How the Machine of Death Was Broken - 9.2 Campaign Details the Destabilizing of the Arbiter (Spoilers)

PTR Posted 2021/12/14 at 11:35 PM by perculia

SPOILERS!!! Possible Major Story Spoilers Ahead.

Breaking the Machine of Deathreclaiming his sigil, stored in the ArbiterThe Jailer's Gambit - Argus the UnmakerAcquaintances Forgottenfirst cutscene

Saezurah: The time has come. The halls have healed. A new Arbiter waits in the wings.
Saezurah: The chorus assembles. The vessel awaits. Your voice must join them.
Saezurah: Dissonance...a melody lost long ago...
Pelagos: Something is interfering with the ritual!
Darkseer Corrupter: Long have we awaited this moment. The Banished One's gambit made manifest...
Darkseer Corrupter: A world-soul twisted by Death. A maul with which to crush the Arbiter...
Darkseer Corrupter: And now it shall take this vessel! Argus will be Eternal!

Did Argus Break the Machine of Death?Jailer's encounterDeath Titan Floating in Space VisualDeath Titan TestGrasp of the UnmakerEnemy Infiltration - PrefaceThe Jailer's Phase 3 datamining

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Comment by rossyysHere we goComment by Xamnationbut why?Comment by Nathan22177We know that Ysera was one of the final souls
Comment by edcarrijo4D chessComment by SgtGrumbles"Enemy Infiltration - Preface" never mentions the Jailer even once. It's addressed to Denathrius.Comment by hobbidaggyOk I’m now confused. Argus was not a mortal soul he would have returned to the realm of order like all the souls do from a specific realm. Demons to the fel realm, void-beings to the void realm etc etc. If it was Helya, an agent of The Jailer who was working with Sylvanis up to her death and had a bargain with her, sure I could understand but this makes zero sense. Titans don’t go to the shadowlands upon deathComment by AesiriaThe one bit of evidence that's against Argus the Unmaker is the timeline of events. We know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death broke, and as she passed away in early Legion and we defeated Argus at the end of Patch 7.3, the timeline doesn't quite line up.Comment by ServasusThe one bit of evidence that's against Argus the Unmaker is the timeline of events. We know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death broke, and as she passed away in early Legion and we defeated Argus at the end of Patch 7.3, the timeline doesn't quite line up.Comment by SoeroahOk I’m now confused. Argus was not a mortal soul he would have returned to the realm of order like all the souls do from a specific realm. Demons to the fel realm, void-beings to the void realm etc etc. If it was Helya, an agent of The Jailer who was working with Sylvanis up to her death and had a bargain with her, sure I could understand but this makes zero sense. Titans don’t go to the shadowlands upon deathComment by TehLucarioOk I’m now confused. Argus was not a mortal soul he would have returned to the realm of order like all the souls do from a specific realm. Demons to the fel realm, void-beings to the void realm etc etc. If it was Helya, an agent of The Jailer who was working with Sylvanis up to her death and had a bargain with her, sure I could understand but this makes zero sense. Titans don’t go to the shadowlands upon deathComment by wooway777We know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death brokeComment by coolfreezerWhy are you saying that the timeline does not line up? If the events of legion span only two weeks for example, it could be possible that ysera be one of the last souls to arrive to the shadowlands and still the red orb be argus to disrupt the arbiter.
What grinds my gears more is how the arbiter was created after zovval was banished and the other eternals never knew about zereth mortis and the crypt. Is that somehow explained?Comment by ArchimtirosThe one bit of evidence that's against Argus the Unmaker is the timeline of events. We know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death broke, and as she passed away in early Legion and we defeated Argus at the end of Patch 7.3, the timeline doesn't quite line up.Comment by TehLucarioThe one bit of evidence that's against Argus the Unmaker is the timeline of events. We know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death broke, and as she passed away in early Legion and we defeated Argus at the end of Patch 7.3, the timeline doesn't quite line up.Comment by ArcusOfBloodhoofArgus the Unmaker had distinctive red abilities on Mythic difficulty, and the initial Shadowlands cinematic showing the weakening of the Arbiter depicts a large red cosmic force slamming into the Eternal One. However, this color could reference other Legion bosses, such as Xavius from Emerald Nightmare.

The one bit of evidence that's against Argus the Unmaker is the timeline of events. We know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death broke, and as she passed away in early Legion and we defeated Argus at the end of Patch 7.3, the timeline doesn't quite line up.breaksComment by Nulgarbut why?Comment by AlakeiThancanYou've gotta love that one year and half into an expansion, we still have to ponder those questions because Blizzard can't give us a clear explanation as to what the hell is happening in the game. Like, yeah, it's pretty obvious that Argus is the red blast we see in the cinematic .... But why? Why does this soul break the Arbiter? He's not the first Titan to die, and not the most powerful either since he was barely born when we fought him. Why is he even sent to the Shadowlands? Titans are creatures of Arcane, and it's been said pretty explicitly by Blizzard that only mortals go to the Shadowlands when they die.

You also have to wonder how the hell Argus was part of the Jailer's plan? Considering the Legion has almost endless armies, and we mortals were the underdog in that war, betting on our success for his plan to come to fruition sounds like a pretty big gamble. Guess you could go "Oh but it was the Nathrezim all along" but ... When? How? We barely fought any Nathrezim in Legion, most of them were defeated long before Antorus. In fact the only ones still standing by the time we raid Antorus are Mal'ganis, who we don't even see in Legion after the pre patch event on the Broken Shore, and Varimathras, who's a prisoner (pretty difficult to manipulate events when you've been a prisoner for 6 or 7 years and have not had any contact with the players since).

Look, we all know that Blizzard artists are absolutely amazing. That includes most of the writing team. But can we please get rid of Steve Danuser? Because this is just one new grain of sand in the desert of "looks cool in a cinematic but makes absolutely no sense". A desert that started in the pre-patch of BFA and keeps going until this day. Stop this madness.

I don't have anything against Steve Danuser on a personal level, this is not meant to incite harassment or whatever. Guy's probably lovely. But with all due respect ... His writing sucks.Comment by NulgarYou've gotta love that one year and half into an expansion, we still have to ponder those questions because Blizzard can't give us a clear explanation as to what the hell is happening in the game.Comment by MairoNSYeah, except 9.2 isn't the first patch. It's the last.

You can't build your villain if you don't know anything about him.Comment by ShadowlygerWe know that Ysera was one of the final souls to arrive in Ardenweald before the machine of Death broke, and as she passed away in early Legion and we defeated Argus at the end of Patch 7.3, the timeline doesn't quite line up.

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