A cosmic monster returns to the World of Warcraft: the Ebon Blade of the Empire, the Priests’ Knaifu-Waifu… or simply Xal’atath.
Patch 10.1.5 Rips of Time should actually only be a small interim patch, but the content is much larger than expected. Especially the details in the development of the story are quite important. However, one detail has completely escaped many players. Because Blizzard has hinted at the return of one of the best characters ever: Xal’atath is back.
Who is Xal’atath? Xal’atath was the artifact weapon of the Shadow Priests during the Legion expansion. She kept whispering things to the priest, mostly from the time of the Black Empire, when the Old Gods were at war with each other.
Exactly what Xal’atath is has never been fully elucidated. She could be the claw of the Old God Y’Shaarj, or an Old God herself, subdued by the others fairly early on.
At the end of Legion, like all other artifact weapons, Xal’atath is used to drain the corruption from the Sword of Sargeras. After that, the weapon is lost.
During the course of the Battle for Azeroth expansion, we found Xal’atath, freed the creature from the dagger and gave her an elven body of her own – before she betrayed us to N’Zoth and disappeared through a void portal. But now she’s back.
Where did Xal’atath show up? Anyone who has played the new mega-dungeon “Dawn of the Eternal” and seen the last cinematic has also seen Xal’atath – or overlooked it. Because she can only be seen as a silhouette for a brief moment. As Iridikron enters the void portal after his dark speech, an elf silhouette can be seen in the shadows. Since it’s a void portal, it can only really be Xal’atath.
But there is another clue. During a new quest in Thaldraszus we have to collect the possessions of a bronze dragon stolen or devastated by “beings from another timeline”. There we not only meet Fel-Corrupted Elves, but also followers of N’Zoth – and a special rare mob.
The enemy named “Zal’kir the Chosen” has the subtitle “The Maw of K’Tanth”. A seemingly random name and yet one that has only appeared once in WoW’s story so far: Xal’atath mentioned “The Battle of K’Tanth” when the priest took them to the Broken Shore.
It seems unlikely that a creature with that name will appear in this patch of all times, which is also where Xal’atath can be seen. At the same time, Zal’kir drops a weapon called the Black Blade of K’Tanth – suspiciously close to Xal’atath’s name, which is called the Black Blade of the Empire.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether we will see Iridikron and Xal’atath in the course of Dragonflight. At the moment it looks more like these are already story developments leading to the next expansion.
Are you excited about the return of Xal’atath? What kind of chaos do you think she will cause?