Sign inOld Gods
The Old Gods are ancient, malevolent beings embedded in Azeroth itself, imprisoned underground by the Titans long before any mortal race existed. In Classic, their influence shows up in cults, whispers and corrupted creatures, and finally in a raid boss: C'Thun, fought at the bottom of the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. Ahn'Qiraj, added in patch 1.9, was the first place in World of Warcraft where players fought an Old God.
Origins
According to current lore, the Old Gods are physical forms of the Void, beings that latch onto young world-souls and try to corrupt them. On Azeroth they ruled a "Black Empire" through their elemental servants and their creations, the aqir (insect-like creatures) and the n'raqi (faceless ones).
When the titans arrived, they broke the Black Empire. Because the Old Gods were fused to the planet, killing them outright would have killed Azeroth, so the titans sealed them in prisons beneath the earth. Four Old Gods are named in today's lore: C'Thun, Yogg-Saron, N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj. Only C'Thun appears in Classic.
The Old Gods did not stop working once imprisoned. Their whispers reach the dreams of mortals and dragons, and many Warcraft villains are linked to them: the black dragon Neltharion heard their whispers before he became Deathwing, and the cult of the Twilight's Hammer exists to free them.
C'Thun and Ahn'Qiraj
C'Thun's prison lies beneath Silithus. The silithid and the Qiraji, the descendants of the aqir, serve him from the hive city of Ahn'Qiraj.
About a thousand years before Classic, the Qiraji swarmed out of Ahn'Qiraj and attacked Kalimdor. The night elves, with help from the bronze, red, blue and green dragonflights, pushed them back and sealed them behind the Scarab Wall in what is called the War of the Shifting Sands. Players relive this in [[forever:quest:8519]], part of the long chain that leads to [[forever:item:21175]] and the opening of the gates.
Inside the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, the Qiraji leaders include [[forever:npc:15263]] and the twin emperors [[forever:npc:15276]] and [[forever:npc:15275]]. The final encounter is [[forever:npc:15727]] himself, a giant eye on a mass of tentacles. After he dies, [[forever:quest:8801]] has players take the [[forever:item:21221]] to the dragons who helped seal him. The dragons in the temple, including [[forever:npc:15502]], [[forever:npc:15503]] and [[forever:npc:15504]], also trade for relics found in the hive through [[forever:quest:8784]].
Cults and whispers in Classic
Long before players reach Ahn'Qiraj, the game drops hints about Old Gods in lower-level content.
Blackfathom Deeps
In Blackfathom Deeps, a sunken night elf temple on the Ashenvale coast, the Twilight's Hammer worship Aku'mai, an ancient hydra. A note found inside, in Allegiance to the Old Gods, says the cultists want to bring Aku'mai back so the world can return to "an era of rule by the Old Gods." The dungeon's leader is Twilight Lord Kelris.
Silithus and the Twilight's Hammer
In Silithus, the Twilight's Hammer have built camps around the zone and work to summon elemental lords. Players fight figures like Twilight Lord Everun and the Twilight Prophet. The cult's papers lead to Brann Bronzebeard's Lost Letter, in which the explorer Brann Bronzebeard writes that he found evidence of a battle between a titan and "a bona fide Old God" and a tunnel leading to Ahn'Qiraj. The Cenarion Circle base at Cenarion Hold is the hub for all of this work.
Elemental lords
Ragnaros, fought in Molten Core, is one of the four elemental lords the Old Gods once commanded. Classic itself mostly presents him as a fire lord served by the Dark Iron dwarves. The idea that the elemental lords were the Old Gods' generals is a later addition from the Chronicle books, and it is sketched only lightly in Classic.
Other hints
- The Earthen Ring shaman Je'neu Sancrea at Zoram'gar Outpost in Ashenvale is described as knowing more about "crazy old gods" than most scholars (Je'neu of the Earthen Ring).
- Uncovering the Past in the Wetlands has players piece together a dwarven tablet speaking of a "divine plan" and a "doomed prophecy."
Later history and retcons
Classic gave players only a partial picture of the Old Gods, and later expansions filled it in:
- Wrath of the Lich King (2008): Yogg-Saron is fought in Ulduar, and Wrath introduces the "curse of flesh," an Old God curse that turned stone earthen and mechagnomes into dwarves and gnomes.
- Cataclysm (2010): Deathwing is shown as an Old God servant.
- Mists of Pandaria (2012): Y'Shaarj, killed by the titans long ago, is revealed as the source of the sha.
- Battle for Azeroth (2018): N'Zoth is freed and defeated in Ny'alotha.
- Legion and Shadowlands: The Old Gods are tied to the Void and its cosmic forces.
Classic sometimes mentions Old Gods in loose terms. The vale screechers of Feralas in Screecher Spirits, for example, are called "the cousins of an old, old god." The chain leads to Hakkar the Soulflayer in the Sunken Temple, a troll god rather than one of the Old Gods of the Void. Read old quest text with that in mind.
Sources
Categories: Lore
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