The Black Empire refers to a primordial era of Azeroth’s history in which a dark civilization established dominion over much of the planet. This civilization arose following the arrival of a group of entity known in extant lore as the Old Gods, inscrutable cosmic beings associated with the forces of the Void. Their emergence marked the earliest epoch in which organized, sentient influence shaped the physical and elemental landscape of Azeroth before the ascent of later peoples and political orders.
According to extant reconstructions of Azeroth’s prehistoric ages, the Old Gods arrived on the young world from the void beyond the physical universe. These entities did not originate on Azeroth but were drawn to its nascent world-soul, a growing proto-Titan that resided at the planet’s core. The world-soul’s immense potential attracted both creators and corrupters: whereas the celestial Pantheon of Titans sought to protect and order emerging worlds, the Old Gods represented a parasitic, corrupting influence that sought to subvert Azeroth’s indigenous energies for their own inscrutable ends.
Four principal Old Gods—named in later traditions as Y’Shaarj, C’Thun, Yogg-Saron, and N’Zoth—are believed to have plunged onto Azeroth during this primordial age. Upon impact, they became physically embedded in the world, their massive forms sinking into the surface and their corruptive presence warping the surrounding lands and elements.
Following their arrival, the Old Gods erected a sprawling dominion that archaeologists and chroniclers of later ages designate the Black Empire. This empire was not a singular political kingdom in the conventional sense but a network of citadels, temples, and corrupted landscapes tethered to the Old Gods’ buried bodies. From these centers, they exerted influence outward, drawing on arcane energies and the burgeoning life force of Azeroth itself.
Organic matter emanating from the Old Gods’ corrupted forms gave rise to two principal servitor races. The n’raqi, commonly referred to in later sources as “faceless ones,” functioned as administrators and overseers, while the aqir served as the empire’s resilient infantry and builders. Together, these races constructed massive temples and citadels around their masters’ buried husks, reinforcing and expanding the influence of the Black Empire across extensive tracts of primordial Azeroth.
The Old Gods’ dominion extended over native forces that previously held sway on Azeroth. Chief among these were the Elemental Lords—primal embodiments of fire, water, air, and earth. These entities once governed the chaotic elemental energies of the world, but they were systematically subjugated by the Old Gods’ expanding power. In the resulting conflicts, the Elemental Lords were either enslaved or driven into retreat, diluting their capacity to oppose the Black Empire’s advance.
Under the Black Empire’s dominion, Azeroth’s surface was shrouded in perpetual twilight, and large regions became desiccated or warped by void energies. The empire’s sprawling influence produced an environment hostile to life as it would later be recognized. Organisms that emerged in this epoch—if they survived at all—did so in niches shaped by corruption and decay rather than the balanced interplay of elements that characterizes later eras.
Despite the overwhelming force wielded by the Old Gods, the Black Empire was not monolithic. Internal conflicts among the Old Gods and their servitors periodically erupted, reflecting the chaotic nature of their power and objectives. These internal wars consumed vast resources and, in some reconstructions, contributed to the fracturing of unified control across the empire’s domains.
The unchecked expansion of the Black Empire eventually drew the attention of the Titan Pantheon, an assembly of colossal cosmic beings whose purpose was the ordering and stabilization of nascent worlds. Recognizing the existential threat posed by the Old Gods to Azeroth’s world-soul, the Titans intervened in a protracted conflict that would ultimately dismantle the empire’s dominion.
Direct engagement by the Titans was limited by the risk that their immense physical forms could further damage the vulnerable world-soul. To mitigate this, they engineered the titan-forged, a class of constructs and lifeforms designed to act as proxies in battle. The titan-forged waged sustained campaigns against the Black Empire’s armies, gradually weakening the Old Gods’ hold over the planet and reclaiming territory.
The decisive turn in this conflict occurred with the destruction of Y’Shaarj, the most potent of the Old Gods. The titan Aman’Thul forcibly extracted Y’Shaarj from Azeroth’s body, annihilating it in the process. This act, however, inflicted a grievous wound upon the world-soul, causing a massive upwelling of arcane energies at the planet’s surface. Later ages would identify this site of magical effusion as the Well of Eternity, a fount of arcane power around which subsequent civilizations would rise.
The remaining Old Gods—C’Thun, Yogg-Saron, and N’Zoth—were not destroyed outright but were instead sealed deep within Azeroth’s crust by titan-forged forces. With the principal engines of the Black Empire contained, its political structure disintegrated and its citadels fell into ruin. The era of Old God dominion came to an end, marking a pivotal transition in the world’s history.
Although the Black Empire itself did not directly produce mortal civilizations in the manner of later ages, its legacy influenced the earliest precursors to mortal life. The conflicts between the Old Gods, the Elemental Lords, and the Titan Pantheon set the stage for Azeroth’s subsequent shaping. The cataclysmic recoil of these forces altered the world’s surface, redistributed elemental energies, and contributed to the emergence of stable environments capable of supporting complex life forms. These conditions would later enable the rise of sapient races and the first cultural formations after the twilight of the Black Empire.
The fall of the Black Empire is therefore understood not only as the end of a primordial dominion but also as a precursor phase whose environmental and energetic consequences directly influenced the conditions under which the first mortal societies arose. This transition from chaotic domination to a world gradually ordered through Titan influence laid the foundations for the next major epoch.Transition to Section I.2.b: The Well of Eternity and the Rise of the Kaldorei
The cataclysmic events that concluded the age of the Black Empire produced profound physical and metaphysical changes on Azeroth. The scar left by Y’Shaarj’s destruction yielded a potent reservoir of arcane energies at the surface with the formation of the Well of Eternity. This source of magic became the focal point for the emergence of the Kaldorei and the establishment of the world’s first sophisticated civilization. The subsequent section explores how this wellspring of arcane force influenced the rise of the night elves and the early flourishing of structured societies in the post-Black Empire world.