Void lord



The void lords are monstrous entities composed of pure shadow energy who rule over the Void, outside the borders of reality. Merciless and cruel beyond imagination, they seek only to twist reality into a realm of eternal torment, and ultimately to devour all matter and energy and the universe itself. However, only the most powerful of the void lords can actually manifest in the physical universe, weakened, and only for limited amounts of time, for their energies quickly seep into nothingness. They thus must consume untold amounts of matter and energy to maintain their presence.

Background
From the moment the physical universe was born, the void lords had been watching the titans of the Pantheon. Envious of the titans' power, the void lords attempted to corrupt one of them, but the titans remained impervious to their attempts. Instead, the void lords pooled their power and hurled dark, parasitic horrors — later known as the Old Gods — out into the universe to find and exert their influence over a titan in its most vulnerable state: as a slumbering world-soul. The void lords did not know which planets contained titan world-souls, and so simply hoped that at least some of their creations would smash into a planet that contained a nascent titan.

While the Pantheon was aware of the Void's existence, they had no knowledge of the void lords or their Old God servants. Instead, they were preoccupied with another threat: demons, chaotic spawn of the Twisting Nether. As the Pantheon's greatest warrior, Sargeras, hunted the vile creatures wherever he could find them, he soon learned that some demons had learned to wield Void energies. One day, he further discovered a world-soul that had been almost completely corrupted by the Old Gods. Its surface was covered in Void energies, and the normally tranquil dreams of the nascent titan had been twisted into horrific nightmares. Sargeras ruthlessly interrogated the black world's nathrezim inhabitants, who had come to dwell amongst the Old Gods, and through them he learned of the void lords and their intentions. Enraged and anguished, Sargeras smote the demons and cleaved the corrupted world in two, instantly killing the world-soul within. It was this event that led Sargeras to abandon his brethren in the Pantheon, form the demonic Burning Legion and vow to purge the cosmos of all life — in his mind, a lifeless universe was better than one absolutely ripped apart by the Void, for he argued that if life had once taken root in the Great Dark on its own, perhaps it would do so again.

Dimensius the All-Devouring was one such void lord who manifested in the physical universe. Aligning with what Chronicle said about how weaker void lords are when manifesting, he was described as a fragment, shadow, echo of a true void lord's power, and Xal'atath said to be eagerly awaiting the day one would be able to "truly pass into this realm".

Velen glimpsed a vision of a possible future where the void lords apparently attempted to devour the Army of the Light aided by the naaru and the dragons along with the champions of the Alliance and the Horde, and consume all of existence.

Not all void lords necessarily have the same motives. They may have their own personalities and own goals.

According to Lor'themar Theron, the whispers of Alleria Windrunner apparently come from the "lords of the Void" themselves, and even after the defeat of all four of the Old Gods, they have continued to constantly affect Alleria.

Notes and trivia

 * The void lords shown in World of Warcraft: Chronicle resemble voidcallers.
 * The nathrezim, some of which came to wield Shadow powers, but in reality serving the power of Death, apparently attempted to engage the void lords in millennia past, before the Pantheon's destruction, and believed them to be oblivious to the lies which they sowed into their midst, although remained wary of their ability to observe infinite futures and possibilities. Nevertheless, the void lords likely are not entirely blind to their manipulations, regarding Death as "the true enemy" which sought the end of all the countless possibilities they foresaw, and as according to Il'gynoth, Corruption Reborn: Whisper, and N'Zoth also stated during the Uu'nat encounter that: Whisper
 * If the Old Gods are based on the from Lovecraftian literature, the void lords are based on the.

Speculation

 * How powerful the void lords are in comparison to the titans is unknown. They were described as being envious of the titans' power. The only known direct interactions between the two resulted in the void lords' failure to corrupt awakened titans. Instead, the void lords decided to go after them while they were in their most vulnerable form, when they were still slumbering world-souls, in order to create a dark titan to act as their agent due to their difficulty manifesting in the physical universe. These indicate that they may be weaker than titans while in the physical plane. However, the Pantheon believed that Azeroth would be the only titan capable of defeating the void lords once and for all, indicating that the void lords may be stronger than the Pantheon while in the Void, though still weaker than Azeroth alone.
 * Void lords may need world-souls for other reasons than creating a dark titan. World-souls represent unimaginable sources of energy, which would likely counter the seeping out of a void lord's own energies into nothingness when they manifest in the Great Dark. As such world-souls would serve as anchors to the physical universe for them, being great sources of power to consume. Dimensius the All-Devouring was said to be a void lord manifesting, but he was comparatively weak, with only a fraction of his power, and would've needed to consume matter and energy to grow in power. It took him years to ravage the ethereal's homeworld of K'aresh. He was also repelled by the sacrifice of a single naaru, T'uure, while attempting to devour another world. This gives some insight as to the difficulties the void lords face when attempting to manifest in the universe.