Xal'atath's Endgame: Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:03] mean for content and how are Blizzard going to pull all of this stuff together? That's what I'll be dealing with today. And really what they're doing is quite ambitious. Some may even say a little bit insane. They've

[00:16] Azeroth from the end of Legion and for the most part decided to continue the story from there to pick up where Legion left off. Obviously BFA happened, Shadowlands happened, it was a bit of a disaster and Dragonflight also happened

[00:30] nothing burger. And things from those expansions will be worked in. But by and large, it's basically time to forget the bad stuff and smash all of the good stuff into a bridge spanning from the moment the Titans left us at the end of

[00:44] Legion until the moment that Xal'atath blew Dalaran out of the sky. The big question is, what happens then? And what Blizzard have set up is Aman'thul and the return of the Titans. That's what's going on in the last Titan which is the

[00:58] final expansion of this trilogy. But to get there, we of course need Xal'atath. We need to know where she's going. And where she's going is quite simply the world core. Now you might be wondering what the hell a world core is and why

[01:12] suddenly everyone's talking about it. And of course where the hell Alleria and Turalyon went. Well, I'll answer you straight up. The world core is more likely than not the location of midnight patch 12.2.

[01:25] And what it is for sure is the topic of today's video. It has deep roots in the today. But from our perspective, it primarily kicked off whenever Sylvanas stepped out of the Shadowlands to land an aimed shot on Xal'atath at the end of

[01:40] an aimed shot on Xal'atath at the end of the Sunwell raid. So, we see the arrow hit. We then literally watch Xal'atath just dip out of the conversation, quite see that she disappeared into the Darkwell. And if you look even more

[01:54] closely, looks like a whole bunch of devouring host minions are also being shot down that energy beam into the Darkwell. Now, in a way, you could look Xal'atath got one of her balls pierced, and then she ran away. Clearly, we won."

[02:09] firmly established in the lore that it isn't the case. Xal'atath got what she another being who you'll learn about today who she's working with, got what he wanted, and as for us, well, we kind of played our part in helping her get

[02:23] there. Now, where do I mean whenever I say there? Well, quite simply, to the what happened to Alleria and Turalyon after the Void Spire, well, chances are they got shot down that same big energy beam and are now in and around the world

[02:40] core. What is the world core? Well, it is a place the Titans built to keep the rest of us out, and to keep whatever's inside firmly hidden and away from our reach. So, it's time to explore what I think is the end boss of big Titan

[02:55] facility raids. Probably the end boss of any of those we'll have in World of Warcraft. We've done our old demands, our Ulduars, so many others, but I think And to make sense of it all, we have a mountain of legitimately cool modern

[03:09] lore to uncover. So, let's get to it. Here's the thing I've noticed, a lot of people who need a website don't have one, or they have one that doesn't look can't afford it. It's because they just get overwhelmed halfway through building

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[04:15] you 10% off your first purchase of a site or domain. post-battle debrief. As much as the elves are happy about their new Donwell, what this whole escapade actually was was a massive strategic defeat for the

[04:30] Turalyon, two of Xal'atath's most powerful adversaries, were sucked into the Dark Well. And we did save many from the Void Spire, Anduin Wrynn and Velen, but many more are missing. Travarad and the Tears Guard are missing as one

[04:45] example. The Sunwalkers are missing. Delas Moonfang, who is a a loon paladin, is also missing. Arcanist Valtrois and Grayson Shadowbreaker are missing along with nearly the entirety of the Lights' Vanguard. Yes, they're all quite

[04:59] literally MIA right now. And to remind ourselves just how bad that was, we only need to look at Lorthemar's dialogue in between the two raids, where it's very clear that he's basically left with nothing in military terms. And that is,

[05:11] of course, why the various Elven tribes thing was, well, basically supposed to be a desperate gamble, the last resort. Still, though, in that moment of utter defeat, it took the return of Sylvanas to save the day. Now, that's something

[05:26] Xal'atath even admits she actually hasn't accounted for, but come on, it's Xal. It's not like she can't handle it. Instead, she resummoned her shoulder shiny and disappeared into the Dark Well. That's proof that whatever's down

[05:39] there was more important than finishing off the last cowering remnant of the Elven people. That's what I imagine Xal'atath was thinking at the time, anyways. Now, look, maybe it is just some loose storytelling from Blizzard,

[05:51] but either way, Xal'atath left, and she left to go somewhere in particular. And our first major clue in game comes from Umbrek and Rommath. They have a little chat, and while they talk, they drop a bit of a breadcrumb.

[06:09] are reunited and the dark well is turned into the dawn well, we get two very impactful stay a while and listen scenes. And each one sets up the next stage of the story. So, first, there's the one between Rommath and Umbrek.

[06:21] They're having a chat about the new dawn well, whenever Umbrek, ever the void genius, points out that Xal'atath, well, actually went somewhere. Specifically, here's the quote directly from him. >> This new dawn well is a fitting tribute

[06:35] Though, learning to live without the sun to. >> Perhaps. Far more concerning to me is the dark well.

[06:52] Rommath. You saw thousands upon thousands of void monstrosities, monstrosities, all headed deep underground.

[07:05] saw. What could Xal'atath be seeking at the heart of the world? >> Whatever it is, she used us to get to >> Whatever it is, she used us to get to it.

[07:21] >> Yeah, it doesn't sound too good. Now, Rommath wonders what Xal'atath could possibly want or be doing at the heart of the world. Now, you have to remember here that Rommath was not in Khaz Algar whenever, of course, we were in the War

[07:35] Within. And that means that he didn't discover all the things that we discovered when we were there. The big one being, of course, the world core. explain all that stuff in a minute, but for now, let's just stay laser focused

[07:48] on Midnight's campaign. The second Stay Awhile and Listen is with Arator and Liadrin. And whilst Arator doesn't think to ask what just happened with his parents, and while we do need to put a lot of this together ourselves, he does

[08:02] at least set up whatever is at the other side of the Don Well. You see, Liadrin describes what she felt when she prayed to the Sun Well, and she says she heard a voice that told her not to be afraid, and that she heard music in her heart.

[08:16] Now, Arator asks if that could be the world soul's voice, and Vashj'ir could have used the light to reach out. Now, where it gets interesting is a Redditor called Niadrin pointed out that the Radiant Song can quite literally be

[08:30] heard all over the place, especially whenever Liadrin marches from the Sun Well with the Army of Light. You'll also find it in the War Within login music. It rises up in many impactful moments. It's in the Vault of Memories, and now

[08:43] it's playing in the Sun Well. That's pretty cool. It's nice to see the music team cook, but it's also telling us something very important. It's telling us the Don Well is a connection to Azeroth. Now, that's hardly surprising.

[08:56] something I'll come back to later in this video. But, now that we're confident where Xal'atath is, where she's heading, the world core, let's see how this story was actually built in

[09:09] game. And let's just connect all the different dots so you just get it in one story. Back during Dragonflight, Xal'atath used the big baddies of that expansion, the Primal Incarnates, to claim the Dark

[09:23] Heart. Now, the Dark Heart was basically just a magical amulet that's a bit of a prototype for another really important magical amulet from the past of WoW's lore. You don't really need to worry about that too much. Basically, what you

[09:36] need to know is it could store a shitload of power. So, Xal'atath wanted it so she could slurp up a shitload of power to use later. Now, before Ra-den power to use later. Now, before Ra-den handed the Dark Heart over to Xal'atath,

[09:48] he told us what he actually got from his deal with her. And it's quite simple. It's that Xal'atath will be able to use the Dark Heart to rip Azeroth from the Titans' grasp. And then when they return to reclaim their prize, Ra-den will be

[10:03] waiting to take his shot at them. But of course, we saw this deal go down not in a major patch, but actually in a minor patch. The following major patch was Amirdrassil and the Emerald Dream. It ended up blooming, we defended it from

[10:17] Fandral who is basically just a massive distraction, like quite literally. So, we beat him up. And now we see that the branches of Amirdrassil, working rather like an antenna, have flooded the planet's surface with a radiant song.

[10:32] Now, that radiant song is the same thing that Thrall and Anduin heard in Silithus. It's what Khadgar has also heard, Brann has heard it, and well, by now all sorts of people have heard it. But what's most important is actually

[10:45] someone who recognized it. That someone is Locus Walker. He was Alleria's mentor, and he told us that that song is a warning. And that's because back in his home world of K'aresh, well, K'aresh sang a similar radiant song right before

[11:01] Dimensius came to devour it. And so essentially, Azeroth has been crying out for help. Every major figure on the planet essentially heard the same thing in and around the same time. That's of course not particularly normal, and at

[11:15] the start of the War Within, Magni hears this and he thinks it's Azeroth. But then, whenever he tries to hook back up to the Titans' consoles to have a bit of a chat, we see that he's actually blasted back with the sheer energy

[11:28] that's coming from the planet's core. So, something's different, something's up. And it seems clear that this intelligence at the heart of our world intelligence at the heart of our world is larger and way more powerful than any

[11:40] world soul related stuff we experienced in, say, the Battle for Azeroth Now, the Radiant Song's message really was clear. It was pointing us to Khaz Algar. So, of course, we teleported Dalaran there, and we found ourselves a

[11:55] forgotten earthen colony who were right in the middle of the ocean. But, of trap, she downed Dalaran, and she clogged something known as the Coreway with debris. Now, we were told that it

[12:08] would take years to clear the debris that had blocked the Coreway. And that's a real important bit of lore when we combine it with other things we learned, like, as an example, where the Coreway leads to. And that is where the

[12:21] character of Dagran Thaurissan along with Speaker Brand he discovered a stash of Titan discs recorded by the keeper Archadas. And this was our very first mention of the word world core. And it was also the next step in a Titan

[12:37] conspiracy that we have been following ever since Wrath of the Lich King. then. So, he begins with a little bit of background, and his creator Khaz'garoth

[12:50] explains it. That basically to create order from the chaos of the cosmos, that the Titans were searching for something called the prime world soul. Of course, but with the rising pressures of the Fel, all those nasty demons, and of

[13:06] course, Sargeras, and the Void on top of that, they basically realized they needed to find something magnitudes more powerful if they were not going to be defeated. And as it turns out, they soon did. They found Azeroth, but they sensed

[13:21] corruption within the world. Now, Archadas was sent along with the other keepers to wage war against that corruption. And that is what led to the imprisonment of the old gods because well, the old gods were the corruption.

[13:34] Now, with that war won, the Titans then began what they call the Acclamation. Now, the Acclamation is basically them turning the world soul into whatever it is that they want. So, to do this, they created a series of installations called

[13:49] the manifold. I know, it's almost sounding a little bit like a Halo lore video, but trust me, it isn't. This is Warcraft. So, the manifold is a series of installations across the planet and you've been to many of them. At the

[14:02] manifold's pinnacle, we have the Forge of Wills located in Ulduar and designed to order Azeroth's mind. Then, in Uldum, we have the Forge of Origination. It's designed to shape her body into that of a Titan. So, just think about the scale

[14:17] forge to order her mind, another to shape her body, and in that, we see a clear ambition from the Titans. It is to build a god, to essentially wake up the strongest Titan in existence, to have it be on their side and grant them ultimate

[14:34] victory against all the threats that they face. So then, we've got all these Titan machines all over the world, but the next step was to build something called the Coreway. Now, the Coreway would be a direct path to the world

[14:46] soul. Basically, a really big hole and it existed so that the Titans could study Azeroth. And that is the thing that we see built around the city of lot, but the good news is you've now got the lay of the land, so that means we

[15:01] can really go into the story. So, here is the key bit from the recordings of Archaedas. Even with the old gods imprisoned, Khaz'goroth says that their influence still leeched into the world soul. So, he commands Archaedas and his

[15:16] earthen to build the world core. The world core is, in his own words, quote, "There the world's soul will slumber with only the Titans to influence her." So, basically, there it is. The world core is at the center of all of this

[15:31] Titan machinery. This machinery forms a whole big system that is designed to protect Azeroth from all but the Titans' influence. Which means it's not just some random crazy energy down there. It is a literal

[15:45] crazy energy down there. It is a literal being. And with the Darkwell, Xal'atath just got access to her. That is, in fact, precisely why Xal'atath built the whole Void Spire. So, with all of that in mind, then,

[15:58] what's inside the world core? What is Azeroth? Who is she? expansion, and when we did, we discovered that Azeroth was once a being

[16:10] of immense power that basically crafted the whole world that we live on. But, attacked. And when they did, she had to retreat to the heart of the world. There, she slept, and she struggled against the corrupting influence of the

[16:25] interesting, because from Dragonflight through to now, we really didn't know much detail about, like, where she went, what she did. But, with Midnight, that's actually changed. So, we know that she created this place, and we now call this

[16:40] place the Cradle of Aln. So, that's basically where she retreated to. Now, we also learned that the Hyrja were drawn to the Cradle by Azeroth's song. interesting. Throughout the Hyrja questing, we discover that the Hyrja

[16:55] were not directly called by their goddess. Rather, what they heard was just the echoes of her song. Now, their goddess is called Alun'ehra, and we've basically now learned that Alun'ehra is a pre-Titan name for Azeroth. But,

[17:09] a pre-Titan name for Azeroth. But, unfortunately, well, Azeroth had already been kidnapped. She was taken from the Cradle. That's one of the most important story beats we learn throughout the Hyjal and Dalaran questing. So, she was

[17:21] taken from the cradle, she was likely taken from it by Arcadius in the deep past and then put into the world core. What then remained turned into the Rift the old gods to create the Emerald Nightmare. And if during Legion you

[17:36] wondered who the hell Aln was, well, we now know it was once part of Azeroth's name. And that means that every time we felt the influence of our world soul from say the Earth Mother saving the Horde in Warcraft 3 to Magni's travels

[17:50] with an intelligence below and now the Radiant Song, it has all been coming from this one place called the world core. Now, with that said, let's go back to the Sunwell. So, the high elves were once masters of the arcane and they

[18:04] founded Quel'Thalas because it lay on a powerful nexus of various different ley lines. Now, ley lines are basically just the cables joining the manifold together, joining all of these Titan machines together, right? It was carved

[18:19] by Titan-created giants, it was fueled by the blood of the world soul herself, and it was quite naturally powering everything from the world core to Ulduar to Uldum. Now, whenever the high elves seeded the Sunwell with a vial of water

[18:33] from the Well of Eternity, they were basically creating a well of world soul energy. Just world soul energy on tap. And they did all of this on top of an immense network of world soul ley lines. Basically, they kind of hot-wired their

[18:47] well into all the Titans' machinery, just unknowingly. And that's where the Xal'atath stuff comes in. You see, she could have just went down the coreway and then blocked the coreway up. But the problem is, she needed so much more than

[19:01] just an entrance to the coreway. She also needed her devouring host to make a connection from Void Storm to Azeroth. Why? Well, because that would give her a bloody big army, which would really come in handy. After all, we can assume the

[19:14] world core is packed full of just layers of Titan defenses. Remember, the world core is designed to let no one but the Titans in. Xal'atath is not a Titan. So,

[19:26] basically, she needed to get a way in that would bypass all of that nonsense, and to get a way in that nobody else could easily follow. So, what she did is she corrupted the one part of the manifold that was infected by the light.

[19:40] And of course, being the Sunwell. And when it became the Darkwell, she found her entrance. But of course, she was not the only one making that trip.

[19:53] down there. First, I'd put money on a particularly gnarly group of harbingers being there, maybe secret even to their cousins. That's because when the harbingers first discovered Aluneth was gone, some of them set out in search of

[20:05] her. And over the years, Harbinger like Orwenna have heard the call, and they've left Harrendar. That's why we met her in the war within. So, chances are there'll be some Harbinger down there. Second, we may even find some Thraygar. You've

[20:20] before, but it does come from the Arcades and like Titan disc records that I mentioned earlier. So, the Thraygar are crystallized earthen beings who were given free will by the world soul. Now, to explain that to you, we know that the

[20:36] earthen on the surface are the same ones who built the world core, but we also learned that the world core's influence forced their keepers to deactivate them, or to just wipe their memory. And we know that some of them turned into a

[20:49] crystalline form and basically launched a rebellion. That rebellion was put down in the deep past. Chances are some Thraygar will appear down there. And if anyone's going to give us the fine details of the Titans plans for Azeroth,

[21:03] it's going to be them. But there's yet more people still down there. because of Light. There's also Alleria and Turalyon. All of that gathered might from the beginning of this expansion is basically down there right now. Just

[21:19] that by the time we catch up, likely in patch 12.2, they won't have the light blind rage coming from the Sunwell. They might actually be solid allies. We can maybe think of them as a bit of a pocket army, one ready to rally against

[21:33] Xal'atath in her final gambit for the world soul. And with all that said, the world core and all the people in it are now set up for you, which begs the obvious question, what will happen from here? Well, honestly, I think that's

[21:46] also quite clear. Xal'atath needs to pull off the mother of all distractions just to get more time. Now, perhaps that will begin with some of the patch 12.0.5 many of those assaults are led by cultists who actually feel burned by

[22:01] Xal'atath, but hey, a distraction is a distraction. The tempo will certainly build though in patch 12.1. We're fairly sure that it's going to involve the location of an ancient C'thaxxi general, basically a big old god general, that is

[22:15] buried beneath Zul'Aman. I think that will be unleashed. I think it will tie into the big mystery island that's going on with the trolls. And once we've cleared that, well, the next step will be reaching the world core. And with the

[22:28] recently that's actually almost certainly our way in. And that is exactly what Eredicron is waiting for. Because once Xal'atath reaches the world soul, you know, she breaks her way through the world core,

[22:42] then she'll be able to do whatever the hell it is that she wants. Maybe consume Azeroth, maybe merge with Azeroth, who the hell knows. But what it won't be is good for the Titans. That is going to force the Titans to come back to defend

[22:55] their prize, which is of course exactly when Eredicron will try to shoot his shot. I know we've covered a gargantuan amount of lore in this video. It spans so many different expansions, but basically this is the best I think we've

[23:09] video. Now, if you want to know where we're going next and you want to sort of understand all this weird troll island stuff and how it could all tie in and actually be pretty damn cool. Well, quite simply, watch this video next.