World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis in the testing phase of the expansion’s final major story content, calledEternity’s End. Among the story arcs being concluded in it,Eternity’s Endwill finally see the seat of the Arbiter filled once more–and it seemsWorld of Warcraftis narrowly avoiding falling into harmful stereotypes with its unexpected choice.Warning: Spoilers for Shadowlands: Eternity’s End below.
InShadowlands, players discovered the Arbiter, a construct responsible for sorting souls to their proper afterlives, was destroyed due to themachinations of theShadowlandsantagonist, Zovaal the Jailer. DuringEternity’s End, Pelagos, a fledgeling kyrian who players met through the story, will voluntarily take up the mantle of the Arbiter and assume her duties.
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The cutscenesdatamined fromEternity’s Endshow Pelagos embracing this new destiny as the Arbiter. In the process, he receives a literal glow up–a mixture between his previous form and the massive and elegant arbiter. In the cutscene, it appears he still retains his personality, as he banters with Kleia, and with the player character.
A few weeks prior,World of Warcraftfans datamined the voice lines used in this dialogue, which first hinted at this development. As Pelagos isone ofWorld of Warcraft’sfirst trans characters, many players were concernedWarcraftwas going to force him to “de-transition” by having him assume the female-coded form the old Arbiter used, or would erase his personality in the proccess, functionally killing him off with extra steps. It seemsWorld of Warcraftavoided both of these problematic tropes often used with LGBTQ+ characters, as Pelagos not only retains a masculine form, but his personality and individuality as well.
Though reception is mixed on this story development, manyWarcraftfans who are members of the LGBTQ+ communityare pleased with this development. Having a trans character not only take the spotlight in such a way, but essentially become a god of death, is not something people get to see very often.
Others are less pleased with this story beat. Though all players meet Pelagos during theShadowlandsstory, only players who choose the Kyrian covenant get to know him, or even discover he is trans in the first place. Many claim the choice is out of left field, and that other characters, such as Sylvanas, Uther, or Anduin would make better choices for the next Arbiter. However, it is unlikely any of these choices would have been better received, especially due to thelukewarm reception toShadowlandssince its launch last year. Pelagos’s fate as the new Arbiter may be the best players could hope to expect, but they are free to come to their own conclusions when the story is finalized inEternity’s End.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis available on PC.Eternity’s Endis currently in development.
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