Lorekeeper网站对剧本主管Steve Danuser进行了采访，主要回答了暗影界和玛卓克萨斯相关的问题。

本篇采访由镶金玫瑰旅店Alpha&Beta测试人员合作翻译。感谢[古伊尔·毁灭之锤]和的校对，[kzballarat]、[rapunzel]、[LYWormwood]、[org30h]和[麦德三世]的帮助。

译者：[古伊尔·毁灭之锤]

What happens when you die in the Shadowlands?

当你在暗影界死亡，会发生什么？

The answer to that depends a little bit on what your nature is as a being. As we’ve seen before in the Legion expansion, where if demons came to Azeroth and died on Azeroth, they would go back to the Twisting Nether. Because that is the realm they are from… That same kind of rule applies to beings that are of Death magic. If a Kyrian for example, was on Azeroth and was killed, their essence would go back to the Shadowlands and be reformed there.

这个问题的答案和你作为一个存在时的本质有一点关系。就像我们在之前军团再临版本里看到的，比如恶魔来到了艾泽拉斯然后死在艾泽拉斯，他们就会回到扭曲虚空中，因为他们来自于那里……同样的规则适用于死亡魔法相关的存在。举个例子，一个格里恩来到了艾泽拉斯然后在这里被杀死了，他们的精华就会回到暗影界，然后进行重塑。

Mortal souls are different. Mortal souls begin in the mortal plane: Azeroth, other worlds etc. And when they die, that soul with all its anima that it’s built up in life, crosses over into the Shadowlands. And in the Shadowlands, the threat to your existence is real. If everything goes the way it’s supposed to go, you should be able to exist for eternity; either enjoy or endure whatever afterlife you are a part of. But if something happens to your soul there, if something destroys it, that soul is gone. There is no afterlife beyond Shadowlands. That’s why stakes are real in these battles, in these conflicts. The threat the Jailer poses to the Shadowlands and the other realms beyond it is very real and it has high stakes.

凡人的灵魂则有所不同。凡人灵魂起始于凡间位面：艾泽拉斯，以及其他的各个世界。当他们死亡时，承载着生前所得的所有心能的灵魂就会穿越位面来到暗影界。在暗影界里，对你的存在的威胁是实实在在的。如果一切都如同预计的发生，你应该是可以永存的；不论你的来世是什么样的，你都会要么享受要么承受这一切。但是，如果你的灵魂在这里发生了一些事情，如果有什么东西将之摧毁了，那个灵魂就会消失。在暗影界没有来生的说法。在这些战斗和冲突当中，死亡的代价是非常真实的。典狱长对暗影界和其他领域的威胁已经迫在眉睫。

What happens to the soul in the Shadowlands if someone is raised from the dead? 如果某个人从死亡中复活起来，那么对暗影界的灵魂来说会发生什么？

Undeath is a force that has definitely touched Azeroth throughout history. Obviously the Scourge, and the storylines from Warcraft III with the Lich King, Arthas and all of that, is a prime example of undeath in Azeroth. But actually undeath on Azeroth dates much, much, much further back. If you go back to books about the Dawn of the Dragon Aspects, you will see Galakrond, and the force he used also had Death magic, necromancy as part of his power.

从历史上看，不死之力确实已经触及了艾泽拉斯。天灾军团，从魔兽争霸3开始的巫妖王故事线，阿尔萨斯及其相关的东西，就是艾泽拉斯上不死之力的最典型的例子。但事实上，艾泽拉斯上不死之力的历史要追溯到很久很久以前。如果你回去看小说《巨龙的黎明》，你会发现迦拉克隆，以及他操控的大军同样拥有死亡魔法，死灵法术是他力量的一部分。

Like all the cosmic forces, Death has touched Azeroth in numerous ways over the ages. And one of most visible and pronounced in the modern age of Azeroth is the Forsaken and the undead who are animated. That may lead you to the questions: “For people like the Forsaken, are their souls in the Shadowlands? Are their souls in Azeroth?” The active raising of someone like the Forsaken, someone who has intellect and mind intact, means that their soul is being anchored to their body.

和宇宙中各种力量一样，死亡之力在漫长的岁月中以数不清的方式触及到了艾泽拉斯。在现代艾泽拉斯最为明显和显著的表现就是被遗忘者以及被操纵的亡灵。这可能会带来一个问题：“对于像被遗忘者那样的人，他们的灵魂是不是在暗影界？还是说在艾泽拉斯？”一个像被遗忘者那样活跃的被复生者，一个智力和意志都完好无损的人，意味着他们的灵魂已经锚定在他们的身体上。

In life, for a living being, the soul is anchored to the body through the force of Life. It is a living body, therefore Life is a force that’s holding the soul to it. But in the case of a Forsaken, in the case of someone who is raised from the dead, it’s a different force, because life isn’t present within them. And so that is the force of necromancy, that is anchoring the soul to the body. Now it’s a different process than a living being, than someone who is kind of held together through the power of Life (with a capital L, as one of the Cosmic forces of the universe). So that Forsaken person, that undead person is held together by the power of Death, and that can have an effect on the soul. And we’ve seen that being raised can result in certain different circumstances. One person who’s raised may be very much intact. They may essentially be the same person that they were in life. Others are more aggressive, more hateful or more scornful than they were in life. And part of that has to do with the manner in which they’re raised. There’s all kinds of factors that go into that. So I would say that being raised that way is something of an imperfect process. It’s something that isn’t as defined and easily categorized as the living is. But make no mistake about it: Someone who is Forsaken, someone who is an intelligent undead like that, they do have their soul anchored to the mortal realm. Even if for a time it had crossed over in the Shadowlands and was brought back.

生前作为一个活物时，灵魂通过生命之力锚定在身体上。由于身体是活的，那么生命之力就是将灵魂维持在其上的力量。但对于被遗忘者，以及从死亡中复活的人来说，这是一种不同的力量，因为生命并不存在于其中。因此，死灵之力就是将灵魂锚定在身体上的力量。那么，这就是一个不同于活物的过程，不同于通过生命之力(原文用了大写的Life，代表宇宙原力之一)结合在一起的人。所以，被遗忘者和亡灵是由死亡之力结合而来的，这种力量对灵魂也会产生影响。我们已经看到过被复生起来后会出现不同的状况。一个被复活起来的人可能毫无伤损，本质上还是他活着时候的那个人。其他的可能会比生前更具攻击性，更加仇恨或者蔑视他人。这一变化的部分原因和复活的方式有关，这里面有各种各样等因素。因此我会说，用那种方式进行复活并不是一个完美的过程，它不像活物那样那么容易定义和分类。但不要搞错：被遗忘者，类似于他们的有智慧的亡灵，他们的灵魂是锚定在了凡人位面。即使它一度跨越位面来到暗影界然后又被带回。

We’ve done some stuff that’s involved with time travel and alternate realities. What happens to those souls when they pass on? Do they go to the Shadowlands? 我们已经经历过与时光旅行和平行时空相关的内容，在他们去世时灵魂会发生什么事情？他们会前往暗影界吗？

This is a complicated question. How do you deal with things like alternate Draenor? There was a Draka there. What is that Draka? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she related to the Draka in Shadowlands that we see? Or is there another Draka? We know that in Warlords of Draenor, Velen of that universe died. Does that mean there is a Velen in the Shadowlands? But what about the Velen in Azeroth? All these things are very complicated questions.

这是个复杂的问题。你会如何去处理类似平行世界德拉诺那样的东西？那里有个德拉卡，那是这个德拉卡吗？她活着吗？还是死了？她和我们在暗影界见到的德拉卡有关系吗？还是说还有另一个德拉卡？我们知道德拉诺之王时间线的维伦死了，那是否意味着在暗影界有个维伦？那艾泽拉斯的维伦呢？所有这些东西都是复杂的问题。

The way I would have you think about it is think of a rope… If you look at a rope, it is one thing, right? It’s something that you can grab onto, you can hold it, you can see it; think of that as a character. Think of that rope as Draka or Velen.

思考这个问题的方式便是将之想象为一根绳子……当你看着一根绳子时，它是一件物品对吧？一件你可以抓住，握住，看到的东西；将它看作是一个角色。将那条绳子看作是德拉卡或者是维伦。

If you look at that rope more closely, you can see there are different threads that make up the rope. There are different twines that pull together, and you can pull off one of these threads if you want. But it’s still a rope, and each of those threads you can think of as one of the realities of the character, one of the streams of time… There is a thread that is the Draka from Draenor we visited in the Warlords of Draenor. There is another thread that is Draka on Azeroth as we know her… And there are many other threads that could be other realities that we never peered into. But all of those threads at some time come together to make that rope. And remember also that, as you’ll see, that there are many characters in the Shadowlands when they refer to time, they usually say that time is not a construct of Death. Time and Death are not related. Death is about eternity, not linear time. The manner in which these threads come together, that can take a very long time from mortal perceptions. Those threads can be separated for a time, but sooner or later, they do combine to make one rope that is that character. You can think of it as the threads of that rope, all the individual threads, are just waiting. And over time, they will come together but they can exist as separate entities for a time. That still doesn’t change the fact that they are part of one rope.

如果你更加仔细地去看那条绳子，你会发现这根绳子是由不同的线组成的。不同的丝线交织在一起，你甚至可以从中抽出其中一条。但它仍然是一根绳子，每一条丝线你可以将之看作是角色的真实经历之一，其中的一条时间流……有一条丝线是我们在德拉诺之王时期见到的德拉诺的德拉卡，另一条丝线则是我们所知的在艾泽拉斯的德拉卡……还有更多其他的丝线是我们从未窥探过的现实。但所有的丝线在某个时间点汇聚到一起变成一根绳子。还有要记住的是，暗影界里很多角色谈到时间时，他们通常会说时间并非构成死亡的一部分。时间和死亡并不相关。死亡与永恒相关，而不是线性的时间。这些丝线汇聚到一起的方式，从凡人的认知来理解需要花很长时间。这些丝线可以暂时分开，但迟早会聚合成一根绳子，那根代表那个角色的绳子。你可以想象那条绳子上的丝线，所有独立的丝线都在等待着。随着时间流逝，它们将会聚合到一起，但它们可以作为独立个体存在一段时间。这仍然不改变它们是一根绳子的一部分这个事实。

译者：[折断的竹光]

I want to ask about [something in relation to] Draka and Durotan. Can souls feel if their significant other dies, or can they even see them or visit each other in some common ground like Oribos? Do they know that they are both in the Shadowlands?

我想问一些关于德拉卡和杜隆坦的问题。灵魂能知道他们的另一半死了吗？他们能在像奥利波斯这样的公共区域相见吗？他们知道他们两个人都在暗影界吗？

The players have witnessed in terms of what Draka experienced after coming to the Shadowlands, she has some different things to care about right now. She’s been put into situations that have forced her to focus on what happened to her original House, how she can work to defend the Shadowlands, how she can root out the treachery that’s taking hold of Maldraxxus. All of these things are taking the focus away from what her mortal life was. Now that doesn’t mean that her mortal life or mortal concerns are gone. But again, the beings that are now in the Shadowlands, both these mortal souls and these beings that are native to the Shadowlands, don’t think of time or perceive it quite the same way that we as players coming in do.

玩家们已经在来到暗影界后见证了德拉卡的经历，她现在有一些不同的事情需要关心。她所处的境地让她不得不把自己的注意力放在她原本的密院发生的事情、如何保卫暗影界、如何根除笼罩着玛卓克萨斯的叛乱。所有这些事情都使她的注意力从她生前的经历上偏移。但这并不意味着她不再拥有她生前的经历和人际关系。同样，不管是凡人灵魂还是暗影界的土著居民，他们生活在暗影界，对时光的思考和认知都与我们这些进入暗影界的玩家不一样。

The players coming into the Shadowlands are still alive, they still have their bodies, they’ve crossed over into this different realm and they’re all about solving the problem. They’re trying to fix the Shadowlands, stop the Jailer, save Azeroth from any of his schemes that he’s trying to inflict upon the world. So they have a very immediate sense of time in that “We’ve got to get this solved so we can protect our world,” whereas souls in the Shadowlands don’t perceive things that way. So, Draka and Durotan, obviously some point along the way, did get separated. Where did Durotan go? We don’t know as of yet. Does Draka know? No, she doesn’t really know. But those strands of rope I mentioned before, think of those as strands of fate. Different souls that have crossed over or intersected one another through life, I think there is probably something that draws them, that keeps some tether between them even in the afterlife. The way the Shadowlands is set up, when things were working the way they were supposed to and anima was plentiful, all this machinery of Death was functioning the way it was supposed to, there was an opportunity for souls sometimes to travel to, have completed one obligation and be able to move around whether that was to travel to Oribos and encounter someone there, or maybe to travel to some of these infinite afterlives that are out there in the realms of Death… So, don’t give up hope that Draka and Durotan might be reunited someday. But right now Draka has a job to do and that is front and center in her mind in terms of what she needs to do in order to perhaps earn the respite that she’s due and be able to visit the mortals she cared about so much in life.

来到暗影界的玩家们还活着，他们还拥有躯体，穿越到这个不同于凡世的领域是来解决问题的。他们要尝试恢复暗影界的秩序，阻止典狱长，保护艾泽拉斯免遭其阴谋荼毒。所以他们一来到暗影界就立刻意识到“我们必须解决这个问题，这样才能保护我们的世界”，而暗影界的灵魂却没有这样的认知。很显然，德拉卡和杜隆坦在在他们相处期间的某个时候彼此分离。杜隆坦去哪了？我们目前还不知道。德拉卡知道吗？不，她真的不知道。但我前文提到了绳子，我们可以把它看成是命运之绳。灵魂在他们的生命中与另一个灵魂彼此交错联结，我想大概有什么东西在吸引他们，让他们在来生也保有羁绊。当暗影界按照设定的秩序在运作，心能充沛，主持生死循环的系统也在正常运转的时候，有时灵魂完成了一份职责，就有机会去旅行，他们可以四处走走，可能去奥利波斯，在那里遇见某个人，或者前往死亡国度的其他领域游历……不要放弃你对德拉卡和杜隆坦有朝一日会重逢的期待。但现在德拉卡还有一个任务，在所有她必须做的事情里面是重中之重，这是为了赢得她应得的喘息，让她也许可以去见那些她活着的时候非常在乎的凡人。

The principal powers in Cosmology, do they also go to the Shadowlands? Or do they go back to their own place? Like the Burning Crusade goes to Twisting Nether, where would a Naaru go? 拥有共同宇宙基础力量来源的势力也会去暗影界吗？还是说他们将会返回自己的领域？燃烧军团终将回归扭曲虚空，但纳鲁会去哪里呢？

So that same rule that we established in Legion for a being of an influence goes back if it’s killed in the mortal realm or some other realm, it goes back to it’s home realm, it’s home plane. That’s true for demons and that’s true for other forces as well.

我们在军团再临中明确了这么一条原则，某一原力的存在在凡人国度或者其他原力的国度被杀时将会返回它的原初领域，它的位面。对恶魔们来说如此，对其他原力种族来说亦是如此。

So if Naarus are fighting in the mortal realm for example, a Naaru is struck down; its essence would go back to the realm of Light and would reconstitute there. Now there are exceptions to that rule… If a significantly powerful force intervenes in such a way, it can throw that process off, it can either delay it or subvert it in some way. But it takes a significant influence for that to happen; it’s not something that casually happens.

所以举例来说，如果纳鲁在凡人国度中战斗时被杀，它的精华将会返回圣光领域并在那里重生。当然啦，这条原则也是有例外的……假如有一股极其强大的力量介入，它是可以干扰这个过程，推迟或者破坏它。要有非常巨大的支配力才能做到这一点，因此它不是简简单单就能实现的。

For example people have talked about Bridenbrad, the hero who died in Northrend. -We saw the Light intervene to save him and pull him away. That’s the case of one of the forces having a direct tie to a character and going out of its way to kind of yank it out of the normal cycle a little bit and do something different with it.

我们拿大家常讨论的那位牺牲在诺森德的英雄，布雷登布莱德举例，圣光介入并且保护了他，使他远离了被变成亡灵的命运。这就是有一种力量与角色紧密相连的情况，力量干预了角色使其脱离正常轨道，发生了一些不一样的事情。

Those cases are the exception rather than the rule. So if you destroyed a being of the Light, it would go back to the realm of Light and to really destroy it, you would have to go to the realm of Light and destroy it there.

这类并不是常规情况。所以，如果你杀死了一个圣光的存在，它就会返回圣光的领域。你要去到圣光领域才能真正地消灭它。

Taking into consideration the fact that the Shadowlands isn’t in its best condition right now, are there any Shadowlands realms where it doesn’t feel like you are basically requested to have an eternity of servitude? It feels pretty rough that, like you know you work hard, you retire, you die, you get drafted again… 考虑到暗影界现在没有处于最佳状态，暗影界里有没有哪个领域不会让人觉得它要求你成为永恒的奴仆？感觉挺艰苦的，你努力工作，退休，死了，再被暗影界征召……

It is true that the realms we’re visiting are the core to the functioning of how the Shadowlands works as a Cosmic force in the universe. There is a responsibility there. Much is asked of the souls that go to Bastion. Again, we wanted to play with that, that notion of visually looking at it and seeing this kind of idyllic paradise, but they have a huge responsibility placed on their shoulders. Maldraxxus has a huge responsibility. Revendreth is all about taking these souls that have potential to either do something great or to be lost to darkness, and trying to save them. And Ardenweald takes care of these very important nature spirits that need to go back into the cycle and preserve that. So all of these realms have very important duties that they have to accomplish in order for the Shadowlands and realms beyond to function. But we have said that the Shadowlands is a place of infinite afterlives, and I certainly picture that there are places that are free of obligation, places that could just be an idyllic paradise for someone or a place of just unending punishment and torment, because they were just that bad, or just needed to endure something to pay them back for what happened in life… Any of those possibilities that you can imagine exists somewhere in the Shadowlands.

我们游历的六个国度正是暗影界作为一种宇宙力量在无边黑暗中发挥作用的核心表现。他们承担着责任。对去到晋升堡垒的灵魂有很高的要求。同样，我们想在游戏中巧妙地运用这一点，在视觉上形象化地描绘出这种看似完美无瑕的天堂，然而他们都肩负着沉重的责任。玛卓克萨斯也担负着重大的责任。雷文德斯接纳那些既有潜力做出一番成就但也可能堕入黑暗的灵魂，并全力拯救他们。炽蓝仙野照顾非常重要的自然之灵，这些灵魂需要回归并且维持轮回。所以说，为了让暗影国度和其他国度正常运行，他们必须完成他们重要的使命。但是我们说过，暗影界是个有无穷来生领域的地方，所以当然可以想象出有那么一些地方是无需承担责任的，可能只是某个人的完美天堂，也可能是个无间地狱，因为他们就是那么坏，或者说是需要承受一些东西来对生前做过的事情进行偿还……暗影界会有你能想象到的一切可能性。

That’s why when we talk about certain characters and you try to pick which afterlife they would go to, keep in mind that there are limitless other places they might end up within Shadowlands. Maybe we’ll get peeks into some of those, maybe we won’t. But any of those characters that you know and care about can exist somewhere in this realm. And when it’s someone you like and care about, you hope they’re in a happy place. You know, like Durotan: If everything went great for him, he’s probably in this endless hunting ground where he has his wolves around him and he can just go out there, he doesn’t have to worry about any dark forces wrecking his world. He can just enjoy that forever… And you know what, maybe Draka can someday fulfill her obligations and join him there. Who knows? We’ll see…

这就是为什么我们谈论特定角色的时候你会试图给TA选一个要去的国度，但要记得，要记得暗影界中还有无数地方可能成为他们最终的目的地。也许我们会窥得其中几处，也许不会，但你所知或所关心的任何角色都可能存在于这些领域的某处。如果他们是你喜欢或者关心的人，你会希望他们在一个更好的地方。你知道，像是杜隆坦，如果一切顺利的话，他可能会在某个广阔无垠的猎场里，他的狼群围绕在他身边，他可以在那里无拘无束，不用担心什么黑暗势力会破坏他的世界。他可以永远享受那些……也许德拉卡有朝一日能完成她的使命，到他那里去。谁知道呢？我们等着瞧……

译者：[我将融入这黑夜]

There have been rumors in the community about origins of a new class: Necromancer. Maldraxxus looks like a good start for that. Is it a hint for players?

社区里有传闻道一个新职业的起源：死灵法师。玛卓克萨斯看起来是个不错的开始，请问这是对玩家的暗示么？

While Maldraxxus is all about necromancy and we are exploring some flavors of it that we haven’t seen on Azeroth before, it was not meant to imply that there is a new class coming or anything like that.

虽然玛卓克萨斯的内容全部围绕着死灵法术展开，并且我们将在此地探索和体验一些我们之前在艾泽拉斯从未见过的风土人情，但是这并不意味着会有一个新的职业将要来临或者类似的东西。

It really is just the story of the realm of Maldraxxus and the inhabitants that are within it, and it’s not meant to be something that we’re going to give to players as a new class or something like that.

这真的只是关于玛卓克萨斯这个领域和其中的居民的故事，所以它并不代表我们要给玩家一个新的职业之类的。

Are there any Shadowlands realms that you wish we could go visit but maybe there wasn’t enough time or the story would have gone too long if we went there etc? 暗影界有没有一些你们曾希望玩家们能去探索的其他国度，但也许开发时间不够了，或是去探索那些领域会让故事持续太久？

If you ask any storyteller or designer or artist on the WoW Team “Did you ever wish you could do more of those things?” every one of us will say “Oh yes man, we had so many great ideas that we explored and we went a different way for whatever reason!”

如果你去问任何一个魔兽世界制作团队里的编剧，设计师，艺术创作人员“你们有没有想过做更多的事情？”我们所有人都会说“哦是的，我们曾经探讨过许多很棒的点子，我们也为了不同的理由尝试过许多不同的道路。"

So the answer is, yes. There were always other things that we could explore and some of those will be realized in some of the updates to Shadowlands that you’ll see come out over time and things like that. And others may be down the road, we will find a way to introduce those… Whenever we bring a new toy (think of each expansion is giving us new toys to play), new places that we can go, places that we can revisit down the line… I think certainly in the future, even after we’ve got expansions coming after and the Shadowlands is kind of been told and the story is complete, there will still be opportunities to return to Shadowlands and maybe see some of those other realms come to life.

所以答案就是，是的。总有新的事物是我们可以探索的，其中有一些将会在未来的资料片更新中实现，随着时间的推移，你们将会看到它们的。而其它的一些新事物也许正在构思当中，我们会找到一种合适方法把它们呈现在玩家面前......每当我们给大家带来一个新的玩具(想想看，每一次的故事扩展都会给我们带来新的玩具)，就会有一些供我们探索的新的区域，或者一些我们可以故地重游的地方......我想在未来，即使是我们已经有更多的资料片，暗影界的内容也已经完结了，我们仍然有机会回到暗影界，甚至也许会看到其他的一些领域出现。

I like to think of this expansion as opening a lot of doors for us, or at least creating lots of doorways that we could go through in the future. And that’s one of the most fun things about it and that it really sets up the universe of Warcraft to have even more alleys to explore and avenues in the future that’ll be really exciting.

我喜欢把这些资料片看做是打开了新世界的大门，或者至少是创造了许多我们未来可以使用的素材。正是这些有趣的扩展丰富和建立起了魔兽世界的宇宙，并且将在未来带给我们更多可以探索的地方，这真的令人十分兴奋。

How does it feel going back to a story that’s going to weave through zones as a single pathway after going through a very “Pick where you’re gonna do your Adventure next” approach? 在将魔兽世界的叙事方式从“选择下一个你想探索的区域”改回成通过一条主线贯穿各个区域之后，你们的感觉如何？

It feels really good. What we wanted to embrace this time around was to go back to some of that linear narrative that leads you through the expansion. We just didn’t want to force players to go through every bit of a zone at a time before working their way through the story. What we’ve gone for this time really encompasses the best of both worlds. Because we do get to tell a linear narrative that builds up and has points of tension and rises and falls in certain ways that you can’t get if you let the choice go to the player. So we get that opportunity to tell that kind of story while still giving players a big sense of choice. Choices are a huge theme in this expansion. Both the presence of it and in terms of how the afterlives see it, the things they’re imposing upon the souls that come to those afterlives.

我感觉还挺不错的。这一次我们想要回归到一些线性的叙述中去，这些主线叙述将引导着你，带你体验整个资料片。我们只是不想强迫玩家在完成所有的故事之前，一次就探索了一个区域的所有角落。我们在两个叙事手法之间作出了最好的选择。因为我们可以通过一个主线的叙述，把主线故事建立起来，让它高潮迭起，引人入胜，但是如果你把主线故事的选择权交到玩家手上，有些方面就起不到这样的效果了。所以我们这次有机会在讲好主线故事的同时，给玩家很大的选择权。选择将是这个资料片的主题。你的选择将会影响你在暗影界的能力，行为，以及暗影界的诸势力如何看待你。

We also wanted to give players the choice to pick a Covenant and use that as the lens through which they see the big parts of the story through. And having those choices have different meanings, different consequences and gives you opportunities to make different choices on other characters. As you may have just seen on our most recent Beta update, when you play through the storyline on one character, you can elect to skip that storyline on a subsequent alt if you want to, and just engage with the world in the way that you see fit. And kind of going through and just playing World Quests, Dungeons, Side Quests… However you want to engage with the world, giving you that sense of choice how you, as a player, want to go through this.

我们还想让玩家选择一个盟约，并以此作为镜头，让他们看到各自故事的主要内容。这些选择具有不同的意义，不同的后果，这样你就有机会用你的其他角色作出不同的选择。你们也许在Beta测试服上已经看到了更新，当你在一个角色上完成了一个故事情节，只要你愿意，你就可以在其他角色上跳过这个故事情节，你只需要以你认为合适的方式与游戏世界互动，包括世界任务，副本，支线任务...等等，作为玩家，你有权选择任何一种方式来体验游戏。

I like to think of it as us getting the best of both worlds, of us having all the benefits of a linear storyline while still giving a ton of agency to our players to engage with that story in whatever manner they see fit.

我把它看作是我们在两个叙事方法中都得到了最好的结果，我们拥有一个线性故事情节带来的所有好处，同时仍然给了我们的玩家选择他们认为合适的方式参与到这个故事中的机会。

译者：[炸弹小p]

We know there are six elements and one of them is Spirit. Does Spirit have any connection with Anima at all?

众所周知世上有六种元素，灵魂元素是其中之一。心能与灵魂元素究竟有没有关系呢？

When you look at the Cosmology chart, which is an interpretation of these forces, it’s one way to structure them and visually understand them, you’ll certainly see parallels between some of the elemental magics and some of the higher forms of magic that you see. I think of the elemental magics as being of “primal” magics and then those big forces of Order, Disorder, Life, Death, Light and Void; those are structured end of high magics.

六大原力图是对这些力量的某种解释，研究这张图也是在脑海中构建这些力量并供我们直观理解它们的一种方式。看这张图时，你一定会注意到一些元素魔法与一些更高层次的魔法形式呈平行关系。我将元素魔法视为“原始”的魔法，而秩序、混沌、生命、死亡、圣光与虚空这些伟力是高阶魔法的顶端。

A lot of the storyline that we’ve seen play out across Azeroth and some of the other worlds is how those more primal forces intersect with the more structured or high magic forces. I certainly think that there are echoes of spirits and how Anima is, but again, Anima is something that is tied to mortals, that’s something unique to them. When you think of the mortals and the mortal realm, when you look at that Cosmology Chart, it’s the mortal realm that’s in the middle of all of it. So one could interpret all of those other forces have echoes that kind of resonate out and touch the mortal realm in ways. So you could say that there are some things about Spirit and its function as an elemental force that exists at this Cosmic level. And there are echoes of how Anima what means to a mortal soul and how that feels the Shadowlands and what goes on there. So certainly thematic echoes, but they are different things.

许多我们在艾泽拉斯及其他世界体验过的故事情节，都在讲述这些原始力量如何与更为严密或者更高级的魔法力量交会。当然，我认为暗影界存在灵魂元素的回响，也存在心能的成因，但是，心能是与凡人相关的一种能量，对凡人来说独一无二。当你审视凡人与凡间时，看看宇宙原力图，位处所有势力的中央的正是凡人的领域。所以，这可以解释为什么所有其他力量都有着产生共鸣的回响，并且以种种形式触及了凡人的领域。可以说，灵魂元素以及它作为一种元素力量的功能的某些方面上升到宇宙级别也同样存在。关于心能对凡人的灵魂意味着什么，这灵魂如何感知到暗影之地，那里又发生了什么。当然灵魂元素与心能在主题上有所呼应，但它们是不同的东西。

Many players are waiting for Draka and Thrall to meet. How important will this event be, and how will this reunion be emotionally for both of them? 许多玩家期待着德拉卡与萨尔的重逢。这件事会有多么重要，对两人而言这件事又会带来怎样的感情？

I don’t think a reunion like that could be emotionally easy on either part.

我认为对双方来说，这次重逢的气氛不会太轻松。

We saw Thrall go to this alternate Draenor and we got to see him interact with versions of his parents, but they weren’t the same people. He got to pick up on a lot of their qualities and things like that. But there was probably still something within him where he knew that these weren’t actually the people who bore him, who lost the chance to raise him and so forth.

我们见证了萨尔前往平行世界的德拉诺，见证他与他的“父母”互动，但他们并不是相同的人。他学到了很多父母的品质和类似的东西，但内心深处他仍然知道，两人不完全是他那没能尽慈的生身父母。

But this Draka that is in Shadowlands IS that person as we saw in the Maldraxxus Afterlives short. She was the one who gave her life trying to defend that little baby. And again, if we think of threads of fate bonding characters together, those kinds of threads transcend mortal life, then there is definitely a thread between Thrall and Draka that needs to be resolved there. And that is definitely something that we plan for in the subsequent chapters of the Shadowlands. Right now, when you play through the storyline, obviously Thrall has been taken captive, he is in a bad place; we’ve got to resolve that. Draka has a lot going on in the Shadowlands that she needs to immediately resolve in terms of what’s going on Maldraxxus. But there will definitely come a point where these paths are drawn back together, where they intersect. And I think that intersection will be a highly emotional moment for both of those characters and for the players who witness it. So that’s definitely a story that we are looking forward to telling.

但正如我们在玛卓克萨斯动画短片中看到的那样，暗影界的德拉卡正是那个人。她就是那个付出生命代价试图保护她孩子的那个人。同样，如果我们认识到命运的纺线将角色们彼此连系，并且这种关系并非仅仅限于凡世，那肯定有一根丝线连在萨尔与德拉卡之间，有待在暗影界解决。毫无疑问，这是我们在暗影国度后续章节中规划的情节。眼下当你体验主线剧情时，萨尔显然已经被俘，陷入窘境；我们得解决这事。德拉卡在暗影界事务繁多，这些亟需解决的事情将会决定玛卓克萨斯下一步走向何方。但未来的某个时刻，他们的道路终将交汇，他们会产生交集。而我认为，无论是对这两个角色还是对见证这一切的玩家，这场会面都将是一个打动人心的时刻。因此，这绝对是一个我们希望讲述的故事。

What made you decide on having Draka as one of the main characters of Maldraxxus? Why Draka? 是什么让你选择德拉卡作为玛卓克萨斯的主角之一？为什么是德拉卡？

When we were conceiving Shadowlands, thinking about the zones and the stories we want to tell, the themes that we want to explore with the storyline, we knew that we had a vast number of characters to draw on who had died and gone to the Shadowlands; so we didn’t have any shortage of possible characters. So we kind of went through a process where we wanted some that felt like “Oh, yeah. It’s natural that this character would appear!”

在构思暗影国度，思考各区域与其中我们想讲述的故事，通过故事情节来深入了解的主题时，我们知道，有相当多前往暗影界的已故角色可供选择；因此，我们并非缺乏可能参与剧情的角色。所以，在设计过程中，我们希望带来一种“哦对，这个角色的出场是非常自然的！”的感觉。

For someone like Uther, going to Bastion was a natural fit; someone who had lived a life of service, who had been at the forefront of the Warcraft III storyline and just really had carried on as this kind of pillar of Azeroth, someone that characters in the world still think about and relate to.

对乌瑟尔这样的人来说，前往晋升堡垒是一个很自然的选择。这种人一生致力于奉献，自魔兽争霸3的故事起就站在前线，肩负着艾泽拉斯中流砥柱的重担；这种角色仍被这个世界的人们追思，与人们息息相关。

But we also wanted to choose some characters that didn’t seem like obvious fits; characters that felt a little either off the beaten path or that would have to make you think about it and go through the mental exercise of figuring out how they would fit there.

但我们同样想选择一些看上去不那么合适的角色，这些角色要么让人感觉有点离经叛道，要么可能让人开动脑筋，思考他们要如何适应所处的环境。

We talked about lots of different options and really settled on Draka as being someone who is interesting, who is integral to the true line of the story of Warcraft, going from Draenor to Azeroth, that story of the orcs; she’s a big part of that… But she also wasn’t someone that we had seen a ton about or had gotten to explore. She was a character that both had the right ingredients for someone to go to Maldraxxus and also had some kind of blank slate characteristics about her that we could fill in through this storyline. So it was just a really interesting opportunity to take someone who had forged themselves, started off facing challenges and become a great warrior to give her another chance to do the same thing in this afterlife that is all about strength, contention and improving yourself.

我们探讨了许多种可能，最后决定选择德拉卡。这个人选很有趣，是魔兽故事线中不可或缺的一部分，从德拉诺来到艾泽拉斯，兽人的故事中她也是重要的一环…但她也不是为我们熟知的人，我们同样没能对她的经历深入探索。德拉卡这个角色既具备前往玛卓克萨斯的条件，也有着留白足够、可供我们通过剧情逐渐丰满的角色特征。所以这只是一次有趣的机会，让一个已经成型的角色开始面对挑战，成为一名好战士，从而取得另一次机会，在这个充满力量、争斗与自我提升的来世做同样的事。

译者：[文若惊鸿]

How challenging was it to reflect things that we normally consider “evil” on Azeroth like plagues, abominations, necromancy and such as normal or even beneficial to some extent in Maldraxxus?

那些我们在艾泽拉斯通常认为是“邪恶”的事物，例如瘟疫、缝合怪、亡灵法术之类，在玛卓克萨斯却是正常的，甚至是有益处的。呈现出这些是多大的挑战？

That was a fun challenge. If you’re just looking purely from a visual standpoint at all the different zones in the Shadowlands, the ones you see at least, it’s very easy to look at a place like Bastion and think “Oh, it must be the good guys!” and then you look at Ardenweald and say “Oh, everything is pretty. It must be perfect there. It must be a paradise!” Then you look at some place like Maldraxxus and “Oh, it must be terrible. People must be suffering!”

这是个很有意思的挑战。如果你只单纯地从眼睛看到的角度去看那些你目前能看到的，看着暗影界所有不同的区域，就很容易在见到像晋升堡垒这样的地方之后想着 "哦，这些人肯定是好人！"然后你再看向炽蓝仙野，之后会说 "哦，这里一切都非常好看。这里肯定是完美的，一定是个天堂！" 接着你再看像玛卓克萨斯这种地方，会想"哦，这里肯定糟糕透顶。这里的人们一定痛苦极了！"

We really wanted to play with all of those expectations. Those visual cues are meant to lead you in and make assumptions, and then we want to play with those assumptions and show you that there’s much more going on than first meets the eye.

我们真的想玩弄一下所有这些玩家的期望。这些视觉上的线索是为了引导你做出假设，然后我们想玩弄一下这些假设，展示出有许多事情不像乍看上去那么简单。

Maldraxxus does have all these very familiar elements of undead, Scourge looking stuff. There are the Necropolises all over the place, there are plagues, there are all these monstrous looking beings. But when you delve into the story (and yes, there is some treachery and deceit going on), when you look at what Maldraxxus is really about, it does have this noble purpose. So it was very fun and rewarding to tell the story of this place that on its surface seems monstrous and frightening, but really does a much larger role in what’s going on in the Shadowlands.

玛卓克萨斯确实有所有这些玩家非常熟悉的元素，像是亡灵和天灾状的东西。那里到处都是浮空城，还有瘟疫，和所有那些看起来怪怪的生物。但是，在你深入了解故事之后(是的，其中确实会发生一些背叛和欺骗)，在你看到玛卓克萨斯真正和什么有关之后，会发现它确实有其崇高的目的。所以，讲述这个故事很有趣也很有意义——讲述这个表面上看起来奇形怪状又可怕，实际上却在暗影界的事件中扮演了重要角色的区域。

If you think of all these different realms that we’re visiting in the expansion as being parts of this grand machinery of death, the phrase that we’ve used before, Maldraxxus is the defense mechanism. And sometimes to defend something, you need to get a little more virulent and aggressive. That’s the nature of Maldraxxus where the inhabitants of it are always striving and being in conflict with one another that allows the strongest to rise to the top and therefore the Shadowlands will have the strongest defenders. So the nature of Maldraxxus is necessary for the job that it is supposed to do.

如果你将我们在这个扩展包里所能拜访的所有区域当成一个宏伟的死亡机器——“死亡机器”这个词我们之前用过——的一部分，玛卓克萨斯就是它的防御机制。有时候为了保护某些事物，你需要变得毒辣和富有侵略性一些。这就是玛卓克萨斯的生态，这里的居民总是处在相互斗争和冲突中，以此让最强大的那位升至高处，这样暗影界防御者才会是最强的。所以，玛卓克萨斯的生态环境是做防御工作所必需的。

What was the most difficult part about creating Maldraxxus, and what is your initial decision to make Maldraxxus a covenant of warriors, powerful necromancers and monsters? 创造玛卓克萨斯时最困难的部分是什么？还有，将玛卓克萨斯塑造成一个由战士、强大的亡灵法师和怪物组成的盟约是你最初的决定吗？

It certainly was a challenge to take all of these themes that were visually familiar to players and to amplify them. But also to give new context to them. Context is always what’s really important in terms of telling a story.

要详细讲述这些玩家观感上熟悉的内容确实是个挑战。但除了详述之外，我们也要为它们赋予新的背景。讲故事的过程中，背景永远是真正重要的东西。

There is what your eyes tell you, and then there are the other layers that you experience as you play through storylines and what you pick up on and perceive. The characters that are in this world are very important to helping us tell that story. So I think certainly, there is that challenge of once you’ve decided to express Maldraxxus as this very aggressive looking, contentious, with toxic pools and lots of bones and flesh and all that sort of things, that does present you with challenges in terms of telling a more complex and nuanced story.

故事中你的眼睛会有所看到，然后在你体验剧情故事时还会有其他的层次，你会有所接收信息，有所感知。要帮助我们讲述这个故事，这个世界中的角色是非常重要的。所以我觉得，当然如此，是有这样的挑战，一旦你决定把玛卓克萨斯表现成这样看起来攻击性十足又极具争议、还有毒池塘和很多骨头和肉等等这些东西，讲一个更复杂且细致入微的故事确实会带来挑战。

You ask yourself, “Will the players be able to pick up on this? If they are playing through this realm that looks very aggressive, can they care about these characters? Can they still have that same emotional investment in their well being that is the hallmark of classic Warcraft storytelling?” And we had many debates as we were making the expansion. How far can we go with some of these things? Are we gonna be able to tell that kind of classic Warcraft story in these very different feeling places? And that is why it was so gratifying, even in the beginnings of our Alpha play tests, once we were getting people from the outside and they were running through these zones, all of the questions for us melted away. Because they were just playing WoW they way that everybody always plays WoW; where they’re running through these gorgeous zones, they’re interacting with cool characters, they’re fighting bosses, they’re getting loot, they’re doing all those things that make World of Warcraft what it is. And that was immensely gratifying for us as storytellers because then we knew we could have that burden lifted from our shoulders and just focus on telling really cool, powerful stories. Because we had no doubt that the audience would be able to understand it and pick up on the same kinds of storylines that we’ve held on other expansions that were arguably more visually instantly relatable places.

你得问问自己："玩家们到底能不能接受这个？玩家能接受这种好勇斗狠的剧情吗，他们能和那些角色产生共情吗，他们能否像关心那些经典魔兽剧情中的角色那样，真心的去关心这些玛卓克萨斯的角色？" 我们在做这个版本的时候也有过很多争论。我们能在这些事情上走得多远？在这些不同的地方，我们能否讲述出经典的魔兽故事？很令人欣慰的是，即使是在Alpha测试的初期，一旦我们从外面找来玩家，让他们在这些区域里跑来跑去，我们的所有问题就都融化了。因为他们只是在用大家玩魔兽的方式玩魔兽；他们在这些华丽的区域中跑来跑去，他们和酷炫的角色互动，他们和Boss战斗，然后再拾取掉落，他们所作的所有事成就了魔兽世界。对于我们这些讲故事的人来说，这是非常令人欣慰的，因为那时我们就会知道，我们大可以卸下肩上的重担，只专注于讲述真正酷炫又有力的故事。因为我们相信玩家会理解我们写出的故事，并和其他资料片里的同类故事线联系起来，很直观理解其他资料片里同类故事线的相似之处。

So even in Maldraxxus, this place of contention, and it’s very chaotic nature at times, there are still these classic hero’s journey stories that play out through characters that you care about and get invested in. And you want to help as a hero of this world of Azeroth that you come from, even in this magical, far away realm of the Shadowlands.

所以即使是在玛卓克萨斯这个纷争之地，这个生态时常十分混乱的区域，仍然会有经典的英雄旅途故事由你关心的和投入感情的角色上演。而你，即使身处这个神奇而遥远的暗影国度，也想作为来自艾泽拉斯的英雄提供帮助。

Many players have compared Maldraxxus to Icecrown. Is there anything in common between these two locations? And what inspired you as you created the design of Maldraxxus? 很多玩家都在比较玛卓克萨斯和冰冠冰川之间的异同。这两个地方有什么共同之处吗？你在设计玛卓克萨斯的时候得到了什么启发？

I think it is clear when you look at Maldraxxus there are a ton of echoes of that classic image of undead and Scourge represented in Warcraft III and Wrath of the Lich King expansion. There is no question that there are visual and thematic ties there.

当你看向玛卓克萨斯时，显然会发现有一大堆形象呼应着魔兽争霸3和巫妖王之怒版本中代表性的经典亡灵天灾。毫无疑问的是，这之间有视觉上和主题上的联系。

Giving the players that kind of playground to venture into, and frankly seeing how our artists today could take some of those same themes and really dress them up with all the visual fidelity that WoW is capable of delivering that wasn’t able to earlier in those days, it was a great treat for us both from an artistic standpoint and from a storytelling standpoint, to take some of these themes and infuse them into the modern game in a new way. So when you look at Icecrown (zone), obviously it’s filled with all kinds of undead, many of which you see different versions of in Maldraxxus or different incarnations I would say…

我们给玩家提供了这样一个冒险的舞台，今天，我看到我们的艺术家如何用一些相同的主题，然后用魔兽能提供的视觉效果来装扮它们，早期的创作中并不可能做到这些。无论是从艺术的角度还是故事的角度来看，将这些主题内容以一种新的方式融入到现代游戏当中，对于我们而言是一种巨大的享受。所以当你看到冰冠冰川明显到处都是各种亡灵，我敢保证你会在玛卓克萨斯看到很多他们的不同版本，或者不同的形态。

You saw some Abomination, for example, that were stitched together out of rotten flesh, and sometimes their parts were kind of leaking out and all this nasty stuff… While in Maldraxxus you see the higher form of that. Places like the House of Constructs where they take the finest pieces and assemble them into these big beefy creations that still recall those abominations. But you can see that they’re a much higher form of magic and much higher success rates on these creations in terms of their fierceness, the power that they possess. So in all cases, you see something that’s familiar, but now you see the higher form of it. Maldraxxus is really the place where necromancy as a force as we’ve seen it in Azeroth was formed, where it was born.

比如说你会在冰冠冰川看到一些憎恶，它们由腐烂的肉体缝合而成，有时它们的一些部件会“漏出来”，你还会看到所有这些恶心的东西......但在玛卓克萨斯，你会看到的是憎恶更高级的形态。像构造密院这样的地方，他们把最好的血肉部件组装成这些大块头，而这些高级缝合怪依旧能让人回想起那些恶心的东西。但你可以看出，玛卓克萨斯的憎恶是一种更高级的魔法形式，从他们的凶残程度和他们的力量来看，这些构造密院的作品的成功率要高得多。所以，在很多情况下，你看到的是一些熟悉的东西，但你现在看到的是旧东西更高的形式。死灵法术在玛卓克萨斯是一种力量，我们在艾泽拉斯看到的亡灵法术在玛卓克萨斯形成，起源于此。

You can also see echoes of the rooms of the Death Knight blades and some of those themes also carry forth into the Maw. As someone who’s seen the Icecrown Citadel, you can look around at places in Torghast and some of those themes feel very familiar. And that’s all part of the storyline that we’ll be exploring as we go deeper into the Shadowlands.

你也可以看到死亡骑士铸剑大厅的回响，其中一些主题也会延续到噬渊当中。作为一个见识过冰冠堡垒的人，你可以到托加斯特转转，其中一些造型主题也会感觉非常熟悉。而这些，都是我们在深入暗影界时将会探索到的剧情的一部分。

译者：[罗兰·血月]

Maldraxxus is called the “Defender of the Shadowlands”. Who was it supposed to defend it from before the current events? Was it the Legion or the [Old] Gods etc?

玛卓克萨斯被称为“暗影界的守卫者”。那么在当下的事件之前他们是从谁手里保卫暗影界呢？是军团或者古神，还是其他的什么势力？

Maldraxxus is supposed to create an infinite army to defend Shadowlands against all kinds of threats. Now, what would those threats be? If you play through the Shadowlands story, you’ll encounter several situations where outside forces have made incursions into the Shadowlands.

玛卓克萨斯的使命是创建一支无尽的大军来从所有威胁中捍卫暗影界。那么，都有哪些威胁呢？如果你体验过暗影国度的故事，你就会发现几种外部势力入侵暗影界的情况。

You see a place in Revendreth that seems to be touched by the Light. You see places within the Bastion where there is a memorial to an attack from the Void. And as you saw in the Afterlives short, Maldraxxus forces were spying on the Legion which raises lots of questions…

你会看到雷文德斯的一块区域被圣光触碰。你发现晋升堡垒的一些地区里矗立着一场虚空袭击的纪念碑。而在“彼岸之地”的短片里，你能看到玛卓克萨斯的势力潜入军团进行侦查——这就带来了很多问题……

But while the history of Azeroth is one part of our storyline, the universe Azeroth habits is much, much older. And the places like the Shadowlands and other realms that are on that Cosmology chart date back to the very beginnings of this universe.

不过，虽然艾泽拉斯的历史是我们故事线的一部分，艾泽拉斯宇宙可是要古老得多。而暗影界和其他六大原力图上的领域更是可以追溯到宇宙太初之时。

As you can imagine from reading the Chronicles book that tells you some of the story that went on before the mortal races were really taking control of Azeroth and their kingdoms were rising and all that stuff, you can assume then that there was even more history that you don’t know or haven’t heard about. And part of that involves conflicts between these cosmic forces.

当你在读编年史的时候，你可能会想象一下凡人种族真正掌控艾泽拉斯之前或者是他们的王国如何崛起这样的故事，你可以假定还有很多历史你从不知晓或是从未听闻。这些不为人知的故事里就包含着宇宙原力间的冲突。

When you think of the Cosmology chart, there are many ways to look at that, there are many interpretations of it. One way you can think of it is that it’s almost like a balance, like a scale where it’s keeping these different forces in balance and maybe that’s the nature of the universe, or at least one way of looking at it… And if these forces are always striving to gain power, kind of oppose or take power from another, you can imagine that these different forces throughout time have waxed and waned and influenced, and we’ve only seen little bits and pieces of that. But there is certainly the potential for great wars between some of these forces to have occured; different team-ups maybe, where some of them joined forces to oppose another force that had gotten too powerful.

当你仔细研究六大原力图的时候，你可以从很多方面切入这个设定，而它也可以有很多解读。你可以这么认为：整个宇宙力量的谱系是基本平衡的，它就像一架在努力保持各大力量均衡的天秤，也许这就是宇宙的天性，或者至少看起来应该是这样……而如果我们假设这些原力始终在如饥似渴的攫取更多的力量的话，它们就会从其他势力那里去夺取，你可以想象一下这些原力在历史的长河间如何兴衰迭起，而我们只见过这幅波澜壮阔的画卷很少的一部分。但是毫无疑问，这些势力间存在着发生宏大的战争的可能性；甚至可能会发生不同的原力联合起来对抗一个变得过于强大的敌人的事件。

The universe is simultaneously trying to stay in balance while also each individual force is trying to rise up and gain power. So it’s that balancing act that occurs all around this universe with Azeroth and the mortal plane is right at the very heart of that conflict.

这个宇宙一直在各大原力试图一家独大的时候努力保持平衡。所以在艾泽拉斯和凡人位面所进行的平衡行动便是这场冲突的核心所在。

Is Maldraxxus ever used as an offensive force? Have they ever stepped in to help Azeroth that we didn’t know about? 玛卓克萨斯是否曾经作为攻击性力量被部署过？他们是否曾经在我们不知道的情况下出动协助过艾泽拉斯？

There were certainly times in history where Maldraxxus felt the need to go on the offensive. Whether they think another force is rising, that they need to preemptively attack in order to defend the Shadowlands; that certainly is something they would do. Whether any of that was visible to Azeroth or to people from Azeroth in the past… You know, there have been a number of beings throughout history who have been able to observe things beyond the mortal realm, who have peered beyond Azeroth and seen things coming. We have seen examples of that with Medivh and how he peered in on the Legion and saw some of the things they were up to. He was aware of that and worked preemptively to defend Azeroth from that.

毫无疑问，历史上玛卓克萨斯曾有数次认为他们必须发动主动攻击。无论他们是否认为另一股原力正在崛起，他们总归是需要先发制人以保卫暗影界；是的，他们肯定会这么做。至于这些行动是否能被艾泽拉斯或者那些过去来自于艾泽拉斯的人所见……你知道的，历史上有很多存在能够观察凡人领域以外的事物，这些人窥视着艾泽拉斯之外并发现正在发生的事情。我们已经知道了麦迪文的例子，他窥视着军团并且发现了他们正在进行的工作。这使得他意识到了这一切，并立刻行动起来保护艾泽拉斯免受其害。

So you might assume that there could have been figures throughout Azeroth’s long periods of history that we don’t have a lot of detail on, that there might be other figures who might have had insight on the other cosmic forces. And maybe they could involve forces from Shadowlands but maybe that knowledge was lost in time, there might be stuff that waits to be discovered.

所以你可以猜想在艾泽拉斯那漫长的历史里有一些我们未作太多笔墨的人物也有类似的观察其他原力的视野。也许他们能够牵涉到来自暗影界的势力，但是可能这些知识已经在历史间遗失了，所以也许有些东西仍待我们去发掘。

Maldraxxus looks like a dark and toxic area. Is it the right place for fallen warriors of the Alliance? Would Varian Wrynn appear in Maldraxxus? 玛卓克萨斯看起来就是片黑暗而有毒的领域。这地方真的是联盟勇士们应该来的后世吗？瓦里安·乌瑞恩会出现在玛卓克萨斯吗？

We touched on this in an earlier question, just in terms of how fearsome Maldraxxus looks and how at first you might think it is just a place for bad guys to go, but that’s definitely not the case. Maldraxxus benefits from any soul that has that natural drive and contention, whether it’s to better themselves or to overcome rivals. That can be for a good cause or it can be for a bad cause. Maldraxxus doesn’t’ really care about morality in that sense. It has a job to do, and it needs the best people around to do that. And in some cases those are monstrous people who’ve done bad things and in other cases it can be very noble ones. Again, just because Bastion is a place of light, service and duty, that doesn’t mean that everybody who has a noble heart inherently goes there. There are countless afterlives and in Maldraxxus, there are definitely people who have been noble spirits, noble hearts like Draka who still embody that kind of striving and wanting to be better.

我们在之前的问题里谈论过这点，也许你第一眼看过去会感觉玛卓克萨斯是片只有恶人该去的可怖之地，但是事实完全不是这样。玛卓克萨斯从那些忠于天性和争强好胜的灵魂上获得力量，不管他们是努力让自己变得更强大还是单纯为了战胜对手。这可以是好的原因，也可以是坏的原因。玛卓克萨斯在这一点并不看重道德因素。它有自己的工作，而这份工作需要最优秀的人选来完成。所以一些是怪物般的恶人，另一些则是非常高贵的勇士。再强调一次，虽然晋升堡垒是一片光明、服务与职责之地，这并不意味着每一个拥有高贵之心的人都会前往那里。因为在死后有着无穷的来生，而在玛卓克萨斯肯定会有一些人像德拉卡那样拥有高贵的精神与心灵，他们依然体现着那种努力拼搏以变得更加优秀的精神。

Varian Wrynn is an interesting case where you can make arguments for him going to a lot of different places that we’ve seen in the Shadowlands, and probably places that we haven’t seen as well since the Shadowlands is this realm of infinite afterlives…If you’ve engaged with the Shadowlands story so far, there has been no sign of Varian Wrynn but certainly he has a figure that looms large in the history of Warcraft. He’s not part of this storyline, but who knows what the future might hold… Through his son Anduin, Varian’s presence is always there. So we feel like we’ve told that story pretty touchingly and well in Legion, and it wasn’t something that we felt we needed to address again just in the beginning of the Shadowlands story.

瓦里安·乌瑞恩是个有趣的案例，你们可以尽情争论他会前往我们在暗影界所已经了解或未曾得见的诸多不同国度中的哪一个，毕竟暗影界是个有着无穷来生选项的领域……如果你已经了解了暗影国度的故事，你会知道目前没有任何瓦里安·乌瑞恩出现的迹象，但是他也确实是魔兽历史上举足轻重的一位人物。他不是目前暗影国度故事线的一部分，但是将来会怎么样谁说得清呢……通过他的儿子安度因，瓦里安的存在将会一直彰显。我们感觉已经在军团再临里把他的故事描写的感人而又完整了，所以在暗影国度的故事开始的时候就没什么必须要去讲述的有关瓦里安的故事。

译者：[woc1840]

The Primus is a very interesting character. Was it intentional on his behalf that he just left, or was there a completely unexpected case of his disappearance?

兵主是个很有趣的角色，他的离去究竟是有意为之，还是因为发生了一些出乎意料的事件才导致了他的失踪？

The Primus is one of the Eternal Ones. He is part of this Pantheon of Death that rules the realms of the Shadowlands and again, think of all the time that passed before the present day of the mortals crossing over. The Primus was in charge of Maldraxxus for countless eons and his singular focus was on building this unbeatable army that could defend the Shadowlands. And that was really all that he was about and that’s why he founded those five different houses to embody different virtues. If you think about that way of Maldraxxus, whether it be strength or cunning, all of those things are important for being part of this army that’s got a job to do.

兵主是不朽者也是死亡万神殿的成员之一，他在暗影界有自己的统治区，然后你再想想，在凡人穿越来之前，这位兵主就已经在玛卓克萨斯统治了无数的世纪，而且他唯一关注的就是建造一支坚不可摧的军队来保卫整个暗影国度。这就是他的真实目的，也是他在领地分立了五个院来体现五种不同品质的原因。如果你仔细忖度了玛卓克萨斯的行事之道，你会发现不管是狡诈还是勇武，所有这些特质都对加入军队以各司其职很重要。

As you play through the storyline, you come to learn that the Primus began to suspect that there was something going on. You’ll see hints that he was involved in whatever happened with the Jailer’s imprisonment. And over time, as he’s always the most tactical thinker of all of the Eternal Ones, he began to suspect and see some evidence that perhaps the Jailer’s influence was seeping out even though he was supposed to have been locked away all this time. And that leads the Primus to suspect that there may have been allies. His absence was about investigating that and trying to get to the bottom of it. The Primus has been gone for a while though, so it’s left to those who are left behind to guess and determine what his fate was and what impact that has on it. But I think it’s a safe bet to say that he probably found out some of the bad things that were happening and probably some bad fate befell him. As the storyline plays out in Maldraxxus, you get some messages that he left behind; both as encouragement and as trying to guide the heroes forward.

在你体验故事线的时候，你会发现兵主早就开始怀疑暗影界发生了一些不寻常的事情了。你会得到他曾经参与过囚禁典狱长行动的提示。然后随着时间的推移，作为不朽者中最足智多谋的存在，他开始怀疑并找到了典狱长的影响在扩散的证据——尽管正主早已经被囚禁。这让兵主猜测噬渊势力可能还有盟友，他如今的失踪就是为了调查并查明事情的真相。不过因为兵主已经离开了好一段时间，所以剩下的人只能靠猜去推测他的命运以及其造成的影响。不过我可以负责的说，他可能已经发现了某些正在恶化的事态并且遭遇了不幸。当你在玛卓克萨斯的剧情中开始冒险时，你会收到他留下的一些讯息：那些信息既是鼓励，也是引领玩家继续前行探索的向导。

The Primus, being this long thinker and very strategic mind, could conceive of a time when the Shadowlands would face a grave peril, and he could conceive that perhaps it would take someone from the outside of Shadowlands coming in to help set things right. So he may have put things in place to help that person, whether it be hiding a rune blade inside a rock or leaving messages behind… When you look at the storyline from a high level, you will see the genius of the Primus start playing out, and even though he’s not a character that’s present in the storyline, his impact is very much felt in Maldraxxus and the realms beyond.

兵主作为一个足智多谋且具有长远战略眼光的存在可以设想到暗影国度所面临的灭顶之灾，同样他也可以设想到一个来自暗影界之外的人前来解决问题。所以他可能已经安排好了一些东西去帮助那位外来者，不管是把符文剑藏在石头中还是留下那些引导信息...当你从更高的层面去看整个故事线的时候你会发现兵主天才般的先见之明开始发挥作用，甚至在他都不是故事线里实际出现的角色的情况下，你都能在玛卓克萨斯以及别的区域感受到他的影响力。

What is the meaning of the name “Maldraxxus”? Is there an etymological approach to naming that area? 玛卓克萨斯这个名字究竟是啥意思，你们是用某种词源学上的方法来命名这块区域的么？

There are reasons for every name that we come up with, and some of them are deeply thought out and considered, and there is something in the etymology of the name itself that can set something bigger. In the case of Maldraxxus, though, that was one of the names I came up with, I believe. I just wanted to go with something that recalled themes of the Scourge that we’ve heard before; you know, places like Naxxramas… X is a big letter in terms of that Scourge-y kind of sound.

我们在为每一样造物命名时都是有理由的，而且其中的一些则是特别深思熟虑之后的产物，在词源学中，那些名字本身就可以映射出某些更宏大的含义。拿玛卓克萨斯这个我想出来的名字来举例子的话就是我希望这个名字的某些特质可以唤起人们对以前的天灾主题的记忆，你懂的，就像是纳克萨玛斯一样。X这字母的发音对“天灾之声”而言可是重中之重。

“Mal” is a word that usually hints at bad or dangerous things. So I wanted that sense of danger. But there is a joke in the community that Maldraxxus is the perfect heavy metal album cover location and really, that’s what we wanted the name to sound like. We wanted it to sound like someone could go “MALDRAAAXXXUSSS!!!!” and have it be that kind of growly, metal, aggressive sound because that fits the theme of what’s going on there. Sometimes you choose the name because of the sound rather than any inherent meaning in it. And I would say that was the case for Maldraxxus.

“Mal”则是一个通常用来暗示坏事儿和危险的词，而我就是想要这种危险的氛围。不过这名字在社区里还有个笑话：他们觉得拿玛卓克萨斯这个词去放到重金属专辑的封面简直是天衣无缝——这就是我们想要它听起来的样子。我们希望这名字可以让人吼出“玛卓克萨斯哼啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊”这样的声音从而展现出充满倾略性的、咆哮式的金属乐的感觉，毕竟这非常符合玛卓克萨斯这地方的主题。所以有的时候在命名的选择上，听起来的声音会比内在意义更有说服力，我想说玛卓克萨斯就是这么个例子。

Could you please name five heroes who would most likely go to Maldraxxus after they died? I mean the ones who we will not see in the Shadowlands… 您能举出5个最有可能在死了之后去玛卓克萨斯的英雄么，我是指在9.0这个版本还没魂归暗影界的那些....

Well, I’m not the Arbiter so I would leave that job to her. And I also don’t want to mention a character because if they don’t show up, people will be disappointed by that. I would just say to keep an open mind as you’re looking at characters from Warcraft’s past and that it’s a good thing for fans of the Shadowlands to debate and say “You know, someone like that could have gone to Maldraxxus” or “They could have gone to Revendreth because, maybe, they needed some redemption.” I think that those are healthy discussions to have and you don’t always have hard answers about stuff like that.

好吧，我不是仲裁者，所以这种英雄该去哪的问题我会让她去评判。所以同样我也不会提及具体的英雄名，因为如果他们最终没有出现在那儿，人们会对此很失望的。我只能说在看待魔兽的历代人物时尽量保持一个开放的心态，对于暗影国度的粉丝而言，讨论诸如“你懂的，某位大侠看着就有副要去玛卓克萨斯的面相”或者“他们也许会被分配到雷文德斯，因为他们也许需要进行一下赎罪之类的。”我认为这些都是非常健康的讨论，所以你并不总是会在这类问题上得到“明确的”答案。

If you are arguing for Maldraxxus that someone could go there, just ask yourself: Were they someone who in life strived to better themselves? Whether it was for the sake of someone else or for the sake of themselves. Either way, were they someone who was working to make themselves smarter, stronger, better at magic? If the answer to that is yes, then you can absolutely make the case for that character going to Maldraxxus. And from there, what House would they have been sorted into?

如果你主张某人可能会去玛卓克萨斯，那么请扪心自问：这人生前是一个奋斗逼吗？无论这种奋斗和变强是出于自己还是别人，他们是否都在而为了变得更聪明、更强壮、有更高的魔法造诣而努力拼搏？如果是的话，你完全可以确信他们将会前往玛卓克萨斯，然后从这点来发散：他们在玛卓又会被分到哪个势力呢？

As you saw in the case of Draka, she went to an unlikely House at first. She would’ve assumed that she would have been at the House of the Chosen right away, but the system had other things in mind for her. It needed her to get that knowledge from the House of Eyes; so when she did get to the House of the Chosen, she could be an even greater asset to them there.

So there are all kinds of things to unpack, talk and think about.

就像你在德拉卡的经历中看到的那样，她一开始被分去了一个她并不怎么满意的势力，德拉卡本以为她会直接去魂选秘院，但是很显然组织对她另有安排——她需要先在锐眼秘院学习那里的知识，最终当德拉卡到达魂选秘院时，她已经成为了一个对魂选者而言更有价值的人。

所以你看，玛卓克萨斯有很多类似的事情可以去展开、思考和探讨。

Lorekeeper采访魔兽世界剧本主管Steve Danuser