Titan's lost all their credibility on what they believe to be possible/impossible when we defeated Algalon and proved that as mortals, we were able to do the impossible. No one should look at anything the titans have said on the situation as reasonable, until of course they show up and prove that they are right about something. Which to my knowledge, the only thing they were right about it are things that are irrelevant and only help 1 race gain some sort of idea as to where they came from.
And if someone wants to argue that thanks to the Titans we have Wrathion. Congrulations, we now have a Earth Dragon who thinks he knows what's best for the world, has no one guiding him, and ultimately (from the sound files) seems more pissed off than happy that the Horde and Alliance decided that each other are necessary for the survival of Azeroth.
I still meant Immortal. I'm not sure what other word you'd like me to use to describe beings who think they are unable to die from any form. Don't say invincible because as i've linked Immortal definitely encompasses' the definition of invincible. (Old Gods are obviously not invincible either)
So...maybe...the best word or phrase to use for Old Gods is durable?
C'thun, Yogg-Saron and Y'Shaarj stopped moving. So did Kael'thas when we beat him, and he famously got up again, despite being an elf and not a deity. C'thun was trying to come back through Cho'gall (all those extra eyes were his), and his "corpse" was capable of telepathy, as was demonstrated in a comic. So suffice to say, death does not work the same way for these things as it does for the mortal races.
As for whether the Faceless Ones were outright lying, I doubt it. The reason I doubt it is this. The Law of Conservation of Detail. It makes no sense for them to say the things they do if it's not true. There is no benefit to them to lie. There isn't even a point to making them talk at all. Being silent would simply make them more mysterious, if that were the only intent. The only purpose to making them talk is to convey information to the players. If that information has changed since then, that's a retcon.
I'm actually not sure what to call Algalon, I know Loken was a Watcher, but i'm not sure if there was any definite term given to what Algalon was aside from a possible Titan AI.
Anyways, for further explanation, I meant that if a Titan AI/Construct, an Entity imbued with the knowledge and foresight of the titans in order to make the best decisions for a planet at a given time, is able to be wrong then so must the Titans. Think of Algalon as a computer, and computers make very little mistakes unless theirs an issue with their programming. Algalon was clean though, we're sure he wasnt corrupted, so according to the Titans programming of him and their knowledge, Azeroth was doomed, but we fought back and proved that in all his calculations of our world, that we were able to make something different happen.
Ok, but they are still immortal. The word has more than one definition. You don't get to choose which one applies. Even if they can be killed they are still immortal, just not by the specific definition you chose to focus on. As you said, it's the context they are used in but you are changing the context from what was intended.
"Terror, darkness, power? The Forsaken crave not these things; the Forsaken ARE these things."
Yes, C'thun does present an issue, but as i posted several minutes ago, i see how it could be possible for an Old Gods conscious to exist, similar to how Sargeras spirit exist floating around the Twisting Nether. It's altogether possible that killing an Old Gods physical body simply ensures that they themselves no longer have direct influence over events, but may still be resurrected or do damage to the area around them through manifestation of energies and magics.
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Nope, being killed kinda loses out on your immortality. A requirement of being immortal...is being immune to death.
"Terror, darkness, power? The Forsaken crave not these things; the Forsaken ARE these things."
The underestimation of the denizens of Azeroth does not automatically cause all of their information to be questionable or false. The Titans placed a fail safe on Azeroth for a situation in which they deemed Azeroth lost, but the variables changed and, as a result, Algalon changed his response accordingly.
Something such as "if the Old Gods were slain, Azeroth would die with them" is a bit more concrete. They COULD be wrong, but at the moment it's what we have to go off of.
But confirming what?
That the Old Gods can be killed? Or that without the Old Gods, Azeroth would be destroyed?
A last resort?
I can't say I agree with your assessment of Titan benevolence.
Agalon's scan system is very clearly tuned to an extremely high sensitivity.
The chance of him finding the world unfit to continue in its current state is "Ninety-nine point nine nine percent." That's with the current level of Old God corruption. The Old Gods aren't even the largest threat on Azeroth and the Titans would have considered this level of corruption enough to completely wipe out the planet.
Do you really think they just decided to go through all of the hassle of constructing multiple prisons and scores of fail-safes just because they didn't want to have to kill anyone?Especially considering that all of the Titan's creations are mindless slaves made out of stone and metal, and that those afflicted by the curse of flesh are corrupted. I see no reason for the belief that the Old Gods were imprisoned out of good will.
I think it's much more likely that they went through so much effort because they couldn't do anything but contain the Old Gods.
This is also a very solid point.
The Titans are not an absolute authority, especially considering we have no real evidence that the Titans themselves have ever even "killed" an Old God to know whether or not it can be done. Since the closest thing so far has been Y'shaarj, and he's hardly dead.. what with his corruption and essences still fully functional, his heart beating, and his conciousness still intact.
Especially since their failsafe response to systemic corruption is to break the planet up into its base elements and start from scratch (like how they did before the Old Gods showed up).
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Brann Bronzebeard yells: If they killed the Old Gods Azeroth would have been destroyed.
Kaddrak yells: Correct.
That killing the Old Gods would destroy Azeroth. That means the Titans had the capability to kill the Old Gods. They chose not to because they didn't want to start Azeroth from scratch again if they didn't have to.
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Dragonslayer Kooqu
I certainly agree that you can read it that way.
But you can also read it as the response of a machine to a hypothetical situation.
"If they killed the Old Gods, Azeroth would have been destroyed."
Think of it this way.
If you said to the machine "If a Stormwind guard killed the Old Gods, Azeroth would be destroyed."
It's entirely possible it would still say "Correct".
That doesn't mean that a Guard possess the capacity to do such a thing, just that if it did happen, the resulting consequence would be the destruction of the planet.
The problem with this entire situation is that none of this is possible to confirm, and won't be until someone in Blizzard's story department arbitrarily decides one way or the other.
But again, I have trouble taking the word of the Titan's (or their minions) considering Algalon's poor calculations of both his own superiority, and the fate of the planet. And considering that if you are correct, and the Old Gods can die, then we've already killed three of them (C'thun, Yogg-Saron, and now Y'shaarj) and absolutely nothing bad has happened to Azeroth as a result. I.e. The Titans have no idea what they're talking about.
As we all know from Algalon's defeat speech, the Titan's can re-originate a planet faster than a single beat of our "mortal hearts"; though it's apparent that planetary devastation is a simple and a stunningly swift process, I don't think reshaping a world is such a quick feat. That would give aid to the idea that the Titan's didn't want to start from scratch because it wasn't only easier to imprison the reason for re-origination, but a lot faster then rebuilding sentient life.
Apologies for using a real life comparison here, but I think the principles are relatable:
In our world, we can destroy hundreds-of-thousands of people and ravage the very earth in literally seconds with certain technology.. However, the creation of life is a much more lengthy and complex process.. Whether it is a baby growing in the womb or something being artificially engineered in a laboratory, life isn't as simple as destruction.
Only half true actually.
In War of the Ancients, Neltharion/Deathwing crafts the Dragon Soul by combining his own knowledge and skill with that of the Old Gods. It is later infused with the power of all the other Dragons, binding them to it, as well as demonic power from the Burning Legion. When the Old Gods realize that Deathwing is ill-suited to free them from their eternal prison, they plan to use the portal of the Burning Legion to release them.
Archimonde eventually gets a hold of the Dragon Soul and uses it to open the portal for Sargeras, without either of them knowing that the Old Gods will also be set free if the portal becomes strong enough to transport Sargeras.
Sargeras is currently trapped in the Void, but is still very much alive. He have sent avatars to Azeroth in an effort to control someone capable of summoning him. His avatar was later defeated by Aegwynn (Medivh's mother).
To this day he still remains trapped in the Void, and the only force powerful enough to summon him back to Azeroth is also the only force that can release the Old Gods from their prison. While they may be enemies, they share the same immediate goal - freedom from their respective prison(s) and revenge on their captors. And as the common tongue says: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".
But the Titans mass produce life from stone and iron using their forges.
It's hard to compare humans, who don't even have a solid grasp of artificial/engineered life to a race that can completely destroy a planet in moments and have devices like the cradle in Uldum, which can create life in an instant.