Cortyn has waited many, many years on Azshara and Nazjatar in WoW . Were the expectations met?
Patch 8.2 has been live in World of Warcraft for quite a while and I have spent a lot of time wandering around Nazjatar, taking a close look at the area, the representation of the Naga and Queen Azshara. For me, both of these have a special significance. The reason lies in my passion for role-playing and love for one of my characters. And that’s what makes me unfortunately disappointed with Nazjatar.
The driving motivation of one of my characters was to be able to serve Queen Azshara again someday. After all, she was for many centuries the beloved Elf queen of the people and bore titles like “Light of Lights”, “Daughter of the Moon”, “the beloved heart of our people” or “Vision of Perfection”.
Even from the books about the War of the Ancients, Azshara’s perfection was depicted. Her appearance and power were so breathtaking that everyone wanted to kneel down and worship her immediately. My elf was no different.
Azshara cannot meet expectations
But Azshara does not live up to this in the current WoW. In the books and her past, Azshara was not only a powerful queen but also a ruler who was loved by large parts of the population.
She did not actively oppress her people, but was wise and, above all, popular – at least until the incident with the Legion.
But this representation is exactly what I miss. In World of Warcraft, Azshara is portrayed only in two extremes. One side sees her as the great evil queen who has betrayed her people, as the spirits in Azsuna and some in the ruins of Zin-Azshari say.
The other side is fanatically loyal to their queen, to such an extent that one almost has to think of brainwashing.
I miss the middle ground. I miss characters who can justify why they remain loyal to Azshara, what they appreciate about the queen or what they might criticize but can still understand.
Unfortunately, Azshara has so far turned into a cliché villain, with no shades of gray. She is not someone one would want to serve with a clear mind.
I can only hope that Blizzard presents a bit more character depth here and doesn’t just chop off the queen in the raid. After all, we still don’t know what happens exactly after the battle.
Nazjatar is just a spark of what it could have been
However, Nazjatar could not meet my expectations either. Ever since “Burning Crusade,” I have hoped that we would someday go to Nazjatar, to the ruins of Zin-Azshara, to the sunken elf kingdom.
I wanted to see the huge empire that sank beneath the waves. I wanted to see what Azshara has created with her Naga for a new realm, to experience the contrast.
But that doesn’t work. Nazjatar is – although it is a fundamentally beautiful area – fundamentally ugly by elven standards. There are ruins of the old civilization that Azshara and her people apparently have simply ignored.
It’s like if your garage burns down and you tell yourself, “Oh, that’s fine, I always wanted to have a ruin next to the house.”
Even the rest of the area of Nazjatar is not “pretty,” has no elven perfection or even tries to be particularly grandiose, as would be fitting for Azshara. The few Naga structures are ugly and scattered, fitting only to some extent into the surroundings.
Everything seems quite primitive and far from what a fallen high culture could have built under the sea in 10,000 years.
The only exception seems to be Azshara’s palace, which at least looks good from the outside and has a cool entrance.
A piece of music with a lot of emotion
This disappointment becomes particularly clear with a piece of music. The piece plays in Nazjatar when you are in the ruins of Zin-Azshari. When the song played for the first time, I stopped and listened to it completely because I found it so wonderful. I just love those elven chants, from which you can hear individual words.
No other piece of music in WoW has told me such a wonderful story with its soundtrack, and I could almost see the images the composer wanted to convey – or at least what my interpretation of it is.
For the first two minutes, the song is quite calm and fits wonderfully with the ruins. Remnants of a past civilization. Only the pitiful remains of something that was much more gigantic than any other realm in this world.
Then, at around 2:00, the music becomes friendlier, more positive, until it creates a feeling of “departure” at 2:30. In my mind’s eye, I could see Zin-Azshari in its prime, similar to Suramar, a city full of life.
But the moment is brief. At minute 3:00, the mood quickly declines again, and one returns to the dead silence of the ruins.
This little “journey” through this fantastic soundtrack just confirms me. Nazjatar could have been so much more.
Nazjatar fails for me because I have an RP tick
I think it’s great that Nazjatar has made its way into the game, but I find it sad that it has only become a small area and not its own expansion.
Nazjatar is a really cool quest area, with an interesting story and many secrets. From a “neutral” point of view, I find the area great and enjoy spending time there, as the content is fun.
And yet, from a personal perspective, it is anything but satisfying. If this is the kingdom and the queen that my elf has secretly longed for in RP for over 12 years, then she will probably take the nearest rope and hang from a coral reef.
I am so preoccupied with this that I haven’t even taken my elf a step into Nazjatar yet, but instead play other characters.
Even if my elf is “not in Nazjatar” in “RP”, I can’t imagine her in this environment. I would be in tears if she were to experience that “in role”. It not only disappoints my character but also me.
Nazjatar could have been so much more, could have offered room for a whole expansion. Instead, it is a small area that does not do justice to an elven empire.
This is definitely quite an extreme “role-player tick” – but it had to come out. Maybe you can somewhat understand it.
12 years of personal, exaggerated expectations and anticipation and hope probably just cannot be fulfilled – not even by Blizzard.
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