I'm not too sure whether or not Azeroth is an Old God, but I think it could be considered a biological entity. After all, the titans classified the old gods as parasites that have attached themselves to Azeroth some how, and killing them would somehow "kill" the host...

It would certainly align with Metzen's assertions that Azeroth is something special in the grand scheme of the cosmos.

Well when the Titans conquered the Old Gods they realized that they were too connected to Azeroth, and that their destruction would also destroy Azeroth, so I don't know how to answer this. On the one hand if that's true, it would make sense, they can't destroy the Old Gods because Azeroth is an Old God, or maybe they are just too connected with the world, in some unknowable way.

In any case the reason they were imprisoned and not destroyed is because it would bring about the destruction of Azeroth. Interesting stuff.

It would also explain what we've seen so far - in terms of eyes (C'Thun), mouths (Yoggy), and the like. There's some overlap, of course - but so far all the old gods seem to be focused on just one piece of the body. Or it could just be Blizzard liking the horror of a head full of mouths.

There are seven Titans we know about. What if there are more? Maybe there is a whole race of them. Maybe one in particular, the most powerful Titan, was at war with the rest. To ensure his survival, he began hiding pieces of his soul in other Titans. Maybe he only intended to break his soul into seven, but something went wrong, and a Titan named Azeroth rebounded the attempt...and became an eighth piece, one he never intended to create...

@ Cambro

I see what you did there.

That's what happens when the Curse of Flesh infects what is basically the Titan's version of the Death Star.

"It would certainly align with Metzen's assertions that Azeroth is something special in the grand scheme of the cosmos."

This was the other thing that reminded me of it. The idea of "Azathoth = Azeroth" has been kicking around in my head ever since I learned about the Azotha and the original Kingdom of Azeroth. Then when I read that in Lovecraft lore, Azathoth was the ultimate chaos, I'm like... well damn, "ultimate chaos," that's pretty much what Azeroth is, look at all the messed up stuff that's happened there, and it's like it never ever stops.

Maybe Azeroth isn't a conscious entity, but is more like an anti-Gaia, for those of you familiar with the concept of Gaia (which is that the earth is a living, evolving macro-organism). Oddly enough, in Greek mythology, Gaia is the mother of all creation, and sort of the basis for the modern day "gaia hypothesis." Gaia is generally seen as a positive force, or similar to "Mother Nature," OR, as the Tauren might put it... the "Earth Mother."

Think of Azeroth as some kind of gigantic anti-hero origination deity, like a bad-ass beer drinking cigarette smoking ass-kicking black sheep sister of Gaia. Maybe she's a gigantic old God, or maybe she is just the nexus of chaos, and is something beyond both old gods and Titans alike. I think any of those options sounds both plausible and awesome.

It isn't really unusual that Gaia would be evil- look at Greek mythology. In those stories, Mother Earth was one badass evil woman back at the dawn of time. She encouraged her son to kill her husband, mutilate him, and throw him into the void... and when her grandson (Zeus) did the same thing to her son, she married the Abyss (tartarus) and birthed a whole new race just to get vengeance on him. (And yes, I learned about the Gigantomachy THROUGH the new percy jackson series, but I looked it up later to confirm that it was in fact a real thing.)

I actually kinda like the idea that Gaia would be evil. It sort of gives sense to the narrative of human civilization... or, in Azeroth's case Troll civilization and then a whole bunch of damn foriegners show up and take their land. ;)

Id like to point something out.. think about what azeroth was like before the titans and the old gods.. there was elune, tauren, trolls(i think), and many other things.. benevolent things, bad things, and otherwise if azuroth (witch is a name not given by titans or i believe even elves or trolls, but humans) I dont think the "evil gaia" theory works so much. But you never know. Im excited to find out.