Titans and Wells of Power

[Golden Yak]

What follows are a couple of musings I've been kicking around lately about the Titans, the Well of Eternity, and other unusual places of magical power scattered around Azeroth.

Most know the Titans, those great big metal space-giants who came to Azeroth in ancient times, gave the elementals the boots, swept the resident Lovecraftian alien gods under the rug, and generally made the place presentable. And many are familiar with the Well of Eternity, a great big pool of magical power that the Titans left in the middle of Azeroth's single great continent, Kalimdor. The Well was the source of all magic in the world, and had lots of transformative effects, turning nearby trolls into the first elves as one example.

And there are other sights of Titan power too - most relevant to my musings are Un'Goro Crater in Kalimdor and Sholazar Basin in Northrend. Two lush jungle valleys located in otherwise harsh and inhospitable extreme climates (a desert wasteland and a frozen wasteland, respectively).

Mists of Pandaria gave us the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, which has some similar properties to both the Well and the valleys - a bountiful never-changing climate, and a source of transformative waters that were responsible for changing several of Pandaria's races into their current forms (the mogu and the jinyu both benefited from exposure to the water). Water from the Vale also causes pandarian crops to grow to massive size.

So in addition to the Well of Eternity, we also have secondary places of power with similar properties being scattered around Azeroth. The Sundering may have stripped many of these of their maximum potency - we have no sentient lifeforms dwelling in Un'Goro Crater (although the raptors are pretty smart), and a few fairly primitive folk in Northrend's Sholazar Basin (the gorloc and the wolvar). The Vale in Pandaria seems to have retained all of its power - perhaps due to the Pandaren Emperor's spell that protected it from the Sundering. That gives us a secondary well on the northern, southern, and western continents. So what about the Eastern Kingdoms...?

Well, there is a certain dragon's lair filled with unusual water hidden somewhere in Tirisfal Glades... A place of power that once drew the elves to it after the Sundering, but eventually caused them to go mad and flee the area. It was long speculated that an Old God might lie beneath Tirisfal, but that rumor was recently dispelled. We were told it was still bad. What could be Old God level bad? Perhaps a secondary well of Titan power that has become polluted or corrupt post-Sundering? If a secondary well that has retained its potency can make the mogu out of simple creatures and the jinyu out of murlocs, what could a well that's gone stagnant give rise to?

[Byniri]

I didn't think about that until just now. I could definitely see the Vale waters being some sort of Titan-water.

[Stormspellz]

wasn't the mist put up after the sundering? to hide that piece of the continent from the rest of the world, after all the world was one giant continent at that time. And if that is the case the vales waters maybe extensions of the well similar to what illidan did with the vials

[Jerom]

Are you forgetting the Sunwell which is technically in the Eastern Kingdoms? And if you discard Sunwell due to being "too young"(roughly 9000 years old), what about Quel'Thalas (as a location) itself? It is located in the convergence of powerful ley energies.

[Justignoreme]

The Vale Waters are different from the Well of Eternity. At least how they are presenting it. The Well was a fountain of Arcane power, it's waters occupy every Moonwell, occupied the Sunwell as well. The Vale is distinctly golden, it's far reaching waters in Krasarang contain the Light as well as Shadow put there by the Mogu in Dojan. If the Vale waters are similar to the Well then it means there was a fount of Light as well as a fount of Arcane on Azeroth long ago. Because the Light behaves differently from the Arcane it resulted in a differing history for the denizens of Pandaria. We'll see what they come up with, but I've mused about it before, if the water is the same as the waters from the Well, any half-competent Night Elf researcher would instantly recognise it upon analysis. Same with a Blood Elf for Horde side. Things hint endlessly its *not* the same. AFAIK Titan's didn't make the Well either, it was there when they arrived.

[Golden Yak]

wasn't the mist put up after the sundering? to hide that piece of the continent from the rest of the world, after all the world was one giant continent at that time. And if that is the case the vales waters maybe extensions of the well similar to what illidan did with the vials

It was the emperor's last act before the Sundering split the world. The emperor created the mists to protect Pandaria from the caused by the Sundering. The pandaren believed for a long time that the rest of the world had been destroyed and Pandaria was all that remained.

This protection may be why the Vale is so potent when compared with other potential wellsprings of power (like Sholazar and Ungoro).

Are you forgetting the Sunwell which is technically in the Eastern Kingdoms? And if you discard Sunwell due to being "too young"(roughly 9000 years old), what about Quel'Thalas (as a location) itself? It is located in the convergence of powerful ley energies.

Forgotten no, and discounted simply because I was focusing on Titan made sources of power, and the Sunwell was made by elves in the image of the Well of Eternity. A worthy creation, to be sure, if not expressly Titan-crafted. Certainly, as it is now a source of power of the Light as well as pure arcane, its an interesting phenomenon - especially in light of Constellation's post below.

The Vale Waters are different from the Well of Eternity. At least how they are presenting it.

I don't know if I'm imagining this or not, but I recall reading somewhere that the Vale contained water that flowed from all over Azeroth - all rivers ran there, as it were. Something the jinyu might have said? If anyone can straighten that out, I'd like to know - if it is the case, then the Vale might well contain waters from the Well of Eternity (and other secondary wells too).

The Well was a fountain of Arcane power, it's waters occupy every Moonwell, occupied the Sunwell as well. The Vale is distinctly golden, it's far reaching waters in Krasarang contain the Light as well as Shadow put there by the Mogu in Dojan. If the Vale waters are similar to the Well then it means there was a fount of Light as well as a fount of Arcane on Azeroth long ago. Because the Light behaves differently from the Arcane it resulted in a differing history for the denizens of Pandaria.

As Jerom reminded us, the Sunwell was born from the powers of the original Well of Eternity. It was corrupted by darkness to transform Kel'Thuzad into a lich and then transformed into a source of Light power as well as arcane by one on the naaru. That at least indicates that sources of power similar to the Well can be changed to provide different kinds of power. Even the original Well of Eternity was transformable - it became a portal to the Twisting Nether before its destruction. It may have changed enough that it is no longer entirely recognizable as similar to the Well of Eternity, or it may have been slightly different to start with.

It's certainly possible that whatever well may or may not be in the Vale has been affected over time to produce different kinds of energy. I see its powers to change living creatures into mode advanced beings as identical to the original Well of Eternity's though.

AFAIK Titan's didn't make the Well either, it was there when they arrived.

If that is currently the case, it's a departure from earlier lore. But we always have to contend with that sort of thing.