Waystone

Waystones are ancient First One teleportation devices found in the Shadowlands. According to the sacred words of the First Ones, they placed the waystones at crucial locations where they would one day be needed, and they would respond only to the Maw Walkers—the living mortals destined to save the Shadowlands. While dormant, waystones appear as stone obelisks adorned with a looping spiral pattern. Maw Walkers can drawn on their own anima to activate them, causing them to unfold into glowing portals. With the exception of the Ancient Translocators, all known waystones connect to Oribos, the Eternal City.

A Waystone to Oribos is located in Cocyrus in the Maw. It was formerly dormant and was mostly ignored by the Mawsworn, having been sealed long ago. However, during their escape from the Maw, the waystone reacted to the presence of adventurers with a unique connection to the world-soul of Azeroth, allowing them to activate it and escape to Oribos. This surprised the Jailer, who had thought it impossible for a relic of the First Ones to respond to a mortal.

The broker Ta'lora notes that the waystone's existence is curious, since the Maw was intended to be an inescapable prison. One possibility is that the infallible First Ones placed it there as a failsafe, though this is a contested theory since it opens the possibility of the Arbiter wrongly assigning souls to the Maw even when she was working correctly. Another theory is that the First Ones foresaw the coming of the Maw Walkers and placed the stone in the Maw for their benefit, which seems to be confirmed by Elder Ara's statement about the First Ones putting waystones where they knew the Maw Walkers would need them.

A second Waystone to Oribos is located in Keeper's Respite in the city of Korthia. Korthian prophecies claimed that it would one day be needed by a Maw Walker and prove crucial to the fate of the Shadowlands. Until that day arrived, Pathscribe Roh-Vess was responsible for watching over it.

After Korthia was pulled into the Maw, the attendants in Oribos sensed the emergence of this second waystone. Tal-Inara created an anchor to one Maw Walker's anima in Oribos and sent the hero to attune themselves to the waystone, thereby connecting it to the anchor and allowing the covenants to enter and leave the Maw just as Maw Walkers could. In Korthia, Tal-Galan examined the hero's anima and determined them to be the "true Maw Walker", foretold by prophecy, and allowed them to activate the waystone.

The Enlightened found a dormant Ancient Waystone in the Geometric Cavern when they first arrived in Zereth Mortis. After a Maw Walker arrived and helped save the Enlightened from the Mawsworn, Elder Ara brought them to the waystone so they could activate it, allowing their allies to come through from Oribos.

Another type of waystone are the Ancient Translocators throughout Zereth Mortis. However, they bear little resemblance to other waystones in that they're only connected to each other and work by sending the user as a beam of energy across the landscape instead of teleporting them directly.

An object which appears to be a dormant waystone is located at the center of the Idyllia in Oribos. Unlike the others, it seems to have been spared from erosion and features a full three loops adorning the central monolith instead of only two. However, this object is never commented upon by any characters or used for any purpose.

• The Lore Book refers to the Korthian waystone as a "waygate".