C'Thun


 * "Your heart will explode."

C'Thun (sometimes spelled C'thun and pronounced "Kuh-THOON") is the Old God of madness and chaos, one of the four ancient and powerful creatures who ruled the world of Azeroth long ago before being defeated and imprisoned by servants of the titans. C'Thun created the qiraji and resides within the city of Ahn'Qiraj in Silithus.

It is an unfathomably evil entity whose pervasive power has suffused Azeroth since time immemorial. In recent years, C'Thun freed itself. Champions of the Alliance and Horde chose not to wait for the Old God to build up its strength. They invaded the city-kingdom of Ahn'Qiraj, fighting countless qiraji and silithid before finally confronting and defeating the malevolent god. Even so, it is unknown whether Azeroth has truly seen the last of C'Thun.

It appears in World of Warcraft as the final encounter in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, implemented in patch 1.9.

C'Thun served as one of the main antagonists of classic World of Warcraft.

Before the ordering of Azeroth
Countless millennia ago, the Old Gods, C'Thun among them, arrived on Azeroth. There, with the help of their n'raqi and aqiri spawn, they established their mighty Black Empire and enslaved the chaotic elementals, who had previously been the world's only inhabitants.

One day, the godlike titans happened upon Azeroth. Vowing to cleanse the planet of the Old Gods and saving its world-soul from the eldritch beings' malign influence, the titans crafted the titan-forged from the planet's crust to destroy the Black Empire. The titan-forged succeeded in imprisoning the Elemental Lords and defeating most of the aqir, but after the titans saw the catastrophic effect that the Old God Y'Shaarj's death had on the planet, they ordered their creations to imprison the remaining Old Gods rather than killing them. After containing N'Zoth, the titan-forged launched their campaign upon the temple-city of C'Thun, purging swams of n'raqi before successfully imprisoning the Old God itself.

After the defeat of the Old Gods, the titan-forged set to work ordering Azeroth. After installing the Forge of Origination, the titan-forged Ra and his anubisath servants marched northwest towards C'Thun's prison, laboring to expand the prison into the fortress of Ahn'Qiraj.

The War of the Shifting Sands
For millennia, C'Thun lay dormant within its prison. Roughly 16,000 years BDP, the race known as the trolls accidentally reawakened the insectoid aqir, who had escaped underground during the destruction of the Black Empire. Led by the C'Thrax Kith'ix, the aqir launched a great war against the trolls, but the trolls were able to drive the insectoids back to the far corners of the continent. One group of aqir fled southwest and overran Ahn'Qiraj, enslaving its anubisath guardians with the intention of using the giants against their foes, but nevertheless, the Gurubashi trolls were sucessful in containing the insectoids within the fortress for the rest of the war. The aqir would remain inside the prison complex's walls for millennia afterwards, and over time, the influence of C'Thun transformed them into a new race: the qiraji.

Thousands of years later, the night elves accidentally awakened the dormant qiraji upon entering Ahn'Qiraj. C'Thun stirred within its prison and became aware of the insectoids that had gathered around it. The Old God drove the qiraji and their silithid minions into a murderous frenzy, and shortly thereafter the insectoids swarmed out across Silithus. So began the War of the Shifting Sands. The whole of Silithus was soon engulfed by the silithid and their qiraji hosts. The night elf army, led by the pompous Fandral Staghelm, was pushed back through Un'Goro Crater, to the borders of the Tanaris desert. Fandral sought the aid of the bronze dragonflight who resided in the Caverns of Time, and who at the time were led by Anachronos. Anachronos initially hesitated to bring the bronze dragons into the war, but when the qiraji attacked the Caverns of Time itself, Anachronos agreed to ally with the kaldorei forces. Realizing that even the combined forces of the night elves and the bronze flight could stop the onslaught of the qiraji, Anachronos called out to the green, red and blue dragonflights. Arygos of the blue flight was the first to notice the strange emanations radiating from the monolothic temple in the southern quadrant of Ahn'Qiraj, a strange power completely different from anything radiated by the qiraji. Seeing the endless numbers of the silithid and qiraji constantly growing within the walls of Ahn'Qiraj and sensing the presence of the qiraji's master, the dragons knew that they had to react quickly. The Scarab Wall was erected to create an impenetrable magical barrier and contain the insectoid threat. The war ended, and C'Thun's plans had failed.

Reawakening
Centuries later, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj reopened, and the qiraji once again threatened all of Kalimdor. Rumors circulated that C'Thun was present with its great, horrifying lidless eye, surrounded by a sea of tentacles, and would vaporize every ignorant mortal who thought of daring to challenge its supreme power and right to the world of Azeroth. Since the Old God has foreseen the arrival of the dragons, it cast a spell that would place them firmly under his control should they come any closer to him. While it expected dragons at his doorstep, it was not prepared for mortal adventurers. The mortal champions managed to fight their way through Ahn'Qiraj, and finally reached C'Thun's chamber. There, the adventurers did what was thought to be impossible and defeated the Old God itself. After C'Thun's defeat, its eye was brought to the red dragon Caelestrasz.

Attempted return


Years later, while the Lich King launched massive attacks on Stormwind City and Orgrimmar — distracting King Varian Wrynn and Warchief Thrall — Cho'gall attempted to free his new master, the Old God C'Thun, from its prison beneath the earth. C'Thun empowered the ogre, deforming his body which became monstrous. However, Med'an used the power of the New Council of Tirisfal to collapse the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj on top of Cho'gall, stopping the ritual.

Even so, it is unknown whether Azeroth has truly seen the last of C'Thun.

Composition
The C'Thun encounter is actually a composition of different NPCs:
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)
 * (More of a room than an NPC)

Quotes
Throughout the Ruins and Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, players can periodically hear the whisperings of C'Thun:
 * whisper
 * whisper
 * whisper
 * whisper
 * whisper
 * whisper
 * whisper
 * whisper

In Hearthstone
C'Thun appears as a legendary card in the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion for Hearthstone. C'Thun could be considered the expansion's "main character"; the card is rather unique in that it is accompanied by a total of 16 other cards that synergize with the Old God in various ways. C'Thun's flavor text reads: "C'Thun's least favorite Hearthstone card: Eye for an Eye."
 * A mechanical version of C'Thun, known as HS Mecha'thun, appears as a legendary card in the The Boomsday Project set. Its flavor text reads: "Your software will fail. Your users will abandon you. You are already obsolete."
 * Additionally, the Eyes of C'Thun card back was rewarded for pre-ordering the aforementioned expansion. The flavor text reads: "For an Old God who's stuck in the lightless depths of an ancient temple, C'Thun sure has a lot of eyeballs."
 * It reappeared in HS Madness at the Darkmoon Faire as C'Thun, the Shattered. Its flavor text reads "My grandfather's deck has no useless cards!".
 * Also, in the Start of Game, C'Thun is splitted into four pieces: HS Eye of C'Thun, HS Body of C'Thun, HS Heart of C'Thun and HS Maw of C'Thun.

Notes and trivia

 * During the Zek'voz encounter in the Archives of Eternity in Uldir, the Projection of C'Thun casts the Eye of C'Thun harming the souls of the attackers.
 * C'Thun bears a striking resemblance to the Forgotten One beneath Azjol-Nerub that was fought by Arthas Menethil and Anub'arak in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
 * The semi-transparent Eye of C'Thun, called The Master's Eye, can be seen looking at and perhaps communicating with the Twin Emperors in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. As you approach, it despawns and emotes that emote.
 * The Membrane of C'Thun drops from Cho'gall in the Bastion of Twilight.
 * At some point during Patch 4.1.0 PTR, a lot of new Silithus quests were added. The new Silithus quests seemed to involve investigating who the new leaders of the silithid were, and, of course, it turned out to be the Twilight's Hammer. The last bunch of quests pointed towards C'Thun's involvement, including an appearance of its iconic eye. However, the quests never made it into the live version of the game.
 * An in-universe prophecy indicated that C'Thun actually directly battled a titan in Silithus and feigned defeat before rising up millennia later to create the qiraji from the silithid, and that the qiraji were the ones to build the city of Ahn'Qiraj. This was later changed in Chronicle Volume 1, in which C'Thun never faced a titan and the titan-forged built Ahn'Qiraj.

Inspiration

 * The Old Gods in general draw heavy inspiration from the writings of and C'Thun is a clear example of this. C'Thun's name is an obvious reference to, one of the most well-known beings in Lovecraft's shared . The name also bears a resemblance to the , one of 's additions to the mythos.
 * Vethsera's chest item quests in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (e.g. Deathdealer's Vest (quest) and Striker's Hauberk (quest)) all feature the phrase "At his dwelling in Ahn'Qiraj, dread C'Thun awaits in slumber". This is a clear reference to a phrase frequently chanted by Cthulhu's worshipers in the Mythos: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", which translates to "In his house at, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming". The quests also mention that C'Thun will lash out against all living beings with terrible wrath when the stars are favorable, which alludes to the idea that Cthulhu and the sunken city of R'lyeh in which he dwells will rise again "when the stars are right".
 * Also pointing towards a reference to Cthulhu is the idea of insanity, such as the Dark Edge of Insanity item drop, as well as several of C'Thun's quotes, such as "Your friends will abandon you", and "You will betray your friends." Cthulhu in H.P. Lovecraft's stories deals very heavily with insanity as well, with both his followers often being described as mad, as well as those who find themselves in the events surrounding him often losing their sanity.
 * It is likely that the words C'Thun, Cthulhu, Cthonia, and C'Tan (from the  universe) are all derived in some form from the Greek word "", which means "under the earth or "inside the earth". Although there was no specific god named Chthon in Greek mythology, the word "chthonic" (sometimes spelled "cthonic") is still used in mythological studies as an adjective to describe earth-related deities. It seems that Blizzard, Lovecraft and Games Workshop adapted the word for their own uses.
 * While C'Thun bears no striking physical resemblance to artists' renderings of Cthulhu, its eye greatly resembles the from the writings of . The eye of C'Thun also looks very much like the  god, the chief god of the . C'Thun's physical form bears at least some resemblance to the Zerg Overmind from Blizzard's StarCraft franchise.
 * C'Thun, and the Old Gods in general, are also similar to the aforementioned from the  universe. Besides having similar names, other similarities include that the Old Gods fought the titans and that the godlike C'tan fought the Old Ones. C'Thun's uplifting of the silithid into the qiraji is also similar to how the C'tan transformed the Necrontyr race into the robotic s.
 * The name "Cthun" is also used in the short story ' featured in '. In the story, Cthun is a hidden world of eldritch abominations that is kept at bay by a shifting circle of stones in an abandoned field, where a caretaker must stand watch and, through his perception, constantly "fix" the circle by making sure there are eight stones instead of seven. The rite induces severe OCD-like symptoms in its practitioners, resulting in a string of identical suicides. One of the beings that frequently attempts to pass through the circle is described as an inhuman, three-lobed eye, and a strange leathery helmet.

Patches and hotfixes

 * Retail


 * Classic