Shadowlands Covenant Overview - Abilities, Rewards, How to Unlock

By RenataKane Updated: 2025/12/02

What Are Covenants?Kyrian, Necrolords, Night Fae,VenthyrKyrian Covenant

Primary Realm: Bastion

Eternal Role: Angelic Soul Guides, tasked with shuttling souls between the lands of the living and the dead

Character: Ordered and purposeful, the Kyrian are called to lives of eternal service. The Kyrian value humility, righteousness, service, and virtue. Those who seek out the Kyrian who aren't yet ready to assume roles of eternal service unburden their souls through meditation and reflection to gain renewed understanding.

Heroic Souls known to exist in Bastion: Uther Lightbringer, murdered by Crown Prince Arthas Menethil while defending the ashes of his father, King Terenas Menethil II.

Necrolord Covenant

Primary Realm: Maldraxxus

Eternal Role: Military guardians of the Shadowlands, protecting it from external forces that wage war on the enemies of Death

Character: Unrelenting and unyielding, the Necrolords are the military arm of the Shadowlands. They can be ruthless and value all flavors of strength and power -- mental, emotional, and physical. Expect to be sorely tested to join their ranks, as the Necrolords believe in the survival of the fittest, meaning those who can't excel deserve failure and rejection. This can lead to some interpreting Maldraxxus as a realm of evil, but this is not necessarily true. Power, not philosophy, rules here.

Heroic Souls known to exist in Maldraxxus: Draka, mother of Thrall, murdered by Gul'dan's Shadow Council forces shortly after giving birth.

Night Fae Covenant

Primary Realm: Ardenweald

Eternal Role: Guardians of Nature, Shepherds of the Cycle of Life and Death

Character: The Night Fae represents the autumn and winter cycles of the Wheel of Life -- the cycle of death and rebirth that comes to all parts of nature. They serve in a similar capacity to the Kyrian to powerful nature souls, guiding them from life to their realms for eventual rest and rebirth. The realms of the Night Fae are the mirror to the Emerald Dream, and parts of their realms are linked strongly to the Drust. Souls with strong ties to the natural world can earn rebirth through this re-connection to all aspects of nature.

Heroic Souls known to exist in Ardenweald: Cenarius, who was corrupted by the Nightmare and purified in the Emerald Nightmare.

Venthyr Covenant

Primary Realm: Revendreth

Eternal Role: Punishers of the Unworthy

Character: The vampiric Venthyr serve Shadowlands as those who seek out those souls weighed down by the burdens of their flaws -- pride, rapaciousness, greed, apathy. Without the Venthyr to purge them of these burdens and allow them to atone, these souls might have been sentenced to an eternity in The Maw as irredeemable, but for the spark of possible redemption found within them. The Venthyr prepare these souls for one of two fates -- learning to harness their strengths to become a Punisher for the Covenant or lighten their souls to move on to another Covenant to further their eternal journey.

Souls known to exist in Venthyr: Kael'thas Sunstrider, former Lord of the Blood Elves, who died in Magister's Terrace after falling from grace following the Legion.

Discovering Covenants

Bastion (Kyrian)

Maldraxxus (Necrolords)

Ardenweald (Night Fae)

Revendreth (Venthyr)

Covenants and Alts - Threads of FateHow to Select A CovenantChoosing Your PurposeTal-Inara

Kyrian - Polemarch Adestres: /way 36.2, 64.2

Necrolords - Baroness Draka: /way 43, 74

Night Fae - Lady Moonberry: /way 39.6, 60.9

Venthyr - General Draven: /way 44.7, 68.8

Choosing Your PurposeBe sure to pick this up before you go to your new home zone.

Kyrian: Among the Kyrian

Necrolords: Taking The Seat

Night Fae: The Heart of the Forest

Venthyr: Sinfall

How to Change your CovenantWARNING: Covenant Choice is not a forgiving system.Prove Your WorthRenownCovenant Special Abilities

A Signature Ability that is common to all members of the Covenant

A Class Ability common to all members of a particular class within the Covenant

Dungeon BonusesCovenant Soulbinds and ConduitsCovenant RewardsTransmogMounts and PetsCovenant Sanctums

Anima Conductor

Transportation Network

Adventures - Scouting Map/Mission Table ()

Covenant-Specific Feature - Minigame

Transportation NetworkCovenant FeaturesNoteAnima ConductorChronicle of Lost MemoriesGrateful OfferingAdventuresMobile Companion AppCovenant CallingsCovenant Campaigns

Comments

Comment by NinjaFlibble

My only concern is that I will be forced into a specific covenant for raiding. I know that isn't Blizz' intention, but that could happen anyway. I heard that's why we went from talent trees to talent bars; to do away with cookie cutter specs, but this, ironically, made them only more cookie cutter.

Comment by GanonDoom

It seems as though we'll need to play through the expac with four different characters in order to see all of the story content, does that seem accurate? (Putting aside the ability to change covenants for now as it seems that'll be rather costly.)

Comment by Celebriian

@Renata, thank you for this guide of insight. I couldn't attend BlizzCon this year and was wanting to know more about these "Covenants" mentioned on a social media channel.
Your guide is very comprehensive, considering the information is currently only what was presented at BlizzCon two weeks ago (barely).

Comment by khatmar

An undead warrior who protected her charges with honor might be a perfect candidate for the Kyrian, while a dwarf paladin who committed atrocities in his zeal for his personal idea of righteousness might find himself in Revendreth to atone for his pride.

How about a dark ranger that burned dozens of children and elderly alive?

Comment by Solartis29

i hope we can soulbind to more than 1 guy (with consequencies, sharing anima between 2 talent tree)

Comment by Tarmaur

In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with current WoW mechanics is the huge gap between meta builds and other random builds, which always forces one to play the meta if they want to achieve something worthy. I think if builds were actually play-styles, rather than being useless options just for the sake of being there, it would take the game's flexibility to a whole new level.

Comment by LittleLeo

Thanks for the great guide! These covenants add more diversity to the game and I love it! This seems Blizz's new direction to follow the general need for diversity they need to keep up with in the game as well (same with the player modifications/new skin colors etc). Can't wait to see the new player landscape!

Comment by Apollomantis

I'm concerned with the current system they have in place for covenants, given that the abilites they give aren't going to be tiny racials, but big CD's. That are going to be the determining factor in terms of overall healing and DPS output that can further the cookie cutter system we have. With forcing players into not being able to use the other abilites at will without serious grinds to both swap to them and back depending on the situation they may want the ability for. I'm hoping that what we get is a system similar to talents, or azertie somewhat where you pay some fee to swap at will, or just use a tome and swap that way. As it would seriously suck if you pretty much were locked into only being able to do good single target for raiding, or AoE for keys, or extra abilities in PvP that can be lifesaving or pump harder into players. We're thankfully seeing blizzard taking steps in the right directions, as the essence system got a massive kick in the right direction. With the new currency being added which allowed alts to be able to gear properly and have acess to proper traits without previous inital 8.2 grinds that made sense at the time. However now in 8.3 didn't make sense to continue to have and gimped a lot of players from endgame content due to essences. I just hope they continue to take steps in the right direction, and see how silly it is from a gameplay perspective it is to lock players in a single covenant. I get it from a roleplay perspective, but roleplay doesn't always mean that its a good idea for gameplay in terms of pushing endgame or other aspects of the game outside of roleplay.

Comment by Credanas

Just tell me these things won't be active on pvp. Please...

Comment by Zovesta

These look so interesting! Normally I dread replaying expansion content on anything more than my Alliance main and my Horde alt (and let's be honest, some skimming is done the second time around on my Hordie), but I'm genuinely looking forward to taking my alts through here. Now I just have to decide which alts are the chosen ones. Very excited to see lore characters again, especially Kael'thas, but I am surprised at Thrall's mum being in Maldraxxus--never heard enough about her character from in-game quests to peg her for that personality.
Thanks for the guide, Shadowlands is looking awesome so far. :)

Comment by Skeletonpony

LORD PLEASE PA-LEASE let the Kyrian be a playable race. I am in love, I want a thicc girl race, and no, not a character with a beer gut , I mean a thicc girl with wings. I am in love with how they look not to mention what she is wearing is the kinda clothes I'm looking for in wow. OMG she is amazing.

Comment by Skeletonpony

Also question, does this mean that if I do all this work to get a mount and do all the special customization like artifact type appearances, its not gonna count for any of my characters and same with the armor? How are you gonna do a mount off when you cant even collect them all lol or am I reading into this incorrectly.

Comment by mew4ever23

Hmm. I'm kinda torn between Kyrian and Night Fae for my Druid. The others seem like they would be vastly inferior for healing.

Comment by Ph3n0m

Question, how does it gonna look if for instance I choose Kyrian, my fiancee chooses Night Fae. Are we gonna be able to play together?

Comment by Castastrophe

I hate that Blizzard is forcing me to play one spec. The covenant best for DPS and for tanking are both different, that's unfair. I cannot just switch to tank spec when my raid team needs because I am setup for DPS. The limitations that are being forced upon me is a joke, let me play my class the way I want to!

Comment by datgrl

I usually do dailies with friends. It's doubtful that all of us will have the same "Calling" dailies. Can these still be done in a group or will the content be phased?

Comment by kafk

I put this together for my own guidance in terms of resources and soulbinds. These information are just my opinion and you guys can verify it.

Soulbinds
Nadjia - Venthyr - Extra Rubies and dredge currencies, 15% well fed, flasks, and weapon enchant (benefits the Dual handed Alchemist Pandas)
Theotar- venthyr - potion increase, cooking ingredients and drops herbs
General Draven - Venthyr - great for tanking DKs, soulbinds gives either mount speed 10% or durability less 50%

Pelagos - Kyrian - great for healers, tailors and enchanters
Kleia - Kyrian - great for runners and quick death increasing run speed for 20 sec. Mount speed 10%
Mikanikos - Kyrian - great for casters that reduces stun durations and increase haste.

Marileth - Necrolord - great for tanks that heals durability and bonus on opening locked keys.
Emeni - Necrolord - Great for Rogues and escape artists.
Bonesmith - Necrolord - great for aoe arsenals (heals 1-5% per kill or increase critical strikes), drops ores and jewels

Niya - Might Fae - 5% health regeneration per 3 sec non-stop, poisons based on Versatility, drops meats and leatherworking skins or 20% run speed for 2 min after kills. Demon Hunters may best served this.
DreamWeaver - Night Fae - Cute to join you, 5% haste for 15 Sec, great for stunners, rooters, speed killers, and 20% run speed in rest areas.
Korayn - Night Fae - weapons take no durability or mount speed 3% with allies.

Bonus
Kyrian - Has potion that 20% heals and removes negative effects, engineering pet
Night Fae - Fox 30% speed boost, great for non druids.
Necrolord - just quick defense after kills
Venthyr - has a quick distance portal and likes to party.

Hunter Dreamweaver (Night Fae) Rest area speed for BM total of 92% speed.
Druid Bonesmith (Necrolord)
DK Blacksmith Bonesmith (necrolord)
DH Leatherworker Niya (Night Fae)
Warlock Tailor/enchanter Pelagos (Kyrian)

Comment by Gomrin

I can’t say that I am overly excited by the background or aesthetics of any of them but choosing one to max dps is probably pointless as well because knowing blizz they are going to change optimal specs with every content patch to “keep it fun”.

Comment by kv83

Transmogs from Covenant sets will only be available to members of that Covenant. If you have more than one character that belongs to a particular Covenant, any Covenant-specific transmogs should be available accountwide.

I think the last sentence is a bit misleading. It should be "If you have more than one character that belongs to a particular Covenant, any Covenant-specific transmogs should be available accountwide to any character that are member of that covenant.", no?

Comment by piratepower

Covenant armor set links for 3D Dressing Room:

Kyrian Cloth (Selfless Watcher's)
Kyrian Leather (Selfless Bearer's)
Kyrian Mail (Selfless Forgelite's)
Kyrian Plate (Selfless Collector's)

Necrolord Cloth (Bladesworn Conjurer's)
Necrolord Leather (Bladesworn Wraith's)
Necrolord Mail (Bladesworn Tactician's)
Necrolord Plate (Bladesworn Harbinger's)

Night Fae Cloth (Faewoven)
Night Fae Leather (Oakheart)
Night Fae Mail (Runewarden's)
Night Fae Plate (Queensguard)

Venthyr Cloth (Soulbreaker's)
Venthyr Leather (Ebony Death Shroud)
Venthyr Mail (Fearstalker's)
Venthyr Plate (Dread Sentinel's)

Comment by Rigbiez

Anyone wanting to move the Covenant extra action button that you get while leveling up in shadow lands, you can use the addon Moveanything and it is the 'Zone Ability' option that you want to move.

Comment by vlyken

I didn’t get the quest to select a covenant so the game selected one for me, I realized that the reason why that happened was because the covenant ambassadors aren’t in the game for me. Has anyone else had this problem?

Comment by D34thsEyEs

Very big reason why people must have at least 4 characters no matter what. To be fair, that way I won't get penalized over and over again using the exact same character.

Comment by Sunchic

I am a little sad that Ysera didn't get any love here. She should have been the one listed as the

Heroic Souls known to exist in Ardenweald: Cenarius, who was corrupted by the Nightmare and purified in the Emerald Nightmare.

. I did not see Cenarius while playing the story, only in Ysera's dream.

Comment by Trevin

Adding my 2¢ on choosing a covenant after having taken multiple characters through each campaign. I mainly play solo, so people who play with groups may have a much easier time of getting through these; but if I were to have a fresh character choose a covenant again I would most definitely not choose the Kyrians. The is the only one of the four covenants which requires completing a dungeon (The Spires of Ascension) in order to progress and get your covenant gear (at only the 3rd of 9 chapters). Additionally, a quest in chapter 6 (Eyes of the Master) requires defeating a powerful foe in Reverdreth which one of my characters has not yet managed to defeat; my other character who had gone through this was only able to do so because there were other players in the area helping out. Finally, one of the later quests in chapter 8 (Her Will, Inflicted) involves a very dangerous trip into the Maw, which I could not have completed without other players in the zone to help keep enemy aggro off of my character.

I would probably not choose the Night Fae or Venthyr either. Chapter 8 of the has a series of quests in another dangerous part of the Maw (Loa Rescue in The Beast Warrens, though this is not nearly as bad as Perdition Hold that Kyrians have to foray.) The doesn’t have a bad Maw run like either the Kyrians or Night Fae, but it does have a quest in Revendreth (Blackbale Betrayers) which is rather difficult to do solo.

That just leaves the , which as far as I remember is completely manageable playing solo.

All that said, it’s probably worth going through all of the covenants at least once just for the covenant-specific rewards — transmog sets, mounts, pets, etc. — which may be used account-wide. And I haven’t even touched on the special covenant abilities they grant your character, since those are also class-specific. Those you’ll just have to try out on a per-character basis with each covenant to see what you like. I just strongly recommend grouping up for all but the Necrolords.

Comment by Wowzir

What to do with anima objects you collect on character/alts BEFORE they reach Level 60

Note that you can store Anima you happen to gain (from quest rewards, etc.) in the Anima Reservoir in your Covenant Sanctum even before you reach level 60. Right-click on the NPC at the Anima Reservoir and then click on the "Deposit" button and the anima will be stored in the reservoir. I am looking forward to spending some of the anima without having to go out questing in order to do my first upgrade to the transport system.

OFC, the alt I did this on was using the Threads of Fate alternate levelling method where you choose your covenant in Oribos during the early stages of the process.

;)

Comment by realthoughts

Pretty god dam annoying in my opinion on a alt i just quested from 50 to 60 but once hitting level 60 i was not given the choice to select a covenant , turns out u have to continue to quest in ravendreth to do the opening quest bullcr*p before choosing . Rolls eyes , as if im going to do this on multiple characters GRRR . Blizzard says once u do this on a main you wont have to do the same again but thats a total lie - rolls eyes and beat head on computer table . NO BODY LIKES TO QUEST BLIZZARD - FAR OUT !

Comment by Pheydre

The changing covenants section needs to be updated to reflect the changes in Patch 9.1.5 which allow players to change between covenants at will and without the need to do quests to rejoin a previous covenant.

Comment by TulkorHammer

I found this guide to be very helpful. Thank you!

Comment by Raznah

I recently tried to open world quests in Shadowlands, on an alt I have created after the Dragonflight launch.
Since the skip is no longer available, I had to do all chapters in all zones, then join a convenant. They have been unlocked once I went in Elysium Hold and finished the small intro to the covenant.
Its annoying as all hell, but it went rather fast. About 3 hours of questing per zone. However this does not open Korthia. Opens Zereth Mortis, The Maw, but not Korthia.

Shadowlands Covenant Overview - Abilities, Rewards, How to Unlock

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