I’ve noted before how Maldraxxus is at least some giant cosmic tumor. Seeing as there’s hair, bones, boils and the dirt is flesh.
Now I didn’t think much of that at the time. Necromancy is the name of the game here and being constantly surrounded by blood, bone and sinew would mean you’re never lacking materials to make more macabre man-at-arms.
But apparently several flavor text descriptions refer to it as The Maldraxxus and it appears this was a deliberate wording and not a grammatical error.
Additionally it’s been pointed out it’s the zone you get the least good of a look at flying in and out of. I figured this was just the lousy draw distance on my dated laptop but turns out people with nice PCs still can’t see too much of it.
So it sounds like the Maldraxxus may be an entity, not a zone.
Personally as the Necrolords are the most weaponized of the Covenants, I suspect it’s actually a titan sized abomination. That can be activated as a last ditch defense in case the Shadowlands were invaded by the likes of Sargeras or a Void Lord.
I think it’d be a hell of a memorable moment if it turns out to be basically a death metal Megazord, and we’ve to help operate the limbs to kick and punch a now Galactus sized Jailor.
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Maldraxxus actually being some form of Xenoblade-esque colossus made of flesh that the Maldraxxians settled and made a home on is a pretty common theory, one that makes total sense given everything about it. If it is, its skincare is atrocious.
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Hey, be fair. I’m sure to the mites on our faces we look like a nightmare too.
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TBH I’ve embraced this idea as headcanon ever since reading the flavor text that said ‘THE’ Maldraxxus. It just seems so fitting!
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So once upon a time on reddit I speculated that Zovaal created each Eternal from a different being.
Denathrius was a demon, Kyrestia was a mortal, etc. They were each reshaped into an Eternal, same way the Titan World Souls are shaped into Titans (I think the notion they birth naturally is gonna be retcon’d, the First Ones determine what would will be a Titan)
Now I think the First Ones did that.
Primus means first.
- he is the first of the necrolords
- first necromancer
- first construct and first Lich
Maldraxxus means bad dragon
- the First Ones took an old god and reshaped it into a zone and shaped its “soul” into the Primus
- the Primus had to reshape his body with the Bindings of Fleshcrafting
- parts of his body would rebel against him, so he had to “conquer” parts of Maldraxxus
- the metaphysics of necromancy is rooted in shadow
Runecarver is the Primus
- that is his main power and talent
- runes are the language of the first ones
So much the same way it’s Archon (title) Kyrestia (name) the Firstborne Kyrian (epithet) and Sire (title) Denathrius (name) the Redeemer (epithet)
It is actually Primus Maldraxxus the Runecarver.
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The Runecarver being the Primus seems like a slam dunk. I mean first off they have similar faces, and moreover they have the same vactor. Which I think is of note as part of the reason Kel’Thuzad was so dull in Wrath was because his usual Vactor was voicing Arthas, and they didn’t want to make things confusing.
Granted it’s possible Blizz either got lazier or just remembered professional voice actors can create numerous distinct sounding characters. So who knows.
On the Dragon bit though, they did put in the model for a cooler looking undead dragon. Which so far I’ve only seen twice; at the end of Tutorial Island and later Kel’Thuzad conjures one to delay you.
Seeing as Maldraxxus’s style guide seemed to be “Death Metal Albulm Cover Art with a glaze of surprising wholesomeness” I wouldn’t be surprised if the zone turned out to be a friendly giant cosmic zombie dragon.
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If I remember right, there was supposedly a titan that was created with the intent of replacing Sargeras after he went loco and Sargeras chopped him down. My dumb little headcanon idea is that the entire zone takes place on his corpse. And it’d make necromancy pulling usable bits from the body kinda like a magic version of recycling through decomposition.
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Now that I’ve said it outloud I’m hoping for big zombie dragon.
Because now that I think about it - everything else in the Scourge’s arsenal was the Kirkland brand knock off of something in the Shadowlands. Except for Frost Wyrms.
The only undead dragon we see in Maldraxxus I’ve noticed is the one Kel’Thuzad conjures. Which seems a bit odd. Even if you don’t have any dragons on hand to raise, they’re a pretty effective combat shape, and you’ve more than enough parts to just sorta staple together your own.
You don’t need store bought plague dragons, home made is fine
Just seems an odd thing to not include. Unless of course, we’re on one.
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Huh, I never thought of that… Hmmm could this mean that… no, I don’t think it fits the time like… then again… Could it be that Maldraxxus is the progenitor of Dragons Galakrond dead flesh or what’s left of it? 
In the story he was growing in size and became this weird Death Aspect eating everything… I don’t think in Death he would stop eating and growing…lol. 
Nah, even though “Time is not a construct of Death” like The Forgotten One mentions… I think the time line of Maldraxxus between Galakrond as old as he was still doesn’t go THAT far, right?
NVM, I’ll just mention it because when you mention that meaning, and my only though went to the Oldest of Dragons who I think was Galakrond. 
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…well, there goes my ability to ever take Maldraxxus seriously, ever again.
Curse you, internet. Curse you a thousand times over.
(…if you have to ask, you don’t want to know)
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I blame Kalecgos for encouraging that sort of thing, honestly.
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Joking aside, I think it would be cool if the Primus was a once-mortal from a Titan World, who some way or another managed to transport his planet into the Shadowlands rather than wherever they go when they die normally. Could also serve as a way to reintroduce reorigination and the concept that Titans are a bigger picture race more concerned with universal stability than saving individual lives, an idea that was shown to us in Ulduar (“worlds bathed in the makers flame”) but not a lot since.
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My Rogue dinged 60 this weekend and he is my Maldraxxus dude, so I spent a bit of time there recently. I started wondering the same thing. It almost seems like some giant ant hill made of various pieces of flesh and bone and gore, while possibly alive and dormant.
If, for the sake of discussion, we go with the idea that The Maldraxxus is alive, then I guess we wonder: “what is it?”
I wonder if it was a living world that was slain, and when it went to the Shadowlands, it sort of reformed from its soul.
Or… going with my Ant Hill idea… I wonder if the Necrolords make excursions into the realms of the living to grab flesh and bone to add to their ant hill. It was suggested that they do make excursions outside of their realm to defend Shadowlands. Maybe they are universal transdimensional grave robbers building their giant abom-house-zone.
I wonder, if it is alive, or not, why is there so much flesh and bone and gore anyway? It makes me think that maybe The Maldraxxus invaded the Shadowlands long ago, and was defeated, and turned into a base of operations.
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My theory is that it could be Galakrond, or whatever became of him in the shadowlands. Given the lore in chronicles it stated how colossal he was comparatively to all other proto-drakes and he could flatten a forest with the beating of his wings. Eventually he began mutating and developing necromantic abilities to the point Tyr gathered the soon-to-be dragon aspects to help bring him down.
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Are you referring to the Demodex mites that feed on dead skin and lay eggs in our oil glands? Everyone should know about them 
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Do Necrolord members who have been to the strange lake beyond the Seat of the Primus have any clues for us? I passed that way once and wonder what is going on there.
I also find it very interesting how mountainous the borders of Maldraxxus is. The zone has a huge barrier around it unlike the others because of this.
Maldraxxus is the source of necromantic magic, which should tell us a whole lot more than it actually does since Blizzard hasn’t done a very good job pinning down what exactly “death” magic or necromancy is that makes it distinct from, say, void magic beyond what it’s commonly used for.
In fact, the idea of a realm of death that is essentially about undeath specifically is odd, as the defining feature of undead is that they have died and should be dead but aren’t, and in that sense they’re a perversion of both life and death.
But perhaps that ties to the fact that it’s the most materialist realm of the bunch and it’s filled with people who for one reason or another aren’t letting go of the world of the living. The entire realm is undead, both literally and in a more abstract sense.
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