Careful now, this is usually the part where people will go nuts because of the word "Prespective", but jokes a side, if I had a moment of reading, I would've ordered the book and just enjoy the new cosmology part in the Shadowlands section, curious to see it once it's been turned into a PNG/JPEG picture
I love WoW lore but I do wish they'd stop with the retcons and write new stories :(
A pass.Could be even an interesting read. I bought the Chronicle collection based on the premise it was an official lore compilation.To them then saying "You know, this is lore but from a Titan perspective... so take it with a grain of salt"Don't want "perspectives" where everything is up to be disputable, thanks.
Recent movements in the lore are obviously not what once was for Warcraft. But I still find it hilarious how a few people in the community seem to have this obsession that they need to be an omniscient reader of events (although sylvanas joining the jailor business offscreen was just terrible). What I mean by that though is that they seem to think that characters should somehow divulge their affiliations clearly at the onset of character introductions. Which obviously in a story that requires betrayal is something that is impossible. Plus also readers need to consider how the speaker came across said information, and why they are telling you it.
So everything you know about Warcraft cosmology is now retconned...
Great.... another cosmology chart as if it wasn't already confusing enough...... They are making it so hard to RP in WoW with all this extra crap.
Chronicles was meant to canonize the events of WC1-WoW. Establishing it as concrete lore for what came before WC1 was a mistake because the game has to continue.Also most people are going to ignore that the chart is the same as the Chronicles 1 chart but with the aspects flipped around because Shadowlands people think Life/Death is the most important thing.
I understand the frustration, but having a "definitive" lore is actually kinda boring if you have so many mysteries.Different perspectives is what makes the world interesting, because it challenge us to think about the world and come to our own conclusionMost people who are complain about the lore, are the people who want every bit of information spoon fed and easy digestible, like it was written for little kids
So the crescent moon in the Life part of the "new" cosmology chart means, that Elune ist the incarnation/goddes of life in oppose to death?
I'm firmly of the opinion that this is not the last cosmology chart we're going to get, and that Blizzard is playing a long game. What we are seeing is essentially "The Seven Blind Men and the Elephant." For those who do not know this parable, seven blind men are presented with one elephant, with each being able to touch only one part. Each blind man declares the elephant to be solely what that blind man can directly touch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephantWhich means that the brokers are wrong - they can't help but be wrong. And they are right. Just like the "Titan" cosmology is wrong, but also right. Each are seeing the cosmology from their personal bias.And this is ok. I mean, the conceit is that all of us are looking at the cosmos from the inside out - and there is no way anyone's going to get it right. But what we can do is compare the similarities, and analyze the differences - because the truth lies in that negative space between the opinions of the Titans and the opinions of the brokers - both of whom are *unreliable narrators.*Frankly, Blizzard's approach to the cosmos is refreshingly complicated, bordering on the philosophical and I'm getting a kick out of it. I can't wait for my book to actually ship.
Anyone claiming "they haven't retconned anything" clearly isn't paying attention to the fact that all three volumes of Chronicle were RETCONNED from being objective takes on the WoW universe to a biased perspective from the titans' POV.If that had been the case from the outset, I would never have bought the books in the first place, because I don't want a subjective outlook on an objective universe; which is the same reason I didn't buy this book
It's fairly common to models like this to shift dramatically whenever any new information or data is added. I don't really have complaints, and I'm kind of interested. It feels obvious that a living person, a dead person, and a magical construct that was never really dead but lives in the dead-lands might all have different views of magic and souls. I don't think too much changed besides the implication that Life and Death are greater powers than some of the others, which makes plenty of sense to me. What are we fighting for? The mortal realm. What are the Shadowlands creatures fighting for? The immortal realm. The Void and the Burning Legion are/were after those things too!
"OMG ANOTHER RETCON"look at the chart.... Rotate it... Same chart.
I love the idea that the current "lore", passed down through the hands of generations of our world's titan-forged races, may have to change when a new perspective is added. This is how science, archaeology and research works in the real world. New discoveries bring about new revelations. After all, "the only constant is change".
I think the cosmic power chart is ultimately one of the only things I like about Warcraft. I find the story generally sucks at this point, and far too much of it is written backward in great detail - which is always being further retconned - and most of it is unplayable.But I see a lot of potential in well defining those powers, the feelings/ideas/behaviours they inspire in mortals, how people might be element-touched, how elements might mix to create environmental forces, how we might see common trends in wildly different groups of people likely related to elemental connections, and all that. Potential that we can glimpse in places, like Kul Tirans and water, but go largely ignored in the chronically undeveloped in many other groups of people.
Personally, I love the idea of multiple perspectives. It's fascinating to see the universe through the eyes of beings from different realms, and it retains the mystery that was lost when Chronicles came out and was 'the definitive lore'. The titans became less impressive and mysterious, and a lot of the confirmations also weakened the weight of the clues.The First Ones feel like an attempt to recapture the mystery the Titans once had, and while I wish they had said Chronicle was from a Titanic perspective from the start and feel this is a bit clumsy of a course correction, I think this is better now. Yes, it's a retcon, but it's not an unforgivable one. The 'definitive lore' in Chronicle was the stuff from Azeroth's history, the Titan's perspective stuff was about the origin of the universe and the nature of the cosmic forces. That seems to be the simplest and most accurate way of looking at it. Not everything in Chronicle is retroactively pointless, just the opening chapters are now less definite than they were when it came out.