Even among the extraordinary members of the Pantheon, Sargeras stood out as a figure who embodied unmatched courage and strength. These traits made him the perfect choice for a daunting task: hunting down and exterminating the demons that threatened the balance of the cosmos. With unwavering conviction and a blazing fighting spirit, he charged into the Great Dark without hesitation, challenging forces that even the other Titans had yet to fully comprehend.
Sargeras was quickly drawn to worlds flooded with unstable and volatile energies. In these regions, the influence of the Twisting Nether had seeped into the physical universe, creating rifts that allowed vast numbers of demons to manifest in reality. These worlds became chaotic battlegrounds, places where the laws of nature were disrupted and destruction became the norm.
For centuries, Sargeras roamed these besieged worlds, fighting relentlessly to save mortal beings from the brutal and merciless onslaught of demons. He witnessed his enemies obliterate ancient civilizations into smoldering ash, twisting their inhabitants into abominations of hatred, rot, and depravity. The staggering scenes of devastation planted a deep sense of helplessness within Sargeras. Before beginning his mission, he had never imagined that such evil could truly exist in a universe created with harmony.
Yet despite their brutality and destructiveness, the demons lacked solid organization and often acted incompetently. Sargeras was able to defeat them with ease, claiming victory after victory in every battle. But over time, he began to realize that some demons had learned to harness Void energy—a dark power far more dangerous than ordinary magic. Through deep investigation into the origins of these forces, Sargeras discovered that malevolent intelligences were spreading corruption systematically across the cosmos.
These intelligences were not mere demons. They were the lords of the void, entities far stronger and more cunning than the creatures he had faced before. Their presence made Sargeras uneasy and filled him with dread. He began to ponder what these Void powers were truly planning, and what their existence meant for the future of the universe the Pantheon had long protected.
Although the discovery shook his beliefs, Sargeras did not stop his war against the demons. The Pantheon's work continued smoothly. They kept searching for newly born titans, reshaping damaged worlds, and planting seeds of life in places that had once been barren. Sargeras often observed these blossoming worlds. Watching life grow and flourish, free from demonic influence, gave him a profound sense of satisfaction. His love for life strengthened his resolve to confront the lords of the void and thwart their evil plans—whatever form those plans might take.
However, over time, the demons doubled their efforts. They consumed more and more worlds in an unstoppable wave of death and destruction. Sargeras grew disheartened when he realized he had fought many of them before. After being defeated in the physical universe, their spirits returned to the Twisting Nether, eventually being reborn in new bodies. This cycle made his struggle feel futile.
The only way to kill demons permanently was to destroy them in the Nether, or in regions of the Great Dark saturated with volatile natural energy. But Sargeras had not yet realized this fact. He only knew that his current tactics were ineffective. Destroying his enemies' physical forms was not enough. He needed a more permanent solution—a way to prevent them from returning.
Seeing these troubling developments and the rising demonic activity, the Pantheon decided to send another titan to aid the champion. His name was Aggramar. Though inexperienced in battle, Aggramar showed an extraordinary ability to learn quickly. He soon earned Sargeras's admiration and became the trusted lieutenant of the titan warrior. For thousands of years, they fought side by side, forming an impenetrable bulwark against the increasingly ferocious demon assaults.
With Aggramar able to hold his own in combat, Sargeras had time to study the nature of the Twisting Nether more closely and search for ways to contain the demons. Though he had yet to grasp the full scale of that volatile realm, he managed to learn how to manipulate and shape parts of its energy. From this knowledge, Sargeras forged a prison within the Nether. Known as Mardum, the Plane of Banishment, it was designed as an impenetrable pocket dimension from which no creature could escape. The defeated demons would no longer be reborn. They would be locked inside this prison, languishing forever without hope of release.
As Aggramar and Sargeras continued their campaign, the prison filled with captive demons and the destructive energy they radiated. Soon, these energies became so intense that they began to tear the veil between the Nether and the physical universe. The prison began to appear in remote regions of the Great Dark as a bright green star, becoming a symbol of this new containment power.
The bold efforts of Sargeras and Aggramar soon brought relative peace to the cosmos. Demon attacks remained a constant threat to the Great Dark, but their frequency dropped dramatically. The Titans' worlds flourished, and life—in all its complexity and beauty—thrived.
And amid it all, the musical theme played by Eru Ilúvatar and the Ainur still echoed throughout the Warcraft universe, uniting the harmony of two great mythologies into a single, unending symphony.
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While the Pantheon was busy searching for the world-souls still slumbering in the corners of the cosmos, Sargeras and Aggramar continued their hunt for wayward demons that kept spreading destruction. The two titan champions agreed they would be more effective acting independently, only calling upon each other when circumstances were truly dire and required their combined strength. And so, they parted ways, each carrying the resolve to protect the worlds that had not yet been tainted.
It was during this era that Sargeras discovered the true horror behind the plans of the Void Lords. He was drawn to a remote corner of the Great Dark Beyond, where cold, seeping Void energy radiated from a black, barren, lifeless world. There, Sargeras witnessed colossal beings unlike anything he had ever seen before, embedded into the surface of the world like ancient parasites. They were the Old Gods—primordial entities that had burrowed into the world and cloaked it in a shroud of corrupting Void energy.
The horror Sargeras felt surged even further when he realized the world was not dead. He heard the world-soul dreaming within its core. But the dream was not the serene vision he had come to expect from other world-souls. It was dark, filled with screams, and haunted by terrifying shadows. The tendrils of the Old Gods had dug deep into the world's heart, enveloping the sleeping titan spirit in corrosive shadows of the Void.
A conclave of nathrezim—demonic tempters and manipulators—had discovered the black world before him. They had settled among the Old Gods, absorbing the dark power that seeped from the Void. Sensing their repulsive evil, Sargeras captured the nathrezim and interrogated them with unbearable cruelty. Their bodies were shattered beneath his fury, but before they vanished, they revealed a secret that changed everything.
The nathrezim had learned that if Void energy succeeded in corrupting a nascent titan, that titan would rise as a being of immense darkness and power. No force in all of creation, not even the Pantheon, would be able to stand against it. Over time, the distorted titan would consume all matter and energy in the universe, bending every particle of existence to the will of the Void Lords.
Sargeras, the undefeated champion of the titans, felt fear for the first time in his existence. He realized that just as the Pantheon sought out world-souls to guide and protect, the Void Lords were doing the same—but with far more terrifying intent. He had never imagined that Void energy could consume and corrupt an unborn titan.
But the proof stood before him, undeniable.
Rage and sorrow burned within Sargeras's soul. He annihilated the nathrezim with a single blow so powerful that their forms were erased from existence. Then, he turned his attention to the black world itself. His heart was gripped by profound grief, for he knew there was only one way to prevent the rise of a dark titan.
With a single swing of his sword, blazing with cosmic power, Sargeras cleaved the world in two. The resulting explosion destroyed the Old Gods and the Void energy they radiated—but also killed the sleeping titan soul within. The world was shattered, and with it, the hidden threat was extinguished.
Sargeras immediately returned to the Pantheon and summoned Aggramar to his side. Before the gathered titans, he recounted his discovery and the actions he had taken. The members of the Pantheon were stunned by what they heard, but even more shocked by Sargeras's decision, which they deemed reckless. They reprimanded him for killing one of their kin without consulting them first. In their view, had Sargeras asked for help, they might have saved the world-soul from Void corruption.
Though Sargeras tried to convince them that his actions were the only reasonable choice, he quickly realized his efforts were in vain. The other titans had not seen what he had seen. They would never understand the depths of darkness he had faced. Aside from Aggramar, none of them had direct knowledge of the Void or demons. They could not fathom how deep and destructive the power of the Void truly was.
A fierce debate erupted between Sargeras and the entire Pantheon over the best way to confront the threat of the Void Lords. Sargeras voiced his fear that if one world-soul had been corrupted, then many others were likely infected as well. It might already be too late to stop them.
He proposed a horrifying idea: that existence itself was flawed. Only by burning all of creation could the Titans thwart the Void Lords' final plan. In Sargeras's mind, even a lifeless universe was better than one ruled by the Void. Life had once taken root in the cosmos. Perhaps, after everything was cleansed, life would take root again in the future.
This idea horrified the entire Pantheon. Eonar, the Life-Binder, reminded them that the Titans had sworn to protect living beings as much as possible. No threat was so great as to justify systemic extinction. Even Aggramar, who had long been Sargeras's loyal supporter, opposed his mentor. He insisted there had to be another way to defeat the Void Lords. He pleaded with Sargeras to abandon his dark plan and seek a wiser solution.
Consumed by despair and a sense of betrayal, Sargeras left the other titans in burning fury. He knew his kin would never think clearly. And if they were unwilling to help him purge the titans already corrupted by the Void, then he would do it himself.
That was the last time the giants of the Pantheon saw Sargeras as one of their own.
When the sacred song ended, a new continent emerged on the planet Azeroth—one that would later be known as Valinor and Middle-earth. The Ainur—or Valar—descended to Azeroth at the command of Ilúvatar. They planted the soul of humanity that would one day become the World Tree in the continent of Valinor, and were tasked with guarding it until it awakened.
The Valar then began shaping and reshaping the world according to Ilúvatar's will, making the continent of Azeroth part of the grand design of Arda. Two great mythologies were now beginning to merge, and new seeds of life were planted in the land that had once been a battlefield of gods.
For countless centuries, the members of the Pantheon continued to roam the vast expanse of the cosmos, searching for newly born titans, bringing order to chaotic worlds, and planting seeds of structure amid the turmoil. Yet despite their extraordinary perseverance and strength, not a single new kin was found. At times, the titans quietly wondered whether their quest was a futile, endless endeavor. Even so, they never gave up. Deep within their hearts, they believed that world-souls still lay dormant, and that belief gave them an unshakable sense of purpose.
Unbeknownst to them, that intuition was correct. In a remote corner of the Great Dark Beyond, a wondrous new world began to take shape. Deep within the core of this young world, the spirit of a mighty and noble titan began to stir from its long slumber.
Aman'Thul felt the pulse of energy flowing in harmony with the echoes of Ilúvatar's Song—one he had once heard alongside the Ainur in ages past. That song, which had once come from an unknown source, now seemed to resonate throughout the world of Azeroth—and its origin felt intimately close to the newly awakened titan soul.
One day, it would be known as Azeroth—one of the most powerful world-souls ever to exist.
As this newborn titan grew, elemental spirits began to roam the surface of the world. At first, they interacted harmoniously, but over time, these primordial beings became increasingly erratic and destructive. The developing world-soul was so vast and powerful that it absorbed and consumed most of the fifth element: Spirit. Without this primordial force to maintain balance, Azeroth's elemental spirits descended into uncontrollable chaos.
The four primary elements—fire, earth, air, and water—dominated the infant world. They reveled in endless conflict, keeping Azeroth's surface in a constant, destructive flux of elemental forces. Four elemental lords, each wielding power beyond mortal comprehension, led countless lesser spirits in a war that never ceased.
Among the elemental lords, none was more cunning and manipulative than Al'Akir, the cruel Lord of Wind. He frequently dispatched his minions—elusive, invisible storms—to spy on his enemies and sow suspicion among them. Through deception and intricate schemes, Al'Akir pitted the other elementals against one another, creating internal strife that weakened them. Once his enemies were divided and vulnerable, he unleashed the full wrath of his servants. The winds would howl, the skies would darken, and storms would lash the surface of the world. Al'Akir's vortex elementals would descend screaming from the heavens, engulfing his foes in devastating cyclones that obliterated everything.
Ragnaros, the Firelord, held nothing but contempt for Al'Akir's trickery. He despised cowardice and deceit, choosing brute force as his primary path. Impulsive and arrogant, Ragnaros annihilated his enemies with savage destructive power. Wherever he walked, volcanoes erupted through the crust, spewing rivers of fire and devastation. He wanted oceans to boil, mountains to turn to slag, and skies to be filled with embers and ash. The other elemental lords harbored deep hatred for Ragnaros due to his reckless and ruinous assaults, which often disrupted the balance of power among them.
Therazane, the Stonemother, was the most reclusive and protective of the elemental rulers. She shielded her children by raising towering mountains, creating impenetrable natural fortresses to repel enemy attacks. Only after her attackers were exhausted and their strength depleted against her unyielding stone defenses would Therazane emerge. She would open massive chasms in the earth, swallowing entire elemental armies that dared to challenge her. Those who survived would face destruction at the hands of Therazane's most formidable servants: crystal mountains and merciless stone constructs, moving with unstoppable force.
Neptulon, the wise Tidehunter, was always careful not to fall into Al'Akir's schemes or assault Therazane's impenetrable bastions. As the forces of fire, air, and earth clashed across Azeroth's surface, Neptulon and his elementals would exploit the chaos to divide and conquer their enemies. He never acted rashly, but when the moment came, he crushed his foes in brilliant, decisive victories. When his enemies fled, Neptulon would drown them beneath tidal waves that dwarfed even Therazane's tallest mountain ranges.
The apocalyptic battles between the elemental lords raged for thousands of uncounted years. Control over Azeroth shifted constantly between rival factions, each striving to reshape the world in their own image and according to their own will. But for the elementals, victory was never the true goal. Conflict itself was the essence of their existence. To them, a world of disaster and destruction was a glorious world. Their only desire was to continue the endless cycle of chaos—dancing in storms, burning in magma, and destroying in tidal waves that never ceased.