World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is making some of the biggest changes to the overall WoW experience of any expansion. As well as new zones, dungeons, and raids, the expansion sees changes made across the board to the leveling experience.
This includes a new starting zone for the Death Knights which takes into account their current position in the WoW lore. However, the starting zone also has some big implications for the role of the Ebon Blade and the Death Knights as they enter the realm of death itself in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
The original Death Knight starting experience was a turning point in World of Warcraft history. The story-driven starting zone had players rise as a knight of the Lich King himself and commit delightfully dastardly deeds upon the local peasants and Scarlet Crusade. That was, until the Death Knights were able to break free of the Lich King’s control and reclaim a small piece of their humanity, becoming the Knights of the Ebon Blade.
It was emblematic of the change in questing that took place in Wrath of the Lich King that saw mob grinds and collection quests increasingly replaced with exciting narrative missions. As the section took place before the main events of Wrath of the Lich King, however, it also ran into some chronology issues as new expansions were released.
When new races like the Worgen and Goblins were introduced as playable WoW races in subsequent expansions, the game found ways to justify their presence earlier in the timeline. Worgen Death Knights, for example, are mentioned to have been captured in Silverpine Forest, as the segment takes place before the fall of the Greymane Wall in Cataclysm. Pandaren Death Knights made less sense, as their homeland wouldn’t be rediscovered until after the fall of the Lich King, and they have not been able to become Death Knights until now.
The new Death Knight starting experience allows all of WoW’s allied races to become Death Knights using a short new starting zone that also applies to Pandaren Death Knights. These Death Knights start at the Frozen Throne itself, where the Lich King Bolvar explains that they have been risen into the ranks of the Ebon Blade because a “great destruction lies on the horizon.” Once they swear fealty to the Lich King they are then able to go through a death gate to their faction’s capital and choose where to go from there like any other player in the game.
The segment is clearly meant to allow all races to become Death Knights, but has some big implications for the lore. Chronologically the new start takes place before Sylvanas raids Icecrown and breaks the Helm of Domination. Since leaders of the Ebon Blade are present in this starting zone, that means that the existence of a new Lich King was known by more people than just Tirion Fordring.
It also means that as well as controlling the Scourge, Bolvar has been raising new champions into undeath just like Sylvanas and the Forsaken began to in Cataclysm. This raises questions about Bolvar’s morality and whether Sylvanas was ultimately right to call him unworthy of the Lich King’s mantle in the Shadowlands cinematic, albeit hypocritically.
The starting zone is extremely short, and some fans will be disappointed that the new Death Knights do not get the same story-driven experience as those raised by the former Lich King Arthas. However, with the whole expansion themed around death, the Knights of the Ebon Blade could have a particularly interesting role to play as they confront their own undeath and strange relationship with the Shadowlands. If given due care, their presence and story later in the game could help make these new Death Knights feel more integrated into the lore, giving them new motivation in WoW: Shadowlands.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC. At this point, World of Warcraft Shadowlands releases on October 26 or 27 (depending on time zone) for PC.
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