The Old God of Outland - Lore Theory | World of Warcraft 

I feel like since outland is slowly falling apart, the old god is missing some kind of sustenance that it needs to grow stronger.

It gets interesting when you know that devs wanted to expand this information in Warlods of Draenor expansion. Unused assets indicates that some of the corrupted Arakoa were worshiping an old god being.

There is a quest in Gorgrond where you have to kill a qiraji referred to as "the thing in the cave".

dude, you literally blow me away with the amount of unique ideas you have lol

Another explanation to why the old god isnt at full power, could be because it is a legion conquered world, and through lore, the legion focusses on defeating forces of void and light by destroying all worlds. Perhaps the legion managed to banish the old god, somehow, and the corrupted arrakoa tried to summon it back in?

I'm not entirely sure how this works, but I think the biggest reason why it never developed fully might be because there was never a world soul on Draenor. It's like a seed that's dropped in soil that's not quite right for it, so it just becomes a small bush instead of a tree, as it were.

You would do such a better job than the current writers working on the game

You connected the dots I recognized, but never could connect! This was fantastic. I love the whole theory, and you gave the references to show the connections. Great job!

I always thought that the Outlands Old God was something that was _suppose_ to grow into an equivalent to C'Thun, but when Draenor was ripped apart at the end of the Second War, it too was ripped apart as well, leaving behind a weak and crippled creature instead of an Empire-Spanning God.

This was honestly a skyscraper jump up from your previous content. Good to see the improvements!

I always had a headcanon that an old god crashed into Draenor's seas but it got like destroyed by sporemound infused sea creatures or other savage sea life, but still some lingering part of it remained

theres a quest in classic TBC at the end of the smv line called "Teron Gorefiend, I am..." and he briefly mentions the altar of shadows being his prison and talks about the dark entities at bay and wanting to be the next death incarnate.

Fairly compelling evidence man. Good work on your research! Must be an extremely weak for an Old God as the creature is smaller, using ghosts to command, lost their original commander, and the world is torn asunder and corrupted with fel magic which seems to be a direct counter to the methods of how Old Gods gain power. That and the fact we never see a direct conflict with Legion and Old Gods so your in depth theory is a fun lore idea in a universe we think we know so well. Looking forward to more of your work, been a fan since you swam laps around the coasts of Azeroth.

this is a wonderful mind tug. i've done that quest, but never put the pieces together like that. nor did it dawn on me about the last boss of Alcatraz being so out of place. gg dude.

Outland having a Old God would be awesome. A single lone Old God that didn't have competition like the ones on Azeroth and was able to thrive and get massive. With the other old gods being dead/defeated, he has plans to go to Azeroth to take the Titan soul for itself.

Yesss you made a video on this!! I have been thinking about a similar theory since the Warlords of Draenor days when I found an archaeology item (called "Outcast Dreamcatcher") which has this description: "Outcast Arakkoa have repurposed the dreamcatcher not to ward off the Curse of Sethe, but to capture and harvest tiny amounts of essences from their lost gods. Rumors persist of an ever-growing mass of swirling energy buried deep beneath Skettis, whispering promises of power to any who will listen... " If anywhere on Draenor were to display signs of corruptive influence it would definitely be Arak. It's also very interesting with what @FishManson said about scrapped old god content in WoD! My personal theory is that this Old God is very weak from the beginning having landed on a planet with no world-soul and it probably hasn't had much to do with whatever power it has anyway, mortal civilizations on Draenor were mostly small, scattered, and struggling with survival until very very recently with the only exceptions being the arakkoa and their one-time ogre students so I don't imagine this entity had much to work with. No active titan influence, mortals without many resources to manipulate, and no world-soul to feed on and grow from...it does kind of make sense that it could make its first real power play when Outland became a cosmological warzone with corruption everywhere and souls dying en masse that it could feed on. Also interesting that the arakkoa were the only ones to pick up on it and eventually serve it because they were the earliest and strongest magic-users..!

Even if there are old gods elsewhere, I don't think any of them would even come close to the power Y'Shaarj had. Aman'thul himself had to rip him out of Azeroth, and the effects that were left on the planet afterwards were extremely severe.

Love your videos, everything about them; delivery, lore, cinematics, and knowledge you pass on to us. Thank you for all that you do for all of us. It is never unnoticed or unappreciated. May the Force be with you, sir.

Man, this brought back a lot of memories. Remember in the early TBC presentation material, when some of the earliest concept art we had was of the Rock Flayers? It seemed like they were playing them up a lot, as if they were going to be a big part of the overall storyline of the expansion, lol. Expansions are always weird in hindsight, and speaking of that - TBC has a lot of "dead end" lore I think, ideas or plotlines that were largely abandoned or even retconned later. Lorewise, honestly, it's a pretty big mess.

You have supremely the most interesting videos mate. Most of the rest are just regurgitating old lore we all already know but you always have a fresh idea. You're brillant. Hope your life goes well.

Great video! I'm all about those theories and findings 😁👍🏻

First of all - thank you for this video! I adore the crap of the classic WoW storytelling and you do not disappoint with recaping one of many interesting stories of BC. Second - there is perhaps a bit more to Harbinger Skyriss than meets the eye. His warden Mellichar refers to him as "The great one" when he releases him, implying that he's under some sort of influence of the void already and perhaps that same influence among the Sunreaver forces may not only spread along the part of the Illidan Forces, but also trying to get to the Azeroth as well. This could be seen in all other sections of the Tempest Keep - Mechanar had Sepethrea, a nethermancer that was studying the energies of the void (side note, a High Nethermancer is present among Illidari council in Black Temple), Botanica had the arcane ancient Warp Splinter, which was in the permanent state of confusion (possibly under the influence of the mind control.) and The Eye, where two very interesting bosses may be encountered: Void Reaver and Astromancer Solarian. The former was originally a Burning Legion construction, which has been infused with the void energy, while the other has been researching the energies of the void and even becoming a void creature in the process (another side note, the process very similar to what Nexus King Salhadaar attempted to do, who was the leader of the Etherium, an organization that had an affiliation with the Sunreavers and even aided Kael'thas later in the Magisters' Terrace). The Eye is also where the M'uru was captured and later transfered to Azeroth, where he was drained of his powers, killed and later transformed into the Void God, who unfortunately says nothing interesting during the combat. Could it be that Harbringer Skyriss was plotting his own scheme right under the Legion's plans to invade Azeroth? And by extention gain a larger influance on Draenor through Sunreavers? This of course is just a speculation and perhaps I am reading into it too much, but considering how much schemes and machinations the Old Gods and their servants are responsible for this speculation just might hold some water after all.

This is a great video! I always wondered about this while questing in Outland. Your theory sounds solid, so many similarities between Old God 'symptoms' on Azeroth. Thank you!

Bro, been playing since feb 2007 and never put that together. Great job with this video! Liked and subscribed!

OwO hewwo,,, NEW VID DROPPED. so im like a loremaster... but yet i had no idea about this one-- well done :0

At first I thought this was an extremely elaborate meta channel that tries to explore WoW Classic lore as if anything post WotLK doesn’t exist. But then you ventured to the WoD Dreanor and I remembered that the ‘old gods on Draenor confirmed’ plot point was actually unresolved, and it was just a speculation we had during WoD beta, and I considered this as cannon just cause I never played WoW since. I’ll like and subscribe anyways.

4:20 I mean he technically is giant squid, because his tentacles were able to reach Vordrassil’s roots and created the emerald nightmare. But maybe it was retconed, idk even know what is and is not canon. :D

Cool idea, and presented well. As for why this old god seems power starved I have one more idea. I believe a while ago it was stated that Draenor was a planet without a world soul unlike Azeroth which houses a very powerful one. Maybe without a world soul to feed on this old god is struggling to gain power. Then the planet blows up and hinders it even further

I dunno, while I get what you're saying, I think Sabellian's lore contradicts that. He said that in Outland, the Old Gods' corruption couldn't affect him, which allowed him to research a cure. Still, this is an awesome theory. Absolutely subscribed and waiting for more.

If I recall, The Void Lords or those above Old Gods threw the Old Gods through space and Twisting Nether and landed indiscriminately to corrupt and take over. Draenor did not have a "world soul" like Argus or Azeroth so things didn't get too involved until blood sacrifices, mutations and demonic activity picked up speed. My side theory with the Arrakoa (Draenor / Outlands) is that Light and Shadow influence is notable. Elementals are semi balanced and can be amicable and aren't overly rampant.

Hi Jedi! Cool ideas! I definitely like the idea that many planets are under siege from the void lords. Old gods are sent into the universe to feed on world souls like parasites, and while most planets don't have them, the old gods are still happy to raise armies of void and place another brick in the wall no matter where they go. The reason Azeroth has so many old gods is because the first one to land there (maybe N'Zoth?) managed to signal for reinforcements when it sensed the presence of the world soul.

The klaxxi are an example of old god forces that continued on after y'shaarj died. IF you have a void elf and you look in the background in the character screen you can see an old god the size of a planet. They are fully capable of spanning all of a continent. Maybe it was in the mine somewhere and was killed when that part of the planet was torn from the rest and they are trying to resummon it

Dude also read the description of the Archaeology item: "Outcast Dreamcatcher" it's from Draenor and this with the whole Cho'gall thing during the Imperator fight they probably were planning to go deeper during WoD about it all, I really hope they come back to it at some point. also PS extremely tinfoil hat because why not, but if you watch the Harbringers: Gul'dan video like right the second the elements back off from Gul'dan in like 1-2 frames you can see their colors collectively turn into something that REALLY like WAY TOO MUCH resembles Void/Shadow tendrils XD

I found this fascinating. Love those topics.

If the Dread Expanse was still doing youtube, you'd of probably enjoyed his content and perhaps collab'd with him as he's had similar thoughts about alt draenor and the spores.

Really good video. keep it up!

I haven’t finished the video fully but I believe the reason he hasn’t influenced Outland much is 2 reasons. The void randomly shots old gods at planets in the hope it has a Titan soul to corrupt, which Outland does not have a soul. So it’s prime objective is already a no-go, so now only thing left is to spread is the voids belief system, so now he’s just doing missionary work. Second in the novel “2 Bright Lights”, it explains how the void can see all possible futures, all possible outcomes. So there’s a good chance the old god knew the world was going to crumble and what local influence he had near him was most likely radiation. Old god radiation and not actually done on purpose.

Another great video!

Great video. I love WoW lore and when I came across this in BC I was shocked. Also, if you dive in one of the pools of water in the saronite quarry in Icecrown you'll find some strange old god like thing poking out of the bottom.

It’s not only C’thun that has bugs. All the undead insectoids in Nothrend (like Anub’arak) were once servants of Yogg. The Mantids of Pandaria were servants of Y’Shaarj. There are theories about N’zoth’s insectoid race being the Makrura. It really speaks in favor of your theory and I love it !

I always thought they were summoning cthun into Outland (since same model, and they were summoning him whereas an Outland old god would be already there, and cthun is newly defeated and the only old god in the game up to that point). It would’ve been so cool tho if they did more with this there’s clearly more Easter eggs than I saw at first

I do remember the ravgers and rock flayers when tbc launched but chalked it up to blizz having things like that in vanilla that never panned out just another idea unfortunatley scrapped for one reason or another

Really good writing in this one. I remember most of these clues, but I just figured they were lazily reusing assets.

Would've been cool if this story in outland, was mentioned in Dreanor when we travelled back in time. Sadly would've been most likely a Alliance only encounter, but even so, would've been fun to see it mentioned in Shadowmoon Valley

my theory is, that because of the fact that Dreanor is just a normal planet and not a juvenile titan, that this perticuluar Old God went into hibernation of some sorts because Old Gods usually leech off a planet's world soul, and feed of its energies, this one was probably starving, and instead of accepting this slow death, hibernated to wait for his chance to emerge

If there would be a Old God in Outland, we would've seen more evidence of this and its influence. The old god, or rather, lesser god was not summonned FROM Draenor. It does NOT reside in Draenor as its followers were trying to summon it. Its from the Beyond as all the other old gods.

I would guess the old god that’s being summoned in SMV was somewhat new to Draenor before the legion destroyed the planet, and the old God was separated from what we now know as Outland due to being embedded in whatever part of the planet blew up. It would explain the oozes on Netherwind ledge being detached from SMV, the corrupted arrakoa trying to summon the god, the army being spread out and seemingly separate from each other, as well as the harbinger in arcatraz. The harbinger was left in Outland when Draenor was destroyed. There’s other mobs in the arcatraz that share models with the Twins bosses in AQ40. They were likely captured when the harbinger was as well.

This is so cool!

Never saw this OL quest line, very interesting. Reminds me of one of the raid bosses from NIGHTHOLD in legion

Ya know with this old god in outland, it could also be possible that the alternate wod old god could be the reason why alternate dreanor was dying in bfa as its probably at a point now where it can start killing the planet.

I really like the idea ! Nice work! If a Void Expansion it’s on the way - I hope that we go back to Outland . Update for the Zones .. Update for Silvermoon and Exodar! There is so much potential. We left so many Characters and places there . The Black Temple, Alerian Stronghold , Shatrath , Tempest Keep… the Broken in Zangarmarsch . I don’t want new expansion again with 5 new zones and new isle on Azeroth. Update the old zones and move the story there !

Mabye old gods and the titans are the same thing like how priests can be holy & shadow? Titans just inhabit constructs they made, while old gods just manifest themselves as monstrous creatures.

It is said that the aarakoa god Anzu have communicated with "gods of the abyss" likely being void entities or old gods

I like the theory for the most part, but i vaguely remember that the flayers used to be the saberon, much like the mushroom pepole of WoD ended up as the sporelings in TBC

Amazing video, thanks!

super cool never new about all the other evidence of the old god in outland

I think the breaking of Ountlands might have something to do with its stunted growth as well. It looks like large parts of the planet have been destroyed, and I imagine the life energy of the planet is also spilling out into the nether.

I think a lot of pre-Cata lore tends to the "it's just a cool idea" side of things, especially since the Old God lore was just riffing on Lovecraft among all the other pop culture references in Classic. Harbinger Skyriss being a callback to an older raid boss isn't unique, either (Murmur in Shadow Labyrinth was a direct callback to Ragnaros, for example). If it's not the A plot (Illidan) or B plot (the Orc, Draenei, Honor Hold, and Blood Elf stuff), I'd take the TBC stuff with a very tiny grain of salt. Remember, there was also a thing similar to C'thun in the Scourge campaign in Warcraft III in the Nerubian area of Northrend. Not saying this isn't cool, because I had similar thoughts when I played through SMV back in 2007, but Metzen's lore was REALLY scatterbrained (remember the massive retcon about the Draenei and Eredar going into TBC?), and if it wasn't *the* main story arcs, I would be wary about how to interpret things. Also remember that they felt the need to introduce major lore characters as raid bosses (hence Illidan going rogue and Kael'thas turning evil) rather than as friendly NPCs like they started doing in Wrath and Cata.

Explanation why the Old God of Outland isn't at full power or atleast is having really hard time to manifest unlike its brethren on Azeroth is that something like a "food" source is missing. What i mean by food source is wast amount of Element of Decay. Azeroth depleted its wast quantities of Spirit to quell Elemental Lords but in doing so imo, balance of Spirit and Decay Element got destroyed. The wast amount of Decay left and looking how every OG has great connection to element of Decay(number of their abilities are decay/death magic) no wonder why on Azeroth we have so many Old Gods. But on Draenor it was said that there was great amount of Spirit on planet which in turn gave fuel for Sporemounds to grow. Again it seems that balance was tilted but unlike on Azeroth it was other way around. What if as you say this Old God on Draenor/Outland is much newer addition unlike ones on Azeroth that are ancient when we look at history or timeline. Another explanation for this could be that looking how Draenor, because of Burning Legion,Nerzhul,Gul'Dan and all events that happened in current time is more and more decaying.Levels of Element of Decay could be on the rise and that's why we can see attempt of summoning "new" Old God on Draenor/Outland now or in future expansions as great possibility.

Awesome theory and quiet a convincing argument to support it

The old gods of azeroth had a world soul to feed on. Draenor didn't have something like that, and maybe because of that. The old god never revealed himself.

Very smart theories. Very interesting

Allways wondered why the bird ppl were trying to summon an Old god . I wouldnt mind seeing this loose end tied up in future content , i would like to see an exapc where we help heal Outlands as well as finding a few new zones floating around perhaps the lands of the Ogre empire

Do you think the fact that there is less land mass that the old god is unable to grow? We know they can get big, look at Ysaarj and how much land mass he took up and look at the tentacles of Yogg and how far they reached. Or N'zoth, he spanned quite a bit of land mass. I think the old god only looks like Cthun is because that was the only model they had atm. What do you think this old gods corruption was? Yogg had the curse of flesh and infested with his blood, Ysaarj played off emotions, N'zoth played with your mind and visions.

Sometimes I think theres no point in investing in wow lore but I really enjoyed your investigation! Maybe theres hope haha

The reason why this wouldn't work, is because it's stated the purpose of an Old God is to corrupt a sleeping titan. There is no titan on Draenor. It's a fun video though!

the rock flayers oddly look like the cat people from Tanan Jungle.

Lets be honest too. 20 years or however long ago WoD was to current time is less than a second in cosmic timescales.

I disagree. Firstly, Sargeras' entire reason for becoming "corrupt" was to wage war on the voidlords and ensure their destruction by any means neccesary; Leaving an old god presence on one of his main planets doesn't seem like an oversight he'd make. The black blood of Draenor I'd compare to the Azerite globules we found during BFA. (Actually, did Draenor even have a world soul?) Idk how the Naaru are involved with the Arcatraz, but I wouldn't put it past Kael'thas to have been able to imprison a Qiraji. I'm not saying impossible, blizzard's done dumber lore things, but idk man. Seems like a stretch.

I miss the MMO and RPG elements in my out mmorpg : ^)

Good video

Lore says Yogg is indeed HUGE - almost as big as Northrend.

Doesn't bother one thing, if creatures like C'Thun are destroyed, others will return like parasites so Cho'gal will be disassembled into Cata. but when the Titan aman'tul destroyed the first Y'shaarji, the Shaa came. but where is his consciousness? what if the other 3 sealed Y'shaarji in the dagger. tthe 5th is probably even to Dreanor we know that Aggramar was there a lot event traveled with portal to azzeroth. Probably thought that the titan Y'shaarji would destroy whom the battle lost and Fohe in the world where a world soul also suspected. Since Drenor doesn't have a World Soul, the journey has drained his power reserves too much in the shadows. What's in it [G'huun] was made from a part of Y'shaarji. which researches the part, like knowing from zandalar. but why didn't Y'shaarji then use G'huun as a vessel? because he was trapped in the dagger The Titan's attempt at containment to create an empty essence Perhaps this void essence was used to create Galakron. when he drank the water contaminated by Yogg-Saron, umwan started to grow into creature of the void(The Old God size) PS I assume that part The Old God of the wow story parsietn are the ones of their size because millennia have lnag at leylinen / titan power utes to wake up. That's why he couldn't keep watch in outland either, the ley lines on Draenor are relatively weak and the world in the Nether was close (before the destruction) and there wasn't any titan soul there.

There is absolutely and old god on draenor, In alternate timeline version, blizzard scrapped Entire zone called Farahlon, so who knows what was supposed to be there, also Thoose arakoa Seem to be worsshipping some shadow Below or something like that, and In our main timeline arakoa are actualy summoning and Old god, and No it is not a Cthuun as Blizzard was most likely lazy and Re-used the same model. Also all thoose Weird Tentacles in Gorgrond, yea Kinda sus. That old god got destroyed most likely when Outland blew up as He was most likely located in Farahlon, which was supposed to be part of WOD expansion. I mean Old gods are not that strong To tank Planet Busting Force so it makes sense it is dead, and Thoose arakoa in Shadowmoon valley are just tryng to bring it back From The Nyalotha/some Void Afterlife where They reside.

what if it wasn't the lich king calling arthas to northrend, what if it was yogg'saron using the armor as a proxy. since isn't the lich king's armor made of saronite/yogg saron's blood?

Wow completely forgot about this...kinda makes ya think about how many worlds could've been infested with "old gods"

youre like the only decent WoW youtuber out here right now lol

i just ran the draeni starting zone and i was getting this quest mixed up with stopping the blood elf portal in the pond on bloodmyst

I'd say "old gods" are merely the inevitable influence the Void Lords have on absolutely anything within the Twisting Nether. The Titans create life, perhaps, to oppose the inevitable corruption any and all planets succumb to. After all, Azeroth seems to be an exception. Azeroth and its denizens champion the cause of the Titans best, having nearly cleansed their world and fought Void corruption in many places... and, then there's Sargeras, who realized this truth and was driven to ruthless insanity by the realization. Ultimately, all planets in Warcraft's cosmos are susceptible to Void, just as all true[id est, it has a soul and isn't the product of an old god] life is Titanic. I still deny the "First Ones" and that silliness. Shadowlands, imo, should have been another Titanic creation, but one far more "metaphysical" than any we've yet seen. I think the Shadowlands were the Titans response to Yogg-Saron's 'curse of flesh'. The life the titans had created, up until that point, was more akin to thinking automata. The curse of flesh introduced the very idea of technical mortality. No longer could a titan-forged vry'kul be reconstructed, no, now they aged and died. And disease, injury, fatigue... etc. The Shadowlands were devised as a way to preserve the soul of the mortal, and re-circulate it into creation while avoiding being consumed by the hungry Void. The Shadowlands are an engine by which the Titans guarantee the continuation of life, and a cycle of balance. This would explain the Voids attempted invasion. Of course, the aforesaid is head-canon and we both know this isn't the case. No, now we have "first ones" which logically undermine all prior cosmology. Sad. And, souls are actively used as fuel or deleted, or sent into eternal torment. Really great and creative. :/

Maybe the old god was not stoped by us but by breaking outland apart?

Super cool, thanks😮moar is welcomed❤

Bro the original ravagers on draenor seen in WoD prove the connection even further lol

Wouldn't the reason for less old gods on Outland be because of the legion? ... Saragaras created the demon army to combat the old gods....

Poor old god with malnutrition 😢

*cough cough* the Old God Arakkoa summoned in the Warlords of Draenor *cough cough*

Maybe their plans couldn’t unfold due to the planets destruction?

the old ones cant die you think you killed them but really you did nothing to them

Auchindoun was the epicenter of what happened to outlands not Shadowmoon valley...

I now consider this canon

I have a theory for you: theres another old god underneath kalimdor. Now a lot of this in more recent lore was attributed to Nzoth but I think this is more fun. Blackfathom deeps - several old gods whisper to you and Aku'mai is said to be their favorite pet. Gahz'rilla- another hydra associated with the old gods. The wailing caverns - the druids are serpent themed and were driven to madness. The Bael'dun Excavator - in the cataclysm a dwarf claims "we found something, we dug something up that should've stayed buried. pray to whatever you believe in that landslide was enough to keep it down." Vanilla Kalimdor also has a heavy naga prescence, again they're serpentlike humanoids. and finally a forgotten "dungeon" from warcraft 3 the Stonetalon Caverns which had all sorts of creatures inside.

arent all the old gods are just in azeroth?

C'thun's brother

And that's just a theory...A Great Theory! Thanks for watching.

I think the strength of this old god, or lack thereof, is more to do with Draenor not being a world soul. The old gods primary purpose is to corrupt and turn world souls to the void, with no world soul, there is no purpose, making it benign.

How do you manage to sound like AI?

I would take care about warcraft lore videos, they have literally retconned everything. Any speculation on anything is now accurate. They even debunked their own "chronicle" lore books, in one expansion.

first

Oh yes. Old Gods is the most interesting part of wow to me. They are everywhere. And nowhere. It is always slowly moving forward whatever the agenda is. Corrupting literally anything and anyone.

But Outland isnt world soul planet. I was thinking that old gods goes only on world soul planets.