Please give me your suspense of disbelief for a few minutes.
In the visions of Yogg-Saron we fight in Ulduar there are three visions which seem to suggest that Yogg-Saron may have had influence in these events, upon further inspection it becomes clear that not only did he control these events he saw these events as crutial to his own victory. Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands and Dragonflight are not stand alone expansions. They are three continuing stories that set the stage for the Rise of the Black Empire. Starting with Battle for Azeroth, he was the one behind the Faction War, not the Jailer. The parallels between his vision of the assasination of Llane Wrynn and Battle for Azeroth are clear.
Garona: “Bad news sire, The clans are united under Blackhand. They will stand together until Stormwind has fallen. Gul’dan is bringing up his warlocks, until then the Blackrock clan will be trying to take the eastern wall.
Yogg-Saron: “A thousand deaths.”
King Wrynn” We will hold till the reinforcements come. As long as men with stout hearts are manning the walls and the throne, Stormwind will hold.”
Garona: “The orc leaders agree with your asssement.” assasinates the King
Yogg-Saron: “Your petty quarells only make me stronger.”
In Battle for Azeroth Sylvanas has a new plan, her plan is to take Stormwind. why? we do not know why she was compelled to do this now, after defeating the Legion. Both the Horde and the Alliance had finally defeated the Legion and they needed time to rebuild and recuperate and yet here was another Horde Warchief fanning the flames of war with a singular goal to capture Stormwind. It’s not a coincidence that Saurfang calls Sylvanas “Blackhands legacy.” looking back over the previous expansions it seems like, although Stormwind has not fallen, a Wrynn no longer sits on the Throne. There is a pattern emerging here. One that spans not one but three expansions.
Yogg-Saron: “The giant Rook watches from the dead trees. Nothing breathes beneath his shadow. The tortured spirits of your ancestors cling to you. screaming in silence.”
Saurfang: “The Horde I joined was birthed in blood. tainted by corruption. The road that lead to the Dark Portal was long and wide, paved with the blood of innocents. We called it the Path of Glory. That was the great lie upon which the Horde was founded.”
Honor. “That anything we did was honorable. Thrall, Vol’jin, they were not the true heirs to blackhand’s bloody legacy, Sylvanas Windrunner is.”
The battle for Azeroth did set the groundwork for a lot of character growth, especially for characters like Saurfang, who seemed to have broken a cycle of hatred within the Horde. But in hindsight this only shines a spotlight on how the Horde has been continously been abused by the Old Gods who saw them as tools of aggression. Sylvanas was not the sole inheritor of this legacy, but in hindsight she may have acted unknowingly, as an agent of Yogg-Saron. Although this does place the onwership of this specific war entirely on the shoulders of the Horde for being the aggressors in most conflicts, that doesn’t mean that Yogg-Saron doesn’t continue to victimize the Wrynn family as well and plays heavily on this. Llane Wrynn was assainated by design and this truth has haunted the Wrynn dynasty.
In the novel Stormrage, the nightmare mists of Yogg-Saron force Varian Wrynn to live an nightmare where the risen dead attack his city, not unlike how Llane had to hold off the Horde from attacking Stormwind. In the Varian short story, Varian has a nightmare of his father’s assasination where he has to witness his father being assasinated by Garona and he sees all kinds of bugs and rot spewing from his father’s mouth, visions of the God of Death Yogg-saron. Simply because of the proximity of Old God blood, saronite that was left behind by the attack of Deathwing. Yogg-Saron has always been there under the surface of this story. In a dev interview from post-WoLK the devs remarked that in hindsight they failed in showing just how powerful and tied into the narrative Yogg-Saron really was. I think they have succeeded in Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands where they have otherwise failed.
In the millenia that followed, the other dragonflights had hunted Dreathwing’s children to the brink of extinction. Nowhere seemed safe for the black dragons. Yet when the Horde invaded, Deathwing saw an opportunity to destroy all who who wanted him and his flight dead.
The Old Gods approved of Deathwing’s intentions. Though they were enemies of the Legion They knew the Horde would bring immense suffering and death to Azeroth. With the world and it’s people’s weakened the Old Gods would assert thier dominion and restore the Black Empire. - Chronicles vol.1
These following threads have been woven into the very lore of World of Warcraft and they are finally getting the attention to detail that it deserves. This cannot be overlooked any more for those who are willing to see. All of this is leading to the Rise of the Black Empire. N’Zoth was just the beginning. In the end both sides of the Horde civil war were manipulated by the Old Gods, Sylvanas was clearly an agent causing mass death, but the lie of honor also feed Yogg-Saron many souls.
Sylvanas: “Saurfang’s Inconsidered challenge may have ended the war prematurely but that doesn’t matter, countless souls have been fed to the hungering darkness. Though I cared for the living, I did pity the Forsaken for the great injustice that made them what they are. I understand the cruelty of fate better than anyone. But despite all I taught them they still cling to hope.”
Now, it’s hard to tell if they were planning something different for Sylvanas’s character arc. in Hindsight there may have been creative differences which ultimately changed her plan in Shadowlands. But at this point I think she was not only being manipulated by the Jailer, but she was also possibly speaking for Yogg-Saron as well.
N’zoth told us that in time all of our eyes would be open to the truth, this is merely a glimpse.
