First Shadowlands Afterlives animated short tells the hidden history of Bastion and Uther the Lightbringer

If, like me, you’ve been wondering how Uther the Lightbringer could have been in Bastion this whole time, and have been at Icecrown Citadel when we first saw Frostmourne, well, it turns out a lot happened to the soul of one of Azeroth’s first Paladins. Let’s just say that getting killed by Frostmourne complicates things for those that it happens to.

In the first of Shadowlands’ animated shorts, we learn more about Uther’s trip to the Shadowlands.

In the words of Hermes Conrad, that just raises further questions, huh?

It seems that Uther’s life, and death, is directly connected to the chaos we see in Bastion when we arrive there. The Mawsworn Kyrian definitely seem to be inspired by the moment where Uther’s Kyrian mentor, Devos, gives Uther Ascendant status — right after after the Archon ignores her warnings about Frostmourne, the wound it caused Uther’s soul, and its connection to the Maw. It appeared that the Runeblade literally tore Uther’s soul in half, using the power of the Maw itself.

We also get to see what the darkness that Arthas saw before him when he was defeated atop Icecrown Citadel — and how it was Ascended Uther himself who dropped him into the Maw. That’s pretty cool, but again, it raises as many questions as it answers.

Blizzard has also given us release dates for each of the following Afterlives shorts: we’ll be getting one a week until we’ve seen all four. The Maldraxxus short is coming on September 3, the Ardenweald short on Septermber 10, and the Revendreth short on September 17, so block out your Thursdays for more lore revelations behind what’s going on before we actually arrive in the Shadowlands.

Since we now know that the expansion is dropping on October 26, that won’t be very long.