What is the void?

Lore Story
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Recent or not so recent lore showed the void in a new light. Back in the day it was mainly about old gods and lovecraftian mind bending tentacle monsters. Nowadays visually it is more space related. We have stars, meteors, black holes etc. In game they even have their own spell schools named cosmic which adds another layer to my confusion. Void now has more connection to reality than Order and arcane. It is no longer this nothingness as its name implies.

So my question is, someone can explain it to me what is void in the cosmic scale suppose to be?

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The Void itself is just “space”. It is nothing. Emptiness and the Voids sole purpose is to return to the nothingness. However the Void itself is not a singular entity as oppose to just a Force. Like Gravity. Gravity always act out the same in the real world, so you could say it’s intention as a force is to pull something towards something else. The conscious acts of the Void are that of the entities that are of the Void that make it the danger.

The Olds gods on the other hand are slightly different. They where Void entities given a physical form by Azeroth. When they went too close to her chamber, they where given freewill and transformed into a “living” entity, however given their void alignment, they turned more into Nightmares rather than a dream. Thus they became lovecraftian.

The Void isn’t lovecraftian unless it interacts with Life. Void + Life = Lovecraftian, however Void on it’s own is just devouring cosmis. You can see the haranir storyline where the “old god” type creatures were nightmare caused from Azeroth not being the cradle.

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The Void a just faction of dastardly bad guys and edgy “antiheroes” that got a graphical update because the old version was getting boring after being overused.

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The the fel but purple. And soon, the light will be the void, but yellow. Riveting.

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Void is one of the two Primal most universal forces in the universe. The other is the Light. Two forces are totally opposite to one another and eternally clash with each other.

From that mutual destruction Twisting Nether is born, a realm of chaos, demons and fel magic. But recently we found out those forces can exist in harmony. Which brings the question.

If mutual destruction brings chaos, does harmony bring order? And we know that from the order Arcane magic comes from which is polar opposite to Fel.

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I would posit that this is possibly conflating Void with its manifestation as Shadow.

As far as we know and have been told in recent years, the six fundamental cosmic forces as created by the First Ones cannot manifest in its pure form in the mortal realm—what we know and call the Great Dark Beyond.

Name Magic Pantheon Plane Zereth Greater Powers Lesser Powers
Death Necromantic Pantheon of Death Shadowlands Zereth Mortis Eternal Ones Undead
Disorder Fel Unknown Twisting Nether Unnamed Unknown Demons
Life Nature Pantheon of Life[23] Realms of Life[24] Unnamed Unknown Wild Gods
Light Holy Unknown Unnamed plane Unnamed Unknown Naaru
Order Arcane Pantheon of Order Unnamed plane Zereth Ordus[25] Titans Keepers
Void Shadow Unknown Unnamed plane Unnamed Void lords Old Gods

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Magic#The_cosmic_forces

The Void (also referred to as Shadow)[2][3][4] is one of the six cosmic forces in the Warcraft universe, its antithesis being the Light, and is a force situated outside the barriers of reality.

[…]

Pure Void cannot exist within the physical universe but shades of it manifest as shadow magic[8][9] (or void magic)[3][4]

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Void

As such, it instead appears and manifests as Shadow magic.

Any and all references to its more cosmic appearance as of late seems to be when shadow and void magic manifests in higher concentrations closer to its pure state of Void. Regardless, this somewhat new appearance has arguably not replaced what was since both were encountered simultaneously during Dragonflight, coincidentally also being the cosmic void and its new look’s first appearance.

Since then we’ve gradually encountered beings more closely related to pure Void rather than Shadow both leading into the Worldsoul Saga and now during it.

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First of, you were the only person who actually tried to answer my question, so thank you for this.

Second, thanks for clarifying where the old gods are coming from. To be honest I thought they are the amalgamation of void and death magic, but life makes more sense.

Void is still not clear to me. If Void is nothingness (which for me sounds more like death tbh…) how come that the magic we use more like stars related? Even the body of Dimensius shows a bunch of stars on him. Is he suppose to be a giant black hole that pulls a bunch of stars into himself?

You can say that stars, meteors and black holes are in space and void is space so it makes sense, but since everything is in space, How can void be nothing if it contains everything?

I wish Void remained with the old gods tbh. I really thought that void lords are cthulhu like creatures and not void walkers with a NASA T-shirt.

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Only, there’s absolutely not a single source that in any way, shape or form provides any sort of foundation for this statement of the Void or Old Gods being even remotely related to the cosmic force of Life what-so-ever.

Any additional details to their canonical explanation is nothing but speculation.

Old Gods (also known as Shath’Yar in their own language,[2] as well as various other names) are parasitic, eldritch horrors created by the void lords in order to find and corrupt slumbering titan Worldsouls. These immense mountains of flesh, physical manifestations of the Void, grow like cancers within the worlds of the Great Dark Beyond.[3]

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Old_God

Additionally, as far as we know and have been told the manifestations left behind in Harandar and when Aln’hara was [for whatever reason] swept from the Cradle are solely made from her “screams of anguish” [whether literally or not can certainly be debated]. However, this very explanation is also the very foundation for the first boss of the first raid.

The Rift of Aln in the physical world was formed when Aln’hara was taken from her cradle in Harandar. The violence of the act left a wound that will not heal, where Aln’hara’s screams of anguish gave life to formless terrors. It is said that those who enter the Rift of Aln are driven mad.[4]

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Rift_of_Aln#History

In the Dreamrift raid, the Shul’ka and adventurers battle Chimaerus the Undreamt God, which feasted on the void of pain and madness left behind in the rift after Aln’hara was taken.

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Rift_of_Aln#Midnight

Adventure Guide

When Aln’hara was taken from her Cradle, only pain and madness was left to shape the chaos of the rift. Chimaerus feasted on the void left behind, gorging itself on other nightmarish manifestations. Now it stands as the monster within the rift - a being of agony and rage.

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Chimaerus

To the best of our knowledge and the story as it has been presented, it has f@#$ all to do with the Old Gods. It might very well be the that worldsoul was cut off [if Azeroth truly is Aln’hara] and swept from Harandar and the Cradle [in whichever form or influence she was present seeing as she, as far as we know, was in the Worldcore] by the Old Gods.

But that’s still pure speculation.

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