Led by the great Keepers forged from primordial power, the Titan-forged army stormed the northernmost reaches of the Black Empire with force that shook both land and sky. Their extraordinary resilience and destructive might made the Pantheon's forces nearly unstoppable by mortal or immortal power alike. They unleashed the long-buried wrath of the gods upon their enemies, sweeping away legions of n'raqi and aqir hiding in the shadows, and demolishing the dark temples that had long served as centers of worship for the Old Gods.
The arrival of the Titan-forged—beings shaped from celestial stone and metal—utterly shocked the Old Gods. They had not anticipated that the power long hidden behind the will of the Pantheon would rise and strike with such brutal precision, shaking the foundations of their long-unshaken dominion.
Meanwhile, across the continent of Kalimdor, the Old Gods were also locked in equally devastating battles against mysterious entities from another world known as the Valar, alongside their followers called the Maiar—mighty beings who guarded the seed of the World Tree in the newly formed continent of Valinor. For tens of thousands of years, the Valar had endured disruption, humiliation, and attacks from the Old Gods. Now, seeing the stone and metal gods strike the same enemy, they decided to launch the counterattack they had long held back.
The Maiar who joined this battle included:
Arien, the Maia of fire who drove the Sun after the destruction of Beleriand.
Eönwë, the great knight and banner-bearer of the Valar.
Ilmarë, the loyal handmaid of Varda, Queen of the Stars.
Ossë and Uinen, two Maiar who served the Vala Ulmo, lord of the deep and unpredictable seas.
Salmar, another Maia under Ulmo's command.
Tilion, the Maia who drove the Moon and maintained the balance of night.
Balrog, fallen Maiar who became creatures of fire and hatred, including Gothmog and Durin's Bane.
The Istari, wizards sent to the mortal world, also joined the fight:
Gandalf (Olorin), Maia of Manwë and Varda, known for his wisdom and compassion.
Saruman (Curumo), Maia of Aulë, leader of the Istari Order who once fell to pride.
Radagast (Aiwendil), Maia of Yavanna, deeply attuned to nature and living creatures.
Alatar and Pallando, two Maiar of Oromë who journeyed far into the East.
Melian, a female Maia who married the Elven King Elu Thingol and became ancestor to the lineage of Elrond and Aragorn.
For the Valar and Maiar, this was the moment they had long awaited—a time to avenge tens of thousands of years of suffering and humiliation. They launched a massive assault, striking the defenses of the Old Gods from the east, while on the other side of the world, the Pantheon's forces hammered from the west. These two great fronts began to crush the Black Empire from both directions, creating pressure unlike anything seen before.
The battle was fierce and brutal. In the west, the Titan-forged forces struck with metal and ancient magic. In the east, the Valar and Maiar of Valinor and Middle-earth unleashed their celestial power. The Old Gods staggered under the assault of stone- and metal-skinned invaders, yet they remained determined not to lose their grip on Azeroth. To reaffirm their long-rooted dominance, the Old Gods summoned their greatest lieutenants: the elemental rulers known as the Elemental Lords.
The enraged Elemental Lords, along with their minions—wild and hate-filled elemental creatures—attacked the Titan-forged from all sides. Their assaults came in relentless waves, wielding the most primal and destructive forces of nature. Ever vigilant against the threat of united elemental armies, the Keepers decided to divide and conquer their enemies one by one. They split their forces into specialized units and dispatched each Titan-forged group to confront and battle a specific Elemental Lord directly, using strategies designed to subdue the elemental powers that had long threatened the balance of the world.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield stretching across the other side of the world, the Valar and Maiar were engaged in direct combat against the four Old Gods who had long been the source of chaos and destruction in Azeroth. Their primary goal was to suppress the power of the Old Gods so they wouldn't interfere with the great war against the Black Empire. The battle was brutal and intense; the divine power of the Valar matched the deep hatred they had harbored for thousands of millennia toward the repulsive creatures that had tainted the world with their corrupt influence.
On the western front, Tyr and Odyn volunteered to face the most destructive and dangerous elemental lieutenant: Ragnaros the Firelord. Their battle lasted for weeks without pause, consuming the land in burning flames and explosive bursts of magma. But the Keepers' tough metallic bodies made them resistant to extreme heat and Ragnaros's relentless attacks. With Titan-forged strength and unshakable willpower, Tyr and Odyn managed to push Ragnaros back into his volcanic lair, filled with boiling acid seas and dark skies choked with ash. In that place of ruin and sulfurous stench, the two Keepers finally defeated the Firelord and forced him to retreat as a disgraced combatant.
On another front, Archaedas and Freya unleashed their tremendous power against Therazane the Stonemother. To protect herself and her servant forces, the earth elemental ruler retreated to the summit of a stone tower she considered her final sanctuary. Archaedas, with full control over earth and stone, weakened the fortress's foundations and destroyed the coral giants guarding its entrance. Freya then grew massive roots from deep underground—roots that spread and entangled the fortress from every direction. The roots pierced layers of stone and crystal, bent the fortress walls, and brought it crashing down directly onto Therazane's head, forcing the elemental ruler to submit beneath the natural force awakened by the Keepers.
Ra, Thorim, and Hodir joined the battle against Al'Akir the Windlord. With their dominion over sky, storm, and lightning, they drove the air elemental ruler back to his lair among Azeroth's highest peaks. The sky burned with lightning flashes as Al'Akir fought desperately against his enemies. In the end, the three Keepers managed to reverse the storm's power used by Al'Akir, turning it into a weapon against him. At the summit of his majestic domain, Al'Akir was finally defeated and forced to surrender.
Neptulon the Tidehunter, along with his water forces, rushed to the battlefield to assist the other elemental rulers who were being overwhelmed. However, they were intercepted by Loken and Mimiron, two Keepers who relied on intelligence and ancient magic to defeat their enemies. Loken used his mysterious power to freeze and shatter the forms of the water elementals, while Mimiron created complex and powerful magical bindings to imprison Neptulon himself, ending the threat from the raging seas.
Although the elemental rulers had been defeated in direct combat, the Keepers realized they could not completely destroy these beings. The spirits of the elementals were tightly bound to the essence of Azeroth. If they were killed, their physical forms would eventually reappear, bringing the same threat again in the future.
Ra quickly devised a plan to solve this problem permanently. He was determined to imprison the elementals, just as the Great Sargeras had done with demons in the past. To carry out the plan, Ra sought help from Helya, a gifted sorceress who was also a being forged by Titan power. Together, they created four interconnected domains within a small dimension known as the Elemental Realm. Ra and Helya then exiled the elemental rulers and nearly all of their servants into this magical prison.
Ragnaros and the fire elementals were banished to the blazing corner of the Elemental Realm known as the Firelands. Therazane and the earth elementals were confined within the crystal caves of Deepholm. Al'Akir and the air elementals were imprisoned among the cloud peaks of Skywall. Lastly, Neptulon and the water elementals were sucked into the dark and unpredictable depths of the Abyssal Maw. Only a handful of elementals remained on the surface of Azeroth. After their leaders were exiled, these creatures scattered and abandoned the battlefield, lost and without purpose.
With the successful containment and exile of the elementals, the Keepers turned their attention to the aqiri legions of the Black Empire. Many insectoids dwelled in vast catacombs that snaked beneath the surface of a world ravaged by war. Archaedas, with full control over stone and earth, bent the layers of the ground to his will, collapsing aqiri tunnels and forcing the creatures to the surface. Once out of their nests, the insectoids found themselves surrounded from all sides by the Titan-forged forces already prepared for battle.
The clash between the Titan-forged and the Aqir proved to be extremely fierce and costly. Over time, the Keepers succeeded in destroying most of the Aqiri race. Small pockets of insects that had dug tunnels deep underground managed to escape the wrath of the Keepers, but they were too weak and scattered to launch any meaningful counterattack.
Victory over the aqir and the elemental rulers invigorated the Keepers and their allies. But they knew that the greatest and most decisive battle still lay ahead. As a single, unshakable force, they turned their gaze with unwavering resolve toward the heart of the Black Empire: a vast and shadow-filled temple city built around the body of the Old God Y'Shaarj. The Keepers believed that by toppling the strongest n'raqi fortress in Azeroth, they could destroy their enemies in one swift and decisive strike.
The Keepers and their allies tore through wave after wave of n'raqi as they fought their way toward Y'Shaarj, whose form resembled a towering mountain pulsing with dark power. The shattered and torn bodies of both Titan-forged and n'raqi littered the landscape, which had become a field of death. The invaders broke through the terror-filled temple city and finally launched their assault on the Old God himself, beginning the final chapter of the war that would determine the fate of the world.
Y'Shaarj turned out to be far stronger and more dangerous than the Keepers had anticipated. In his grotesque and hate-filled form, he poisoned the minds of the Titan-forged, awakening their deepest fears and clouding their consciousness with corrupting whispers. The once-unshakable Keepers began to show hesitation and imbalance in their actions. Y'Shaarj's aura of corruption spread like a plague, seeping into the cracks of metal and magic that formed the bodies of the Titan-forged.
Seeing the situation grow increasingly dire, the Pantheon began to fear that the Old God would defeat their servants one by one. Though they knew that direct intervention could endanger the balance of the world, they saw no other option. A risky decision was made.
Aman'Thul, the Highfather of the Pantheon, descended directly to the planet Azeroth. He intended to rip Y'Shaarj from the world, ending the threat with absolute power. Tulkas and Manwë, two Valar who understood the spiritual structure of the world, tried to stop Aman'Thul's action. They knew that forcibly removing an Old God could damage the very foundation of the planet. But they arrived too late. Aman'Thul had already begun.
With a mighty wave of his hand, Aman'Thul pierced the storming, thunderous skies of Azeroth. His radiant hand reached for Y'Shaarj's writhing body, which struggled and resisted. In a single world-shaking motion, Aman'Thul tore the Old God from the crust of the world. Y'Shaarj's massive, repulsive body was ripped apart, unleashing a death scream that echoed across the entire planet. The shattering death of the ancient creature destroyed mountain peaks, obliterated hundreds of Titan-forged giants where they stood, and turned the landscape into rubble.
Y'Shaarj was dead, but his tendrils had penetrated Azeroth far deeper than Aman'Thul had ever imagined. In banishing the Old God from the world, he had inadvertently torn an eternal wound into the planet's surface. From that wound, a volatile and mysterious energy—source of life for the newborn Titan—erupted and surged across the world. That energy not only transformed the battlefield but also created an imbalance that threatened the entire structure of the planet.
Horrified by the consequences of this act, the Pantheon realized they could not risk killing the remaining Old Gods in the same way. These monstrous beings had become so deeply embedded in the world that removing them would destroy Azeroth itself. So, they devised a new strategy.
The Pantheon understood that the only way to end the threat of the Old Gods was to imprison them where they lay and seal their evil forever. The task was difficult and full of risk, but it could be done with the help of the Keepers who had been forged to face such threats.
Under direct orders from the Pantheon, the Titan-forged began crafting a grand plan to destroy the final remnants of the Black Empire. They would confront each Old God directly. Once the creatures were weakened, Archaedas would create deep and solid underground chambers to imprison them. Mimiron would design and build massive machines to lock the Old Gods' bodies in place. Once all structures were complete, Loken would imbue each prison with magical enchantments specifically designed to neutralize and contain the Old Gods' evil, preventing it from spreading again.
With their plan fully prepared, the Titan-forged launched a decisive conquest campaign. Fierce battles swept the land as they moved southeast, toward N'Zoth's fortress hidden in the depths. After intense fighting and great sacrifice, the Keepers succeeded in defeating the Old God. They used their combined power to seal the creature in an underground prison designed to contain its corrupting force.
Wasting no time, the Titan-forged moved southwest, toward the vast and shadow-filled temple city that had grown around the third Old God, C'Thun. The Keepers and their allies wiped out the swarms of N'raqi guarding the region before launching a direct assault and subduing C'Thun. As they had done with N'Zoth, the Keepers buried the entity underground and constructed a prison designed to protect the world from its influence.
Now, only one Old God remained: Yogg-Saron, the most cunning and dangerous of them all. He would not be easily defeated. As the Titan-forged forces approached Yogg-Saron's ruined northern fortress, shrouded in shadow, the Old God unleashed his greatest general: the C'Thraxxi, a colossal creature born of darkness and destruction, crafted to slaughter and unravel the minds of its enemies.