WoW History: Shadowlands

September 30, 2026•Lore•Brendo Arruda

"The History of the Expansions" series — Episode 9. The story of World of Warcraft told expansion by expansion, with the patches that changed it. The episodes are listed in order at the end of the post.

The story of Shadowlands happens after death. Sylvanas Windrunner breaks the Helm of Domination on the Frozen Throne, tears the veil between the living and the dead and takes the leaders of Azeroth to the Shadowlands, the afterlife of the Warcraft universe. There, every soul is falling into one single place, the Maw, and the heroes have to find out why before the cosmos itself is remade.

Sylvanas breaks the Helm of Domination

At the end of Battle for Azeroth, Sylvanas abandoned the Horde. She reappeared in Icecrown, faced the Lich King Bolvar Fordragon and split the Helm of Domination in two. A rift opened in the sky above Icecrown, straight into the Shadowlands.

Soon after, Sylvanas's servants, the Mawsworn kyrian, captured Anduin Wrynn, Baine Bloodhoof, Thrall and Jaina Proudmoore and took them to the other side. The heroes followed them with Bolvar and the death knights of the Ebon Blade.

The Shadowlands and the Maw

The Warcraft afterlife is not just one place. When someone dies, the soul passes through the Arbiter, an entity that decides which realm it goes to, based on the life it led. Each realm has a purpose and a people who take care of the souls.

The problem is that the Arbiter had stopped. Every soul, heroes and villains alike, was going to the Maw, the prison of the afterlife, ruled by the Jailer, Zovaal. In the Maw, souls get no rest: they are tortured and consumed.

The heroes rescued Jaina, Thrall and Baine in the Maw, but Anduin stayed with Sylvanas and the Jailer.

The four realms and the Covenants

To face the Jailer, the heroes needed allies among the dead. Each of the four great realms has a Covenant:

Bastion, home of the Kyrian, who guide virtuous souls. There the heroes meet Uther the Lightbringer.
Maldraxxus, home of the Necrolords, the army of the dead. Draka, Thrall's mother, is there.
Ardenweald, home of the Night Fae, where the souls of nature are reborn. Ysera is there, being reborn as a forest spirit.
Revendreth, home of the Venthyr, who purify sinful souls. Kael'thas is there, serving a sentence for his crimes.

Each realm suffered from the lack of new souls, and each one had a traitor tied to the Jailer. The most important of them was Sire Denathrius, the ruler of Revendreth, defeated in Castle Nathria.

Torghast, Tower of the Damned

In the middle of the Maw stands Torghast, Tower of the Damned, an endless prison where the Jailer keeps the most dangerous and most valuable souls. The heroes enter the tower many times during the expansion to rescue allies trapped inside.

The Jailer's plan

Little by little, the story reveals who the Jailer is. Zovaal was one of the Eternal Ones, the beings who ruled the realms of the afterlife, and he was locked in the Maw for trying to change how the cosmos works. His plan, with Sylvanas's help, was to gather the powers of domination, the chains and weapons forged with the same energy as the Helm, to remake reality the way he wanted.

Sylvanas accepted the deal because she believed the fate of the dead was unfair. She wanted a universe without the "cycle" that, in her eyes, always ended in the Maw.

How the expansion continues

Patch 9.1, Chains of Domination: Anduin is dominated, Kel'Thuzad meets his final death and Sylvanas turns against the Jailer.
Patch 9.2, the end of Shadowlands: the heroes go to Zereth Mortis, the land of the First Ones, and defeat the Jailer.

Where to see it in WotLK

Shadowlands comes long after WotLK, but it starts in the best-known place of the server's expansion:

Icecrown Citadel: the Frozen Throne where Sylvanas breaks the Helm is the same one where Arthas falls and Bolvar becomes the Lich King.
Halls of Reflection: Sylvanas faces the Lich King for the first time as queen of the Forsaken.
Frostmourne: the sword that held souls is the first hint that, in Warcraft, a soul can be imprisoned.
Bolvar Fordragon: the Lich King at the end of WotLK is one of the central characters of Shadowlands.