They come from nothing. They are madness. They destroy, corrupt, and their roots sink deep into any unfortunate world they come across. Cosmic parasites. Entropy made flesh. These gods are not your gods.

The lords of the void

In the cosmos there are certain forces at play. Two of the most primordial are those of Light and Shadow. Light emanates, it illuminates throughout all existence, and by its radiance we see all existence. It is the revelation, an evanescent force that brings other forces into existence. And such light inherently casts a Shadow.

Dwelling within that Shadow are beings of pure Void, the remnants of before existence itself. These beings do not exist as we understand it: they are a rejection of existence. They cannot exist, in the way we think of it. They are the Void Lords, dwellers in the bastion of Shadow, the last redoubt of the darkness that preceded Light. And they hate existence, the mockery of it, how it creates distinctions and boundaries and things. They hate all things, all life, all Light. They would see it all end.

The Sundering ripped the world of Azeroth apart, splitting the united continent of Kalimdor into pieces. It also tore apart the Well of Eternity, leaving only the Maelstrom in its stead. What effect this had on Azeroth’s world-soul hasn’t really been explored. But given that the Well of Eternity itself was a bleeding wound, one has to wonder if that wound had time to heal before the Sundering obliterated it.

But Azeroth lived on, its denizens continuing to survive, evolve, and thrive. Some were unexpected, like the Highborne exiled to the Eastern Kingdoms. And some were continued effects from the Curse of Flesh introduced by Yogg Saron.

Ancient prisons, compromised

Speaking of Yogg Saron, his devious efforts to free himself continued – and he wasn’t the only Old God striving to escape imprisonment. All of the Old Gods wanted to break free, the only question was how to best accomplish that task. But if you look at what happened during the War of the Ancients, it could simply be civil war spurred on by the Burning Legion. Or it could be part of a much larger plan…one that had yet to see fruition.

The abrupt, angry question delivered by pretty much any Demon Hunter NPC you click on in game is admittedly harsh to hear. It’s also really easy to take offense to, particularly since Demon Hunters are the newest allies we have. But it’s a legitimate question when asked to anyone else on Azeroth – and yes, that includes Death Knights and Forsaken alike.

Because when a Demon Hunters says they’ve sacrificed everything, they mean it.

Illidan Stormrage

Illidan stands out as the first Demon Hunter – it was a title he earned some time after seemingly betraying the kaldorei during the War of the Ancients. He didn’t want to ally with Azshara and Mannoroth, he wanted to find a way to stop them both. The best way to do that was to infiltrate their ranks and figure out exactly what they were doing, and how to stop it.