- For the Maw of Souls boss encounter, see Helya (tactics). For the Trial of Valor boss encounter, see Helya (Trial of Valor tactics).
 Helya | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Sea-Witch[1] |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Val'kyr |
| Reaction | Alliance Horde |
| Affiliation(s) | Helarjar |
| Former affiliation(s) | Pantheon |
| Occupation | Fallen Val'kyr Queen, ruler of Helheim, leader of the Helarjar |
| Location | Various |
| Status | Deceased (Lore); Killable (WoW) |
Helya was the ruler of Helheim, the underworld of the cursed and fallen vrykul who do not ascend to the Halls of Valor.[2][3]
In ages past, she was a titan-forged Watcher who helped Keeper Odyn imprison the Elementals of Azeroth within the Elemental Plane. She was forcefully turned into the first of the spectral val'kyr when she rebelled against Odyn.[4] Odyn forged the Warswords of the Valarjar for the mightiest of his Stormforged Valarjar, but Helya stole them and infused them with a portion of her rage. She then gave them to her own champion, who used them to hunt the greatest of heroes and drag their souls away to serve in Helheim.[5] Helya created the Helarjar as a mockery of Odyn's Valarjar.[6] The kvaldir drag the souls of the unworthy and dishonorable to Helheim for Helya, as well as raiding the coasts and taking the souls of those they kill, thus robbing Odyn of potential champions.[7][8]
Biography
Helya was one of the titan-forged who battled the forces of the Old Gods under the leadership of the Keepers. She was the adopted daughter of Keeper Odyn. She aided Highkeeper Ra in creating the Elemental Plane.
When the Keepers decided to ask the Pantheon to empower the Dragon Aspects for their heroism against Galakrond, Odyn was vehemently against it, stating that only titan-forged could be trusted to defend Azeroth. The Aspects were empowered despite his objections, and so Odyn took a section of Ulduar and raised it into the sky, creating the Halls of Valor. He told the vrykul that those who died a worthy death in battle would have their spirits brought to the Halls and given new bodies to fight as his Valarjar, which Odyn thought would be better defenders than the dragons. In order to retrieve the spirits of the deceased, Odyn would need vrykul to volunteer to become undead and take those spirits from the Shadowlands. The vrykul objected, and Helya tried to talk him out of it. Instead, Odyn transformed Helya into the first Val'kyr and ordered her to do the job for him.
Helya nursed resentment against Odyn for thousands of years, until the day Loken, a Keeper who had been influenced by Yogg-Saron, convinced her to turn against him. Helya used the same magic that had been used to lock the Elemental Plane to seal Odyn and his Valarjar army inside the Halls of Valor, and then decided herself to become the caretaker of vrykul souls in her new realm Helheim.[9]
Legion
Helya appears making some sort of deal with Sylvanas Windrunner.[10] It is later revealed that Helya granted Sylvanas a magical lantern called the Soulcage, with which Sylvanas intended to subjugate Eyir.[11]
When the order leader and Ashildir approached Heyla to release them from the Helheim, Heyla agreed that she would so only if they killed her champion.[12] However when her champion Geir was slain Heyla grew enraged and declared that the pair would pay for killing her darling pet.[13] Thus despite fulfilling their end of the bargain Heyla refused to fulfill hers and declared none would leave Helheim while she ruled. However an unknown force guides the order leader and Ashildir out of Helheim to Heyla's shock and rage, with Ashildir pointing out that it seemed that even Heyla must honor her word.[14]
She is the final boss of the Maw of Souls and escapes before she is killed warning that the adventurers have merely survived the storm and that the seas are unstoppable.
In Rockaway Coast of Highmountain, Helarjar Ritualists tried to summon the Vision of Helya, but were stopped by the order leaders directed by Odyn.[15] At unknown point in time, Helya stole the soul of Illidan Stormrage out of the Twisting Nether and brought him to Helheim.[16] Xe'ra and the Illidari speculate that Gul'dan struck a deal with Helya to get him there.[17]
When Odyn discovers that Helya's forces are able to transform his stormforged Valarjar into Kvaldir, he decides that he has had enough and sends adventurers to slay her. With her death the Keeper Odyn is freed from her curse that forced him to remain inside the Halls of Valor and the soul of Illidan Stormrage was saved.
Locations
| Notable appearances | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Level range | Health range | ||||||||
| Helheim | ?? | 644,328,704 | ||||||||
| Helya (tactics) | ?? |
| ||||||||
| Highmountain | 112 | 556,106,496 | ||||||||
| Helya (Trial of Valor tactics) | ?? |
| ||||||||
Trivia
- Helya is inspired by Hel, the ruler of the underworld of the same name in Norse mythology. Unlike Helya, however, Hel was not a malicious entity.
[Helya's Coin] can be fished up from the fountain in the 
version of Dalaran.- Heyla's sheer shock at the order leader and Ashildir being pulled out of Helheim suggests that Heyla rarely, if ever, gave her word and thus was unaware that it could be forced.[14]
- Some vrykul in Helheim call her Helira.
- Helya is voiced by April Stewart.
Speculation
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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.
|
Helya and the kvaldir, servants of Neptulon?
It seems possible that the kvaldir worship Neptulon. Their conquest of Vashj'ir hindered the naga from summoning their faceless one allies to aid them in overthrowing the Tidehunter. The kvaldir refer to Neptulon by name in Quest:Final Judgement. While there are naga that do worship Neptulon, like Skar'this the Heretic, many of them (as in Vashj'ir) do not and worship Azshara. Also, with the revelation that the kvaldir being the harbingers of the fallen val'kyr Helya, it also may suggest that Helya herself might have turned to Neptulon, who was one of the Elemental Lords serving the Black Empire in an act of spite against the titan watcher Odyn.
However Neptulon no longer serves the Old Gods, so where Helya's loyalties currently remain, beyond herself, is left a mystery.
Fan art
Helya's original form by hipnosworld
Videos
Patch changes
- Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): Added.
References
- ^ Quest:Remnants of the Past, Havi's dialogue
- ^ BlizzCon 2015: World and Content Overview Panel
- ^ Patch 7.1 Preview: New Adventures in the Broken Isles
- ^ World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1, pg. 48
- ^ Legion: Warrior Artifact Reveal
- ^ Quest:The Hunter of Heroes
- ^ Quest:An Unworthy Task
- ^ Quest:Scavenging the Shallows
- ^ World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1
- ^ Quest:A Desperate Bargain
- ^ Quest:A New Life for Undeath
- ^ Quest:The Eternal Nemesis
- ^ Quest:Victory is Eternal
- ^ a b Quest:Paid in Lifeblood
- ^ Quest:Helarjar Landing: Rockaway Coast
- ^ Quest:Soul Prism of the Illidari
- ^ Quest:Trial of Valor: The Once and Future Lord of Shadows