Worldsoul

For the area in Antorus, see World Soul (subzone).

Azeroth's worldsoul as seen in The War Within cinematic.

Worldsoul (also spelled world-soul and sometimes world soul) is the name given to the powerful, nascent soul of a titan. The first and most vulnerable stage of a titan's life, worldsouls originate as masses of energy spun out into the Great Dark Beyond at the moment of its creation, eventually finding comfort in the warmth of a sun. In time, a planet coalesces around the newly-formed worldsoul, protecting it as it grows. The soul slumbers for ages within the planet's fiery core, suffusing the planet with their energies as generations of life live and die upon it before eventually awakening as a living world. Worldsouls only exist within a small number of planets scattered throughout the Great Dark. For a long time, the titans searched the Great Dark Beyond for the Prime Worldsoul, the most powerful in existence, which they would guide to become the greatest titan of all.

Speaking to a worldsoul is not like speaking to a mortal, which is why Azeroth needs Magni Bronzebeard as her Speaker. Magni says that Azeroth does not speak to him in words but in feelings, like the feeling of a crumbling mountain range, a deep dark sea, or a sunrise.

Ordering process

On each world they encountered, the Pantheon of Order employed techniques to ascertain whether a worldsoul was present.

• They would first pacify the world's raging elemental populations.
• Then, they would reshape the world, forming great mountains, fathomless seas, and roiling skies.
• Lastly, the Pantheon would seed myriad life-forms across the newly ordered world. In doing so, the titans hoped to call forth the worldsoul and help bring it to maturity. Most of the time, however, the worlds visited by the Pantheon proved inert.

Inert or not, the Pantheon had vowed to maintain and protect all worlds they visited. To do so, they empowered primitive life-forms to uphold the integrity of their ordered worlds. The Pantheon also embedded colossal machines in the surface of these worlds. Through these devices, the titans could monitor them, and purge them of life should their evolutionary paths succumb to disorder.

To aid the Pantheon, Aman'Thul called upon a mysterious race known as the constellar. These celestial beings observed the many worlds ordered by the titans, staying vigilant for any sign of instability. When it was necessary, the constellar could initiate a fail-safe procedure to scour life from a world in the hopes of resetting its evolutionary process.

Background

The worldsoul of Argus in Antorus, the Burning Throne.

The first known worldsoul to awaken was Aman'Thul. When he awoke, he set out to find others of his kind, rousing them from their slumber until they matured into full-fledged titans and joined him in his search. Aman'Thul and his siblings would become known as the Pantheon of Order, and together they would order countless worlds in the hopes of finding more of their kind. Despite their efforts, the titans discovered fewer and fewer worldsouls during their travels. They were not disheartened, however, for they knew that they had only explored but a small corner of the immeasurably vast Great Dark Beyond.

The void lords, jealous of the titans' power, had always wanted to corrupt one of them and make it their own. However, the titans were too powerful and completely oblivious to their efforts of corruption, which proved futile. The void lords instead decided to go after titans when they were still in their most fragile, vulnerable state when they were still slumbering worldsouls. They pooled their energy to create the Old Gods, charged to find and corrupt nascent titans throughout the Great Dark. Not knowing which planets contained worldsouls, the void lords hurled their creations out into the cosmos in the hopes that some would smash into a planet that contained one.

Sargeras and the corrupted worldsoul

Sargeras destroying the corrupted worldsoul.

Traveling in a cold corner of the Great Dark Beyond, the titan Sargeras stumbled upon a worldsoul. To his horror, he saw that the planet had been almost completely infested by the Old Gods, and the nascent titan's tranquil dreams had turned into horrific nightmares. After learning of the void lords' plans from the world's nathrezim inhabitants — that if the Old Gods succeeded in corrupting a worldsoul, it would awaken as an unspeakably dark creature who would devour all of creation — Sargeras cleaved the corrupted world in two, instantly killing the nascent titan within.

When he returned to the Pantheon to tell of his discovery, Sargeras was chastised by his brethren, who insisted that they may have been able to save the worldsoul without killing it. It was this event that later led Sargeras to form the Burning Legion in an attempt to prevent the void lords from ever spawning a dark titan.

Azeroth

Main article: Azeroth (titan)

After Sargeras' departure, his colleague, Aggramar, continued his work. One day, as he was wandering in the Great Dark, Aggramar heard the tranquil dreams of the most powerful worldsoul yet discovered: Azeroth. To his horror, he discovered that the planet had already been claimed by the Old Gods, though the defenseless titan within remained as yet untouched. After Aggramar and Eonar convinced their brethren to save Azeroth from corruption, the Pantheon crafted the titan-forged to do battle against the Old Gods, before eventually imprisoning them deep beneath the surface of the planet.

During the war against the Jailer, Zovaal attuned the Machine of Origination to his will, causing the Forge of Souls below Icecrown to begin drawing the life force of the soul of Azeroth into the Sepulcher of the First Ones, trying to pull her soul into the Shadowlands, in order to fuel the unmaking of reality. If successful, Zovaal's efforts would've triggered a chain reaction, causing his power to cascade outward from Zereth Mortis into the heart of each of the other cosmic forces, binding one after another to his will until they were all dominated by his power. However, with their resistance to Domination and with a boon granted by Azeroth herself, the Maw Walkers were able to protect the worldsoul from the Jailer's attacks, prevent him from configuring the Machine, and ultimately defeat him.

Argus

Main article: Argus (titan)

When Sargeras eventually found Argus and its worldsoul, he entrapped it in a prison of fel at the Burning Throne, a titan temple located in the heart of Antorus at the world's core. The worldsoul's own memories speak of being "betrayed" and "bound by something powerful". The nathrezim—who were secretly loyal not to Sargeras, but to the Jailer and the force of Death—suggested to Sargeras that they could create a resurrection engine that would allow the Burning Legion's armies to resurrect instantaneously, as he was displeased by the time it took for his demons to naturally regenerate in the Twisting Nether. They would only require the necessary fuel: a worldsoul infused with Death magic. In truth, this was part of Zovaal's "gambit": by corrupting Argus with Death, the nathrezim ensured that, upon its death, the titan's soul would be sent to the Shadowlands and slam into the Arbiter. As she had been made to judge mortal souls and not something as powerful as "the mad, hate-filled essence of a broken world", this would cause her to break down.

During the Argus Campaign, the Army of the Light and the order champions confronted the Avatar of Aggramar, who presided over the worldsoul of Argus, before the freed spirits of the Pantheon transported the worldsoul to the Seat of the Pantheon in order to sever its connection to the Legion. However, by Sargeras' command, Argus the Unmaker rose into his true form and confronted the heroes, with the Pantheon providing their support. Ultimately the battle ends with the Unmaker being put out of his misery, finally freeing him from his endless torment.

Others

This section concerns content related to Legion.

Planets corrupted by the Old Gods, as seen in Star Augur Etraeus' observatory in the Nighthold.

Star Augur Etraeus showed the class order armies, who led the assault on the Nighthold, the monstrosities of the universe. He used his stellar observatory to project desolate regions of the Great Dark Beyond, where at least three planets entirely consumed by the Old Gods could be seen (see the picture above). These are not necessarily planets with worldsouls, as the Old Gods were sent to as many worlds as possible in order to find one containing a soul.

Speculation

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

Since the titans have been created by the First Ones along with the other cosmic forces and their respective pantheons, worldsouls may not necessarily be nascent titans.