Wowhead has speculated it. Nobbel87 has made a video about ‘The Ancient One’ with similar speculations. We know the current elf body of Xal’atath is just a host and isn’t her real form. What are the chances Xal’atath could be The Ancient One formally introduced in Hearthstone? This wouldn’t be the first time where Hearthstone visually revealed a villain to us.
Anytime I think of Ancient One, I think of Dr. Strange.
I think Valthrux is a similar creature to Xal’atath.
…which has me wonder if Xal’atath’s demise will release the spirits of the previous users.
edit: Or more likely taking the forms of Xal’atath’s previous users in their fight.
The Ancient One is Mueh’zala. That was revealed in Shadowlands. The Spriggans were given orders by him to sow chaos in Andrenweald on his behalf. If you look at his wiki page it says The Ancient One in his title list.
Even though they share the same nicknames, the lore for The Ancient One given by Hearthstone is still drastically different from Mueh’zala. Was Mueh’zala a general of the old gods? I remember seeing Mueh’zala is an independent affiliation while The Ancient One works with/for the Old Gods. And why are the images of the villains completely different?
I am like 90% certain Mueh’zala were originally meant to play a much bigger role in the Shadowlands than what we ended up with. I mean, Blizzard had been hyping him up for several years. This is the guy Odyn sold his eye to, the one who made Sylvanas the Warcheif, and the subject of some of Il’gynoth’s whispers. He is also mentioned in some lore tablets in vanilla. And he was a prominent character in the Travler books.
All that for just a dungeon boss?
The ancient trolls worshipped C’thraxxi as Gods. Mueh’zala isn’t a troll he’s a formless black cloud, like N’Zoth was after he escaped his prison. There’s also the warning from Traveler that Mueh’zala would “feast on all of Azeroth.” That sounds Void.
First ones. Ancient one. All so vague
The blizzard special, years of hype for the biggest let downs.
How I felt about them making Ner’Zhul a dungeon boss in WoD.
That and how he was only relevant in Alliance quests & lore in WoD, despite being such a large figure amongst orc kind along with their former world (on the OG timeline).
Long before WoWhead - The majority of Shadowpriest players; along with myself in Legion had speculated that OR ~ That she was another old god (old goddess, if you will) that had been turned upon by all the others along with her body & power being consumed, followed by her spirit being bound to the blade before the titans had come to liberate Azeroth.
What if Xal’atath is actually a part of Azeroth?
Hearthstone is non-canonical.
The Ancient One is the most bog-standard title imaginable, and in a setting that has player races with individuals that can be 10,000+ years old could apply to almost anyone and means literally nothing.
Velen is older than recorded human civilization. I’m sure there’s a fruit vendor in some Night Elf village that could also be The Ancient One.
Hearthstone appears to be getting more canonical recently or at least much more reasonable.
Hearthstone was the first to reveal how N’zoth looked like-- even Y’saarj as well. Yes Hearthstone makes up new characters, but WoW has brought in some of them into the game as well.
Ppl will still call it knaifu