In terms of origin, it depends on the age of the Celestials, more or less. We donât have too much of a definitive timeline when it comes to which came first, the Wild Gods or the Aspects. The Cloud Serpents are of course derivative of the Jade Serpent, who was around pre-Sundering, before even the Kaldorei Empire, or at least the original was.
At a guess, I would say the slitherdrakes came after. The Cloud Serpents are much like the Faerie Dragons in that theyâre not of the Flights, and probably came into being soon after the ordering of Azeroth.
Didnât the questline involving them imply that they were experiments from Aberrus that escaped? The Slitherdrakes that is.
I remember the named NPC you had to kill refer to them as such.
As for Cloud Serpents, my headcanon is that they were originally proto-drakes that fled Dragonblight due to Galakrond. They settled in what would become Pandaria and were transformed from the Pools of Power. I mean if the WoE can turn Dark Trolls into Night Elves and the Pools of Power can turn Murlocs into Jinyu? Who is to say that Cloud Serpents didnât come from Proto-drakes.
Not necessarily. We know that several Wild Gods were not the first of their respective race. From Ashamane (whos family was killed by a pack of Wolves) to Rezan (whoâs mother is referred to as the first Devilsaur).
I would also argue that Tsulong is a wild god as well. Possibly all the âheavenlyâ cloud serpents to a degree.
So Hei Feng, Zhao Ren the Onyx Serpent, Tsulong the Golden Serpent, Yuâlon the Jade Serpent, the Azure Serpent and Yuâla are all Cloud Serpent Wild Gods.
Incidentally Yuâlonâs daughter Yuâla was created by Yuâlon bestowing her essence to a Jade Statue(yes that makes the carver the father of Yuâla). Basically she preformed a similar ritual to what Rezan bestowed on Volâjin onto a Jade Statue.
That of course means that Cenarius is Malorne and Elune preforming the same ritual on an acorn(as Keepers of the Grove and Dryads start out as Acorns that are Whispered to by Druids) which they entrusted to Ysera to raise.
Speaking of acorns I would assume that Theradras whispering to Remulosâs acorns of the long lost Race were what created the Centaur fought by the Tauren.
Wild Gods would be first, as they were linked to the Emerald Dream by Freya when she was out and about traveling Ancient Kalimdor during the Reordering, exploring the mysteries of new life that had emerged.
The Aspects came about after the Keepers had finished the Reordering and withdrawn to Ulduar (and Ra to Uldum), which was why Tyr had to deal with the Galakrond situation unaided by his fellows.
Humanoid âbeast racesâ are at times suggested to be descended from their respective Wild Gods (and even that is possibly just their own origin myths rather than truly accurate), but the Wild Gods themselves are described as having been individuals of their respective species who became especially powerful and intelligent. So Yulon would have been a mortal cloud serpent herself before becoming a Wild God, meaning the cloud serpents predated Freya finding and empowering them.
We also know the August Celestials were among those first early Wild Gods because itâs described in the backstory for Fu Zan, the Brewmaster Artifact Weapon. So cloud serpents (as well as the other Wild Godsâ and August Celestialsâ various species of origin) were already around during the Reordering, long before Neltharion himself existed, and so even longer before his experiments.
I suppose itâs possible that Slitherdrakes are Cloud Serpents evolved by Neltharion or vice-versa, but that depends when such experiments were made and when Abberus and the rest of Zaralek Cavern was closed off. And, when of course, we know Yuâlon has already been present and active, because of course if sheâs already active before the Slitherdrakes were even made, then we would then know our answer.
My belief is that the dragons of Pandaria have an entirely separate spiritual origin and purpose. They share nothing with the artificial creations of the titans save a coincidental name.