Zovaal

Zovaal, better known as the Jailer or the Banished One, was an Eternal One who ruled over the Maw in the Shadowlands. Ruling from the Sanctum of Domination in Torghast, Tower of the Damned, he wielded powerful Domination magic and was the singular and absolute master of the Maw: the realm continually altered and changed itself to his whims,The Art of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, pg. 187 and he observed all actions of note within his domain through his magical eye.Rule 2: Keep a Low Profile The damned souls who arrived in the realm were tortured and twisted by the Jailer until they willingly served him for eternity as his Mawsworn soldiers.The Art of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, pg. 175, 190
Ages ago, Zovaal was known as the Arbiter, responsible for judging the souls that entered the afterlife. However, he later tried to upset the balance of the cosmos in the belief that the First Ones' creation was flawed and unable to stand against a coming threat that he had foreseen.Sepulcher of the First Ones cinematics He tried to claim the sigils of his fellow Eternal Ones, intending to use them to reach the Sepulcher in the First Ones' realm of Zereth Mortis, whose secrets would allow him to unmake reality and replace it with one in which all would serve him. As punishment for trying to steal their sigils, his counterparts stripped him of his power, used the newly-created magic of Domination to imprison him in the Maw, and created a new Arbiter to replace him.
During his ages of imprisonment, the Jailer learned to harness the Domination used to bind him and continued scheming and working with various allies in both the Shadowlands and the world of the living, such as the nathrezim, all with the unchanged goal of reaching the Sepulcher. He set his sights on the mortal world of Azeroth and intended to use the power of its world-soul in the rewriting of reality. He imprisoned one of his brothers, the Primus, and used him to create the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne—instruments that the nathrezim then gave to the Lich King, an entity whom Zovaal intended to use as a herald that would allow him to reach Azeroth. However, this purpose was rejected by all three mortals who came to bear the title of Lich King.
The Jailer later instead allied with Sylvanas Windrunner and convinced her that his end goal was to tear down the unfair system of Life and Death and replace it with one in which everyone would have true freedom. Not long thereafter, a plot by the nathrezim resulted in the Arbiter falling dormant. All souls who entered the Shadowlands instead began pouring into the Maw, empowering the Jailer while the rest of the Shadowlands grew isolated and withered from a lack of anima. Zovaal's allies—including the Forsworn in Bastion, Kel'Thuzad in Maldraxxus, Mueh'zala in Ardenweald, and Sire Denathrius in Revendreth—took advantage of the drought to sow chaos among the most important afterlives and the covenants that ruled them in order to prevent them from unifying against the Jailer. On Azeroth, Sylvanas destroyed the Helm of Domination, opening a rift between the mortal world and the Shadowlands, and brought several leaders of Azeroth into the Jailer's hands; he used the power of Domination to turn one, King Anduin Wrynn, into his unwilling champion.
Although adventurers of Azeroth—dubbed Maw Walkers—entered the Shadowlands and helped strengthen and reunite the covenants, they were unable to stop the Jailer from obtaining the sigils of the other Eternal Ones. With Sylvanas' aid, he attacked Oribos itself, the home of the Arbiter, and claimed the final sigil—his own—from her. Sylvanas turned against him upon realizing his true motives, but he discarded her and used the sigils to escape with Anduin through a portal to Zereth Mortis. The Maw Walkers pursued him and, after freeing Anduin and building up a resistance to his Domination magic, managed to confront and destroy Zovaal in the heart of the Sepulcher of the First Ones before he could complete his plan of harnessing Azeroth's life force to unmake existence.
Zovaal is the main antagonist and final boss of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. (MMO-Champion transcript/Wowhead transcript)
==Biography==
===Ancient times===
====Binding of the Banished One====
The Jailer was an evil older than reality itself.The Art of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, pg. 204 Along with his fellow Eternal Ones, Zovaal was created by the First Ones in their realm of Zereth MortisOracle, Heal Thyself and given life in the Crypts of the Eternal.The Infinite Circle: The Order Of Things: He was given the position of Arbiter, responsible for judging mortal souls entering the Shadowlands and assigning them to appropriate afterlives, and he and each of his siblings were granted sigils symbolizing their covenants' purpose.Voices of the Eternal The First Ones forbade the Eternal Ones from returning to Zereth Mortis.A Hasty Voyage
However, at some point, Zovaal came to believe that the designs of the First Ones were flawedSanctum of Domination ending cinematic and that the divided cosmos they had created would not be able to survive an unknown threat that he foresaw coming in the future. According to what he much later told Sylvanas Windrunner, his role as Arbiter also meant witnessing the lives of countless mortals whose existence had been defined not by their own choices, but by the whims of fate and outside circumstances. He saw the same battle for freedom and control play out time and again over the eons, but this was all for naught, as—in Zovaal's words—the idea of anyone truly having free will was only a lie perpetrated by the First Ones. He also noticed that out of all the souls he judged, those who came from the world of Azeroth had the greatest potential and strongest wills.World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 21 Zovaal came to believe that the Eternal Ones' sigils were keys to forbidden knowledge locked within Zereth Mortis' Sepulcher of the First Ones that he could use to destroy the current reality and its "flawed cycle" and instead forge a new, united cosmos dominated under his will, where all would be forced to serve him. When his siblings rebuked his heresy, he tried to claim their sigils by force.
Zovaal was so powerful that it required all of the Pantheon of Death to unite in order to defeat him, but in the end, the Primus of Maldraxxus led them to victory. The pantheon placed Zovaal on trialBinding of the Banished One in Oribos: Kyrestia the Firstborne pronounced him guilty of betraying his duty as Arbiter, and the Winter Queen declared that he had threatened the entire cycle of Life and Death, whereas Sire Denathrius ambiguously told Zovaal that he could have chosen another way and that they could've accomplished great things together. When the Primus asked him for the reason for his betrayal, Zovaal replied that the Eternal Ones were merely preserving a cosmos that was doomed.
As punishment for his treachery, the Eternal Ones decided to banish Zovaal to the inescapable Maw, where he would forevermore be its Jailer.The Door to the Unknown They stripped him of his anima and his sigil—leaving a gaping hole at the center of his chest—and used them to create a new Arbiter to judge souls in his place. According to Zovaal himself, he was "torn in two" and left feeling eternally incomplete. Mal'Ganis later described the Arbiter and Zovaal as "two parts of a whole".
In order to lock Zovaal away within his prison, the Primus created an entirely new system of magic, the language of Domination, and used its runes to carve the sentence of the Eternal Ones into his brother's flesh. The magic within the Heart of the Forest in Ardenweald was used to keep the Maw inescapable and ensure that Zovaal would remain bound forever. With these measures, the Pantheon of Death believed Zovaal's confinement to be "absolute and irrevocable".
====Reign in the Maw====
The Primus hoped that eons of imprisonment might cause Zovaal to repent for his sins. Instead, they only caused him to grow more malevolent,Untangling the Sigil and he never gave up his goal of reclaiming the power that had been "stolen" from him and seeing his schemes through to their end. Though it took him countless eons, the Jailer eventually gathered enough strength to break his chains. After countless more, he found a way to weaponize the power of Domination and use it against his enemies. Unbeknownst to the other Eternal Ones, Zovaal did not act alone in his original betrayal; he had a group of like-minded allies who continued acting on his behalf after his imprisonment and have influenced various events on the mortal plane throughout history.
One of them was his fellow Eternal One Denathrius, ruler of Revendreth, who willingly gave his sigil to the Jailer at some point.The Unseen Guests Among UsThe Meaning of Wrath Denathrius also created a race of master spies, the nathrezim, to infiltrate the other cosmic forces and spread the influence of Death.Convoy of the Covenants Many nathrezim ended up pretending to serve the demonic Burning Legion.The Nathrezim As part of a "gambit" by the Jailer, they convinced the Legion's ruler Sargeras to let them corrupt the titan world-soul of the planet Argus with Death magic to turn him into a resurrection engine for the Legion's armies. In this way, they ensured that if Argus was killed, his Death-corrupted soul would travel to Oribos and slam into the new Arbiter, rendering her dormant.World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 25Acquaintances Forgotten
Another ally of the Jailer was the loa Mueh'zala, who made a pact with the titanic keeper Odyn, claiming one of his eyes in exchange for giving him the ability to gaze into the Shadowlands.The Legend of Odyn: The Keeper's Eye This led to Odyn creating the Val'kyr as an imitation of the Shadowlands' kyrian. Mueh'zala gave Odyn's eye to the Jailer, who twisted it into the Eye of the Jailer, an instrument allowing him to see all that transpires within the Maw and possibly other realms as well.Eye of the Jailer#Adventure Guide At some point, Mueh'zala also brought the first Val'kyr Helya to the Jailer's side.
At one point, the souls of four wicked giants—Bahmethra, Hrestimorak, Nilganihmaht, and Salaranga—were damned to the Maw. The Jailer was pleased by the long list of crimes they'd committed in life, bound their souls in armor, and elevated them to become his chosen torturers. However, the four secretly set out to usurp him by building an army of their own. The Eye of the Jailer discovered their plot, and when the giants attacked, the Jailer defeated them one by one. Instead of simply destroying their souls, he claimed a hand from each and condemned their broken souls to the river Gorgoa forever. He then asked his chronicler Varithoman to make a record of the giants' crimes and how they had been punished, as a reminder to others that it is folly to defy the Banished One.Hands of Defiance: A Chronicle of Woe
Over time, the tale of the Jailer's imprisonment became a legend passed down only in whispers among denizens of the Shadowlands. He became known as a "bogeyman" figure, and the mere mention of his name was said to hold dark power. Even the attendants' detailed records in Oribos contained only oblique references to the events surrounding his banishment. In fact, for most of the Shadowlands' known history, there was very little evidence to show that the Jailer even existed, let alone what he looked like or what his purpose was beyond overseeing the souls condemned to the Maw, since nothing that entered the realm could escape and tell the tale. The attendants of Oribos were unaware that the Jailer had once been the Arbiter and incorrectly believed that the artificial Arbiter that they served was the original one created by the First Ones themselves. However, there are still some very ancient and worn records that reference a time when the Arbiter was "not quite so benevolent", implying that they're remnants from the time when Zovaal was the Arbiter. It was said among the attendants that the Jailer was filled with hatred for the Arbiter, and Tal-Inara believed that if he struck her down, it would mean the end of everything the First Ones made.Audience with the Arbiter
===The vessels of Domination===
At some point, the Primus noticed that the Jailer's influence was seeping outside of the Maw and left Maldraxxus to investigate the matter. Before leaving, he left behind a warning message in his sanctum telling his fellow Eternal Ones that they had to see to their defenses, that Zovaal must not reach the Sepulcher, and that all would be lost if the Arbiter was not protected. He then traveled to the city of Korthia, entrusted his sigil to the attendants there,Secrets of the Vault and bound it with the magic of memory, which he hoped that not even Zovaal could untangle.Into the Vault Once he arrived in the Maw, the Primus' suspicions proved true: the Jailer, having forged his chains into a weapon, brought about his brother's defeat. In a reversal of the way the Primus had once imprisoned him, the Jailer stripped him of his memoriesDeep Within and turned him into a broken prisoner called the Runecarver deep within Torghast.
The Jailer extracted countless designs to use for his Mawsworn army from the Runecarver's mind, the most notable of which were the designs for the mourneblade Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination.Clearing the Fog (achievement) Zovaal had concluded that the power of the immensely powerful world-soul slumbering within Azeroth would be the key to his plan of eradicating reality and he intended for the blade and the helm—the "vessels of Domination"—to be a way of establishing his influence on the planetThe Art of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, pg. 197: The Veil between realms wanes. The Helm of Domination was crafted to be our way forward; instead, the one seared by the flames of Life uses it to keep us at bay. so that he could claim his final prize, "the secret that the First Ones sought to hide."
The nathrezim masquerading as members of the Burning Legion bore the vessels of Domination across the veil and used them to imprison the soul of Ner'zhul, the first Lich King. The demon lord Kil'jaeden planned to use the Lich King to create an army of undead Scourge in order to weaken Azeroth in preparation for a Legion invasion,The Revelation whereas the Jailer intended for the Lich King to herald his own coming and reign on Azeroth.The Jailer's GraspRemnant of Ner'zhul#Adventure Guide The nathrezim made the Legion believe that the Lich King was solely their instrument and not an instrument of Death, and in this way tricked them into helping to spread the Jailer's influence on the mortal plane. The nathrezim built a stronghold for the Lich King, Icecrown Citadel, whose secret true purpose was to one day channel Azeroth's life force into the Shadowlands via the Forge of Souls.Penance and Renewal, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon dialogue However, Zovaal at some point decided that Ner'zhul was "weak-willed" and unworthy of the purpose Zovaal had planned for him.The Jailer's GraspRemnant of Ner'zhul#Adventure Guide
During the Third War, Arthas Menethil took up Frostmourne and became the Lich King's champion. As a mourneblade, Frostmourne could shatter its victims' souls into fragments. Many of the fragments that Arthas tore from his kills were sent to the Jailer, who stored them away in the Ossuary of the Banished in Torghast.A Paladin's Soul One of these victims was Uther the Lightbringer, whose incomplete soul was sent to Bastion, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the Jailer swaying the kyrian Devos to his side and convincing her to form the rebel Forsworn.Afterlives: BastionConversation between Devos and Kyrestia at the Seat of the Archon Another was Sylvanas Windrunner, whom Zovaal came to know and understand through Frostmourne.
Following the Third War, Ner'zhul and the Scourge rebelled against the Legion. The nathrezim Balnazzar, in a conversation with Sylvanas, commented that the Lich King was straying from "the path of his master" and that Arthas was too prideful to be "the instrument that is necessary".World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 13 It's not clear if by "master" he was referring to the Jailer or Kil'jaeden.
Arthas ultimately usurped Ner'zhul to become the new Lich King. Ner'zhul's soul ended up in the Maw, where the Jailer informed him of how he had failed in his role as herald and confined him to eternal torture within his stronghold, the Sanctum of Domination. The Jailer subsequently tried to use the new Lich King to herald his coming instead, but Arthas also proved to be a failure: he was too weak to master Frostmourne's potential and defied the Jailer to instead pursue his own desire for power and conquest.Taelia, Calia, and Jaina dialogue in Oribos: After Arthas' defeat, Devos and Uther cast his soul into the Maw, where the Jailer laid claim to it.Anduin Raid Finale
Arthas was succeeded as Lich King by Bolvar Fordragon. During his years on the Frozen Throne, Bolvar could sense a malevolent presence at the edge of his mind. Although he did not realize that it was the Jailer trying to twist him into a pawn, he managed to resist the Banished One's influence.Through the Shattered Sky Even so, Bolvar reflected years later that he didn't know how many of his actions furthered Icecrown Citadel's true purpose.
===A new pact===
After Arthas' death, Sylvanas Windrunner committed suicide at Icecrown. The Nine, a group of Val'kyr serving the Jailer, showed her visions of the Forsaken's future until she asked for oblivion. Her soul found itself in the Maw, where she was tortured by the Mawsworn until the Jailer intervened and revealed himself to her. He told her about his past, presenting the other Eternal Ones as cruel beings who had ripped out his heart and imprisoned him in the Maw simply for altruistically wanting to replace the First Ones' unfair design—a reality in which no one truly had free will—with a better one. He claimed that it was the "false Arbiter" who had sent Sylvanas to the Maw, despite her heroism in life, and continued that he needed her help—the help of a willing ally, not a slave—to break the system of Life and Death so he could give everyone true freedom.
Sylvanas initially refused to believe him, thinking that he was simply telling her what she wanted to hear, and grew furious when he explained his involvement with Frostmourne and the Lich King, as she thought it meant that her death and undeath at Arthas' hands were ultimately his fault. The Jailer insisted that he was not the one who'd commanded Arthas to kill her, and that while Arthas cut her down, he wanted to lift her up. To convince her, Zovaal summoned the Nine so they could show some of the Shadowlands' infinite afterlives to her and let her judge the unfairness of the First Ones' design for herself. Before leaving, he whispered something to the Val'kyr that Sylvanas couldn't hear.World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 22
Viewing the various afterlives convinced Sylvanas that the Shadowlands were a flawed system, but she still didn't trust the Jailer. He told her that he was confident she'd join him eventually but that he didn't want to force her, since he needed a willing partner. He continued that she needed to abandon her mortal morals and attachments, since the ends—ending all suffering forever—justified any means. He asked her to send a Val'kyr to him once she'd decided to join him, and to watch for five future events as signs that his words were true: a fiery darkness would return, she would have to "step out of the shadows and lead", a blade would pierce the heart of the world, she would hold the blood from its wound, and finally, she would topple a king and shatter the sky itself. With this, the Val'kyr brought Sylvanas back to the world of the living. To prevent the rest of the Shadowlands from noticing that the Jailer had saved her from the Maw, the Val'kyr Annhylde took Sylvanas' place in the realm.
A few years later, the Burning Legion launched its third invasion of Azeroth, fulfilling the first of the Jailer's prophecies. At the start of the invasion, the Jailer's servant Mueh'zala whispered to Vol'jin on his deathbed to convince him to name Sylvanas the new Warchief of the HordeOne Little Whisper with the words "You must step out of the shadows and lead", the same ones Zovaal had used. This finally convinced Sylvanas, and she sent Signe to tell the Jailer that she accepted his pact.World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 24 As part of the alliance, Zovaal gave Sylvanas the ability to wield the Domination magic of the Maw.World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 29 His first task for her was to go to Helheim to meet with another one of his allies, Helya, and obtain the Soulcage from her. Sylvanas was to use it to force Eyir to send her Val'kyr to Helya so she could corrupt them. However, the plan was thwarted by Genn Greymane.World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 25
At the end of the invasion, Azeroth's heroes killed the soul of Argus, and Sargeras impaled Azeroth with his sword and caused the world-soul to start bleeding :Azerite, fulfilling two more of the Jailer's prophecies. Meanwhile, as Zovaal and the nathrezim had planned, Argus' soul traveled to Oribos and rendered the Arbiter dormant. In her absence, all souls entering the Shadowlands began funneling into the Maw instead of being sorted to their just afterlives, thereby depriving the other realms of anima and threatening to make the Jailer strong enough to break free from the Maw.
Zovaal sent the nathrezim Mal'Ganis to Azeroth to inform Sylvanas of the new situation and instruct her to start unleashing death and destruction on Azeroth. She complied and used her position as warchief to plunge Azeroth into the Fourth War, causing mass casualties and thereby feeding the Maw with even more new souls that could be conscripted into the Mawsworn army and causing both her and the Jailer to grow more powerful.Most Loyal: / 
===Shadowlands===
With his bindings broken, the Jailer intended to "reclaim what [was] his".Stand as One Prince Renathal believed that if the Jailer escaped, all the realms of Death would fall.The End of the Beginning Similarly, Lady Moonberry was of the belief that a freed Jailer would plunge all of the realms of the Shadowlands into inescapable, crushing despair.The Endless Forest Meanwhile, Sire Denathrius and Herald Dalora believed that the Jailer would bring a torrent of change that would leave Death, and those who shaped its victory, as the only powers remaining,A Message from Above and Denathrius' nathrezim similarly believed that those who had been loyal to Zovaal would be rewarded after reality was "born anew". Devos believed that the Eternal Ones' imprisonment of Zovaal was a "great injustice" and that he sought to "free us from the prison we have built for ourselves".
The Jailer instructed Sylvanas to defeat the Lich King Bolvar and destroy the Helm of Domination in order to tear open a rift through the veil separating the Shadowlands from the world of the living. He also entrusted her with finding a selfless and heroic soul, one who could slip into the realm of Bastion and claim the sigil of Kyrestia the Firstborne, the Eternal One who ruled the kyrian. After opening the rift, Sylvanas sent her Val'kyr to kidnap leaders of Azeroth's Alliance and Horde and bring them to the Maw: Anduin Wrynn, Jaina Proudmoore, Thrall, and Baine Bloodhoof.Cause for Distraction They tried to kidnap Tyrande Whisperwind as well, but she defeated her attackers.Death Rising, Shandris Feathermoon dialogue In the Maw, the Jailer took a special interest in these four prisoners and personally oversaw their torture alongside Sylvanas to test them and see which of them could be turned into a weapon.A Moment's RespiteWorld of Warcraft: Sylvanas, interlude VI
With the beginning of the war against the Jailer, the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the heroes of Azeroth soon traveled into the Maw to rescue the leaders and managed to meet up with Jaina, Thrall, and Anduin. The group was joined by Baine after the Jailer decided that the tauren chieftain was "unworthy" and threw him off a platform.By and Down the River The Azerothians subsequently fought their way to a waystone of the First Ones in the hopes of using it to escape the Maw. The Jailer was stunned to see the waystone responding to the presence of Azeroth's champion and sent his Mawsworn army to stop them, but Anduin used the Light to hold off the attackers long enough for the champion to escape. The Jailer declared this to be "interesting", and when Anduin told him that he had failed, the Jailer calmly replied that he had precisely what he needed. The Jailer subsequently brought Anduin, Thrall, Jaina, and Baine into Torghast for further torture.Delving DeeperA Glimpse into Darkness
The adventurers, now called Maw Walkers, eventually breached the Seat of the Primus and discovered the Primus' warning. When Sylvanas informed the Jailer of this, he declared that while it was unfortunate, it was of little consequence and the nuisance would be dealt with. Not long after, Sire Denathrius revealed himself to be in league with the Jailer and channeled his immense amounts of hoarded anima into the Maw. Prince Renathal stated that the Jailer would surely use this power to shatter his bonds. The remaining Eternal Ones and covenant leaders subsequently decreed that each mortal had to choose a covenant so that the realms could regain their strength and once again stand together against the darkness.The Looming Dark With the guidance of Bolvar—who used the shards of the Helm of Domination to peer into the tower—the Maw Walkers repeatedly ventured into Torghast to rescue their captured allies and take Baine, Jaina, and Thrall to the safety of Oribos. However, Bolvar's repeated gazing into the tower eventually allowed the Jailer to gaze back,Torment Chamber: Thrall and the heroes could not find any sign of Anduin, who had been taken deeper into the Torghast than the others.Signs of the Lion In a private conversation with Sylvanas, the Jailer proclaimed that they had to begin preparation of their new "weapon". Sylvanas convinced the Jailer to leave Anduin to her, arguing that bringing him around into believing in their cause would yield superior results.
However, as time passed and Sylvanas failed to convince Anduin, the Jailer decided that a more "direct approach" was necessary.The Highlord's Vision Having learned from his previous mistakes with the Lich King, the Jailer decided to use Domination to control Anduin directly and turn him into a weapon that would succeed where the Lich Kings had failed.Anduin Wrynn encounter intro He had Anduin's sword Shalamayne transformed into a mourneblade, Kingsmourne, and inserted what was left of Arthas Menethil's soul into it to serve as the source of Anduin's Domination.Anduin Wrynn (tactics)#Overview: Throughout the encounter, Anduin temporarily manifests the source of his domination. This manifestation is linked to him by Domination's Grasp. At the same time, Sire Denathrius was defeated and captured and Sylvanas asked the Jailer how they should recover him. The Jailer simply replied that every soul had its purpose and that Denathrius had fulfilled his. He then declared that it was time to forge their next weapon and that they'd come too far to falter. While Sylvanas took the completed Kingsmourne to Anduin and tried one last time to convince him to join them willingly, the Jailer struck at Bolvar in Oribos through the Helm of Domination in an attempt to seize control of his mind.A Mourneblade Born However, Jaina and the Maw Walker were able to sever the connection.
====Chains of Domination====
In the hopes of uncovering secrets of the First Ones and the key to fulfill his vision for the Shadowlands, the Jailer pulled a fragment of the long-lost realm of Korthia into the Maw from where it had been hidden in the In-Between, specifically in search of the Vault of SecretsObservational Records and its most precious treasure: the sigil of the Primus.
After failing to convince Anduin, Sylvanas forcibly Dominated him,News from Oribos equipping him with Kingsmourne and a suit of armor covered in Domination runes that allowed the Jailer to control his actions. The Jailer sent his new vessel to Elysian Hold in Bastion to obtain Kyrestia the Firstborne's sigil. Kyrestia recognized the Jailer's presence in Anduin and demanded that the former release the king from his grasp. In response, the Jailer's voice spoke through Anduin to proclaim that "He is bound to me, just as you once sought to bind your own brother". Anduin then stabbed the Archon through the chest with Kingsmourne to extract her sigil before returning with it to Torghast. The Jailer commented that three keys now remained before "they" would see that "Death was never meant to be chained".The First Move
The Jailer's next target was the sigil of the Winter Queen. He sent his Mawsworn—led by Sylvanas herself—to invade Ardenweald, and the four covenants rushed to defend it. During the battle, Tyrande Whisperwind confronted Sylvanas and revealed that she had killed the latter's champion, Nathanos Blightcaller. Sylvanas was surprised by this, and Tyrande mockingly told her that the Jailer was intentionally keeping secrets from her. The covenants ultimately pushed the Mawsworn out of Ardenweald,The Battle of Ardenweald but Anduin managed to breach the Heart of the Forest and steal the Winter Queen's sigil.The Heart of Ardenweald Meanwhile, the Jailer's forces assaulted Oribos to claim yet another sigil, that of the Arbiter, but the covenants and the Knights of the Ebon Blade managed to hold off the attackers.Report to Oribos Unwilling to wait for the Jailer to make his next move, the Maw Walkers led the covenant forces in storming into the Maw and KorthiaCharge of the Covenants in order to stop the Jailer from shattering the barrier around the Maw and invading the rest of the Shadowlands. Notably, the Maw Walkers worked with Odyn's Val'kyr to defeat the Eye of the Jailer and force it to leave the Maw for the safety of Torghast.Focusing the Eye Meanwhile, in his search for the Sepulcher, the Jailer pulled a fragment of Zereth Mortis—the land of the First Ones— containing "Sepulcher access cyphers" into his seat of power, the Sanctum of Domination atop Torghast.Guardian of the First Ones#Quotes He also had his nathrezim minions capture Korthia's fatescribe, Roh-Kalo,Under the Illusion and bring him to the Sanctum in order to tear knowledge from his mind.Fatescribe Roh-Kalo#Quotes
In Korthia, a Maw Walker, the attendant leader Tal-Galan, and the Primus' apprentice Heirmir recovered the sigil of the Primus from the Vault of Secrets before the Mawsworn had a chance to. Hoping to untangle the magic binding it, Heirmir and the Maw Walker brought it to the Runecarver in Torghast, causing all of his memories to be restored and transforming him back into the Primus. The Jailer immediately noticed this and arrived to the Runecarver's Oubliette with a Mawsworn army. While Heirmir and the hero battled the minions, Zovaal and the Primus fought by launching beams of energy at each other. As the battle progressed, the Jailer stunned Heirmir and the Maw Walker and summoned Anduin. The Primus reminded his brother that his sigil would be lost forever if he was struck down, but he wasn't expecting Anduin to be carrying a mourneblade. Anduin used Kingsmourne to sever the sigil from the Primus' body and launch it into the Jailer's waiting hand. Having now obtained all but one of the sigils he needed, Zovaal teleported himself and his minions away, allowing the Primus and his allies to leave Torghast alive. The Primus considered Zovaal to be a fool for letting them live and believed that his desire to have them bend to his will would be his undoing. He subsequently stated that the mortals had to face Zovaal in the Sanctum of Domination. As a contingency, each of the covenants also had to forge new sigils so that they could pursue Zovaal in case the assault failed.The Primus Returns
The Maw Walkers and their allies—Bolvar, Thrall, and Jaina—later assaulted the Sanctum, fought through the Jailer's minions, and confronted Sylvanas at the Pinnacle of Domination at the top of the tower. She stalled them long enough for the Jailer to enact his plan: not to break out of the Maw, but instead to expand its boundaries around Oribos. He latched onto the city with his chains and ascended to the Arbiter's chamber, the Crucible, where he began breaking through her defenses. Sylvanas and Anduin kept the heroes occupied long enough for Zovaal to destroy the Arbiter's shield and merge with herLore Book: What Lies Ahead by absorbing her essence. The orb-shaped sigil entered and filled the hole in his chest, restoring the anima that the other Eternal Ones had taken from him and causing him to recover his full set of armor. The victorious Jailer immediately opened a large portal to Zereth Mortis before using Domination to incapacitate Thrall, Bolvar, and Jaina. Sylvanas told Zovaal that they now had everything they needed, but he replied that he had endured "the makers' flawed design" for too long and revealed his true goal: not to break the system of Death and give everyone free will as Sylvanas had believed, but to forge a new reality where all would be forced to serve him.
Remembering similar statements by Arthas and the Lich King, Sylvanas fired a black arrow at the Jailer—which he caught without even laying an eye on her—and told him that she would never serve, thereby effectively turning against him. After a brief silence, the Jailer replied that it was a "pity" that she was "still chained by mortality". However, as payment for helping him regain what had been stolen from him, he gave Sylvanas the fragment of her soul that had been severed by Frostmourne many years prior, causing her to fall unconscious. With Sylvanas no longer of any use to him, the Jailer unchained the Maw Walkers' allies and left Sylvanas' fate in their hands before telling Anduin to accompany him and bear witness to the end of reality. The two left through the portal, which closed behind them.
Sylvanas remained unconscious as the lost part of her soul was forced to endlessly relive the crimes the rest of her soul had committed over the years, which the Jailer believed would surely destroy her. Back in Korthia, the Primus warned that all would be undone if Zovaal succeeded in finding the knowledge he sought in the Sepulcher. He then began working on a way to follow the Jailer to Zereth Mortis.
====Eternity's End====
By returning to the forbidden realm of Zereth Mortis, Zovaal defied the most sacred laws of his First One creators. His Mawsworn quickly spread across the realm like a plague in search of a way into the Sepulcher.Long Lost Firim The Mawsworn initially laid siege to the Enlightened village of Haven, but the Jailer personally arrived to call off the attack since he believed that the place was of no consequence.Defending HavenDestroying the Destructors While the Maw Walkers and their allies arrived to Zereth Mortis, the Mawsworn used Domination to take control of automa, the realm's caretakers, and destroy the obelisks protecting the Forge of Afterlives.Scour the SandsHarmony and Discord Meanwhile, nathrezim led by Mal'Ganis infiltrated the covenants to disrupt their efforts. When a Maw Walker confronted Mal'Ganis, he revealed that this had merely been to stall for time and let Zovaal and Anduin reach the Forge of Afterlives.Doppelganger Duel At the Jailer's command, Anduin dominated Dausegne, the automa protecting the Forge. The Jailer then arrived in person and forced Dausegne to disable the Forge, allowing him to use it to transport himself, Anduin, and Dausegne directly to the SepulcherFighting for the Forge and seal the way behind them.Seeking Haven
Back in Oribos, Uther the Lightbringer helped Sylvanas awaken from her coma. She joined forces with the Maw Walkers and their allies and told them that they had no chance of defeating Zovaal without a way to resist his Domination, and that freeing Anduin might be the key.The Pilgrimage Ends After opening the way into the Sepulcher and fighting through its defenders, the Maw Walkers confronted Anduin at Domination's Grasp. The Jailer commanded Anduin to destroy the heroes and sever his final tie to mortality. The heroes helped gradually restore Anduin's willpower, but the Jailer still refused to release his grasp on the king and whispered to him to fulfill his "final purpose"—annihilation—while Kingsmourne seemingly began draining his soul. Anduin mustered the will to resist and split Kingsmourne in half, freeing himself from the Jailer as well as releasing the fading remnant of Arthas' soul. However, Zovaal himself was already on the cusp of victory, having reached the Sepulcher's final chamber—the Heart of Eternity—and putting Domination in place to prevent anyone from following him.
The heroes brought Anduin out of the Sepulcher, but he didn't know how to counteract the Jailer's power.The Broken Crown With the guidance of the Primus, the Maw Walkers and their allies instead used the language of the First Ones and the resistance that Anduin and other past victims of Domination had built up to reforge the remnants of the Helm of Domination into a new object of power: the Crown of Wills. The Crown allowed the heroes to become resistant to Domination, which Bolvar and the Primus believed would be the key to finally defeating Zovaal.The Crown of Wills The Maw Walkers returned to the Sepulcher, defeated the Jailer's dreadlord minions and a constellar he had Dominated, and confronted him in the Heart of Eternity just as he put his final plan into action: he activated the Forge of Souls below Icecrown to draw the life force of the soul of Azeroth into the Sepulcher, trying to pull her soul into the Shadowlands,Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, pg. 125 so that it could power the Machine of Origination, which he could then use to remake existence. If successful, Zovaal's efforts would've triggered a chain reaction, causing his power to cascade outward from Zereth Mortis into the heart of each of the other cosmic forces, binding one after another to his will until they were all dominated by his power.Firim in Exile, Epilogue
However, with their resistance to Domination and with a boon granted by Azeroth herself, the Maw Walkers were able to protect the world-soul from the Jailer's attacks, prevent him from configuring the Machine, and ultimately defeat him. As he fell to his knees, he watched in disbelief as both his armor and his body gradually dissolved. In his final moments, Zovaal repeated what he had told the other Eternal Ones during his original betrayal eons earlier: "A cosmos divided will not survive what is to come." The last of his power then faded from him, leaving only a lifeless vessel behind. With the death of Zovaal, Azeroth was saved and the rift Sylvanas had created in the sky over Icecrown closed.
Afterward, the broker Firim examined the Sepulcher and feared that Zovaal's efforts might've left behind a tiny crack in the pattern keeping the six forces in balance, a crack that would only grow until the balance was in danger of being shattered by another force. Firim hoped that the First Ones had anticipated this eventuality and left countermeasures in place, but he remained fearful of the possibility that they had in fact never intended for their design to endure. The Jailer's defeat—along with the ascension of a new Arbiter—marked the beginning of a new era for the Shadowlands, as the afterlives could start to recover from the anima drought.The Jailer's DefeatRestoration Deathwalker Bolvar, however, noted that the most insidious thing about the Jailer was that, even in defeat, the doubt he'd sowed in his enemies over the years still lived on.
==Quotes==
===Sylvanas===
*"The greatest deception that the makers ever perpetrated was to fool us into believing that we have a choice in any facet of our existence."
*"I am Zovaal. Before I was the Jailer of this place, I reigned over the realms of Death from the precipice of eternity itself. I stood as Arbiter over every mortal soul whose brief flicker of life had sputtered out. In an instant I knew the entirety of their existence. And time after time, do you know what I saw? Fragile beings left to the fickle whims of fate. Their world, their kin; whether they were wise or simple, hale or sickly; these things were forced upon them. From the moment they drew their first breath until they exhaled their last, the choice was never theirs. And when their lives ended, it was my duty to decide their soul's fate for all eternity."
*"From its conception to execution and throughout all that has been, and is, the design is gravely, cruelly, and worst of all indifferently flawed."
*"In many ways, your story echoes my own. We were both betrayed... and broken. I, too, was torn asunder, and I understand well what it is like to feel achingly, eternally incomplete."
*"It is not Arthas you need to be free of. It is your own mortality. Our path will have no place for the compassion, the regrets, the guilt of the living. It will have no place for their morality, because it, just like the machine of death, is at its heart flawed. And that flaw... is believing that anything is fair."
*"Before you refuse me, remember what I am offering you. We will remake... everything. Life. Death. You will be by my side at each step. Together we will show every soul that both their lives, and the eternity that awaits them, are prisons. And we will bring them true freedom."
*"The Maw is filled with countless souls I can force to serve me, Sylvanas. They are worth next to nothing. I need someone who will ally with me, who will set her own shoulder to the stone to help me move it. Who can travel where I cannot, do what I cannot. And trust must be on all sides. I, too, have been betrayed before, by my own kin and many others I trusted. You are not like them, Sylvanas. You are like me."
*"Only a hard heart will endure when asked to do things that seem atrocities. Only a cold heart will continue, step after step, when the world screams with one voice to stop. Only an uncaring heart will turn away from the trap baited with hope, for hope is the worst illusion of them all. Sometimes there are no good choices, and yet one must still choose. The end is worth the means, Sylvanas, because the end is truly the end—the end of every moment of suffering and loss and torment, forever."
*"When you have made your choice, send a Val'kyr to me, and if it is yes, watch for a child of the blood. With your new insight, you will see injustice everywhere, and fairness not at all. Watch for these five signs, and know my words are true. A fiery darkness will return. You must step out of the shadows and lead. A blade will pierce the heart of the world, and you shall hold the blood from that wound and sense its power. And finally... you shall topple a king, and shatter the sky itself."
===World of Warcraft===
;Shadowlands intro
;Maldraxxus storyline
;Torghast questline
;Chains of Domination campaign
;Sanctum of Domination
;Zereth Mortis campaign
;Sepulcher of the First Ones
==Notes and trivia==
*Following the initial announcement of Shadowlands, some fans speculated that the Jailer was someone that players had met before (such as Arthas, Argus or Helya), but it was quickly confirmed that he was intended to be a new character. Steve Danuser has described him as an important part of the Warcraft cosmology.
*Ion Hazzikostas has described the Jailer as a "titan-level" or "titan plus plus level" antagonist.
**Hazzikostas also described him as one of the "lords of death" in the BlizzCon 2019 What's Next panel.BlizzCon 2019 | World of Warcraft: What's Next | Full Panel
*Five large pillars can be seen floating around the Crucible in Oribos. Four are used by the covenant leaders during The Looming Dark, but the fifth—which is located directly opposite of the Arbiter and has a noticeably damaged appearance—remains unoccupied. This fifth pillar apparently belonged to Zovaal before his banishment, as shown by the covenant leaders directing their gazes at it while discussing him in Voices of the Eternal and by him standing on it during his attack on the Arbiter in Sylvanas' boss encounter.
*Zovaal's appearance went through "very many" iterations during development. He was first officially shown in the Shadowlands reveal trailer at BlizzCon 2019, in which only a dark silhouette of his body is seen. In late November 2019, an alleged piece of concept art of the Jailer where his design matches the one in the trailer was shared by the YouTuber Pyromancer, who had been sent an image of the concept after it was posted on Twitter. The Jailer's in-game model, however, looks drastically different from both of these depictions, notably lacking the hair and more elaborate armor he was originally depicted with. When asked about this in April 2020, Ion Hazzikostas stated that the difference in design between the original trailer and his in-game model was not because of any story reasons but simply because Blizzard had not finalized his design by the time the trailer was released at BlizzCon. The Jailer's armored form, used from the ending of Sanctum of Domination onwards, was designed at the same time as the design for his Shadowlands launch model.
** The harness of elemental mounts such as the Soultwisted Deathwalker resemble the silhouette and the alleged leaked concept art.
*Within the Sanctum of Domination, Kel'Thuzad claims that he was forced to "pretend to serve false masters" when he was actually working to architect Azeroth's end all the while,Kel'Thuzad (Sanctum of Domination tactics)#Quotes implying that he was working for the Jailer all along. Ta'lora notes that it is plausible that the Jailer was able to peer into the mortal plane and came to see Kel'Thuzad as a means to spread his influence on Azeroth back when he was still a living necromancer. This was later proven false when it was revealed that Denathrius recruited Kel'Thuzad to Zovaal's side after his defeat during the War against the Lich King.https://gamerant.com/world-of-warcraft-interview-eternitys-end-shadowlands-character-motivations-consequences/
*His weapon was the Gavel of the First Arbiter, which can be looted on his body.
*Zovaal's Vault has a chance to drop Zovaal's Dark Carafe.
*The Jailer is voiced by Edward Bosco.
*The Jailer appears as in the mini-set for Hearthstone. In the story of the mini-set, he serves as a judge at a trial in Torghast where Sylvanas Windrunner stands accused of stealing anima from the Shadowlands. The Jailer's flavor text reads: At one point, The Jailer served as Arbiter over the souls of the Shadowlands. He was the epitome of an unbiased, righteous judge of character. WAS.
==Inspirations==
*The Jailer can be seen as a composite of various mythological antagonists from various cultures and religions.
**As both prisoner and ruler of the Maw, the Jailer shares similarities with some Christian depictions of Satan, notably depicted in 's given the cold/ice motifs, and his overlording of the Maw, which draws similarities to the popularized conceptualization of hell, and the fact he was banished for seeking forbidden knowledge, similar to the myths of the .
**Other Abrahamic motifs can be seen in both the winged Mawsworn (i.e. s of Christian Satan) and in the aesthetics of the shades in the Maw as spirits seemingly composed of ash and fire (i.e. of Islamic Satan).
**Given his pulling of Korthia into the Maw (from the Mesopotamian underworld called Kur), and the fact he wasn't always in the Maw, may have been another source of inspiration.
**The way the Jailer's created the Lich King (likely inspired by a combination of Warhammaer's Arkhan the Black the Liche King and Tolkien's the Witch-King of Angmar who ruled the ) gestures to his being inspired by . This is further reaffirmed by his armor after regaining his sigil from the arbiter.
**Zovaal's name may be derived from either or both Bulgarian зова (zova, derivative words meaning to summon/to name), Bulgarian зобам (zobam, to devour), Polish zobaczyć (to see).
**The revelation that Zovaal was once the Arbiter indicates he was once the judge of all the dead and ruler of the Pantheon of Death, borrowing from themes of (including multiple three-headed dogs guarding the Sanctum of Domination), (including the blue ghostly horses), the Greek idea that three kings served as the , (who determined the death of mortals), among others.
==Gallery==
File:Jailer (character).jpg|The Jailer's original appearance in the Shadowlands reveal trailer.
File:The Jailer concept art.jpg|Concept art.
File:Armored Jailer concept.jpg|Concept art (armored version).
File:Beyond the Veil Zovaal 2.png|Facial closeup in the Beyond the Veil cinematic.
File:Zovaal still.jpg|Cinematic character still.
File:Shadowlands loading screen.jpg|On the Shadowlands loading screen.
File:The Jailer Cinematic.png|The Jailer in :The Highlord's Vision in-game cinematic.
File:Eternity's End key art.jpg|The Jailer wielding the :Gavel of the First Arbiter on the key art for Patch 9.2.
File:LightBox Expo 2022 - Warcraft key art.jpg|The Jailer key art for the LightBox Expo 2022 event.
File:Order in the Court HS.jpg| in Hearthstone.
==Videos==
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==Patch changes==
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==References==
==External links==
Category:Eternal Ones
Category:Jailors
Category:Mawsworn
Category:Shadows Rising characters
Category:Afterlives characters
Category:World of Warcraft: Sylvanas characters
Category:Escape from the Maw NPCs
Category:Torghast, Tower of the Damned NPCs
Category:Sanctum of Domination NPCs
Category:Zereth Mortis NPCs
Category:Deceased characters
Category:Hearthstone legendary cards
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pl:Zovaal