I have a feeling that no matter how Bliz decides to resolve the Worldsoul storyline, they won't be able to top whatever epic conclusion people have already built up in their heads. I don't envy them, that's for sure. I am excited to see if they can pull off, though.
That's one major negative of revealing an expansion 6 years in the future. People have 6 years to hype themselves up and they could never live up to it.
Kind of the George R. R. Martin situation. There's no way he can ever meet the expectations people have of him so he's stuck spinning his wheels. I suspect Blizz will be the same when the time comes.
ive played a form of DnD for over a decade now. when planning a campaign, i would build a short plot to get the players connected and have a handful of plot lines open, none major (yet). id listen and take notes from them as they theorized who the big-bad was and what he was doing and why, then i would run with those idea's and twist them some. it makes for an amazingly better story than anything i could have come up with by myself. i really hope this is how blizz is working now since they seem to be "listening" to us.
What if the twist is, Elune is THE last titan and actually strayed away from the methods of the pantheon and is the one to help azeroth be born in its natural state. Releasing azeroth from its prison of titan constructions, old god taintc light crystals embedded within her, fel sword thrust into her, the death influence of the shadowlands and the emerald dream which is her life corruption. What if Elune is the hero of this saga potentially sacrificing herself for Azeroth, who she has watched over her entire existence.
I think the idea of Azeroth herself bring manipulated and even abused would have beautifully tragic narrative parallels to what Anduin, Thrall, Alleria, and many more characters have experienced. They are in the unique position to potentially empathize with their own world, in a way.
It is my personal belief that this arc will end like "Babylon 5" (one of the many inspirations). We will be forced to chose between the Titans and the Void...and we as Azeroth...chose *neither* ....We chose to stand on our own and make our own mistakes, not their's. And we tell them to "Get the Hell out of our Galaxy."
I like this theory. I generally have the theory that Azeroth is the first 'first one' that might be born in the universe. I think the First Ones created the cosmos and then split their essence between all the forces as an experiment, and Azeroth is the first world with a chance to achieve balance between all the forces and be born as a First One.
Cool theory, My theory is the First Ones didnt make the Cosmos they remade it how they wanted. Our Universe was never meant to be how it is which is probly why its all fighting against each other. They Ordered the Universe and now their Children the Titans are seeking to do the same, because their ordering is breaking down. And Azeroth the Dreamer is the maker of the Universe or was, as her name sake Azeroth named after Azazoth from H.P. Lovecraft created the Universe thru his dream. I think Argus and Azeroth are twins and they made the Universe Maker and Unmaker and after it was done they rested. Then the First Ones showed up and bound their makers cause they wanted to be the gods of gods. Then Ordered the Universe as i said before, thats why the SL has machines running it. Because only Azeroth can make real life and the First Ones like their children the Titans cant, they can only make lifelike machines. But hey the real lore they end up with in the new saga wont be half as good as what u or i can come up with lol.
@@jethrodark2372 It does feel like even the First Ones ordered what was already there, as there's beta information suggesting the Maw used to be something different, and the mushroom dude in Ardenweald has memories of a time before the Winter Queen
I always suspected that, ever since the existence of the first ones was introduced, that Azeroth was actually a child of the first ones. Thus inheriting their power over the cosmos, which is why not just the titans, but all cosmological forces desire to control her specifically as well as lie to us constantly regarding what she is. The very idea of "those who control Azeroth, can control the fate of the entire universe" would no doubt either compel those who live on her to either defend her from all the forces of the universe or feverishly try to take her for themselves. This really is starting to lead to a war to end all Wars. Two more things need to be said. Firstly, I am glad people are understanding the possibility of Azeroth's form potentially being a troll since as far as we know, and so long as Blizzard doesn't try to retcon trolls in the future, trolls are one of the few if not the only race which are the oldest and most naturally born to live on this planet, not descendants from titan constructs, not from an entirely different world, not even descended from the creations of any other cosmological force for that matter. Recently I did like the idea of her being a dragon who's visage was a troll, but if it is true that dragons essentially came from the elements. then I am not so sure. Secondly given how those like the titans and Argus worked, a potentially positive outcome of her being born could involve her funneling herself out of a hole and reforming out in space. A real power move from her though would probably be that, if she did end up breaking out of her shell like an egg, she decides "Nah" and just reverses time around the shell to save the planet and all life on it.
I just love the idea of our ultimate goal being to free Azeroth from all the outside influences. At so many other points in the history of the game, we (player characters and key main characters) have defied fate. Every time a villain has proclaimed, they know the future, or that they are inevitable, we have kicked their teeth in. So for Azeroth herself to finally awaken, pick up that sword and make it her own weapon, and tell the gods of the cosmos that her fate is her own, and her people stand with her against anyone that would warp her to their own ends, would be very fitting.
Since some point in mid/ late Shadowlands, I've felt that a great path for the story (and perhaps the direction they are slowly steering us in) is one in which we throw off all these externally imposed legacies (e.g order, void, light). I think it would be fitting and harmonious with current lore of our ultimate fight were a planetary struggle for independence from all the myriad outside forces that want to use Azeroth for their own purposes. It doesn't mean those forces need to be our enemies ultimately. Some could be made eventually to see Azeroth (the World Soul and planetary inhabitants both) as allies, but from the point of equals rather than pawns or thralls. This would preserve those classes that draw upon those forces while still allowing for such conflicts.
My theory is that the last titan is Sargeras, a titan which is currently being held by titans in a titan prison. Something, probably the void in Midnight, will kill all the other titans and he will be left as the last one
Thats my guess aswell Sargeras was right the entire time not with destroying azeroth but he formed the Burning Legion to Battle the Void and most likely the light aswell
I really like that you used an animation of her being a troll, seeing as they were of the earliest races if I remember correctly. This is really similar to a thought path I've been on recently, what if the Titans don't want her to emerge yet, or at all. All these devices that regulate and inhibit life on her, as if to give them time to figure out how to deal with the consciousness that seems to be developing and growing. Just a hair brained idea I've been chewing on 😆
One take I’m not hearing enough is what if “last titan” coming directly after “midnight” implies that Eridikron is successful and is actually able to kill all but 1 of the titans. I’m still leaning toward Azeroth being that titan but maybe not. I just know massacres have been real popular and effective in fiction (game of thrones and invincible to name a couple).
Yeah, I like this lean as well. Maybe not even just Iridikron, but us as well. I don't see it likely that we don't discover the ill intent of the titans until the very end of Midnight. Perhaps that happens at the end of the War Within and thus Midnight involves us working through the titans and finally The Last Titan revolves around Aman'thul as the big bad.
@@Draenal I don't want this to be the case but it could be Sargeras. He's being kept imprisoned by the Titan's power so if we or the void killed them all, it stands to reason he'd be freed as the "Last Titan" left. We've also never actually fought him directly and if there was ever an over-arching villain to the entire story of Warcraft it would be him(or arguably the Jailor but literally no one wants that) so it would make sense narratively.
Love the use of Outer Wilds music T&E, just finished that game and feel WoW should take a page out of that games book and have the birth of Azeroth feel very personal, warm, and "Down to earth" in contrast to the cosmic threats of the void and the titans.
It's super unlikely that they'd do it, but I kinda think the most interesting thing they could do for the franchise -would- be to tear the world asunder. That kind of upheaval gives them dramatic liberties to change things up both story-wise and technically. There'd be no more reason to concern themselves with the crufty old world at that point; everything could be re-made in a more future-proof way, and it would give everyone a massive event to talk about for years.
I think that's actually highly likely, precisely for that reason. If they stick with progressing WoW, they have the technology to let people re-visit the pre-birth Azeroth, or if they want to do a WoW2, this gives them an ideal starting point, where they can severely smash up the world, but not lose all connections to the world entirely. They can also at this time for a world revamp that's as large or as small as they want - they could do anything from sinking or smashing together continents and creating new ones, to Azeroth just emerging from the sea and avoiding large-scale damage, but still changing things.
With the tools they have built for classic, they would be able to let players revisit everything that came before. So while it would take an incredible amount of work, I wouldn’t call it impossible
I admit I hadn't thought of Azeroth having a troll-like form considering how human-looking the Titans are, but I absolutely love all the art that shows her as such. It marks her as unique, makes her feel a bit more primal, and makes sense within the lore considering how trolls have basically been around since the beginning.
I don't have to much to add but I love the video. It is really well made and one thing I love about the video is tge distinction between a Titan and World Soul. A Titan is the order guys and a World Soul is an unaligned entity.
I really like that Frenome fan art. That's how I picture her too. Although I could see the troll version being real, to me, The titan Maidens really seem like they're going to be closer to what we get.
It would make sense for her to be a mix of all the forces of the cosmos naturally. I mean just look at her children. Mortals on Azeroth can choose to weald any of them.
Expanding on this, by my estimation worldsoul Azeroth has been touched by most if not all the great powers. Void and Titans via their manipulations, death via the final raid of the shadowlands, Fel via sargeras' blade. The only ones left are Life and Light, which I think could be seen as being exposed to her via us, her chosen champions. She empowers us, maybe it goes the other way. Azeroth being the greatest of all of them might not be just because she's super cool, but because she's more than just one power, she's all of them, or on her way to being all of them. Might fit in with the First One theory as well.
You know what'd be sick? Okay, it plays out kind of like scenario 3, she grows and gains enough strength to manifest a physical form which she uses to communicate with the populace that lives on her. But what if this is how the order pantheon corrupts a neutral worldsoul? Like, after enough influence and shaping with all the titan industrial equipment, when a Titan is created they do in fact destroy the planet and birth like an egg. So the titans have been shaping Azeroth to become one of them caring nothing for what happens to the populace living on it as long as they achieve their goal of gaining an ally to fight with them in their battle for the cosmos. So Azeroth, knowing what will happen to the inhabitants of her tries to communicate with and rally the populace together to try to prevent the Titans from forcing her into that transformation. Then, once we defeat them, we travel the cosmos with Azeroth, like a planet sized space station in search of other vulnerable worldsouls. Fighting to protect them from the various forces trying to corrupt them.
The ideas that world souls aren't naturally Titans but something else that can be corrupted or changed by the cosmic forces of the Warcraft universe is kind of brilliant. I'm reminded of Metzen's comments at Blizzcon asking about the purpose of all the Titan facilities were dotted all over the planet. What if, this entire time, they were both a prison and an indoctrination machine for Azeroth herself? Love it.
I love that this is where you ended up. I’ve been thinking in this vein of thought since we found out about Argus breaking the arbiter. I’m so behind this theory.
@@jaygibson9106 Well, RIP Eonar the Life-Binder, Titan patron of all life and nature (who herself clearly has some yet unknown connection to Elune) I guess.
6:32 The moon is many things. The moon is an egg, the moon is Elune, the moon is a planet-eating alien named Nyx, the moon is a virtual reality supercomputer where mages upload their brains to fight holy grail wars for control over the supercomputer, the moon is the base for a clandestine group of people whose an online RPG that's actually not a video game but reality to infiltrate a mothership (this one no one is going to get lol), the moon's the home of a technologically advanced species of of aliens who resemble humans and can summon meteors at will, some of which wanted to invade the Earth, the moon is pure chaotic evil that corrupts people into Lunites, the moon is the source of monsters that come to the planet in an event called the Lunar Cry, the moon is a prision that contains a dragon instead of an egg and the moon is formed around a dark god that's also the home of another clandestine organization diametrically opposed to the light god in the center the world. If there's one multiversal constant. it's that the moon is never not haunted.
"we must REBUILD the final titan, do not forget!" was what Wrathion said when infused with order magic. I always took that to mean that that Azeroth (titan) was a titan-spirit they put in Azeroth (planet), essentially using the world soul's magic to give her body physical form again, akin to how the titans seem to drain magic out of Argus (titan) to reform themselves in Legion.
Regarding how she emerges from the planet, I think it could also be a mixture of 1 and 2. So the planet would essentially be an egg, but it's clearly not just a uniform flat shell. Some parts might be thinner, maybe even allowing some of her body to stick out.
What if she is a Titan (for lack of a better name) of Balance? She has been influenced by the Void with the Old Gods, by Order with the Titans, Life with the Emerald Dream and Elune, The Fel with the Legion's invasions, Death with Galakrond and the Jailer's machinations, and next xpac we find she's had a Light egg, possibly a Naaru, buried in her for who knows how long. I say she pops out and she is none of the above, but all of the above.
Wait.... Didn't Velen pour the Light energy from a dying Naaru into the Sunwell to reignite it at the end of Burning Crusade? The "new" Sunwell is now a mix of Arcane and Light energy instead of just pure Arcane. What if that seeped down into the core of the planet through the Sunwell and Azeroth got infused with the Light that way? That could explain how the Azeroth world soul got exposed to the Light, leading to your "Balanced" entity scenario.
I love your Lore and Speculation Videos :) I appreciate all the time and effort you put into it and it really shows. I always watch these videos multiple times because the big scale speculations and theories you put out are always really intriguing. Also your style of doing it is amazing. I would be down for a lore channel of yours xD You mentioning the first ones and Shadowlands makes me wanna catch up on the lore but I want you explaining it ^^
I still wonder if the Devourers are First Ones who have fallen into a more primal form akin to how Naaru can fall into void forms. Perhaps once they've consumed enough reality they turn into world souls in order to become reborn into their First One forms.
Given the example, we had in the Antorus raid. Argus was extracted from the planet Argus without visible effects afterward. The other humanoid Titans are referred to as "avatars" , indicating (by the definition) "a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth" With the example of Antoris (Coven of Shivarra, Agrimmarm and Argus fights) so the humanoid forms are something created by the World Soul and can be imprisioned, interacted with and even killed without destroying the physical planet.
I'm wondering if Azeroth is going to be some kind of over-being - blending all the other "magics" into a unified thing. We have portals to the elemental planes still, there's the link to the shadowlands (all those Kyrians floating over the graveyards). We have titan facilities and old gods and now a tree born directly out of the emerald dream and life magic. There's a honking great sword (what sword?) that was pumped full of fel magic stabbed in there too. I don't know if we're missing anything but by now Azeroth has all the flavours of the rainbow going on.
Honestly, IMO they said "that's not THE titans magic" for a reason, instead of saying "this is not TITAN magic". When they specify "the", it feels like they're refering to a specific group, which is logically Aman'thul's pantheon. I mean, that's the titans whose magic they've felt for thousands of years, that's the titanic magic they know... pehaps Azeroth's titanic magic is far too different from THE titans we know.
After SL (I know it's a curse) but I could not stop thinking of the first ones, and that the first ones are each 1 of the cosmic forces and that azeroth originaly was a biproduct of them all together before they started a cosmic war between themself.
Having played World of Warcraft since the very beginning, I never expected my "realtionship" to WoW would still hold. But it does, i mean some periods off, but still play it regularly. Hell i still remember playing Warcraft Orcs and Humans, i was young then :D Chris Metzen being back is wonderfull, His passion for the game is incredible.
Either Azeroth is a First One, or the literal heart of the universe. The other cosmic forces want her for their own purposes. Although, as far as we know, only the Titans and the Void Lords want to actually change Azeroth into one of their own. The Jailer wanted to use Azeroth's essence to enslave the cosmos, and Sargeras wanted to destroy her, so that other powers couldn't get to her. We still have know idea what the Light and Life want with Azeroth, but she's clearly supposed to be her own being.
i want Azeroth to be born like scenerio 1, but have her be the world we are still on, riding on, like all the continents exist intact on her ocean midriff that is always in motion (as oceans are), the maelstrom as her navel, one hand is wrapped in holy energy, the other void. her shoulders are covered in fire and ice, clouds and forests for hair. basically a primal elemental titan embodying all the elements of Azeroth (void, decay, fire, water, order, holy, etc.) and her many denizens. made of both order and chaos, fire and water, light and void, she could be the arbiter of a new era, one outside the eternal conflict. she wont make the same mistakes the titans made, focusing completely on order. but be both light and void. be both but neither. this is why the aspects say "not titan magic" because it isnt pure titan magic like before but a mix of magics, kinda like how azerite was not a single magic but a mix of order, holy, earth, fire, etc. Azeroth is not a normal titan ruled by order like her kin, and her magic reflects that. if we are not on her body, it would be cool if the continents are on her cloak, like she uses the world egg shell as her cloak after she is born. either way it would be rad to be riding a titan though space and even helping her fight. like imagine her punching something, and huge horde and alliance armies charging down her forearm to invade whatever she just punched. plus that awesome sword scene tali mentioned, she already has a weapon!!
Great vid! It's easy to see ya'll have been cooking this vid since 2016 and the end result is *chefs kiss*. Thanks for making these videos and helping a non-lore focused gamer stay in the loop on this kinda thing - it really adds to my gaming experience!
Taliesin, I’m a lore junky, and so far your casts have been wonderful! One thing I do want to point out, that you kinda gloss over. The pantheon is not good, none of them are “Good guys”, When their goals align with our own making them less awful but not good. You may have noticed the extremes each pathion has in the way it works. The Void being a power of Quantum like all possibilities, V.S The Light being about there only being One truth. The same can be said about the Titans with Order and Sargaris being Chaos, though a fallen Titan he is still using the same power of arcane though it is in a wild untamed form of energy. Order in the Authoritarian sense where if it does not fall into the definition of Order, it will be changed to. Dragons, the mind controlling water, extra. None of them are the good guys. I do love your theories, That infusion extends to the people of Azeroth.
I am leaning towards the last titan being Sargeras. After the midnight expansion, void lords will probably succeed to eliminate all the Titans but Sargeras and have their hands on Azeroth. Because the world soul is opressed by the sword Gorribal, that's why it couldn't resist the convertion from the void.Therefore, when the last chapter occurs, Sageras will return and pull the sword out of Azeroth before the world soul regain its full potential and finally leading us to the victory over the void lords.
I see her manifesting like the third theory and definitely will be pulling that sword out of the crust to use to defend the planet against the biggest bad that shows up. It would make sense that if Order magic has titans that the other affinities would have their own planet born manifestations as well.
World Souls being basically a blank slate of divinity, and that the Titans going around claiming those blank slates for Order (maybe without even knowing what theyre doing) is a great approach. I think Azeroth is going is end up just doing her own thing, with us along for the ride to act as her hands in the universe. I AM HOPING, that maybe Elune is the same as Azeroth - a blank slate divine being, which is why she basically has access to a bunch of different parts of the cosmology, and maybe thats why Elune shows such an interest in Azeroth's people, such as it is. Going further, maybe the reason she's hands on and distant at the same time is because she's another world some where in the great dark and in order to not murder all her populous she stays as a world - as Azeroth is going to do, because she chooses us, her children.
Honestly it seems ridiculous to think a Titan, a being of Order and Creation, would be born through an act of destruction and genocide. Azeroth especially, has been shown to care about us. Sending us warnings through Magni, and now even calling us by name. We've seen their soul can leave the planet without affecting it, which as the most powerful mage in the cosmos, would be as easy for her to do as blinking.
I just always thought of azeroth as a life titan being so connected to the shadowlands and all, like argus is a death titan and sargeras a fel titan, the "titans" are just order titans. Does that make elune a life titan as well? makes more sense than being a light titan
I really, really, REALLY want Azeroth to just "manifest" and to be good. We basically protected her from every threat to this day (even from death) and I would love a end of story like scenario where Azeroth is born and thanks us and everything is good. Simple but meaningful.
The planet Argus wasn't destroyed when Argus the Unmaker was manifested. The planet itself was already twisted and ruined before Argus the world soul came and Argus is still there today.
The only thing I'll say to this is there are still a ton of zones from Cata that are still about the Cataclysm as a current event...given WoW's long history of what just happened not having any effect in the universe could easily apply to Argus; e.g., Argus as the playable zones is in a time just prior to Argus the Titan being awoken.
I think Azeroth will just be inside of an egg, and her actual form will be smaller, as i'm pretty sure the Titans can change their size, so she could literally be born without any consequence to the world
If world souls aren't Titans and Argus was infused with Death and not Order, wouldn't that mean Argus is in fact, not a Titan? Because he's been referred to as one...
A near conviction of mine, Azeroth is one of the "First Ones" and later went into slumber, I keep thinking back to Shadowlands intros, and how the mechanics created by first ones interacted to our presence...or more specifically our neck piece empowered by blood of Azeroth. Imagine having control over such a slumbering ancient being....
It also says something about the conflict of the cosmos and either how massively outnumbered/outgunned the titans are compared to the other forces or just how intense and precarious the "balance" between the forces really is, that even though they have access to the INFINITY of probability, the only timeline they can find where they even have *somewhat* of a shot at getting at Azeroth, is the one we have. They still have to show up AFTER the establishment of the Black Empire, they still have to deal with the Sundering and essentially all the insane either local or cosmological conflicts that have enveloped and *endangered* Azeroth - hereby basically all the lore of Warcraft (the Cataclysm, the Burning Legion and Sargeras literally STABBING the planet, N'zoth nearly reestablishing the Black Empire and Zovaal doing whatever he did probably didn't feel that great for Azeroth - and so much more). That also calls into question the "benevolence" of the Titans being nothing more than propaganda - which Dragonflight and to some degree Shadowlands have done much to highlight. Because if they truly could just find a timeline where Azeroth and her denizens could live in peace and tranquility under their leadership, like the Time Rift world Ulderoth, they could just do that. Instead they chose to have all that havoc, death and destruction be the only "true" timeline, because that was, in their minds, a fair price to pay in order to get their shot at claiming/rescuing/corrupting Azeroth for themselves. Great video as usual, especially love how you take time to credit and tag the great artists whose work you used at the end
2 Old God whispers are stuck in my head and I cant shake them N'Zoth: "The fall of night reveals her true face. She will bring only ruin" - Fail of night, you mean like just before Midnight? 🤔 Il'gynoth: "Its surface blazes bright, masking shadows below" - a blazing surface, like the one shown in the cinematic? Shadows below, like Xalatath in War Within 🤔
I think the titans are lying about Azeroth and it's definitely not a "titan" simply because of how similar the name Azeroth is to Azathoth, also another small thing which probably sounds insignificant is how when we go deeper into Azeroth in the Aberrus raid the last platform is literally the cosmos when we were never going upwards to the sky or anything, but rather deeper underground also in general people overhype Azeroth too much, I am honestly way more interested and wish Blizzard would elaborate more on the stuff that happened on AU Draenor and Cho'gath's secret phase rather than focus everything on stupid Azeroth because people are just too afraid to explore the beautiful vast universe that wow has to offer and only care about Azeroth...
100% iam so done with Azeroth . Argus was nice the raid aswell ,Au Draenor was greate to bad they never finished it and probably never will . and to bad they had to ruin it with the Light cult for brown orcs
Here's what feels like something they would go for with all of this: World souls are either new or dormant first ones. The first ones were at perfect balance between all of the cosmic powers - which is why they were able to build all of the Zereths - but at some point they had to give up that power or be split into those different powers. Now if a first one gets fully blasted with one power they wake up and serve as a conduit for one of members of that respective pantheon. So far we've only seen the titans, but that's what fel was trying to do before the legion, that's what the void is trying to do with the old gods and what life might be trying to do with world trees and the built up right now is obviously that Azeroth will be the first ....uh.. first one we see. But I'll be honest: "The Last Titan" def has a better ring to it than "The Last First One".
Facts: - The Titans and Eternal Ones talk about the First Ones like they remember them. - Everyone is really shifty about where the FOs went, but now the Shadowlands, Emerald Dream, and "Reality" are Ordered. - Argus and Azeroth (planets) are both covered in Titan Facilities. Sargeras used Argusplanet's facilities to corrupt Argus and power the Legion for eons. - Zovaal KNEW what was under ICC and how to use it. - The Titans made a big deal about "finding new World Souls". - In the Emerald Dream, if you look at the reflections of the trees in the water, they're all dead. The Dream is a DEAD place, frozen in time to a point of serenity. Before Fyraak came, the biggest problem expressed about the Dream is that of Stagnation. (The Owl Loa of Change who refuses to help, the Dryad who joins the Druids of the Flame who wondered if the Dream would ever change even if she stopped tending it, etc.) - "This world is a prison." - When Azeroth was wounded in the Ordering, her blood was arcane water. Now, in BfA, her blood is blue & gold crystals? "Gold" and "crystal" are the changes. What power is golden and ossifies, crystallizes, and stagnates? Speculation: - Azerite is what it is because the Titans have been suffusing Azeroth with LIGHT in order to freeze her in Order Magic. Arcane/Time + Light/Unchanging = stasis lock. - "Order magic" is just that: Arcane and Light. Arcane to stop time and Light to crystalize reality and keep it stopped. - Azeroth and Argus are the most likely candidates to be the First Ones. Azeroth, the Dreamer, who is the Creator, and Argus the Unmaker. - "Eternal One" is a snide riff off "First One". A way of saying, "You may have been First, but I am the one who will rule forever!" Crackpot Theory: The Primus and Aman'thul worked together to overthrow the First Ones and "Order" the cosmos as they wished. With the help of the Pantheon and the Eternal Ones, they killed Azeroth and Argus (and maybe a 3rd First One that Sargeras found Void corrupted?). Then they put their plan in motion. Step 1: Order the cosmos as they see fit. Step 2: FIND ARGUS AND AZEROTH! Once killed, their souls drift through the cosmos, and become World Souls until they are rebirthed. The Pantheon had to find these Worlds, and make sure the First Ones never wake up! If Mommy and Daddy come home, the party is over. Step 3: With the Primus' help, they turn Argusplanet and Azerplanet into PRISONS. Build large machines on them and keep the First Ones pacified in eternal sleep. The Emerald Dream might actually BE Azeroth's dream, Ordered. Well, now the Dream is idyllic, passive, and never-changing. What a perfect prison for a Dreamer. I think Zovaal found out the whole plan and tried to stop the Primus (and Daddy D?), but the Primus outmaneuvered him and framed him for rebelling. After the trial, not before(!), Zovaal's entire body is covered in Domination Runes. (source: ZM cinematics) I think Zovaal was the Primus's puppet for all of SL. But Zovaal was trying to undo the "Plan", so that would suggest the Primus may have turned against Aman'thul. Sargeras also turned against the Plan when the dreadlords, working for Daddy and therefore whoever he's working for, convinced him that Aman'thul's plan was doomed to fail and could lead to a Void First One being created. I think Zovaal's "A cosmos divided" works on so many levels: Reality divided from the Shadowlands, Eternal Ones divided from the Pantheon, Arcane and Death divided from the other four Powers, and finally, Azeroth and Argus divided from each other and from their children. Other things I think may be true: - The Emerald Nightmare is chaotic and spreads like fire because it's Shadow and Fel corrupting Life. The point of the Nightmare is to wake the Dreamer up. Xavius advances both the schemes of Sargeras as well as that of the Old Gods. - Elune was one of the few "gods" (i think that's what the First Ones called their titan-level children when they made them. basically, they were supposed to be like Aspects and protect various facets of the cosmos) that DIDN'T side with the Primus and Aman'thul. Her physical form may be frozen in the giant sky crystal from the War Within, which is why she only appears in Spirit in other vessels, like the White Lady/Mu'sha or in the Night Warriors. Either that or... - Eonar may be the physical form of Elune that Aman'thul "Ordered". Where was Eonar hiding again? Elunaria? What was her Pillar of Creation? Elune's Tear. "Lifebinder" they call her. Life plus Order, which is exactly what the Dream is and does. - Xal'atath, who is SALTY about Elune and called her an 'upstart "Goddess"' (emphasis hers) is the daughter of Elune, the Blue Child. From the story The Embrace, we learn that the Blue Child was birthed from the White Lady (Elune)'s love for Azeroth and Her Children. The Blue Child shared Azeroth's children's love of exploring and discovery and would often leave for long periods of time to explore the cosmos, only to return and tell her Mother stories from her travels. This would make her half-sister to Cenarius. - Old Gods are "Void", but they're also very much "Life". Since Life is the perfect marriage of Order and Chaos, I think the Old Gods may be sentient biological life-support suits that would allow a Void Lord to exist in the realm of Arcane. I think they may be closely related to World Trees. They certainly behave very similarly in terms of root systems. - Fyraak's Shadowflame is the new norm. From now on, it's going to be all about the pairings of the 6 Forces and what each pair is and how it can be used. Final tie up: Which forces have been trying to "corrupt" Azeroth? Fel and Void. In other words, Chaos, the polar opposites of Order (Arcane and Light). Were Sargeras and the Void Lords "corrupting" her or trying to cancel out the "Order Magic" with which she's already been corrupted? What was Sarg doing with Azeroth while we were fighting Argus? Why didn't he cleave the planet like he did before? Why a precise stab, the attack that would do the LEAST amount of damage to the planet? I think he was talking to Azeroth. Asking what She needed to wake up.
Ok, from a narrative perspektive this makes total sense, but from a gameplay and technical perspective I had a different Idea spinning in my brain. Basically... Azeroth is a Titan, gets born --> world goes boom --> Azeroth goes somewhere and takes us along --> new world --> soft/hard reset --> wow2 or at least a new engine A new world so they would not need to redo liturally everything in a more modern engine. Far strech but the current engine isn't going to hold up forever...it is already getting worse in terms of performance each expansion.
The titan magics are just that, a watch and observer. They help to keep the old gods from overtaking the other worlds as "they" decide that chaos is not their existence. In the case of Azeroth, she/they are living beings. She gave the aspect to the power holders and allowed Amissdral to take root near her "heart," where all power is moved. Tessidal, the former Darnassus city-state, was permitted by the gift of the world. All things followed that every world tree belongs to the world choice. The night elves were the race linked to the Azeroth, and they led the dream state, which is her mind.
Talie at 7:39 : "If we are super lucky, there is just one massive hole in a part of the globe that we don't really use..." You mean a massive hole like the Maelstrom? The whirlpool in the middle of the ocean that formed in the chasm left behind by the destruction of the Well of Eternity? The Well of Eternity that was full of magical waters said to be the life blood of the worldsoul of the planet? The Well that formed out of the wound left behind when the Titans ripped an Old God out of the crust of the planet? If we need an opening leading down into the core of the planet that would allow the worldsoul of Azeroth to be born without completely destroying the game world and killing all of us in the process, I think the Maelstrom is our best bet. Maybe Azeroth could use the Maelstrom as a "birth canal" for lack of a better word. Now, that could still trigger a Cataclysm 2.0 and a world revamp, since that's what happened the first time when Deathwing used the Maelstrom as a portal to emerge from Deepholm, ....but at least we could survive and not end up as floating space debris.
I have been thinking for a while that azeroth is a first one especially since it's believed to be fair more powerful than titans and we are able to access there stuff in shadowlands
Also in 10.2 Tyr hints at the dragons aren’t empowered by the titans but on their own path. “Keeper Tyr: This world is alien to me now. My last battle was long before your kind appeared. The dragons walk their own path. I have no place on Azeroth.” Also however. In the final legion raid, one if Velens last things he yells is for use to defend our world and the last titan.
So leaving out varbles for a moment. Think of it as parts of a whole entity. All 7 are 1. Any 2 parts are greater then 1 part. The outside 6 need control of the 7th to take control of the rest. Otherwise they can't actually get rid of each other. (Equal parts) Imprison apparently, but not defeat.(Remeber this is just simplifying without varibles.)
I think at this point they've been entirely clear that Elune is from the Emerald/Life pantheon and not the Light. It's specifically called out she is in a pair of opposite/opposing powers, linked to the winter queen and Death magic of the Shadowlands.
One idea I've been toying around with is that the "eggshell" interpretation of a Titan's birth is how Titans are usually born. This may or may not be cataclysmic enough to destroy all life on the surface typically but absolutely would with a Titan as powerful as Azeroth. However if Azeroth is born without a strict alignment, as a pure worldsoul becoming whatever that becomes, then it will be something more akin to the manifestation interpretation, though she may never take on a truly corporeal form. This will give us both a reason to sever her connection to the Titans AND ensure she's actually born.
8:20 No no, I could see that one. Maybe there was never any plan for the *titans* to do that (so we wind up fighting them as we're going against their plans) but *she* speaks directly to us and tells adventurers how to build a *titan facility of our OWN* (maaaybe with the help of some new EARTHEN allies?) with that explicit purpose of giving her a physical form, not nearly as strong as what it might've been if she hatched, but one that doesn't involve obliterating the planet and killing everyone on it? We build the "FORGE OF INCARNATION." That still absolutely leaves for some great kaiju level goodness of her emerging out of the forge in a massive explosion and ripping the sword out of the planet like King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.
I think that the scenario will be exactly as described at 5:15, the Worldsoul will be named Lisa and the Old Gods that are still stuck inside that body will cry out: "You are tearing me apart, Lisa !" It will truely be an epic for our times !
Azeroth had a world soul but the Black Empire beat them to it. When they got there, it was too late, the void infected Azeroth so they bound her up in the runed cell and trapped her inside the planet so she couldn't hatch. Then they ripped out Y'Shaarj and beat back the void and abandoned Azeroth as a failed project, hence their absence, leaving the watchers to keep an eye on it and make sure the void didn't return. When Sargeras had his vision and looked Azeroth in the eye (The void eyeball) he realized it was too late, the void had won but then the void spoke to him and took over his mind and he was instantly overwhelmed and fell helplessly in love. When he woke up, he took off and when he came back to kill her before she could hatch and end everything as a Void Titan... The burning legion was Denathrius (Working with the Jailer), he was using Sargeras and the Burning Legions to purge the void from the universe. Azeroth is already the void. If she gets free, maybe that is what the Jailor and Denathrius were trying to avoid. Sargaras thought the void was going to destroy the universe. He tried to end her before it was too late when he stabbed the sword Silithis.
I was thinking about this earlier today before your video (and a few months ago when they mentioned it and then forgot about it) and i was thinking about the water being Titan Juice and then wondering if Azeroth was being "corrupted" (for lack of a better word) into becoming a Titan or what if all of the different pantheons have been trying to get Azeroth as a prize all this time because she isn't aligned until one of the pantheons "wins"...not sure how that thought plays with what the Jailer was doing. The truth is we don't have enough information on the wider workings of the universe but also we don't know enough about Azeroth either. It also should be interesting to see what she is talking to the NPC's for, if she is in pain due to this transformation or the sword in her or whatever. Definitely looking forward to TWW.
Unless yet again the Titans lied and story of how the Well of Eternity was created was different to how the Titan propaganda said it was. Like Amon'thul did rip out Y'sharaj and kill him, but that it left a wound in world. But that would filled with Azerite not order magic. It was the Titans who then created Well to directly infuse the World Soul through the wound with Order Magic. Though I do wonder what cosmic alignment do Elementals/Elemental magic belong too?
Personal Theory is that every world soul represents a cosmic force that adds physical laws to the universe. Aman'Thul was the "first" titan but his thing is time magic. So did time exist before him? Likely not, his birth brought time into existence and so he was "first". Time magic presumably allows things to be ordered, to happen in a certain sequence. So time/order magic is what Aman'Thul is all about. The other Titans were probably also world souls with their own cosmic force to be bought into existence but Aman'Thul supposedly nutured them and as such was allowed to "order" them in his own image. So they appear as titans when birthed because of his influence. Perhaps, the other titans would have naturally birthed in their own unique form if left alone. But Aman'Thul has a vision of how things should be and so he orders the universe accordingly, including ordering the other world souls to fit his purpose. Eonar is a good example, we know Aman'Thul is no fan of wild life magic so in "ordering" Eonar he is able to control life magic to an extent. I would argue that the cosmic forces are too strong to be completely eliminated but Aman'Thul is able to do just enough to exert control and order over each cosmic force. So that's what's currently happening to Azeroth - all the installations are there to Order Azeroth in such a way that it can come under titan control and further Aman'Thuls vision. Who knows what cosmic force Azeroth is naturally. Seems elemental in nature.
My concern with all this "grand finale of 20 years" is that Blizz is writing some HUGE checks that they historically haven't been very successful in paying out.
What if one of the reasons the Night Elf tree is in the Dragon Isles, is because they plan to rip Kalimdor apart by having Azeroth born through the sword scar.
If we yank the BAS (big ass sword) out of the ground, there will be a convenient hole for Azeroth to exit from. Maybe that is why she is calling. "Hey guys! Who jammed the door shut?"
Ever since I saw that end raid cinematic I've come to believe that Azeroth is actually a Titan, but the "Titans" that we know aren't actually Titans at all, more like Celestial usurpers
11:09 - There’s likely a difference between “this is the magic of OTHER titans and “this is the magic of THIS titan.” I don’t think that excludes Azeroth from being A Titan at all. The fact that the characters don’t refer to her as a Titan also means little. The Titans are the worlds they incubated in. The characters only know for certain that there is a consciousness they can interact with in niche ways to the world, not that it’s one of the Titans. And even then, for whatever reason, this world’s magic feels different to the others. Maybe because it was filtered through the powerful Life and Dream magic of Amirdrassil where the original blessings were bestowed raw through the Orderly Titan Keepers and Watchers. The direct creations of the Titans. 17:16 Now THIS. THIS is a theory I’m interested in.
