World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 (6 page)

M
eanwhile, in the depths of the
Great Dark Beyond,
Aggramar continued his quest to eradicate all signs of demonic influence. His battles led him from one world to another, from one demon-beset civilization to the next. Though Aggramar bore the full weight of this task alone, his resolve never wavered. He believed with all his heart that
Sargeras would one day return and see that the
Pantheon’s cause was right.

It was during his long and lonely journeys that Aggramar sensed something extraordinary: the tranquil dreams of a slumbering world-soul, billowing across the cosmos. The song of life led him to a world that the Pantheon had not yet discovered, a world they would later name “Azeroth.”

Nestled within the world’s core was one of Aggramar’s kin—one far more powerful than any yet encountered. The spirit was so mighty that Aggramar sensed its dreams even through the din of activity that rattled across the world’s surface.

Yet as Aggramar drew closer to Azeroth and beheld the world, horror seized him.
Void energies shrouded the world’s surface like a layer of diseased flesh. From the ruined landscape rose the Old Gods and their Black Empire. Miraculously, the nascent titan’s spirit remained uncorrupted, but Aggramar knew it was only a matter of time before it succumbed to the Void.

Aggramar sought counsel with the rest of the Pantheon, informing them of his discovery. Clearly, this was proof that Sargeras had been right about the
void lords and their plans. Aggramar urged the other
titans to take action with all due haste before Azeroth was lost forever.

Eonar was quick to champion Aggramar’s cause. She compelled the other Pantheon members to think of the world’s potential. If brought to maturity, this new titan could exceed even Sargeras’s considerable might, she argued. Indeed, it could become their greatest warrior, one capable of neutralizing the void lords once and for all. But more than that, Azeroth was one of them—a lost and vulnerable member of their family. The Pantheon could not abandon their own sibling to the clutches of the void lords.

Eonar’s words stirred the hearts of the rest of the Pantheon. They unanimously agreed to save Azeroth, no matter the cost.

Aggramar formulated a bold plan of attack: all members of the Pantheon would travel to Azeroth and purge the Black Empire that had claimed it. They would not, however, take action directly. Due to their colossal forms, Aggramar feared the Pantheon would irreparably damage, or
even kill, the world-soul. Instead, he proposed creating mighty constructs to act as the Pantheon’s hands and prosecute their will against the Black Empire.

Under the guidance of the great forger
Khaz’goroth, the Pantheon crafted an army of enormous servants from the crust of Azeroth itself: the
aesir and the
vanir. The aesir were fashioned from metal, and they would command the powers of storms. The vanir were formed from stone, and they would hold sway over the earth. Collectively, these mighty creatures would be known as the
titan-forged.

The members of the Pantheon imbued a number of their servants with their specific likenesses and powers to lead the rest of the titan-forged. These empowered beings were called the keepers. Though they would develop their own personalities in time, they would forever after bear the mark and abilities of their makers.

Aman’Thul gifted some of his vast abilities to Highkeeper
Ra and Keeper
Odyn. Khaz’goroth bestowed his mastery over the earth and forging to Keeper
Archaedas.
Golganneth granted Keepers
Thorim and
Hodir dominion over the storms and skies. Eonar gave Keeper
Freya command over Azeroth’s flora and fauna.
Norgannon lent a portion of his intellect and mastery of magic to Keepers
Loken and
Mimiron. Lastly, Aggramar imparted his strength and courage to Keeper
Tyr, who would become the greatest warrior of the titan-forged.

With this new army molded from the world’s crust, the Pantheon went to war. The time to shatter the Black Empire and free Azeroth from its malign influence had come …

L
ed by the keepers, the titan-forged slammed into the Black Empire’s northernmost holdings.

The resilience and strength of the Pantheon’s armies made them an unstoppable force. They unleashed the wrath of gods upon their enemies, scouring legions of n’raqi and aqir and sundering their temples.

The arrival of the titan-forged caught the Old Gods completely off guard. They reeled in response to these stone- and metal-skinned invaders, but they were determined not to lose control over Azeroth. To reassert their dominance, the Old Gods called upon their greatest lieutenants: the elemental lords.

The enraged elemental lords and their minions beset the titan-forged on all sides. Ever wary of fighting a unified elemental army, the keepers resolved to divide and conquer their enemies. Thus they split their own forces and dispatched each group of titan-forged to make war on a specific elemental lord.

Tyr and Odyn volunteered to confront the most destructive elemental lieutenant:
Ragnaros the Firelord. Their battle raged for weeks, engulfing the land in fire and magma. Yet the keepers’ resilient metal forms kept them safe from Ragnaros’s fiery onslaughts. Through sheer strength and force of will, Tyr and Odyn pushed Ragnaros back into his volcanic lair in the east. In a land of boiling acid seas and skies choked with ash, the two keepers defeated the Firelord.

Meanwhile, Archaedas and Freya unleashed their powers upon
Therazane the Stonemother. To protect herself and her minions, the elemental ruler retreated into the towering stone spire that she called home. Archaedas used his dominion over the earth to weaken the citadel’s foundations and
shatter the craggy giants who guarded it. Freya then made colossal roots sprout from the ground to entangle the fortress. They wormed through stone and crystal, buckled the citadel’s walls, and brought them down on
Therazane’s head.

Ra,
Thorim, and Hodir waged war with
Al’Akir the Windlord. Using their mastery over the skies and storms, they forced the elemental lord back to his lair among the highest peaks of Azeroth. Lightning set the heavens aflame as Al’Akir struggled to hold off his foes. In the end, the three keepers turned the elemental lord’s own power against him, defeating Al’Akir atop his lofty domain.

Neptulon the Tidehunter and his minions rushed to aid the other embattled elemental lords, but they were waylaid by
Loken and
Mimiron. The two keepers used their wits to harry and outmaneuver Neptulon’s forces at every turn. Ultimately, Loken unleashed his arcane powers to freeze and shatter the water elementals’ forms, while Mimiron crafted enchanted bonds to imprison Neptulon himself.

Although the elemental lords had been defeated, the keepers knew that they could not utterly destroy the beings. The spirits of the elementals were bound to Azeroth itself. If they were killed, their corporeal forms would simply manifest again in time.

Ra soon found a solution. He set out to imprison the elementals, much as the great
Sargeras had done to demons. Ra first called on the aid of the gifted titan-forged sorceress
Helya. They worked in concert to craft four interlinked domains within a pocket dimension known as the
Elemental Plane. Ra and Helya then banished the elemental lords and nearly all of their servants to this enchanted prison realm.

Ragnaros and the fire elementals were exiled to a smoldering corner of the Elemental Plane known as the
Firelands. Therazane and the earth elementals were locked within the crystalline caverns of
Deepholm. Al’Akir and the air elementals were imprisoned among the cloudy spires of the
Skywall. Lastly, Neptulon and the water elementals were sucked into the fathomless depths of the
Abyssal Maw. Only a few elementals would remain on the surface of Azeroth. With their leaders gone, these beings scattered and abandoned the war.

Having contained the elementals, the keepers turned their attention to the Black Empire’s aqiri legions. Many of the insectoids dwelled in vast catacombs that snaked beneath the surface of the devastated world. Archaedas bent the stones and soil to his will, collapsing the aqiri burrows and driving the creatures aboveground. Upon emerging from their lairs, the insectoids found themselves surrounded by the titan-forged.

The battles between the titan-forged and the aqir proved unexpectedly vicious. In time, the keepers destroyed most of the aqiri race. Small pockets of the insectoids, those that had tunneled deep underground, escaped the keepers’ wrath. Yet they were too weakened to mount a counterattack.

THE TITAN-FORGED BATTLE THE ELEMENTAL LORDS

MAP OF AZEROTH UNDER THE BLACK EMPIRE’S CONTROL

T
he victories over the
aqir and the elementals heartened the keepers, but they knew that their greatest battles were still to come. As one, they turned their righteous gaze on the heart of the Black Empire: the sprawling temple city built around the Old God
Y’Shaarj. By toppling the most powerful
n’raqi bastion on Azeroth, the keepers believed they could crush their enemies in one swift stroke.

The keepers and their allies waded through one swarm of n’raqi after another as they battled their way toward the mountainous form of Y’Shaarj. The broken and mangled bodies of
titan-forged and n’raqi alike riddled the landscape by the time the invaders breached the city and assaulted the Old God itself.