The Winter Queen is essentially playing God in the absence of the Arbiter. Her role in the Shadowlands is she’s the guardian over Ardenweald and she gets to decide who gets to reincarnate into new life.
Bwonsamdi speaks about her role in the Shadowlands and maybe even refering to Ardenweald as the Wheel of Death. Loa who have passed like Hir’eek, Dragons like Y’Sera and Wild Gods all get blessed into recreation. But it seems like recreation is a privilege only awarded to the gods in a way to continue to cycle through power and control over the mortal races.
“Death brings life, The great wheel turns, slowly, yes, over eons, but it turns. Bodies decay and new life springs from it all things that seem eternal end, then rise to find new purpose. […] There is a harmony to things. In time, we, too must embrace the end, the long, deep slumber. And without us? Our followers find strength in new things, in themselves, or new beliefs. They grieve, they grow . And when the veil of dreaming lifts, the eternal and great beings climb on the wheel once more, bound to it, and slowly, ever so slowly the wheel spins.” Bwonsamdi Shadows Rising pg. 228-229
We don’t know much about the story but we know that Bwonsamdi is working with the Winter Queen. She’s responsible for all the Loa and thier journey through reincarnation and rebirth. But a Loa spirit is missing at that missing Loa spirit is likely Rezan, the Loa Bwonsamdi usurped to become Loa of Kings. Apparently Bwonsamdi has made a deal with another influencial Loa spirit but we don’t know the extent of this deal of why he would be making deals at all. Bwonsamdi’s goals are mysterious we only know that he has recruited someone (possibly the player character) to reclaim souls sent to the Maw for his own gain against Mueh'zala. It seems like there is already a sided conflict brewing in the Shadowlands.
It’s unclear as to why Bwomsamdi needs souls or why any Loa need souls for that matter. What is gathered through Zandalari lore is the more tributes a Loa has the more souls he/she has but for what purpose? do these souls convert into power? early in BFA, Bwonsamdi demanded that Talanji bring him Sylvanas’s head so that he could have her soul and all the souls under her. It seems like some souls are worth more than others. Some anima is worth more than others and Sylvanas’s anima is a prize. The text was later reworked in later patches to have Bwonsamdi ask for the soul of a Warchief instead of Sylvanas’s soul specifically.
This change seemed to be made after Blizzard saw the popularity of Bwonsamdi and changed his story. I strongly believe he was positioned to be a villian in the narrative before Blizzard realized that he was popular and he was changed to a more benvevolent tickster god. Shadows Rising did a lot of white wash his previous underhanded deal made to subjugate Talanji against her will. The book ended with Talanji having enough leverage to amend the deal to give her more agency in the situation because of player backlash. The point is the story is constantly changing even after release so it’s hard to say definitively where they are going with the story.
While it seems on the surface that Bwonsamdi and the Winter Queen are on the right side of the fight there is still some datamined text that show some hints as to what may be going on. When we first meet Bwonsamdi in BfA he’s a bit distraught because he’s lost the soul of Vol’jin, you are given Vol’jin’s urn and asked to track down his spirit to return to Bwonsamdi. Vol’jin’s spirit was interfered with before he could land in the Shadowlands. After a bit of pointlessly running around you find out that Vol’jin was mysteriously “touched by Valor” whatever that means and you eventually find out that he’s got the spirit of a Loa inside of him. (now this is possibly a point where we double back and point out that Rezan’s spirit is missing and Rezan died shortly before bringing Vol’jin’s ashes to Bwonsamdi) Whatever power intervened did so because it did NOT want Bwonsamdi to get the spirit of a Warchief (because that’s what Vol’jin was, the soul he was desiring most.)
It seems like there is a powerplay going on within the heirarchy of the Loa. Mueh’zala, the Loa of Death who seems to be on top, was the one who is working with the Jailer. It was him who whispered to Vol’jin to make Sylvanas Warchief. The powers of the Maw kept this fact hidden from Vol’jin. When Vo’jin undergoes a vision type quest to relive his final moments he seems to be assulted by minions of the Maw who ask him to challenge his opinion.
Now there is only implication that Mueh’zala is working with the Jailer because he is aligned with Sylvanas, It would make sense that the Jailer would want Sylvanas as Warchief to cause as much damage and send as many souls to the Maw as possible to benefit the Jailer and herself, and her epilogue text supports this. But I would like to remind you the reader that Mueh’zala also has an ancient connection to the Old Gods, Loa have an ancient connection to the Old Gods as well. Mueh’zala previously was only named once by name in lore, he’s obscure. His name was mentioned in the Tanaris troll dungeon Zul’Farak, There were Three tablets combining to make the Tablet of Theka. This tablet was important to the Sandfury Trolls because it spoke of prophesy.
Ueetay no Mueh'zala God of Death, Father of Sleep, Son of Time, the Night’s Friend.
The night’s friend doesn’t mean much in context unless the Night is supposed to be a connection to the Night Fae, maybe this is a hint of his connection to the Winter Queen. Another notable thing about the Tablets is they also mention Shadra. The Spider Loa that was consumed by Yazma, who was responsible for Rezan’s death.. it calls her the lover of Death, implying that Shadra and Mueh’zala are possibly working together for the same goal or were working for the same goal when they were working for Zul. We know that Zul was working for the Old Gods.
The primitive trolls worshiped the minions of the Black Empire long before the rise of Loa, the earliest Loa was presumed to have been Mueh’zala, an agent of Yogg-Saron. its important to note that Mueh’zala wasn’t always described as looking like a troll, a;though he is now depicted as a troll, he was once described as a shape shifting black mass or pure shadow, it sounds very similar to the shadows that have been obstructing the “truth” could mueh’zala be hinding the presence of Old Gods in the Shadowlands, could he be hiding the Old God involvement in naming Sylvanas Warchief? Perhaps Mueh’zala is a facet of Yogg-Saron himself as he is self described as ‘The Fiend of many faces’
Yogg-Saron consuming energy from the Shadowlands through anima could explain why he was powerful enough to break out of his own prison and corrupt World Trees all over Azeroth.
Illgynoth says in one of his encounters: “ Before the last shadow falls, the Father of Sleep shall savor his feast.”
There is an interesting datamined *****SPOILER***** (UNDERCUT)
