My Speculation - Black Empire was never destroyed

[masterjc]

lots of players have talked about new expansion. what it might be
some have good arguments, and others- not so much
most favored is Kul Tiras and South Seas. also showing how Blizzard is experimenting with Argus (Vindicaar is small Capital "Vessel" which can move to any map where you need, and you are bringing your own"capital city" with you all time). and we speculate, that it might mean South Sea expansion, where there might be lots of separated islands and we might move around with our Garrison-like Ship


what if next expansion is UNDER azeroth?
we know Sargeras stabs somehow Azeroth and there will be a hole in it, inside Silithus
there is Qiraji/Silithid infested zone, An'qiraj out there. what if we go down isnide this would, we use some mix of Qiraji udnerground tunnels and canceled Azjol-nerub zone like stuff (remember? in WOTLK we were going to have whole underground zone, called Azjol-nerub. it was scrapped to two dungeons, but later, in Cataclysm we saw Deepholme and vashj'ir as underground/underwater zone tests.)
so what if we go under zose silithid caverns and inside this would and explore some underground places? for sure, under most of Northrend is spread whole azhol-nerub or whatever is left from old Nerubian Empire. during Frozen Throne, anub arak mentions and so do some spiders mention in WOTLK, that nerubian spiders digged up those N'raqi (faceless) monstrosities while they were trying to flee or fight Lich king. and they couldnot handle 2 front war, vs old god forces and LK's undead. and they lost war.


so WHAT IF titans didnot Destroy Black empire?
in Chronicles we can see, in artworks. that Black empire of old gods stretched to whole contiennt.
what if TiTans added some kind of extra Layer of land mass over Azeroth and buried this empire under azeroth's surface?
so far we have seen absolutely nothing left from this huge empire. not even a rubble. only some mentionings and some old artifacts.


or if Black Empire is hidden under Azeroth. like elemental planes or something like that. and we can venture there by going through this Wound?


TL DR
Black Empire is buried beneath Azeroth and from Silithus Wound/Qiraji Tunenls/Azhjol-Nerub we can go down there
and Nyalotha and N'zoth are there as well

[Kralljin]

I seriously doubt that the Titans just swept the entire Black Empire "under the rug".

Aside from that, i think an entire expansion centered underground is not that good, one zone similiar to Deepholm, sure, but like ~ 5 zones underground? That's a bit much.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

That sounds awesome, wouldn't mind if all the zones were a mix of underground and underwater. Different types of caves and civilizations.

[pateuvasiliu]

I seriously doubt that the Titans just swept the entire Black Empire "under the rug".

Aside from that, i think an entire expansion centered underground is not that good, one zone similiar to Deepholm, sure, but like ~ 5 zones underground? That's a bit much.

The Titans weren't here. Their keepers were. And we saw that they aren't perfect and infallible.

I mean how else do you explain that C'thun has an army of bugs which he used to start TWO wars after the Black Empire fell? They clearly didn't wipe them out.

[Kralljin]

The Titans weren't here. Their keepers were. And we saw that they aren't perfect and infallible.

The Titans basically hovered over Azeroth, they told the keepers what to do, so yeah.

I mean how else do you explain that C'thun has an army of bugs which he used to start TWO wars after the Black Empire fell? They clearly didn't wipe them out.

Aqir buried underground, that does not equal that the entire Black Empire actually hides beneath the Earth.

[Deleted]

Each of the Old gods choses a avatar and resurrects them

N'zoth - Deathwing
Yogg saron - Arthas
C'thun - Malfurion
Y'Shaarj The black goat, Shadow Velen?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

No the Black Empire is most likely in ruins and such. That's not to say it can't rise him and decide to take control of the planeta again. Best place for a Black Empire is possibly under ground(beneath the earth).

[IgnisVenom]

Each of the Old gods choses a avatar and resurrects them

N'zoth - Deathwing
Yogg saron - Arthas
C'thun - Malfurion
Y'Shaarj The black goat, Shadow Velen?

omfg this is the best thing I've read on this site ever

[huth]

The Titans weren't here.

How did Aman'thul pick up Y'shaarj and squish him, then, if he wasn't actually there?

The Titans made the keepers to control and contain the Old God thread. They were a response to the Black Empire.

[A Chozo]

Each of the Old gods choses a avatar and resurrects them

N'zoth - Deathwing
Yogg saron - Arthas
C'thun - Malfurion
Y'Shaarj The black goat, Shadow Velen?

This is fun. I would go with:

N'zoth - Neltharion, but it would be tricky to reunite all the dust together;
Yogg-Saron - Arthas, who's destiny was manipulated;
C'thun - Cho'gall, his final and most devoted champion;
Y'shaarj - This one is tricky. Could be Shaohao, for he didn't knew that Pandaria's mists were related to his Pride.

[huth]

Y'shaarj - This one is tricky. Could be Shaohao, for he didn't knew that Pandaria's mists were related to his Pride.

Y'shaarj is a little too dead for this. There's nothing left of him.

[pateuvasiliu]

How did Aman'thul pick up Y'shaarj and squish him, then, if he wasn't actually there?

The Titans made the keepers to control and contain the Old God thread. They were a response to the Black Empire.

From the cosmos. But they weren't on the planet.

- - - Updated - - -

This is fun. I would go with:

N'zoth - Neltharion, but it would be tricky to reunite all the dust together;
Yogg-Saron - Arthas, who's destiny was manipulated;
C'thun - Cho'gall, his final and most devoted champion;
Y'shaarj - This one is tricky. Could be Shaohao, for he didn't knew that Pandaria's mists were related to his Pride.

Y'shaarj should be Garrosh tbh.

[huth]

From the cosmos. But they weren't on the planet.

They were close enough to reach down and pick things up. Literally.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

From the cosmos. But they weren't on the planet.

They were still in relative proximity to the planet, that's the only reason Aman'thul picked up Y'shaarj and kill it.

[huth]

They were still in relative proximity to the planet, that's the only reason Aman'thul picked up Y'shaarj and kill it.

Given the scales involved, being on the planet would probably have been impractical anyway.

[3DTyrant]

I mean all of the Aqir essentially rebuilt. Mantid and Nerubian empires may not be as strong as the Black Empire but both of them are pretty impressive in size and architecture. The Qiraji look a bit less impressive but that most likely has more to do with them being vanilla material.

Wasn't the Black Empire the name for the Old Gods and their forces, not just exclusive to one Old God and its forces?

[Kokolums]

The reorgination engine in ulduar had this massive and deep vertical shaft. What it might do is basically pump up magma from under the crust and bury everything on land, also causing whatever is currently on land to sink. This could be why we see some black empire structures buried deep like under icecrown.

[Felrane]

The black empire races kind of bursted out of the old gods bodies. If C'thun gets ressed from the wound and gains alot of power he could just spew forth more bugs. N'zoth is still chilling and he seems to favor faceless and naga. The nerubian empire does not give a crap about the old gods anymore and we dont know which one they were born from but part of yogg and his faceless were waging war against them. Which lead to their near extinction when the Lich King was attacking from above.

I am personally hoping for some new old gods to crash down and devour the bodies of yogg and C'thun. Seeing N'zoth as a failure for not corrupting the world soul and waging war on him as well. Perhaps having us Ally with him to take down the new and improved old gods. Have the black Empire 2.0.

[Destinas]

Technically, the Black Empire wasn't fully destroyed. Remnants of it still remain with the Qiraji, Nerubians, Mantid, and their other insectoid creatures (Kunchong, Silithids, etc). The wording of the "Black Empire" in Chronicle and Legion sounds like it simply encompasses the armies, minions, and holdings (former and/or current) that the Old Gods hold dominion over. In other words, the Black Empire is still very much alive, just not as unified as it once was.

However, it's probable that there are a lot more Aqir-related races on/in Azeroth, and far more Faceless creatures that we haven't seen in WoW yet. There are even some creatures from Hearthstone that could easily be introduced into WoW's lore.

[Charge me Doctor]

THe realy question is - will there be underground mounts?