Ny'aotha is Alive?!

Lore Story Forum
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So as I mentioned I just got my copy of Exploring Kalimdor and the passage about Ny’alotha leaves me with a lot more questions than answers. Especially this bit on page 134.

The corrupted city nearly returned to Azeroth seeking to claim the Forge of Origination for itself and it’s master.

Ny’alotha was an entity that exists outside of N’Zoth. In service to a master.
The text is worded very interestingly because is also sets up cognative dissonance with how the characters remember it, each person who encountered it had a different idea about what it was. This lends itself to the idea that reality is what the dreamer makes of it, or that each individual can manifest his/her own reality. Ny’alotha was “A Nightmare made real.” But we the heroes drove it back into slumber. N’Zoth may have been re-originated, but Ny’alotha may still manifest again.

In lovecraft mythos the one who sleeps and dreams up reality is Azathoth. Could Nyalotha be a manifestation of Azeroth’s nightmares? I think there’s a neat Lovecraft reference here.

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on page 142 there’s another interesting passage. regarding a ring, the Deep Fathoms Ring, it’s a lowbie item drop for clearing Blackfathom Deeps, but that’s not the interesting bit. this next part is:

The Deep Fathom Ring ,which was guessed to come from the ocean depths of the Emerald Nightmare.

There’s no ocean in the Emerald Nightmare, not that is evident but this to me is a clear way of connecting the Emerald Nightmare with the Old God whispers, relating to the deep dark waters, drown yourself in the circle of stars and you will find him. (origninally I thought these whispers were about N’Zoth because he’s the only Old God underwater, but it’s becoming more clear that we have to delve deeper into the Emerlad Nightmare to find the master of the Old Gods.

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Nyarlathotep is the Will and Soul of the Ultimate Gods surrounding Azathoth’s Court so Ny’alotha being the Outer God Nyarlathotep is unsurprising.

Azeroth is Azathoth and Ny’alotha is Nyarlathotep the Soul and Will of her court: the Old Gods.

Nyarlathotep has a Thousand Forms which is the same number of Realities the Void Lords believe in.

The Alternate Timelines are all Faces of Nyarlathotep.

Incidentally among Nyarlathotep’s faces is the Moon Presence though we know little about that one.

The White Lady and Blue Child split off from the Earthmother out of fear of the Old Gods corrupting her which as we currently know resulted in the thousand Timelines of Nyarlathotep.

Seems like Elune and the Winter Queen were removed from Azeroth and brought to their Cosmic Realms and placed into Robots because the First Ones knew that the Old Gods were corrupting Azeroth into service to the Void Lords.

I suspect that Azeroth herself is a Moon. What does the Planet she orbits look like I wonder? Hopefully it’s Earth so that we can see Earth floating in WoW’s sky along with the real Sun(which would be smaller to the natives of Azeroth’s eyes than their own Sun due to said Sun being closer).

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I see that, but also I do see the possiblity that Xal’atath is Narlathotep, as her whispers have causes nothing but chaos, remember when she gets the player priest smited two times, once for questioning the might of Elune and another for bringing up Loken’s last words to Odyn.

I honestly think, and you may like this, that the Shadowlands in loosely based on the Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath, and therefore WoW is loosely based on Lovecraft’s unfinished work Dreamlands. WoW’s Emerald Dream being a version of the Lovercraftian Dreamlands.

If you want to find “the one from the outside who watches” “the one who covets what the other six hold fast,” Azathoth, you have to go deeper into the Emerald Dream/Emerald Nightmare “The Vassal of Life disguises treachery, beware the eyes of green.” The Vassal of Life is the Emerald Dream. Freya hid a dark secret when she first strumbled on Azeroth’s connection to the Emerald Dream.

It kinda feels like DF is going to be a Emerald Dream/Emerald Nightmare expansion. Where we learn the truth about Azeroth and the lies the Titans tried to hide about what Azeroth really is.

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Unrelated but also kind of related. So Diablo takes a lot of it’s mytholgy on angels and demons from the Enocian Bible, a ancient hebrew text claiming to be from the pre-flood days written by Noah’s grandfather who lived to be over 300 years old. In this text he describes how there were Watcher angels who came to earth and interacted with mortals, these angels mated with the humans and created half human half angel hybrids, the Nephilim, who still made an apperance in the Bible, even though the Enocian Bible has been cast aside as fiction. But one angel became known more than others, Azazel who taught mortals about war. Azazel was the first “fallen angel” and became the iconography for Lucifer or “The God of Death.”. Azazel was a scapegoat for all the sins of mortals and was imprisioned in a mountain for all time.

The Shu’halo, the primitive Tauren have the same myth about An’she, “he who sleeps under the mountain.” The Highmountain Tauren quest actually have you face an Old God minion deep under Highmountain. it’s actually kind of neat how WoW handles it’s comparative mythology. It was the “deep places” that drove the Shu’halo crazy and made them turn to the Void “The Deep Places” could mean they delved deeper into the core of the earth, closer to Azeroth, like Magni and the Dark Iron, or deeper into the depths of the Emerald Nightmare, because Tauren are also druids connected to the Emerald Dream. Azeroth may not be a Titan, not anymore, maybe she never was. She could be the Titan aspect of War and parallel Azazel. A fallen Titan. Whatever she is, she’s not good and her connection to the Emerald Dream is probably what created the Emerald Nightmare.

(Baal’s somewhere shaking his fist at me like “she’s trying to make An’she Satan again.” that’s not my point at all. That should not be the takeaway here. Azazel is also iconograpied as Prometheus, who is a hero who gave mortals technology for survival and dared to challenge the Gods. Hero or villian there’s two sides to every story.)

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All of Nyarlathotep’s Faces are Dreams.

The Emerald Dream is the most subtle of the Dreams of Azathoth. It is a Dream intended to mirror Ardenweald.

Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is entirely within the Dreamlands and thus would be represented by the Dreams of Azeroth I.E. the Timeways.

The Emerald Dream would be a Timeway intended to mimic Ardenweald as a Nature Realm. After all the Emerald Dream is Azeroth as she was before the Ultimate Gods decided to make court on top of her so her children the Winter Queen and Elune would mirror her original form if nothing else.

That would mean that Yog-Sothoth(who is supposed to be space and time in popular Lovecraftian imaginings) would be the Great Dark Beyond itself named after Yogg-Saron.

The Great Dark Beyond in otherwords is Yogg-Saron’s Avatar just as Nyarlathotep is all 4 Old Gods’ Avatars.

The Black Goat who watches from the outside would be Y’Shaarj’s True Form on Azathoth’s surface. The Y’Shaarj killed by Aman’Thul is an illusion resting on one of Nyarlathotep’s Thousand faces.

Fun Fact: The End Time apparently dissipates when Murozond is slain there so Murozond would be Nyarlathotep’s core. Nathrezim if I recall deceived the Void Lords into thinking that there were Infinite Possibilities instead of a Thousand so killing a Thousand Murozonds(or perhaps just 3 depending on how many of him are dead) might shatter Nyarlathotep exposing Azeroth’s True Face.

In otherwords Denathrius knows how to expose the 7th Cosmic Entity Azathoth by tricking Nyarlathotep and the 5 Old Gods that he is the Avatar of into thinking he has Infinite Faces instead of merely a Thousand thus making him waste them all rather than protect them.

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I think you and I are finally speaking the same language and it’s awesome.

I think “the true seat of power” plays into this too because whoever controls the Emerald Dream, controls the Universe. It’s thier conciousness that manifests the universe. like Purusha (the Jewish mysteries were heavily influenced by the Vedic ritualism) Lovecraft based the religion of his fiction on theosophy and the rise of the Western occult theory. He was a huge fan of Madame Blavatsky. “Yet, the Universe is real enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself.” (there was a post in GD about a guy who did like computer theory and he proposed a matrix theory to prove Azeroth is “real” and this is along the same lines. You should go check it out)

Right now it’s “Azathoth/Azeroth” which controls the dream but I think the whole “your coming was fortold in the rings.” suggests they are telling a Divine Humanism story where the player character gets to “sit the thone” and remake the universe. We get to ascend unto Kether. “The flame at the top of the tree.” It’s a clear reference to the Kabbalah, Tree of Life. The Sephirot of Jewish mysticism.

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I am fairly sure Ny’alotha was a manifestation of a possibility of what could be. The void does not work in absolutes. It is made out of What Ifs, and within the Void all of those What Ifs exist as true reality at the same time. The What If there was a N’zoth ran Black Empire collapsed when he kicked the bucket, but the root idea of Ny’alotha as a What If of the Black Empire will always exist somewhere in the Void.

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Do you think the Black Empire is capable of manifesting again on Azeroth? Or do you think that possibility died with the Old Gods?

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If a powerful enough Void Entity bent their mind to the goal, then I do not see why it couldn’t. Even the impossible exists somewhere in the infinite possibilities of the Void

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That’s true. Than again, if a Void Lord manages to manifest itself on Azeroth. I would think we’re all screwed at that point anyway.

They’re beings who’s power we aren’t supposed to be able to comprehend after all.

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Given that the Void Lords are effectively sapient black holes, yes that would be Very Bad.

I secretly still hope we get to visit K’aresh when we tackle a cosmic Void expansion tbh. But who knows. The Void is full of all sorts of wacky impossible stuff, that’s its nature. Well… except for the Path of the Light. That is the one thing that it cannot comprehend or contain.

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I was always fascinated by K’resh and what a void ravaged world would look like. Maybe in the Light vs Void conflict blizz has been hinting at heavily lately, than we’ll get to visit it.

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Personally I suspect that the final death of Murozond/Nyarlathotep(with Denathrius gloating about having fooled Nyarlathotep into thinking he had Infinite Faces through sending Nathrezim the Old Gods’ Void Lord Masters) will allow Azathoth fully coalesce the Timeways/Dreams forcing us to face her own 3 faces in the Expansion after Dragonflight: Naga Azshara(Light beneath the Tides), Night Elf Azshara(Light of the Moon) and Xal’atath.

Azathoth’s True Face would be forced to the surface following their demise(“At the Hour of her Third Death she ushers in our coming.” as she fully awakens and is taken down by the Raiders setting the stage for the awakening of her 6 brethren.

The Void Lords’ goal is to use the Old Gods in their collective Avatars Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth to subjugate Azathoth to create Titans for them to create Realities of their own.

Of course the Void Lords might already have Void Titans so Azathoth the Eldritch Mother Titan can be disposed of by the Players safely at their leisure.

The Void Tentacles may even be Azathoth’s Aesthetic since we have no idea what her true face looks like. In otherwords the Old Gods’ True Forms may look mundane in comparison to Azathoth(such as Y’Shaarj being a Black Goat with 7 Eyes watching from outside Azathoth’s slumber).

Taking out each of the 4 Old Gods would naturally result in N’Zoth controlling Xal’atath until he himself got kicked out of the Dreams forcing all 4 to take control over the Nyarlathotep Avatar by diving back in to the Dreams of Azathoth for their last ditch attempt through Murozond to control her for Void Titan production.

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Night Elves have always been based on the concept of neopaganism, especially Wicca with the Mother, Maiden and Crone. At some point that may have been Azshara in the lore as the singlular representative to Elune but Tyrande now emobides all of those aspects, Maiden, Mother, Priestess. She called upon Elune to ‘wear her darkest face’ as the Night Warrior (Crone) and the Old Gods have a lot to say about Tyrande and Elune “Night reveals her true face, she will bring only ruin.” I bring up Broxigar’s nieces Nightmare a lot because Stormrage forshadowed the Night Warrior ritual but also claimed that it was a manifestation of Yogg’s death nightmares, the Night Elf with black eyes that spews carrion that’s imagery only seen in nightmares induced by Yogg-Saron.

Varian had a similar nightmare in Cata due to the proximity of Old God blood where he dreamed of his father’s assassination and his father had black eyes with bugs spweing out his mouth. That’s why I think the Visions of Yogg-Saron suggest that we are nearing the third act of three leading up to Yogg-Saron’s return. I think it’s he who we will find in the depths of the Nightmare. Remeber there was a void tendril in the Rift of Aln and a void spawn we had to fight to get the green dragonflight scale in BFA…all forshadowing.

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Elune is one of the Earthmother’s Children as is the Blue Child.

The Earthmother is the Blind Queen wielding a Scepter of Bone.

The Dead Moon in otherwords. The Crooked Serpent with No Eyes which would cause even the Darkness/Void to howl for the Light it once despised.

Azathoth is for all intents and purposes Queen Nehelenia from Sailor Moon with her daughters Elune & the Winter Queen being Queen Serenity.

I imagine Azathoth’s True Form to look like Nehelenia’s True Form Zirconia. The Crone/Hecate in otherwords who is referred to as the original of the 3 Moon Goddesses.

Take out Azathoth’s 3 Avatars and she will come out of the pool watched over by Y’Shaarj in her true form the Old Moon Hag with no Eyes probably voiced by Barbara Goodson.

Incidentally Nehelenia is stated to be a force aligned with Death(like her sibling Death Phantom and unlike her other sibling Pharaoh 90 who is afraid of Death and wants to bust death via his Death Busters). It would be just like Night to claim to be Death over Mortis who would practically be Death Phantom.

Elune the White Moon, the Winter Queen the Blue Moon and An’she the Golden Moon(false Sun since the Real Sun is in reality with the Moon itself) are Azathoth the True Moon’s children.

An’she is said to hide below the horizon because of his Darkened Phase. Said Darkened Phase is most likely infact the New Moon/Dark Moon. All 3 Children of the Earthmother are Moons despite An’she making efforts to hide it due to vanity.

I’m sure the sight of the real Sun in reality will humilate An’she into refusing to lower himself below the horizon just so that he can at least catch everyone’s attention by being in the sky at all times despite not being the true Sun.

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that is interesting, but have you read the Eyes of the Earthmother compaired to The Embrace? Eyes of the Earthmother suggests that Elune is Mu’sha, just as everyone has always speculated, but she only has a brother. The Blue child was born from The Earthmother’s Tear when An’she was struck in the heart by the Void. The Shu’halo found the Blue Child and gave An’she and Mu’sha the Blue Child to raise as thier own.

The Embrace tells a slightly different story. The Embrace says that due to his wound An’she became very selfish and vain, and Mu’sha was lonely so she wished for a child. This child appeared as the Blue Child. But the Blue child became facinated with the mortals on Azeroth, and became concerned about what happens to them after they die. The Blue Child dissapears for 65 years at a time somewhere (I theorized it was to the Shadowlands and the Blue Child is the Winter Queen, because she was so facinated with death and what happens after, she became almost like a perverbial Persephone. staying in the Shadowlands. Elune is her sister, technically, who raised her as a daughter.

Another interesting point you may like is the Red Moon (another face of Elune- “the Face of Death”) was shown in the Embrace Story. So after the Blue Child leaves, Mu’sha is distraught because she cannot find her child and she blames the mortals of Azeroth, so she moves closer (not unlike she did in Darkshore!) and she burned so hot she “usurped the Sun” An’she and killed almost everyone on the planet. she was broken out of her rage by the sound of a mother’s tears over her dead child.

There’s parallels here to feminine archetypes especially relating to Tyrande and her becoming the Night Warrior because of grief. “The Mother” is a feminine archetype that Tyrande embodies as a reflection of “The Great Mother.”

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Looking at Xal’atath I’m starting to suspect that the appearance of Mu’sha, the Winter Queen and An’she was conflated with Azathoth having her eyes gouged out and turned into Azshara and Xal’atath.

In otherwords Xal’atath was right to consider Elune to be an upstart as she and her siblings are rival Moons sent by the First Ones to spy on Azeroth the Dead Moon.

Elune is practically Queen Serenity(an child of Cosmos in Sailor Moon) in otherwords contrasting Azathoth the Queen Nehelenia of the story.

The entities sleeping within the 6 Cosmic Realms might very well be WoW’s version of Sailor Moon’s other Villains.

Umbrae would be Metalia(unleashing Madness is Queen Metalia’s goal in Sailor Moon), Mortis would be Death Phantom, Vitae would be Pharaoh 90, Tumultus would be Chaos(the mother of the 6 others), Lumen would be Galaxia(a child of Chaos who allied with Chaos and Death Phantom) and Ordos would be Cosmos the rival of Chaos.

Khaos is Greek for Void incidentally. Since Chaos’s children Nehelenia, Pharaoh 90, Metalia and Death Phantom are outright called incarnations of Chaos it would not be surprising for Umbrae to call itself the Void despite being a shade of the True Void Tumultus.

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you know your moon goddess mythology. Yeah I hope that’s another aspect of the Tear of Elune. Elune’s eye was an artifact that Tyrande used to invoke the Night Warrior ritual.

Okay dude are you in my head right now? Azeroth being the Death world in duality with Dreanor being the Life world. There are so many dualistic paralells between Azeroth and Dreanor that I wonder if they were always meant to exist tied to one another, like possibly Dreanor being a mirror world to Azeroth.

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It might be possible. There are other Old Gods out there somewhere. We have known this since TBC with the summoned Old God in Shadowmoon Valley.

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Oh there are a ton of them out there. You can see an old god corrupted world from Telogrus:

That is not even counting Void Gods and other super powerful Voidspawn.

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I think Telgorus Rift Is the remains of K’aresh.

Thaumaturge Vashreen and Locus Walker need to finally have it out. Vashreen needs his money.

Also what about Shadreen The Watcher? I think she’s gonna come back in the blue dragonflight story for Kalecgos to confront. She was apparently behind the “incident at the Sunwell” (Brawlers Guild lore) Ie; she helped Sathrovarr corrupt Kalecgos and take over his body. Sathrovarr was mentioned again in Revendreth.