The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[OCoyne]

My favourite thing about 11.0.5 is the festival hub, it's full of life and character and exactly what the Darkmoon Faire should be like. All the random known characters from past and present showing up randomly and leaving leading to the oddest collabs you'd never ever think of happening

Emberthal
Shado Pan
Taelin Fordragon
Tortollans
Drust
Lorthremar
Lillian Voss
Mathias Shaw
Wrathion
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Kryians come through a portal
Those guys from Revendreth who ousted Denathrius come through a portal (I forgot the name)
Marin Nogginfogger
Even Mr.T turns up as "The Night Elf Mohawk" from when he did the Night Elf Mohawk TV ad. Not gonna lie I laughed and facepalmed at the same time when I saw that.

Not the entire list. Their interactions are still not fully implemented but I saw a Highborne get a lesbian crush for a blue dragon not knowing it's a dragon in visage form.

[Dracullus]

It could be small thing, but I don't get why Darkmoon doesn't have entrance in Dornogal. Many people would check it out of curiosity, I wouldn't be surprised that many who joined game in last 10 years don't even know it exists.

[Nymrohd]

Can't really see Rootlands as final zone of expac, especially when last zone of DF was nature themed. From narrative perspective most sense to me is going through Coreway to, you know, core of Azeroth.

Could be one and the same though. Roots could have reached the core. Xal'atath could beat us in the next patch and gain control of the Coreway leading to Azeroth's soul, Orweyna then guides us through Elun'ahir to another entry point. It also guarantees the last zone can have radically different biomes; Black Blood areas, Rootlands, Titan machinery.

- - - Updated - - -

It could be small thing, but I don't get why Darkmoon doesn't have entrance in Dornogal. Many people would check it out of curiosity, I wouldn't be surprised that many who joined game in last 10 years don't even know it exists.

Given it opens by Portal, I wish the Faire would be accessible through most capitals. Maybe keep it only on Azeroth capitals but still at least open it in Boralus, Zul'dazar, Dornogal.

Also I know people had isssues with delves but I honestly did not think we needed this big of a nerf and I think the Zekvir Heralds were a fun challenge that could have used a SLIGHT nerf for solo. Most of the complaining was because people were trying and failing to do T8 delves with 570-590 gear when you are supposed to be 600+. Now all the challenge will be at T11 only and while that's great to have, I also have absolutely no reason to try those more than once. Give it 3-4 weeks of Vault loot and people doing delves only will be at 615+ ilvl and clearing T8 delves like a monkey on speed.

[Etmir]

My favourite thing about 11.0.5 is the festival hub, it's full of life and character and exactly what the Darkmoon Faire should be like. All the random known characters from past and present showing up randomly and leaving leading to the oddest collabs you'd never ever think of happening

Emberthal
Shado Pan
Taelin Fordragon
Tortollans
Drust
Lorthremar
Lillian Voss
Mathias Shaw
Wrathion
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Kryians come through a portal
Those guys from Revendreth who ousted Denathrius come through a portal (I forgot the name)
Marin Nogginfogger
Even Mr.T turns up as "The Night Elf Mohawk" from when he did the Night Elf Mohawk TV ad. Not gonna lie I laughed and facepalmed at the same time when I saw that.

Not the entire list. Their interactions are still not fully implemented but I saw a Highborne get a lesbian crush for a blue dragon not knowing it's a dragon in visage form.

I noticed some people are getting mad that Lillian is talking about Calia.

[Golden Yak]

Can't really see Rootlands as final zone of expac, especially when last zone of DF was nature themed. From narrative perspective most sense to me is going through Coreway to, you know, core of Azeroth.

Nymrohd basically covered everything I would have said to this - the Rootlands can be the area surrounding the Worldsoul itself, the remnants of the tree Elun'Ahir that was torn out. You'd have the roots where the Harronir are concentrated, the Titan facilities built around the Worldsoul, and the encroaching corruption of the Black Blood bringing all kinds of badness into the region.

It will all culminate in the final raid, with Xal'atath breaching the Titan structures enclosing the Worldsoul and attempting to bring the corruption of the Void into it.

[Houle]

It literally doesn't matter.

It literally does matter. When you see 2 different characters on screen and interacting together, there has to be some really compelling, substantial evidence to claim they might actually be the same.

It was never explained or showed how N'Zoth benefited from the artefacts which were given to him which only enhances the argument.

Except it kinda was.
The player characters took the artifacts from N'zoth in the first place. They were in the possession of naga who tried to use them to "conjure up a storm" to prepare for N'zoth return. Xal got the player character steal them so she could use them to be able to get a body, and then later offered them back to N'zoth, as part of their deal.

She offered him the 3 artefacts which she stole back + the dagger + the player character in exchange for being fully severed from the dagger and being allowed to leave.

The 3 artefacts were then given back to other servants of N'zoth in the Crucible of Storms. Presumably they wouldve been used like they tried to before, to conjure up a storm, but the player characters then intervened again, in form of the raid.
The dagger was used to lure people to Nazjatar as part of the plot to fully free N'zoth fromh is prison there (and maybe to later use it as a backup plan, should those theories prove true).
And the player character was supposed to become his servant, but resisted that.

So we know pretty much 100% know what N'zoth was supposed to gain from all of those things.

He knew he was the weakest out the 4 and he knew the other 3 were dead. So you'd expect him to sit around and wait to die or try and do something.

Thats precisely what happened in 8.3 lol. Unlike the other 2, he used the player characters to free himself, and then instead of immediatly attacking them, he retreated to Ny'alotha. While C'thun and Yogg tried fighting the player characters head-on, N'zoths plan was to hang back and use Ny'alotha to overwrite Azeroths history. But the player characters then invaded Ny'alotha and brought the fight to him, so he didnt have much choice left.

And also it was Mogdud Thaurassian who uncovered Vexioana and her Twilight brood who ended up in Nyolatha.

Straight up wrong. Mogdud used Xal to summon "living shadows" aka unspecified void creatures before she was defeated. That was during the War of the Three Hammers, long before even the first orc invasion.

Twilight dragons were literally CREATED centuries later, during/after TBC, by Sintharia. She specifically used a nether dragon to do so.

Vexonia and the remaining eggs remained hidden until troggs digged too deep and disturbed them.

[micwini]

Nymrohd basically covered everything I would have said to this - the Rootlands can be the area surrounding the Worldsoul itself, the remnants of the tree Elun'Ahir that was torn out. You'd have the roots where the Harronir are concentrated, the Titan facilities built around the Worldsoul, and the encroaching corruption of the Black Blood bringing all kinds of badness into the region.

It will all culminate in the final raid, with Xal'atath breaching the Titan structures enclosing the Worldsoul and attempting to bring the corruption of the Void into it.

This is what I would guess. Would be weird to have another .2 being green rooty trees zone patch.

[Lady Atia]

Could be one and the same though. Roots could have reached the core. Xal'atath could beat us in the next patch and gain control of the Coreway leading to Azeroth's soul, Orweyna then guides us through Elun'ahir to another entry point. It also guarantees the last zone can have radically different biomes; Black Blood areas, Rootlands, Titan machinery.

- - - Updated - - -



Given it opens by Portal, I wish the Faire would be accessible through most capitals. Maybe keep it only on Azeroth capitals but still at least open it in Boralus, Zul'dazar, Dornogal.

Also I know people had isssues with delves but I honestly did not think we needed this big of a nerf and I think the Zekvir Heralds were a fun challenge that could have used a SLIGHT nerf for solo. Most of the complaining was because people were trying and failing to do T8 delves with 570-590 gear when you are supposed to be 600+. Now all the challenge will be at T11 only and while that's great to have, I also have absolutely no reason to try those more than once. Give it 3-4 weeks of Vault loot and people doing delves only will be at 615+ ilvl and clearing T8 delves like a monkey on speed.

I don't know, we literally had Zereth Mortis and Emerald Dream as the final patch zones, having Rootlands + Titan stuff again would feel quite samey, not?

[Ersula]

I noticed some people are getting mad that Lillian is talking about Calia.

I saw that twitter post. It's that her line is "Calia is really popular with the Alliance" as to why she's better suited to lead the Forsaken than Lilian.....Forsaken fans hate this entire storyline. Of all the people who chose Forsaken as their race, they like the Alliance the least. So why have her in a leadership role for a Horde faction? A big reason seemed to be having the Undead Night Elves integrated into their society, but by 10.2 they've all left the Undercity for the new World Tree.

I thought at the very least this might tie the Alliance into a Tyranny of the Light storyline, and actually give Calia something to do: Give Calia an actual reason to exist in the first place. But now it seems that's the Arathi Empire's purpose, pushing Calia further into irrelevance. One of the big, consistent problems with WoW's worldbuilding (and fantasy worldbuilding in general) is creating new "important" characters but giving them nothing to do.

[OCoyne]

Straight up wrong. Mogdud used Xal to summon "living shadows" aka unspecified void creatures before she was defeated. That was during the War of the Three Hammers, long before even the first orc invasion.

Twilight dragons were literally CREATED centuries later, during/after TBC, by Sintharia. She specifically used a nether dragon to do so.

Vexonia and the remaining eggs remained hidden until troggs digged too deep and disturbed them.

Tell me you're using Wowpedia as your source of info without making it too obvious. A defunct out of date website by the way.

You can tell because you didn't pick up on the fact Ansurek used the exact same death quotes, stick to reading books. They're great actually, just don't read the Exploring Azeroth series.

If you're going to go down that route it becomes a dick throwing contest to see who reads WoWpedia the most. WoWpedia only has a limited amount of information, it wouldn't tell you about the Korbyss are descendants of Murlocs, the stuff about the Naga is already in-game.

[Houle]

Tell me you're using Wowpedia as your source of info without making it too obvious. A defunct out of date website by the way.

You can tell because you didn't pick up on the fact Ansurek used the exact same death quotes, stick to reading books. They're great actually, just don't read the Exploring Azeroth series.

If you're going to go down that route it becomes a dick throwing contest to see who reads WoWpedia the most. WoWpedia only has a limited amount of information, it wouldn't tell you about the Korbyss are descendants of Murlocs, the stuff about the Naga is already in-game.

And now you are just again trying your hardest to deflect from the fact that you were utterly and 100% wrong about Mogdud. Oh, and you are also throwing weird strawman arguments around, to distract from the fact that none of that has anything to do with your theory of "N'zoth= Xal". None of what you said has any connection to it. Not Mogdud, not Ansurek and not the Korbyss.

Mogdud had nothing to do with Vexonia or the Twilight dragons. And none of that has anything to do with Ansurek and the Korbyss.

Mogdud and Ansurek share the same quote bc both were used by Xal. But neither that nor the Korbyss indicate in any way that N'zoth and Xal are the same being.

And btw, since you immediatly jumped to wowpedia, im gonna assume you also dont know that warcraft.wiki is the continued and updated version of it. You should probably use that next time, perhaps then you wouldnt confuse almost every part of the lore and perhaps then you also wouldnt have to deflect or insult every time someone calls you out for your lack of knowledge.

[Steampunkette]

So... Alleria outright tells General Steelstrike that Xal'atath is -not- an Old God. That she's something "Else".

We also know that four of the old gods were imprisoned, according to the lore from Chronicles and in game... but. Y'shaarj was never imprisoned. Y'shaarj was killed. Aman'thul reached down and yanked Y'shaarj out by the stack and swivel and nearly killed Azeroth in the process, creating what would become the Well of Eternity.

So there are, or were, four old gods that were imprisoned. Meaning there's an old god under the Isle of Dorn/Khaz Algar, in a surprise to no one whatsoever.

But we also know that Eonar, ever the life-experimenter of the Pantheon, planted a World Tree on Khaz Algar. Her Keeper, Freya, is the one who messed with the waters of the Well of Eternity to create Scholazar Basin, Un'goro Crater, and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, to give you an idea of how big on Life Eonar and her followers, like the Freysworn of Khaz Algar, are.

That she planted a World Tree from a gift given to her by Elune, whom she loves.

One that Aman'thul tore out. Why? "This is not order, this is chaos." was his response, but Life isn't Fel or Chaos on the chart so why use that imprecise language unless he thinks of everything that isn't Order as being Chaos? And why plant one right in the middle of the Isle of Dorn, near a tunnel that's so forbidden for Earthen they were programmed to fear it? That when some Watchers went nuts and started abusing or somehow harming their Earthen their Keeper decommissioned them by collapsing the tunnel on top of one of them?

The Earthen had long guarded that area of the Isle of Dorn. We know because there's an abandoned tower full of rusty weapons, there, that the Earthen who guarded it sought to use on the fallen watcher as they had on her partner, before her. What did the watchers -do- to deserve that? What is in that tunnel? And why are there Freysworn on the Isle of Dorn..?

My thought is: Eonar (also Elune and Freya) sought to 'Corrupt' the (currently unnamed) Old God with Life. Planting the world tree right into its body with the intention of changing its very essence with the power of Life.

Just as Eonnar is a world-soul turned Life Titan. She sought to make a Life Old God. Because she likes to experiment.

As we learn in Palawltar's Codex of Dimensional Structure in Hallowfall, mono-polar energy types are unstable and according to Ogden's law they bind to one or more secondary elements. It's why there's so much magma and lava in the Firelands (Fire/Earth) and the Arathi use Sacred Flame (Light/Fire).

But surely that -can't- work, right? After all, Yogg Saron corrupted Andrassil and destroyed it. And planted the seed of the Emerald Nightmare. And spread the Curse of Flesh to make the Iron Vrykul into flesh and blood. So Void and Life are incompatible, obviously!

Except...

Yogg Saron was the "God of Death" by his own claims. And the "Black Blood of Yogg Saron" is the basis of Saronite. It -had- been spread far and wide under Northrend and even into the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor 'til Fandral Staghelm stopped its spread. (Tainted areas included Ashenvale, Duskwood, Feralas, and The Hinterlands) But this Old God's Black Blood isn't creating weapons exactly... it's turning Nerubians into Super-Soldiers.

Maybe Yogg was tainted by Death, just as Eonar is tainted by Life. Maybe the death in him is what made Andrassil something he could rot away? Maybe the death in him is what allowed him to corrupt the Emerald Nightmare?

Maybe this unnamed Old God, the fourth of the imprisoned Old Gods, didn't have Death in him. And now has life from Eonar's efforts.

In the bas relief mural we see of him in the City of Threads he's just a big ol' ball of tentacles, like Ultross from Final Fantasy 6. You know what else looks like a bunch of tentacles in Azj-Kahet?





The Roots. The roots that the Harronir, who look an awful lot like furry Dark Trolls, do so much to protect. They're also -obsessed- with staying hidden from everyone... why?

I think the Old God got infected with Life and bonded to the roots of Elun'ahir. I think the Rootlands are going to be part of the 11.05 or 11.07 patch, MAYBE 11.1. And I think we'll learn a ton about the Harronir when we go there. And how they're servants of this Old God, just as the Earthen and Vrykul were servants of the Titans. How every Troll and Elf on Azeroth is a "Child" of this Elun'ahir infused Old God.

How they're hiding from the Earthen and have been for millennia as they protected this one hidden Old God. Because they believe, however falsely or accurately, that the Earthen will try to kill them and destroy the last imprisoned Old God.

The Old God of Life.



Is it any wonder, then, that the Trolls would carry forth the druidic traditions of their Harronir forebears? That the Kal'dorei, even twisted as they are by the magic of the Well of Eternity, would still hold onto that ancient truth of their heritage?

That only by -abandoning- Life Magic do the Quel'dorei, Shal'dorei, and later Sin'dorei truly master the arcane magics they're so well known for?

And with knowledge of their new, very powerful, connection between Elf and Troll and Elune and Old God and Harronir... the elven tribes would seek to reunite?

That'd be a hell of a twist, right? The revelations of the Rootlands, of the -beginnings- of Troll and thus Elf-Kind, resulted in an attempt at a permanent peace between all the trolls and elves at a council of Quel'thalas...

Especially now that we've seen Elune's "Dark Face". That she might, in fact, be a Life-Entity touched by Void...

[Telogrus]

I think that Xal is the “Ancient One” referred to in the Void Azeroth alternate timeline

- - - Updated - - -

So... Alleria outright tells General Steelstrike that Xal'atath is -not- an Old God. That she's something "Else".

We also know that four of the old gods were imprisoned, according to the lore from Chronicles and in game... but. Y'shaarj was never imprisoned. Y'shaarj was killed. Aman'thul reached down and yanked Y'shaarj out by the stack and swivel and nearly killed Azeroth in the process, creating what would become the Well of Eternity.

So there are, or were, four old gods that were imprisoned. Meaning there's an old god under the Isle of Dorn/Khaz Algar, in a surprise to no one whatsoever.

But we also know that Eonar, ever the life-experimenter of the Pantheon, planted a World Tree on Khaz Algar. Her Keeper, Freya, is the one who messed with the waters of the Well of Eternity to create Scholazar Basin, Un'goro Crater, and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, to give you an idea of how big on Life Eonar and her followers, like the Freysworn of Khaz Algar, are.

That she planted a World Tree from a gift given to her by Elune, whom she loves.

One that Aman'thul tore out. Why? "This is not order, this is chaos." was his response, but Life isn't Fel or Chaos on the chart so why use that imprecise language unless he thinks of everything that isn't Order as being Chaos? And why plant one right in the middle of the Isle of Dorn, near a tunnel that's so forbidden for Earthen they were programmed to fear it? That when some Watchers went nuts and started abusing or somehow harming their Earthen their Keeper decommissioned them by collapsing the tunnel on top of one of them?

The Earthen had long guarded that area of the Isle of Dorn. We know because there's an abandoned tower full of rusty weapons, there, that the Earthen who guarded it sought to use on the fallen watcher as they had on her partner, before her. What did the watchers -do- to deserve that? What is in that tunnel? And why are there Freysworn on the Isle of Dorn..?

My thought is: Eonar (also Elune and Freya) sought to 'Corrupt' the (currently unnamed) Old God with Life. Planting the world tree right into its body with the intention of changing its very essence with the power of Life.

Just as Eonnar is a world-soul turned Life Titan. She sought to make a Life Old God. Because she likes to experiment.

As we learn in Palawltar's Codex of Dimensional Structure in Hallowfall, mono-polar energy types are unstable and according to Ogden's law they bind to one or more secondary elements. It's why there's so much magma and lava in the Firelands (Fire/Earth) and the Arathi use Sacred Flame (Light/Fire).

But surely that -can't- work, right? After all, Yogg Saron corrupted Andrassil and destroyed it. And planted the seed of the Emerald Nightmare. And spread the Curse of Flesh to make the Iron Vrykul into flesh and blood. So Void and Life are incompatible, obviously!

Except...

Yogg Saron was the "God of Death" by his own claims. And the "Black Blood of Yogg Saron" is the basis of Saronite. It -had- been spread far and wide under Northrend and even into the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor 'til Fandral Staghelm stopped its spread. (Tainted areas included Ashenvale, Duskwood, Feralas, and The Hinterlands) But this Old God's Black Blood isn't creating weapons exactly... it's turning Nerubians into Super-Soldiers.

Maybe Yogg was tainted by Death, just as Eonar is tainted by Life. Maybe the death in him is what made Andrassil something he could rot away? Maybe the death in him is what allowed him to corrupt the Emerald Nightmare?

Maybe this unnamed Old God, the fourth of the imprisoned Old Gods, didn't have Death in him. And now has life from Eonar's efforts.

In the bas relief mural we see of him in the City of Threads he's just a big ol' ball of tentacles, like Ultross from Final Fantasy 6. You know what else looks like a bunch of tentacles in Azj-Kahet?





The Roots. The roots that the Harronir, who look an awful lot like furry Dark Trolls, do so much to protect. They're also -obsessed- with staying hidden from everyone... why?

I think the Old God got infected with Life and bonded to the roots of Elun'ahir. I think the Rootlands are going to be part of the 11.05 or 11.07 patch, MAYBE 11.1. And I think we'll learn a ton about the Harronir when we go there. And how they're servants of this Old God, just as the Earthen and Vrykul were servants of the Titans. How every Troll and Elf on Azeroth is a "Child" of this Elun'ahir infused Old God.

How they're hiding from the Earthen and have been for millennia as they protected this one hidden Old God. Because they believe, however falsely or accurately, that the Earthen will try to kill them and destroy the last imprisoned Old God.

The Old God of Life.



Is it any wonder, then, that the Trolls would carry forth the druidic traditions of their Harronir forebears? That the Kal'dorei, even twisted as they are by the magic of the Well of Eternity, would still hold onto that ancient truth of their heritage?

That only by -abandoning- Life Magic do the Quel'dorei, Shal'dorei, and later Sin'dorei truly master the arcane magics they're so well known for?

And with knowledge of their new, very powerful, connection between Elf and Troll and Elune and Old God and Harronir... the elven tribes would seek to reunite?

That'd be a hell of a twist, right? The revelations of the Rootlands, of the -beginnings- of Troll and thus Elf-Kind, resulted in an attempt at a permanent peace between all the trolls and elves at a council of Quel'thalas...

Especially now that we've seen Elune's "Dark Face". That she might, in fact, be a Life-Entity touched by Void...

Khaz Algar should have been in C’Thun’s territory based on the map of the Black Empire from Chronicles, so I doubt there’d be an Old God there. If there’s a 5th Old God, it probably is/was located on the other side of Azeroth

[Ereb]

No, this is classic knowledge. A passive lifestyle leads to health problems

What in the blue hell does this even mean? lol, lmao even

[Soeroah]

My favourite thing about 11.0.5 is the festival hub, it's full of life and character and exactly what the Darkmoon Faire should be like. All the random known characters from past and present showing up randomly and leaving leading to the oddest collabs you'd never ever think of happening

Emberthal
Shado Pan
Taelin Fordragon
Tortollans
Drust
Lorthremar
Lillian Voss
Mathias Shaw
Wrathion
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Kryians come through a portal
Those guys from Revendreth who ousted Denathrius come through a portal (I forgot the name)
Marin Nogginfogger
Even Mr.T turns up as "The Night Elf Mohawk" from when he did the Night Elf Mohawk TV ad. Not gonna lie I laughed and facepalmed at the same time when I saw that.

Not the entire list. Their interactions are still not fully implemented but I saw a Highborne get a lesbian crush for a blue dragon not knowing it's a dragon in visage form.

I think it's great we went from Blizzard saying "We can't bring every character who would have a story reason to be present for X because it'd be too much work" to essentially "Screw it, we've got these characters, we're gonna use them. Danath and Kurdan are in Khaz Algar with Turalyon now. Meerah and Flynn Fairwind are in Azj-Kahet. The anniversary party is going to be huge."

My ONE criticism is the continued bringing Shadowlands characters to Azeroth, and it's not because I don't like Shadowlands. I think the veil closing should've made it a lot harder for them to visit us. I could make allowances for the fae in the Emerald Dream zone last expansion because it's a direct connection to Ardenweald, but seeing them in the afterparty on actual Azeroth after the tree came through is a bit eeeeh. A Kyrian at the anniversary party is like... Well, the kyrian do actually visit Azeroth as part of their duties, though they're usually in another phase of reality so we don't see them, so I could argue them being there makes A kind of sense, but I think it'd be better if they just don't without a good story reaosn.

[Raetary]

Not the entire list. Their interactions are still not fully implemented but I saw a Highborne get a lesbian crush for a blue dragon not knowing it's a dragon in visage form.

If you mean Valtrois and Stellagosa, they have been hitting it off since Legion.

[Steampunkette]

I think that Xal is the “Ancient One” referred to in the Void Azeroth alternate timeline

- - - Updated - - -

Khaz Algar should have been in C’Thun’s territory based on the map of the Black Empire from Chronicles, so I doubt there’d be an Old God there. If there’s a 5th Old God, it probably is/was located on the other side of Azeroth

You know what's missing from this map?



The territory of a Fifth Old God. Which we know exists. How?



Neltharion's annotated history of the Old Gods. In which he also mentions the existence of a continent "Beyond the Waves" which is, of course, where the Arathi in Hallowfall came from.

We also know, from the Legend of Elun'ahir, that the tree was planted BEFORE the war with the Black Empire. That it was only after she planted the tree that she bid Freya watch over the crater where the roots were while she and the rest of the Pantheon and their minions fought against the Black Empire.

So. Y'know. That map -might- be a bit out of date and/or never included the fifth Old God because of unreliable narrators...

[Sondrelk]

You know what's missing from this map?



The territory of a Fifth Old God. Which we know exists. How?



Neltharion's annotated history of the Old Gods. In which he also mentions the existence of a continent "Beyond the Waves" which is, of course, where the Arathi in Hallowfall came from.

We also know, from the Legend of Elun'ahir, that the tree was planted BEFORE the war with the Black Empire. That it was only after she planted the tree that she bid Freya watch over the crater where the roots were while she and the rest of the Pantheon and their minions fought against the Black Empire.

So. Y'know. That map -might- be a bit out of date and/or never included the fifth Old God because of unreliable narrators...

Not if we assume this map was drawn up only after the Old God empires had stabilized into that form. Could easily have been a fifth old god before whenever this map was relevant.

[Steampunkette]

Not if we assume this map was drawn up only after the Old God empires had stabilized into that form. Could easily have been a fifth old god before whenever this map was relevant.

True! Could be that it's not a retcon, but refers only to the Black Empire as the Titans and their minions wrote of it. But that would kinda also be an unreliable narrator. Someone speaking with authority of something they don't know is true. Which is revealed to be so by contradictory evidence.

Could be that the Fifth Old God was mutilated or consumed before the Pantheon got there. Maybe Aggramar saw the Fifth but took too long getting back and the other four got snacky?

Which has also been a part of my theory as noted in previous posts. That Elun'ahir sank into his body and made him all Lifey and Green while reviving him.

But I personally can't find the explicit references to the titans eating one of their own, only of players talking about how that was a thing. So I didn't include it, here.

I wonder if the Fifth old god was hungry AF. Hence the Dark Heart drawn stuff that made Galakrond eat everything and everyone, and the Dark Heart itself consume all energy types?

[Polybius]

So... Alleria outright tells General Steelstrike that Xal'atath is -not- an Old God. That she's something "Else".

We also know that four of the old gods were imprisoned, according to the lore from Chronicles and in game... but. Y'shaarj was never imprisoned. Y'shaarj was killed. Aman'thul reached down and yanked Y'shaarj out by the stack and swivel and nearly killed Azeroth in the process, creating what would become the Well of Eternity.

So there are, or were, four old gods that were imprisoned. Meaning there's an old god under the Isle of Dorn/Khaz Algar, in a surprise to no one … *snip*

Elune having an affinity with the Void would tie nicely with the Curse of Flesh, or how it nullified the adverse effects we see in Old God corruption. Anshe and Elune remind me of eclipses, Beledar, and Alleria and Turalyon.

As for the roots: The vassal of life disguises treachery. Beware the eyes of green.