her studies short and goes to save her beloved's life - Knowing full well that the Naaru Xe'ra would not accept her on the path that she was on. That the Shadow would never be accepted by the Light, and she was right. Only because Turalyon and Lothraxion pleaded was Alleria's life spared.She would stay in prison until she was ready to stop this foolishness and embrace the one true path again, the path of the Light. That's around the time when we showed up in the expansion
Legion
. Connecting with the Army of the Light to take the battle to the Burning Legion and stop Sargeras once and for all.
Through our adventures, we eventually need to go and deal with the naaru L'ura, who stayed behind to give Velen and the Draenei a chance to escape the planet. She's been locked away, and her song has turned from the Light, from hope to darkness and despair. We follow Alleria as she investigates what's going on. As she figures out that Viceroy Nezhar has also set his sights on L'ura and is causing all kinds of problems while spreading the Void, and we even run into the Locus-Walker again.
Alleria Windrunner says: What are your people doing here?
Locus-Walker says: I am here to find out. Follow, if you can.
Alleria Windrunner says: I need to finish what I started, Locus-Walker.
Locus-Walker says: Can you, though? With your... attachments?
Alleria Windrunner says: What are you talking about?
Locus-Walker says: Why, your mate of course. How does he feel about your choices?
Alleria Windrunner says: Turalyon trusts me to make hard decisions, and I him.
Locus-Walker says: I am not talking about trust.
Locus-Walker says: How can you expect to embrace the Shadow with the Light shining so brightly at your side?
Alleria Windrunner says: Without the Light there is no Shadow, teacher.
Locus-Walker says: Prepare yourself, Alleria. Your friend here will hold its attention.
Alleria Windrunner says: That thing... it's... calling to me!
Locus-Walker says: Focus your mind. Remember your training.
Alleria Windrunner says: Arator! Turalyon?!
Locus-Walker says: The Void shows only half truths. Trust your instincts.
Alleria Windrunner says: I can't-- I-- Argh!
Locus-Walker says: Fight, curse you!
Alleria Windrunner says: I won't let you! I am not yours to claim!
What luck that we run into each other here. Together, we enter the Seat of the Triumvate where L'ura is held. The Shadowguard Ethereals and others of his ilk, like Viceroy Nezhar, are obsessed with harnessing the power of the Void to serve their own ambitions. Drawn to the Seat of the Triumvirate by the immense darkness emanating from deep within, Nezhar will stop at nothing to claim it for his own. Given the viceroy's experiments at infusing vessels with the power of shadow, the implications of what he might accomplish on Argus are dire indeed. But not to worry. We stop him and take the dark powers emanating for ourselves, as it would be Alleria claiming L'ura's essence...
That whole testing of her powers and seeing what she could do would sadly take place off screen, and the Locus-Walker's story would fall to the background as our attention was drawn to defeating the Burning Legion and stopping Sargeras.
Not the last time we would see the Locus-Walker though as Alleria is not the only one interested in the Void. Magister Umbric and his followers followed their research, despite it meaning exile from Silvermoon, all the way into a trap set out by Nether-Prince Durzaan. They would have been lost was it not for Alleria's aid. While their paths were a little bit different, the ren'dorei, or the Void Elves, also show great promise wielding the darkness and maintaining control over the whispers. The Locus-Walker guides them through this as he has done with Alleria, and yet the matter of loyalty is a hard one to answer. Is the Locus-Walker truly a master over the Void, or are they using their senses of destiny to place pieces on the board which they can use? That's all very much speculation and things to be revealed.
Shadreen
One last group of ethereals to talk about, one that's been operating from the shadows in the back, one that you may have forgotten because I sure didn't.... The Void ethereal Shadreen...
She shows in the Void Elf intro cutscene and occasionally pops up on Telogrus Rift honoring her title of the Watcher and watching us. Not just at the rift either - she has shown up at the Trial of Style and was part of the Brawler's Guild infiltration murder mystery where she had Xan-Sallish take the place of Bizmo.
Pay special attention to the heroes, the champions, the movers of fate. Watch from afar. Watch when up close. Interfere, if you deem it necessary.
This gave them a chance to see how we fight which was quite informative, but watching us solve this mystery has been even more illuminating. The Blade of the Watcher tries to take us out, but Shadreen herself doesn't seem overly hostile. Even kind enough to slip a mysterious coin into a journal.
Thank you for the opportunity to observe you. The information I've gathered has been illuminating, to say the least. This will be my final gift... for now.
That's been going in the background for a bit, for who or what purpose has she been gathering this information? Has she been the eyes and ears of Xal'atath for all this time? Is she serving a Nexus Prince or Princess? Has she been working on her own plans - and what about all these transactions we've been doing with the ethereals? Plenty of resources and tokens of power have exchanged hands in pursuit of gear and rewards... where did all of that go? All that and so much more to be revealed...
In the case of the ethereals and K'aresh... I hope you've got a better understanding as to where they came from and what they've been up too. Beings that were manipulated, or simply pushed their search of knowledge and power into bringing in something like Dimensius. We've seen a lot of them rise up against the darkness and yet plenty that have chosen to embrace it instead. Only recently did the Harbinger call out for Alleria to play and we saw plenty of shadowguard ethereals fight at her side. We've seen ethereals suck up the Void and increase their power as far back the
Burning Crusade
, but even going further during Legion with Nexus Prince Bilaal going so far that they became a Void revenant. Safe to say that we'll see Ethereals on both sides of the playing field. Fingers crossed that maybe one day we ourselves will be able to play as them... but then that does, of course, leave the most important question of all...
When will they add Rafaam and the League of Evil to
World of Warcraft
?!
We've got Reno and crew - why not Rafaam? If you don't know what i'm talking about, they're characters that have so far been exclusive to Hearthstone, but with more of a focus on the ethereals - definitely a right time to bring him in.
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