The Blessing of Flesh?

We were first introduced to the idea of the "Curse of Flesh" during the gnome quests in Borean Tundra. The Curse became a bit of a theme throughout Wrath of the Lich King, as well as Cataclysm.

The story goes that the Curse of Flesh is something that seems to happen to people created by the Titans. The Earthen became the Dwarves and the Troggs, the Mechagnomes became normal Gnomes, the Vrykul became flesh-and-blood people, and eventually gave birth to a pygmy subspecies that are, you know, humanity. Even the Tol'vir, sealed away in Uldum, were eventually transformed from beings of stone into flesh and blood cat-centaurs with very little personality.

Even members of the Scourge talk about the Curse of Flesh, and propose that they are able to remove the curse (by, you know, killing you and raising your corpse,) though this is likely just propaganda.

One version of the story that we are told is that the Curse was created by the Old Gods to facilitate the corruption of the Titans' creations. The Old Gods are pretty fleshy, after all, and the Titans' creations are basically very sophisticated machines. It stands to a degree of reason that the Old Gods would have an easier time corrupting that which is more like them.

But does the evidence support it?

Ulduar was ruled over by Titanic watchers, all made of stone and metal, but they got corrupted all the same (admittedly, the cure for most of them was pretty easy - we just beat them up a bit.) Eastern Northrend is swarming with Iron Dwarves, who are totally willing to do Loke and Yogg-Saron's will. The Mechagnomes as well are at least willing to work for the Iron Dwarves, though that might just be because they're programmed to do what they're told.

Flash forward to Cataclysm: The Tol'vir are fleshy, but they're good guys. However, the rebel tribe among them, the Neferset, get a djinn (which in Warcraft is a type of Air Elemental loyal to Al-Akir) to "de-curse them," making them stronger and better able to serve in Deathwing's plot to blow everything up, itself a goal of the Old Gods. (Though in all honesty, I wouldn't mind finding out that Deathwing actually went too far, even for the Old Gods' purposes. He wanted to trigger the Re-Origination device, which was presumably designed to kill the Old Gods... there's probably enough here for a full article.)

Anyway, here's another case of the de-cursed people being the bad guys, and the cursed ones retaining their minds.

So what if the Curse of Flesh is actually not the creation of the Old Gods at all? Remember that when we defeat Algalon, he's shocked by the will and power and ingenuity of the mortal races on Azeroth. He's destroyed countless worlds, but he's never seen anything like this. Even with all the problems Azeroth has, he's willing to let us live and solve our own problems.

So what if the Curse of Flesh is an intentional part of the Titan design? It could be a kind of randomizer. The Titans create world after world after world, and surely they must find that they begin to repeat themselves. If these worlds serve any purpose other than to just exist and look cool, might the Titans be looking for the perfect balance to come up with a world that could stand against the forces of chaos? Perhaps by introducing a little bit of entropy - in the form of the Curse of Flesh - they can allow stronger beings to emerge from the worlds than they could have designed.

We've now defeated two Old Gods, beaten back the Burning Legion on multiple occasions, defeated the Scourge, taken down Deathwing, and now we are in a struggle that could finally unify the races of Azeroth into a united front against the darkness. Azeroth, despite all the hardship and pain and utter chaos, might be the Titans' greatest success, all thanks to the Curse of Flesh.