Why did Zul want to serve G'huun?

[Dastreus]

It's implied he's been serving G'huun since around cataclysm, which, was also when the Nazmir seal was broken. G'huun promised a new Zandalari empire, and frankly, could've delivered. If G'huun got out, that infection might've been enough to kill even the Old Gods (via killing the planet and starving them).

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since almost the entire population of Teldrasil survived, its not a Genocide. Genocide is what happens when your race is wiped out (or nearly so). Night elves also have sizable portions of their population living in other places, too, so it wasn't even close to an attempted Genocide.

Atrocity? Sure, ill grant you that. But not a genocide.

Also what? Most got out? There were 24,000 people there, and we save like 50.

[Cosmic Janitor]

As we learned from dealing with prophet Velen those vision are a possible future out of many and they often don't give important details. Hence why even though Velen saw his son's death he didn't know when or where.

Blizzard hyped up Zul through the initial quests and even has him show you how accurate he can predict events when dealing with one of his disciples or when fighting your way through stormwind. Velen was not even on the same playing field when it comes to being a prophet if we go by ingame events.

[Kagthul]

It's implied he's been serving G'huun since around cataclysm, which, was also when the Nazmir seal was broken. G'huun promised a new Zandalari empire, and frankly, could've delivered. If G'huun got out, that infection might've been enough to kill even the Old Gods (via killing the planet and starving them).

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Also what? Most got out? There were 24,000 people there, and we save like 50.

I would hope there were a lot more than 24,000 people there, or the Night Elf race might be on the verge of utter extinction.

You might one day wake up and realize that the size and scope of things in-game are truncated and not representative of actual numbers.

If you do the Mag'har quest line, you see about ~50 Mag'har. But you are told that you basically got ALL of them that weren't Grom and Lantressor. So, hundreds, if not thousands. A wide enough reach/scope that Panthara and a few of the other races from Alt-Draenor also made it through, including some Botani.

Its clearly intimated that while Teldrasil was destroyed, most of the civilian population made it out, similarly to how the Ginleans made it out of Gilneas. There are just a few dozen Gilneans hanging around - if so, then Genn would be at the height of fucking hubris to call himself a King.

And beyond that, the Night Elves have substantial holdings elswhere in Kalimdor. Their entire race was not focused in/on Teldrasil.

Again, Atrocity/Violation of the "rules of war" between civilized nations? Sure.

Genocide? Not even close.

[matrix123mko]

He was prophet and prophets usually have some source of visions. Just like Velen saw the light, he could have hear G'huun's voice for years.

[Kagthul]

Your definition of genocide is wrong. It means killing people because they belong to a certain (usually ethnic) group and you meet an undefined numbers count, the UN definition is even more vague. What you describe is extinction. A short fact check: Jewes were never close to being wiped out (glöbally), yet it's still considered genocide.

Genocide is intentional action to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in part. The hybrid word "genocide" is a combination of the Greek word génos ("race, people") and the Latin suffix -cide ("act of killing")

What Sylvannas did was not intended to destroy the Night Elf race (in fact, it was meant to demoralize them and take the fight out of them), nor did she kill a significant number of them, nor were they targets because of their race.

They were targeted because they were the easiest target, and she drew their navy off with a feint in Silithus.

It meets precisely zero of the conditions of a genocide.

Again, im not arguing that it wasnt an absurdly (stupidly written) evil act, or an atrocity. It was. But it does not meet any definition of genocide.

[Cosmic Janitor]

What Sylvannas did was not intended to destroy the Night Elf race (in fact, it was meant to demoralize them and take the fight out of them), nor did she kill a significant number of them, nor were they targets because of their race.

They were targeted because they were the easiest target, and she drew their navy off with a feint in Silithus.

It meets precisely zero of the conditions of a genocide.

Are you serious? So she didn't intentionally fire those catapults? She didn't want to wipe out a huge part of their CIVIL population? Your mental gymanstics are sickening.

[Malikath]

Are you serious? So she didn't intentionally fire those catapults? She didn't want to wipe out a huge part of their CIVIL population? Your mental gymanstics are sickening.

you should visit gen-OT.
whole board needs nuked from orbit.

[Lothaeryn]

Maybe Ghuun promised to do what Rastakhan wouldn't, save the Zandalari from the ocean. Old Gods are really good at finding people who are desperate and looking to make deals.

Not quite from what little I've learned, it seems Zul wanted to rebuild the Zandalari Empire and unite all trolls in retaking the planet, but due to Rastakhan's negligence, Zul sought another power that would bestow himself the power needed to retake Azeroth.

Stupidly, Zul believed G'Huun was the power that would help him in his endeavor.

[Deleted]

You guys are spending more effort trying to make sense of this lore than Blizzard actually spent making it up.

[Shefu]

It was just some weirdo worm in a rotting prison. Zul says something like "Blood is our path now, the path of G'huun". Was G'huun whispering to him like other Old Gods? But he was just some experiment by the Titans, not even a "real" Old God. Why did people want to follow G'huun? Zul wasn't an idiot. He was pretty smart. At least up to some point. He was a prophet. He would plan things through very thoroughly. Like he said, planning even for the future outcomes he did not foresee. We saw that when he espaced from Stormwind, setting fire to the city as they escaped. in anticipation of the confrontation with Jaina, so they could get away. We saw that in the first few quests in Zuldazar. And then he followed this worm? What was he thinking?

For the same reason any psychotic prophets does anything crazy. He's out of his damn mind. Too much ju ju!

[nothingsjim]

Less about "Serving G'huun" and more about "Using G'huun's power to achieve his goal"

Taken to its logical conclusion, Zul would not remain loyal to anyone or anything for long. A guy with such ambition will never be content serving anyone but himself.

After his resurrection it's another story however, I doubt he has much freewill at that point.

[Lochton]

It was just some weirdo worm in a rotting prison. Zul says something like "Blood is our path now, the path of G'huun". Was G'huun whispering to him like other Old Gods? But he was just some experiment by the Titans, not even a "real" Old God. Why did people want to follow G'huun? Zul wasn't an idiot. He was pretty smart. At least up to some point. He was a prophet. He would plan things through very thoroughly. Like he said, planning even for the future outcomes he did not foresee. We saw that when he espaced from Stormwind, setting fire to the city as they escaped. in anticipation of the confrontation with Jaina, so they could get away. We saw that in the first few quests in Zuldazar. And then he followed this worm? What was he thinking?

Most likely serving because G'huun promised him something more than what serving Rastakhan could. Mortals are easier to corrupt after all.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

since almost the entire population of Teldrasil survived, its not a Genocide. Genocide is what happens when your race is wiped out (or nearly so). Night elves also have sizable portions of their population living in other places, too, so it wasn't even close to an attempted Genocide.

Atrocity? Sure, ill grant you that. But not a genocide.

Genocide is the killing of a large group of people based on enthics lines the term is a lot more broad than what you wrote.

[valky94]

simple, just like every villain ever, he was hungry for power and ghuun promised him power

[Deleted]

Even though G'huun was 'just' an experiment gone wrong, he was still the destructive power of the Old Gods condensed into one being. This was supposed to serve the purpose of finding a way to deal with exactly those powers that G'huun had.
So if we look at it this way, the corruption by blood (and all it entails, like Undeath, illness and the spreading of both by simple infection) is one of the things the Titans feared enough that they devoted much of their research to it. Because those powers are Old God powers, G'huun came into existence. Not the other way around, so this would mean that those powers are inherent to either all Old Gods or at least some of them.

We also know that there have been several outbreaks of those powers over the history of Azeroth, namely through Galakrond, Xibala and Hakkar.
Now, we know that N'zoth was behind the things that happened in Cataclysm, which included Deathwing, the Naga and also a first 'strike' from Zul (which wasn't directly linked to N'zoth explicitly, but still happened at exactly the 'right' time), which included trying to 'eat' Hakkar. We now also know that there were other incursions during Cataclysm, including the sacking and destruction of Gral's temple in Zandalar by the Naga.
Now, in Kul Tiras there is a cemetary where you hear whispers, those are about 'blood' that will strengthen 'him' (you don't get told who exactly) and about the death and the ocean. I can't remember exactly, the whispers are not very frequent and very vague and the 'blood' thingy I at first attributed to G'huun, but the thing about death and the ocean clearly has nothing to do with G'huun.

With all this said my take on it is simply that Zul isn't actually serving G'huun, but N'zoth and G'huun was just a means to create more death and chaos, a distraction, a means to collect more souls and at the same time keep the armies of the world off of N'zoth's back for a little while longer.
Zul simply wanted to act now and take the world before N'zoth broke free completely, so he could be the one to give N'zoth an already conquered world once that happens (or maybe even win against N'zoth afterwards)

N'zoth always seems to put the most ambitious and powerhungry people in our path, people he takes into his ranks because he knows at some point they'll be acting prematurely, gain our interest and get us to come after them... instead of N'zoth. In Xavius's case, for example Xal'atath even says, once we kill him, 'The God of the Deep chooses a poor champion... or is there something else at play here?'
Remember, N'zoth was the 'weakest' of the Old Gods, so he must have a survival strategy in place, which seems to be... make someone else the target.

And we also still have the theory floating around that the Old Gods may be able to absorb the powers of other Old Gods that "die", which would mean that N'zoth may have badly wanted G'huun to die, so he can get access to his powers (or even fully gain those powers back, as they may have been somewhat diminished for him when the Titans took them from the Old Gods to experiment on them).

[Deleted]

Its clearly intimated that while Teldrasil was destroyed, most of the civilian population made it out.

Can you explain this please? Where/how is this implied?

I got the other impression....so curious how you reached your conclusions.

You're not one of these Sylvanas isn't evil people are you?

[Dastreus]

I would hope there were a lot more than 24,000 people there, or the Night Elf race might be on the verge of utter extinction.

You might one day wake up and realize that the size and scope of things in-game are truncated and not representative of actual numbers.

If you do the Mag'har quest line, you see about ~50 Mag'har. But you are told that you basically got ALL of them that weren't Grom and Lantressor. So, hundreds, if not thousands. A wide enough reach/scope that Panthara and a few of the other races from Alt-Draenor also made it through, including some Botani.

Its clearly intimated that while Teldrasil was destroyed, most of the civilian population made it out, similarly to how the Ginleans made it out of Gilneas. There are just a few dozen Gilneans hanging around - if so, then Genn would be at the height of fucking hubris to call himself a King.

And beyond that, the Night Elves have substantial holdings elswhere in Kalimdor. Their entire race was not focused in/on Teldrasil.

Again, Atrocity/Violation of the "rules of war" between civilized nations? Sure.

Genocide? Not even close.

I pulled up the 24k population of Teldrassil from the wikis. Who knows how many live in Feralas.

[Deleted]

I mean, to be fair it's a really cool worm.

Don't think too hard about it because Blizzard almost definitely didn't.

Did we ever had a first comment after OP's that was not complete bullshit?

[Primemrip]

I heard the raids were great for story telling. Even though it explains nothing.

[nocturnus]

Yeah, it's not like they have writers that have worked on the expansion for several years or anything.

They sure do, but the quality of their writing... Oh dear...