Azshara's Return: Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:03] few expansions we keep getting rustled about by by Naga. A few of them turn up in a patch, some stuff happens, we get a bit of a mystery, and then they go away. about, but today it's all getting a little bit more tangible. The Naga are

[00:19] gathering magic from across the world in preparation for something called the Concord of the Tides. They are reuniting, they're planning something really big, and this is now the third expansion in a row where we've dealt

[00:32] with the Naga, and it's the third time that the Naga have promised Azshara is coming. She hasn't arrived yet, and what's odd is that in a way there weren't supposed to be Naga in Midnight. If you think

[00:46] back to the Gamescom reveal in 2025, the big reveal of Midnight, we learned about the story, who Azshara was, and even that Sylvanas was going to make a little bit of an appearance. But when asked about the Naga, Blizzard said not in

[01:01] Midnight. Bit weird, right? Because if you look on the shores of Eversong, you see Naga. If you look back to Dragonflight and The War Within, you think about the promise of Azshara's return. We covered it extensively in the

[01:14] two patches that did a whole bunch of work teasing us. But when we look into WoW's near future, I think it's becoming clear Azshara is part of the current void war. But there's a little bit of a problem, and that is that the story

[01:28] problem, and that is that the story Blizzard promised for Azshara, well, it no longer makes sense. And that means we're past asking if Azshara will we're past asking if Azshara will return. There is no doubt of that. It's

[01:40] been so clear, three expansions in a row. Instead, what we're asking is how the hell does she make sense when she does return? What will she do? Or are they just going to speed run her as another central villain? Or maybe will

[01:53] the last titan just be even bigger than we expect. Somehow, with Azshara. privacy online keeps getting worse and AI-driven phishing is now basically indistinguishable from real emails. We've got the likes of UK's online

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[03:00] plan, [music] and that's backed by their 30-day money-back guarantee. threat in early Warcraft lore. You see, before the old gods, she was the kind of

[03:12] before the old gods, she was the kind of ancient evil from long ago in the past. She was the person who sold Azaroth out to Sargeras and wrecked the world. Just take a look at this concept map from Warcraft 3. She really was the homegrown

[03:25] big bad that explained why Kalimdor was a thing. Then in vanilla, murlocs and naga flooded the beaches of the world, promising that Azshara was still under the ocean. Much later, when Deathwing surfaced, the world was attacked by

[03:40] servants of the old gods. Azshara attacked Darkshore, very much confirming her alliance to N'Zoth. And then finally, in Battle for Azaroth, we invaded Nazjatar, we stormed her eternal palace, and we stopped her plans in

[03:54] their tracks. She had ended up failing and for that failure, she was brought to Ny'alotha and tortured. We then freed Azshara in exchange for the black blade, which would be a way, we thought, to kill N'Zoth. And of course, more

[04:08] recently, that's the blade that Xal'atath, well, um, stabbed Alleria with the last time that we saw her. But going back to the end of Battle for Azeroth, when we rescue Azshara from her torture, she tells us something really

[04:22] interesting. She says that she is tired of intermediaries like the old gods and of heralds. Perhaps heralds like Xal'atath. Now, Azshara said that she

[04:34] was going to find the true throne of power and claim it for her own. She then stepped through a void portal and disappeared. At that point, it was clear Blizzard knew where Azshara's story would be going. It seemed she would be

[04:47] going beyond the Umbral Veil to claim the true throne of the void. And lo and behold, in the very next expansion, we discovered Zereth Mortis and we discovered that the void had something similar to whatever Zereth Mortis was

[05:02] >> So, it seemed clear Azshara was going to go there, find some crazy void power and become the most powerful entity in the setting. Now, that throne of power is

[05:14] perhaps where Dematius was sitting and here's the problem for Blizzard. That's pretty much what Xal'atath just did, right? It kind of feels like they gave the bones of an Azshara return story to Xal'atath. Even right down to needing a

[05:30] coalition of elves to fight back against her. I mean, hell, in so many ways, the story of Midnight kind of feels like it would have worked better if Azshara was the big threat, given of course that, you know, she was an elf. She's got a

[05:47] direct link to the high elves who of course later do become blood elves. So, it's a bit weird and while Xal'atath looks like an elf, remember she is just a weird void creature that is inside an Elven skin suit. We naturally procured

[06:02] that body for her during Battle for [music] Azeroth. So, here's the problem for us then. Azshara is still coming back. There really is no denying it. It It was made clear in the Siren's Isle and has been made clear once again in

[06:15] patch 12.05. That raises the obvious question, if a lot of her story is basically being given to Xal'atath, well, um, what is Azshara actually doing well, um, what is Azshara actually doing right now?

[06:31] expect. You see, Midnight side quests have been incredible and walking into Goldenmist, you could believe that there is nothing to do but make wine and pick flowers for the magisters. But, that's until we find a Farstrider. Farstrider

[06:46] who has been bitten by a snapdragon. Now, he tells us that he's on the tail been attacking Silvermoon's shipping lanes. We inspect some stolen cargo and when we do, we discover the naga were stealing

[07:00] arcane crystals from the city. We find one of them, but we find that it's been drained of its power. Now, the Farstrider just brush this off as the naga being big old arcane junkies, but there's clearly something else going on.

[07:14] In their camp, we discover the naga have stolen enough arcana to wipe out Goldenmist, but they choose not to. They use some, but most of it is getting shipped out to sea. Now, we end up shutting down the whole operation and

[07:27] then we kill Princess Naz'jan who, when she dies, calls out to someone named she dies, calls out to someone named Naz'jak and as she dies, she says that they'll rise again. So, who's Naz'jak? Well, Naz'jak is this guy, a random rare

[07:42] mob from the Arathi Highlands. But, he's a wee bit more than that. He is Prince Naz'jak, leader of the Dagger Spine. And whether he's the brother, husband, or perhaps even husband brother, though I don't think WoW's lore tends to go in

[07:55] that direction, um of the princess that we just killed, it does feel like this guy is going to be relevant soon. I mean, all that Arcana is being shipped somewhere, and it's not the only thing that the Naga are gathering up. Because

[08:09] in patch 12.5, we find Dagger Spine Point has been turned into a ritual site where a Naga sea witch has transformed void obelisks into another energy source. And what we see the sea witch do is drain Zul'atath's servants and

[08:25] basically ship the energy out to sea, which is what had been done with the Arcana. That stuff's all suspicious, but here's where it gets kind of crazy. In yet another incredibly important bit of Naga communication that we found, it's

[08:38] this uh enchanted scroll, we basically see the truth of things. And we learn that the Dagger Spine are not the people running this operation. In fact, the Deep Lurker They're a group of Naga from the abyssal depths whose leader,

[08:53] Nar'jira, is Azshara's personal champion. Now, what's wild is that Nar'jira demands the rituals in Ever song be complete before something known as the Concord of Tides is called. It's not hard to figure out what the Concord

[09:09] of Tides is, though. I mean, the Naga are a fairly scattered people, but uh the Concord of Tides, I mean, it seems fairly obvious that this is them coming together in some sort of big meeting. And that shouldn't be a surprise,

[09:22] because we've known for quite some time that the Naga are up to something, and that it certainly seems like they're organizing. 10.0.7, we went to the Forbidden Reach. There's a lore book there that is called

[09:38] a song of the depths, and that book tells us when Azshara will return. It's >> [music] >> So, it opens by saying that Azshara calls from beyond the Umbral Veil, where she has transcended the circle of stars

[09:53] and now basks in eternal grandeur. Seems great for her. Now, this was basically a scroll saying that Azshara has completed her mission, whatever it may be. Now, the circle of stars is, let's just say, some big-brain lore

[10:07] stuff. I guess it's kind of describing the cosmic charts, and then of course in the Shadowlands, we learned that the Zarath were beyond that circle. So, what throne, found the power, and is now basking in all of it. But it then tells

[10:21] us that she'll only return after a primal power consumes an ancient hunger, which of course is Riddocron consuming Galakrond's essence, you know, got shoved into the Darkheart. We also learn that she'll return after the Darkheart

[10:34] is broken, which of course is something that we saw in the War Within. Now, it also talks about how she's not here to consume or to destroy, but rather she's here to take what she believes is hers. And if you know anything about Queen

[10:49] Azshara, it's basically that she she kind of just thinks she should be, you know, queen of the planet, effectively. So, that's what she wants. But of So, that's what she wants. But of course, this stuff, patch 10.0.7, was

[11:01] all going down before the World Soul Saga was a thing. Now, with World Soul Saga, well, all bets were off, [music] and many lore plans that it seemed Blizzard were building had to be bent into a new shape. So, if Azshara was

[11:14] promised in Dragonflight, then that kind of meant nothing for a post-Metzen return writing room. All that energy and potential storytelling was shifted onto Xal'atath. So, that's that. Azshara is out. No Naga in Midnight, right? Well,

[11:31] war within, which was the beginning of the World Soul Saga, we found the Dark Tide Naga on the Siren Isle. We find out that they're there basically because of a big old light crystal, and that they want to bring that light crystal back to

[11:47] their queen. They say that Azshara's storm is coming, and they call her name out whenever they die. We actually also learn that the Arathi Empire had been dealing with like Naga incursions uh in their waters and a bunch of stuff like

[12:02] that. So, when we bring all of this stuff together then, all we know is that like Queen Azshara is coming back. Probably not in the Midnight expansion, which leaves me thinking it's either the last Titan or it's for the game's future

[12:19] after the World Soul Saga. But what we do know is who she is, what she wants, and how she's going to get it. We know she's achieved her goal of transcending the void. We know she's found the true throne and taken the power behind it.

[12:33] That is the setup for modern Azshara. And since then, Blizzard have repeatedly shown Naga in the world doing extremely suspicious things, and pretty much all talking about the return of Azshara. And we know that that stuff is not fully

[12:49] scrapped from the game because it's further backed up in Midnight. And that leaves us with a final task, and that's to ask to work out how the hell Azshara fits into any of this. Because as it stands, Xal'atath is at the heart of the

[13:05] world. She's about to wrench Azshara off from the Titan's grasp and force them to return in of course the last Titan expansion. That's what has been set up. down, but I expect that Xal'atath survives Midnight and becomes something

[13:19] greater and more terrible than anything we've ever seen. If she does, perhaps expect a three-way fight between the Titans, the void aligned forces, and us. Now, in a fight like that, Xal'atath is going to need allies. So, perhaps then,

[13:36] it's not coincidence that we recently found a data mined reskin of N'Zoth looking pretty damn beat up. So, if there's going to be a trio of the void that I could see being strong enough to end the Titans, I suppose it would be

[13:49] Xal'atath, Azshara, and N'Zoth. Even though I don't think the long-term interest of any of those characters are even aligned, but that's hardly ever a problem for the void now, is it? Either way then, Azshara's return is absolutely

[14:04] going to happen, but it's no longer clean because it seems her role in the story has shifted. But, even since it shifted, Blizzard have continued teasing her. So, it's very possible she'll come back soon. And it could be bigger than

[14:17] post-Battle for Azeroth. I'd love to know. So, please go in the comments and tell me how you think Azshara will return. And if you even trust Blizzard to land what absolutely is one of our longest standing threats. And for

[14:33] think will really help you understand what the hell's going on in the lore right now, and just where we're going to be going next, how it all fit into the expansion, you have got to watch this video next. It's about the world core.

[14:46] It's about Azeroth. Basically, it's about the thing that all of the baddies want, and the state of it right now. I think it'll help you a lot. So, go check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments.