Titan (WoW)

The titans are a race of colossal, metallic-skinned creatures, so perfect and majestic that they are akin to gods. Hailing from the far reaches of the cosmos, they brought order to a hundred million worlds during the first ages of creation.

History
Though the exact origins of the chaotic universe remain uncertain, it is clear that a race of powerful beings arose to bring stability to the various worlds and ensure a safe future for the beings that would follow in their footsteps: The Titans, colossal, metallic-skinned gods from the far reaches of the cosmos, explored the newborn universe and set to work on the worlds they encountered. They shaped the worlds by raising mighty mountains and dredging out vast seas. They breathed skies and raging atmospheres into being. It was all part of their unfathomable, far-sighted plan to create order out of chaos. They even empowered primitive races to tend to their works and maintain the integrity of their respective worlds.

Ruled by an elite sect known as the Pantheon, the Titans brought order to a hundred million worlds scattered throughout the Great Dark Beyond during the first ages of creation. The benevolent Pantheon, which sought to safeguard these structured worlds, was ever vigilant against the threat of attack from the vile extra-dimensional entities of the Twisting Nether. Unable to conceive of evil or wickedness in any form, the Titans struggled to find a way to end the demons' constant threat. Over time, demonic entities made their way into the Titans' worlds from the Twisting Nether, and the Pantheon elected its greatest warrior, Sargeras, to act as its first line of defense. A noble giant of molten bronze, Sargeras carried out his duties for countless millennia, seeking out and destroying these demons wherever he could find them. As doubt and despair overwhelmed Sargeras' senses, he lost all faith not only in his mission, but also in the Titans' vision of an ordered universe. Eventually he came to believe that the concept of order itself was folly, and that chaos and depravity were the only absolutes within the dark, lonely universe. His fellow Titans tried to persuade him of his error and calm his raging emotions, but he disregarded their more optimistic beliefs as self-serving delusions. Storming from their ranks forever, Sargeras set out to find his own place in the universe. Although the Pantheon was sorrowful at his departure, the Titans could never have predicted just how far their lost brother would go.

Ordering of Azeroth
Along the journey of the Titans they happened upon a small world that its inhabitants would later name Azeroth. As the Titans made their way across the primordial landscape, they encountered a number of hostile elemental beings. These elementals, who worshipped a race of unfathomably evil beings known only as the Old Gods, vowed to drive the Titans back and keep their world inviolate from the invaders' metallic touch. The Pantheon, disturbed by the Old Gods' penchant for evil, waged war upon the elementals and their dark masters. Though the elementals were powerful beyond mortal comprehension, their combined forces could not stop the mighty Titans. One by one, the elemental lords fell, and their forces dispersed. However it was discovered that the Old Gods had managed to "infect" the planet so early in its development cycle that they were irreversibly linked with it. Since they could not destroy the Old Gods, the Titans decided to chain the evil gods far beneath the surface of the world. Without the Old Gods' power to keep their raging spirits bound to the physical world, the elementals were banished to an abyssal plane, where they would contend with one another for all eternity. With the elementals' departure, nature calmed, and the world settled into a peaceful harmony. The Titans saw that the threat was contained and set to work.

The Titans empowered a number of races to help them fashion the world. To help them carve out the fathomless caverns beneath the earth, the Titans created the dwarf-like earthen from magical, living stone. To help guard and protect the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, the Titans created the stone mogu to guard and protect the Vale and the surrounding region. To help them dredge out the seas and lift the land from the seafloor, the Titans created the immense but gentle sea giants. For many ages the Titans moved and shaped the earth, until at last there remained one perfect continent. At the continent's center, the Titans crafted a lake of scintillating energies. The lake, which they named the Well of Eternity, was to be the fount of life for the world. Its potent energies would nurture the bones of the world and empower life to take root in the land's rich soil. Over time, plants, trees, monsters, and creatures of every kind began to thrive on the primordial continent. As twilight fell on the final day of their labors, the Titans named the continent Kalimdor: "land of eternal starlight".

Satisfied that the small world had been ordered and that their work was done, the Titans prepared to leave Azeroth. However, before they departed, they charged the greatest species of the world, the Dragonflights, with the task of watching over Kalimdor, lest any force should threaten its perfect tranquility. There were many Dragonflights in that age, yet there were five flights that held dominion over their brethren. It was these five flights that the Titans chose to shepherd the budding world. The greatest members of the Pantheon imbued a portion of their power upon each of the flights' leaders. These majestic dragons became known as the Great Aspects, or the Dragon Aspects. Thus empowered, the Five Aspects were charged with the world's defense in the Titans' absence. With the dragons prepared to safeguard their creation, the Titans left Azeroth behind.

Legacy
A generally aloof creator race, the titans are now a subject of significant interest on Azeroth, at least for the dwarves — especially the Explorers' Guild. Their part in Azeroth’s history lies far, far back in time, although Sargeras has, of course, taken a more active role in recent conflicts through the Burning Legion. There are two known races of titans: (aesir and vanir). The Pantheon are the leaders of the titans and some of the universe’s most powerful entities.

Very little is known about the titans save for scraps the dwarves have unearthed and some vague night elf folklore. Few human scholars actually believed the mighty demigods even existed. Legend holds that the great ones shaped the land when the world was young, then left the world to its own devices. The ruins and buried cities that remain on Azeroth — Uldum beneath the Tanaris Desert, Ulduar beneath the Storm Peaks of Northrend, ancient libraries in Vale of Eternal Blossoms, and Uldaman beneath the dwarven home of Khaz Modan — are known to a few to actually be "titanic" ruins. Most mortals believed that they were only ancient ruins.

It is known that Draenor was visited by the titans, however it seems that their involvement was far less extensive than it was on Azeroth. The Highmaul ogres refer to them as the Forgers. The ogres believe they were born when the Forgers squeezed the light from the enormous ball of fire that would become Draenor. They made the ogres from the same smoking clay and gave them dominion over stone and earth.

Throughout Ulduar, it was discovered that for worlds that have been shaped like Azeroth, the Algalon Failsafe, a signal triggered by the death of a Prime Desigate, is used to alert the titans as the first warning sign of systemic planetary failure. Algalon the Observer then translocates to the world in question, and runs planetary diagnostics of its vital systems to analyze the world for corruption, such as in its life-support systems and defense mechanisms. If sufficient corruption is found, Algalon will signal the Pantheon to request planetary re-origination and leave.

The titans will then activate the re-origination device they built into the world (in Azeroth's case, Uldum), triggering a huge pulse, breaking down the planet - and all life on it - into base elements of rock, metal and gases. They then use these elements to reconstitute the world into its original planetary blueprint, starting over from scratch.

As the titans are considered to be benevolent, creating/improving worlds and encouraging life to flourish, it may seem odd that they are willing to effectively destroy a world full of sapient beings in order to start over. However, they appear to do this in thinking along the lines of 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few': they consider the re-origination of a corrupted world to be in the best interests of the universe at large.

Appearance
Titans are humanoid but gigantic, with gleaming metallic skin and a perfection of form that makes the heart ache.

Subraces

 * Aesir
 * Vanir
 * Dark titan

Related races

 * Titanic watcher
 * Stone watcher
 * Uldum watcher
 * Anubisath
 * Horusath

Trivia

 * When shaping Azeroth, the titans tried out and discarded various ideas. The different "layers" or "versions" of Azeroth this progress created can be observed within the Emerald Dream, according to Cenarius and Malfurion Stormrage.
 * It is implied that the Burning Legion fears the Titans.
 * The original Titans are giants or proto-gods from Greek mythology who inhabited the world during the First Era, and later ruled it during the Second Era. Their leader was Kronos. Notable titans include Rhea, Atlas, and Prometheus. Unlike their Warcraft counterparts, most of them were inherently malevolent. They were defeated by Zeus and the Olympians at the start of the Third Era.
 * The Æsir come from Viking (Norse) mythology. They are the rulers of Asgard and the more altruistic force in the universe, the greatest of them being Odin and Thor. The Vanir come from Vanaheim and are allied with the Æsir. They mostly live apart from each other, but a few Vanir have been taken into Asgard and are considered as "one of the Æsir." Both have a common enemy in the Jotnar (giants). In an interesting contrast from Blizzard's direction, which places the dwarves close to the Titans, the Vanir of Norse myth had stronger ties to the elves.