As World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the ninth expansion of Blizzard’s long-running MMO, comes to a close, the wider World of Warcraft community is getting introduced to the next big bad early in 10.2.7, Dark Heart. The thing is, Xal’atath, the feature enemy of The War Within, has been around much longer than you think. In fact, she’s been built up to be a major antagonist of the heroes of Azeroth since Legion. You just may not have interacted with her before.
So who is Xal’atath? Why do your priest friends keep calling her knaifu? And why is she also being talked about in the same sentences as “the harbinger?” Note, this article will not include any datamined information or anything from The War Within alpha as all information not in the current game is subject to change.
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Xal’atath was first uniquely introduced in the Legion expansion. Part of Legion’s major features was the introduction of artifact weapons. These were powerful weapons, old and new, that each specialization would use throughout the whole expansion. Instead of getting new drops from dungeons, raids, and other content, you’d just slowly upgrade this one weapon throughout your journeys of the Broken Isles. Shadow priests were given Xal’atath, Blade of the Black Empire as their unique weapon.
This form of Xal’atah, familiarly called Knaifu by shadow priests, stood out from most other artifact weapons for one unique reason: It talked to the shadow priests with archaic and sadistic whispers as they completed activities. This dagger whispered sweet nothings in the player’s ear, pushing them more and more toward the shadow and the void, while enhancing their use of shadow spells.
Going to certain locations or fighting certain unique enemies brought up mention of the Old Gods, her hatred of the Titans, talks of arrogance, and disdain for us mortals and how we squandered power. She also talked about her time as not a dagger, which we got a glimpse of more and more as she was empowered and unlocked more information in the order hall’s history book. As hinted by these lines, Xal’atath has been around for millennia. Her entity was around during the times of the Black Empire and before the Titans came to bring order to Azeroth. In what form or how powerful her original being was, we will most likely learn in The War Within as she takes front and center.
However, her weapon form didn’t end where most other artifacts did. At the end of Legion, while we used our powered-up artifacts to channel and nullify Sargeras’s sword plunged into Silithus, most weapons became inert. They were then disposed of, deposited into banks, or eventually returned to their original owners as Battle for Azeroth began. Xal’atath, however, continued on. She was found and carried by the Naga, ending up in Kul Tiras’s Stormsong valley, leading to us finding out what exactly the Naga and Azshara were up to. As we used Xal’atath’s help to stop the Naga from summoning a massive storm and destroying Azeroth, her own plans began to play out.
She possessed a recently deceased high elf, Inanis, finally taking a mortal form. And then, under the guise of going to the place where the Naga’s plans were unfolding, we were led right to N’Zoth in the Crucible of Storms. Xal’atath used this opportunity and gave us over to the remaining Old God in exchange for her ties to the artifact weapon finally severed. As she left us to our fate, she promised us that she’d see us again. And she held up that end of the promise.
Since then, she’s made several cameos in Dragonflight and some surrounding releases. During Dragonflight‘s mega-dungeon, Dawn of the Infinite, we had to make an ultimate choice. Stop the primal dragon Iridikron leading to the rise of Murozond (and the death of Nozdormu), or stop the Infinite Dragonflight from messing with the timeways. The latter was ultimately chosen, leading to Iridikron absorbing the essence of the Aspect’s first enemy, Galakrond, and his everlasting hunger in a tool we now know is called the Dark Heart. This new McGuffin looks like and possibly acting as an antithesis to the Heart of Azeroth used in Battle for Azeroth).
As Iridikron ultimately achieved his goal and left in a portal, we got a glimpse of a potential partner, a void-looking high elf. This was ultimately confirmed to be Xal’atath, working with the primal incarnate. What does she want with the essence of a dragon corrupted by an Old God? We just don’t know yet. But her meddling doesn’t end there.
In World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery, we recently learned that this re-telling of Classic is a found-footage experience, leading to noticeable changes like classes being able to perform new roles and experiences being harder or just different than how they originally played out. Additionally, we can interact with an elf who harnesses the void and offers help to get more powerful gear. This elf acts very similarly to Xal’atath. Is Xal’atath watching us as we inch closer to taking out the first Old God, C’thun? Why is she watching us in our original journey?
Moving with some speculation, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as part of Dark Heart, Blizzard is releasing WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria, a new limited-time mode to quickly level and experience Mists of Pandaria. The culmination of that expansion saw us heroes stopping Garrosh as he harnessed the power of the fallen Old God, Y’shaarj. Could this be a way for Xal’atath to gain some essence of another Old God for her nefarious purposes? We already know she can time-hop throughout Azeroth’s history. A future expansion, The Last Titan, is taking us close to the Old God Yogg’Saron’s prison in Northrend. Close to Yogg’Saron’s prison, we may ultimately see Xal’atath’s plans conclude with whatever she’s planning. And what exactly is she planning?
This ties to her title as The Harbinger. Originally spoken about by Iridikron as a being who will pry Azeroth from the titan’s grasp, The Harbinger could point to one thing: the summoning of the void lords with the ultimate corruption of Azeroth. As mentioned in the official announcement of The Worldsoul Saga, The Harbinger has been watching us as we destroyed the remnants of the Old Gods after the Black Empire fell. Her goal is to pick up where her predecessors left off and plunge Azeroth into a new dark legacy.
The Old Gods, one of the oldest enemies in World of Warcraft history, are minions of the Void Lords, all-powerful void beings of another realm. Their ultimate goal was to corrupt our realm completely. As part of their mission, they launched essences of the void, the Old Gods, throughout the cosmos to find corrupt planets that harbor souls, like our Azeroth, and turn their beings into a powerful essence of the Void. And this leads to an ultimate question that I hope gets answered. Was Xal’atath the supposed fifth forgotten Old God who got suppressed by her brethren? Or is she a new minion that is more coyly corrupting Azeroth beyond the Old God’s brute force methods to achieve the ultimate goals of the Void Lords?
Xal’atath is by far one of the most terrifying villains our heroes of Azeroth will face. Unlike other recent villains, her whole existence isn’t one to retcon, like the Jailer. She mostly an unknown entity, and yet she is tied directly to and building on World of Warcraft’s greatest villains, the Old Gods and Void Lords. With the setup of the Worldsoul Saga, all that’s left is for Xal’atath to execute her plans starting in The War Within. Done right, she could be the greatest antagonist the heroes of Azeroth have faced to date.
World of Warcraft: The War Within is available in 2024 on PC.
