Shadowlands Preview: Kyrian Covenant

As you journey through the Shadowlands, you will find yourself swept up in the dark tides of the war between the kyrian and Forsworn of Bastion—and your place in kyrian history will not be forgotten.

If you choose to walk in the path of service and pledge yourself to the Kyrian Covenant, the friendships you forged during your time in Bastion will be ready to take the next step.

Kyrian Covenant Campaign (Spoilers Inside!)

The battle for Bastion has come to a head. With many of the kyrian left dead in their fight against the Forsworn, the Archon has authorized the use of the last bits of anima to ascend some Aspirants—their final hope in the last stand against the darkness. You will come to their aid by traveling across the realms of Death, completing crucial tasks and bolstering their ranks so you can clip the Forsworn’s wings once and for all. With each victory under the Kyrian Covenant banner, you’ll gain Renown, which will reward you with power and special cosmetics.

RENOWN REWARDS

As you progress through the Kyrian Covenant Campaign and complete tasks for your new allies, you’ll build Renown. Increasing Renown will provide you access to unique rewards from your Covenant.

In your pursuit to earn Renown, you’ll go into the Maw to recover wayward souls and bring them to your Covenant Sanctum; some of these souls will even embark on Adventures on your behalf!

Learn more about Renown in our Covenant Systems article.

COVENANT SANCTUM: ELYSIAN HOLD

When you join the Kyrian Covenant, you’ll get access to Elysian Hold, a unique Sanctum available only to their members. The hold is their seat of power and home to many of the key figures you’ll be working with throughout their Covenant Campaign. Over time, you’ll be able to upgrade Sanctum features through your ongoing adventures in Shadowlands. It’s also here that you’ll bring Anima to deposit into the Covenant’s reservoir, take on new quests, and more.

Each of the four Covenants have features that they share among them, but they also have a feature that is patently unique to them. For the Kyrian Covenant, it’s the Path of Ascension.

PATH OF ASCENSION

All members of the Kyrian Covenant can access the Path of Ascension, helping their Soulbinds test their mettle. You will play as either Pelagos, Kleia, or Mikanikos, each of whom has a unique set of tools to combat the monstrosities they must face in the trials ahead. You’ll help your Soulbinds by gathering the materials necessary to summon or capture a boss, as well as tools to help them equalize the playing field.

To combat a boss, you must first capture their memory in a soul mirror. Once a boss’s memory has been captured, you can challenge them in the arena as many times as you wish.

Once you’ve finished your prep, you’ll play as a Soulbind of your choosing and fight! Victorious Soulbinds will be rewarded with blueprints to craft improved gear, signature ability upgrades, and cosmetics.

For those who desire ultimate glory, seek out and complete challenges to unlock special rewards, including mounts.

TRAVEL SYSTEM: KYRIAN GATEWAYS

You’ll be able to access a Bastion-specific travel network from the comfort of Elysian Hold. Dissolve into pure anima to flit between points of interest instantly. There are three tiers of Anima Transport that you’ll unlock over time by restoring Anima to your Sanctum. Here are some examples:

Step of Faith (Tier 1)
Allows travel to Elysian Hold, Hero’s Rest, Aspirant’s Rest, and the Temple of Courage.
After arriving at a location, cast Unburden, greatly increasing movement speed and propelling you forward.

Leap of Power (Tier 2)
Allows travel to Sagehaven, the Temple of Purity, and the Seat of Eternal Hymns.
Unburden duration increased by 100%.
Your Summon Steward ability can now create an Elysian Beacon, granting you access to the network in the field.

Eternal Paths (Tier 3) Allows travel to the Temple of Humility and Exaltation Rise.
Unburden additionally reduces the radius at which enemies will detect you while active.
Your steward’s Elysian Beacon can now be used by party members.

KYRIAN ADVENTURES

Put your tactical skills to the test by sending your allies into the Shadowlands and lending aid to the Kyrian Covenant. You’ll need to be strategic about how you take on these combat puzzles, which Kyrian Covenant allies you’ll send to face them, and how you’ll utilize their skills to claim victory.

ANIMA CONDUCTOR

Players can enable additional content with their Covenant’s realm by investing Anima into specific areas in Bastion. When you restore Anima to a location, it revitalizes the area allowing you to access new quests, making it easier for you to unearth wondrous treasures, or luring powerful foes which can be slain for rich rewards. Different areas are tied to different content unlocks.

• Purity’s Pinnacle – Find a unique Covenant treasure.
• Temple of Courage – Fight an enemy champion.
• Temple of Humility – Access a Covenant World Quest.
• Eternal Forge – Access a set of Covenant daily quests.
• Eonian Archives – Get access to powerful kyrian enhancements.
• Citadel of Loyalty – Fight an elite enemy champion.

MEET YOUR KYRIAN SOULBINDS

Once you’ve proven your worth, you’ll unlock the ability to Soulbind with one of several select characters in the Covenant, who will share their distinctive powers with you in the form of a variety of traits and bonuses.

The noble kyrian you befriended in Bastion will form a special bond with you if you join their Covenant. Below are descriptions of each, along with a few example powers they can bestow upon you.

Pelagos trains diligently for ascension even in the face of challenge and adversity. Along with Kleia, his other soulbind, Pelagos is quick to befriend you as you seek an audience with the Archon and confront the Forsworn threat. Despite the trials he faces, Pelagos pushes ever forward, steadfast and optimistic.

Bond of Friendship: Defeating enemies slightly reduces the cooldown on your Steward’s non-Phial services per enemy defeated.

Combat Meditation: Using your Kyrian class spell or ability increases your Mastery slightly for a moderate amount of time and occasionally expels Sorrowful Memories. Walking through Sorrowful Memories extends this effect by a short time.

Kleia met you while she was still an aspirant. She demonstrated to her soulbound companion Pelagos and the rest of the kyrian that she wants to push forward and best any trials they faced. A caring mentor to Pelagos and you, she will do whatever she can to protect her friends and Bastion.

Ascendant Phial: Phial of Serenity renders you immune to Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed effects for several seconds.

Valiant Strikes: You and your nearby allies’ critical strikes grant you stacks of Valiant Strikes. Once you maximize your stacks, you heal nearby allies for 5% of their maximum health over 10 seconds.

Forgelite Prime Mikanikos, a steward of Bastion, showed promise from his earliest days and quickly rose to the rank of Forgelite Prime. He was the primary inventor of many of Bastion’s most iconic creations. Recognizing the potential of the Maw Walker, he became a formidable ally to help you get to the bottom of the anima drought and take on other threats.

Charged Additive: Phial of Serenity also knocks nearby enemies away from you.

Bron’s Call to Action: After using a significant amount of spells and abilities, your next spell or ability summons Bron, who attacks and heals your targets.

POWER OF THE KYRIAN

When you join the Kyrian Covenant, you’ll gain two new unique abilities—one signature ability and one class ability.

Signature abilities are available to all Covenant members regardless of class, race, or specialization.

Summon Steward
Call your Steward to bring you a Phial of Serenity that can be consumed to restore some of your health and remove all Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed Effects.

Your Personal Steward

You get to choose your own special steward to call upon from an entire flock, including one of these three:
Pico: A clarinet player who toots as much as he hoots!
Farra: This hammer-wielding Steward isn’t afraid of a fight; just look at her splinter a training dummy!
Bumos: A baker at heart, Bumos has a confection to make—he always has a slice of cake or two ready for you!

As you progress through the Covenant Campaign, your Steward will grow in power alongside of you, by being able to use the Travel Portal or even craft special items in the Path of Ascension.
If you decide that you want a new traveling companion, no need to ruffle your feathers—you’ll be able to choose a new Steward at Hero’s Rest.

Covenant Class Abilities provide additional combat-oriented gameplay options that are tailored to the theme of that Covenant.

Covenant Class Abilities

Death Knight: Shackle the Unworthy

• Admonish your target for their past transgressions, reducing the damage they deal to you and dealing Arcane damage over time.
• Shackle the Unworthy’s cooldown is reduced when you damage the affected enemy with a Rune-spending attack.

Demon Hunter: Elysian Decree

• Place a Kyrian Sigil at your location that activates after a short time. The sigil detonates to deal Arcane damage and shatter Lesser Soul Fragments from enemies.

Druid: Kindred Spirits

• Form a bond with an ally. On a cooldown, you may empower the bond for a period of time, granting you an effect based on your partner’s role, and granting them an effect based on your role.

Hunter: Resonating Arrow

• Fire a resonating arrow to the target location and fill the area with echoing anima. The effect causes your attacks to ignore line of sight to enemies in the area, and you have an increased critical strike chance against them.

Mage: Radiant Spark

• Conjure a radiant spark that causes Arcane damage instantly and additional damage over time. The target takes a percentage of increased damage from your direct damage spells, stacking each time they are struck. This effect ends after a number of spells.

Monk: Weapons of Order

• For a short duration, your Mastery is increased by a percentage. In addition:
  • Windwalkers’ Rising Sun Kick cooldown is reset instantly, and your Rising Sun Kick reduces the cost of your Chi abilities.
  • Brewmasters’ Keg Smash cooldown is reset, and enemies hit by Keg Smash take increased damage from you (stacks up to a set amount).
  • Mistweavers’ Essence Font cooldown is reset instantly and heals nearby allies on channel start and end.

Paladin: Divine Toll

• Instantly cast Holy Shock, Avenger’s Shield, or Judgment on several targets within range (based on your current specialization).

Priest: Boon of the Ascended

• Gain the Boon of the Ascended, granting access to Ascended Nova and Ascended Blast, and increasing your movement speed. Both abilities damage your enemies, heal your allies, and build power that will erupt in a powerful explosion of damage and healing at the end of Boon of the Ascended’s duration.

Rogue: Echoing Reprimand

• Deal Arcane damage to an enemy, extracting their anima to Animacharge a combo point.
• Damaging finishing moves that consume the same number of your combo points as your Animacharge deal damage as if they consume 7 combo points.

Shaman: Vesper Totem

• Summon a totem at the target location for 30 seconds. Your next 3 damage spells or abilities will cause the totem to radiate Arcane damage to enemies near the totem and your next 3 healing spells will heal up to 6 allies near the totem. Casting this ability again while the totem is active will relocate the totem.

Warlock: Scouring Tithe

• Deal Arcane damage instantly and additional Arcane damage over time. If the enemy dies while affected by Scouring Tithe, you generate additional Soul Shards. If they survive, Scouring Tithe’s cooldown is refreshed.

Warrior: Spear of Bastion

• Throw a Kyrian spear at the target location, dealing Arcane damage instantly, dealing additional damage over time, and generating Rage.
• Enemies hit are tethered to Spear of Bastion’s location for the duration.

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We look forward to sharing more information as development continues, and we hope this preview gives you a taste of what the Kyrian Covenant has to offer. Learn more about Bastion in our previously published article.

Rewards, mechanics, and abilities are still in development and subject to change, so be sure to check back for periodic updates on worldofwarcraft.com as we approach the release of Shadowlands.