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Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm
Start Date
8-6-2023 3:00 PM
End Date
8-6-2023 3:50 PM
Description
The lore in World of Warcraft represents various global religions along with their multiple paths to the soul’s redemption. One quest asks players to approach various divintities and retrieve their sacred objects in order to save a paladin from the disease of undeath in desolate Icecrown. Scholars have also noticed World of Warcraft’s religious capacities with one such example being comparing Thrall to Jesus. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the World of Warcraft lore has its own version of Hell–a region known as the Maw–with its own version of Satan. The Maw is one of the new territories introduced in the afterlife-centered expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. However, the Maw’s Zovaal is not satisfied with his domain and sets his sights for domination. The Maw then becomes a colonizing force in World of Warcraft’s expansion with exploiting resources and Zovaal’s campaign for conquest. While this becomes more explicit in the Shadowlands arc, players have already seen this portrayed in an earlier expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I intend to explore World of Warcraft’s Maw as empire with Zovaal as colonizer in this paper.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
Hell as Colonizing Force: Postcolonialism in World of Warcraft’s the Maw
The lore in World of Warcraft represents various global religions along with their multiple paths to the soul’s redemption. One quest asks players to approach various divintities and retrieve their sacred objects in order to save a paladin from the disease of undeath in desolate Icecrown. Scholars have also noticed World of Warcraft’s religious capacities with one such example being comparing Thrall to Jesus. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the World of Warcraft lore has its own version of Hell–a region known as the Maw–with its own version of Satan. The Maw is one of the new territories introduced in the afterlife-centered expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. However, the Maw’s Zovaal is not satisfied with his domain and sets his sights for domination. The Maw then becomes a colonizing force in World of Warcraft’s expansion with exploiting resources and Zovaal’s campaign for conquest. While this becomes more explicit in the Shadowlands arc, players have already seen this portrayed in an earlier expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I intend to explore World of Warcraft’s Maw as empire with Zovaal as colonizer in this paper.
Comments
SESSION IV
3:00 PM—3:50 Eastern
2:00 PM—2:50 Central
1:00 PM—1:50 Mountain
12:00 Noon—12:50 PM Pacific
7:00 PM—7:50 GMT