WARNING: Patch 12.1 Spoilers in this post!
The C'thraxxi and Keeper Tyr
While Kith'ix debuts as a raid boss in the upcoming patch 12.1.5, his backstory stretches years back. Kith'ix is one of the monstrous C'thraxxi, a caste of void creatures who served as high-ranking generals of the Black Empire for millennia before the Titans ordered the planet. As servants of the Old Gods, the C'thraxxi are significantly harder to kill than the average mortal, and if left unchecked, their corpses slowly regenerate over time - a process that can be accelerated with outside aid.
When the Titans arrived on Azeroth, they quickly realized that the Old Gods and their forces could not safely be killed - only contained. At the same time as the Old Gods were buried beneath the planet and locked away, their C'thraxxi generals were killed and sealed away as well, with Kith'ix among their ranks. For years they stayed slumbering, until they were awakened by an unlikely hand: the Titan Keeper Loken.
In the time since the Titan Pantheon's departure from Azeroth, Loken came under the influence of Yogg-Saron, deep within his prison underneath Ulduar. Utilizing Loken's paranoia towards his fellow Keepers, Yogg-Saron was able to implant the Curse of Flesh into the Forge of Wills responsible for creating new Titanforged soldiers, conspired with Helya to lock Odyn away in the Halls of Valor, and ultimately corrupted the rest of the Keepers into the bosses we would later fight during Wrath of the Lich King.
Of the Keeper's ranks, the only two not to be corrupted were Tyr and Archaedas, both of whom managed to hide from Loken before he could enact his schemes. Loken would later discover that the pair had worked with their friend Ironaya to steal the Discs of Norgannon, recording devices that had knowledge of all of Loken's crimes - knowledge that could be presented to Algalon and the Pantheon, should Tyr and Archaedas manage to contact them.
Fearing for his own life, Loken made the desperate choice to free two of the C'thraxxi generals from their prison: Kith'ix and Zakajz. Pursuing Tyr and Archaedas as they traveled south, the C'thraxxi eventually caught up with them in the lands now known as Lordaeron in the modern day. Rather than lose all of their Titanforged allies and potentially forfeit the Discs of Norgannon, Tyr made the choice to stay behind while Archaedas and Ironaya fled south to hide in Uldaman.
On his own, Tyr was evenly matched with both of the C'thraxxi, and he knew that he could not hold them there indefinitely. Choosing to sacrifice his life to save his allies, Tyr exploded with such force that he and Zakazj died then and there, and sent Kith'ix reeling. While Tyr and Zakazj were buried in the region later known as Tirisfal Glades, the wounded Kith'ix fled southwest and collapsed into a deep hibernation.
The Aqir and Troll War
The land where Kith'ix collapsed was the mountains that would one day make up the heart of the Zandalari Empire. While the trolls thrived in those mountains, expanding their empire across all of ancient Kalimdor, the site of Kithix's body was buried by the loa and deemed a forbidden site.
Kithi'x stayed in hibernation for millennia, undisturbed by the trolls until the arrival of one particularly relevant character: Xal'atath. Still trapped within the Blade of the Black Empire at this point, Xal'atath manipulated a Gurubashi troll named Zan'do into discovering Kith'ix's burial site. Believing Kith'ix to be an undiscovered loa, Zan'do and his followers performed blood offerings to awaken him.
The final act of their ritual was to plunge Xal'atath into Kith'ix's hide, rousing him from his slumber to look upon a world no longer ruled by the Old Gods. Believing that the destruction of troll civilization would please his masters, Kith'ix reached deep underground and found swarms of buglike Aqir still in hiding since the days of their Black Empire. Gathering them together under his command, he created a new empire of his own: Azj'Aqir.
After waiting patiently for their numbers to swell, Kith'ix led the aqir from their tunnels and up onto the surface, quickly overtaking the scattered troll tribes and claiming vast swathes of Kalimdor. As the aqir swarms closed in on the Zandalar Mountains, the Zandalari united the remaining troll tribes into a singular force: the Empire of Zul. Putting aside their differences, tribes like the Gurubashi, Drakkari, and Amani all agreed to follow Zandalari commands in routing the aqir armies.
After gathering all their strength - troll and loa combined - the troll armies managed to push the aqir back from Zandalar, and subsequently divided their forces across Kalimdor to retake troll lands. While the Drakkari pushed far north to fight off corrupted Titanforged that the aqir had conquered, and the Gurubashi spread out across the south to divide the aqir into smaller forces, the Amani were given a vital task: to kill Kith'ix.
Having been wounded in the fight against the loa in Zandalar, Kith'ix fled to the northeastern edge of Kalimdor, bolstered directly by his aqir. After cutting directly through the aqir army, the Amani managed to confront Kith'ix and - at the cost of many Amani lives - bring him down in a battle that cemented the Amani as legendary warriors. Atop Kith'ix's corpse, they built their nation of Zul'Aman, which would one day split into its own Amani Empire.
...at least, that was the official story, as known by most trolls. In Midnight, we learned a new truth: the Amani did not defeat Kith'ix alone. Led by Strongblood Jak'mo and his sister Nek'zali, the Amani tribe of old held resentment towards the Zandalari for their connection to the loa. Having no loa of their own, they often yearned for an Empire ruled by them and their own gods.
When the battle against Kith'ix came, the Amani were losing severely. Rather than die honorably for nothing like her brother wanted, Nek'zali chose to achieve victory with a loa of her own. Together with her followers - and a number of blood sacrifices of her own people - she summoned Ula'tek from the Rift of Aln deep below Azeroth. For days, Kith'ix and Ula'tek battled, killing as many Amani as their fight with the aqir had.
Ultimately, Ula'tek defeated Kith'ix, but she was severely wounded in the battle. After bleeding out across the land, Ula'tek died as well, and instead of the praise Nek'zali expected from her actions, she was met with scorn. In order to prevent their new empire from being built on such horrific sacrifice, Jak'mo chose to bury Ula'tek's corpse, as well as Nek'zali and all of her followers... and underneath it all, the corpse of Kith'ix was buried as well.
Kith'ix in Midnight
The true story of Kith'ix and Ula'tek was a secret that would stay buried for millennia, through the Sundering, the Shattering, and even the many awakenings of the Old Gods throughout WoW's story. It wasn't until Midnight that his potential as a weapon for the Void finally came to light, thanks to the actions of the Twilight's Blade.
While their actions in the base leveling campaign were rather vague, it was clear that the Twilight's Blade were assaulting Zul'Aman in search of something, not merely to sow chaos. Across their various outposts, excavation tools could be found, making it plain that they were attempting to dig something up. Kith'ix was the obvious suspect, but it wasn't until Arator's chapter of the recent 12.1 campaign that their goal became clear.
In pursuit of information about Xal'atath, we instead uncover information about Kith'ix. In the wake of Zul'jan's attempts to awaken Ula'tek and control her as a weapon for the Amani, his actions also resulted in the release of Kith'ix. As it turns out, Ula'tek's corpse was not entombed merely to prevent her from rising again, but to act as a seal on the prison of Kith'ix as well. With her now dead, nothing is stopping the C'thraxxi general from reawakening.
As revealed in the patch 12.1.5 preview, Kith'ix's return is the next stop in the Worldsoul Saga. Newly released from his prison, Kith'ix is joined by the Aqir armies still buried beneath Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman, leading to Aqir Invasions in both zones. Additionally, the next chapter of the campaign will see us joining the blood elf and Amani leaders as they begrudgingly work together to take the fight directly to Kith'ix in the newest one-boss raid.
With his role as our next raid made clear, only one lingering question remains about Kith'ix: how does this tie back to Xal'atath? We have been told in developer interviews that while patch 12.1 seems like a detour from the ongoing story of the Worldsoul Saga, it will ultimately connect back to Xal'atath's ongoing schemes.
Currently, Xal'atath's plan is rather clear: using the Devouring Host she sent through the Darkwell, she plans to strike at the Worldcore containing Azeroth's worldsoul. That is a rather far cry from an aqir infestation in zones she has already laid siege to during the leveling campaign... but Kith'ix may not be serving her plans, exactly.
During her Lorewalking quests, we learned that Xal'atath was trapped in the Blade of the Black Empire by the Old Gods themselves, after attempting to deceive and overthrow them. While her power may have been used to awaken Kith'ix from his slumber, she would likely be known as an enemy of the Black Empire to someone as high-ranking as Kith'ix. Perhaps his role in guiding us to 12.2 is not as an ally of Xal'atath, but an enemy - one that we may take advantage of to help our allies figure out her location.
Whether Kith'ix ends up surviving his raid and fleeing to join Xal'atath in 12.2, or causing some other adverse effect that allows us to pursue her, that question will have to wait until we see the story that releases with patch 12.1.5 - a story you are hopefully more well informed about, now that you know exactly who Kith'ix is.
