Here's a little breakfast for your brain:

So far, most people have figured that when Azeroth wakes up, she'll emerge from the planet in the same way as a bird emerging from an egg.

If it happens like this, it's pretty well the end for us. Planets cracking equals death for the inhabitants, which I can't imagine sits well with the emerging Titan.

So, what if the birth of a Titan isn't actually a destructive process? What if, rather than exploding through the crust of the planet as a physical being, the host planet becomes the "brain" of an ethereal being? Stardust coalesces around the newborn Titan, forming its body. An'she and Mu'sha have been referred to as the "Eyes of the Earthmother", and I am starting to wonder if this is to be a literal reference - What if these planetary bodies are actually destined to become her eyes? What else is possible?

I'm not sure why so many people think titans bust through their planets like an eggshell. That's not how Chronicle described titans. Their world-souls form within the hearts of worlds and they awake as "walking worlds," "living worlds," "living, breathing worlds."

Chronicle also describes the titans as physical beings "composed of the primordial matter form which the universe was born" and with "skin crisscrossed with silvery mountain peaks and oceans shimmering with latent magic." And when Sargeras busted Mardum, he underwent "physical changes," "fel volcanoes ignited across his once-noble form, splitting his skin apart."

While that's probably a more desirable outcome than having the ground crumble beneath everyone's feet and float off into space, I'm not sure the scenario you propose doesn't also have disastrous consequences.

Much like the Earth, Azeroth orbits around a star, which provides it with sunlight and heat, making life possible. What happens when the planet is knocked out of orbit when the Titan decides to go to the space store and buy some space milk? A Titan can travel astronomical distances, which can't possibly be good for its inhabitants or its ecosystems.

It's an interesting line of discussion, mind. I'm just not convinced that particular iteration on the birth of a Titan is much better for the planet's critters.

But what if, instead of being literally birthed by the world, once a World-Soul reaches maturity, the planet takes the built up Spirit/Arcane energies, and disgorges it into space where the Titan finally takes its new shape?

What does a Titan awakening look like in your mind? Like a Bakugan?

As I envision it, the planet Azeroth wouldn't lose it's Sun. An'she, hypothetically still being an Eyeball of the Earthmother, would still be close by, especially if the planet becomes the "brain". I believe we are thinking a similar picture of the planet discharging Spirit/Arcane to form it's body. If the planet Azeroth is envelopped by this new Titan body, perhaps the body offers protection to the planet as it travels through the cosmos.

I kind of see it in a similar respect, but far more destructive. When Azeroth wakes, the planetary crust will act as a protective layer initially, but slowly shed and then be re-absorbed (via gravity) back into her person as time goes on and she matures. Some areas of the world will be instantly obliterated, while others will slowly erode away into her being.

The Emerald Dream/Nightmare will exist as a pocket universe inside her mind and be lost to mortal contact. The Elemental Planes will be completely consumed, but the Elementals themselves will become almost like an immune system. New elementals will also be born, corresponding with her more cosmic nature.

White Lady and Blue Child will both continue to orbit her, and any races that survive the initial birth will likely terraform and colonize the moons. Over time the orbits will decay and the moons will be destroyed by Azeroth's gravitational pull. The races at that point must either create colony ships that travel with Azeroth or travel to new worlds via the Nether.

Titans were never described as consuming things, but they were also never said to violate the basic laws of thermodynamics. Given this, It's quite likely that Azeroth consumes matter and energy (via gravitational manipulation). The star around which she was born will probably be one of the first to be absorbed into her person. Less a parent being eaten by its child and more a seedling consuming the fruit around it. Similarly, other planets, dwarf planets, planetessimals, etc. would be caught up and added into her person. Some, like her moons, may orbit her for awhile and provide a temporary home to those species that make up her entourage (remoras to her shark) before spiraling into her.

The Watchers would likely remain with her in some way or another, shepherds of her youth with what remains of their creator's wisdom. I'd like to imagine they would repurpose the Old Gods husks themselves, both as a mockery of their attempted corruption and a check against it resurfacing.

Now here's where things get interesting. No Titan has ever been born with a gate into the Nether on their person. Would the races lift the gate from Azeroth's surface before her birth, or would she use it as a conduit of energy housed within herself? A portable generator that has the unfortunate consequence of also being a direct line into both the Light and Void. Could Azeroth become a way station, a person who connects all species across the universe that are fortunate enough to understand and traverse the Nether? Could she become a living warzone between races just as she was in gestation? Or could the gate, lifted from her surface, be a means by which she can contact and connect with other Titans in a way the original Pantheon never had the opportunity to use?

Edit: Forgot to mention, Alternate Draenor will become part of her as well, simply by virtue of physical proximity as Azeroth is birthed. Just as above, this will be a gradual affair, with natural physics and her own need for sustenance pulling the planet/fragments through the gate. I can see, at this point, races with more druidic and shamanic heritages cleansing the matter/energy as they're pulled through the portal. This will become the true natural death of AU Draenor, and the rest of that timeline destabilizing from there. Outland, if re-connected, would share a similar fate.

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Rationalizing the irrational since 2005.

Cantus, just to note that it is most likely that the canon current state of the Dark Portal does lead to Outland ever since the Stairs of Destiny on AU Draenor were destroyed.

I believe from what I read. When Azeroth awakens, the world soul that formed will just transcend into the cosmos. Nothing disastrous or catastrophic will happen to Azeorth (The World) and its inhabitants. The only effect I can see happening is probably mass jubilation.

^Practically.

I had the same idea before, with heart instead of brain. Reductive whore

I don't see many people likening it to an egg hatching. Chronicle calls them living worlds with mountains and rivers on their bodies. I've always imagined it like a planet Transformer (in fact aren't there planet Transformers?).

I see it a lot on Reddit and SF. As for the mountains/rivers on their bodies, I found it interesting that they say that, but the artwork seems to paint a different picture. Granted, it's an artists interpretation, but you'd think that would be a pretty important feature that they would have relayed to the artist..

To be fair, the Titans are so immense you wouldn't be able to see mountains or rivers on them.

I thought it was because they were space-people made of nebulae, star dust and gas :/

Genya, please be mindful of your language.

I am.

Fair point. I'll just go with the primary intent of the theory, whatever constant and stable portal exists would naturally drag matter through it towards the Titan.
That much matter/energy leaving would basically leave a hollow core that would collapse the outer shell of the planet. Unless she left something behind to stabilize it, the birth of Azeroth would probably be the death of the life on the crust.

It also doesn't make sense from the fact that an Old God's physical presence to the core of the planet seems to be one of the demarcations for the danger that Azeroth is in.

I imagine, even in the skin theory, that life on a Titan isn't exactly a stable thing. If a cosmic limb goes through a planet's atmosphere, any life existing in that area would be bombarded by radiation and various chemicals that cannot be good for the average person's health. And that doesn't account for how a Titan maintains itself, which I assume means planetary level disturbances when growth occurs (e.g. earthquakes or shifts in climate).

Genya, please remember you're already on a short leash, I recommend you heed Nazja's warning a little more carefully. The Halls aren't a purgatory, they're a stop-gap for controversial topics. Peppering unprovoked insults into this thread, a non-controversial topic, gets you a suspension.

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Rationalizing the irrational since 2005.

Chronicle describes and shows the titans inconsistently. Are they nebulae? Are they planets? Are they planet-people? What about the old metallic forms? Do those still exist as avatars?

Why? Probably so that the art team can figure out how to draw Sargeras and Azeroth in WoW.

My personal theory is that titans are representational entities that just show up next to the planets.


Azeroth


Sargeras

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^Ignored again.

Okay. It is cool.

More like

I still think it'll be similar to Instrumentality from Evangelion in that she'll absorb the spirits of all sentient beings living on the planet to become one with her before taking humanoid shape and transforming the moons into her weapon.

Yes please.

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The nebulae titans are only in one picture. On the other hand we have numerous pictures of Sargeras being a physical being, two of which were added in Chronicle: when he cuts the world soul and the one of him leading the Legion into battle. Chronicle also says something like his skin tore open and lava poured out of the wounds when he shattered Mardum (well either Mardum or that world soul, I forget which).

Not only are there planet Transformers, but Metzen was a huge transformers fan and had a shitload of transformers (including the ones that turned into planets) in his office when we were doing the Chronicle note-taking. I'm like 90% sure the idea of titans coming out of planets was inspired in part by Primus and Unicron.

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Legit question: How are they not at least partially based on the Earth X Celestials?

They are from 1999 and fit the titan's MO better.

Primus as Cybertron's robot mode (and not core) was from 2005.

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^Ignored again.

Okay. It is cool.

Because I haven't really read those comics and I don't know if Metzen has (but it's not unlikely), meanwhile Metzen is a huge transformers fan and hired the writer of the original 80's transformers movie (where Unicorn, the transforming planet first debuted) as a consultant for some Blizzard stuff. There's a lot of cross pollination of Blizzard and Transformers work due to Chris.

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Actually, as Asterisk said, they are pretty consistently described as Transformer-Planets, since their skins are full of geographic accidents. The only deviation from that is a depiction of stardust titans which may very well be artistic.

They are undoubtedly physical, and immense. Aman'thul reached down and plucked Y'Shaarj from Azeroth. so he had fingers, and big ones. That picture of Sargeras cleaving a world in two confirms that.