Sunken Temple

The Temple of Atal'Hakkar, also called the Sunken Temple, lies beneath the Pool of Tears in the Swamp of Sorrows. The Atal'ai, a small extremist sect of Hakkar's priests, built it for the blood god Hakkar the Soulflayer. More than a thousand years ago, Hakkar demanded ever more souls from the Gurubashi trolls and ordered his priests to bring him bodily into the world, and while most of them recoiled, the Atal'ai obeyed. The other jungle trolls, joined by the Zandalar tribe, rose against him and destroyed his avatar, and the civil war tore the Gurubashi Empire apart.

Hunted nearly to extinction, a small band of Atal'ai fled north into the Swamp of Sorrows and secretly built the temple to prepare for Hakkar's return. Hakkar rewarded their loyalty with necromancy, and they raised their fallen kin as undead servants. When Ysera, the green Dragon Aspect, discovered the plot, she drove the temple down into the swamp, and green dragons have guarded the drowned ruins ever since, letting no one in or out. The green dragon Itharius says his kind also destroyed the god's physical manifestation, but the god's corruption ran deeper than they expected.

Some Atal'ai survived, and their spiritual leader, Jammal'an the Prophet, preaches that Hakkar's return will make them immortal; he banished a priest who urged caution. Six troll defenders hold a shield around him, and the undead Ogom the Wretched fights at his side. Hakkar's corruption also reached the temple's guardians: Eranikus of the green dragonflight, charged with watching over it, is now a shade whose hold on the Dream is slipping into chaos. The green drakes Dreamscythe, Weaver, Hazzas and Morphaz attack all who enter, warning them not to wake the dreamer.

Brohann Caskbelly of the Explorers' League in Stormwind wants intact Atal'ai tablets for his last task before retiring. Fel'Zerul in Stonard, sent by Thrall to investigate, wants the fetishes of Hakkar that he suspects are central to the summoning ritual. The Atal'ai Exile, now sheltering with the Witherbark trolls at Shadra'Alor in the Hinterlands, wants Jammal'an's head as revenge for his banishment. Yeh'kinya at Steamwheedle Port sends adventurers with an egg to the Sanctum of the Fallen God, where they douse its eternal flames with Hakkari blood, face the Avatar of Hakkar and capture its essence.

Yeh'kinya secretly serves Hakkar. Prospector Ironboot, studying more of the Mosh'aru tablets, learns that the egg can bring Hakkar back rather than contain him, and when confronted, Yeh'kinya boasts that the Soulflayer has already been reborn in Zul'Gurub. The Atal'ai had learned that Hakkar's physical form can be summoned only in that old Gurubashi capital, so they sent their most skilled priests there while the green dragons kept guarding the wrong place.