Today, November 8, marks the release of the next mini-raid “Trial of Valor”. Whether the you’ve ferverously read World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume 1, simply experienced the Stormheim questline, or are genuinely curious as to why Odyn has us fighting to prove ourselves, yet again, this post’s for you.

Odyn is kind of a jerk. Actually, Odyn is an egotistical jerk. So why are we insistent on helping him? It all lies in his origins, his history, and the legacy of the Titans.

Odyn

The Titanforged, the Keepers, and the Dragon Aspects

It all started way way back into the great epochs of Azeroth’s history. When the Titans first discovered Azeroth, they saw things were getting out of hand. The Void Lords had already infected Azeroth via the Old Gods and they were initially at a loss for what they should do. Azeroth was the most powerful world-soul they had ever come across in their travels through the Great Dark Beyond, and they could not allow the Void Lords to corrupt such a power. Instead, they sought to try to save the planet from its infection. Like many other worlds they had visited, they created the Titanforged races in order to be their planetary defense system–being too large to tackle the problem on the ground themselves. The greatest of the Titanforged would become known as the Keepers, and some have persisted to this day, walking the halls of Ulduar, and even more recently, the Halls of Valor.

While their story is long and fruitful, our focus is on Odyn, current occupant of the Halls of Valor, his self-made prison. When the Titans created the Keepers to help destroy the Black Empire of the Old Gods, they were victorious–at least as victorious as they could be given the circumstances of the Old Gods’ infection. Rewarded for his battle prowess, Odyn was crowned “Prime Designate” of the Keepers, and while they were meant to be equals, this title and its perceived power, started to go to Odyn’s head early on.

Many years after the fall of the Black Empire, proto-dragons began to appear on the surface of Azeroth. One, named Galakrond, grew to be a savage and insatiable force, such that some of the keepers decided to enlist the strongest, and smartest of the proto-dragonflights to take wing and help them take it down. These would become known as the Dragon Aspects. Odyn, however, did not agree with this plan and was upset that the other Keepers would not follow his advice as Prime Designate. The dragons were primordial creatures, unworthy of the defense of Azeroth, in his eyes, and only the Titanforged ought to be entrusted with such a task. The defiance of the other Keepers, in Odyn’s eyes, caused quite the temper tantrum on his part, which led to the predicament he finds himself in today.

The Vrykul, the Val’kyr and Helya

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Now each of the Keepers favoured certain races, and Odyn’s were the Vrykul. It was the Vrykul, he believed, would be the greatest defenders of Azeroth. In his temper tantrum, Odyn decided to secure the wing which would become known as the Halls of Valor and rip it from the greater Ulduar complex in order to create his own private tantrum corner. You can almost see the giant brooding sign hanging from the golden arches. In order to accomplish this task, Odyn enlisted the help of Helya, his right-hand Vrykul sorceress. She had aided him in the past, in the taming of Azeroth’s elementals, and he had grown to revere her as an adopted daughter. From the clouds, he proclaimed that all Vrykul which died gloriously in battle would be reborn in metal-bodies, becoming his valorous Valajar army. Unfortunately, Odyn needed a way to bring the souls of the Vrykul dead to these new bodies. In that moment, he decided to create the Val’kyr. He studied the Shadowlands – the realm of the dead – in order to harness it’s power. The Val’kyr would be bound as servants, agents of the living world and the Shadowlands, to follow Odyn’s will, and bring glory to the Valajar. Or so Odyn pitched it.

No Vrykul willingly volunteered to become Val’kyr for Odyn. None were willing to become his slaves, ferrying souls for eternity. The most vocal against this plan was Helya. In his rage, Odyn took Helya’s defiance as a threat to Azeroth and his ‘glorious’ plans for the Halls of Valor. Thus, he broke Helya’s will and forced her into becoming his first Val’kyr. If you look closely at her model, you will see the broken wings she still possesses. For many eras to come, Helya was enslaved by Odyn in this task, and was forced to turn more Vrkyul into Val’kyr. An act he would one day come to pay for. In his mind, however, he was doing the righteous thing–for Azeroth.

Helya’s Rebellion & the Trial of Valor

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Through a long series of events Odyn’s control over Helya’s servitude began to weaken. It weakened so much so that one day, Helya lashed out wrathfully against Odyn, and sealed him and all his Valajar inside the the Halls of Valor – an army for the ages, locked behind powerful magicks. Helya’s time as a Val’kyr slave and Odyn’s betrayal, darkened her soul, and turned her into a vengeful creature–but not unjustified. She would go so far as to create her own race of Vrykul from the seas, the Kvaldir.

With Odyn sealed away, other events took place which ultimately corrupted, destroyed, or hid the remaining Keepers. And thus in Legion we come to face the current story of Odyn and Helya through the questlines of Stormheim. The conflict between Odyn and Helya, as well as their history is played out throughout the campaign of Stormheim, alongside both the Maw of Souls and Halls of Valor instances. But the question remains, after the Halls of Valor, why do we continue to try to satisfy an egotistical Keeper who has some twisted thoughts about what’s right for Azeroth’s defenses?

Odyn is stuck in the Halls of Valor, and while he may be an egotistical bastard, in the end, he does have Azeroth’s best interests at heart. Sadly, Odyn’s own acts of treachery and Machiavellian approach to leadership, twisted Helya so that even if we took her side, she would be more likely to destroy us than to help us stop the invading Legion forces. Odyn remains an untainted tie back to the Titans, and thus to Sargaras. Through Odyn’s help, we might gain that extra leg up over the Legion that even a fully-redeemed Helya may not be able to provide. Even Odyn’s attitude, victory at any cost, is one we desperately need in order to conquer the hordes of demons surging into Azeroth on a daily basis.

Today we can look for a better explanation now that the raid and its quests are live but we can rest assured that while Odyn is definitely a jerk, he might just be the jerk we reluctantly need in order to win the war against the Legion.