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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.

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This article contains theories and speculation related to the Old Gods.

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The Imprisoned Gods' Location

• It is possible that one of the imprisoned Old Gods is located beneath the Tirisfal Glades. When the high elves first landed on the Lordaeron continent, they encountered a strange force.

  Forging inland, the high elves founded a settlement within the tranquil Tirisfal Glades. After a few years, many of them began to go mad. It was theorized that something evil slept beneath that particular part of the world, but the rumors were never proven to be true.

• Another theory is that one of the Old Gods is imprisoned in the Maelstrom, where he commands the naga. The naga, led by the monstrosity that was once Queen Azshara, were mutated from their night elf forms by the Old Gods at the formation of the Maelstom during the Sundering of the World.
  • In the Warcraft novel Day of the Dragon, page 202 mentions a creature known as the Manta, Behemoth of the Deep. Krasus says it was "ten times the size and strength of a dragon." It was slain at least a century before the events of Day of the Dragon. It is possible this Manta is somehow linked to the Old Gods and the Naga.
• It is possible that one of the three is imprisoned underneath Teldrassil due to the rapid contamination of the new world tree which is too fast to be just the fact that it has not been blessed by the dragons.
• Some have speculated that one or more Old Gods may be responsible for the "Nightmare" invading the Emerald Dream.
  • THIS IS NOT SPECULATION** For the Ahn'Qiraj scepter quest chain, Malfurion Stormrage tells you that an old god "like the one you are trying to defeat" (so an old god other then C'thun) is corrupting the Emerald Dream. Also, during the Eranikus encounter, Eranikus makes reference to the one he is serving, an Old God. It is also possible that the "slain" Old God in The Master's Glaive may be the cause of the nightmare, being that instead of it being destroyed it merely shed it's physical form and entered the Emerald Dream after death.
• More possible however, since the Old God in Darkshore was slain before the Emerald dream was even created, and would not have sat around waiting for several tens of-thousands years before deciding to corrupt the Emerald dream, and be the nightmare, is that the old god in Darkshore is utterly dead, in all forms, and that the nightmare is one of the imprisoned Old Gods.
• Another source of contention is that nobody knows for sure how many of the Old Gods still exist. Due to its strong resemblance to C'Thun, many believe that the Forgotten One (see below) from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was an Old God. The Forgotten One was killed by Arthas, and now that C'Thun has been slain only two Old Gods would remain. As one is confirmed by in-game lore to be corrupting the Emerald Dream, only one location remains unknown. If so, then many of the other speculated areas for the location of an Old God are actually being corrupted by some other, unknown, entity.

So, we can then conclude from lore that:

1: One is dead in the Master's Glaive.

2: One is C'thun, slain in Ahn'Qiraj.

3: One is slain by Arthas in Azjol-Nerub

4: One is corrupting the Emerald Dream (this is confirmed to be the action of an Old God who isn't C'Thun.).

We can speculate that the the locations of the one corrupting the Emerald dream and the third imprisoned one are these, but it is unknown which is which:

1: One of them is still trapped in Tirisfal Glades: the large empty space on the left of the map indicates the site of a future instance.

2: One of them is under the Maelstrom, as indicated by lore.

It's probably that one corporeal form may lie in SE Azeroth. God #1 is in NW azeroth, God #2 is in NE, #3 in SW, #4 in the center. It would make sense that the fifth is in the SE, although this is only speculation.

The Forgotten One

An ancient, terrible beast lay imprisoned beneath Azjol-Nerub, until Illidan's attempt to melt away the polar ice-caps surrounding Icecrown and crush Ner'zhul, accidentally broke the beast's prison. Before it could act. however, Arthas Menethil, Anub'arak, and a small army of undead nerubians crashed into its prison, and after a most epic battle, Arthas managed to slay it.

Many sources are used as to suggest that this "Forgotten one", as Anub'arak reffered to it, was in fact an Old God; one of the three imprisoned by the Titans. Here follow some:

• When it comes to it's physical form, C'Thun is identical to it, and the glimpses of Old Gods in Knaak's "The War of the Ancients" are of huge tentacles, such as the ones of C'thun and the one in Azjol'Nerub. This hints that all Old Gods are multi-eyed, multi-mawed and tentacled, pink blobs in physical form. That the "Forgotten one" would have this appearence and NOT be an Old God is far-fetched.

• It is very possible that the term "Forgotten one" is what nerubians call Old Gods in general. First of all, Anub'arak called it "a forgotten one", not "the forgotten one", which means there are several. Second of all, the sight of it scared the crap out of even the monstrous Anub'arak. So, we have an ancient, terrible evil creature that scares even the scariest of monsters, and there are more of it.

• That Arthas managed to slay it is shunned at by most. "Even Arthas couldn't defeat an Old God by himself! That's ridiculous!" They say. First of all, Arthas had Ner'zhul's second-in-command, Anub'arak with him, and an army of undead. Second of all, that the three were weakened after centuries of imprisonment id very plausable

The Forgotten One commanded the Faceless Ones. Rumors suggest that C'Thun also commands some Faceless Ones. Faceless ones may be a general name for Old God's most elitist minions.

It is possible that the Forgotten One tried to do the same to the Nerubian Empire that C'Thun did to Ahn'Qiraj, but eventually failed.

SPECULATION:

It is possible that with this "forgotten one" is trans-dimensional, or by experiencing death was able to enter the Emerald Dream somehow, which would account for the only recent corruption of the Emerald Dream.

It could also be theorised that it is a "projection" of C'Thun, since the WC3 version looks incredibly similar and spawns tentacles to atttack. C'Thun could have attempted to influence control over both the Silithid and Nerubians at the same time to try and raise his army, but while the C'Thun managed to control the Silithid, the Nerubians (with their natural intolerance to mind control) were not swayed and the C'Thun projection was sealed away within the depths of Azjol'nerub.

Or it could be that C'Thun was split during the Sundering, half going to Northrend and the other half staying in Kalimdor. This would explained for both forms weakness.

Another possibility is that the Forgotten One was created by C'Thun in his image, in an attempt to create an army to conquer the Nerubians, in order to re-join the old insectoid empire. The fact that Arthas managed to defeat this 'avatar' with relative ease supports this theory.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Someone please create Old God talk-page and link to here. I've got a feeling we're in for a heated debate!

The Origin of the Silithid and Qiraji

• C'Thun created avatars from the Silithid in his own image. These avatars would become known as the Qiraji.
• The Azj'Aqir kingdom split, when the Aqir war with the Gurubashi and Amani Troll empires ended. The exact reasons are unknown. They then became known as the Qiraji and Nerubians.
• Thus the Aqir were part of the Silithid race. Some suggest the Aqir were the avatars who then later evolved into the Qiraji, while another possbility is that C'Thun created the Qiraji from the Silithid directly, and that the Aqir and Silithid are one in the same.
• Theories suggest that the Qiraji were created by C'Thun from the Silithid to control them, but this is uncertain. This second
• The Qiraji bear a slight resemblance to the Faceless Ones from a Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne campaign.

Desolace

In Desolace (a desolate area in Kalimdor), the massive corpses of two combatants lay forever facing each other on two sides of a grand valley. It has been speculated that these bones are either Old Gods or Faceless Ones, although they most resemble Nagas, despite their huge scale.

A Goblin named Hornizz Brimbuzzle in the Kodo Graveyard provides a quest that refers to these corpses as Dead Goliaths. The quest has nothing to do with the corpses. He just uses them as a landmark.

Old Gods and Expansion Speculation

If the theories mentioned above regarding the location of the Old Gods is true, then they would most likely be implemented one by one in various expansions. Check the Rumored Expansions for some of the possible settings for future expansions.

• Perhaps, one Old God would be implemented in an in-game content patch, similar to C'thun, possibly in Tirisfal Glades, as evidence points this being the location of an old God. As stated earlier, the region west of Deathknell is large enough to support a large instance, similar to the southern parts of Silithus before the An'qiraj patch.
• Another Old God would be implemented as the final boss for the Emerald Dream rumored expansion, as it is verified that an Old God is responisble for the Nightmare. Whether or not the players would kill a Dream Aspect of some sorts of the Old God, or his corporeal form (possibly still on Azeroth, "sleeping", or both, would have to be decided on.
• Finally, the third Old God would be found in the Maelstrom with the Naga, as it is also certifed that Highbourne loyal to Azhara were turned into Naga by an Old God so they could survive the Sundering. It is likely they now serve the Old God, but it is also quite possible that they instead serve Neptulon.

The order in which these Old Gods were implemented would obviously depend on the order Blizzard released these rumored expansions.