In the Shadowlands, each of the four zones is dominated by one Covenants: the Kyrian, Venthyr, Necrolord or Night Fae. You’ll be introduced to them through the Shadowlands storyline while leveling up and at max level, you get to join one of them and get access to their rewards, including a class-specific Covenant ability, a Covenant Signature ability, unique transmogs and more!
‘In the expanded worlds of Azeroth, the Afterlife exists as a series of countless interconnected realms, controlled by one of four powerful groups: Kyrian, Necrolords, Night Fae, and Venthyr. These groups, called Covenants, each hold their own purpose, responsibilities, and focus, fulfilling crucial roles in the smooth operation of the Afterlife.’
As a player, you have to bond with one of the Covenants to gain access to their powers and unlock the Covenant Sanctum. Depending on which Covenant you chose, you gain two unique abilities that are specific to either the Covenant you picked, and what Class you are playing. You can switch your current Covenant whenever you want, but you have to gain power for each Covenant individually.
Choosing your Covenant is based on many different factors, including your class, your playstyle, aesthetics and roleplay sensibilities. In our Class Guides, we discussed which Covenants will be the best option for certain PvE situations, we encourage players to pick whatever they want due to the fact that you can change your Covenant at any time.
| Signature Ability | Summon Steward |
| Death Knight | Shackle the Unworthy |
| Demon Hunter | Elysian Decree |
| Druid | Kindred Spirits |
| Hunter | Resonating Arrow |
| Mage | Radiant Spark |
| Monk | Weapons of Order |
| Paladin | Divine Toll |
| Priest | Boon of the Ascended |
| Rogue | Echoing Reprimand |
| Shaman | Vesper Totem |
| Warlock | Scouring Tithe |
| Warrior | Spear of Bastion |
| Signature Ability | Fleshcraft |
| Death Knight | |
| Demon Hunter | |
| Druid | Adaptive Swarm |
| Hunter | Death Chakram |
| Mage | Deathborne |
| Monk | Bonedust Brew |
| Paladin | |
| Priest | Unholy Nova |
| Rogue | |
| Shaman | Primordial Wave |
| Warlock | Decimating Bolt |
| Warrior |
| Signature Ability | Soulshape |
| Death Knight | Death’s Due |
| Demon Hunter | The Hunt |
| Druid | Convoke the Spirits |
| Hunter | Wild Spirits |
| Mage | Shifting Power |
| Monk | Faeline Stomp |
| Paladin | Blessing of the Seasons |
| Priest | Fae Guardians |
| Rogue | Sepsis |
| Shaman | Fae Transfusion |
| Warlock | Soul Rot |
| Warrior | Ancient Aftershock |
| Signature Ability | |
| Death Knight | |
| Demon Hunter | Sinful Brand |
| Druid | |
| Hunter | Flayed Shot |
| Mage | |
| Monk | allen Order |
| Paladin | Ashen Hallow |
| Priest | Mindgames |
| Rogue | Flagellation |
| Shaman | |
| Warlock | |
| Warrior | Condemn |
When you complete the zone campaigns on your first character and get to level 60, you will receive a quest in Oribos Choosing Your Purpose from Tal-Inara at 39.9, 70.0 in Oribos. This will direct you to speak with the four leaders of the Covenants nearby:
Go to the Shadowlands Covenant Map near Tal-Inara and click. This will give you the chance to pick one of the four Covenants. Turn in Choosing Your Purpose.
After this, the leader of the Covenant you chose will have a quest for you. Be sure to pick this up before you go to your new home zone. Without it, you won’t get any of the entry quests to begin opening your Sanctum. If you just go straight to the zone, you’ll just have to return to Oribos and pick the quest up.
Each Covenant rewards its followers two special abilities:
In Shadowlands, all of the 8 dungeons have a bonus that can be activated by a member of a specific Covenant. These can range from simple crowd controlling effects, to strong damage buffs.
Anima Exhaust buff for each player. AoE Damage and Healing every 4 seconds for a minute.
Spear of Destiny to throw at a group of mobs stunning them and making them 20% additional damage for 10 seconds.
Savory Statshroom and 
Tasty Toughshroom.
Haunted Urn around the dungeon to stun nearby mobs for 10 seconds.
Necrolord’s Command buff granting 10% Versatility and Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Rapid Infection, 10% Damage Reduction 
Congealed Contagion, and a AoE damage proc 
Corrosive Gunk.
Sinfall Boon, granting 5% damage and healing done per stack for 60 seconds, up to 10 stacks.
Every Covenant also grants specific Conduits and Soulbinds for your character power, that can only be equipped if you are a member of the Covenant. Each of the Covenant have three different Soulbinds to chose from, a small talent tree that can be socketed with Conduits. Every Covenant has a specific Conduit for the Class Ability granted by the Covenants.
Renown is a specific progression system that is similar to the old reputation system. Instead of farming reputation from Neutral to Exalted, you will have a system that levels up from Level 1 to Level 80. Renown increases your options in your chosen Soulbind, and allows progression upgrading your Covenant Sanctum. Unlike the older systems from Legion and Battle for Azeroth, Renown is not an open-ended grind. It is a metered progression system that you will expand troughout your gameplay. By completing World Quests, solving Covenant Callings, killing Bosses or fight in PvP battles, you will earn more Renown. In addition, Renown is needed to unlock rewards at different levels and to further progress through your Covenant Campaign. Renown is also needed to unlock flying in Shadowlands.
Once you joined your Covenant and started your journey, you will begin to receive Callings. These a specific world quests that reward additional loot upon completion. These Callings reset every day, and you will receive only one new Calling per day. These can only be picked up inside your Sanctum. Covenant Callings replace the old system of Emissary Quests from Battle for Azeroth, and are scaled to begin at level 50. Alts who already joined a Covenant trough the Thread of Hope campaign can immediatly start their Covenant Callings.
Similar to the Garrisons from Warlords of Draenor, or the Legion Classhalls, the Covenant Sanctum are a base for your max-level characters. You will need to rebuild and activate certain areas of your Sanctum, which can also be upgraded to grant even stronger perks.
You cannot enter a Covenant Sanctum if you are not a member of this Covenant.
Each Sanctum has three structures in common, and one structure unique to the Covenant:
Every Sanctum has a Transportation Network, which enables fast-traveling across the zone of your Covenant Sanctum. You will find an entrance to the network inside each Sanctum, and only members of the Covenant who built the Transportation Network can use it. Like other features in your Sanctum, the Transportation Network will not be active when you first open your Sanctum. Instead, it requires you to invest Anima to build it first, and can then be upgraded.
With the Anima Conductor, you can direct an Anima stream to key areas in the zone of your Covenant. Those streams of Anima remain open for 24 hours, and have to be activated every day. After activating them multiple times, they will cast a permanent stream of Anima of the target locations, which enables those extra perks like World Quest and Rares in these zones permanently.
Like the mission table in Warlords of Draenor or Legion, the Adventures Table will grant Mission that you have to send in your Adventures. Successful missions grant different rewards, ranging from Anima and Gold to even high-value currency like Soul Cinder.
Each Covenant has a seperate Campagin that allows players to dive deeper into the lore of each Covenant. Later chapters of the campaign require higher Renown to unlock them, and reward transmog, toys and even mounts.
