The Manta, the Behemoth of the Deep

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

The Manta, the Behemoth of the Deep, was a creature ten times the size and strength of a dragon. It was believed that, like Deathwing, the Manta was unstoppable.[1] The Manta was killed one hundred years before the Second War with an arrow covered in three drops of a black liquid from a vial
So what is this thing? Found it on the wowwiki many years ago.

[Ayrhlan]

It's one of the mysteries of WoW, I don't think we have more information about the creature.

[Aucald]

Probably a Wild God, and perhaps the progenitor of some of WoW's colossal deep-sea lifeforms.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

May never know, underwater exploration is a done deal I'd think(Me sad)

[Grenzstein]

It's just some crap Knaak created. I don't think the WoW Dev Team even remember about this crap.

[deenman]

just think of it as the galakrond of giant sea creatures lol

[Syegfryed]

It's just some crap Knaak created. I don't think the WoW Dev Team even remember about this crap.

don't look too much of crap, just th way it was killed apparently.

[Soon-TM]

It's just some crap Knaak created. I don't think the WoW Dev Team even remember about this crap.

It is referenced on a couple of quests in Vanilla/Classic though, including one of the chain of quests from Loramus in the Blasted Lands. But yeah, it's all very obscure.

I like to think it sired some of the biggest sea creatures in WoW, such as Nespirah in Vash'jir... Speaking of which, sea zones appear to be definitely out of the picture. At least in their "true" incarnation, since Nazjatar doesn't really count as a sea zone.

[TigTone]

The manta like the ancient one, (https://wow.gamepedia.com/The_Ancient_One_(Hearthstone), can be used later on for whenever Blizz decides to bring back the old gods.

Both of which would be great raid bosses.

[Kaleredar]

It's just some crap Knaak created. I don't think the WoW Dev Team even remember about this crap.

When I read the line “killed with three drops of black liquid from a vial” in the OP my mind immediately went to “sounds like the kind of vague nonsense knaak would write.” And sure enough...


To the OP’s point... it’s probably nothing, and may indeed never come up in WoW. Knaak takes an occasional page from the HP lovecraft book of expository writing in just throwing out vague, half-described things that try to assert their own importance despite having no context. That goes for both the “unstoppable manta” that means nothing to the plot and the “vial of black liquid” capable of stopping it that’s never addressed again or given any broader significance in the narrative.

It works for lovecraft (most of the time; dream quest of unknown kadath is real rough to get through) because what he’s describing is supposed to be vague and ominous and usually ends up being important and given some degree of context within the overarching story. But when it’s just rank, self-insistent information being tossed out that doesn’t mean anything like this, it’s just a hollow attempt at world building. Hence why I don’t think it’ll come up again.

The best chance manta has of coming back is that blizzard just so happens to be planning some underwater threat, and some dude on the team happens to remember this throwaway character to be a Raid boss or some such. But seeing as we’ve had throne of the tides, vash’jir, nazjatar, Helheim, and maw of souls as “evil ocean threats” without a whisper of this manta thing, I wouldn’t hold my breath.