”Pride heralds the end of your world. Come, mortals! Face the wrath of the Soulflayer!”
Hakkar the Soulflayer was the blood god of the Gurubashi trolls. In ancient times, his priesthood, the Atal'ai, sought to summon him into the world from the city of Zul'Gurub. The other trolls of the Gurubashi Empire thought this was a terrible idea, and drove the Atal'ai into exile. The exiled priests would eventually make a new home for themselves in the Swamps of Sorrow, where they constructed a new temple for their god, the Temple of Atal'hakkar. Their renewed efforts to summon their god were eventually stymied by the efforts of
Eranikus and the Green Dragonflight. However, Eranikus and the dragons who remained within the temple would eventually succumb to the Soulflayer's corruption, eventually allowing his Atal'ai servants, under the leadership of
Jammal'an the Prophet to return to their temple of carry out their dark designs.
Jammal'an and his followers would not succeed in summoning Hakkar, however their efforts were not in vain. Another one of Hakkar's servants,
Yeh'kinya, was able to make use of their efforts, tricking adventurers into summoning the
Avatar of Hakkar and absorbing its essence into a special egg. Yeh'kinya then delivered the Egg of Hakkar to Zul'Gurub, where Hakkar's true summoning would take place.
With the Egg, the remaining Atal'ai and their Hakkari followers, led by Jin'do, summoned Hakkar the Soulflayer from within the ruins of Zul'Gurub. High Priests of the other troll gods banded together to stop Hakkar's summoning, however, they would all ultimately fall under the sway of the Soulflayer, their power adding to his own.
The Zandalari Tribe, knowing full well what Hakkar would be capable of, sent a group led by
Molthor to Stranglethorn Vale in an effort to defeat the Soulflayer. Settling on Yojamba Island, the Zandalari recruited adventurers to help them defeat the blood god. Ultimately, the adventurers succeeded in raiding Zul'Gurub, freeing the bound spirits of the Gurubashi high priests, and defeating Hakkar and his followers.
It seemed like Hakkar's plans would be delayed once again, however Hakkar was patient and willing to bide his time until another opportunity to enter the mortal world came about. The Cataclysm, however, likely ushered in his returned far sooner than anyone would have anticipated. Jin'do the Hexxer managed to bring himself back to life, and sought to summon Hakkar once again. His second attempt was stymied once again by efforts of adventurers and the Zandalari tribe, but the third time proved to be the charm.
”You overstepped your bounds, Jin'do! You toy with powers that are beyond you. Have you forgotten who I am? Have you forgotten what I can do?”
With their homeland damaged by the Cataclysm, and now slowly sinking into the sea, the Zanadalari tribe chose to establish new goals. While once their focused on preserving troll knowledge and culture, they now decided that the only way for their species to survive would be for the remaining troll tribes to unite, and form a new troll empire. Now supported by the Zandalari tribe, Jin'do brought forth Hakkar's spirit once more, although this time, rather than summon the Soulflayer, he instead bound the blood god in spirit chains, and proceeded to drain his power.
In an effort to stop the rise of a new troll empire, adventurers stormed Zul'Gurub once again, this time to rescue Hakkar. After being freed from his bindings the Soulflayer promptly turned his wrath on Jin'do, and rewarded adventurers for their service by not killing them at this time.
Hakkar the Soulflayer was likely the deadliest boss in WoW, as he unleashed a virtual plague in the game world. The
Corrupted Blood Incident was the result of his Corrupted Blood power, a contagious damage over time debuff, escaping the confines of the Zul'Gurub raid and infecting characters outside of the instance, killing players en masse and providing an unexpected model for the spread of infectious disease. This event likely served to help inspire the Zombie Plague that was part of world event just prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King.