First Ones

The First Ones are godlike beings who shaped the cosmos, including the Titans, the Eternal Ones, the Void, and the Light. Very little is known about them, but they are connected to other pantheons like the titan Pantheon and the Eternal Ones. Even the denizens of the Shadowlands only have texts about them that are mostly speculation and half-truths. Their architecture is known for its geometric patterns. The First Ones were the architects of the Shadowlands, including Oribos and Maldraxxus. They placed a Shadowlands map and the Great Vault in Oribos. In addition, their spirit obelisks can be found throughout the afterlives, including some broken ones in the Maw. One of their waystones is located within the Maw, and another in Oribos. It was reawakened from dormancy by an adventurer, to the great surprise of the Jailer who had thought it impossible for a relic of the First Ones to respond to a mortal. According to Tal-Inara, if the Jailer killed the Arbiter, it would mean the end of everything the First Ones made.

The Jailer is searching for a secret that the First Ones sought to hide, calling it the "final prize".

Pieces of a First Ones relic are said to have been hidden on Azeroth, according to Al'dalil.

Notes and trivia

 * The language used by developers for the First Ones seem to gesture to various metaphors common in Western theology, such as the "", "", or "s of everything we see". Opulence Ba'hare describes to certain structures made by the First Ones as with pattern and geometry, which is also an equal title to "architect" in various Abrahamic traditons, of God as "geometer" of the universe.

Speculation

 * A recurring theory is that the First Ones were foreshadowed within World of Warcraft: Chronicles in the cosmology map's four corners, whose motifs are unique and used again in an expanded way only in the World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1's map of Azeroth after the Sundering.
 * Elune is speculated to be a First One in the list of her possible identities. The reason for this is due to her relation to multiple cosmic forces and their cross-effects on other cosmic forces, such as the Titanic Tear of Elune (Order) re-activating the heart of Xe'ra (Light), is able to return a demon satyr (Chaos) back to their night elf form, is the mother of Cenarius with the Wild God Malorne from within the Emerald Dream (Life), and seemingly took Ysera's soul to the Shadowlands (Death) and then purified the Tear of Elune of Nightmare corruption (Void), and has some control over elementals.