Ooze

Oozes (also known as slimes) are a type of mindless slime creatures. They are known to adapt to their environments, taking on aspects of their surroundings, which may account for the variety of oozes seen on Azeroth and beyond.^[1] Many of them have bones integrated into their bodies, with skulls being used as their head.

Smaller oozes are sometimes known as oozelings.

History

No one knows what their motivations are or if there is any specific ecology behind their existence. An unproven and unpopular theory belonging to Laris Geardawdle is that oozes and slimes are tied to the creation of Azeroth, almost like a secretion of the planet.^[2]

First War

This section concerns content related to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Main article: Slime (Warcraft I)

These slimes seek to eat the blood of the living. No magic could have created these crawling masses, but yet they exist. They seem attracted to the heat of living bodies, and will seep through even the tightest armor to drain into the pores of its victims skin and sap them of strength and life.^[3] They have no intelligence and drain heat as food. No magical properties have been found to exist within the slime, but nature is often a magik unto itself.^[4]

Oozes in the world

An ooze in Hearthstone.

Felwood

In Felwood slimes are found all around pools of water blessed by the touch of Fel. The Scourge decimated the area with attacks of Infernals and other demonic magics—the slimes supposedly crept up through the earth during these attacks.^[5]

Winna Hazzard was a forsaken apothecary at Bloodvenom Post, researching ways to use the demonic ooze here against the Alliance.^[6]

The player can take a sample of slime from Felwood and place some of it into the various tubes and beakers on the table. As things begin to boil and spurt, the slime changes colors.^[7]

Un'Goro Crater

According to Chemist Fuely, the slimes in Un'Goro Crater seem to be elemental in nature, but also something more. He stated that they remind him of the Old Gods.^[8]

Pools of Aggonar

The felblood of the demon Aggonar spawned slimes.^[9]

Night of the Dragon

This section concerns content related to the Warcraft novels, novellas, or short stories.

In Night of the Dragon, a group of dwarves encounter an ooze in the Wetlands. The creature is attacked by one of the dwarves, but as the dwarf's axe sinks into the ooze, the dwarf falls onto it and is sucked in. Their leader Rom tried to save him, but in moments, the dwarf's head was already turned into a skull, and they could see the thick beard begin to wither and dissolve. The victim could only twitch once as he was being dissolved to death.^[10]

The mass of oozes apparently can douse flaming arrows, unless the flame is fueled by oil, which will turn it into an inferno and kill them. Its mass will then also feed the flames. When faced with such an assault, other oozes will try to escape into water.^[11]

Vordrassil

Hierophant Thayreen's ancestors once planted a tree in the middle of the Grizzly Hills. It was called Vordrassil and it was to become a world tree. For reasons long forgotten, after the tree was fully grown, they decided it needed to be destroyed. Its giant trunk splintered at three locations in the area to the north. Where the tree touched the ground, foul ooze began to crawl the earth.^[12] This slime is foul with a darkness far more ancient than their worldly forms would indicate. The land itself has a memory of this evil for as long as it has existed.^[13] Eventually, the Spirit of Ursoc states the druids of old were wise to tear down Vordrassil, for its roots seep deep into the dwelling of an ancient evil. He warns that the Old God Yogg-Saron's evil extends past Vordrassil's roots.^[14]

Loot

The following items are commonly dropped by oozes.

[Oozing Bag] – level 53-62 oozes, usually contains potions, herbs, or the occasional [Disgusting Oozeling]
[Scum Covered Bag] – level 45-53 oozes, usually contains potions, or herbs
[Broken Weapon]
[Decomposed Boot]
[Gelatinous Goo] – also dropped by maggots and worms
[Large Slimy Bone]
[Lifeless Skull]
[Slimy Ichor] – also dropped by maggots and worms

Notable

Types

Red blood type

Lava type

Amber type

Brown type

Void types

As a companion pet

[Dark Quivering Blob] has a chance to drop from Primordius in Throne of Thunder on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
[Disgusting Oozeling] has a chance to drop from Oozing Bags.
[Filthy Bucket] has a chance to drop from Gol'than the Malodorous in Tol Dagor.
[Half-Empty Food Container] has a chance to drop from Quivering Filth in Ihgaluk Crag on the Isle of Thunder.
[Netherspawn, Spawn of Netherspawn] drops from Netherspawn in Nagrand.
[Quivering Blob] has a chance to drop from Primordius on Raid Finder difficulty.
Sticky Oozeling can be caught from pet battles in Nazmir.
[Viscidus Globule] has a chance to drop from Viscidus in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.

In the RPG

Sludge in Manual of Monsters.

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

An ooze is a mindless, amorphous or mutable creature. They are also blind. Some oozes have the ability to deal acid damage to objects. Oozes eat and breathe but do not sleep.^[15]

Subspecies

Black ooze
Gelatinous cube^[16]
Primal ooze
Sludge

Notes

At one point during Wrath of the Lich King, there was a bug which caused the Spirit of Koosu to be considered a tameable hunter pet of the crocolisk family.
Rogues can pickpocket them.
In World of Warcraft, most oozes are considered either aberrations or elementals. Only the elemental ones can be tracked by hunters.
There are types of azerite elemental, mercury elemental, slag elemental and water elemental that have the same appearance as an oozeling.

Speculation

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

The appearance of oozes appears to possibly be correlated to the presence of Old Gods (and thus, potent Void energies) on a planet, as speculated by Chemist Fuely.^[8] In Outland's Shadowmoon Valley, ooze mobs called the Black Blood of Draenor are found in the Netherwing Mines. This is reminiscent of how saronite is often referred to as the "Black Blood of Yogg-Saron". On alternate Draenor, it is stated that the appearance of oozes also referred to as the "Black Blood of Draenor" is a result of the Void's influence on the planet becoming more pronounced.^[17] Thus, it can be speculated that Outland's Black Bloods appeared due to the attempted summoning of an unnamed Old God a short distance away by the Dark Conclave, which was thwarted by adventurers in [69] Thwart the Dark Conclave.