Long before the events of Warcraft, the Titans were making their journey through the stars with the mission of cleansing worlds and bringing about order where there was chaos.
At this time, Azeroth was a planet not of mortal residence, but instead a planet of eternal war. The Old Gods, C’Thun, Yogg Saron, Y’Shaarj, and N’Zoth, waged war against each other with massive armies of faceless troops, mad worshippers, and raging elementals. Once the Titans arrived on Azeroth, they fought long and hard to defeat these forces of evil. In this Tavern Brawl, one player plays as the king of the Titans and leader of the Pantheon, Aman’Thul the Highfather, and the other player plays as all four of the Old Gods.
The Old Gods
When a player starts a game playing as the Old Gods, they will begin as one of the four at random. Each has their own specific hero power focused on whispering to your opponent and gaining advantages based on that whisper. When you die as one of the Old Gods, you will randomly resurrect as one of the remaining three. This repeats until there are no Old Gods left and you lose, or until you defeat Aman’Thul. It is important to note that all of the Old Gods share the same deck, and that the only thing that changes is your hero power. Think of it like the Majordomo Executus boss fight in Blackrock Mountain: once you defeat the Majordomo, he dies and you continue the fight against Ragnaros.
Aqir Assailant
The aqir were an ancient race of insectoids who emerged alongside the n’raqi, or faceless ones, during the Old Gods rule over primordial Azeroth. Once the Titans fought the Black Empire and imprisoned the Old Gods, these creatures eventually evolved into modern qiraji, nerubians, and mantid. (2 per deck)
Eldritch Tentacle
If it wasn’t already obvious from the sheer amount of tentacles present in whispers of the Old Gods (seriously, 64 out of 134 cards feature tentacles, that’s 47.76% of the whole set), the Old Gods are pretty much giant masses of eyeballs, teeth, and slithering tentacles. So, that’s nice. (2 per deck)
Klaxxi Bladelord
The Klaxxi are an ancient group of mantid priests who worship the Old Gods, and first appeared in Pandaria trying to rid themselves of their Sha corrupted empress, Grand Empress Shek’zeer. Though the Sha are remnants of the priesthood’s patron god, Y’Shaarj, they still felt the need to dispose of the Empress, as the corruption brought about by the deities drove her to insanity. (2 per deck)
Slithing Servant
The n’raqi, or faceless ones, were some of the most prominent soldiers of the Black Empire, and were actually born and created from the organic matter which oozed out from between the Old Gods’ tentacles. Yes, that is just as gross as it sounds. Have fun thinking about that. (2 per deck)
Dark Glare
Some say looks can kill, others say the person who is watching with a judgmental eye is the real one at fault. I say who cares, because that giant eldritch eyeball monster god is about to murder us and destroy the world. (2 per deck)
Dark Volley
One of the powers most closely associated with the Old Gods is corrupting the minds of others to take control of them and use them to do the dirty work. Over the years, powerful beings, including the Elemental Lords, Titanic Watchers, and even the black dragon aspect Deathwing, succumbed to the whispers of the Old Gods. (2 per deck)
Faceless Conjurer
Fun Fact: This piece of art actually depicts a faceless commander known as Yor’sahj the Unsleeping. During the Cataclysm, Yor’sahj was one of the leaders of the force of n’raqi which Deathwing commanded on behalf of his Old God masters. (2 per deck)
Xaril, Poisoned Mind
While now he will probably be remembered as that one Rogue legendary, Xaril the Poisoned Mind was one of the many Klaxxi Paragons located at the central base of operations for the Mantid, Klaxxi’vess. He earned his name by drinking poisons until he was immune (not a fun process), and then using those poisons to boil or eat away at the flesh of his enemies. (1 per deck)
Faceless Manipulator
I couldn’t be making something about the Old Gods and not include the original faceless card in the deck, now could I? (2 per deck)
Heart of Y’Shaarj
Even after his body was destroyed by the Titans long ago, the heart of the most powerful Old God to inhabit Azeroth, Y’Shaarj, still caused a lot of trouble for the modern Alliance and Horde. Oh well, at least we ended up finally defeating Garrosh and with him Y’Shaarj was finally vanquished and we could fight new foes, right?
…right?
…no way he would escape, Blizzard wouldn’t do that. (1 per deck)
Sha
Spawned from the death of Y’Shaarj at the hands of Aman’Thul, the Sha feed off of rage, fear, despair, and numerous other negative emotions given off by the inhabitants of Azeroth. When they originally tried to corrupt Pandaria, the Pandaren had to learn to control their emotions in order to stop the dark forces. This is what led to the development of the monks. (Token)
Mantid Paragon
I wanted to really incentivize using the Hero Power in this brawl, since that’s kinda what makes it really different from a normal game of Hearthstone, so I think this might make it a more viable option to fill your opponent’s hand with nasty whispers. (2 per deck)
Herald Volazj
I really, REALLY wanted this to work in constructed, and yet it doesn’t do much unless you’re in the perfect situation. In saying that, I think that there are enough powerful minions in the Old Gods deck that this guy will be useful most of the time. (1 per deck)
Prophet Skeram
Prophet Skeram is such a gossip. Always whispering and telling people about that one awesome tentacle monster. Such beautiful eyes. (1 per deck)
Warlord Zon’ozz
Warlord Zon’ozz, as well as some other faceless depicted in Whispers of the Old Gods, are actually not your typical n’raqi. Zon’ozz is actually one of the five currently known C’Thraxxi, or faceless generals. You can tell a C’Thrax (singular) from a typical n’raqi by their larger size and their more arthropod-like features, such as claws and jointed spines on their backs. (1 per deck)
Neptulon
“WITNESS THE POWER OF PURE WATER.”
While he and the other elemental lords have been downgraded from heroes to cards this time around (check out my last Tavern Brawl concept, “The Elemental Sundering”, #ShamelessPlug), that doesn’t mean they’re not important. Honestly, the elemental lords are some of my favorite characters in any game, not just Warcraft/Hearthstone. (1 per deck)
Al’Akir the Windlord
Still my favorite Shaman legendary. Nothing beats dropping this guy down with a crack of lightning and then swatting some insects. (1 per deck)
Ragnaros the Firelord
TOO SOON! YOU HAVE AWAKENED ME TOO SOON, EXECUTUS!
BY FIRE, BE PURGED!
DIE INSECT!
WELL PLAYED!
WARM THANKS!
YOU WILL PERISH IN FLAMES!
GAH! MISTAKE!
SO HOT.
– Ragnaros the Firelord (1 per deck)
Therazane the Stonemother
This is the point in which you realize that Therazane is the only Elemental Lord that’s still not in the game despite the first three being in by the first full expansion, and your self-diagnosed OCD kicks in. For the rest of your day it bothers you in a similar manner to how that fold in the bottom lefthand corner of all spell cards bothered you when you first found out about it, and then you forget about it the next day. (1 per deck)
Cho’Gall, the Reviver
If it was up to me, I would have personally preferred Cho’Gall to have been the alternate portrait for the Warlock hero rather than a legendary card, and instead have Xavius, the Lord of the Emerald Nightmare and the first of the Satyrs, be the legendary card for Whispers of the Old Gods. But oh well, Cho’Gall is still cool the way he has been implemented. (1 per deck)
Soggoth the Slitherer
Though many WoW veterans reading this may or may not remember this guy as a giant corpse in Darkshore, the truth is that he was once one of the largest heralds of the Old Gods during their battle with the Titans. He met his match during the war when he was slain by one of the Titan’s stone giants, named Kronn. (1 per deck)
Ozumat
Fun fact: Ozumat was originally going to be in the classic set while the game was still in development. The devs wanted to make use of his awesome artwork which, let’s be honest, is absolutely amazing (credits to Raymond Swanland for making awesome art), though they eventually scrapped him and used his card text for Deathwing instead. Hopefully, given that it’s the year of the Kraken, we’ll get finally see this guy implemented. (1 per deck)
Jump to Part 2 of AiPT!’s “Battle of the Black Empire” Tavern Brawl concept, which sees players taking on the role of the leader of the Titans himself, Aman’Thul the Highfather.
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