Transcript:
Hello everyone!
I’ve been asked to do a video on what the Old Gods really want. You know, besides the whole “absorb and control everything”—but then what? Like… just to have it? And it’s a good question—not just what do the Old Gods want, but what about the Void Lords, the source behind them? What about the void in general because, well, some storytelling has been going on in the lore lately.
The story of the Old Gods is one of the older ones that we got in the history of warcraft, going as far back as the early 2000s, with Warcraft 3 and the Warcraft RPG. An evil force defeated by the noble Titans, locked away beneath the world as the Titans brought order to the planet, cut out the rivers and formed the mountains, with the corruptive influence of the Old Gods neatly locked away. The elemental lords dissipated, although later were sent to their own elemental plane. Sometimes there were 4 Old Gods, sometimes 3, sometimes 5, and then we got the chronicles, 2016, nearly 10 years ago (jfc), which gives us the most expanded description of what happened, but even that is no longer set in stone. Here’s what it says though:
The Old Gods are physical manifestations of the Void. They are nightmares incarnate: mountains of blighted flesh and writhing tentacles that grow like cancers within the world of the Great Dark. These malignant entities serve the Void Lords, and they live only to transform the worlds they infest into places of despair and death.
From the moment the cosmos came to be, dark spirits within the Void sought to twist reality into a realm of eternal torment. These entities were known as the Void Lords, and they had long watched the Pantheon and their journey from world to world. Envious of their power, the Void Lords sought to corrupt one of the world-shaping Titans into an instrument of their will. To achieve this goal, the Void Lords struggled to manifest in the physical universe. As they did so, their energies seeped into reality, warping some of the unsuspecting denizens of creation. Yet the noble and virtuous Titans proved impervious to this insidious corruption.
Eventually the Void Lords moved to exert their influence over a Titan in its most vulnerable state: before it had awakened. The Void Lords did not know which worlds contained slumbering Titan spirits. Thus, they pooled their power and hurled dark creatures throughout the physical universe, hoping some would smash into a world-soul. An unknown number of the Void Lords’ creations hurtled through the Great Dark. They contaminated mortal worlds and everything else they touched in their blind search for a nascent Titan. In time, these wicked beings would come to be known as the Old Gods.
Although the Titans were aware that Void energies existed in the universe, they had no knowledge of the Void Lords or the Old Gods, but that would change when Sargeras came across a planet infected by the Old Gods, which also housed a slumbering world soul. The dreadlords on the planet told him all about what they’d found out about the Void, how they wanted to corrupt the Titans, get their tentacles into a soul. If the power of the Void succeeded in corrupting a nascent Titan, it would awaken as an unspeakably dark creature. No power in creation, not even the pantheon, could stand against it. In time, the warped Titan would consume all matter and energy in the universe, bringing every mote of existence under the Void Lords’will. Sargeras, the undefeated champion of the Titans, knew fear for the first time, and this would be the kick off point—the reason for him to form the Burning Legion and start his Burning Crusade.
The chronicle this information is from is turning almost 10—10 years old with brand new writers, narrative leads, new visions, new quests and expansions. In general, Steve Danuser made the statement that the chronicles are from a point of view and since then, pretty much all books produced have been from a point of view. Regardless of opinions on this choice, we still use the chronicles as a baseline, as a foundation, but then all this information provided about the Old Gods being created by the Void Lords and the Void Lords being all about consuming the universe, it has lore bits that support it and lore bits that put down some major question marks.
“Serve me.”
“You? You are nothing.”
“Nothing? I AM A GOD! Before you walked this land, I ruled.”
“Uhng…Magnificent.”
We know for certain that there was a time in which the Old Gods ruled the world of Azeroth, the so-called Black Empire, as we’ve seen this in the Azshara short. We’ve traveled through time and ended up in that time period. There was a time in which the Old Gods were ruling the planet, but what were they up to? Were they corrupting that soul inside until the Titans showed up? It does seem to be that way, as we have Magni confirming to us that…
“Today at long last, she’s free from the grasp of the Old Gods. Her song rings clear and strong throughout this chamber.”
N’zoth and the other Old Gods have been kicked off the planet, reaffirmed with the war within presentation in which they’ve told us that the Old Gods are gone and their blood is that which remains. Which then played a part in the expansion itself. Blood of the Old gods who definitely set their sights on that world soul, as shown with the Xal’atath lorewalking…
“You shall only watch this world as it gains untold power without you.
You shall never lay claim to it.”
“The world soul so long denied me…shall…be… mine.”
And we do have story supporting the idea that the Void’s ultimate goal is to devour the entire universe. Velen once had a vision when gazing upon Anduin, a vision of Renilash Void vs Light, and he describes it as:
It was vast and empty and swallowed all light that entered it. Velen knew it would be all consuming until, at last, it would turn and devour itself, endlessly gnawing on nothing in the Great Dark Beyond, removing all meaning from the universe, from the most heart-breaking sonata to the most arresting sunset. It was too terrible to see, to comprehend, and yet the army headed straight for it. And the light began to fade…
So that’s what the Old Gods are all about: sent out by the Void Lords to corrupt a slumbering Titan spirit, for it to awaken and devour the universe. It fits—pieces are all together—we saved Azeroth and saved the day. But then there is the story of K’aresh, and that’s where a bit of this new storytelling comes in, because they’ve made a small change to the lore which has a bit of a domino effect. They’ve written down that K’aresh, like Azeroth, has a world soul inside.
In the past, that detail wasn’t known, so when in the original story, Dimensius the All-Devouring, a Void Lord, did his thing and tried to devour K’aresh, no big deal. A planet might be delicious for a Void Lord, but now there’s a world soul inside and we were told that the Void Lords are all about corrupting these slumbering world souls—not eating them—so what’s up?
I think it’s an oversight, a small change to the story which they made to mirror K’aresh to Azeroth as in this was a world with a world soul inside that had to deal with the powers of Dimensius and look what happened to it. That fate is now looming over Azeroth with Xal’atath, best go protect the planet, but it doesn’t flow well with the earlier established story. You could explain it by saying that not all the Void Lords are on the same page. Some might be down with this corrupting plan, some are more hungry and want to eat themselves. Maybe Dimensius ate all the other Void Lords and that’s why he’s the last one standing. But that explanation has not been given, so we’re left to our own devices to fill it in.
“I will devour your world!”
And what about the Old Gods corrupting these slumbering world souls? As you might remember, Sargeras was informed by the Dreadlords that is what the Old Gods wanted, yet with the Shadowlands, they’ve added a book called Enemy Infiltration – Preface, and in that book, they make mention of the Dreadlords actually coming from the Shadowlands and the Dreadlords being all about infiltrating these cosmic domains, manipulating things from within and pitching them against one another—point being that the Dreadlords are not exactly the most trustworthy of sources. Now, there is a bit of meta storytelling here to consider. Do we really want Sargeras’ whole motivation to be based on a lie? But that’s neither here nor there. Just throwing it out there that there is the potential that the Dreadlords were lying to him.
But then, what about our Old Gods? Because we know that there are more planets out there with Old Gods on them. Presumably we got lucky and those planets don’t have a world soul inside. They’ve described Azeroth as the last one, so maybe Sargeras’ Burning Crusade did the job or the Old Gods just misfired on empty planets, but they should still be out there. Even though they don’t have a soul to corrupt, they’re still hanging out on the planets, in the same vein that we had Old Gods hanging out on our planet doing more than just burrowing their tendrils into Azeroth. They reveled in chaos, pitching the enslaved elemental lords against each other, reveling in the destruction and madness that overwhelmed the world. Looking back at Battle for Azeroth, with N’zoth pushing into the vale and Uldum, is a good indicator for the madness of the times, but they weren’t mindless chaos machines bent on nothing but devouring and corrupting. Sure, that was a big part of it, but when pushed, we’d see them work together and working on their own plans…
“N’zoth should have known Xal’atath would target Ny’alotha when she learned what he had been building. Our aid will leave him in our debt.”
“Xal’atath underestimates us. Her attempts to distract us have failed. Even we will work together when faced with such blatant betrayal.”
“Xal’atath! You betrayed not only the strength of the Black Empire, but the very darkness that embraced you. As punishment for your craven selfishness, you will suffer in confinement.”
Unsure what N’zoth was building, some have suggested the Blade of the Black Empire itself, but it is not set in stone what he was working on, which pushed Xal’atath to betray the Old Gods, as they’d describe it. Point being, they were working on their own plans besides just corrupting the world soul, and when provided with an opportunity…
“But that was not all Xal’atath said. The tablet states she whispered in a voice only N’zoth could hear…”
“Consider what greatness could be yours, if your siblings did not stand in your way. The offer stands. You need only reach out and claim it.”
“Hear me, God of the Deep! I have brought you the Opener… the Bringer of Truths…the Torch That Lights the Way! Honor our bargain, free me to find my own fate.”
“Go…but the blade must remain…to serve my will.”
“A fair exchange. Shadows guide you, my dear friend. We will meet again. I am certain of it.”
It is no coincidence that the old god N’zoth, the weakest of the lot, would be the one to break out of his prison. How could he not, with a Xal’atath in his corner? Where she was released from the blade, he was released from the Titans bonds, only to be taken out by us. A win-win for Xal’atath, who could then push on with her own plans and once again set her sights on claiming that world soul. Perhaps not as the Old Gods did. Perhaps more in the direction of what the Titans or the jailer wanted her for—the power to reshape the universe in their image—although part of me kinda hopes that Xal’atath is the one that just wants to set Azeroth free. I would be somewhat disappointed if Xal’atath just wants to eat her or use her for the ultimate powers of the Void, but that part is to be revealed.
So, long story short, what did the Old Gods really want? They wanted, as far as we know, to corrupt a slumbering world soul so that it would devour the entirety of the universe. The Void would be the dominating force, and while working on that, they definitely played their own games and schemes. With that, we’re going to wrap up, so thank you very much for watching everyone! Subscribe if you like my videos. Leave a like if you enjoyed this one, aaand until next time… see ya!
You can check out more of Nobbel87’s lore expertise on his You Tube Channel and on Twitch, and you can follow him on X/Twitter @Nobbel87!
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