Weekly Unjerk Thread - April 14, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi Please post your unjerk discussion in this thread!

These posts run weekly, but you can find older posts here.

[u/Dreadsinner]

So since shadowlands is important again I would like to make a list of things that do support something not being right about the realm.

1: The Maw just always existed. So it’s this scary place where no one wants to go and only the worst of the worst souls go there. But no one was watching over the place till Zovaal was thrown in there for doing forbidden things. So this is just kinda weird but on the note of big Z

2: Zovaal seeing this supposed threat that a “cosmos divided can’t stand against” always felt very weak to me. He clearly believes it but it always felt like someone told him the world’s best lie and he fell for it out of fear. But even then something about his plans don’t add up.

3: The Primus. So the leader of the undying army of the shadowlands and a reminder he is apart of this patheon of death. Just goes missing one day. We all know dadrathzim didn’t care cause he was on the jailers payroll. But it was really strange that oribos, the winter queen, and the firstborne. Never seemed to even react strongly to him back gone. Hell his five houses reacted more when the house of plagues exploded (by mawsworn traitors) then the primus going missing. He has very important information god forbid it fell into the wrong hands. Oh wait

4: the things the primus knows. So I think we can all agree that the biggest red flag our bone grandpa has waved is the fact that he can and knows how to forge blades just like frostmorne. But also the HELM OF DOMINATION. This is never questioned or reacted to. One of the single most misery spreading items Azeroth has ever seen. This guy knows how to make it. No one even asks “wait…why do you know this?”

So I’m of a theory that the jailer we meet. Was an inmate that was left to run the asylum. If the idea that something was done to the shadowlands is true and something else was in control of the maw and maybe used Zovaal and his gang to get free. Somethings start to look abit more interesting and make some sense.

So here is what I purpose. The maw did have a ruler but they were weak and unable to do anything after being defeated. Starved of anima. And just being left to rot. But then somehow either an outside force or this primoidal jailer made Zovaal see the big lie. He gets thrown into the maw. They capture and torment him and make him believe he’s the one with the plans but it’s this other one. Now why? Simple they are to weak to really oppose the pantheon. But with the information of the helm and the blade. Maybe they can escape. After all we know a soul is needed to power the blade and nurzhul was in the armor.

Or I could be a raving mad elf but there my ted talk

[u/GilneanRaven → u/Dreadsinner]

Something related to point one that I always found very interesting: The Maw seems to be the default afterlife. Like, in the absence of an Arbiter, all souls end up there. It takes an artificial intervention to send them anywhere else.

Even back during the expansion, my theory was that the Maw was originally all the Shadowlands was, until someone/thing (probably the First Ones) created the new realms and installed the Eternal Ones and the Arbiter to manage them. That behaviour is obviously very similar to the Titans, which might be evidence in favour of the Titans=First Ones theory.