Zovaal, also known as the Jailer, is the main antagonist of the Shadowlands expansion of the MMORPG videogame World of Warcraft as well as the overarching antagonist of the Battle for Azeroth expansion. He has also influenced many of the other events in the Warcraft universe.
He is one of the Eternal Ones who turned on his own brethren in an attempt to destroy reality and remake it in his image. After being imprisoned, he continues to influence many events through his agents and makes sure that Sylvanas Windrunner becomes Warchief of the Horde to enact his will on Azeroth.
He is voiced by Edward Bosco.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He came to the conclusion that the current reality created by the First Ones is too flawed and divided to survive an upcoming threat and decided that he has to destroy it and create a new reality where everyone would be united under his rule.
- He betrayed and attacked his fellow Eternal Ones and tried to claim their sigils by force to use them to destroy reality, which failed, and he was put on trial and imprisoned for the rest of eternity in the Maw to be its Jailer.
- Every soul that is sent to the Maw is tortured by the Jailer until they are turned into Mawsworn soldiers that serve him for all eternity. Even though the souls of the most wicked and irredeemable individuals are sent there, the Jailer is not torturing them out of moral standards but because he wants to create an army for himself, and many of the souls sent to the Maw are not even wicked, but just belong to people who have been revived as Undead against their will.
- Even during his imprisonment, his agents still influence many events. For example, his fellow Eternal One Denathrius created a race of master spies called the Nathrezim to infiltrate other cosmic forces. Many of them pretended to serve the Burning Legion and Sargeras, committing atrocities in their name and convincing Sargeras to allow them to corrupt the titan world-soul of the planet Argus with Death magic. This makes the Jailer responsible for the Burning Legion being able to conquer and slaughter the inhabitants of many worlds across the cosmos more easily because the Nathrezim are a big part of their armies and they provide a lot of support.
- When the souls of four giants who had committed many terrible atrocities in life had been sent to the Maw, the Jailer was pleased and decided to make them his personal torturers. However, when they started conspiring against him and the Jailer discovered their plot, he decided to punish them severely. He severed a hand from each of them and condemned their broken souls for all eternity to Gorgoa, River of Souls.
- When his brother, the Primus, entered the Maw, Zovaal defeated and imprisoned him, turning him into a broken figure and forcefully extracting useful designs from his mind.
- He recruited the goddess Helya to his side and had her and her Kvaldir massacre many people throughout history.
- He forged the mourneblade Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination to establish his influence on the world of Azeroth because he had concluded that its soul would be vital in his plans to eradicate reality. The Nathrezim who were pretending to work for the Burning Legion, but were actually working for Zovaal, presented Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination to Kil'jaeden which helped him in creating the first Lich King. This also makes Zovaal partially responsible for all the atrocities and the mass destruction of multiple kingdoms commited by the Lich King and the Undead Scourge across Azeroth as well as the corruption of Arthas Menethil into the second Lich King.
- After Arthas destroyed Ner'zhul and became the new Lich King, Ner'zhul's soul ended up in the Maw where the Jailer plans to torture him eternally for his failure. He then attempted to use Arthas as his new pawn which also failed as Arthas pursued his own goals and after Arthas' defeat, the Jailer took possession of his soul as well. He then tried to manipulate the next Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon, and turn him into his pawn.
- After Sylvanas Windrunner commits suicide when she loses purpose in life after Arthas' death, her soul is sent to the Jailer due to her being an Undead and she is initially tortured. Then, the Jailer interferes and stops the torture and manipulates Sylvanas into joining him by convincing her that the reason why her soul was sent to the Maw despite her heroism in life is because of the flawed reality the First Ones had created, and that they can change this by destroying it and creating a better one where everyone has free will. This is actually a lie because the Jailer wants to create a new reality where everyone is subservient to him and does as he says.
- He manipulates a situation with his Nathrezim where the current Arbiter would be incapacitated by having them infuse the soul of Argus with Death magic, which, upon its destruction overwhelms the Arbiter. This causes every single soul to go to the Maw after their physical death instead of being judged fairly. The Jailer then tortures and twists every single soul to turn them into Mawsworn. This also causes a mass drought for all the other realms of the Shadowlands due to lack of anima, which even leads to wars between some of the realms with the Jailer eventually planning to conquer the weakened realms once he is freed.
- He uses his servant Mueh'zala to convince Vol'jin to name Sylvanas the new Warchief of the Horde. He then instructs Sylvanas to cause death and destruction across Azeroth, so that many people would die and their souls would go to the Maw, so he may torture and twist them into his minions to strengthen himself, which makes him responsible for many of Sylvanas' atrocities, including starting the Fourth War, and her genocidal actions against the Night Elves, like the burning of the world tree Teldrassil.
- He instructed Sylvanas to defeat Lich King Bolvar and destroy the Helm of Domination to break the veil between the world of the living and the Shadowlands.
- He had Anduin Wrynn, Jaina Proudmoore, Thrall, and Baine Bloodhoof kidnapped and tortured.
- He orders Sylvanas to brainwash Anduin and turn him into their pawn against his will and use him against his former allies, which she does reluctantly, but it causes her to start doubting her loyalty towards him because her goal is a reality where everyone has free will.
- The Jailer sent the brainwashed Anduin to Elysian Hold and used him to stab the Archon through the chest and take her sigil.
- He uses his army to spread chaos and destruction across the realms of the Shadowlands. He had his forces invade Ardenweald and Oribos to steal sigils, not caring of the casualties which would be caused by this.
- He forcefully merged with the Arbiter by absorbing her essense and had his followers repel the heroes until his work was done. This restores all the anima the other Eternal Ones had taken away from him.
- When Sylvanas turns against him after he reveals that his real goal is to forge a reality where no one would have free will and everyone would serve him, he returns to her the fragment of her soul which had been severed by Frostmourne upon her death, forcing her to go into a coma where that fragment would constantly relive the crimes the rest of her soul had committed over the years, which condemns Sylvanas to a fate worse than death until she is saved by Uther the Lightbringer and she agrees to help in defeating the Jailer.
- He opens a portal and invades the realm of Zereth Mortis with his army to find the knowledge he needs to destroy reality.
- He tries to suck out the soul of Azeroth into the Shadowlands to empower the Machine of Origination, so he can destroy the whole universe and remake it in his image, only to be stopped by the heroes and killed off before he is able to do it.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- In his last moments before he dies, it's revealed that his actions are not motivated by lust for power and that he is actually a well-intentioned extremist who believes that the current reality is too divided to withstand an upcoming threat he had foreseen, presumably the Void Lords, which is why he wants to destroy the current reality and forge a new one where everyone would be united under his supreme rule and would have a chance to survive. His good intentions are not a very big part of his character as they are revealed right before he dies and almost no one else is sympathetic to his goals, making it a minor prevention.
- His death is portrayed somewhat sympathetically. As he dies, he remembers how his fellow Eternal Ones had judged him for his actions and how they had imprisoned him while he explained his motivations. He also mutters to himself that a cosmos divided would not survive.
External Links[]
- Zovaal on the Villains Wiki
- Zovaal on the Warcraft Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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