World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 (12 page)

Though racked by guilt, he could not bring himself to tell Thorim of what he had done. Loken scrambled for a way to cover up Sif’s death. It was in this time of need that her spirit appeared before his eyes.

Much to Loken’s surprise, this visage of Sif forgave him. She also warned him of the need to act with haste, lest Thorim learn the truth. If he did, the
titan-forged would descend into civil war, and every pledge Loken had made to the
Pantheon would be broken.

Sif’s suggestion struck Loken as devious, a characteristic he had never known her to possess. He sensed something strange in her spirit: an unseen darkness, subtle yet discernible. But Loken’s fear clouded his judgment, and he pushed away his doubts.

On Sif’s guidance, Loken dragged her corpse into the frigid wastes of the
Storm Peaks. He informed Thorim of his wife’s demise and convinced the keeper that
Arngrim, king of the ice giants, was to blame. The grief-stricken Thorim unleashed his unbridled fury, slaying Arngrim and many of his followers. This event ignited a catastrophic war between Thorim’s storm giants and Arngrim’s ice giants. Sif’s spirit continued aiding Loken as the conflict raged. Her guidance became ever more extreme and worrisome, but Loken forged ahead nonetheless. She convinced him to build an army of his own using the
Forge of Wills, one large enough to protect
Ulduar from the depredations of the warring giants.

Loken was even persuaded to punish his brother for starting the war. He berated Thorim for letting anger rule his emotions and for creating such a terrible rift between the titan-forged. Loken further admonished his brother, claiming that Sif herself would look upon him in shame if she could only see the things he had done in her name. This bitter condemnation threw Thorim into a deep depression. Overcome with regret, he abandoned Ulduar and languished in solitude.

With Thorim in isolation, Loken used his newly forged army to overwhelm the giants and end their conflict. All those who resisted his will were locked away in stasis chambers.

But as these battles progressed, Loken noticed something unsettling among his warriors. A dark affliction suffused their spirits. Loken called out to Sif again for advice, but this time, she remained silent. Dread overtook the keeper as he realized that her spirit had not existed at all. She was an illusion created by
Yogg-Saron.

Though Loken did not know it, the false spirit of Sif had also tainted the Forge of Wills while the keeper was creating his army. Yogg-Saron’s curse of flesh had taken root in the heart of the machine’s creation matrix. Loken had, in his selfishness, allowed Yogg-Saron to play him as an unwitting pawn.

This discovery shattered the last vestiges of Loken’s noble heart. He became obsessed with keeping his transgressions a secret, even if it meant embracing the power of Yogg-Saron. With such might at his command, he knew he could defeat the remaining keepers and destroy all evidence of his wrongdoing.

I
n order to defeat the other keepers, Loken realized that he would first have to neutralize
Odyn and his mighty
Valarjar army. But a direct attack against their floating citadel, the
Halls of Valor, would be impossible. Instead, Loken took a more insidious approach. He reached out to Odyn’s adopted daughter, the
Val’kyr
Helya.

For millennia, Helya had dutifully followed Odyn’s commands, transporting the spirits of slain
vrykul to the Halls of Valor. Yet even while she did so, Helya nursed the cold anger that stirred in her phantom heart. She never forgave Odyn for turning her into a Val’kyr against her will. Helya dreamed of a day when she might avenge what had been done to her and the others who had been transformed into Val’kyr.

Loken called out to Helya and played on her simmering anger and feelings of betrayal. He promised he would break the chains of servitude that bound her to follow Odyn’s will. In exchange, she would seal off the Halls of Valor from the world forever. Thereafter, Helya could usurp Odyn’s role as the caretaker of all vrykul spirits. Enticed by this chance to sate her appetite for revenge, she agreed to Loken’s plans.

After Loken had restored her free will, Helya called on the same powers she had used to secure the
Elemental Plane in ages past. She bent the latent arcane energies swirling around Azeroth to her command, sealing off the Halls of Valor and the inhabitants within. Odyn and his mighty Valarjar struggled desperately to escape their floating citadel, but they could not break the impregnable barrier Helya had created. There the Valarjar and the keeper would remain, trapped within the golden corridors of the Halls of Valor for ages to come.

Helya, now liberated from her life of servitude, forged a new home for herself and the other Val’kyr. She created this enchanted refuge far below the Halls of Valor, binding it to Azeroth’s great seas. The ocean mists soon coiled up to envelop Helya’s domain and shroud it from sight. Known as
Helheim, this realm would become the final destination for many vrykul spirits after death.

G
UARDIANS OF
S
HADOW

Not all Val’kyr continued to follow Helya after Odyn’s defeat. Some of these spectral beings disappeared into the
Shadowlands. The few who still retained a glimmer of nobility in their souls dedicated themselves to watching over the physical world. From within the Shadowlands, these Val’kyr would at times guide the dead back to the land of the living
.

Yet the darkness that had long festered in Helya’s heart transformed Helheim into a place of nightmare and shadow. The souls of dead vrykul who arrived there soon found themselves turned into vengeful wraithlike beings. These cursed spirits were known as the
Kvaldir. They became one with the ocean mists, bound to the ebb and flow of the tides. The eternal fire of malice and anguish that burned in their souls would drive the Kvaldir to raid and plunder the shores of Kalimdor for all eternity.

W
ith Odyn and his Valarjar sealed away, Loken returned to
Ulduar. He believed he now had ample time to orchestrate the downfall of the other keepers. Yet he soon discovered a new threat to his plans.

Mimiron had begun investigating strange anomalies in Loken’s new
titan-forged. The brilliant keeper suspected that some malfunction within the
Forge of Wills was to blame for the impurities he had observed. Before he could pursue his theory, Loken sabotaged the keeper’s workshop, killing Mimiron in what appeared to be a tragic accident. Mimiron, however, was not completely dead.

Mimiron’s faithful
mechagnomes discovered that their master’s spirit lived on. They scrambled to build a giant mechanized body to house the keeper’s fading soul. This heroic act saved Mimiron, but he was never the same again. His brush with death had broken his mind. He secluded himself in Ulduar’s vast workshops, spending his days lost in the inner workings of his clockwork inventions.

Knowing Mimiron’s fate would raise suspicions among the other keepers, Loken dispatched his army to neutralize his remaining brethren. First, Loken confronted
Freya at her verdant domain within the
Storm Peaks, the Temple of Life. Battle raged between the two keepers and their followers, sundering the temple and bleeding its precious life energies dry. Freya struggled valiantly against her foes, but she ultimately fell to Loken and the shadowy powers
Yogg-Saron had granted him.

Yogg-Saron itself seized on Freya’s weakened state, enthralling her spirit. The Old God compelled the broken Freya to withdraw into the halls of Ulduar. There, she would spend her forlorn days tending to a sprawling garden at the heart of the fortress.

As Loken confronted Freya, another group of his titan-forged waged war on the mighty keeper
Hodir within his lair, the Temple of Winter. Two fire giants named
Ignis and
Volkhan led the assault. They enveloped the temple in blistering infernos, sapping Hodir’s wintry strength and decimating his icy followers. Loken later arrived to subdue Hodir directly, a task he completed with ease.

Just as it had done with Freya, Yogg-Saron warped Hodir’s mind. The entity forced the keeper to retreat into a frigid chamber within Ulduar, where he would remain in seclusion for millennia.

Two of the remaining keepers—
Tyr and
Archaedas—did not fall victim to Loken’s schemes. Tyr had long suspected that a darkness was growing within the fallen keeper, a suspicion that was confirmed when he witnessed Loken’s attack on Hodir.

Yet Tyr was in no position to confront Loken directly. Throngs of the fallen keeper’s loyal titan-forged stalked the Storm Peaks and the halls of Ulduar. Knowing he stood little chance
against this army, Tyr took Archaedas and their close friend, a titan-forged giantess named
Ironaya, to the outskirts of the Storm Peaks. Among the icy cliffs, they waited and watched Loken’s schemes unfold, planning their next move.

Loken dispatched his forces to hunt down Tyr and his companions. These titan-forged scoured the mountains and caves of the Storm Peaks, but they never found their prey. Believing that Tyr and his allies had fled the region, Loken asserted sole dominion over Ulduar. He altered the machineries within the fortress and used them to anoint himself the new
Prime Designate of Azeroth. He also disabled the tainted Forge of Wills and banished many of his servants to the Storm Peaks. Thereafter, he sealed off the sprawling fortress of Ulduar.

Loken languished in regret within Ulduar’s silent halls. Despite everything he had accomplished, he was ever fearful that the
Pantheon or their appointed watcher,
Algalon, would one day return to Azeroth. If that happened, they would discover Loken’s horrific crimes and punish him.

But in truth, the greatest threat was right beneath Loken’s feet. No longer under the watchful eyes of Ulduar’s jailors, Yogg-Saron began to stir, working to free itself from its impregnable prison.