User:GoldenYak/Chronicle/Prologue
The Titan Worlds are six planets that drift in orbit around a star in the Great Dark Beyond. They were created by the Final Titan, Azeroth, after her victory over Sargeras, the Demon Titan and bane of the living universe. Each and every one of the Titan Worlds is a wondrous realm, rich in the cosmic energies of creation, full of life in all its dazzling variety. Within each world is the living soul of a nascent Titan, a worldsoul that grows in power and complexity with every birth, every life, and death that takes place upon it. Into each of the Titan Worlds Azeroth bestowed a spark of the former Pantheon, so that they could be reborn as new and vital beings, ready to shepherd the universe towards a destiny of peace and order. But conflict is woven into the very nature of the cosmos, from its very birth during the first war of Light and Void. The Titan Worlds are filled with life and wonder, but also great danger and never-ending conflict.
Like Azeroth before them, they are worlds of war.
Origin of the Titan Worlds
The Titan Worlds were created by Azeroth, the Final Titan, the last of her kind to still command the full extent of the cosmic power that is her birth right. Azeroth began her life as a planet, as all Titans do. She spent millennia in nascency, her worldsoul growing over time as living beings lived their lives upon her surface. Their births, every moment of their lives, and their final death contributed the minute motes of power, soul, and memory essence that constituted Azeroth's mighty worldsoul, until after countless eons Azeroth arose, her planetoid form transforming into that of an immense, planet-sized humanoid form, a true and woken Titan at the height of her power. Azeroth was the mightiest Titan the cosmos had ever seen, dwarfing any other Titan that had come before her. This made her a target for wicked and malevolent powers that sought to turn her might to their dark designs, or destroy her utterly for the threat she represented.
The first being to challenge Azeroth after she had awoken was Sargeras the Destroyer, lord of the Burning Legion. A Titan like Azeroth herself, Sargeras had awoken long millennia before, and had gathered together the most powerful and destructive beings in the cosmos, the demon races, to forge his Legion, an army of annihilation that was meant to purge the universe of all life so that Sargeras could remake creation in his own image. Sargeras and his Legion had slain all the other woken Titans in existence, and slaughtered many others that had slept in nascency. Many times Sargeras had sent his forces to destroy Azeroth while she'd lain dormant, but time and again the races dwelling upon her had rallied to drive the forces of destruction away, preserving their world until she could take her full form. The Legion could not hope to match the might of a woken Titan, and so Sargeras himself attacked to take Azeroth's life.
Azeroth and Sargeras battled as only Titans could, two forces of immense cosmic power clashing in an effort to annihilate one another. In the end, though Sargeras' eons of battle and insane fury made him almost invincible, Azeroth's great worldsoul held the spirits of innumerable mortal champions who had equipped her well to be the ultimate enemy of the forces of evil. Azeroth struck down Sargeras, slaying the Demon Titan and hurling his broken body into a star. With Sargeras defeated and his Burning Legion shattered, the cosmos was once again safe for the worldsouls of Titans to grow and take form, while countless more living worlds could nurture mortal life without fear of predation.
Azeroth drew the souls of murdered Titans to her and infused them into six worlds of her own creation, setting them in orbit around the very same star that Azeroth herself had once been warmed by. Azeroth breathed life and power into her six creations, so that mortal life would spread across their surface and enrich the nascent Titans within. Her great work complete, Azeroth left her worlds behind. Other forces of evil besides Sargeras existed in the cosmos, and Azeroth knew that life and peace could only be preserved if she stood against these evils. Leaving behind the universe, Azeroth ventured into the Void, the blackest realm in all existence, to confront the terrors that waited there and hungered to prey on the vulnerable worlds she had lovingly crafted.
The six Titan Worlds continue to grow and change to this very day, their existence hard won, their future still uncertain, their potential without limit...
The Titan Worlds
Many millennia have passed since Azeroth set the Titan Worlds in their orbit. While the Final Titan had envisioned six worlds connected as a unified system, time mocks all plans. The worlds have grown apart over the eons, and each has developed in ways even Azeroth herself could never have foreseen. Their past has been marred by conflict and trauma, their mortal inhabitants riven by war and disaster, their future unknowable, and their dangers many.
Amanthal
A world wracked by endless, eternal storms, its habitable lands drifting through the air as great floating land-masses. Mortal races sail the skies in fantastic airships and atop great beasts, braving the deadly tempests that separate its many sky-borne realms in search of conquest and adventure. A great elven empire once ruled much of Amanthal, only to fracture into many warring nations, while younger races rise to power and spark further conflict across the skies. Ambitious powers dream of forging their kingdoms across every land under sun and storm.
Edenar
Shrouded in forests of immense size and wondrous beauty, Edenar is a savage realm where nature holds ascendancy over civilization. Mortal tribes wander the forested lands, battling for survival not only against one another but against the land itself and its innumerable dangers. Ancient wonders are concealed within the endless forests, cities and relics of a time when civilization was possible on Edenar. What befell these ancients is a mystery, but all know that the forces of nature on Edenar demands respect, and those who seek to challenge their supremacy invite extinction.
Golggath
Golggath is a world of surging seas and crashing waves, where life flourishes on innumerable islands surrounded by endless oceans. The unfettered might of the sea exists not only in the world at large but within the heart and spirits of its people, who traverse the seas in wondrous ships, through enigmatic sorceries, and using great beasts of the depths as living vessels. Life flourish not only above the waves, but beneath it as well, and countless empires both beautiful and terrifying thrive from atop island paradises to the most abyssal depths.
Gannon
The world of Gannon is perhaps the most fantastic of all the Titan Worlds. Long ago the world was stricken by a magical calamity, a plague of crystalline stasis that entombed every land and all life upon it in a never-ending prison of crystal growth. But far above the afflicted world, mighty spell-casters preserved their people in immense floating magical cities, sparing them from the fate of those below. After millennia of growth, these magical cities now encircle Gannon like a lattice-work shell, supporting countless magical kingdoms ruled over by sorcerer-kings and powerful magi.
Khazgor
Khazgor is a world of rugged natural beauty concealing ancient ruins and machines from a long-lost civilization. A devastating cataclysm in the distant past reduced the southern third of the world to a barren desert wasteland scoured by ferocious sand storms and poisonous energies. The mortal races of the world build great empires based on advanced technology that sprawl across the mountains and woodlands of the northern regions, sending armies of excavators and archeologists to the southern lands to uncover long-lost ruins and advanced machinery.
Aggmar
Aggmar blisters with the radiant energies of fire, which permeate its lands and people. It shudders and heaves with tectonic activity, lit by a hundred thousand volcanoes that cover its surface, spewing clouds of smoke and burning cinders and pouring forth rivers of lava into fiery magma seas. Its innumerable canyons are filled with riotous jungles, the plant-life nourished by the minerals spewed forth from the volcanoes, the living spirits of nature feeding on the boundless energies within the world. As quickly as flame storm and magma-river scorch the wildgrowth down to black ashes, plant and tree and vine drink in the energy and grow back, sprouting up from ashen soil to smother the land once again in ever-renewing life.
The Seventh World
After the formation of the six Titan Worlds, a seventh world appeared...
Inhabitants of the Titan Worlds
A great many mortal races inhabit the Titan Worlds. Some are unique to a single world, while other races can be found on all of them. Below are some races that are common to every Titan World.
Humans
Humans, sometimes referred to as mankind or humanity, are a highly adaptable and populous race. They are capable of surviving in virtually any environment, though typically they prefer adapting an environment around themselves to better thrive. Intelligent and capable, humans learn quickly and embrace change more readily than many other mortal races. Some believe this is due to their relatively short lifespans, most specimens living for no more than 80 years if they do not suffer an earlier demise from violence or disease. Humans who live a martial life-style can develop significant strength and skill in combat, and those who study the mystic arts can attain considerable mystical ability. The human race frequently gives rise to exemplars of war, men and women who have a particular talent for some combat role, be it as a warrior, assassin, magi, or as skilled commanders and political leaders. It is rarer for humanity to feel the call of elemental or natural spirits, and most humans feel an impulse to expand and conquer the lands about them rather than develop a balanced or harmonious existence.
Human scholars often persist in describing other races in comparison to humanity, referring to any race with the same general body-pattern of humans as 'humanoid'. This is regarded as one of their more annoying qualities by other races.
Orcs
Orcs are a race that most others have learned to fear and respect. Orcs are generally tall and powerfully muscled, often standing taller and broader than the average human. Their capacity for adapting to harsh environments surpasses most other races, and they can develop a variety of skin-tones. Most frequently orcs have brownish-red skin, but can also develop a hide that is gray, black, yellow, and even green in appearance. Their jaws are thick and they often possess large protruding tusks, while their fingernails grow into thick, ragged claws that can tear through flesh with ease. Orcs can develop tremendous physical strength, with axe-wielding orcish warriors able to accomplish feats such as cutting through multiple foes with a single sweep of their blade. Orcs have a strong affinity for elemental forces and the natural power of wild places, and populations of orcs often have shaman or other nature-attuned individuals among them. Orcs are a highly aggressive and energetic race, which often leads them to feats of physical exertion and violence to prove their strength and ferocity. Orcs are often an insular breed, regarding the needs of other races as unimportant, if they regard them at all, but those who earn the trust and respect of the orcs find them to be firm and honorable allies.
When orcish populations reach a high enough concentration, the orc breeding cycle undergoes a significant change, and orcish females will begin giving birth to large litters rather than the single births more common in small populations. A large percentage of orcs born in such circumstances will be of a sub-breed known as 'peons', who are significantly smaller and weaker than ordinary orcs, in some cases even possessing reduced intellectual capacity. Peons are fearful and craven by nature and invariably defer to ordinary orcs. They are typically employed in menial labor roles, which become abundant in larger orc populations as they shift from nomadic to sedentary, exchanging moveable tribal dwellings for larger established cities and forts.
Elves
Elves as a race are renowned for their physical grace and mastery of magical disciplines. Throughout the Titan Worlds elves have adapted into a wide variety of distinct racial groups, with skin tones ranging from pale white to a rich brown, and Gologgath elves in particular having a wide variety of colored tones including blue, violet, and red. Tall and slender when compared with humans and orcs, elves are also readily discernible due to their large pointed ears, luminescent eyes, and long eyebrows. Elves have an extremely long lifespan compared with other races, with some capable of living for over a thousand years. Elves possess a high degree of intellectual capacity that when exercised to its fullest can place them far and above all other races in terms of intelligence. In contrast with other races, elven minds become more capable in their twilight years, developing the ability to pursue multiple lines of thought simultaneously, making elven elders tremendously adept scholars, philosophers, arcanists, and scientists. While elves lack the capacity for extreme physical strength demonstrated by other races, they can develop fantastic speed and agility, with elven sword-masters capable of feats of high-speed blade-work that can leave a stronger foe in pieces before they are even aware they've been cut.
Trolls
Dwarves
The dwarven race are renowned for qualities such as their great strength, durability, endurance, and strength of will. While dwarves often stand no more than 3 to 4 feet in height, they are nearly as broad with strong limbs and thick muscles. Dwarves live for several centuries, with some venerable elders living for over 700 years. As a consequence of their long lifespans, dwarven cultures are often slow to change - if the way they've been doing things has worked for millennia, then why bother? A common dwarven aphorism is 'if it isn't broken, don't fix it'. Dwarves have an even greater affinity for altering the world around them than humans, and they frequently build their cities by cutting into the stone of mountains and the earth of hillsides, rapidly changing whenever they live into uniform and developed settlements. They will dam rivers, cut down forests, break through mountains, and sculpt the world around them to make it more livable, bending the natural world to their will. It takes a truly ferocious environment to break the dwarves of this way of life. Despite their love of hearth and home and the comforts of civilization, dwarves in their youth will often develop a strong wanderlust, a desire to venture out into the world, explore strange new lands, and hopefully kill some horrible monster or fight in a great battle so they can bring stories and trophies to the alehouses back home.
Dwarves are quite materialistic and prize wealth, but it would be a mistake to view them as miserly or greedy. The dwarven sense of personal value is tied very closely to personal effort, and personal effort is represented in tangible wealth, typically valuable minerals or gems. A dwarf's worth must be properly represented in a measurable form so that it can be paid in full, whether that dwarf is extracting mineral wealth from a mine, fighting in battle, or working some other trade. For a dwarf to not be granted a monetary amount equal to their effort is an affront to their personal honor, a theft of their sweat and blood and devotion. Dwarves entering into adulthood are expected to provide a considerable sum of wealth to their parents or other care-givers in exchange for the time and resources invested in their keeping - 'worth their weight in gold' is another dwarven saying, and is quite literal in its meaning. Since many dwarves often work for their parents in their youth, this is taken into account when tallying their 'debt'. Of course, dwarves are by no means immune to affection and familial pride - indeed, in many respects they can be very strongly emotional - and a dwarf having settled their debt into adulthood will frequently receive a large gift from their parents that is worth much more than what they paid. But such is regarded as an act of love and respect done between equals, not between creditor and debtor as the dwarves might put it.
Ogres
The Demon Races
Demons are not actually a single race, but refer to a great number of different races and species that all bear similar qualities. A demonic entity is a being that has bound its soul to the realm known as the Twisting Nether, a parallel dimension of wild mystical forces that act as the counter-part and reflection of the material realm of arcane order and physical laws. In the Twisting Nether, all is chaos and disorder, and it is rife with the corrosive power of fel magic that acts as the life-force of demons. Fel magic devours order and begets destruction on all things, but can also act as a creative and evolutionary force that generates or mutates lifeforms into new shapes, albeit ones that are better suited to carry out further destruction and spread disorder and chaos. Demons are living incarnations of fel, beings whose strongest impulse is to indulge their destructive nature and inflict chaos on all they see.
Many demon races arose within the Twisting Nether itself, their souls bound to that realm from the very first moment of existence. Such 'natural' demons often have strange and bizarre forms when compared with most mortal races, with asymmetrical limbs, ragged or misshapen wings that are functional in spite of their appearance, or other unusual and frightful features. Mortal beings who absorb sufficient quantities of fel magic and use sorcery to bind their souls to the Twisting Nether can also become demonic entities, abandoning their previous mortal nature.
Despite having physical bodies, demons are in truth creatures of purely the soul, existing as non-physical souls in a state that many mortals would regard as a higher form of being, beyond physical limitations or ills. However, demons cannot indulge their destructive appetites in this state, bereft of sensation and experience - they cannot feel the life crushed from a mortal victim, the burning flames of a collapsing civilization, or revel in the screams and anguish of the dying. For this reason, demons desire bodies, and within the Twisting Nether their soul-selves slowly gather the ambient chaotic energies of that realm to generate physical forms. This process is unconscious and as natural as a mortal might find breathing, although depending on the demon they can accelerate the process through force of will, and even guide the shape of their body to an extent, although this latter skill is often far more difficult for demons that were formerly mortals. Depending on the power of a demon, the creation of a body that can properly contain them can take years, decades, or even centuries and millennia, and particularly powerful demons will often enslave or manipulate less powerful entities into providing them with additional power and support to accelerate their incarnation. Very few demons will tolerate adopting a physical form for their spirit that is capable of channeling less than the full extent of their power.
The Path of Destruction
While demons are invariably creatures of anarchy and destruction, this is not to say that they are all mindless monstrosities smashing everything in blind rage. All demons feel the urge to cause destruction, but this urge is realized in a wide variety of fashions. The brutish Annihilan are indeed rampaging monsters who prefer to crush and destroy with overwhelming blunt force, but the Nathrezim are far more subtle and insidious - they see the destruction of mortal civilizations as an art-form that must be carried out with delicate precision and wicked genius, regarding acts of direct violence as too simplistic and crude to truly appreciate. The Mo'arg approach destruction with mechanical precision, forming vast and orderly armies of soldiers and machinists to carry out the extermination of a world with peak efficiency, using the exact necessary force and resources to carry out their campaigns of destruction with no wasted effort or material.
Demons and Other Paths
While exceptionally rare, there are certain demons who have turned from the path of destruction after arriving at some profound transformative epiphany. While these demons retain their chaotic nature and destructive urges, they recognize them as baser impulses and strive to refine themselves into beings who can appreciate more out of existence. Almost all of the demons of this mindset have embraced the power of the Holy Light of Creation, and their fel-saturated bodies are drastically transformed through infusion of Light energy, making them Lightforged demons. While the Lightforged demons champion the virtues of the Holy Light - namely peace, order, unity, and the opposition of evil - a demon is always a demon, and their approach to battling the forces of evil mirrors their prior habits in visiting horrific carnage upon innocents. A Lightforged demon may prize the peace of mind and sense of balance his transformation has wrought, but when roused to battle, they will annihilate their foe with vicious, gleeful violence, taking pleasure in the destruction of their enemy, pleasure made all the sweeter by the knowledge that they are destroying for a greater good.
The Forsaken
In many ways the forsaken are not a true race, but a state of being that afflicts mortals of all other races. Forsaken are undead, mortals whose lives have ended but whose souls remain trapped within their unliving flesh, animate and aware but no longer truly alive. Their internal organs no longer function, their blood no longer flows, their flesh is cold and lifeless. In spite of their transformation, the Forsaken remains aware and fully sentient, retaining all of the memories and intellectual capacity they did in life. Their soul remains largely intact, but shackled to their unliving husk by necromantic energy. The forsaken state exists in sharp contrast to many other forms of undeath, which often see those afflicted dwindle in mental capacity to become nothing more than mindless walking corpses. While some forsaken can be found in the Titan Worlds, often living alone or in small, isolated secret communities, the Forsaken exist in vast numbers in Shadol, the Realm of the Dead. Most forsaken in fact originate there, in the strange and unknowable fashion of that benighted dimension, but other forsaken can be created in the living realm through necromancy.
The transformation into forsaken invariably strongly affects the mortal afflicted with the state. Their personality, whatever it was in life, becomes more grim and morbid. The joys of the living world can no longer lift their spirits, as all sensation is muted and blunted by their undead state. Happy memories grow increasingly cloudy over time, replaced with dark impulses, anger, regret, and sorrow. The necromantic power that animates their bodies also reacts strongly in the presence of abundant life energy, causing forsaken to instinctively resent other living things, and in some cases this manifests as a terrible rage and hunger, driving the forsaken to slay and then devour living flesh. Forsaken can all too easily fall into the embrace of these dark urges, finding a new kind of twisted joy and happiness in indulging their worst impulses, giving in to dark excess to erase the pain of their lost lives.
Realms Beyond the Titan Worlds
Beyond the material spheres of the seven Titan Worlds lie realms of a more fantastic nature. Though separate from the dimensions that mortals are more familiar with, these esoteric planes are inextricably bound with the Titan Worlds, and their ultimate destiny.
The Primal Dream
A realm of endless wonder and elemental power, the Primal Dream is the underlying spiritual bedrock of the Titan Worlds. Through this primal dimension, the souls of all living things, including the nascent Titans slumbering at the heart of every Titan World, all reach out and connect with the great living cosmos, drawing upon its boundless energy to birth new life and grant new souls. The realm of the Primal Dream is where elemental beings dwell, where gods are born and rule, and where the souls of countless mortals find their eternal rest. Its kingdoms are endless and fantastic, peopled by creatures and beings too strange, too wonderful, and too dangerous to exist in the mortal realm. Verdant forests grow upon banks of clouds, clockwork mountains stride the land upon metallic legs, palaces of gold tower over molten jungles, divine citadels made of sound and prayer sail upon oceans of nightmare, and all manner of impossible realms can be found within the Primal Dream.
Shadol, Realm of the Dead
A world of death and decay, a twisted dark mirror of the world that Azeroth once was. Where there was ocean on Azeroth, there is land on Shadol. And where the continents of Azeroth were, on Shadol are vast seas of darkness, a substance that is neither water nor shadow. Mortal souls that do not find their way to other fates beyond death are drawn to Shadol in great grey multitudes to become forsaken, the rank and file of the damned. In the blighted lands of Shadol stand a hundred undead kingdoms, the dark lords and ladies of demise playing out endless wars and intrigues to while away eternity. At the heart of the realm is the mightiest of these kingdoms, Sylvania, ruled by a deity of death known only as the Dark Lady.
The Twisting Nether
A dimension of endless burning chaos, fueled by the destructive energy known as the Fel. Corrosive and poisonous to all other aspects of the cosmos, Fel is the very essence of destruction itself, and it eternally consumes and devours without burning itself out. The Twisting Nether is the home realm of the demon races, their true place of origin and the seat of their chaotic souls. By its very nature, the Twisting Nether shreds natural law and reaches out across time and space and all dimensions to bring destruction to the cosmos, though its nature can also transform and evolve those who embrace it, mutating them into new forms of demonic life to further spread destruction. With the defeat of Sargeras long ago, no power exists to unify the demons of the Nether into a single force like the legendary Burning Legion, and instead the demon empires within the Nether are eternally consumed with civil wars. However, few demons will pass up the opportunity to invade the material universe and spread destruction to mortal realms. Within the Nether, hungry eyes gaze upon the Titan Worlds, plotting and waiting for the chance to strike.
The Godlands
The Godlands are a realm of chaotic darkness formed between the Deep Void and the material realm. They are ruled over by the Old Gods, eldritch deities of terrifying power that each rule over a kingdom of madness and mutation. The realms of the Godlands are a hideous blend of the physical matter of the mortal universe and the infinite madness of the Void. It is a vision of what the cosmos will become should the powers of the Old Gods triumph over the forces that oppose them. The power of the Old Gods is supreme within their diseased dominion, but their influence stretches far beyond into the Titan Worlds, tendrils of corruption and manipulation that ensnare the hearts, minds, and souls of countless mortals. Within the shadows and dark corners of the Titan Worlds, dark cults and hidden tainted civilizations flourish, scheming to bring about the downfall of mortal rule and usher in an age of endless insanity under the reign of the Old Gods.
The Timeways
The Oceans of Light
The Deep Void
The Cosmic Worlds Tree - Vrildrassil
Wonders of the Titan Worlds
The Legacy of Azer
When Azeroth shaped the Titan Worlds, she incorporated fantastic constructs into them designed to ensure the healthy development of their worldsouls. These great structures appear as enormous monuments of stone that thrum with Titanic mystical power. Great monoliths, rune-carved arches, sprawling temples, monumental cities that stretch for miles across and below the surface, even enormous machines can all be found throughout all of the Titan Worlds shaped by Azeroth, each one with a variety of amazing functions designed to protect the development of the nascent Titans. Some are common to each of the Titan Worlds, while others are unique to their specific host world.
These great structures were all initially concealed in the most remote corners of the Titan Worlds and warded with powerful magic to conceal them from mortal races, to better ensure that both the mortal populace and their world would develop with a minimum of interference. Over the millennia however, many of these structures have been lost in cataclysms that affected the Titan Worlds, while others have been discovered by canny mortal explorers. Across all the Titan Worlds, these mortal seekers have slowly been unraveling the secrets of their origins.
Collectively, these ancient structures are known as the Legacy of Azer by those few mortals of the Titan Worlds who know of them.
Worldgates
Azeroth always intended that the Titan Worlds would one day become joined in contact and fellowship, and the great portals known as Worldgates were designed to allow just such an age unity. Worldgates greatly vary in appearance, typically resembling enormous portals and gateways framed in stonework or wildgrowth. Worldgates can be found by the hundreds throughout every Titan World, scattered through the worlds in all manner of locations from mountain peaks, verdant forests, and even ocean floors or active volcanoes. While functional, a Worldgate generates a magical portal that connects to a counterpart Worldgate on another Titan World, allowing safe passage between the two worlds. Some Worldgates are truly colossal in scale, standing hundreds of feet tall and allowing the passage of many dozens standing abreast, while others are no larger than 10 feet tall.
In the past, Worldgates were operative and many mortals were able to venture to other worlds, bringing fantastic tales of the wonders found there. Ancient kingdoms and empires made contact with one-another, in some cases sparking wars but more often leading to peace and trade and cultural exchange. Azeroth's dream of unity seemed like it would slowly but surely be realized. But one day, disaster struck. Some unknown calamity swept through the Titan Worlds in the form of a terrible army that used the Worldgates to invade and annihilate countless civilizations. Many ancient kingdoms had built themselves around Worldgates to facilitate contact and travel to other worlds, and these were the first to fall as the great unknown enemy's legions swept through the Titan Worlds with genocidal intent.
Only by some miracle did life on the Titan Worlds survive, as the enemy's legions were suddenly drawn in great numbers to Khazgor, passing through many Worldgates to gather on the World of Stone in their vast multitudes. As soon as the bulk of the enemy's forces had gathered on Khazgor, the Worldgates mysteriously shut down, cutting off the Titan Worlds but also isolating the surviving races there from further attack. With the enemy trapped on Khazgor, an unknown force swept into them with cataclysmic fury, decimating the enemy army and nearly erasing them entirely from existence. Half of Khazgor was scoured clean in the apocalypse, the southern hemisphere rendered in a blasted desert wasteland, but the act spared the inhabitants of the Titan Worlds from complete destruction. In the aftermath, the Worldgates lay dormant for centuries, the cause of their deactivation unknown, the secret to their opening beyond the skill of mortals. Thousands of years passed as mortals rebuilt their shattered lives, and knowledge that the Worldgates once functioned have largely passed from memory for most races.
In the recent age, some of the Worldgates have mysteriously begun to reawaken, but their function is sporadic and temporary, allowing entry to other worlds for only a short time before falling into dormancy once again. None can say for certain why this is happening, or what it means for the future of unity Azeroth had dreamt of.
Life Cradles
Of all the constructs wrought by Azeroth, it is perhaps the Life Cradles that are most significant. These relics take a great variety of different forms depending on their world and even their location upon that world. Some are fortress-complexes of stone set deep in mountain-sides, others are wondrously beautiful forested glades ringed with mystical runestones, while some might take the form of whirlpools deep beneath oceans far from the sun or secluded caves located deep beneath the surface. One commonality between all Life Cradles is that they all contain or ensconce a large water-source - the forest glen will contain a deep and crystal clear lake, while the lower levels of the stone fortress will have immense cisterns of similarly pristine water.
In ancient times when the Titan Worlds had only existed for some few centuries these Life Cradles were the very source of all living creatures in all the worlds. The magic of the Life Cradles drew upon the great worldsouls and the memories of Azeroth to generate biospheres for the Titan Worlds, and within the waters of the Life Cradles life was born. The waters churned furiously as life was spawned within them, shaped by Azeroth's memories - from minute lifeforms too small to see with the naked eye, to all living creatures great and small. Spores and fungi and mosses and seedlings crawled forth from the Life Cradles to spread across the world. Animals poured forth in a living tide - insects and lizards, birds and beasts of all kind. For centuries the Life Cradles poured forth an endless variety of living creatures until they had colonized every livable region of the Titan Worlds.
Once the biospheres were in place, the magic of the Life Cradles changed, and within their waters were produced the first generation of mortal races. These mortals were also formed from Azeroth's memories, shaped in homage to the many mortal spirits that had lived and died upon Azeroth in her nascency, their souls filling her own worldsoul with countless lifetimes of experience. From these memories Azeroth forged the mortal races anew, and this first generation of mortals formed and emerged from the Life Cradles as fully grown members of their respective races in the prime of health. Humans, orcs, elves, trolls, dwarves, ogres, and countless other races that had once called Azeroth home, either in her ancient pre-history or the last days before her awakening.
This first generation bred true and established the earliest mortal populations surrounding the Life Cradles. In time, the creation magic of the Life Cradles halted, as it was no longer needed to produce further life - Azeroth had desired for the living creatures of the Titan Worlds to further propagate themselves naturally, diversifying and evolving as they once had upon her surface, and this intention was built into her Life Cradles. With their creative purpose at an end, the Life Cradles fell into dormancy. Some automatically dismantled themselves, crumbling into nothingness to be swallowed by the nature they had generated, while some shielded themselves through powerful magic from mortal approach, lying hidden in dimensional pockets or folded space-time rifts. Others generated powerful warding magic that served to drive away any mortals who attempted to remain settled near the dormant cradles - the warding did not actively harm the mortal populace, but caused unrest and unease in their minds and served to push them to leave their birthplace and explore the greater world that had been made for them. Many races have histories or myths regarding certain secluded regions of the world feared as sacred ground, inviolate, or even cursed that mortals should avoid, all due to the effects of Life Cradle warding.
Over the millennia, some of these dormant Life Cradles have been lost to cataclysms, while others have had their warding fail, leaving them exposed to mortal exploration. Still others have mysterious resumed their function, brimming over with creative energy, new forms of life slowly beginning to take shape within their waters.
Creation Forges
While Life Cradles generate organic lifeforms, the Creation Forges instead produce beings of living stone and metal. These Forgeborn entities are fully formed and highly intelligent, possessing ingrained directives to carry out specific tasks. Often these tasks involve protecting facilities and instruments constructed by Azeroth, including the Life Cradles. While sentient, Forgeborn are often emotionally limited or singularly focused on their assigned function, lacking that element of free will that other lifeforms possess. Such is the cost of ensuring the Titan Worlds future.
Gods of the Titan Worlds
Throughout the Titan Worlds, mortal races worship countless beings of great power as gods.
Azer, the Creator
All the Titan Worlds recall Azeroth, the Final Titan, in some capacity. Only a small cadre of scholars on Gannon hold knowledge of the true history of their worlds origin and the nature of the being who created them, but knowledge of Azeroth was imprinted into the very racial memory of nearly every mortal race. Though time and legend have distorted the truth, countless mortal kingdoms and civilizations give praise to Azeroth as a divine being. She has been given many names - Azer is the most common, while others name her Zerath, Azro, Ezerth, and countless other variations on her true name. Some call her Earthmother, the Mother of Miracles, or other such titles. Sometimes she is depicted as male, or animal, but most races view her as a female member of their own race. Some traditions depict her as a supreme deity presiding over all the cosmos, others as part of a pantheon of deities, others as a minor power in service to greater forces.
Dreamborn
Some mortals worship the Titan Worlds themselves as deities. The slumbering worldsouls within the Titan Worlds hear the prayers and worship of mortals, and their dreams are stirred by them. Just as Azeroth's dreaming gave rise to the deities like An'she and Mu'sha, the dreams of the slumbering Pantheon have given rise to other deities, fragmented emanations of their great potential.
Each Titan World therefore boasts a pantheon of its own, multiple gods birthed from the endlessly changing dreams of its worldsoul. Though each of these dreamborn deities emanate from a single source, they are varied and different from one-another, some violently so, reflecting the nature of their Titan's dreams and the dreams of mortals.
Wild Gods
The energies of life shine bright within all the Titan Worlds. From this energy emerges the Wild Gods, spirits of nature that have become great and powerful. They might have begun once as simply the souls of ordinary beasts, but the march of time and the worship of mortals has fed their power.
One such example is the stag deity of Edenar, Mournos, the King of the Hunt. Mournos was once a mortal beast, a mighty specimen of his kind, thought of as the king of his kin by a race of mortals who hunted in his forest. After a spirited hunt, the stag was brought low by a hunter who was moved by his quarry's valor. Marking his face in the stag's blood, the hunter said a simple prayer to its spirit in thanks for the hunt - this prayer contained a fraction of the hunter's own life force, his spirit, his very soul. The stag spirit took the energy of the prayer and endured, existing as a phantom in the forest it had once lived in. He would sometimes appear to other hunters, a flicker just out of sight, and the hunters would remember the story of the great stag king and say a prayer to him. They would dedicate their kills to him, consigning the spirits of their hunted quarry to their ghostly king.
All of the prayers, all of the fallen spirits of animals, flowed to the stag king's ghost, their similar essence drawing one-another together. The stag king's essence swelled with the influx of spiritual energies, causing it to grow more powerful, more intelligent. Eventually, the spirit underwent a kind of spiritual metamorphosis, emerging as a powerful Wild God, a being of both the physical and the spiritual worlds, a spirit of nature that could become flesh at will. His intellect greatly expanded as well, and he took it upon himself to watch over mortal hunters, guarding the cycle of hunter and prey, ensuring no abuse of the natural world took place. Thus was born Mournos, the Stag God, Wild God of the Hunt.
Countless other Wild Gods have been born throughout the many Titan Worlds. Often they dwell in the Primal Dream, a realm of ancient power that binds together the natural essence of all the Titan Worlds. If a Wild God is slain in the moral realm, their essence simply reforms in the Primal Dream, where they regain their strength.
Ascendants
Just as the spirits of beasts can gain power and become Wild Gods, so too can the spirits of mortals elevate themselves to godhood. The manner is similar - if a mortal should perish while leaving a significant impact on the world, their memory will draw the veneration of other mortals. A mortal spirit can feed on the prayers and emotions of living beings, drawing in the energy from exaltation as a plant drinks in the light and warmth of the sun. These mortal spirits eventually become powerful, immortal deities. The trolls are the race who understands the nature of these Ascendant deities the best. They call such beings Loa, a term which loosely applies to all beings and deities of the spiritual realm, including the Wild Gods and ghosts. Many troll families have minor household deities, born from the spirits of an ancestor and fed by that particularly bloodline's veneration. Powerful troll Loa, such as Baron D'Manshe and Fahr'Legga, were once mortals who performed great feats in life and become deified in death.
Elemental Incarnates
Elementals are living, sentient beings composed of elemental energy, which forms the underlying structure of the physical universe. Elementals manifest in the Titan Worlds where concentrations of elemental energy are located, as well as within the Primal Dream, where elemental energy is in abundance and the different varieties of elemental beings have formed their own kingdoms and environments. The mightiest of elementals are truly god-like in scale and power, known as the Incarnates of the Elements, or simply the Incarnates. Incarnates of fire, earth, air, and water exist in the Primal Dream, and there may be other Incarnates of more complex elemental composites, such as ice, dust, or magma, or more exotic principles such as sound or the arcane. Some who study the Primal Dream even claim that beings representing abstract concepts such as hunger, logic, or emotions may also exist within the more wild and incomprehensible regions of the Dream.
The Old Gods - Memories of the Black Empire
Eons ago, when Azeroth still lay in nascency, her world-form was infected by a terrible contagion. Out of the darkness between the stars came the Old Gods, eldritch beings of terrible power, who fell to Azeroth's surface like hideous meteors made of flesh and darkness. The Old Gods were manifestations of the Void, the most chaotic and dangerous dimension in all the cosmos, and they sought to infect Azeroth's worldsoul with the Void's darkness, turning her into an avatar of entropic horror. The Old Gods spread their Black Empire across her surface, thinking to drown her spirit in sorrow and madness before they fused their own hideous physical forms with Azeroth's material body. Fortunately for the cosmos, Azeroth's fellow Titans discovered her before the Old Gods could complete their dark design. The Old Gods were defeated, their Black Empire annihilated. Azeroth weathered the corruption of the Old Gods and emerged stronger than ever from the conflict, her spirit pure and untainted. In time, the Old Gods were themselves destroyed, their abominable physical vessels shattered and their Voidborn spirits extinguished.
But the Old Gods, even in death, even in utter annihilation, are a crawling cancer upon reality itself. The power of the Void touches all things - time, space, souls, even dreams. While the Old Gods were destroyed, their memory remained, the epoch of their Black Empire a blight upon Azeroth's history, a trauma that she had endured and overcome, but which would never leave her. Evil had touched Azeroth, and while it would never rule her, it had left its mark upon her. Azeroth carried the memory of the Old Gods, and for creatures of such manifold Void-born potency, even a memory was dangerous.
When Azeroth created the Titan Worlds, she tapped into her own memories of the fallen Pantheon to re-create their worldsouls and infuse them into her newly formed planets. At that moment, when all of her cosmic power was turned towards creation, when her great mind was focused inwards upon her earliest memories, the dark wisp of corruption left by the Old Gods writhed in the core of her being with wicked purpose. The darkness in her memory could not taint Azeroth in the fullness of her cosmic glory, but it could steal a measure of her power to enact its own inimical designs.
The dark memory of the Old Gods spirited itself free of Azeroth's worldsoul, stealing fragments of Azeroth's creative energy and burrowing deep into the flesh of the cosmos. Somewhere between the material universe and the depths of the Void, between the starry branches of the Worlds Tree Vrildrassil, the darkness spawned a new world, a new realm, a vile blight on the tapestry of existence. From this seed of dark potential grew the Godlands, a realm once removed from the darkness of the Deep Void itself, a realm that grows like a cancer feeding on the light and energies of the cosmos. Churning with impossible geometries and environments, the Godlands seethe and spill through the cracks of creation like a creeping mold. In its impossible landscapes creatures are born of a terrible blend between the living energies of the material universe and the abyssal potentialities of the Void, eldritch abominations whose sole purpose is to spread chaos and madness unfettered through reality.
Within the Godlands, four immense pustules of Void-corrupted matter writhe and pulsate, awake and aware, their twisted intellects turned towards ineffable designs that would leave the minds of mortals shattered. They are the Old Gods re-created, regrown from the memories that Azeroth once held of their prior incarnations. C'Thun. Yogg-Saron. N'Zoth. Y'Shaarj. They are not truly the same entities that once scarred the world in Azeroth's ancient past...
...but they might as well be.