Days had passed since my pronouncement to the clans, and the Isle of Thunder was alive with energy. Trolls scattered about, marking territories and putting up signatories to their deities, separating into their numerous unique conclaves with the Zandalari leaders at the helm. Mogu of different disciplines, be they warrior or necromancer or mage or beast tamer, found refuge and glory in the ruins of what once was; starting fighting pits and summoning ancient spirits and making merry with the creatures that had evolved on the island for millennia undisturbed. And the remainder, the women and children and beasts of burden rather than beasts of war, were brought into courts of my gilded castle to be free of fear that they would be caught up in the growing chaos.

I saw all of this from the upper ramparts of the inner sanctum and could not help but smile. It was an insidiously good feeling, the knowledge that I was the cause of this. That this organized chaos was brought about due to my influence, and that more was to come solely due to my intentions.

Oh yeah… It's good to be king.

A cough sounded from behind me. I felt my eyes narrow as I craned my neck towards the source. The pale, hunched form of Zul was apparent against my dark blue skin and the black stone of the castle, and though he bowed lowly to me, I knew it to be disingenuous.

Biting back the growl desperate to rumble through my throat, an instinctual response Lei Shen harbored towards disrespect that even now ran through his body, I turned to face the troll, a sullen reminder of my position. The mogu and trolls came to the isle for Lei Shen, the tyrannical despot of the past who promised glory and power and was known to be honest, if brutal and cruel, not for me, who had taken his place in body and soul. True, I was Lei Shen now, and I would do my damnedest to do that duty proud, but the truth was apparent to me. Should it ever be made known that I was not the Lei Shen of old, schemes beyond schemes would form to overthrow me.

And Zul would likely lead them. He was probably already plotting my downfall, in actuality.

Prick.

"What is it you need, prophet?" I rumbled, leaning my back against the railing, my arms crossed in an effort to display casualness in the face of a possible enemy. My magic was still not at the level Lei Shen once boasted, but I was nearly there. There was no question that I could take Zul should he overstep.

"Who be sayin' a' need anything, ya grace?" Zul chuckled, walking to my side, peering over the rampart, smirking. "Wai can't a' jus' wanna see things going good?"

I ground my teeth at his tone. It was mocking, even in the face of power far beyond his ken. I leaned down, until my towering form was looming over his everything, and spoke quietly. "You will find that I am not as interested in games as you are used to, troll. Speak plainly, or perish."

He did not quail at my posturing, though he did subside his shenanigans, which was a start. "Some trolls be wanting their blessings soon, Lei Shen. They be thinkin' ya be wastin' their time."

I scoffed, backing away from him. "Blessings are given at my discretion, not at the beckoning of my lessers. They are not toys that I hand out on a whim. Your trolls will have their due when they are meant to. …Even among my mogu, during the height of my reign, my blessings were seldom granted."

"It be de same way wit de Loa," Zul said, nodding. "I be patient. Can't say de same for de rest."

I snorted at the understatement. From what I had seen from these past few days, patient was a poor term to describe most trolls. They were an antsy lot that struggled to sit still. I half believed that was why they took to worshipping the Loa so heavily, since they themselves were not known for embracing the quiet. Like took to like.

A thought occurred. I peered down at Zul and spoke it aloud, for Lei Shen would never quiet his curiosity out of some ill-known politeness. "Who is your Loa, prophet?"

For some reason, that singular question causes Zul to stiffen. "That not be a kind t'ing ta ask."

"Kindness is unnecessary." I retorted. "And I know your people well. Your Loa are your pride, you sanctify and worship them as greatly as my mogu do me."

"…Not me," Zul said slowly, his smirk now a frown. "I follow no Loa."

I leered down at him, electricity arcing over my skin. "Lies are far more unnecessary than kindness, prophet. Tell me the name, Zul."

He grimaced, tapping his six fingers against the rail, before grunting and coming to a decision. "G'huun. De Loa o' Blood."

Though my face revealed little, internally I was actually quite astonished. He actually said it, huh? I thought he'd try and weasel away from the topic, as he was often known to do. But no, Zul was candid for once.

The fact that he was honest about his master being G'huun of all creatures had me laughing, however.

Zul turned a flare my way, uncaring of our difference in status in this moment. "G'huun not be anyt'ing ta laugh ova, Lei Shen. De visions he be grantin' me… dey be worth it all."

"I do not laugh at G'huun, I laugh at you, Zul." I said, still chuckling. "Ah, but you are yet young, and the trolls know little of the creation of the world. You see the future you think G'huun will bring about, but you know nothing of its past. Shall I tell you the truth?"

He sneered up at me. Actually sneered. I genuinely have to admire his ballsiness. Or maybe he just knew, by way of his visions, that I wouldn't smite him for it? Eh, who knows? "Tell me what ya t'ink den, Lei Shen."

Sitting down, I motioned for Zul to do the same, and through my magnetic abilities, iron sand lifted from the gourds strapped to my belt. They culminated into a sphere that floated between the two of us, with a rough copy of Kalimdor from before the Sundering at its forefront. A miniature of what Azeroth once was.

"When the world was young, before there were trolls or mogu or mortals at all, Azeroth was pristine. Flourishing with life, the elements unbound and warring a constant thing, it was a world of power, a brilliant light that glimmered in the far reaches of the cosmos. And where light shines, shadow must follow."

The sphere was bombarded by five amalgamous shapes, burrowing into the land, leaving ever-shifting blobs over the surface. "The Void saw Azeroth, and as it always does, it hungered for it. From that hunger came the Old Gods, beings of unimaginable power, born solely to corrupt on behalf of their masters. And they were successful at this. The Old Gods consumed and conquered in the name of their masters without care for consequence, making thralls of the elements and turning Azeroth into an empire of blackness. One even ate another when their territories grew too close, such was their unending gluttony. And eventually, be it in years or decades, centuries or millennia, the world would become one with the Void, and the Void would grow its legacy."

I smiled then, and willed more iron sand into shapes. Six humanoid figures took form, all roughly the size of the planet, and they surrounded it, circling the makeshift planet. "But as we sit here today, we know this did not happen. The Void was not alone in its desire for Azeroth. The Titans came and saw our world for the gem it was, hidden beneath the malignance of the Old Gods, and made to destroy them. The leader of the titans, Aman'thul, grabbed the greatest of these Old Gods, known as Y'shaarj the Prime Evil, the one who had consumed another, and ripped it from Azeroth's hide in one decisive motion, intent on ending their vileness."

One of the titans grabbed at the largest of the Old Gods, ripping it from the bulk of Azeroth. A liquid trailed out from the planet, spilling onto the stonework floor. "But Aman'thul learned something in that instant, as did his brethren in the pantheon. The Old Gods were buried too deeply into Azeroth; they had become too attached to the planet. Azeroth was bleeding its very life essence, and to do this once more would destroy Azeroth as surely as the Void would."

From the bodies of the titans, nine smaller, similarly shaped humanoids descended onto the planet. "Knowing destruction would ruin Azeroth, the titans chose a more subtle approach. They created nine distinct Keepers to go about their will, and these keepers fought the Old Gods on their own territory. For years did they battle, and in the end, after much strife and wreckage, they were victorious."

Cages grew over the blobs where the remaining blobs lay, and the hole that Aman'Thul left swirled like a whirlpool. "After their war, the titan sealed the Old Gods away, and developed prisons of great power that contained their influence. Ulduar, to the far north. Ahn'Qiraj, to the west, The Circle of Stars, in our oceans, and the remains of Y'shaarj were brought into smaller testing facilities scattered about this world. There, the creations of the titans would experiment on the remaining flesh, hoping to find the secrets of the Void, and more importantly, how to destroy the Old Gods without destroying Azeroth. One of these facilities is even in Pandaria, though its location shall remain secret."

I stared directly into Zul's eyes. "The greatest of these facilities is called Uldir."

His pale face went ashen as I continued. "A mistake was made, however. A miscalculation of some kind, or perhaps even an attempt at subverting the Void with one of its own, I know not. What I do know, is that these experiments brought about a new Old God, weaker than all of the others but an Old God regardless, and Uldir was reshaped into a fourth prison for this newly born G'huun."

The iron sand fell back away into my gourds, and I looked Zul directly in the eye. "What you need understand, is that G'huun, unlike the other Old Gods, was born not of the Void, and thus had only one function; to subsume. The Old Gods were designed to corrupt for the sake of the Void. Once a target has been corrupted, and the Void has taken hold, it becomes property of the Void. But G'huun was not born from the Void, G'huun was born from an experiment meant to destroy its influence. The result of this is a different type of corruption made to ruin whatever it touches, not subvert it like the other Old Gods do, and this corruption is known solely as the Underrot. G'huun wants to destroy Azeroth for the sake of destroying Azeroth, Zul. That is why I laugh."

Zul shook his head, a fretful look on his face. "Ya wrong. G'huun strong, he not just ruin. He showed me visions, he showed me de truth. We gonna bring de trolls back ta where dey meant ta be!"

"He showed you what the Old Gods were born to show you." I rejected. "Their corruption is internal. Visions of a better world that only their influence could bring about, dreams of what we desire above all else, subtle pushes that will unravel us all. You are not the first to fall prey to them, and you will not be the last. But unlike most, you have something special about you."

"My visions?" Zul sneered.

I shook my head, struggling to keep a straight face as my beard tentacles whipped against my neck. That was a weird feeling. "They are useful, to be certain. The gift of the Sight is rare and should be a celebrated thing. But what makes you special is what you've done with it. You have not been idle or subservient with your power to your king and council. Instead, you have risen higher than your station, cast away the doubts of your people and brought a legacy that none can deny. You have influence, Zul. The greatest tool of them all."

"I was the same way in my youth," I said, peering down through the rails of the rampart, taking in the dark but eerily beautiful view of the Isle of Thunder. "I was born in a time of ignorance and disunity. The Age of a Hundred Kings, it was called. I was the middling whelped son of a low-reaching warlord, with brothers and sisters both my elder and younger. I fought for my father and clan, grew powerful in arm and stern in will, but like you, I saw weakness in my people, though perhaps my vision was not as clear as your own. I knew from an early age that we could not sustain ourselves in our unquenching thirst for war, that the mogu would perish due to infighting before we would know of our purpose if we continued as we did."

"And den you found power, took control o' your people, and became de Thunda King." Zul said, belying his desire to hear more.

Scoffing, I shot him down. "Do you think it was easy? I was ridiculed with every step I took, the few followers I had deserted me when they learned I was looking for legends. You trolls were born of the world, the natural children of Azeroth. We mogu were built by the keepers, the creations of the creators. My ancestors were beings of stone that helped shape this world under the command of our gods, carving rivers and maintaining the borders of Azeroth's natural children. And we did so gladly. But we lost our way, and it was due to the loss of our gods. Imagine how you trolls would react had your Loa abandoned you, how lost you would be? There would be riots and uncontrolled violence in the street, cities would be toppled from false whispers and deceit would become more common than honesty. That was what the mogu were.

"I set out to find our purpose once more; to find our gods. And after years of toil, shamed by my kin and pitied by our lesser, I succeeded. One of the nine, one of the Keepers. I questioned him, asked of our purpose, begged for knowledge on what the mogu were meant to do. And silence was my answer." I growled. The memories of Lei Shen's initial encounter with Ra-den was something this body would never forget, nor the fury he felt when he learned of the truth.

"It was then that it made sense to me, why we were so disjointed. The mogu had forgotten their purpose because our god had rejected his own duties. He would rather meditate and mourn in eternal solitude than continue the work of the titans. I knew what was to be my burden then. If they would not lead us, if he would not lead us, then I would do so from their position. I slew him in that moment, stole his power, and went about uniting this world under one banner as the keepers should have done long ago."

The memories of that time were curious to experience. Years of war, cunning strategies, vicious battles, and brutal enforcements; it was a visceral thing to feel. Lei Shen had performed all of his horrors with the stern, unflinching belief that he was the personification of the will of the titans, and nothing would convince him different.

Well, perhaps one thing would convince him different, but that one had been quiet even through his imprisonment. The truth was that Ra, the titan keeper with whom Lei Shen had gained his power, was not dead. In fact, he was less than a half-mile away from my current position, hidden beneath the lair of Primordius in the Hall of Flesh Shaping. Who I really need to take care of, now that I think on it.

Lei Shen kept the keeper alive not only for vanity, but for practicality. Ra-den was a unique being in the cosmos, the direct creation of Aman'thul himself; perhaps even the equivalent of a child to the titan. Lei Shen understood this and used Ra's blood for his experiments. He would steal the flesh and blood and magic of the keeper and use them with the zeal of a child discovering a new toy, hoping to discover the tricks of creation and become closer to the titans as a result. And, as could be seen by his creation of the Grummle and Saurok races and his mastery over the Curse of Flesh, he had succeeded in his own right.

Lei Should could have probably learned even more and learned it all faster had he shared the knowledge of Ra to his people. But, as was often the case with the tyrant, Lei Shen proved quite unwilling to share any knowledge with his subjects from before he had been strong. Doing so, he believed, would tarnish his mythos and legacy. Whenever Lei Shen desired to experiment, it was he that would take the blood of Ra, and none other knew where the liquid came from. Many believed it to be the liquid essence of the world itself, and that Lei Shen being able to harness it was only further proof that he was chosen by the gods.

For Lei Shen to take Ra's blood required him to be alone with the keeper quite frequently, however. And in those moments of solitude, away from prying ears or scheming lesser, the Thunder King would revert in some manner to what he had been before his ascension; a desperately curious soul. He would question Ra still, always asking for the knowledge of this world, the knowledge of its creation and reformation and everything in between, offering freedom and partnership and ambitions all the while. And as had been the case from before, his answer was silence.

Had Ra used those frequent times alone with Lei Shen to actually speak to him, to tell him the truth's the Thunder King so desperately wished to hear, or even anything at all, then perhaps things would not have gone so far for the mogu empire. Lei Shen had offered many times to release him from torment and solitude for what were tantamount to scraps and the privilege of being privy to his mind, and I knew he was not a lying. Perhaps Lei Shen would have actually been the ally to the world that he believed himself to be, or at the very least less antagonistic.

But Ra refused. The keeper fell deeper into his depression, bemoaning the fate of the universe. The titans were dead by the hands of their brother, turned the leader of the Burning Legion, and the last spark of what he thought was Aman'thul's existence had been stolen and subsumed by Lei Shen. He never knew that the true spirits of the titans had been stolen away to Antorus, nor did he know the truth of Azeroth.

That the reason the titans were so desperate to save this planet from the Old Gods was because it housed one of their own in its depths. Azeroth was a nascent titan spirit, soon to be born into the universe, powerful enough to match, if not outright defeat, Sargeras in his prime.

Lei Shen knew neither of these things either, but he at least tried to do something with what he had. Ra had just given up, finding life to be pointless.

I could go down there after Primordius was taken care of, if I so chose. I could speak to Ra, maybe even get him to listen. We would more than likely come to blows, but I was confident in my power enough to be able to at least beat some sense into him. But… I didn't want to.

To do nothing in the face of evil is to permit the existence of evil, to give it approval. Ra could have left his holding at any time with the death of Lei Shen; his bindings were tied to my body's own life force. He would have sensed Lei Shen's death thousands of years ago, and yet he remained where he lay, unwilling to move.

Why would I want such a person in my presence?

Lei Shen was right about one thing, at least. The Titan Keepers of old were gone. Odyn, their leader, was trapped behind the wards of the Halls of Valor, unable to stray far from his domain due to enchantments enacted by the sorceress Helya. The masters of Ulduar, Freya and Hodir and Thorim and Mimiron, were still recovering their wits from adventurers raiding their stronghold, and prior to that they had been coerced by the whispers of Yogg-Saron, the Old God they were meant to contain. And the rest, Loken and Tyr and Archaedas were dead, either from threatening the world or doing their duty or from the greed of mortal adventurers.

Regardless as to their reasons, their track record proved too poor to trust with my goals.

Zul furrowed his brow, clearly unhappy with the lesson I had imparted unto him, but not unwilling to take it in, which was a plus. "So, ya sayin' G'huun be an enemy."

"All the Old Gods are our enemies," I corrected. "They do not view us as allies, only as pawns to their purposes. And G'huun's purpose is the worst of them."

Zul sucked at his teeth. "I gonna need to tink on ya words."

"Think on them, scour for visions, isolate whatever magic he has given you from your sight so you may do this. Do what you need, Zul. And when you see the truth, I will grant you what you came here for."

I stood, spreading my arms wide, the rumbling of thunder blaring up above and lightning arced towards my personage with a ravenous speed. It crashed into me, soundlessly but powerfully, and I grinned as Zul shielded his eyes from the spectacle. I held the lightning within my body, its energy desperately wanting to travel, for lightning was nothing if not antsy.

"Reject G'huun, and my blessing is yours. Follow me, and the trolls will return to their proper place. I will take you in my service. I will show you the world you so desperately crave. I will be your Loa."

And with that, I released my grasp on my element and rode it away, high into the clouds, through the castle further, onto the singularly power dais known solely as the Pinnacle of Storms.

I slammed into the center of the platform, lightning arcing into the titan-wrought technology beneath. Mechanisms of ancient power whirled with my magic, raising up two conductors brimming with magic on either side my body.

The Thunder King of old was powerful, none could deny that. What was often ignored in his legends was his craftiness. Lei Shen knew that power could grow stronger, even his own power. He did not just throw lightning out like a madman. He grew his magic, the only way he knew how.

And, really. How could I claim to be Lei Shen if I was unwilling to do the same?

Greedily, I wrapped my fingers around the handholds, and with eyes wide opened, watched in awe as the ceiling above me opened, bring me just below the eye of the Isle of Thunder's never-ending storm, where rain never fell but the storm was strongest in magic.

I pushed my magic into the conductors, lightning crackling over them, thunder booming into them, and ozone wafting all around, and childishly relished the sight of my power booming through the floor, over towards the walls, arcing into the now-opened ceiling and concentrating into the darkened clouds scraping against the true representation of my throne.

The clouds lit up briefly, absorbing my magic with more greed than a hungry babe. Then, as if to contradict this hunger, the clouds darkened into an unnatural, pouty blackness. It appeared as if nothing happened for a moment, as if my power were snuffed by the clouds. But then, for just a moment, a handful of sparks arced through the clouds.

It was coming. I braced myself, ready for what was to come.

And the blackened clouds opened up, a maw half the size of the island itself, and with one singular BOOM that seemed to encompass the world over, whiteness struck me.