I get the impression the original intention was for Xal’atath was for her to have been an Old God, but they decided to make her something else to add mystery to her. Or they’ve decided to retcon the Void Lords origin for the Old Gods, since they’ve basically declared Chronicles non-canon and the Old Gods are now more like proper Lovecraftian Horrors.
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Higher Void pantheon being?
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My guess is she’s some sort of low tier Void Lord that managed to manifest during the days of the Black Empire but the Old Gods turned on her and locked her away because she was interfering with the other void lords plans
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We will find out soon enough!
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Indeed we will. The Worldsoul Saga looks to be super juicy on Old God/Void Lord lore, so I’m excited for that 
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Money is on Xal’atath being “Old God 2.0,” a new kind of void being sent off by the Void Lords when they realized that the Old Gods are so chaotic and mustache-twirlingly evil that they can’t actually get the job done effectively. I mean, the Black Empire ruled, but they defected to the extend that they totally shirked their duties of corrupting the worldsoul.
Xal’atath is the next model, the T2 to the T1. A “New God”, if you will. She’s here to clean up the Old God’s messes and failures.
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I like to hedge my bets when it comes to making guesses like this. I’m thinking Xal’atath could turn out to be:
- An Old God defeated in the earliest days of the Black Empire or severely wounded on “world impact”, leaving just a single claw behind. This claw, the dagger, later grew in power by siphoning it from each past owner and from convincing said past owner to engage in encounters with other beings of mystical strength she siphoned power from.
- A baby void god or one who only partially manifested ala Dimensius the All-Devouring. Yadda yadda, trapped in the dagger, siphoning, the same post-origin as above. Assume all theories involve the whole “trapped in the dagger, siphoning power” bit from here.
- Remember that planet Sargeras cleaved because it was consumed by void? Xal’atath is an old god from that planet, trapped in the dagger by the nathrezim as the world blew up and brought to Azeroth either accidentally or intentionally.
- A mortal worshipper of the old gods in the Black Empire days who learned the truth of the void lords, managed to make contact directly with them and made a pact with them for power. In this scenario, she predates the arrival of the titans, and knows some truth about them that hasn’t been revealed yet because she was there to see it.
- A titan keeper corrupted by the void lords directly, then see above.
- A tasty muffin who looks at you with her smirky smile in some kinda special way that makes you question things about yourself you never questioned before.
I expoect the “brethren” comments are less directly literal (IE siblings) than metaphorical, because void-things don’t tend to be literal. I think what she means by that is she and the old gods both serve the same upper tier beings and are ultimately on the same level of power.
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She also calls the Naaru her brethren “I know the Naaru consider us horrors to be resisted. We do not share this view. They are merely beloved brethren that lost the true path. They will return to their masters… in time.”
Maybe the new Draenei Heritage armor quest will provide more information to the origin of the Draenei since she did say, “Do the Naaru speak of the eternal conflict? That the entire history of your world is but a fraction of the time that has passed? Of those that came before the Draenei? No? ”
I am sure some of this bigger eternal conflict will be reflected in the struggle between the Arathi and the Nerubians. Light and Void all come from the same singular higher pantheon.
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I remain sold on the idea that Xal’atath is well… the Harbinger. She was sent by the Void Lords to keep the Old Gods on task when they were getting too distracted playing empire, which the Old Gods resented greatly. It was the one time in history the Old Gods worked together to destroy her material form and imprisoned her spirit in the black blade to keep her from going back to the Void to report their treachery.
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I sort of get that vibe as well. Like she was the bossy big sister there to keep things going, and the old gods turned to each other and were like…. so over her. So they put her in a dagger to keep her out of their way, but also to stop her from telling the Void Lords about their fun.
Something that I do not think many have taken in to account fully is that her title is definitely not unique we have seen it a couple of times before.
It was used as as the title for an Alliance Quest in Shadowmoon Valley where you were required to kill three essences named Essence of Shadow, Darkness and Anguish - Harbingers of the Void
The second time it was used was as part Crucible of Storms raid as an encounter boss name - Uu’nat, Harbinger of the Void
So it is actually something that has been a reoccurring element through multiple expansions that many might have overlooked.
I think another key point to acknowledge is that UU’nat was likely the actual Harbinger of the Void and Xal’atath has only taken up this title after UU’nat’s demise. In addition to this the fact that there is a clear connection/relationship between Xal’atath and Azshara that has been around for a very long time when you factor in how they are both connected with UU’nat as well. As part of the bargain that Queen Azshara struck with N’Zoth around ten thousand years ago, Azshara offered her most devoted follower so that he would from that point on become a servant of the Old God to do with as he pleased. He was transformed and changed by this bargain and service to become the entity that we encountered within the Crucible of Storms Raid. That is how UU’nat became connected with the crawling masses he commanded to enable him to herald the coming of their master, and made sure to tell everyone that it was all foretold by the stars.
When you factor in that UU’nat was Azshara’s most loyal and devoted follower along with the clear connection between Azshara and Xal’atath there is a few possible conclusions one can consider as the reason why Xal’atath has essentially taken up the title of UU’nat.
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Xal’atath had a significant connection with UU’nat in some way and mourned his lost so took up the title of his mantle as a way to honor him
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Xal’atath is highlighting to Azshara the switch in roles now that N’Zoth is out of the picture by using a title that became an aspect of servant of Azshara she was forced to give up to become N’Zoth’s minion. Now the title has been taken up by the entity that Azshara is in serving. I guess it’s a play around the concept of what was once a slave is now the master, and what once was the master is now a slave.
There are many other possibilities but you get the idea the connection between those three cannot be ignored and is a key link between why Xal’atath now uses that title herself.
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Horcruxes are just the Harry Potter version of Lich Phylacteries from DnD.
I’m not sure Irridikron’s actions gave her Yogg-Saron’s essence. In your theory getting N’Zoth’s had to come from him directly, so I think it’d be the same for Yogg and the other Old Gods. It’d be harder to get anything from Y’Shaarj since he has even less of his physical remains than the other Old Gods (except N’Zoth, but his essence was harvested before he was vaporized).
I noticed something about what she grabbed:
An Eye, a Heart, Azshara, the Death Magic of Yogg-Saron, herself and whatever’s in the Light Crystal…
Did the Heart of Y’Shaarj originally come from him? Did C’Thun’s Eye originally come from him? Did Yogg-Saron’s Death Magic originally come from him?
I distinctly noticed that the ingredients that Xal’atath gathered amount to 6 which combined will become a 7th.
Firim did say that the 7th isn’t a variable to be solved but a solution that awaits it’s opportunity… The 6 Gods will soon become one…
N’Zoth in otherwords is a proper Old God of the Void(sent out to find a Titan to corrupt) while the others are the remains of something that was sundered into 6 pieces: Xal’atath, the Eye C’Thun, the Hunger Yogg-Saron, the Heart Y’Shaarj, the Entity in the Crystal of Hallowfall and Queen Azshara.
The Old Gods of Azeroth speak Shath’yar and Azshara, Y’Shaarj, the Draenei word for Light(Sha) and Mu’sha all have the word Sha in them therefore I deem that Xal’atath is putting Mu’sha back together after she perished at Elune’s hands.
We are likely facing the revived God of Light and at the hour of her 3rd death she will usher in the True Shadow’s coming…
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This makes old gods sound cool. Like f the void lords, gonna make my own little kingdom and do what I want. Old gods did nothing wrong
So can anyone do that and nothing’s wrong with it?
The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth (Annotated), found in the Forbidden Reach, suggests the existence of a fifth ancient god. This may be the case with Xal’atath.
https://www.wowhead.com/item=204185/the-old-gods-and-the-ordering-of-azeroth-annotated.
Xal’atath was introduced to us in Legion as a sentient entity trapped inside a dagger of the same name, being the artifact weapon of the shadow priests. And her story suggests that she was an ancient god who was consumed by her brothers.
So, I believe that Xal’atath is this fifth ancient god and that we will soon have this story unfold.
We will see how it will be developed in the next expansion.
Even the in game lore behind the history of the Dagger suggests that the entity inside of it was an Old God. Claims it is an “outlandish” theory or something like that.
I think it was mentioned that we are getting quests in this expansion in Pandaria related to her trying to get the essence of dark heart.
The War Within Expansion does have this as you mentioned:
However, I think you missed some of the key pieces of information in relation to this. Firstly it does have a link with Pandaria as you mentioned but, there is some additional things that should be added.
The location of the entrance to the zones for the War Within Expansion is near or around the coastline of Dread Wastes which takes us deep underground into the new zones. The Dread Wastes was a key location in Pandaria due to it being the place where the Heart of Fear raid for the expansion and continued to provide the links between the various Sha and Y’Shaarj.
The Sha are the seven physical manifestations of negative traits (emotions) connected to Y’Shaarj the seven headed one. They are Doubt, Despair, Fear, Hatred, Anger, Violence, and Pride.
These malevolent spirits were spawned from the essence of the Old God Y’Shaarj after it was slain by the titan Aman’Thul and its remains fell back on the land that would later be called Pandaria.
In addition to this it was the Dark Heart of Y’Shaarj that was used by Garrosh Hellscream in the Siege of Orgrimmar events that transpired at the end of that expansion.
So this leads to the conclusion that essence of the Dark Heart Xal’atath is seeking is the essence of the Heart of Y’Shaarj however, it does appear she also needs his Dark Blood that seeped out of the Heart deep inside Azeroth. This is what the Nerubians are assisting her in collecting as part of whatever bargain they have made with each other.
This isn’t exactly true as she never directly says she was an old god directly but she refers to them as Brethren which can mean a variety of things but, it mainly is used to describe members of a society, religious group etc. This would make it more like she is saying that the old gods and her are all members of the same cosmic group (Void) and but it also doesn’t preclude that option she herself is an old god either.
Now with all that being said I would like to also say that there is just as much chance that she actually is another Old God. The reason I say this is there is various elements and information that hint or elude at the existence of a fifth unknown old god. Firstly we have the link that there is a fifth old god eluded to in some dragonflight information and texts we have discovered or heard about. Secondly we also have the unnamed old god that was an entity that was part of the Alternative Draenor story arc which was defeated. In addition to that there was also the unnamed old god that was drawn and depicted as part of a diagram in one of the original chronicles. Lastly and I think something that potentially has misinterpreted is the whisper that relates to the weakest of the old gods ultimately being the victor between each of the old gods. Many have said that if you follow the four old god thought process then the weakest was N’Zoth and under the four old god theory it’s true that he did outlive the other three. However, what if there was a fifth old god that was weaker than the other four and that old god was consumed by the others and the only thing that remained of it was part of it’s essence trapped within a Blade. While Xal’atath was within the Blade she managed to survive and ultimately free herself while the other four died. This would mean that ultimately she was the weakest and has managed to survive hiding within plainsight all this time as the fifth unknown, unnamed and originally probably the weakest Old God. However, now she might be able to use her brethrens essences to infuse herself with additional raw cosmic power making her ultimately the smartest and strongest of them all along.
Just something to consider as well
I never said she did. The lore book for the artifacts is what proposes the theory that she is what remains of an Old God.
The more outlandish claim that it is all that remains of a forgotten Old God who was consumed by its kin in the early days of the Black Empire.
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