Old God

"In the time before time, when the world was still in its infancy, a battle between a Titan and a being of unimaginable evil and power raged on this very soil. The prophecy is unclear about whether or not the Titan was vanquished ... but it illustrates that a Titan fell."

—Geologist Larksbane

The Old Gods (a.k.a. the Old Whisperings, the Elder Gods, the Old Lords or the Dread Elders) are mysterious, godlike and greatly malefic horrors which ruled in tyranny over the infant universe before they were defeated and sequestered within the primordial world of Azeroth by the Titanic Pantheon. Only very few mortals have ever been aware of the Old Gods' existence. Fewer still considered them anything more than ominous myths from a time before time began; the rumor of a dread and ancient past that should forever stay forgotten to the mortal races.

History

The Ordering of Azeroth

None now remember how Azeroth came to be, yet legends persist that the Titans traveled to the newly formed world — shaping the land and first seeding it with life. Beings as the Earthen were then created by the Pantheon to complete the mighty works the Titans had begun, and to prepare Azeroth for the time when it would give birth to the first mortal creatures. After the Titans had departed from Azeroth however, a great calamity befell the young world. From the endless void of the universe, unspeakable terrors known only as Old Gods came. The world buckled to its foundation under dire power unimaginable, and the elements were thrown into such great disorder that Azeroth degenerated back to a state of primordial chaos, atrophy and destruction; a world where no life could ever form or exist.

The creations of the Titans too were subjugated by the Old Gods, becoming afflicted with the Curse of Flesh. The elements that comprised the world had become as the dark pawns of the Old Gods, and the Titans' creations had either been destroyed or were suffering a far worse fate. When the Titans discovered what transpired upon their youngest seedling, they made their return. The Pantheon struck down the four Elemental Lords who were devastating the world and shattered the Old Gods' citadels, which caused the greatest battle Azeroth would ever know to erupt. One by one, the Old Gods were defeated and sequestered, but from this great siege between the gods, the rumor of a Titan having fallen echoes across the ages.

The Curse of Flesh had grown so malign however it had symbiotically bound the infant world to the Old Gods, and their destruction would have ensured the annihilation of Azeroth. Instead, the Pantheon neutralized the power of the Old Gods, and sealed the entities away within the deeps of the world for the remainder of its existence. After the Old Gods were contained and their elemental servants banished, the spirits of the elements again settled into balance, and Azeroth's ability to birth and sustain life returned. The Titans reseeded the world, re-created the Earthen and empowered defensive measures, such as the Titanic watchers and the Dragon Aspects. They then departed from the world anew, leaving Azeroth to once again await the awakening of the first mortal beings.

Whispers of the Old Gods

Since the dawn of life on Azeroth, the imprisoned and sleeping Old Gods have been whispering to the subconsciousness of mortal and eternal beings alike, subverting their thoughts and feelings, and sometimes driving them to great malice, complete insanity, or both. The most notorious and tragic victim of the Old Whisperings is Neltharion the Earth-Warder; the once mighty Dragon Aspect who had been empowered by the Titan Khaz'goroth with dominion over the deep places of the world. Yet, not even Neltharion's great wisdom and power proved capable of breaking the grip the Old Whisperings had on his mind, causing the Earth-Warder to eventually lose all his sanity. Neltharion renamed himself Deathwing, seeking the genocide of all non-draconic life on Azeroth as well as the enslavement of the other dragonflights.

Malfurion Stormrage and Varo'then momentarily heard the Whisperings when they held the Demon Soul within their grasp. Malfurion has since stated that "Ysera's noble brood has fallen victim to the Old Whisperings", as well. The Highborne Queen Azshara is said to have heard the Whisperings moments before what would have been her death, causing her and her Highborne people to transform into the monstrous Naga — an offer they either accepted willingly to avoid their fate or which has been coerced on them. The remainder of her surviving Highborne who made landfall in the Tirisfal Glades are rumored to have succumbed to insanity after hearing these same Whisperings.

The most striking historic account of the Old Whisperings however is found within the ancient scrolls of lore of the Tauren, located in their capital city of Thunder Bluff at Elder Rise. The legend of creation of the formerly nomadic Tauren tribes makes a direct reference to the Whisperings, stating that the first incidents of Tauren committing acts of deceit, murder or warfare were because their early brethren "fell under the sway of these whispers".

The War of the Ancients

During the War of the Ancients they corrupted the great benevolent Dragon Aspect Neltharion, to create for them the extremely powerful Demon Soul which they empowered as well, to have Sargeras use to unintentionally set them free. The Demon Soul was taken from Neltharion by Malfurion, then taken from him by Illidan and put in the Sargeras-summoning matrix, then taken back by Neltharion, who shortly thereafter was struck away by the Old Gods, who wished to have the summoning completed. Malfurion picked up the Demon Soul after Neltharion dropped it, and used it (in conjunction with Illidan) to prevent Sargeras' entry. It was then given to the dragons, stolen by Nekros ten-thousand years later, taken back by the dragons, and then destroyed.

Recent history

10,000 years later the Old Gods invaded Nozdormu's realm and managed to open a rift in time, that, as they had planned, tossed some beings back through time, beings that would change the way the war of the ancients took place, and give Sargeras a new chance to enter the world, and therefore give them a new chance to set themselves free. Their plans were although again crushed by the very same Malfurion Stormrage.

The Blackfathom Deeps in Ashenvale was once, long ago, a temple to Elune. The Great Sundering ruined the temple and left it submerged in water and buried under rock. Corruption from the Old Gods seeped up and tainted the sacred moonwell. One may be in the Blackfathom Deeps. Hints that old gods lie in or under the Blackfathom Deeps. Not to be confused with Aku'mai who was only influenced by the powers of the Old Gods.

Some time between the Third War and the re-opening of the Dark Portal, C'thun awoke completely and was able to physically return to Azeroth in the ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. Packs of brave heroes marshalled outside the great Qiraji gates, tore them down and slew the old god.

At some point during his stewardship of Ulduar, Loken came under the sway of Yogg-Saron imprisoned within and eventually betrayed both the Pantheon and his own brother, Thorim. He resides in Ulduar's Halls of Lightning, seeking to free Yogg-Saron completely and bring down the Pantheon. During the crusade against the Lich King in Northrend this came to the attention of the Kirin Tor, who recruited adventurers from the Alliance and the Horde to lay siege to Ulduar. They were victorious and Yogg-Saron was defeated.

According to Malfurion Stormrage, one of the Old Gods is behind the Nightmare corrupting the Emerald Dream. Although the Nightmare Lord in the dream turned out to be the Satyr Lord Xavius, it is suspected that he was working for higher powers.

Background

The Old Gods are characterized as the sleeping evil beneath the earth, whose telepathic whispers eventually become indistinguishable from one's own maddened thoughts. Beyond the things attributed to the Old Gods as a whole, individual Old Gods share some common factors between them. Both C'Thun and Yogg-Saron are fought with a section of their bodies sticking out of the ground in the center of a room, with an unknown amount of their forms remaining invisible below. They both appear to have countless tentacles below ground, which can come to the surface to aid in combat. The battles with both Old Gods call for damage to be done to something within each Old God's submerged form to weaken or remove a shield: Killing a Flesh Tentacle in the Stomach of C'Thun and weakening the Brain of Yogg-Saron in the Mind's Eye (which may or may not represent physical places within the two Gods).

The avatars of C'Thun and Yogg-Saron, the qiraji and faceless ones respectively, are similar in a few ways. Faceless ones have similar posture and shape to qiraji gladiators (Which may be due to recycling of wireframes, to some extent). Also, both groups have a general with vaguely similar names, General Rajaxx and General Vezax, and a religious leader, The Prophet Skeram and Herald Volazj (Harbinger Skyriss too, but his affiliation is unknown).

The Master's Glaive contains the remains of a forgotten one.

The Number of Old Gods

Depending on the source, three, four, or five Old Gods lie imprisoned. Some of these sources seem to imply that these numbers were the limit to the number of Old Gods. The roleplaying game seems to imply that there were more than five Old Gods, including those imprisoned or killed.

• The Warcraft III manual states that five Old Gods were chained beneath the world.
• The Pantheon shattered the Old Gods' citadels and chained the five evil gods far beneath the surface of the world.
• According to the War of the Ancients Trilogy, there are three Old Gods still living, imprisoned and chained by the Titans deep beneath the surface of Azeroth. There may be more however, these three are indicated to have formed some sort of alliance in order to escape their imprisonment.
• According to "The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth", four Old Gods were imprisoned beneath the world. This could perhaps be reconciled with the War of the Ancients trilogy if it were taken to include the fallen C'Thun in the count of the imprisoned Gods. This is however unlikely as C'thun was believed dead and not imprisoned. Note that the version of this chapter presented in the story section of the official site does not reference the number of Old Gods.
• "There are more Old Gods than just the ones trapped on Azeroth. It takes a lot for them to become manifested on a physical plane, however."

In the Burning Crusade expansion, a group of Arakkoa known as the Dark Conclave attempted to summon an entity described as an "ancient and powerful evil" into Outland. It is nearly identical in appearance to the first named Old God, C'Thun.

Named Old Gods

C'Thun

Main article: C'Thun

C'Thun, the first named Old God.

C'Thun was the first of the three Old Gods to be named so far, having received that name from its creations; the Qiraji. C'Thun was struck down in Silithus during the dawning of the world, in a battle which may have also resulted in the defeat of a Titan. C'Thun was believed to have been slain permanently, but the Old God resurfaced over the course of history as the driving force behind the Qiraji. It is trapped deep beneath the ruined temples of Ahn'Qiraj, where it has exerted its will for thousands of years over its Qiraji avatars, who in turn command the Silithid swarm.

C'Thun is the final boss in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.

Yogg-Saron

Main article: Yogg-Saron

Yogg-Saron, "the lucid dream".

Described by the demigod Ursoc as "the beast with a thousand maws", Yogg-Saron was the second Old God to be named. The dire entity refers to itself in ways as "the lucid dream", "the god of death" or "the true face of death", and appears to secrete a substance named Saronite across Northrend which is capable of driving any that have been exposed to it to murderous insanity. Slinkin the Demo-gnome discovered shortly before his demise that a mysterious connection seems to exist between the Old God Yogg-Saron and the undead Scourge. In his final note, he claims to have overheard some undead uttering the name "Yogg-Saron" with a tone of tremendous hatred and contempt, and that this was usually followed by outbursts of rage from other undead. Yet, the Scourge appear to be mining for Saronite on an industrial scale.

Yogg-Saron's underground prison extends through much of east-central Northrend; his influence has been felt directly in the Grizzly Hills (Vordrassil, the Grizzlemaw Furbolgs and Ursoc), Dragonblight (Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom, with faceless ones and a sect of the Twilight's Hammer dedicated to Yogg-Saron) and the Storm Peaks (Ulduar, and the corrupted Titanic guardian Loken). The Old God is located within his prison deep inside Ulduar, and is the final boss of the raid instance, much as C'Thun was the final boss in Ahn'Qiraj.

N'Zoth

Main article: N'Zoth

N'Zoth is an Old God supposedly featured in Cataclysm. He was responsible for the spark of the Emerald Nightmare, and "he has all sorts of weird shit going on", and is a real problem. He is the third Old God to be named explicitly as such.

Mortal worship

Until recently, only little was known about the Old Gods and their maddened worshippers — practically none on Azeroth were truly aware of the existence of the Old Gods until C'Thun made its ominous presence felt clearly within the depths of Ahn'Qiraj. It is self-evident however the Old Gods possess worshippers across all the world's peoples and cultures somehow. The Old Gods are imprisoned and asleep deep beneath the earth, but their power is so vast that their maddening, destructive taint seeps from their prisons and appears to tear at the sanity of an unknown quantity of Azeroth's denizens. To what extent sentient beings can become influenced by the Old Gods in this manner is not well understood, but those who hear the Old Whisperings the clearest have joined together in a coalition that is known as the Twilight's Hammer. Most of these cultists and followers have lost every ounce of their sanity and have turned completely unpredictable and malefic, and, sometimes, something that is much worse. Through the leadership of the ogre-mage Cho'gall, a powerful servant of C'Thun, the Twilight's Hammer has in recent times become the focal point for mortal worship of the Old Gods, and the cult's influence has since begun to increase alarmingly. Former members of both Alliance and Horde inexplicably flock to join in service and seek to assist in bringing about the final hour of all mortal existence on Azeroth. Large groups of the Twilight's Hammer have been observed to settle at or near sites where they believe the Old Gods or their minions are sealed away; many await C'Thun's awakening in Silithus, while others appear to serve Ragnaros in the Blackrock Depths alongside the Dark Iron dwarves. The largest concentrations of the Twilight's Hammer however are located at Grim Batol and in the Bastion of Twilight, in a region that is now referred to as the Twilight Highlands.

In some cases, evil but still sane individuals deliberately attempt to turn to worship of the Old Gods out of spite, when they feel that other, more mainstream powers have mistreated them. Anarchists also sometimes turn to worship of the Old Gods out of a desire to destroy the world; some believe a new, better world will rise up in the wake of the destruction. In either case, these individuals are deluded or misinformed and any who do manage to make even the barest real contact with the Old Gods go hopelessly and irrevocably insane.

C'Thun created avatars from the silithid in its own image. These avatars, known as the qiraji, represent dark and powerful mockeries of life and have served as the Old God's heralds for millenia. Likewise, Yogg-Saron is associated with the entities known only as faceless ones, which appear to serve the Old God as its heralds and avatars as well.

Queen Azshara and the bulk of her Highborne people seem to have struck a pact with, or have fallen to, the power of the Old Gods, and have since become the monstrous naga. The naga have been seen in the presence of faceless ones in regions such as Vashj'ir, suggesting that the darkest fears about the change that has overcome Azshara and many of the Highborne hold true.

In the end of "The Sundering" by Richard A. Knaak, the reader follows Azshara as she hears a voice talking to her, as her palace is sucked into the Well of Eternity, as The Sundering happens. This voice offers to save her, if she swear her and hers loyalty to it. Quoting directly from the book: Then... voices whispered from the gloom, voices calling to her, promising her escape. "There is a way... there is a way... you will become more than you ever were... more than you ever were... we can help... we can help..." The queen was no fool. She knew her shield would not last much longer. Then the well would claim her and her followers and the glory that was Azshara would be lost to the world. The silver-tressed night elf nodded. "Ungh!" The goblet fell from her hand. Her body was wracked with pain. She felt her limbs twisting, curling. Her spine felt fluid, as if much of it had instantly melted away... "You will become more than you have ever been..." promised the voices. "And when the time comes, for what we grant you... you will serve us well..." The last vestiges of her shield spell failed. Azshara shrieked as the waters overwhelmed her. In the background she heard other cries as well... her handmaidens, the guards, and the rest of the Highborne who still served her. The Well filled her lungs... But... she did not drown.

This hints at her being contacted by the Old Gods, or some other enormous power, and striking off a deal with them. Taking into account that they are living in the Maelstrom, a ravenous place filled with enormous magical energies formerly holding the greatest fount of magical power in the world, it could quite possibly be a place in which to lock away and Old God.

Also, in the prologue of the same book, we follow Nozdormu as he searches through the depths of the Well, and finds a force of incredible evil, which appears to have corrputed the Well itself. It tries to hold on to him with tentacles, the last part of the three Old Gods seen on the most accessible picturing of the three. This could very well mean that the last Old God was imprisoned below or near the Well of eternity, as it seems they only have access to corrupt an area around their prison. Which would connect well with the Naga being the main servants of the last Old God, just as C'thun used Silithid, and The Faceless Ones were used by Yogg-Saron.

Remnants of the Old Gods

A number of things in and on Azeroth is said to be related to or derived from Old Gods:

• Chemist Fuely sends players on a chain of quests to collect slime samples. On completing Quest:... and a Batch of Ooze Fuely remarks that the ooze is elemental in nature but different, reminding him of the Old Gods, during Quest:Melding of Influences Fuely states that it is possible that the ooze might be part of the Old Gods. In Grizzly Hills a ooze called Blood of the Old God can be found.
• Saronite is described as being the Blood of Yogg-Saron.
• Bloodstone ore is described as being the perserved blood of a Old God
• Elementium, is a rare element, said by Earthcaller Franzahl to be created by warring elementals. It is believed to have been created during the time the Old Gods ruled Azeroth, when the Old Gods forced their elemental servants to make war upon each other.
• Dwarves, Troggs, Gnomes, Humans, vrykul are all the product of the Titan Seed races being corrupted by the Old God created Curse of Flesh

Cataclysm

This section concerns content related to Cataclysm.

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, players who decide to quest in Vashj'ir, will first sail on a ship that will be destroyed by mysterious giant tentacles. There will also be strange tentacles in dark pools in the naga area on the Lost Isles. It appears that Stonetalon Peak is being attacked by an Old God or some of its minions. In Twilight Highlands, a minion of the Old Gods, Iso'rath can be found and in Darkshore, Soggoth the Slitherer.

Quotes

See also: The Whispers of C'Thun, The Whispers of Yogg-Saron and N'Zoth#The Whispers of N'Zoth

Whispers to Azshara

Main article: Queen Azshara

• "There is a way... there is a way..."
• "You will become more than you ever were... more than you ever were..."
• "We can help... we can help..."
• "You will be more than you have ever been... and when the time comes, for what we grant you... you will serve us well..."

Inspiration

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

The names and overall nature of the Old Gods are an homage to the various group of deities from the Cthulhu Mythos in the works of H.P. Lovecraft (first stage), Brian Lumley (third stage), and the Call of Cthulhu RPG. C'Thun appears to be based on Cthulhu, Yogg-Saron appears to be based on the Outer God Yog-Sothoth, and N'Zoth appears to be based on Zoth-Ommog. Furthermore, the story which concerns the Titans' imprisoning of the Old Gods is an inspiration from the story August Derleth proposed as the ancient outcome of the war between the Elder Gods (represented in the Titans) and the Outer Gods (represented in the Old Gods). Interestingly, the origin of the Titans is alien to Azeroth, while the Old Gods are native to it, swapping the names and some facts. An alternative name of the Old Gods is the Elder Gods.

Fan art

• 

  Fan art - Full body of C'Thun.

• 

  Fan art - Full body of C'Thun.

• 

  Fan art of Yogg-Saron.

See also

• C'Thun
• Yogg-Saron
• The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth
• Tribunal of Ages
•  [Lorgalis Manuscript]
• Prophecy of C'Thun
• Forgotten one
• Faceless one
• Aqir
• Naga
• Elemental Lieutenants
• Old Gods speculation
• Twilight's Hammer clan