Hakkar the Soulflayer 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 . Hakkar is a powerful entity in the history of Azeroth . Ancient times . The long centuries following the Great Sundering of the world 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 from the capital of Zul ' Gurub and forced to survive in the uncharted swamplands of the north . Within those shadowy fens they built a great temple to their fallen god — Atal ' Hakkar — where they could continue to do their master ' s work . Temple of Atal ' Hakkar . Though the priests were defeated and ultimately exiled , the great troll empire buckled in 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 arrival 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 , it is believed that some of the fanatical Atal ' ai may 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 adventurer s assaulting the temple . Zul ' Gurub . In time , 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 Priest s 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 awesome 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 . Trivia . 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 : 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 . Speculation . Faceless one . According to the Zandalar troll Molthor , one of his titles is " The faceless one " . Primal Torntusk calls him " the faceless blood God " in a quest . Also , Hakkar drops a piece of loot called . 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 , but he may . Old God Speculation . There is a possibility that Hakkar is actually an Old God . " Lands of Mystery " says that long ago , at the Temple of Atal ' Hakkar , the trolls attempted to summon and control Hakkar , an old god of theirs . Brann Bronzebeard believes that perhaps Hakkar is the child of an Old God ( due to his seeming connection to the Emerald Dream ) . Yeh ' kinya calls Hakkar " an old , old god " and " the old god of which I spoke " in a quest . It is also possible that Hakkar is just a god that is old . Note that Hakkar is significantly weaker then the two other Old Gods that have currently been portrayed , and is neither chained up in a titan prison nor dead . It is possible that he is a minion of the Old Gods , or some kind of avatar of an Old God . He may be a Loa that is in league with the Old Gods . Al ' Akir has been said to take the form of a " winged serpent " ( implied to be a wind serpent ) . As Al ' Akir and Hakkar both have a connection to wind serpents , and Al ' Akir has a connection to the Old Gods , Hakkar may be connected to the Old gods as well . However , this is not necessarily the case . Trolls worshiping the Old Gods is not unknown . The forest trolls of Zul ' Aman worship Ula - Tek , the serpent goddess . Ula - Tek is perhaps an Old God . The Dark Iron clan seems to think so . This theory " may " be supported by the " faceless one " theory above . Connection to the Emerald Nightmare . It is implied by Itharius that Eranikus falling to the Emerald Nightmare was caused by Hakkar . Malfurion Stormrage claims that the Old Gods are behind the Nightmare . Eranikus himself does not clearly comment on this issue . This may mean that Hakkar is at least partially behind the Emerald Nightmare , and thus in league with the Old Gods in some form ( or is one himself ) , or that Hakkar merely weakened Eranikus enough for the Nightmare to take hold . This connection is not mentioned in quests surrounding Zul ' Gurub , or in quests surrounding Eranikus ' redemption . It is also not touched upon in " Stormrage " . It is also stated by Itharius that the Atal ' ai at the Temple of Atal ' Hakkar are using Hakkar ' s blood to make green dragons fall to the Emerald Nightmare .