Hakkar the Soulflayer

Hakkar the Soulflayer, the Blood God, is a malevolent and destructive loa notably worshipped by the Gurubashi trolls, and known in the troll pantheon as the Loa of Blood. He at one point controlled the Gurubashi Empire's fallen capital of Zul'Gurub.

Hakkar the Soulflayer was the final boss of the Zul'Gurub raid until it was removed with patch 4.0.3a and Zul'Gurub was turned into an ordinary subzone of Northern Stranglethorn. Though the world believed Hakkar to be dead, there were rumors that the god might return one day. These ultimately proved true when the troll Jin'do brought back his spirit in order to drain the blood god's powers into himself.

Hakkar's blood is very potent. A small amount of his blood obtained by Jammal'an the Prophet was injected into green dragons to use their bodies to produce the massive quantities of blood necessary to summon Hakkar into the world through a dark ritual that was thwarted by a group of heroic Alliance adventurers assaulting the temple. Farmed like livestock, the evil that grew within them was then harvested. Hakkar's blood had devastating effects on the dragons. These former jailors of the Atal'ai were corrupted by its presence in their bodies and became creatures of Nightmare. Even Eranikus, one of the greatest green dragons, infused with the largest quantities of blood, became twisted beyond imagination.

Hakkar serves as a supporting antagonist in classic World of Warcraft, Cataclysm, and Shadowlands.

Ancient times
The origins of Hakkar remain unknown, and there are no mentions of him in any Titan records.

A foolish troll attempted to summon Hakkar on Zandalar many millennia ago. While his attempt was stopped, it led to the breakout of a plague of corrupted blood which tore through the Zandalari Empire, killing thousands of trolls and leading to one of the most terrifying periods in the island's history.

Around 1,500 years before the opening of the Dark Portal, the Gurubashi trolls, driven to desperate ends because of famine and terror which were commonplace within the broken troll kingdoms, sought aid from ancient, mystical forces. The troll kingdoms shared a central belief in a great pantheon of primitive gods, and the Gurubashi fell under the sway of the darkest one.

Hakkar the Soulflayer, a vile, bloodthirsty spirit, heard the trolls' call and decided to aid them. Hakkar gave his secrets of blood to the Gurubashi and helped them extend their civilization across most of Stranglethorn Vale and certain islands of the South Seas. Though he brought them great power, Hakkar wanted more and more for his efforts. He filled his adherents with murderous rage and reveled in their dark emotions. The carnage that invariably followed Hakkar suited him perfectly, for having consumed blood, he had developed a taste for it. Worse, he became more powerful as he consumed the blood that was shed in his name, and his tie to the world that was feeding him grew stronger.

The bloodthirsty god demanded souls be sacrificed to him daily. He dreamed of gaining access to the physical world so he could devour the blood of all mortal creatures. In time the Gurubashi realized what kind of creature they had courted with — and turned against him. The strongest tribes rose up against Hakkar and his loyal priests — the Atal'ai.

At first, the Zandalari trolls on the isle of Zandalar were glad for the fellow trolls' prosperity. However, as Zul'Gurub continued to expand, the Zandalari's pleased surprise turned to disquiet. They consulted myths and delved into historical accounts. What they learned horrified them: Hakkar was also known as the "Soulflayer", a name he had richly earned. The Gurubashi Empire was already in a state of civil unrest due to the numerous sacrifices that Hakkar was demanding. With the Zandalari's news, the jungle trolls banded together with the Zandalari and rose up in open revolt against the bloodthirsty Soulflayer.

The terrible war that ensued between Hakkar's followers and the rest of the Gurubashi tribes is spoken of only in whispers. The budding empire was shattered by the magic unleashed between the angry god and his rebel children. Just as the battle seemed most hopeless, the trolls succeeded in destroying Hakkar's avatar and banishing him from the world. Even his Atal'ai priests were eventually driven from the capital of Zul'Gurub. After his defeat, the various troll tribes of the jungle began battling each other and the Darkspear tribe left the continent and settled on the islands known as the Darkspear Islands.

Though the Atal'ai priests were defeated and ultimately exiled, the great troll empire buckled in upon itself. The exiled priests fled far to the north, into the Swamp of Sorrows. There they erected a great temple to Hakkar — where they could prepare for his arrival into the physical world. The great dragon Aspect, Ysera, learned of the Atal'ai's plans and smashed the temple beneath the marshes. To this day, the temple's drowned ruins are guarded by the green dragons who prevent anyone from getting in or out. However, it is believed that some of the fanatical Atal'ai may have survived Ysera's wrath — and recommitted themselves to the dark service of Hakkar.

Modern times
Even centuries later, only 18-19 years before the Dark Portal opened, some of the Gurubashi would continue to use Hakkar's blood magic, especially in their war against the humans of Stormwind. The Vilebranch tribe of forest trolls, far to the north in the Hinterlands, also worshiped Hakkar. Vile Priestess Hexx sacrificed people to him. Dark vessels of his tainted blood radiated the foul magic of Hakkar, woven by Vile Priestess Hexx, empowering the Vilebranch and also driving them to madness.

Temple of Atal'Hakkar
The green dragons that had been left by Ysera to guard the Temple of Atal'Hakkar had succumbed to another force, the Emerald Nightmare. The descendants of the Atal'ai returned to the Sunken Temple to find that its guardians were disoriented and vulnerable. Both the Nightmare and the trolls dragged the dragons down into the depths of madness and corruption. In firm control of the temple, the Atal'ai began their gruesome rituals to summon Hakkar into the world. The Atal'ai's spiritual leader, Jammal'an, had what he called a prophecy. He believed the summoning of Hakkar will bring the Atal'ai immortality. A green dragon named Itharius called for help from the Cenarion Circle, who in turn sent an Alliance force to cleanse the temple and put an end to the Atal'ai's efforts.

Yeh'kinya tricked adventurers into taking an Ancient Egg from Jintha'Alor and infusing it with the essence of the defeated Avatar of Hakkar into a Filled Egg of Hakkar. Prospector Ironboot revealed that Yeh'kinya wasn't about to keep the world safe, but to bring the god Hakkar back. When confronted to hand over the egg, the troll laughed that it is too late as Hakkar has already reborn in Zul'Gurub and the adventurers helped bring the Soulflayer back.

Zul'Gurub
The Zandalari trolls were shocked to learn of the attempt to summon Hakkar in the Sunken Temple and believed the loa's return would herald a dark time for trolls. They were pleased to hear that the Atal'ai had been defeated in the temple, but their relief soon turned to horror. Some of Hakkar's adherents survived, and they were continuing their quest. In time, the Atal'ai priests discovered that Hakkar's physical form could only be summoned within the ancient capital of the Gurubashi Empire, Zul'Gurub. Unfortunately, the priests met with success in their quest to call forth Hakkar — reports confirm the presence of the dreaded Soulflayer in the heart of the Gurubashi ruins.

In order to quell the blood god, the trolls of the land banded together and sent a contingent of High Priests into the ancient city. Each priest was a powerful champion of the Primal Gods — Bat, Panther, Tiger, Spider, and Snake — but despite their best efforts, they fell under the sway of Hakkar. Now the champions and their Primal God aspects fed the awesome power of the Soulflayer. Any adventurers brave enough to venture into the foreboding ruins had to overcome the High Priests if they were to have any hope of confronting the mighty blood god.

The Zandalari knew that they did not have the resources to scour the Atal'ai and their leader, Jin'do the Hexxer, from Zul'Gurub. They sent word through the Darkspear tribe that the Horde needed to act immediately for Hakkar being successfully summoned would throw the world into chaos. A large Horde strike force was sent to Zul'Gurub in turn. The Horde charged into the temple city, and though they killed the priests and Jin'do they were too late to stop Hakkar's summoning. Manifesting as a force of death and insanity, Hakkar poisoned the blood of the Horde's champions and tried to drag their thoughts into absolute madness. Yet it was Hakkar's own power that proved to be his undoing. In desperation, the Horde forces allowed themselves to be poisoned, and then let Hakkar feed on their corrupted blood. In his frenzied state, with every thought filled with the urge to consume blood, Hakkar paid little heed to the tactics of his seemingly harmless enemies. He was unaware of the poison entering his veins until it was too late, and in the end Hakkar was consumed by his own dark magic.

After the Soulflayer was defeated his cursed heart, the still-burning kernel of Hakkar's power, was brought to Molthor in the hope the Zandalari trolls would know how to destroy it. The heart was banished.

Cataclysm
Several years after the defeat of Hakkar in Zul'Gurub, the Atal'ai in the Sanctum of the Fallen God have recovered a significant portion of his skeleton and seek to restore Hakkar back to life. Already his children have begun to show up in the area. Although the Avatar of Hakkar was once again defeated in the Sunken Temple the Atal'ai transported most of the blood they produced to Zul'Gurub, where the Hakkari work to summon the Blood God there. Meanwhile the Vilebranch tribe of the Hinterlands had left Hakkar in favor of Shadra.

Meanwhile, Jin'do recovered the body of two high priests, High Priest Venoxis and High Priestess Jeklik, and then enlisted the aid of Zanzil the Outcast to resurrect them in the service of Hakkar. Though adventurers working for the Zandalari trolls Maywiki and Chabal attempted to stop both rituals, they only succeeded in destroying Jeklik's body. It's unclear exactly why, but Jin'do required Bloodlord Mandokir to summon Hakkar, while Mandokir required Ohgan'aka, daughter of Ohgan, his closest and most trusted friend.

Some time later, the Zandalari trolls under Zul united most of the tribes and aided in restoring Zul'Gurub to its former glory for the purpose of rebuilding the old troll empire. They hoped to use Hakkar in order to wage war on the other races of Azeroth, to save their kind from destruction.

Adventurers in Zul'Gurub can witness Jin'do, now going by the name "the Godbreaker," holding Hakkar in submission in the Veil and stripping out his power to infuse into himself. To stop the invincible Jin'do, adventurers will have to release the captive upon the captor. Upon destroying the spiritual chains holding the Soulflayer in place, Hakkar turns upon Jin'do, and utterly destroys him, leaving only the corpse of Jin'do the Broken. Hakkar then returned the adventurers to the mortal realm, promising to deal with them another time, before vanishing.

Shadowlands
At an unknown point in time, Hakkar passed on to the Shadowlands, where he was sent to Ardenweald and came to reside within a wildseed to start his rebirthing process. His wildseed was later stolen by Mueh'zala loyalists led by High Priest Rakazodu, who sought to resurrect him and Dambala to serve in their master's army. However while Dambala fought and died under Mueh'zala's banner, Hakkar left Ardenweald for Zul'Gurub.

No longer content with being the loa of blood, Hakkar sought to become the loa of Blood and Death. To that end, within Zul'Gurub, he called upon the souls of his Atal'ai Devoted for war. However, Bwonsamdi, who claimed he and Hakkar made a deal in which the former handed over some mojo for Hakkar's rituals, decided it was time for Hakkar to pay his debts. Thus Hakkar was once more beaten by the mortals of Azeroth. After his defeat, Bwonsamdi remarked Hakkar will return sooner or later.

Quests
Currently, the following quests involve Hakkar:
 * The Blood God Hakkar

Before Cataclysm, the following quests dealt with the attempts to resurrect or defeat him:
 * Screecher Spirits
 * The Prophecy of Mosh'aru
 * The Ancient Egg
 * The God Hakkar
 * The Lost Tablets of Mosh'aru
 * The Final Tablets
 * Confront Yeh'kinya
 * The Hand of Rastakhan
 * The Heart of Hakkar

In Hearthstone


Hakkar appears as HS Hakkar, the Soulflayer (a legendary card) in the HS Rastakhan's Rumble expansion for Hearthstone, where he has the ability to shuffle HS Corrupted Blood into both players' decks as a reference to the original World of Warcraft debuff (see below). Hakkar was originally planned to have his own gladiator team in the expansion, much like the other loa featured in the set, with Hakkar's team being known as "Hakkar's Soulflayers" and being the subject of some of the earliest concept art created for the expansion. However, the Hearthstone developers eventually changed their mind, since they deemed Hakkar so evil that he would likely just eat his own team, and instead made him a neutral card that shows up to the rumble to "crash the party" even though he's "not invited". His flavor text reads: "ATTENTION: Do not enter any major city while infected with the Corrupted Blood!"

In February 2019, Blizzard released the "Mark of Hakkar" HS card back, which can spread from player to player as another reference to the Corrupted Blood incident. Any time a player faces off against another player with the card back equipped, their opponent will also automatically unlock and equip it. Its flavor text reads: "Look out! This card back's gone viral!"

Notes and trivia

 * One version of the Shadowed Loa Spirit and Blessed Loa Spirit uses Hakkar's model.
 * The Golden Serpent was created by the Zandalari to protect Kings' Rest from Hakkar. At the peak of the mountain overlooking Atal'Dazar, there is a skeleton that resembles Hakkar; this could be the remains of the time he tried to invade the temple.
 * According to the Zandalari troll Molthor, one of his titles is "The faceless one". Primal Torntusk calls him "the faceless blood God" in a quest. Also, Hakkar drops a piece of loot called Fang of the Faceless. However, Hakkar is not a faceless one, and was confirmed to be a loa.
 * The Vale Screechers are called the cousins of Hakkar, and their spirits seem to be linked to him.
 * Hakkar the Soulflayer was known only as "Hakkar" in his appearance as a boss in Zul'Gurub.
 * Hakkar is a "memory" in the fight against Argent Confessor Paletress in the Trial of the Champion encounter of the Crusaders' Coliseum.
 * Hakkar may be repaying to Jindo's soul after what he had done to him.
 * As a wind serpent god with blood themes, Hakkar is similar to Sethe.
 * Although they are both Blood Gods worshiped by the trolls, Hakkar is unrelated to G'huun.
 * It was once stated that Eranikus fell to the Emerald Nightmare because of Hakkar's corruption. Chronicle states that the Nightmare had already gripped the dragons when the Atal'ai descendants arrived at the temple and made the situation worse.
 * Hakkar's original model had unique animations, but his new model in Shadowlands uses male naga rigging.
 * Hakkar is voiced by Chris Metzen.
 * Hakkar is physically inspired by the Mesoamerican deities or, both of which can be translated as "Feathered Serpent". However, personality-wise it seems to be the opposite since Quetzalcoatl was against human sacrifice and blood offerings.
 * The reason that Hakkar the Soulflayer shares the same name as Hakkar the Houndmaster is because Chris Metzen inadvertently reused the latter's name when he created the former.
 * Hakkar's body may be inspired by the Hydralisk of StarCraft.

Corrupted Blood incident
Shortly after Zul'Gurub's original release, several players across many servers found that the Corrupted Blood debuff, which took away health and spread to other players, could be carried out of the instance through warlock or hunter pets. The debuff would then spread from the pets to the players outside of the instance, creating a massive, in-game epidemic that killed low-level players in seconds and allowed higher levels enough time to corrupt others. Blizzard, who didn't see it coming at first, eventually reset all the servers and made it impossible for pets to carry the debuff outside the instance.

Speculation
With the machine of broken all souls are being funneled to the Maw, thus it is possible that Bwonsamdi's remark of Hakkar returning sooner or later could be a hint of Hakkar becoming an ally of The Jailer.