Hakkar the Soulflayer

For information on how to defeat Hakkar the Soulflayer in Zul'Gurub, see Hakkar the Soulflayer (tactics).

Hakkar the Soulflayer
Title	Blood God, The Faceless One
Gender	Male
Race	Eternal (Uncategorized)
Level	?? Boss
Affiliation(s)	Himself, Gurubashi
Location	Zul'Gurub
Status	Killable
Relative(s)	Wind serpents (children), Vale Screechers (cousins)
Zul'Gurub High Priest Venoxis Bloodlord Mandokir High Priestess Kilnara Zanzil Jin'do the Godbreaker (lore) (lore) (lore) (lore) (lore) Cache of Madness Gri'lek (summoned) Hazza'rah (summoned) Renataki (summoned) Wushoolay (summoned) (lore) (lore) (lore) (lore) Loot

Hakkar the Soulflayer, Blood God of the Gurubashi trolls, is a malevolent and destructive creature that controls the Gurubashi Empire's fallen capital of Zul'Gurub. He is part of the troll pantheon, who are more powerful than elementals but not as powerful as gods.

Background

Ancient times

Hakkar is a powerful entity in the history of Azeroth, and old god to the trolls.Template:Cite Brann Bronzebeard believes that he may be a son of an Old God or even an Old God himself.Template:Cite

The long centuries following the Great Sundering were difficult ones for the troll race. Famine and terror were commonplace within the broken kingdoms. The Gurubashi trolls, driven to desperate ends, sought aid from ancient, mystical forces. Though both of the troll kingdoms shared a central belief in a great pantheon of primitive gods, the Gurubashi fell under the sway of the darkest one.

Hakkar the Soulflayer, a vile, bloodthirsty spirit, heard the trolls' call and decided to aid them. Hakkar gave his secrets of blood to the Gurubashi and helped them extend their civilization across most of Stranglethorn Vale and certain islands of the South Seas. Though he brought them great power, Hakkar wanted more and more for his efforts.

The bloodthirsty god demanded souls be sacrificed to him daily. He dreamed of gaining access to the physical world so he could devour the blood of all mortal creatures. In time the Gurubashi realized what kind of creature they had courted with — and turned against him. The strongest tribes rose up against Hakkar and his loyal priests — the Atal'ai.

The terrible war that ensued between Hakkar's followers and the rest of the Gurubashi tribes is spoken of only in whispers. The budding empire was shattered by the magic unleashed between the angry god and his rebel children. Just as the battle seemed most hopeless, the trolls succeeded in destroying Hakkar's avatar and banishing him from the world.

Even his Atal'ai priests were eventually driven back to the capital of Zul'Gurub and the swamplands of the north.

Temple of Atal'Hakkar

Avatar of Hakkar

Though the priests were defeated and ultimately exiled, the great troll empire collapsed upon itself. The exiled priests fled far to the north, into the Swamp of Sorrows. There they erected a great temple to Hakkar — where they could prepare for his return into the physical world. The great dragon Aspect, Ysera, learned of the Atal'ai's plans and smashed the temple beneath the marshes. To this day, the temple's drowned ruins are guarded by the green dragons who prevent anyone from getting in or out. However, some of the fanatical Atal'ai have survived Ysera's wrath — and recommitted themselves to the dark service of Hakkar.

Their spiritual leader, Jammal'an, had what he called a prophecy. He believed the summoning of Hakkar will bring the Atal'ai immortality.

They even prepared a dark ritual to call the Avatar of Hakkar back into the physical world, but it was finally thwarted by a group of heroic adventurers assaulting the temple.

Zul'Gurub

In recent times, the Atal'ai priests discovered that Hakkar's physical form could only be summoned within the ancient capital of the Gurubashi Empire, Zul'Gurub. Unfortunately, the priests have met with recent success in their quest to call forth Hakkar — reports confirm the presence of the dreaded Soulflayer in the heart of the Gurubashi ruins.

In order to quell the Blood God, the trolls of the land banded together and sent a contingent of High Priests into the ancient city. Each priest was a powerful champion of the Primal Gods — Bat, Panther, Tiger, Spider, and Snake — but despite their best efforts, they fell under the sway of Hakkar. Now the champions and their Primal God aspects feed the great power of the Soulflayer. Any adventurers brave enough to venture into the foreboding ruins must overcome the High Priests if they are to have any hope of confronting the mighty blood god.

The Vale Screechers are called the cousins of Hakkar, and their spirits seem to be linked to him.

Trivia

Faceless one

According to the Zandalar troll Molthor, one of his titles is "The Faceless One". Though this in-game text specifically uses the words The Faceless One for Hakkar the Soulflayer, it not known if he has any connection with the creatures encountered beneath Northrend.

See Faceless one for further information.

Old God Speculation

There is a possibility that Hakkar is actually an Old God. He is called an old god by the trolls, but many people maintain it is just a title given to him by his followers to represent his power and frighten their enemies. However, the concept that he is an Old God is supported by one of his other titles mentioned above, if the theory that Faceless ones are Old Gods is correct.

The Corrupted Blood Incident

Shortly after Zul' Gurub's original release several players across many servers found that his debuff, Corrupted Blood (which takes away health and is highly contagious, yet can't leave the instance on players) could be carried out on warlock minions or hunter pets. When they did this they unleashed a massive, in-game epidemic that killed low level players in seconds and allowed higher levels enough time to corrupt others. Blizzard, who didn't see it coming at first, eventually reset all the servers and made it impossible to carry it out on a pet.

Houndmaster and Soulflayer

According to an interview, Hakkar the Houndmaster and Hakkar the Soulflayer are two different entities:

BlizzPlanet Richard A. Knaak: War of the Ancients: The Sundering

Richard A. Knaak:

"Hakkar first existed in WELL OF ETERNITY, as Hakkar the Houndmaster, my creation. Blizzard must have liked the name, because they accidentally took the name afterward for the troll god. Chris Metzen apologized for the mix-up at the L.A. Festival of Books."

Myth

Physically, Hakkar seems to resemble the Mesoamerican deity "Quetzalcoatl" or "Kukulkan," both of which can be translated "Feathered Serpent". This fits in with certain aspects from troll architecture and culture, which resemble those of the Aztec and Maya, both of whom revered the Feathered Serpent.

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB