The Old Gods:
Yeah, we're still doing this! I've not been playing a lot of Hearthstone recently, but I like the franchise enough to talk about the lore behind the characters in the game.
With Whispers of the Old Gods, we're going to need to be a little different considering that the expansion is based around the Legendaries -- the four Old Gods. So we're going to talk about the legendaries first before the non-legendaries.
The Old Gods are beings created from the Great Dark Beyond. Some claim that the Old Gods serve the even more powerful Void Gods, and are thrown into space to infect worlds and corrupt the nascent world-souls that may potentially become a Titan. Whatever the case, the four Old Gods -- C'Thun, Yogg-Saron, N'Zoth, and the mightiest among them, Y'Shaarj -- would impact upon Azeroth in the prehistoric times when the only life on Azeroth were only the four warring elementals. The Old Gods are huge, fleshy beings of nondescript shape, mounds of flesh, tentacles, eyeballs and gaping mouths, and would wage war against the elemental lords, eventually enslaving them. The Old Gods would spawn two races to serve them -- the n'raqi, beings of horrible flesh and corruption (a.k.a. the Faceless Ones) and the insectoid aqir, precursors to the modern-day nerubians, qiraji and mantid. With this, the Old Gods created the Black Empire, a mighty dread kingdom that ran rampant over all of Azeroth. This was several thousand years before even the first elf or troll would be born. The Old Gods would revel in the madness, with N'Zoth, C'thun and Yogg-Saron in particular sending forces to fight each other for territory.
(Obviously, the Old Gods take more than a significant amount of inspiration from the Cthulhu mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft.)
The Old Gods' corruption caused the Titan Pantheon to take notice, and in order to save Azeroth from further corruption, they created their armies, the Titanforged, led by the mighty Titan Keepers, to wage war against the armies of the Black Empire and free Azeroth. The mightiest among the Old Gods, Y'Shaarj, would be too mighty for the titanforged to defeat, and this caused the mightiest Titan, Aman'thul, to reach his arm down (Titans are kind of the size of planets) and rip Y'Shaarj out of Azeroth. The act of forcibly ripping out Y'Shaarj created a gigantic gaping wound on the planet from whence the 'blood' of Azeroth itself would bleed out (this would later be as the Well of Eternity by the night elves), and the Titans realized that the Old Gods have been so embedded deeply within the world's surface to safely be removed without destroying Azeroth itself, so instead the Titans and the titanforged would wage a war to imprison the Old Gods deep beneath the surface, minimizing their evil and containing them forever beneath Azeroth.
The battle was hard and fierce, but the three remaining Old Gods are successfully imprisoned, guarded by Titans. Yogg-Saron was imprisoned on the icy north of Azeroth, in the prison of Ulduar in what is now known as Northrend. C'Thun was imprisoned in the region now known as Silithus, within the fortress of Ahn'Qiraj. N'Zoth was imprison in an as-of-yet unnamed facility, the location of which has been sunk deep beneath the ocean.
There, the Old Gods would be chained, bound, for tens and tens of thousands of years, unable to do anything... but whisper. And from these whispers, the Old Gods have managed to corrupt or drive crazy some of the mightiest and noblest beings on Azeroth, and a lot of the threats that currently plague, or have once plagued, Azeroth can be traced to that of the Old Gods. In particular, the Old Gods would cause the titanforged to succumb to the Curse of Flesh. Once immortal beings of stone, iron and earth, the Curse of Flesh turned them mortal, into flesh-and-bone creatures that can grow old and die. Mechagnomes became gnomes, vrykul became humans, earthen became dwarves... Yogg-Saron in particular would be particularly adept, influencing the greatest of the Titan Keepers to actually wage war against each other, thus denying Azeroth of its greatest champions and leaving only mortal races with such finite lifespans on the world. Even Y'Shaarj, slain by Aman'Thul since the ordering of the world, still laid scars on the continent of Pandaria, where his dying breath and minions still corrupts the land to this land. The touch and corruption of the Old Gods were everywhere, and as they gather power and their minions slowly awaken, they have grown to be more and more powerful. It was these whispers, which played and amplified the latent negative emotions and character flaws within other creatures, that made the Old God so much more dangerous than simply being huge globules of flesh and tentacles.
In areas where the influence of the Old Gods are powerful, players would hear the whispers, spoken randomly as they transverse through them.
C'Thun, the Old God of Madness:
"You... are already... dead..."
C'Thun (kuh-THOON) is the Old God of madness of chaos, imprisoned deep within the desert fortress of Ahn'Qiraj. After his defeat, C'Thun lay dormant within his prison, but the accidental arrival of the aqiri into Ahn'Qiraj, chased within there by the ancient trolls, would give C'Thun an opportunity to extend his influence, warping the aqir into Qiraji, a far more deadly insectoid race. Some time after the Sundering, the night elves would accidentally awaken the dormant Qiraji, and that stirred the dormant C'Thun. C'Thun drove the Qiraji and their Silithid minions into a frenzy, setting off the War of the Shifting Sands as the swarm marched into the desert of Silithus, and would have overran the night elves if the Qiraji didn't accidentally swarm over the Caverns of Time and their masters, the bronze dragonflight. With the aid of the bronze dragons (who would later summon the other three) the Qiraji would be pushed back, but at a high cost. Many night elves and dragons fell, including the son of the night elven general Fandral Staghelm (more on
him below). The dragons and the night elves would erect the mighty Scarab Wall around Silithus and Ahn'Qiraj, sealing C'Thun's minions within the desert, foiling the Old God's plans to extend his influence.
 |
| Body of C'Thun |
However, in
World of Warcraft, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj would be opened by mortals, and the Qiraji once more threatened the world. The dragons are unable to enter the temple, because C'Thun was prepared and had erected spells that caused dragons to be unable to set foot into Ahn'Qiraj. However, the very mortal adventurers would storm into Ahn'Qiraj and slaughter the leadership of the Qiraji, and would descend into C'Thun's chamber. What was initially thought impossible ended up being possible as C'Thun, final boss of Ahn'Qiraj, fought the mortals, first as a gigantic eye, and later in his fleshy maw-like body (similar to the Forgotten One from
Warcraft III). Thus C'Thun would be the first of the three Old Gods to fall to mortals.
N'Zoth, the Corruptor:
"I can taste the essence of your soul... so sweet..."
N'Zoth (
nuh-ZAH-th) is the most enigmatic of the four Old Gods, being the only one who hasn't really shown his face. Or, well, what passes for his face. N'Zoth's first visual depiction was in fact in
Hearthstone (they did work together and get approval from the WoW team, though). During the days of the Black Empire, N'Zoth controlled what would become the Eastern Kingdoms in the modern day. While it is known that he was sealed in a location between the Well of Eternity and Uldaman, a location that is now deep beneath the ocean, the name of the facility is unknown. Numerous different sources, be it whispers of the other Old Gods or their minions, often make reference to the "Drowned God" that lies dreaming deep beneath the ocean, which are hints to N'Zoth's true nature and location.
 |
| (N'Zoth is the Fish) |
It's not confirmed in-game, but various tertiary sources have noted that N'Zoth took part in whispering and corrupting Neltharion into Deathwing, and he was the mysterious benefactor from beneath the waves that allowed Queen Azshara and her Highborne to be transformed into the naga. It's often speculated (but never confirmed) that N'Zoth was behind the attacks by the naga and faceless ones attempting to take over the Abyssal Maw from the control of Neptulon. Various sources also credit N'Zoth with corrupting the Emerald Dream, although Yogg-Saron was the first to breach it. The enigmatic whispers of the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, an eldritch artifact, as well as Il'gynoth, the Heart of Corruption (added in
Legion), often mention Ny'alotha, a city deep beneath the waves that N'Zoth seem to have power over. In
Mists of Pandaria, the cursed weapon Xal'atoh, a weapon from the Black Empire, sometimes whispers that "the God of the Deep writhes in his prison, breaking free ever so slowly." N'Zoth's quotes is taken from one of the whispers that Xal'atoth says, which tend to be whispers attributed to Y'Shaarj.
N'Zoth would be featured
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End
"MADNESS WILL CONSUME YOU!"
Yogg-Saron, the God of Death, the Beast of a Thousand Mouths (those aren't eyes), is one of the four Old Gods, and he is perhaps the first emergence of the Old Gods in modern Azerothian history. He was defeated by the Titans, and would be imprisoned in the facility of Ulduar in what would become Northrend. Perhaps Yogg-Saron is one of the most influential Old Gods, considering the far-reaching impact of what he had done on Azeroth. Yogg-Saron's whispers preyed on his own jailer, the great Keeper Loken, one of the nine mightiest titanforged left to safeguard Azeroth. Yogg-Saron is also the Old God credited with spreading the Curse of Flesh, a curse that transformed the once-immortal Titanforged into vulnerable beings of flesh and blood. Yogg-Saron would whisper into the ears of Loken, who had an affair with Sif, the wife of his brother Thorim. Yogg-Saron's whispers caused Loken to be consumed in anger and jealousy, and in an accident, Loken killed Sif. Yogg-Saron would whisper and cause Loken to blame the ice giants and causing war between the Keepers and the ice giants, and the spread of the Curse of Flesh caused the Keepers to panic even further. Thanks to Yogg-Saron's whispers, the darkness within Loken's heart was magnified. He would attempt to kill the other Keepers, starting with Mimiron, forcing Mimiron's servants to place him into the body of a mechagnome. Hodir and Freya were next to fall, being similarly corrupted by Yogg-Saron. Odyn's adopted daughter, Helya, was also persuaded to imprison Odyn for all time within his own realm. Thus Loken and all other Titan Keepers within Ulduar were corrupted by Yogg-Saron, and the survivors of that were only Archaedas and Tyr.
Yogg-Saron's other biggest credit was the creation of the Emerald Nightmare, corrupting the World Tree Vordrassil as well as opening a gateway into the world known as the Emerald Dream, placing a seed of corruption that would take hold and corrupt the once-sacred realm (N'Zoth helped) and indirectly cause the deaths and corruption of many powerful wild gods, among them the bear god Ursoc, and, much later, the likes of Ysera and Cenarius. Based on visions seen in-game, Yogg-Saron was directly responsible, if not having a hand, in Neltharion's corruption into Deathwing and his subsequent creation of the Demon Soul; the assassination of King Llane by Garona Halforcen; and Arthas Menethil, the Lich King, torturing Bolvar Fordragon.
The existence of the Old Gods and their Faceless One minions were first seen in Northrend, meaning that these were likely to be minions of Yogg-Saron. Arthas Menethil and Anub'arak, champions of the Scourge, would discover the deep, dark terror that have slaughtered many nerubians and dwarves... the Faceless Ones. They would fight their way through these minions of the Old God, and even fight a far larger creature called a Forgotten One (speculated to be a part, or a minion, of Yogg-Saron). The blood of Yogg-Saron would seep into the soil of Northrend, creating an unnaturally powerful ore called Saronite -- the substance with which the Lich King's armour, as well as Icecrown Citadel itself, is constructed.
Players travelling through Whisper Gulch, Ahn'kahet, Ymirheim Saronite Mines and Ulduar can listen to whispers of Yogg-Saron (some of which are shared with C'Thun). An ancient artifact known as the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron also exists, found by archaeologists in
Cataclysm, who would whisper cryptic phrases and warnings whenever one attempts to solve it.
It was in
Wrath of the Lich King that Ulduar would be excavated by the Explorer's League, and the extent of Yogg-Saron's corruption is known. Adventurers from the Alliance and the Horde had to enter it and free the titans from Yogg-Saron's control, and after fighting through Ulduar, would come face-to-face to what seemed to be a vrykul woman, Sara, who aided them... only for Sara to reveal herself to be an avatar of Yogg-Saron himself. Yogg-Saron's fight takes many parts as adventurers are forced to do battle with the Old God's numerous appendages, culminating with going into the Old God's brain and slaying him.
In
Legion, when Brann Bronzebeard and Khadgar returned to Ulduar, saronite vapours would flood Ulduar's antechamber and faceless ones would attack them as what appeared to Yogg-Saron whispered to them, hinting that perhaps the Old God was not entirely dead after all.
Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound:
"You should kill them all. You MUST kill them all..."
Y'Shaarj (YAH-sha-raj... I know, it doesn't fit the spelling, but do not think your mortal tongues and alphabets can properly capture an Old God's name!) is the mightiest and the most cruel of the Old Gods, and in the days of the Black Empire, Y'Shaarj controlled the most territory of the four Old Gods. Y'Shaarj's true scale is unknown, and he is often known as the "God of Seven Heads", "the Black Goat with Seven Eyes" or "Beast of Seven Heads". It is very possible that the picture of Y'Shaarj depicted in
Hearthstone is merely a depiction of one of his seven heads, and the true scale of his body is yet to be seen. It does seem to be extrapolated from the models of the Prime Sha from WoW. While Y'Shaarj is mentioned and central to the plot of
Mists of Pandaria, the only thing we saw of him is his heart and murals.
Y'Shaarj, mightiest of the Old Gods, was also the first to be slain, ripped off the face of Azeroth by the titan Aman'Thul. Yet even dying did not stop Y'Shaarj from influencing and corrupting Azeroth millennia into the future. Where he once lay ruptured Azeroth itself and created the World of Eternity, where the essence of Azeroth itself bled out. Y'Shaarj's last cry leveled mountains and killed many titanforged. His heart was imprisoned in a vault beneath the Vale of Eternal Blossoms in Pandaria, and the last of its terrible 'breath' manifested into seven prime Sha (Anger, Hatred, Violence, Fear, Doubt, Despair and Pride). The Sha are shadowy creatures that get stronger from negative emotions, which explained why Pandaria was so focused on tranquility and inner peace, for any increase in negative emotion would make the Sha even stronger. Y'Shaarj's old minions, the mantid race, also fervently still worship the dead Old God and long for his return.
 |
| One of the seven Prime Sha. |
The remnants of Y'Shaarj was what caused the majority of the plot that drove the
Mists of Pandaria expansion, with both the mantid and the sha -- the latter unleashed by the arrival of the Alliance/Horde conflict onto the shores of Pandaria -- being major antagonists. Y'Shaarj's greatest influence is perhaps the usage of his heart by the war-hungry warchief of the Horde, Garrosh Hellscream, who excavated the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and unearthed Y'Shaarj's ancient heart. Meanwhile, the members of the Pandaren race would scramble alongside the forces of Alliance and the Horde to slay these Prime Sha. Garrosh would throw the Heart of Y'Shaarj into the pools of Pandaria, completely obliterating the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and corrupting it, and allowing Garrosh to have access to a thankfully small amount of the Old God's immense power... but even then, that amount of power is enough to give Garrosh a fighting chance against both the Alliance and the Horde. As Garrosh was felled, the Heart began to dissipate, and one last fading breath escaped from the Heart before fading from existence. Thus Y'Shaarj is presumed to be the Old God that is the most definitely dead at this point.
Y'Shaarj would whisper to adventurers during the Siege of Orgrimmar, as well as if they picked up Xal'atoh, the desecrated copy of Gorehowl created by the Heart of Y'Shaarj. Several of his lines in
Hearthstone ("Gorge your hatred", "embrace your rage" and "I taste fear") are taken from the whispers from the blade.
_______________________________
Minions of The Old Gods:
Several races, like the Faceless Ones, the Qiraji and the Silithid are races that spawned off of and serve the Old Gods fanatically, serving only to herald their doom. These legendaries are particularly powerful ones among those races.
Herald Volazj:
 |
| Herald Volazj (WoW) |
One of the main races that serve the Old Gods are the Faceless Ones, known as N'raqi in their language. We'll talk more about them later in the non-legendaries section, but Herald Volazj was first introduced in
Wrath of the Lich King, and used the 'eyeless' model of the Faceless Ones. Herald Volazj was the final boss in the dungeon of Ahn'kahet, the Old Kingdom. Part of why the nerubian empire of Azjol-Nerub fell prior to the Third War was because while fighting the undead Scourge, the nerubians attempted to escape by tunneling deeper into the ground... and awakened something that should not be awakened, the Faceless Ones. The Faceless Ones would cause the nerubians to be caught in a war of two fronts, and once they are awakened, they will not go to sleep again.
The Old God buried in Northrend was Yogg-Saron, and he would send his Faceless Ones to cull the nerubians. Alongside members of the Twilight's Hammer cult, Herald Volazj leads the Old Gods' forces to take back the nerubian city of Ahn'kahet from both the Scourge and the living nerubians, and is the final boss they fight there. The adventurers would face against Volazj, who still proclaims doom for all they defeated was a mere herald of an Old God. While he speaks in the language of the Old Gods, one of the translated lines ("Gaze into the void") is re-dubbed in english and used for Volazj's summon quote. Volazj's effect presumably is a representation of his WoW counterpart's ability Insanity, which forces all of the adventurers to hallucinate twisted doppelgangers of their allies and are trapped in insanity until they kill all of these Twisted Visages.
Soggoth the Slitherer:
The mighty Soggoth the Slitherer, also known as the Slithering One, was a particularly gigantic Faceless One that serves the Old Gods. In the many battles in the past, Soggoth was one of the Old Gods' mightiest servants, and it took twelve Titan-allied stone giants led by Kronn to finally slay Soggoth, and it costed those stone giants their lives. Soggoth's massive remains, with Kronn's blade still embedded in it, could be found in the Master's Glaive in Darkshore.
 |
Soggoth's remains (note the little dots representing normal-
sized humanoids below) |
In
Cataclysm, the Twilight's Hammer Cult attempted to resurrect the mighty Soggoth. Alliance adventurers sought to prevent this mighty beast from taking form once more, and after investigating the runes that told the story of Soggoth and Kronn with the Explorer's Guild, would slay the Twilight's Hammer cultists and the naga that were aiding them. Alliance adventurers would also call the aid of ancients of the forest to fight against Soggoth's minions, including the n'raqi Yoth'al the Devourer who were corrupting nearby beasts. Still, the Twilight's Hammer cult still managed to resurrect an Avatar of Soggoth, as well as multiple smaller Spawn of Soggoth, which the adventurer would need to slay. The Avatar of Soggoth uses the model of the 'aquatic' variant of the Faceless One, although the
Hearthstone card art chose to instead use Soggoth's distinctive remains in the Master's Glaive and use it as the face. It's never confirmed which of the four Old Gods Soggoth served -- the location where he falls seems to imply C'Thun, but the murals on Darkshore resemble those seen in temples of Y'Shaarj, and whether this is just model reusal or hinting at a connection is unclear. (Soggoth's name is, of course, a reference to the Shoggoths, eldritch abominations found in the Cthulhu mythos that the Old Gods take great inspirations from.)
Shifter Zerus:
Shifter Zerus is a character original to
Hearthstone, and seems to represent a juvenile version of a Faceless One, something that has never been before represented in
World of Warcraft. Obviously, no real lore behind Shifter Zerus. While in
Legion a demon character called Jailer Zerus appeared, he's a demon and most certainly is not related to this adorable little squidface.
Twin Emperors Vek'lor & Vek'nilash:
The twin emperors Vek'lor and Vek'nilash are poowerful brothers and the rulers of the insectoid Qiraji race that lived within Ahn'Qiraj. The Qiraji are descended from the ancient aqir race that were spawned by the Old Gods, and the Qiraji are humanoid insects that take many form -- four body shapes have been documented: the
gladiator, the
battleguard, the
prophet and the emperor. The Qiraji rule over vast swarms of the insectoid race known as the Silithid, which are nowhere as intelligent as the Qiraji. The Silithid themselves also come in numerous variations (which we'll cover below with Huhuran). Both the Qiraji and the Silithid rule over the zone of Silithus, and they took over the temple of Ahn'Qiraj, where their ancient master, the Old God C'Thun, lay slumbering, imprisoned by the Titans. The Qiraji would wage battle against the bronze dragonflight and the night elves in the War of the Shifting Sands, until they were sealed behind the Scarab Wall by both forces. In
World of Warcraft, the wall would be opened, and the Qiraji would retreat within Ahn'Qiraj. Adventurers would journey into Ahn'Qiraj and slaughter the many leaders of both the Qiraji and the Silithid, and the Twin Emperors would wait in their chamber, the third-to-last boss of the raid.
 |
| Vek'lor |
Vek'lor and Vek'nilash are completely devoted to their dread master C'Thun, and serve his every command. During the War of the Shifting Sands, under C'Thun's orders, Vek'lor would create the mighty obsidian destroyers, following C'Thun's orders to the letter. Vek'nilash would also empower the mighty anubisath Ossirian, turning him into a mighty Horusath. The two Emperors in WoW is a relatively unique boss fight because they have a shared health pool, but have different skills. Vek'nilash is a close-quarters battler, while Vek'lor would cast powerful spells upon the raid. The Twin Emperors would eventually fall, opening the way for the raid to descend deeper into Ahn'Qiraj and eventually to meet the Old God C'Thun. Their quotes in
Hearthstone are similar to their quotes in the WoW boss fight.
Princess Huhuran:
Princess Huhuran is a Silithid, which is a race of giant insects. Not insect-people like the Qiraji, just insects. Again, like the Qiraji, we'll talk more when we reach the non-legendaries, but there are many types of Silithid out there, and Princess Huhuran is a Silithid Wasp, which, as you guessed it, looks like a wasp. If wasps have gigantic sickle claws, is the size of a truck and have claws that can bite people's heads off. Other common Silithid variants are the queen, the reaver, the scarab, the worker and the swarmer. (Ant queen, spiky ant, beetle, scorpion and spider respectively in layman's terms) While some Silithid seem to be more intelligent than others, they are completely subservient to the Qiraji.
Princess Huhuran is the sixth boss in the raid Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, the temple where C'Thun is sealed and has since been overran by the Silithid and their Qiraji masters. She's apparently remarkable for a boss fight due to the fact that fighting her requires a high amount of nature resistance. Huhuran in
Hearthstone was given a cute little crown on her head because she's a princess, goddamn it! Silithid mostly don't actually speak in WoW and Huhuran is no exception, but, again, the
Hearthstone team has elected to give her voice lines.
Xaril, the Poisoned Mind:
Xaril the Poisoned Mind (
Hearthstone omits 'the' due to length problems) is a member of the Mantid race, a race of, well, mantis-people who lived on the island of Pandaria. The Mantid were descended from the ancient Aqir race that were spawned by the Old Gods when they reigned on Azeroth, and other Aqir offshoots would include neruians and the silithid/qiraji. The mantid have a rather odd culture where every hundred years, in what is known as the mantid cycle, the swarm would assault the great wall constructed by the Pandaren in an exercise to cull the weak, and the strongest and mightiest of the champions would be preserved in amber at the height of their strength, putting them into stasis until such time that the power of these great warriors would be required. These preserved champions are known as the Paragons, and are maintained by the elders of the mantid race, the Klaxxi. The locations of these mighty paragons are kept secret, and only the entire Klaxxi council together have enough power to locate the paragons.
 |
| Xaril (WoW) |
By the time of
Mists of Pandaria, there are only nine surviving Paragons left. The Klaxxi council saw that the reign of the current mantid queen, Empress Shek'zeer, to be too brash. The Mantid Empress was corrupted by the influence of the Sha of Fear, and due to this influence she ordered the entire mantid swarm to attack Pandaria's wall before the cycle's time is completed, which would cripple the mantid race in subsequent cycles. Knowing that the Empress needed to be dealt with for the good of their race, the Klaxxi council contacted adventurers of both Alliance and Horde to aid them in reawakening the Klaxxi Paragons (who recognizes the adventurer as their 'Wakener'), and subsequently slay the corrupted Empress and her enforcers.
Xaril the Poisoned Mind was one of the nine paragons, and is based on Klaxxi'vess. He was chosen as a paragon due to his unmatched skills in alchemy and poison-making, and would give out quests to adventurers in order to help further the agendas of the Klaxxi in moving against the greater mantid empire. Xaril was one of the few members of the paragon who actually knew Empress Shek'zeer, and he condemned the empress due to her intense paranoia even before the Sha of Fear's influencce. While the Klaxxi and the Paragons aided adventurers in bringing down Grand Empress Shek'zeer, they also noted that this does not mean that the Klaxxi are allies to the living, for when their true master Y'Shaarj awakens from death, they would immediately follow him.
This would prove true when Garrosh Hellscream claimed the Heart of Y'Shaarj and started channeling the dead Old God's powers, and the nine paragons of the Klaxxi bowed to Garrosh's will. The nine Klaxxi Paragons are the penultimate fight in the Siege of Orgrimmar, barring the way to Garrosh Hellscream's chamber. The paragons are faced three at a time, and whenever one of the three falls, one of the remaining paragons would come in and join the battle. Xaril would fall alongside his eight other brethren, slain by the same Wakener that brought him back to life. Xaril's poisons in
Hearthstone (Bloodthistle, Briarthorn, Fadeleaf, Firebloom and Kingsblood) are all based on the name of herbs that are part of the herbalism profession in
World of Warcraft. In the WoW boss fight Xaril's poisons aren't named. Xaril's summon quote is taken verbatim from his WoW boss fight.
The Boogeymonster:
The Boogeymonster is a
Hearthstone-original creature that seems to be some sort of plant-based lifeform similar to the race known as the mistlurkers (see the Cyclopian Horror for a more conventional mistlurker) that lives in Pandaria. Presumably the Boogeymonster has been corrupted by an Old God which explains his mutated form.
________________________________
Other Characters:
Other characters that appear as legendaries are characters with some tie or other to the Old Gods (Anomalus aside), but have enough lore before they become minions of the Old Gods so I'll separate them from the Qiraji and the Faceless Ones.
Fandral Staghelm:
The story of Fandral Staghelm is a long and tragic one, steeped deep in Old God manipulation. Fandral was a powerful night elf druid, and a very talented one, even reaching the rank of archdruid. He was pompous and prideful, but ultimately well-meaning for the good of the night elven race. Fandral bore himself a son, Valstann, who he loved more than anything. Around 4500 years before the First War, in an act of to purify the corrupted beasts in Northrend, Fandral, independent of the other druids, took branches from the World Tree Nordrassil, and planted them in several places in the world, which were corrupted with saronite -- the blood of the Old God Yogg-Saron. The rest of the druids became furious with Fandral when knowing this, but were mollified when Andrasssil rose high above Northrend. Yet Andrassil, which was not blessed by the dragon aspects the way that Nordrassil was, would be corrupted by Yogg-Saron, spreading hatred and bloodshed everywhere, and the world tree was so foul and corrupted that the druids had no choice but to cut it down. Andrassil would be cut down, and forever be known as Vordrassil, "Broken Crown". Unbeknownst to anyone, Yogg-Saron's touch of Andrassil had allowed him to create what would become the Emerald Nightmare, something that would have world-shattering consequences thousands of years down the line.
Around 1000 years before the First War, Fandral would spearhead the battle in the War of the Shifting Sands against the Qiraji (see C'Thun and Vek'lor's section above). Fandral and his son Valstann would be instrumental in leading the war, and Fandral's prowess in combat was so fierce that even the Qiraji gave him a name: Kar'sis, or Hand of Earth. The Twin Emperors of the Qiraji ordered a powerful Qiraji, General Rajaxx, to 'break' Fandral, and he managed to do this by creating diversionary attacks on night elven villages, which allowed the Qiraji to capture Valstann. Before Fandral's eyes, Rajaxx would brutally rip his beloved son in half. This utterly broke Fandral, and the leadership of the night elves crumbled and they would've fallen had it not been for the aid of the other dragons. While the Qiraji would eventually be sealed within Ahn'Qiraj, Fandral was still broken, and he smashed the Scepter of the Shifting Sand, an artifact that could open the Scarab Wall, and shattered it.
Fandral's actions between then and the end of the Third War is unknown, but it is known that when the world tree Nordrassil was destroyed in the Third War, and with it the night elves' immortality, Fandral would take over leadership of the druids when Malfurion fell into a deep coma. Prior to World of Warcraft, Fandral would plant a new world tree -- something that Malfurion had warned against. Fandral created the new world tree Teldrassil. However, this act of self-interest disgusted the dragon aspects, who, once more, refused to bless the tree. Teldrassil still served as the main hub of night elven society, however. Teldrassil did not give the night elves their immortality back, and signs of corruption began to show within Teldrassil as other creatures that lived there began to succumb to corruption. Fandral would continue to act as leader of the Cenarion Circle, and very often clashed in opinions with Tyrande Whisperwind, the high priestess of Elune and nominal leader of the night elven people. Fandral in particular championed for a more aggressive stance against the orcs, and was disgusted at the idea of tauren druids joining the Cenarion Circle.
 |
Majordomo Staghelm
|
Throughout World of Warcraft, Fandral would act as a quest giver that would ask Alliance adventurers to assist him to obtain soil samples from Un'Goro crater. It would later be revealed that the corruption of Teldrassil was caused by Fandral, who was an unwitting pawn of the Nightmare Lord Xavius -- who himself was also responsible for capturing Malfurion within the Emerald Nightmare. Xavius appeared to Fandral in the guise of his dead son, and Fandral was puppeteered into tricking many other druids to feed their power to 'heal' Teldrassil, when in fact they were only making the Emerald Nightmare stronger. Fandral's inability to reconcile his son being a delusion shattered his mind, and he was taken to Moonglade, where he was imprisoned and simultaneously helped to recover.
In Cataclysm, Fandral's granddaughter Astaria would be murdered by a brutal orc attack on Ashenvale. Shortly afterwards, the forces of Ragnaros the Firelord would besiege Mt. Hyjal, and Fandral would be kidnapped by agents of Ragnaros into the hands of the Twilight's Hammer Cult. The knowledge of the death of his granddaughter -- the only living link he has to Vasltann -- jolted Fandral back into sanity, and he was consumed with nothing but anger and the desire of revenge. Fandral would be joined by his daughter-in-law Leyara, and the two together would create a new order of druids serving Ragnaros, the Druids of the Flame. Fandral's zeal and dedication earned him the title of Majordomo, one of the mightiest servants of the Firelord himself, and Fandral would display his new powers, attacking Thrall and shattering his bonds with the elements. Fandral would later be found as the penultimate boss in the Firelands raid, making his last stand there, completely consumed by his anger. Fandral's quotes, "behold the rage of the Firelands" and "nothing but ash" are taken from his Firelands boss encounter.
Cho'gall:
The ogre mage Cho'gall began life as a simple ogre of Highmaul. While stories differ on whether he was a rare ogre born with two heads, or that he would gain his second head due to the machinations of the warlock Gul'dan, it was clear that Cho'gall was no simple brute of an ogre, and possessed a cunning that was beyond many of his peers. Cho'gall would be driven out of Highmaul due to his powerful talents and capacity for arcane magic, and he would end up meeting the orc warlock Gul'dan. Gul'dan would take Cho'gall under his wing as his apprentice, teaching him about fel magic and the existence of the Burning Legion. At one point, Cho'gall was sent to investigate a group of exiled orcs known as the Pale, who worshiped the powers of the Void. Cho'gall would learn the powerful shadow magic there, fooling the Pale with stories of how the Horde could be the instrument with which they would bring the prophecied Hour of Twilight. With these orcs, Cho'gall would form a new clan, the Twilight's Hammer Clan. At this point, Cho'gall would also lead a campaign to destroy the ogres of Highmaul and personally murder the ones who had exiled him.
In the First War, Cho'gall would gain the respect of many members of the Old Horde despite being an ogre, and would participate in several battles against the humans of Stormwind. It was during the First War that the Twilight's Hammer clan would hear the voices and whispers of the Old Gods beneath Azeroth, who vindicated their worship of shadow magic and doomsaying. But Cho'gall continued to lead the Twilight's Hammer in waging war, for they needed to keep up appearances, while they secretly worshipped the Old Gods. Cho'gall was also the reason that the orcs were allowed to stay on Blackrock Mountain, having secretly made a deal with Ragnaros and his minions -- both of them served the Old Gods, and thus had nothing to fear from each other.
Cho'gall's first actual appearance in the games would be in Warcraft II, where he was established as Gul'dan's right-hand-man, a fanatical cult leader who was obsessed with bringing about the apocalypse. Cho'gall would aid Gul'dan in the creation of the Horde's Death Knights, as well as the transformation of ogres into two-headed ogre magi. Cho'gall would also be involved in a battle in Grim Batol, slaughtering Stormgarde warriors that attempted to ambush them. When the Stormreaver and Twilight's Hammer clans abandoned the Horde during the eve of their attack on Stormwind, Cho'gall would face off against the rest of the vengeful Horde. He did not enter the Tomb of Sargeras with Gul'dan (and as such was spared the death that his master faced within) and faced against Rend and Maim Blackhand outside the tomb. Cho'gall and the Twilight's Hammer were presumed dead, but in reality they survived, though Cho'gall's chest would be forever scarred from the rending and maiming that Rend and Maim did.
Some time later, during World of Warcraft, the Twilight's Hammer would be fully established as a cult worshiping the Old Gods and not just a simple orc tribe. Cho'gall would attempt to resurrect the fallen C'Thun at one point, manipulating Gul'dan's old servant Garona and attempting to sacrifice the son of Medivh, Med'an, to bring C'Thun back to life, but a group of mages and the rogue Valeera Sanguinar would foil his plans. Cho'gall would be warped by the remnants of C'Thun into a more monstrous form, but he would be defeated and, once more, presumed dead. Cho'gall and the Twilight's Hammer would also be successful in staging attacks that caused the Alliance and Horde to blame the other, further straining the relationship between the two factions.
 |
Cho'gall (Cataclysm). Note the normal ogres around him
|
In Wrath of the Lich King, it's revealed that Cho'gall is still alive, and still spreading the Twilight's Hammer's influence everywhere. Prior to the Cataclsym, Cho'gall would command multiple elementals and send them to attack Horde and Alliance capital cities, and would have an alliance with the earth elemental Crown Princess Theradras. He would continue influence the other operations of the Twilight's Hammer, and he would in particular be responsible for attempting to conquer the Twilight Highlands and create a full standing army of cultists for Deathwing. Cho'gall would enslave hundreds of elementals, send assassins to kill the leaders of the Alliance and Horde, summoned corrupted elementium tendrils from the ground and summoned a gigantic Forgotten One called Iso'rath to the surface. The attempted assassination on Varian and Garrosh would enrage both leaders so much that the Alliance and Horde began to take the war to the Twilight's Hammer in earnest. Cho'gall would be fought as what appeared to be the final boss of the Bastion of Twilight, where adventurers would slay the last of the Twilight's Hammer ascendants, and eventually reach Cho'gall. Fighting with his Hammer, as well as summoning the powers of the Old Gods to aid him, Cho'gall would fight valiantly but would fail to stop the heroes of the Alliance and Horde, and would ultimately fall, but not before destroying the floor and sending the heroes down to battle Sinestra, primary consort to Deathwing, and the true master of the Bastion of Twilight. Cho'gall would be survived as the leader of the Twilight's Hammer cult by the Twilight Father, Benedictus.
Cho'gall's two heads, Cho and Gall, are relatively unique among two-headed ogres in that they speak independently of each other, with Cho being far more intelligent and well-spoken, while Gall being more stupid, more crazy and fanatical. Cho and Gall have long conversations with each other with far more independence than what is displayed by normal ogre mages. Cho'gall's quotes in Hearthstone is taken verbatim from his boss fight encounter in Cataclysm.
Hallazeal the Ascended:
 |
Hallazeal (WoW)
|
During Cataclysm, members of the Twilight's Hammer Cult that worshipped the Old Gods (and served Deathwing) spread all over Azeroth and summoned large armies of elementals into Azeroth. Some high-ranking cultists at this point underwent a ritual called 'ascension', transforming them into full elementals. The elemental ascendants are ruled by the Ascendant Council, a quartet of elemental ascendants, each mastering one of the four primary elements. The process of ascension as done by the Twilight's Council involves horrifying draining of the powers of the elements (in Legion, some members of the Earthen Ring would temporarily become ascendants with the help of the elemental spirits).
Hallazeal the Ascended was one of these elemental ascendants, and led an army of Twilight's Hammer cultists to drain the ancient being L'ghorek that resided within the Abyssal Depths, the elemental plane of water. L'ghorek is a giant shelled octopus thing that appears to be allied with Neptulon, and the ancient being sought the aid of adventurers to help rid the Twilight's Hammer cult that were draining its power. Hallazeal would use the power from L'ghorek to transform other cultists into elemental ascendants, sending them to do battle against the forces of Neptulon the Tidehunter. After a short quest chain, adventureres would venture within the dying L'ghorek itself and slay the mighty Hallazeal the Ascended.
Malkorok:
 |
| Malkorok (Mists of Pandaria) |
Malkorok first appeared in the
Mists of Pandaria expansion, an orc with ashen-gray skin that was once part of the Blackrock clan that joined Rend Blackhand in forming the Dark Horde, a group of orcs loyal to the black dragon Nefarian. When Garrosh Hellscream became leader of the Horde, Malkorok would renounce his ties to the Blackrock clan, and join Garrosh. The inclusion of the former Blackrock orcs into the Horde and the unconditional pardoning of their sins was one of the things that Garrosh did which the other Horde leaders found displeasing, and Malkorok proved to share Garrosh's radical ideas about how the Horde should expand and conquer all of Azeroth -- and of orcish superiority. Malkorok in particular would find himself quickly promoted into the ranks of the Kor'kron, a group of bodyguards that answer only to Garrosh and Garrosh alone. Malkorok would be Garrosh's most vocal supporter, openly threatening death whenever other leaders such as Lor'themar Theron, Vol'jin or Baine Bloodhoof dared question the warchief. Malkorok and the Kor'kron would become one of Garrosh's biggest enforcers, abducting and beating up not just Horde members, but even orcs, who dared to speak up against Garrosh Hellscream. Malkorok would be by Garrosh's side when Theramore was blown to smithereens by the mana bomb, and one of the few high-ranking members of the Horde who howled in joy at the destruction of their enemy. During the Theramore incident, however, various members of the Horde expressed discontentment with the direction that the Horde is going, and Malkorok would confront these other Horde leaders. Malkorok would lead the Kor'kron forces to Razor Hill, and would murder Kelantir Bloodblade and Frandis Farley -- loyal members of the blood elves and the forsaken who had attended the meeting that spoke out against Garrosh, blowing up a tavern with explosives in the process.
Throughout
Mists of Pandaria, Malkorok would be the most vocal of Garrosh's bodyguards, and would accompany Garrosh as he headed to obtain the Divine Bell, as well as when Garrosh obtained the Heart of Y'Shaarj. Malkorok was also indirectly responsible for causing the Bilgewater goblins to side with Vol'jin against Garrosh, refusing to pay the goblins the money they were due for helping to excavate the powerful artifact and threatening to strangle Gallywix's agents. Things would escalate to the point that nearly the entirety of the Horde would face off against Garrosh and his radicals. When Garrosh used the Heart of Y'Shaarj to empower himself, he needed a volunteer to infuse the power of the dead Old God into, and Malkorok would offer himself without hesitation. Malkorok would thus be mutated into a huge, hulking orc, with spikes running throughout his back and arms, as well as having his right arm replaced with a huge blade. It is this Old God infused form that Malkorok is depicted in
Hearthstone. Malkorok is the ninth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, taking over the defense of Orgrimmar after the death of Nazgrim. Despite his fierce dedication to Garrosh and the new power-up he got, Malkorok was ultimately slain. Both of Malkorok's lines in
Hearthstone, "the True Horde cannot be stopped" and "Weaklings!" are lines that he says during his WoW boss fight when using his skills.
Anomalus:
 |
| Anomalus (WoW) |
Anomalus is a bit of an... anomaly (ha!) among the legendaries introduced in
Whispers of the Old Gods. While most of the legendaries are minions of the Old Gods in one way or another, Anomalus actually isn't. Anomalus is a humongous arcane elemental (we covered those
here) that is found in the Nexus dungeon, lair of the crazed blue dragon aspect Malygos. Anomalus is the second (third in heroic) boss in the Nexus, and he is the mightiest among the arcane elementals created from the huge amount of arcane energy that was redirected by Malygos into his lair. If left unchecked, Anomalus will unmake everything it can touch. Malygos ends up using Anomalus as a guard to the Nexus as well as the red dragon prisoner Keristrasza. However, Anomalus has seemed to go out of control by the time the Alliance and Horde heroes arrived at the Nexus, because he's tearing rifts in reality, and sending his lesser arcane elemental minions to attack the blue dragonflight. Anomalus's quotes, "chaos beckons", "reality unwoven" and "expiration" (properly "expiration is necessary") are all taken from quotes he speaks in the WoW boss fight. So, yeah... not really any connection to the Old Gods at all.
Click the break for a mini-gallery of the "twisted" old legendaries.
.jpg)
: 5/6. I really like this thing. I really, really do find it aesthetically or thematically pleasing, just not as much as the 6/6 one. Perfectly awesome.
