Ancient Kalimdor History . For untold millennia , the titans scoured the cosmos for signs of more beings like themselves ; slumbering world - souls that would one day grow into titans in their own right . One titan in particular , Aggramar , discovered Azeroth during his long journeys across space in his hunt for agents of the Burning Legion . He sensed the power of the spirit within , and discovered that if brought to full maturity , Azeroth ' s power would dwarf even that of mighty Sargeras . To his horror , he discovered that the Old Gods had arrived before him and were laying waste to the world , having already enslaved the Elemental Lords . Though Azeroth ' s spirit was not yet corrupted , it was only a matter of time . Aggramar returned with the rest of the Pantheon , though it was agreed that the titans could not intervene directly , lest their sheer power destroy the planet . The Pantheon forged an army of powerful beings , called titan - forged , to make war on the Old Gods instead ; the Aesir and Vanir . They also charged a select group of their servants with the power to lead the armies of the titans , and aid in the protection of Azeroth ; the keepers . These keepers were Ra ( later known as Ra - den ) , Odyn , Archaedas , Thorim , Hodir , Freya , Loken , Mimiron , and Tyr . The war raged for many years , but it was soon determined that even the vast armies of the titans would have trouble defeating Y ' Shaarj , the most powerful of the Old Gods . In desperation , Aman ' Thul himself reached down onto the planet and ripped Y ' Shaarj from the surface . Though killed , the Old God had burrowed very deep into the planet ; a great hole remained , leaking Azeroth ' s lifeblood onto its surface , and pieces of the Old God ' s body rained down , spreading evil where they landed . Unable to repeat that act without killing Azeroth , the titans turned their plans toward sealing the Old Gods in underground prisons . The titan - forged armies attacked the Old Gods directly . Once weakened , the remaining Old Gods were sealed deep underground , their evil contained for the time being . The Elemental Lords were sealed in alternate planes of the titans ' devising , ending their threat as well . The titans and their keepers turned their attention to the new hole in the center of Kalimdor . The keepers labored for a long while , but succeeded in crafting powerful magical wards to contain the rift ' s powers and prevent Azeroth from almost literally bleeding to death . All that remained was a great lake of scintillating energy , which the keepers dubbed the Well of Eternity . The Well ' s 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 keepers named the continent Kalimdor : " Land of Eternal Starlight " in their language . With time , that landmass became home to a number of disparate races and creatures , all vying for survival among the savage elements of the waking world . 10 , 000 years ago , while the War of the Ancients was raging on , Sargeras ' failed entrance through the Well of Eternity caused the unstable vortex within the Well ' s depths to explode and ignite a catastrophic chain of events known as the Great Sundering . The massive explosion sent massive quakes ripping through the tortured earth and the surging Well of Eternity buckled in upon itself and collapsed . The resultant catastrophic explosion shattered the earth and blotted out the skies . As the aftershocks from the implosion rattled the bones of the world , the seas rushed in to fill the gaping wounds left in the earth . Nearly eighty percent of Kalimdor ' s landmass had been blasted apart , leaving only a new , raging sea surrounding a handful of major continents and scattered islands : the Eastern Kingdoms , Kezan , Pandaria , Northrend , the broken isles and the remnant still referred to as Kalimdor . The ancient landmass known as Kalimdor would be called a supercontinent since all known lands on Azeroth were once a part of it . Obsolete speculative maps . Fans made speculative maps before a definitive map in " " came out . In the RPG . " " states that the war between the titan s and the Old Gods " ripped Azeroth into new shapes " . This would imply that Azeroth ' s surface would have been reshaped and not created .