The Last Titan

Something. Someone… is calling from the heart of our world. Who? Thrall doesn’t know… But it’s clearly our Worldsoul. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called the Worldsoul saga, right? Yea, damn,  they’re right, this really is the culmination of a story that’s been building since Warcraft 1, but is that REALLY the hook to hang three expansions on? I guess we’ll see, but the Worldsoul thing is no doubt a lore treasure trove to dive into. So let’s do that!

Iridikron was right, the Titans are coming back - but it’s at the end of a multi expansion arc?! World of Warcraft: The Last Titan. Yea, this is the culmination of a story decades in the making. Azeroth as a character. The last titan. But is she even a Titan? That’s the first thing we can hit up in the torrent of speculation that’s about to unleash. So let’s look at how that story developed. Azeroth. A planet? A Titan? Something greater? Let’s see.

Origins

• Warcraft the first! Orcs and humans. What we now understand as the Eastern kingdoms was called Azeroth.
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  Potentially named after Azathoth from the Cthulhu mythos. But more likely from the fire’s of Azeroth series, which included huge portal-gates from other dimensions that spawned evil from elsewhere. Like the Orcs from Draenor.
• Warcraft 2 introduced the whole concept of Sargeras and the cosmological history of Azeroth. The Tomb of Sargeras was the resting place of a Demon Lord Gul’dan take the power from.
• Cut to Warcraft 3 and all that Sargeras lore expands into a Cosmos ending crusade lead by that demon lord Sargeras, but now he was a fallen Titan, leader of the Burning Legion.
• During the Orc campaign, whilst Thrall was saving the Tauren, the nascent horde was caught against a rock and a load of Centaur.
  • Baine Bloodhoof told Thrall to invoke the Earth Mother to save them. With lack of evidence of an Earth Mother spirit in the Barrens today, we can only assume this was the first canonical reference to Azeroth as a spirit with power. Our Worldsoul. Or a spirit that would one day become the Worldsoul.
• Who were the Titans? At this point god-like figures aligned with pure magic. But Azeroth wasn’t one of them. Yet.

World Of Warcraft

• In Vanilla we got the first proper lore for the Titans. Briefly mentioned in the RTS Manuals, now they were gods to the Dwarves of Khaz Modan, and once shapers of our planet. They were also aligned with Arcane.
  • Arcane was important because our planet was filled with the stuff, in fact, there were ley-lines throughout the planet channelling it.

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  Back in Vanilla, Un’goro crater was just called a meteor crash site, hence the crater. But in the Ahn’Qiraj patch, we discovered it was once a seat of Titan power. Between it, Uldaman and scattered Titanic excavation sites, the idea of the Titans influence of Azeroth was expanding and so was their fascination with our planet.
• TBC Didn’t develop this lore much, but it put some context to why Sargeras wanted to take Azeroth. Began to show us how important she was.
  • It used to be because Azeroth was one of the last bastions against the Legion, but that was about to change.
• WotLK brought Ulduar and the path of the Titans, proof their influence ran deep on our planet.
• Cata began to develop the elemental connection with the spirit in Azeroth and Titan lore. The Dragon Aspects worked as a bridge between elemental lore and the Titans. Magni was turned into Crystal, one day to emerge as the speaker of Azeroth, and Thrall became the World-Shaman.

• Then it all clicked into place.’ During Mists of Pandaria, Wrathion ate the heart of Lei Shen, which contained the essence of Ra-den, but THAT contained the literal soul of Aman’thul, big daddy of the titans himself. When Wrathion ate that heart he spouted a load of stuff about THE LAST TITAN, and it’s creation being the final hope of the Titans.
• And this was it. Final confirmation that Azeroth was a thing. A deity, and in this lore a Worldsoul. At the time that meant a bay titan yet to be born.
  • but not just a titan, the FINAL titan, the cosmological force that would unlock the ultimate win condition for Titans. But not just them… Everyone Else. Fel had a Dark Titan. Void had a Void Titan. Azeroth became the ultimate win condition. It made total sense why Sargeras was obsessed with her.
• But that’s when all this lore went into over-drive and Azeroth became the most powerful deity in our setting. But it took a little more time to tease that out.

The Modern Lore

• BFA was all about saving Azeroth, the last titan, right? But then Shadowlands…
• We discovered this placed called Zereth Mortis, from where the Jailer was going to use his domination magic to dominate the Worldsoul of Azeroth.
  • Why? Because she wasn’t just a Titan, she was actually the central point of the cosmos. The place from which everything was created. If the Jailer could dominate the Worldsoul, that power would spread out through some insane cosmic network and dominate all the other Zereth installations throughout the cosmos, letting the Jailer remake reality.
  • In this story, Azeroth is the key, because she is central.
  • Why is she central? Two stories?

What Does It Mean?!

• The arc culminating 20 years of WoW and 30 years of Warcraft is about our world as a personality. A Worldsoul. Azeroth.
• We’re about to hit a 3 expansion arc that’ll culminate the story I just lay out.
  • The War Within will explore the deep places of Azeroth and show us that the truth of the Worldsoul story, showing us races that have long interacted with that reality, like the Earthen and Nerubian.
  • Midnight will bring us back to the Old-world and is about reuniting the “Lost Elven Tribes” That sounds dope. I can imagine bringing the Blood, High, Night, Nightborne and so forth together.

• The Last Titan - Metzen kept talking about something darker coming. What? Well, it’s something for our Worldsoul. Is that the What is to come? Could be, but before we get to the thing that’ll threaten our Worldsoul we’ll have to figure out what she is, and I suppose that’s that whole point of this big Worldsoul Saga. So yea, let’s see where it goes!

Yea, so! Worldsoul saga. We’re going to the core of what Warcraft means. Check back tomorrow when we’ll have a general dive into the zones, characters and races we’re seeing out of A War Within! Exciting stuff, catch you soon!