The Old Gods have been a staple of World of Warcraft’s lore since its release, cropping up in some form or another in nearly every expansion. These eldritch monstrosities are fan-favorite antagonists in the game, so it’s no wonder they keep coming back. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight thus far hasn’t overtly featured any squirming tentacles and glowing eyeballs, but the signs have actually been there all along.
Fans are coming to expect that Dragonflight’s story is about to head in a void-related direction, as Blizzard has been dropping several hints both inside the game and out. WoW's N’Zoth the Drowned is the most recently defeated Old God, having been scoured from existence at the end of WoW: Battle for Azeroth. Since then, it’s been assumed that Azeroth is finally Old God-free, but Dragonflight has caused many to question this conclusion.
The Old Gods Have Been Hinted Early On in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
Some visual clues hint towards Old God magic in Dragonflight, such as the Primalist outpost in Azure Span, Vakthros. The dark, twisting stone, and luminous orange portals are eerily reminiscent of N’Zoth’s tentacles and eyes, subliminally suggesting that the players are still being watched. When the game was first released, the Dragon Isles were spoken of as a place where World of Warcraft's Old Gods were actively worshiped, littered with temples to their glory. It was later made to be the ancestral home of all dragons, but it’s not impossible to imagine that it might have been riddled with void magic before the dragons existed.
Before World of Warcraft: Dragonflight even launched, some cinematics were released depicting the story of Emberthal, the Dracthyr leader, and her discovery of the past. These artistically rendered videos are known to be foreshadowing goldmines by now, and these are likely to follow suit. Nozdormu, WoW: Dragonflight's Bronze Aspect, shows Emberthal visions of Neltharion being corrupted by the Old Gods, an event that has never been shown to players before now. In what was perhaps his final noble act before completely succumbing to evil, Neltharion uses void magic to imprison Raszageth the Storm Incarnate within the Forbidden Reach. That void magic is pretty much guaranteed to depict how the results of Deathwing’s descent into Old God corruption still linger throughout and beneath the Dragon Isles.
As of the upcoming Embers of Neltharion patch, WoW characters like Wrathion and Sabellian are going to be forced to face the corrupted legacy of their father, Deathwing the Destroyer. This doubtless will lead to them having to confront Old God whispers and temptations, just as their father did millennia ago. However, dialogue in these quest lines suggests that these whispers are not residual memories of the past, but are actually present in real-time. This is a huge implication since players have been led to believe that all of Azeroth’s four Old Gods are dead.
There is an in-game book called “The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth” that has been around since World of Warcraft was released. In this book, there are said to be five Old Gods, not four as was originally thought. Many players thought this was retconned later, but the book’s reappearance in Dragonflight is cause for reconsideration. A newly annotated version of this book can be found in World of Warcraft's Forbidden Reach with personal notes from Deathwing. This means that Blizzard had every chance to edit the manuscript if it were incorrect, but re-adding it to the game with other updates shows that perhaps this book has been right all along.
Nobody is sure who this fifth Old God is or where it resides, but the earth beneath Aberrus, Neltharion’s ancient laboratory, is saturated with void energy. This is unlikely coincidental, and perhaps there is some ancient entity down there. The former Black Aspect could have built his laboratory in that location specifically to research the Old Gods, although this backfired and drew Nelatharion into madness. Retracing the Black Aspect’s footsteps as he met his tragic fate is likely to stir up some Lovecraftian trouble beneath players’ feet. Time will tell if the Old God’s whispers come to fruition sooner rather than later, but it seems so far Dragonflight is headed for a void-themed conclusion.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is available now for PC.