While Silmalorë was still forging rings of power for the Elves, Dwemer, and Dúnedain of Tolkien's world in Angband, the process of creating ancient dragons unfolded simultaneously. He spent around 70,000 years immersed in failure after failure—both in the forging of the rings and in the shaping of dragon beings that matched his vision. Each failed experiment became a bitter entry in his history, yet he never stopped.
Throughout that long era, the outside world kept moving. In the continent of Kalimondor, trolls began to emerge and spread across various regions. After that, the Highborne and night elves were born from deep historical roots, bringing arcane magic to the surface of the world. When the five Dragon Aspects finally arrived in Valinor, they met directly with the Valar. That meeting marked the beginning of a convergence between two great forces: the will of Ilúvatar and the vigilance of Azeroth's guardians.
But then, great events began to shake the world. In ancient Kalimondor, chaos erupted following the betrayal of Loken—one of the Titan-forged who had once been entrusted with maintaining balance. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Sargeras, the final embers of the Pantheon's power still burned in Azeroth—alongside the emergence of a new entity never before recorded in history: Silmalorë's world tree, a living being from Tolkien's realm now rooted in Azeroth's soil.
Though Sargeras had destroyed the physical forms of the Titans, Norgannon's great spell had preserved their souls. The disembodied spirits of the Titans shot through the Great Darkness, seeking Azeroth and its guardians. There, the Pantheon hoped to find physical vessels to inhabit. Without them, they feared their weakened souls would vanish forever.
Upon reaching Azeroth, those depleted spirits collided with the guardians—beings crafted by the Pantheon's own hands. The guardians were immediately overwhelmed as the Titans' power surged through their minds. They saw flashes of distant worlds, lives they had never lived, and wonders they had never known. But as swiftly as the power arrived, it faded.
The guardians, still retaining their original personalities, were left confused by the phenomenon. They knew fragments of the Pantheon's power had been granted to them, but they didn't realize that the final remnants of their creators now dwelled within their bodies. They called out to the Pantheon for answers, but no reply came. A deep silence enveloped them, and unease began to grow.
Beneath Ulduar, the Old God Yogg-Saron sensed this emotional turbulence. Imprisoned since the Ordering of Azeroth, his sharp awareness began to stir. He devised a plan to weaken the guardians and escape. It began with the corruption of the Forge of Wills, contaminating its creation matrix with a disease known as the Curse of Flesh. Every Titan-forged crafted thereafter would fall victim to this affliction. The curse spread slowly, transforming infected servants into mortal beings of flesh and blood—creatures Yogg-Saron believed were far easier to destroy.
The awakened Old Gods were deeply disturbed by the presence of Silmalorë's world tree. Its roots radiated immense life energy, creating a natural zone of protection across Valinor and Middle-earth. That energy prevented them from corrupting the beings who dwelled there. So they turned their gaze toward Kalimondor, where arcane magic was beginning to flourish and destruction could be sown more easily.
To execute this plan, Yogg-Saron approached the guardian Loken. Among the guardians of Ulduar, Loken was the most troubled by the Pantheon's silence. Yogg-Saron attacked him through burning dreams, stoking a cold fire of despair. But Loken resisted the whispers. His downfall did not come from brute force—it came from something far more subtle.
In his desperation, Loken sought comfort from a vrykul named Sif—the mate of his brother, the guardian Thorim. He met with Sif in secret, pouring out his darkest fears. Over time, a forbidden love grew between them, despite both being forged by the Titans. Yogg-Saron exploited Loken's love for Sif and twisted it into a dangerous obsession. Their relationship deteriorated rapidly, and Loken's behavior became increasingly compulsive and unstable.
Loken and Sif began discussing the possibility of declaring their love openly—a move Sif vehemently opposed. She knew that if Thorim discovered the affair, the unity of the guardians would collapse. In the end, Sif severed all ties with Loken and demanded he leave her in peace.
The thought of losing Sif drove Loken beyond control. In a surge of rage and jealousy, he unleashed his fury and killed her. That act marked the turning point of Loken's downfall—a betrayal that would open the way for Yogg-Saron to corrupt the Forge of Wills and spread the Curse of Flesh across all of Azeroth.
Though guilt gnawed at every corner of his mind, Loken could not bring himself to confess the deed to Thorim. He knew that such an admission would shatter not only their brotherhood but also the balance the Pantheon had built over millennia. In deepening despair, Loken struggled to conceal Sif's death. He weighed countless possibilities, all leading to ruin. In that critical moment, the spirit of Sif appeared before him.
To Loken's surprise, Sif's face was serene and forgiving. She spoke with a gentle yet firm tone, warning Loken to act swiftly and ensure Thorim never learned the truth. If Thorim discovered that his own brother had slain the woman he loved, the Titan-forged would fracture, and civil war would be inevitable. Every vow Loken had made to the Pantheon would crumble alongside the trust long forged.
Yet Sif's advice felt cunning and manipulative—traits Loken had never associated with her. He sensed something strange within himself, as if an unseen darkness, subtle yet real, was beginning to grow in his soul. Though his instincts warned him, fear clouded his judgment. He cast aside his doubts and chose to trust the figure that resembled Sif.
Under the guidance of that spirit, Loken dragged Sif's body to the frigid desert of Storm Peak. He crafted a convincing tale and told Thorim that Arngrim, the king of the frost giants, was the killer. Thorim, grief-stricken and consumed by rage, unleashed his wrath without restraint. He slew Arngrim and many of his followers, igniting a devastating war between the storm giants and the frost giants. The conflict spread rapidly, threatening the stability of Azeroth's northern territories.
Sif's spirit continued to appear amid the chaos, offering guidance that grew increasingly extreme and troubling. Yet Loken pressed forward. He convinced the spirit that the only way to protect Ulduar was to build his own army using the Forge of Wills. He began forging new warriors—shaped from metal and magic—strong enough to withstand the assaults of the warring giants.
Loken was even persuaded to punish Thorim, whom he now saw as the catalyst of the war. He rebuked his brother with sharp words, accusing him of letting anger rule his heart and creating an unforgivable rift among the Titan-forged. He claimed that Sif herself would be ashamed to see what Thorim had done in her name. The bitter condemnation shattered Thorim's spirit. Wracked with guilt and sorrow, he abandoned Ulduar and chose exile in long solitude.
With Thorim isolated, Loken consolidated power. He used his new army to subdue the giants and end the conflict. All who opposed his will were imprisoned in stasis chambers, and Ulduar became an impenetrable fortress. But over time, Loken began to notice something disturbing among his soldiers. They exhibited unnatural signs of suffering: vacant stares, aggressive behavior, and dark whispers clouding their minds.
Loken called upon Sif once more for guidance, but this time, the spirit remained silent. No answer came. No presence returned. Fear gripped Loken as he realized that the spirit of Sif who had guided him was not her true soul, but an illusion crafted by Yogg-Saron. Every piece of advice, every decision he had made, had been orchestrated by an entity bent on destruction.
Unbeknownst to him, the false spirit had tainted the Forge of Wills during the creation of his army. Yogg-Saron's Curse of Flesh had taken root in the very heart of the machine's creation matrix. The warriors forged were no longer pure—they were infected beings, hidden harbingers of ruin. In his arrogance, Loken had opened the door for Yogg-Saron to manipulate him and defile the Pantheon's legacy.
This revelation shattered the last remnants of Loken's noble heart. He no longer sought redemption, but became obsessed with secrecy. He knew that if the truth were revealed, the entire power structure he had built would collapse. So he chose to embrace Yogg-Saron's power fully. With such strength, he believed he could defeat the remaining guardians, erase all evidence, and bury the truth beneath layers of metal and curse.
To defeat the other guardians, Loken realized he first had to neutralize the Valarjar forces led by Odyn. That army was too powerful to confront directly, and the Halls of Valor—their floating stronghold—was protected by ancient magic that could not be breached. A frontal assault would end in failure. So Loken chose a more cunning and strategic approach. He reached out to Helya, Odyn's adopted daughter, who had long harbored resentment toward her foster father.
For thousands of years, Helya had dutifully served as a Val'kyr. She ferried the souls of fallen vrykul to the Halls of Valor, ensuring they received new bodies and a place among the Valarjar champions. But beneath that loyalty, Helya harbored a cold fury that never faded. She had never forgiven Odyn for transforming her into a Val'kyr without consent. She felt robbed of her free will, turned into a tool, and forced to serve a purpose not her own.
Loken exploited that old wound. He summoned Helya privately and rekindled the betrayal that had long smoldered within her. He promised to break the chains of servitude binding her to Odyn's will. In return, Helya was to seal the Halls of Valor from the outside world, imprisoning Odyn and the Valarjar forever. In exchange, Helya would assume Odyn's role as guardian of vrykul souls. The offer was too tempting to refuse. Helya's thirst for vengeance finally overcame the remnants of her loyalty.
Once Loken restored her free will, Helya summoned ancient powers she had once used to secure the Elemental Realm. She harnessed latent energies swirling around Azeroth, manipulating magical currents and dimensional structures to seal the Halls of Valor. The barrier she created could not be pierced by ordinary magic—not even by Odyn's own power. The Valarjar fought desperately to escape, but they failed. They were trapped within the golden corridors of their floating fortress, isolated from the world for centuries.
With her newly claimed freedom, Helya built a home of her own. She created a sanctuary far beneath the Halls of Valor, anchoring it to the ocean floor of Azeroth. Sea mist rolled in and cloaked the region, hiding it from the sight of living beings. The realm became known as Helheim—the final destination for vrykul souls no longer bound for the Halls of Valor. There, Helya ruled as the shadow queen, alongside the Val'kyr who chose to remain loyal to her.
But not all Val'kyr followed Helya. Some vanished into the Shadowlands, distancing themselves from the conflict and choosing to observe the physical world from afar. Those who still carried a flicker of nobility in their souls would sometimes guide the dead back to the realm of the living, maintaining the balance between life and death.
Meanwhile, Helheim began to change. The darkness that had long smoldered in Helya's heart seeped into the land and water. Vrykul souls arriving there found no peace, only eternal suffering. They transformed into ghostlike beings consumed by vengeance. These cursed spirits became known as the Kvaldir. They merged with the ocean mist, bound to the ebb and flow of the tides. The fire of hatred and anguish burning within their souls drove the Kvaldir to raid and pillage the shores of Kalimdor without end.
With Odyn and the Valarjar sealed away, Loken returned to Ulduar, confident that he now had enough time to orchestrate the downfall of the remaining guardians. He believed that one by one, Azeroth's protectors would fall under his plan. But as he began laying out his next steps—
Mimiron started investigating the anomalies disrupting the new Titan forge under Loken's control. As a brilliant and meticulous guardian, he quickly suspected that the malfunctions in the Forge of Wills were the source of the impurity he observed in the newly forged beings. He recorded distortions in energy patterns, imbalances in soul structures, and signs of corruption he had never seen before. Before he could formulate a complete theory and expose the truth, Loken acted swiftly. He sabotaged Mimiron's workshop, staging a tragic and seemingly accidental explosion. The guardian's body was destroyed, and everyone believed he was dead.
But Mimiron was not entirely gone. Loyal mechagnomes who had long served and revered him discovered that their master's spirit still lingered, though fading. Driven by grief and hope, they constructed a massive mechanical body—a metal vessel strong enough to contain and protect Mimiron's essence. This heroic act saved the guardian from total annihilation, but he was never the same again. His encounter with death had fractured his mind, shattered his clarity, and blurred the line between creation and creator.
Mimiron withdrew into remote workshops deep within the vast halls of Ulduar. He refused to interact with the other guardians, immersing himself in machines that grew ever more complex and unpredictable. He spoke to his devices, created mechanical beings with no clear purpose, and wrote theories only he could understand. He became a shadow of the genius he once was.
Loken knew that if Mimiron's fate were revealed, the other guardians would begin to suspect his actions. So he accelerated his plan. He deployed Titan-forged forces to subdue his remaining siblings. His first target was Freya, the guardian of life, who dwelled in the lush green sanctuary within Storm Peak, specifically at the Temple of Life. Battle erupted. Loken's forces and Freya's followers clashed with primordial power. The temple, once a center of growth and fertility, was destroyed, and its precious life energy dissipated into the air.
Freya fought valiantly, summoning the power of nature and forest spirits to repel her enemies. But the shadow power granted to Loken by Yogg-Saron was too great to overcome. Freya was ultimately defeated, her body gravely wounded and her soul weakened. In her despair, Yogg-Saron infiltrated her mind. The Old God seduced and corrupted her spirit, forcing her to retreat to Ulduar's halls. There, Freya spent her sorrowful days tending a vast garden at the heart of the fortress—a garden now filled with plants born of grief and ruin.
Meanwhile, another group of Titan-forged created by Loken waged war against Hodir, the guardian of winter, in his frozen domain: the Temple of Winter. Two fire giants, Ignis and Volkhan, led a brutal assault. They engulfed the temple in searing flames, turning snow to steam and draining Hodir's winter strength. Hodir's loyal followers—faithful ice beings—fell one by one in the blaze they could not extinguish.
Loken then arrived to subdue Hodir directly. He carried a mysterious artifact—a casing infused with distortion energy from Yogg-Saron. With the aid of this artifact, he succeeded in defeating Hodir and forcing him to retreat into a cold chamber within Ulduar. Like Freya, Hodir became a victim of the Old God's mental manipulation. He withdrew, frozen in silence and regret for thousands of years.
The two remaining guardians, Tyr and Archaedas, were not direct victims of Loken's sinister plan. Tyr had long suspected a growing darkness within Loken, and his suspicions were confirmed when he witnessed the assault on Hodir. However, Tyr knew he was in no position to confront Loken openly. The Titan-forged forces loyal to Loken had already seized control of Storm Peak and the halls of Ulduar. A direct confrontation would lead to ruin.
Tyr took Archaedas and their close companion, Ironaya—a female giant forged by the Titans—to the outskirts of Storm Peak. Among the untouched, silent ice cliffs, they waited and watched Loken's plan unfold. They crafted strategies, weighed possible actions, and waited for the right moment to strike.
Unaware of their presence, Loken deployed his forces to hunt down Tyr and his allies. The Titan-forged scoured the mountains and caves of Storm Peak, but they never found their prey. Convinced that Tyr and his companions had fled the region, Loken asserted sole dominion over Ulduar. He reconfigured the fortress's machinery, manipulated its surveillance and control systems, and declared himself the new Prime Minister of Azeroth.
He disabled the now-tainted Forge of Wills, halting the creation of new beings, and cast out many servants he deemed useless into Storm Peak. Afterward, he sealed the vast fortress of Ulduar, turning it into a silent, secret-laden seat of power.
Yet behind it all, Loken languished in regret. The halls of Ulduar, once filled with sound and light, had become a place of cold and silence. Despite all he had achieved, Loken was haunted by the fear that the Pantheon—or their observer, Algalon—might one day return to Azeroth. If that happened, they would uncover the terrible crimes he had committed and punish him without mercy.
But the greatest threat did not come from the sky. It lay directly beneath Loken's feet. No longer watched by Ulduar's wardens, Yogg-Saron began to stir. The Old God crept through dimensional fractures, shaking the walls of his once-impenetrable prison. He sought to break free—and if he succeeded, it would not be only Loken who perished. The entire world would drown in madness.