In case you'd forgotten.
World of Warcraft: The War Within’s story is shaping up to be, against all odds, actually kinda neat. While Dragonflight had its ups and downs, it marked a lean away from the ‘big guy in armour saying pitiful mortal at you before teleporting away’ storytelling of Shadowlands and into, well, characters that actually talk to each other like people.
That, combined with WoW taking a leaf out of FF14’s book and making its dungeons and raids soloable and a part of its main story, means there’s the opportunity for Blizzard to do some really neat stuff despite its messy legacy. My curiosity has tilted into optimism.
Further spinning up my ‘hey this might be decent, actually’ engine is Threads of Destiny, the 2D cinematic seen above. It’s gorgeous, owing to Blizzard’s impossibly big budget for this kind of thing—but it also gives us a look into the central antagonists of the expansion’s first leg, the Nerubian Empire.
A quick history lesson: The Nerubians are one of three kingdoms of bug-people that broke off from under Kith’ix’s rule after the Empire of Zul gave them the business. Notably, they’re not that jazzed about continuing to follow the old gods as their ancestors had in the days of the Black Empire.
We saw half of them in Wrath of the Lich King (well, the aftermath of half of them—Azjol-Nerub tried to go up against the Scourge, and it didn’t go well). The society we’ll be brawling with, Azj-Kahet, locked itself off from its sister kingdom and the world until very recently.
Considering the expansion’s main villain, Xal’atath, is a being of the void, you might be wondering why the Nerubians are on board with her machinations—turns out the answer is ‘spider politics’. It’s a pretty basic plot: we see Queen Neferess refusing the call of the old gods, only to be betrayed by her daughter after Xal’atath makes contact, all in exchange for the power to lead her people back to their former greatness. And noses, apparently.
What I really like, however, is how this cinematic puts Xal’atath in proper context. While she may be thirsted over by the fanbase, this cinematic does a solid job of reminding us, strictly speaking, that she’s an old god puppeteering a corpse.
The way she crawls out of the void-goop, flashes cheshire smiles, and whispers sweet nothings at the matricidal princess Ansurek—well, it’s suitably unsettling. I especially like how Ansurek says “her name is Xal’atath” here. It’s a small touch, but it shows us that part of why Xal’atath is keeping the meat puppet facade going is, well, because it’s easier to endear yourself to people when you talk like them. Ansurek thinks Xal’atath is her best friend, and she so, so is not.
Bare minimum, Xal’atath has some sorely-needed theatrical charisma that WoW’s been lacking in its villains for a little bit. This game’s at its best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, when its Arthases and Illidans can chew the scenery to death all they like. Xal’atath represents a good return to that form. I’m just hoping that the in-game stuff can keep these vibes intact when The War Within releases later this month.
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