World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1

by Blizzard Entertainment

  The most unstable energies coalesced into an astral dimension known as the Twisting Nether. Light and Void collided and bled together at the edges of this realm, throwing it into turmoil. Although tangentially linked to the Great Dark Beyond, the Twisting Nether existed outside the borders of the physical universe. Even so, the Twisting Nether’s volatile energies would occasionally tear through the veil of the Great Dark, flooding into reality and warping creation.

  The cataclysmic birth of the cosmos also flung shards of Light throughout reality. These shards suffused the matter of myriad worlds with the spark of life, giving rise to creatures of wondrous and terrible diversity.

  The most common forms of life to appear were the elemental spirits—primordial beings of fire, water, earth, and air. These creatures were native to nearly every physical world. Many of them reveled in the turmoil that held sway over the early ages of creation.

  Occasionally, clouds of fractured Light gathered and gave shape to beings of far greater power, of far greater potential. Among these were the naaru, benevolent creatures composed of scintillating holy energies. When they gazed out across the immeasurable universe, they saw a realm of limitless possibilities. The naaru vowed to use their mastery over holy magic to spread hope and nurture life wherever they could find it.

  Even more extraordinary than the naaru were the colossal titans. Their spirits—known as world-souls—formed deep within the fiery core of a small number of worlds. For ages, these nascent titans slumbered, their energies suffusing the celestial bodies they inhabited.

  When the titans finally awoke, they did so as living worlds. Cosmic winds howled across their gigantic forms, bodies shrouded in a cloak of stardust, skin crisscrossed with silvery mountain peaks and oceans shimmering with latent magic.

  With eyes that shone like brilliant stars, they observed the fledgling cosmos and became enraptured by its mysteries. Whereas the naaru set out to safeguard life, the titans embarked on a different journey. They wandered the distant corners of the Great Dark, searching for others of their kind.

  This grand, far-reaching voyage would one day alter the course of creation and shape the destiny of all living things.

  No one knows when or why the first titan awoke, but legends hold that his name was Aman’Thul.

  Though Aman’Thul was alone, he knew in his heart that others of his kind must exist. Thus, he explored the worlds of the Great Dark Beyond, intent on finding more titans. His quest was arduous and lonely, but it was ultimately fulfilling. In time, he discovered other nascent world-souls. Aman’Thul lovingly nurtured these newfound kin and roused them from slumber. Those who awakened devoted themselves to his noble search.

  Aman’Thul and his siblings later became known as the Pantheon. They were benevolent by nature, creatures aligned with order and stability. The Pantheon possessed a natural affinity to the latent magic in the universe. Fully aware of their incredible power, they bound themselves to a code of temperance toward the civilizations they encountered, even those of the unruly elemental spirits.

  The titans of the Pantheon came to realize that order was crucial to finding others of their kind. On each world they encountered, they employed techniques to ascertain whether a world-soul was present. The Pantheon would first pacify the world’s raging elemental populations. Then, they would reshape the world, forming great mountains, fathomless seas, and roiling skies. Lastly, the titans would seed myriad life-forms across the newly ordered world. In doing so, the Pantheon hoped to call forth the world-soul and help bring it to maturity. Most of the time, however, the worlds visited by the titans proved inert.

  The Pantheon vowed to maintain and protect all of these worlds, even those that did not contain a slumbering spirit. To do so, they empowered primitive life-forms to uphold the integrity of their ordered worlds. The Pantheon also embedded colossal machines in the surface of the worlds that they had shaped. Through these devices, the titans could monitor their worlds—and purge them of life should their evolutionary paths succumb to disorder.

  To aid the Pantheon, Aman’Thul called upon a mysterious race known as the constellar. These celestial beings observed the many worlds ordered by the titans, staying vigilant for any sign of instability. When it was necessary, the constellar could initiate a fail-safe procedure to scour life from a world in the hopes of resetting its evolutionary process.

  Over the ages, the Pantheon discovered fewer and fewer world-souls. Yet they remained undaunted. They knew that the universe was vast beyond measure, and even after epochs of exploring the stars, they had only plumbed but a small corner of creation.

  Unbeknownst to the titans, malign forces were also hard at work in the distant reaches of the Great Dark.

  THE PANTHEON

  Aman’Thul—Highfather of the Pantheon

  Sargeras—Defender of the Pantheon

  Aggramar—Lieutenant of the Great Sargeras

  Eonar—The Life-Binder

  Khaz’goroth—Shaper and Forger of Worlds

  Norgannon—Keeper of Celestial Magics and Lore

  Golganneth—Lord of the Skies and Roaring Oceans

  From the moment the cosmos came to be, dark spirits within the Void sought to twist reality into a realm of eternal torment. These entities were known as the void lords, and they had long watched the Pantheon and their journey from world to world. Envious of their power, the void lords sought to corrupt one of the world-shaping titans into an instrument of their will.

  To achieve this goal, the void lords struggled to manifest in the physical universe. As they did so, their energies seeped into reality, warping some of the unsuspecting denizens of creation. Yet the noble and virtuous titans proved impervious to this insidious corruption. Eventually, the void lords moved to exert their influence over a titan in its most vulnerable state: before it had awakened.

  The void lords did not know which worlds contained slumbering titan spirits. Thus they pooled their power and hurled dark creatures throughout the physical universe, hoping some would smash into a world-soul. An unknown number of the void lords’ creations hurtled through the Great Dark. They contaminated mortal worlds and everything else they touched in their blind search for a nascent titan. In time, these wicked beings would come to be known as the Old Gods.

  Although the titans were aware that Void energies existed in the universe, they had no knowledge of the void lords or the Old Gods. The Pantheon’s attention was consumed by another, more immediate threat: demons. These ferocious creatures had been born from the Twisting Nether. Held in the thrall of unbridled hate and malice, they hungered for nothing less than the destruction of all life in the universe.

  Just as in the Great Dark Beyond, life had also arisen in the Twisting Nether. The creatures that emerged from this turbulent realm were known as demons. They had been formed as a result of the Light and Void energies that had bled together at the borders of the Twisting Nether. The demons embraced their furious passions and reveled in pushing the boundaries of their power, heedless of the consequences. Many of these aberrations indulged in the highly volatile energy that pervaded the Nether. Some learned to wield the all-consuming powers of fel magic. Before long, these bloodthirsty demons clawed their way into the physical universe, terrorizing mortal civilizations and bringing ruin to world after world.

  Demons came in many forms. Some, like the two-headed void hounds, roamed the trackless wastes of the Nether like ravenous beasts. Others, such as the monstrous abyssals and infernals, were mindless amalgamations of matter and fel energy, created by more powerful and intelligent demons.

  Among these greater demons were the nathrezim, otherwise known as dreadlords. Cunning and manipulative, they dedicated their existence to mastering the arts of shadow magic. The nathrezim relished infiltrating mortal civilizations, sowing unrest, and turning nation against nation. As these societies devolved and crumbled from within, the nathrezim would corrupt their populations, twisting innocents into new and horrific breeds of demon.

&nbs
p; The mighty annihilan, or pit lords, took a more direct approach to conquering worlds. These monstrous butchers existed only to brutalize and torture the mortals who crossed their path. The pit lords often enslaved the lesser demons that stalked the Nether, using them as fodder to besiege the mortal civilizations of the Great Dark Beyond.

  The Pantheon soon learned of the demonic incursions that flared at the far corners of creation. Fearing that these demons would disturb the Pantheon’s quest to find and awaken other world-souls, the titans dispatched their mightiest warrior, the noble Sargeras. Without hesitation, the great-hearted titan set out and pledged he would not rest until he had cleansed the universe of all demonic influence.

  Even among the extraordinary members of the Pantheon, Sargeras displayed unmatched courage and strength. These traits would suit him well for the harrowing task of hunting demons. Girded by his unshakable conviction, he launched himself into the Great Dark.

  Sargeras was soon drawn to worlds inundated with erratic and volatile energies. In these places, the influence of the Twisting Nether had spilled into the physical universe, allowing vast numbers of demons to manifest.

  For ages, Sargeras traveled to these beleaguered worlds, fighting to spare their mortal inhabitants from invading demons. He saw his foes reduce entire civilizations to smoldering husks, warping their denizens into hateful and depraved aberrations. Witnessing this staggering loss and ruin filled Sargeras with an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Before embarking on his mission, he had never imagined such evil could exist in the universe.

  Nevertheless, the unruly demons were disorganized and incompetent. Sargeras easily defeated his foes, winning victory after victory. As his battles dragged on, he became aware that some demons had learned to wield Void energies. Through investigating these dark powers and where they originated from, Sargeras discovered that malign intelligences were spreading corruption throughout the cosmos.

  These intelligences were the void lords, and they were far more powerful than demons. The presence of the void lords left Sargeras deeply troubled. He pondered what the powers of the Void were planning, and what their existence could mean for the universe.

  Despite his unsettling discovery, Sargeras continued waging his war on demons. The work of the Pantheon progressed without hindrance. They searched for nascent titans, ordering new worlds in the process. Sargeras often looked upon these budding worlds. Seeing life bloom, free from demon influence, gave him a sense of satisfaction. His love for life galvanized his will to confront the void lords and undo their sinister plans for creation—whatever those plans might be.

  In time, the demons redoubled their efforts, engulfing ever more worlds in death and devastation. To Sargeras’s dismay, he realized that he had fought many of these demons before. After he had defeated them in the physical universe, their spirits had simply returned to the Twisting Nether. Eventually they had been reborn in new bodies.

  The only way to kill demons permanently was to slay them in the Nether, or in areas of the Great Dark saturated with that volatile realm’s energies. Sargeras, however, was yet unaware of this fact. He knew only that his current tactics were ineffective. It was not enough to destroy his foes. He needed a means to contain them.

  Concerned about this development and the continued influx of demonic activity, the Pantheon sent another titan to aid their champion. His name was Aggramar, and though he was inexperienced in battle, he proved a quick study. He earned Sargeras’s admiration and became the titan warrior’s trusted lieutenant. For many millennia they fought shoulder to shoulder, an impenetrable bulwark against the ravaging demonic onslaught.

  With Aggramar able to hold his own in battle, Sargeras had time to closely study the properties of the Twisting Nether and find a way to contain demons. Though he hadn’t yet grasped the volatile realm’s full scale, he had learned how to manipulate and shape some of its energies. Sargeras used this knowledge to forge a prison within the Nether. Known as Mardum, the Plane of Banishment, it would act as an impregnable pocket dimension from which nothing could escape. No longer would demons be reborn after defeat. Now, they would be contained within this prison, where they would languish for all eternity.

  As Aggramar and Sargeras continued their campaign, the prison overflowed with captive demons and their destructive fel energies. Soon, these energies became so great that they began tearing at the veil between the Nether and the physical universe. The prison appeared in distant reaches of the Great Dark as a burning, verdant star.

  Sargeras’s and Aggramar’s valiant efforts soon brought peace to the cosmos. Demonic incursions would remain a constant threat to the Great Dark, but they became increasingly rare. The titans’ worlds prospered, and life, in all of its complexity, flourished.

  As the Pantheon searched for slumbering world-souls, Sargeras and Aggramar continued their hunt for errant demons. The two champions agreed that they could protect more worlds if they worked apart, only calling on each other for aid in times of dire need. Thus, they went their separate ways.

  It was during this epoch that Sargeras discovered the full horror of the void lords’ plans.

  He was drawn to a remote corner of the Great Dark, where cold Void energies radiated out from a black and desiccated world. There, Sargeras found enormous beings he had never seen, festering across the world’s surface. These were the Old Gods, and they had embedded themselves in the world and shrouded it in a veil of Void energies.

  With growing horror, Sargeras realized that this was not just any world. He heard the world-soul dreaming within its core. But these were not the joyous dreams Sargeras recognized from other world-souls—they were dark and horrific nightmares. The Old Gods’ tendrils had burrowed deep, enveloping the slumbering titan’s spirit in shadow.

  A conclave of nathrezim had also discovered this black world. They came to dwell among the Old Gods, basking in their dark power. Sensing their evil, Sargeras captured and ruthlessly interrogated the nathrezim. The broken demons revealed what they had learned about the Old Gods and the intentions of the void lords. If the powers of the Void succeeded in corrupting a nascent titan, it would awaken as an unspeakably dark creature. No power in creation, not even the Pantheon, could stand against it. In time, the warped titan would consume all matter and energy in the universe, bringing every mote of existence under the void lords’ will.

  Sargeras, the undefeated champion of the titans, knew fear for the first time. It dawned on him that just as the Pantheon had been searching for world-souls, so, too, had the void lords. Sargeras had never dreamed that Void energies could so utterly consume a slumbering titan.

  Yet the proof was right before his eyes.

  Rage and anguish burned through Sargeras’s soul. He smote the nathrezim with a single blow—his fury so great that he utterly obliterated the demons’ forms. Sargeras turned his attention to the black world itself. His heart ached with sorrow, for he knew there was only one way to stop the dark titan from rising.

  With a heave of his blade, Sargeras split the world in two. The resultant explosion consumed the Old Gods and their energies, but it killed the nascent titan as well.

  Sargeras immediately returned to the rest of the Pantheon and summoned Aggramar to his side. Before the gathered titans, Sargeras recounted his discoveries. The other Pantheon members were stunned by what they had learned, but even more so by Sargeras’s rash action. They chastised him for so needlessly killing one of their kin. Had he called on their aid, they argued, they could have purged the world-soul of corruption.

  Although Sargeras tried to convince them that what he had done was necessary, he came to realize it was futile. The other titans had not seen what he had seen. They would never understand why he had taken such drastic measures. Apart from Aggramar, the other titans had no firsthand knowledge of the Void or demons. They could not fathom the depths of such malice and corruptive power.

  Heated arguments flared between Sargeras and the rest of the Pantheon concerning how best t
o deal with the threat posed by the void lords. Above all, Sargeras feared that if the Old Gods had corrupted one world-soul, they might have corrupted many others as well. It might be too late to stop them.

  Sargeras expressed his growing fear that existence itself was already flawed—an idea that he had come to terms with following his encounter with the Old Gods. Only by burning away all of creation could the titans stand a chance of thwarting the void lords’ ultimate goal. In Sargeras’s mind, even a lifeless universe was better than one dominated by the Void. Life had taken root in the cosmos once before. Perhaps after the physical universe was scoured of corruption, life would take root once again.

  This idea horrified the rest of the Pantheon. Eonar, the Life-Binder, reminded Sargeras that the titans had sworn to protect living things whenever possible. Nothing could be so dire as to warrant systemic extinction. Even Aggramar stood against his mentor, arguing that there must be another way to defeat the void lords. He urged Sargeras to abandon this dark plan and reason out another solution.

  Overcome with despair and feelings of betrayal, Sargeras stormed away from the other titans. He knew full well that his kin would never see reason. And if they would not help him expel the void lords’ corruption, then he would do it himself.

  This was the last time the titans of the Pantheon would see him as one of their own.

  SARGERAS DESTROYS THE CORRUPTED WORLD-SOUL

  THE BLACK EMPIRE

  For many long ages, the Pantheon continued searching the cosmos for nascent titans, bringing order to countless worlds in the process. Yet despite their efforts, they did not find any more of their kin. At times, the titans of the Pantheon wondered if their search was in vain, but always they resolved to press on. They knew in their hearts that more world-souls existed, and this hope filled them with purpose.