Raider.IO Riddle Solution: Ulduar

By VitaminP — Mar 7 2022 15:45 UTC

As Sepulcher of the First Ones officially opened on Normal and Heroic difficulties this past week, we chose to loosely connect our very first Raider.IO “Raid” Riddle to a very special Wrath of the Lich King raid: Ulduar!

What better way to celebrate the new tier than to link two incredible constellar bosses, Algalon of Ulduar, and Rygelon of Sepulcher?

Want to know the full breakdown of our Ulduar riddle solution? Read on for the inside scoop!

Background

WHY WE LOVE ULDUAR

Long after the days of Wrath of the Lich King, Ulduar continues to be widely renowned as one of the best raid instances of all time. Whether due to its creative and engaging boss fights, its stunning aesthetics, or its compelling lore, Ulduar had something for everyone and was beloved by many.

One thing that made Ulduar particularly significant was that it offered hard modes for 10 out of its 14 bosses. Unlike our ability to choose between LFR, Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties in raid instances today, Ulduar was the last raid that was tuned around one base difficulty level. Hard mode could only be activated by performing a boss in specific ways, and dropped better loot and/or bragging rights for ambitious players. Hard modes were first implemented in Ahn'Qiraj and then Obsidian Sanctum, in which there were a small handful of options. However, for Ulduar, a whopping 10 hard modes were available and there was even an optional yet challenging boss, Algalon the Observer.

In fact, Algalon was the primary impetus for this week’s raid riddle. Algalon was an incredible fight, and his constellar presence was one that has been fondly remembered.

In Sepulcher of the First Ones, we fight Rygelon — another rare and mystical constellar boss. In this way, we couldn’t help but nod to Algalon.

In remembrance of Ulduar, Hulahoops shares her thoughts on why this raid instance was such a big fan favorite:

“Ulduar had everything we love about raid encounters in WoW. As players, we had so much agency: 10 or 25 man, hard mode or regular on most bosses, and entirely skippable bosses. Trash was minimal but packed a punch…you know what I mean if you remember Mimiron trash before it got nerfed!

The fight designs were incredible, and the story had all of the elements of fantasy that made us fall in love with the game in the first place. Old gods, Norse lore, and voice lines that are still used as memes to this day! ‘New toys?? For me!?’ To top it off, the hard modes were actually difficult. I still have screenshots and fond memories of being first on my server on a few of them, and that was a huge accomplishment. Ulduar felt epic in the truest sense of the word.

The Algalon encounter was just a masterpiece. The lore of the Constellars was pretty intriguing, and the fight itself was really difficult…it certainly felt like the level it should be for an extra boss unlocked only via hard modes. Then, there’s the visuals and artwork of the fight. My goodness! The opening sequence where you go blind for a wee second and then it explodes into this beautiful galaxy around you? I still get nerd chills just thinking about it.”
—Hulahoops

FUN FACTS

So why is Ulduar so important in the present-day? The answer is that we are seeing threads of its lore connecting to events in Shadowlands:

“Much of the Ulduar threads that were left have been picked up both in Legion and even now in Shadowlands. Loken, a Titan Keeper, originally turned Helya, another Titan Keeper, against Odyn in the first place. Later on, we learn that the entity from the Shadowlands that Odyn made a deal with was, in fact, Zovaal (the Jailer), leading to Helya's transformation into a Val'kyr. In Shadowlands, it has been confirmed that Mueh’zala brought Helya into the Jailer's ranks.” —Senppai

A notable piece of trivia about Ulduar is that it was the first raid tier where a guild from Asia, Stars, claimed the most coveted world first title: Alone in the Darkness (25 player). Although Ensidia technically got the world first Yogg-Saron kill, there were 5 different ways to kill the boss with increasing levels of difficulty. The easiest way to kill Yogg-Saron was by first defeating the 4 guardian bosses: Hodir, Thorim, Mimiron, and Freya. Once these 4 bosses were defeated, they weren’t actually killed – rather, they were simply freed from Yogg-Saron’s determination/control, and they would stand around a circle in the middle of the raid. Before you went to fight Yogg-Saron, you could talk to each of these guardians individually and, if you spoke to any or all of them, they would help you in the fight. The world first title for Alone in the Darkness on Yogg-Saron “0” (meaning the raid party received no help from any of the 4 guardians) went to Stars (TW) on July 7th, 2009.

Source: Jaqueline Zheng

Despite the fact that Asia faces the challenge of a delayed regional start time for the launch of every Race to World First (RWF), could it be possible that an Asian guild takes the world first title in Sepulcher of the First Ones? With Aster coming in 7th place overall in Sanctum of Domination and their MDI team, Aster.Y, taking first place in the Great Push Season 2, if anyone could pull off such a feat, it might be them. In the meantime, we can look to the stars for answers.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment

The Breakdown

“Curiosity piqued as we look to the skies, will trekking here cause our untimely demise? Can chaos be quelled, or are we deluded? Must all be destroyed to rebuild undisputed?”

The citizens of Azeroth were unaware of Ulduar’s existence for thousands of years. However, once it was discovered by mortals, many were curious about its original purpose…was it an ancient city of the titans? Was it merely a vault for untold titanic treasures? Upon adventuring into its territory, heroes soon discovered that Ulduar was actually a prison to trap the Old God, Yogg-Saron, since even the titans could not defeat him.

Like most futile attempts to contain a formidable ancient power, chaos being quelled refers to the creeping, impending doom of the Old God Yogg-Saron escaping his prison in Ulduar.

By the time that heroes entered Ulduar, it was evident that Yogg-Saron’s power was incapable of being permanently confined. Instead, Yogg-Saron’s power was corrupting Ulduar’s guards and wardens, and was breaking through the last of his restraints. If this were to happen, it would lead to the untimely demise of those in Azeroth.

Yogg-Saron wasn’t the only boss in Ulduar who was interested in ending the world. Must all be destroyed to rebuild undisputed refers to Algalon the Observer, a constellar being that the Pantheon entrusted to watch over Azeroth and analyze the planet for systemic corruption. Ultimately, Algalon’s assessment led him to believe that Azeroth was a lost cause. Instead, he felt that the solution was to completely “re-originate” the entire planet.

The word skies makes us think “up”, which is evocative of the stars and the gods (Old Gods, titan watchers, etc.). Additionally, Ulduar is located up in the northernmost point of the Storm Peaks of Northrend. In fact, Ulduar is the northernmost point in all of Azeroth.

Map of Azeroth

Map of the Storm Peaks

Building off of that, pique is a play on words for “peak” (Storm Peaks)! “Pique” and “peak” are homonyms, meaning that they are two different words that sound exactly the same. Also, the word trekking hints towards the arduous journey to be made on foot up the Storm Peaks to reach Ulduar. This contrasts with flying into the skies for instances like Throne of the Four Winds or Dragon Soul, where you face several airborne encounters.

As @LucidLuck01 cleverly figured out on yesterday’s tweet, the other special reason why we used the word skies in our riddle was that, upon defeating Algalon and turning in the quest All Is Well That Ends Well to Rhonin, he famously exclaims to our heroes:

“Citizens of Dalaran! Raise your eyes to the skies and observe! Today, our world's destruction has been averted in defiance of our very makers!”

Source: Blizzard Entertainment, courtesy of Wowpedia

Don’t forget to tune in next week on our Twitter to crack another Raider.IO Riddle!

Congratulations go out to our winners, @LucidLuck01, @Nozzie64, Ronangic, Hyosuka, and Jesperm97 for connecting the dots of our little “constellar” Ulduar riddle!

About the Author

VitaminP (VP) is the Lead Editor & Assistant Producer of Raider.IO and has worked for the organization since the formation of the News Section in November 2018. Although VP is currently focused on pursuing her Masters of Business Administration, she specializes in tanking classes and has loved doing competitive Mythic+ on and off since early Legion.