https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Aberrus,_the_Shadowed_Crucible#Neltharion's_Shadow_2
The Echo of Neltharion states this:
Wrathion says What… are you?
Neltharion says: I am the whisper in the dark.
Neltharion says: I had hoped you would see the value of the gifts I offered. Yet you rejected them.
Neltharion says: The dracthyr eagerly accepted. They were designed to serve.
The implication seems to be that the Old God behind everything is personally using Aberrus as a testing ground and had been running everything in Neltharion’s absence.
Yogg-Saron has always been the most cunning of the Old Ones to say the least and yes I suspect that this Old God is Yogg-Saron on the grounds that Iridikron siphoned Yogg-Saron’s power from Galakrond in the Dawn of the Infinite Megadungeon.
Yogg-Saron was probably continuing Neltharion’s work ever since Neltharion abandoned the laboratory(his reasons in the recording show horror over what he created so Neltharion did abandon the lab out of guilt).
Yogg-Saron saw the Djaradin as fuel for the Shadowflame and saw Laboratory Experiments as tools for research.
Funny how Yogg-Saron decided to personally deal with Wrathion and Sabellian the moment he deemed them unusable for his grand design and still used Neltharion’s image to face them all.
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Very possible there’ll be more lore to flesh out Aberrus but I would assume these Faceless Ones resided in the cavern depths near the Void. 
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Incidentally the Raid Finder description of the Raid Finder Wing containing the Neltharion Encounter says this:
Something stirs in the dark… it once corrupted the Earth-Warder, and now it is eager to claim new victims.
It was definitely Yogg-Saron we faced in the Aberrus Raid in the form of Neltharion.
From the Earth the Old God of Death Yogg-Saron draws strength. The Old Gods’ Earth. The Old Gods’ strength.
It’s interesting to note that Yogg-Saron’s projects were Therazane(due to being located on his territory), Deathwing, the Black Dragonflight, the continued Experiments in Aberrus(which Neltharion scrapped in horror before becoming Void-Corrupted), Loken, the Iron Armies of Ulduar and the Emerald Nightmare.
The only experiments I saw Yogg-Saron even preform in Aberrus included the Prototype Elementium Armor that N’Zoth went with despite Yogg-Saron’s misgivings, the Shadowflame fueled by the Djaradin Elder and the Slitherdrakes that fled the laboratory resisting Yogg-Saron’s Drakonid and Dragonspawn Minions.
He had centuries to create something of value in there and what do we get? Failures! Neltharion’s legacy was the Dracthyr and Twilight Dragonflight while Yogg-Saron’s legacy on the Dragon Isles was the Shadowflame, Crude Elementium Armor that drives it’s wearers insane and a bunch of runaways!
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Pretty sure Faceless Ones are not vessels for the Old Gods, just instruments that act on behalf of them and their plans. We faced a Faceless One masquerading as Nel’s Echo.
And Yogg’s signature has usually been visual corruption with little to no communication. N’zoth has usually been the one to tempt seduce with power or deals to the point where it seems like it’s you that’s in control.
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Yogg has used the good old blackmail when it came to Loken, but that was more of the exception.
I would say N’zoth was. I mean he did manage to out live his brethren and was the main one behind Neltharion’s downfall.
Remember, according to Xal’atath (the entity), N’zoth turned a loss against Y’shaarj into a victory.
Yogg-Saron used Sif’s form to keep Thorim under control in Ulduar remember.
He seems especially interested in deceiving you into thinking Yogg-Saron is someone else who is an old friend while N’Zoth seems to be about the whole Deal with the Devil thing.
Yogg-Saron seems to be all about hiding his presence while manipulating you from the shadows while N’Zoth is all about making you think you are in control over the bargain with him when in fact he is in control.
Azshara claims that N’Zoth is blustering about despite being the weakest of the Old Gods. That is why his minions are always visible despite being good at getting what he wants! Yogg-Saron is all about subtlety while N’Zoth is all about getting results while showing off as much as possible.
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My guess, it is just some left over echo. But who knows. You might be right. (Both now or in some retcon.)
The Neltharion Raid directly confirms that the Echo was just a Faceless One by having the Echo turn into one immediately upon death.
Fun thing to note: Faceless Ones from Ulduar went dormant after Yogg-Saron’s defeat until they got brought close to N’Zoth.
Faceless Ones are practically extensions of the Old Gods themselves basically so that Faceless One impersonating an Echo of Neltharion was a mouth piece of the Old Gods trying to get Sarkareth to open a Void Portal to become corrupted and be chained down until they break him into service and was making sure the Laboratory aided in the Old Gods’ experiments up to and including making the Elementium Armor(a failure since it drove it’s patients including Deathwing insane) and Slitherdrakes(a failure since they refuse to serve).
Neltharion’s only legacy in Aberrus was the 3 Prototype Dracthyr as everything else was the work of the Faceless Ones that were left behind including the one posing as Neltharion using the Djaradin Elder’s Shadowflame as fuel for their research.
The Faceless Ones’ own legacy was one of failure. Their Portal into the Void led to nowhere of importance, their Slitherdrakes(the intended recipients of the chains in the Final Boss Chamber’s Void Infusion scheme) refused to serve and the Elementium Armor they invented to replace the Adamantium Armor drove Deathwing insane.
The Faceless Ones were failures as Scientists!
I do hope one day one of your mad theories get right.
I do read all of them for the lols and still find it fascinating how you do not lose hope even when a new patch hits and all you’ve theorized went down the river.
Well with that said.
Considering everything that we know for certain, it is more likely a new old god is
In the making or the void will finally step into the light and we’ll know more about the creators of the old gods.
Perhaps even a returning of the 4 old gods in some fashion but to be realistic probably just Nzoth would be feasible to return and since he has already been a raid boss, he’ll probably be on our side while we fight the void and everything that stand with it.
By the time Deathwing put on the Elementium Armor he was already very insane. He didn’t have that armor on before Cata. By then it was, as Ebyssian put it, “Returning salt to an ocean.”
Personally I am surprise he went from the level of cunning he had in Day of the Dragon to the Fyrakk level of brutishness in the short time span it took between that Novel and the Cataclysm Expansion of WoW.
His God Complex did not hinder his scheming in Day of the Dragon so him suddenly becoming a Fyrakk-esque brute by the time of Cataclysm is quite startling. Was the level time truly enough that the Elementium Prototype couldn’t have contributed to his Fyrakk-esque brutishness?
Guess the Old Gods were very hard at work. And that armor had 10,000 years of development and the insanity side effect was never quashed. It probably contributed but the bulk of the insanity was already there when he put it on.
Also I’m pretty sure that whatever curse pain that Alex nailed him with did a number on his psyche which was already damaged. Could’ve sped the crazy up.
Also fun to note: The Faceless One has Ashkandur, Fall of the Brotherhood AKA Ashkandi yet again reclaimed.
The Faceless Ones did the exact same thing as Nefarian and retrieved the Greatsword of Anduin Lothar yet again just to sell their Neltharion impersonation! These guys are clearly incompetent since Neltharion wasn’t in Aberrus since his battle with Raszageth due to him freaking out over the Shadowflame’s presence in the Laboratory even if the Void had easy access since that moment.
And yes he did abandon the place even if the Void hadn’t:
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Secrets_From_Our_Father
The fact that the Faceless Ones used the Shadowflame to fuel their experiments with Elementium and later the Slitherdrakes and still went out of their way to grab Lothar’s sword for their impersonations despite the sword’s history being a dead giveaway to the Faceless One not being an Echo of Neltharion shows exactly why the Faceless Ones didn’t make major progress on their research.
They were all failures! Sure they could use the Earth Magic of the Old Gods to consistently increase their power to Aspect Levels(as shown with the Neltharion imposter and Ki’merax the Grand Imposter) but that has no bearing on intelligence level.
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https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Thorim_(tactics)#Quotes
Thorim yells: Interlopers! You mortals who dare to interfere with my sport will pay… Wait–you…
Thorim yells: I remember you… In the mountains… But you… what is this? Where am–
Sif yells: Thorim, my lord, why else would these invaders have come into your sanctum but to slay you? They must be stopped!
Sif yells: These pathetic mortals are harmless, beneath my station. Dispose of them!
Hard Mode
Sif yells: Impossible! Lord Thorim, I will bring your foes a frigid death!
Here is the Hard Mode Ending upon which “Sif” becomes a tentacle of Yogg-Saron:
Thorim: You! Fiend, you are not my beloved! Begone!
Behold the hand behind all the evil that has befallen Ulduar, left my kingdom in ruins, corrupted my brother, and slain my wife.
And now it falls to you, champions, to avenge us all. The task before you is great, but I will lend you my aid as I am able. You must prevail.
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I am aware of that. But Yogg’s use of Sifs form was not a case of blackmail when it came to Thorim.
