A cosmic monster returns to World of Warcraft: The Black Blade of the Empire, the Knaifu-Waifu of the priests… or simply Xal’atath.
Originally, Patch 10.1.5 Rifts of Time was supposed to be just a minor interim patch, but the content is significantly larger than expected. Especially the details in the development of the story are quite significant. However, one detail has completely escaped many players. 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 shadow priests during the “Legion” expansion. It repeatedly whispered things to the priest, mostly from the time of the Black Empire when the Old Gods were at war with each other.
What exactly Xal’atath is has never been clearly defined. It could be the claw of the Old God Y’Shaarj or perhaps an Old God itself, who was subdued early by the others.
At the end of Legion, Xal’atath, like all other artifact weapons, is used to draw the corruption from the Sword of Sargeras. After that, the weapon is lost.
During the “Battle for Azeroth” expansion, we found Xal’atath again, freed the being from the dagger, and gave it its own elven body – before it betrayed us to N’Zoth and disappeared through a void portal. But now it is back.
Where has Xal’atath appeared? Anyone who has played the new mega-dungeon “Twilight of Eternity” and saw the last cinematic has also seen Xal’atath – or overlooked it. Because it is only recognizable for a brief moment as a silhouette. As Iridikron steps into the void portal after his dark speech, one can see the silhouette of an elf in the shadows. Since this is a void portal, it can only be Xal’atath.
But there is another clue. During a new quest in Thaldraszus, we must collect the belongings of a bronze dragon that were plundered or ravaged by “beings from an alternate timeline”. There we encounter not only 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”. An seemingly random name yet one that has only been mentioned once in the story of WoW: Xal’atath mentioned “The Battle of K’Tanth” when the priest took her to the Broken Shore.
It seems rather unlikely that precisely in this patch a creature with this name appears, where Xal’atath is also visible. At the same time, Zal’kir drops a weapon called “Black Blade of K’Tanth” – which is suspiciously close to the name of Xal’atath, who is called “Black Blade of the Empire”.
It remains to be seen whether we will see Iridikron and Xal’atath during the course of Dragonflight. Currently, it looks more like these are already story developments leading to the next expansion.
Are you excited about the return of Xal’atath? What do you think kind of chaos will she unleash?
