Legends of Warcraft #1: the Creation

June 27, 2026•Lore•Brendo Arruda

"Legends of Warcraft" series — Legends #1. The prehistory of Warcraft in order, from the creation of the universe to the last Guardian of Tirisfal. The episodes are listed in order at the end of the post.

The origin of the Warcraft universe starts before any world existed. In the beginning, there was the Light and the Void, and the physical universe was born where the two met. Inside it, giant spirits slept within planets. The first to wake up was Aman'Thul, and he gathered his siblings into the Pantheon, the group of titans that would one day reach Azeroth.

In the beginning, the Light and the Void

According to the book Warcraft Chronicle, before time there was an ocean of Light, alive and in motion. Parts of that Light began to fade, and from what faded came the Void, a hungry force that tries to devour everything that exists.

The clash between the two created the physical universe, the Great Dark Beyond, full of stars and worlds. The Light stands for hope, creation and order. The Void stands for hunger, destruction and desire. Almost all of Warcraft's cosmology is a variation on this tension.

The forces of the cosmos

Warcraft's cosmology organizes the universe into pairs of opposing forces, which meet and mix in every world:

Light and Void, the main pair, of creation and destruction.
Life and Death, which rule the cycle of souls. Death governs the Shadowlands, the afterlife that appears in the Shadowlands expansion.
Order and Disorder: Order is arcane magic, and Disorder is fel magic, which feeds the demons.

At the center of everything is the realm of Spirits, and the place where arcane and fel magic mix is the Twisting Nether, the chaos between worlds. The demons of the Burning Legion live there.

The naaru and the Void Lords

Each force has its own beings. On the side of the Light are the naaru, creatures of pure light shaped like crystals, who fight the darkness and later help the draenei. On the side of the Void are the Void Lords, entities that want to corrupt the entire universe.

The Void Lords discovered that the greatest prize in the universe was the world-souls. If one of them were corrupted, a dark titan would be born, able to devour stars. That is why they sent the Old Gods to Azeroth.

The world-souls and the titans

Scattered across the universe were immense spirits asleep inside planets: the world-souls. When one of them awoke, the whole planet became the body of a titan, a being of almost infinite power, able to shape worlds.

Aman'Thul and the birth of the Pantheon

Legend says the first titan to awaken was Aman'Thul. Alone, he traveled through the Great Dark looking for others like him. He found and awakened other world-souls, and with these younger siblings he formed the Pantheon.

The members of the Pantheon were:

Aman'Thul, the Highfather, leader of the Pantheon.
Sargeras, the warrior, defender of the Pantheon against the demons.
Aggramar, the avenger, Sargeras's apprentice.
Eonar, the protector of life.
Golganneth, the lord of the seas and skies.
Khaz'goroth, the shaper of worlds.
Norgannon, the keeper of magic and knowledge.

The Pantheon began to travel the universe to find more world-souls and protect them. Meanwhile, Sargeras hunted the demons, the beings of fel magic, and locked them away on a prison world called Mardum.

What about the First Ones?

The Shadowlands expansion added a layer above the titans: the First Ones, ancient beings who supposedly created the structures of the cosmos, including the pantheons. Warcraft Wiki sums it up like this: the First Ones created the pantheons to represent the forces that govern reality.

This addition still divides fans, and the story told in the Chronicle remains the basis for understanding how everything began.

Who's who in this episode

| Name | Who it is | |------|--------| | The Light | The force of creation and hope. The naaru are its best-known servants. | | The Void | The force of hunger and destruction. The Void Lords and the Old Gods come from it. | | Aman'Thul | The first titan to awaken and the leader of the Pantheon. | | Sargeras | The Pantheon's warrior, who hunted demons and would one day become the greatest enemy of all. | | Eonar | The titan of life, who later convinces the Pantheon to save Azeroth. | | Mardum | The prison world where Sargeras locked away the demons he defeated. |

Where to see it in WotLK

Ulduar, in the Storm Peaks: the city built by the titan-forged, with the observatory of Algalon, the Pantheon's envoy.
Halls of Stone: Brann Bronzebeard discovers in the titans' discs the origin of the dwarves and the earthen.
Shattrath, in Terokkar: the naaru A'dal and the allies of the Light, on the Outland side.

Frequently asked questions

How does the Warcraft universe begin?

With the Light and the Void. From the clash between the two forces came the physical universe, where the world-souls that would give rise to the titans were sleeping.