Zovaal

For the demonic race, see Jailer.

Zovaal the Jailer
Title	The Banished One
Gender	Male
Race	Eternal One (Humanoid)
Level	??
Reaction	Alliance Horde
Affiliation(s)	Mawsworn
Occupation	Jailer of Torghast
Location	Torghast, the Maw
Status	Active

The Jailer, whose true name is Zovaal, is an Eternal One who is imprisoned in and rules over the Maw in the Shadowlands. Very little is known about him, since nothing has ever escaped the Maw, and no one has ever seen the Jailer himself—or lived to tell the tale. Ruling from Torghast, Tower of the Damned, the Jailer is the singular master of the Maw: the realm continually alters and changes itself to his whims. The damned souls who arrive in the Maw are tortured and twisted by the Jailer until they willingly serve him for eternity as his Mawsworn soldiers.

The Jailer is the main antagonist and final boss of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.

Biography

Ancient times

Zovaal imprisoned within the Maw.

The Jailer is an evil older than reality itself. Ages ago, Zovaal betrayed his fellow Eternal Ones. As punishment, he was bound within the inescapable Maw to be forevermore its Jailer. 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.

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 these allies is the loa Mueh'zala, who made a pact with the titanic keeper Odyn by swallowing one of his eyes in exchange for giving him the ability to gaze into the Shadowlands. This led to Odyn creating the Val'kyr as an imitation of the Shadowlands' kyrian. There was a specific reason Mueh'zala and the Jailer wanted the eye of a keeper and what it could do for them. Long after the pact with Odyn, Mueh'zala also brought the first Val'kyr Helya to the Jailer's side.

At some point, the Primus of Maldraxxus noticed that the Jailer's influence was seeping outside of the Maw and left Maldraxxus to investigate the matter. His suspicions ultimately proved true and the Jailer, having forged his chains into a weapon, brought about the Primus' defeat.

The Jailer imprisoned the Runecarver, extracted his designs to use for the Mawsworn army, including designs for Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination. This was part of his plans to obtain his final prize, "the secret that the First Ones sought to hide."

Shadowlands

This section concerns content related to Shadowlands.

Sylvanas Windrunner allied with the Jailer after the events of Edge of Night, and the two have been working toward a common end for some time. As she fed the Maw with new souls, both she and the Jailer have grown more powerful.

With his bindings broken, the Jailer intends to "reclaim what is his". He also has his sights set on the soul of Azeroth. Should the Jailer break free from the Maw, all of reality will be unmade. According to Tal-Inara, the Jailer is said to be filled with hatred for the Arbiter, and if he struck her down, it would mean the end of everything the First Ones made. Prince Renathal believes that if the Jailer escapes, all the realms of Death will fall. Similarly, Lady Moonberry is of the belief that a freed Jailer would plunge all of the realms of the Shadowlands into inescapable, crushing despair. A warning left by the Primus before his disappearance states that Zovaal must not reach "the sepulcher" and that if the Arbiter is not protected, all will be lost. Meanwhile, Denathrius believes that the Jailer will bring a torrent of change that will leave Death, and those who shaped its victory, as the only powers remaining. In a private conversation with Anduin Wrynn, Sylvanas claimed that the Jailer will shatter the system of Death and forge it anew, with everyone truly having free will. Devos of the Forsworn believed that the Eternal Ones' imprisonment of Zovaal was a "great injustice" and that he "seeks to free us from the prison we have built for ourselves".

The Jailer and his army.

After Sylvanas destroyed the Helm of Domination and tore open a rift through the Veil separating the Shadowlands from the world of the living, the Jailer's Mawsworn kyrian kidnapped leaders of Azeroth's Alliance and Horde—Anduin Wrynn, Jaina Proudmoore, Thrall, and Baine Bloodhoof—and brought them to the Maw. The Jailer took a special interest in these four prisoners and personally oversaw their torture. According to Thrall, it sometimes felt as if the Jailer was testing them for some unknown purpose. The Knights of the Ebon Blade and the heroes of Azeroth soon ventured 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 declared the tauren chieftain to be unworthy and threw him off a platform. The Azerothians subsequently fought their way to an Eroded 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 claimed that he had failed, the Jailer calmly responded "No... I have precisely what I need." The Jailer subsequently brought Anduin, Thrall, Jaina, and Baine into Torghast for further torture.

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 that the nuisance would be dealt with. Not long after, Sire Denathrius of Revendreth 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.

Following the defeat and capture of Sire Denathrius, Sylvanas questioned him on their plans to recover him. In response, the Jailer merely declared 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 reminded Sylvanas that they had come too far for her to falter.

Notes

• Despite fan speculation, the Jailer is intended to be a new character and is not someone that players have met before (such as Arthas, Argus or Helya). 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.
  • Ion also described him as one of the "lords of death" in the BlizzCon 2019 What's Next panel.
• Five large pillars can be seen floating around the Crucible in Oribos. Four are used by the covenant leaders during  [60] 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 presumably belonged to Zovaal before his banishment.
• The Jailer was first seen in the Shadowlands reveal trailer at BlizzCon 2019, in which only a silhouette of his body is shown. In late November 2019, an alleged piece of concept art of the Jailer where the Jailer's 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 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 the Jailer's design by the time the trailer was released at BlizzCon.
• As both prisoner and ruler of the Maw, the Jailer shares similarities with some Christian depictions of Satan, notably the version depicted in Dante's Inferno.

Gallery

• 

  The Jailer's original appearance in the Shadowlands reveal trailer.

• 

  In the Beyond the Veil cinematic.

• 

  Cinematic character still.

• 

  On the Shadowlands loading screen

• 

  The Jailer from The Highlord's Vision in-game cinematic.

• 

  Concept art.

Patch changes

• Patch 9.0.2 (2020-11-17): Added.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB