The old gods were more interesting when we knew less about them

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Now we know more and they don't feel that weird.

[Fabled]

They're things taken from Lovecraft lore, there wasn't much there either other than "Spooky scary monsters that kill people". The only interesting thing they had going was the Puzzle Box and that was more riddles from Lovecraft than anything.

[Mysterymask]

That is kinda how Elderich abominations work. Half of what made Lovecraft's version WORK was because he was vauge as fuck about them though knowing they were just symbolic gestures to his own fears and racist ideals kinda kills them.

[Varodoc]

Everything is more interesting when you know less about them.

That doesn't excuse the absolute travesty that was done to N'Zoth and the Void lore in 8.3. Absolute, shameless travesty.

[darkoms]

The old gods were more interesting when they haven't very boring Void Lord behind them. They could be Outer Gods, but they just super void elementals

[Progenitor Aquarius]

We still know very little of them. Apart of them being completely insane monsters with wiggling tentacles who like to corrupt things to have their way. That they got manipulated and used by Dreadlords and the Jailer for the Forbidden Knowledge. This is what they get for their stupidity and now it seems like they are being wiped out as well. Good for them.

[Fabled]

Everything is more interesting when you know less about them.

That doesn't excuse the absolute travesty that was done to N'Zoth and the Void lore in 8.3. Absolute, shameless travesty.

Wouldn't be surprised if N'zoth and the Jailer were somehow in cahoots with each other.

[Nerovar]

There's not a single thing in WoW's lore that got more interesting as it was expanded and explained. The Legion/demons, the Light, Elune, Titans, the afterlife etc. all got significantly less interesting the more they revealed about them.

Warcraft's universe was pretty good when it was centered around Knights and Orcs and the things mentioned above were mostly just the background scenery. The moment these things take centre stage they're necessarily demystified which then devalues the setting as a whole.

[Calfredd]

Everything is more interesting when you know less about them.

That doesn't excuse the absolute travesty that was done to N'Zoth and the Void lore in 8.3. Absolute, shameless travesty.

Says the void elf role player.

[Malania]

Wouldn't be surprised if N'zoth and the Jailer were somehow in cahoots with each other.

Was it ever explained what it was that went to it that caused the Arbiter to breakdown?

[Fabled]

Was it ever explained what it was that went to it that caused the Arbiter to breakdown?

Nope, just stuff we can speculate on. It had to have happened after Ursoc died in the Emerald Nightmare because he was put into Ardenweald. Argus the Unmaker, Xavius, or Gul'dan pretty much covers it, Mythic Argus and Xavius could both have red souls, I don't really remember much of the Gul'dan fight to have a say there. The wiki also speculates that it could have been Denathrius' sword, Remornia, claiming it too glows red, can fly and sounds similar to the sound the red blast that hit the Arbiter sounded like.

[Caerule]

I don't generally agree that more knowledge makes less interesting. While the Old Gods could have been handled better, I think they were pretty great. The main issues are the following 3:

1. They had to die.
WoW is a game where the Heroes are victorious. And every villain, no matter how mysterious and grand, eventually is a raid boss to be defeated by 20 people using swords and spells. That's not how true cosmic horror works. Cosmic horror isn't about facing a monster successfully and restoring normality. So, the Old Gods were hampered in the first place.

2. They are spawns of a greater darkness.
This definitely did reduce them a little. Their origin got explained. Not even just their origin, but their creation. They are but tools. This reduced their godhood by a lot. It would have been better, had they been avatars of this greater darkness. "And so the Void Lords hurled their own flesh into the universe, hoping to take root other worlds to infect". There being a "Greater N'Zoth" out there, of which ours was just a part of, would have been more interesting. Even there being greater gods among the Old Gods of the Void would have been okay. But being spawns did weaken their status as gods.

3. Little is known of the Void Lords.
I could live with the first two points fine still, if the deeper layer to the Old God mystery, was an interesting one. But, we know next to nothing, beyond the name Void Lords, which is a boring name. Certainly not grander than Old God. We know they are hungry, and that they can't get to us easily. But that's all. If they had fleshed these out and given us some greater and interesting cosmic horror behind it all, that would have been fine. But with this little info, the greater darkness seems super bland and uninteresting. And therefore disappointing.

So yeah, I'm not against knowing more. Digging deeper. As long as we find greater treasure, mystery and horror there. But they failed us in that regard, making the Old Gods less interesting, and replacing them with something less interesting. It didn't have to be that way.

[Varodoc]

Wouldn't be surprised if N'zoth and the Jailer were somehow in cahoots with each other.

N'Zoth obviously isn't dead and will come back in 10.0 (or in a future expansion anyway), still he was treated horribly in BfA.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that he had dealings with the Jailer, but he definitely isn't to be underestimated.

[username993720]

Every villain is more interesting the less we know about it. It's called mystery and that's what intrigues us.

The thing that sets the Old Gods apart from other, boring villains is that they riddle us throughout their appearances, which is much more engaging than just "hahaha, you world will burn!".

[Malania]

Nope, just stuff we can speculate on. It had to have happened after Ursoc died in the Emerald Nightmare because he was put into Ardenweald. Argus the Unmaker, Xavius, or Gul'dan pretty much covers it, Mythic Argus and Xavius could both have red souls, I don't really remember much of the Gul'dan fight to have a say there. The wiki also speculates that it could have been Denathrius' sword, Remornia, claiming it too glows red, can fly and sounds similar to the sound the red blast that hit the Arbiter sounded like.

I'm guessing the only thing that could throw off the engine of life would have to be a world soul. I don't see why Denathrius soul would have been a thing. With the long game he's been playing with Batman gambit's maybe the Nathrezim were aiming to use the Legion to throw a world soul at it.

[Fabled]

I'm guessing the only thing that could throw off the engine of life would have to be a world soul. I don't see why Denathrius soul would have been a thing. With the long game he's been playing with Batman gambit's maybe the Nathrezim were aiming to use the Legion to throw a world soul at it.

It's possible. A lot that's been going on has been caused by the Dreadlord's interference with an awful lot, and we know they're made from Denathrius.

[Myradin]

I'm guessing the only thing that could throw off the engine of life would have to be a world soul. I don't see why Denathrius soul would have been a thing. With the long game he's been playing with Batman gambit's maybe the Nathrezim were aiming to use the Legion to throw a world soul at it.

Its not that denathrius' soul caused it, but rather he just shot a bunch of red anima at it.

[Mic_128]

N'Zoth obviously isn't dead

Really? He seemed the most 'dead' of all the Old Gods.

[ohwell]

Everything is more interesting when you know less about them.

That doesn't excuse the absolute travesty that was done to N'Zoth and the Void lore in 8.3. Absolute, shameless travesty.

lol....ok the weakest of the old gods that most of his accomplishments were piggy backs from the others who got his butt handed to him not once, but twice before us. He got exactly what he deserved and then some.

[Tietoso]

I disagree with most of you.
The more you know the more interesting they are, not having any information on something doesn't make it interesting, you just want to know more about it.

We know very little of the old gods, the information that we got wasn't satisfying at all but that is still very little and that is the main issue. They aren't fleshed out they are just lovecraftian monsters which have void lords as their bosses. That isn't interesting.

I believe that the problem with WoW is that they have so much lore but they burn through it, the last great villian that most of you would agree with me that we had was Garrosh, then we had Deathwing, the jailer, Garrosh alt dad into Gul dan into the giant blue dude from the end of WoD. and none of them had come close to Garrosh and the LK because they were fleshed out through the xpacs.

Every new xpac villian feels like the villian of the week in a power rangers episode because we get little info on them and then we get to kill them at the end of the xpac and they leave no impact, because they don't have time to be impactful.

Old gods, as a WoW player that started in Wrath at the tail end of the Icecrown raid that got into it cuz a friend pulled him in without being a fan of Warcraft I didn't get what was the big deal about C'thun or yogg saron or whoever because they don't get represented.