Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Loyalties of Queen Azshara

Almost no one is a self-made villain in Warcraft lore. The Lich King was created by Kil'jaeden, who was given his power (or at least given a lot more power than he had as one of the rulers of Argus) by Sargeras. Sargeras might have gotten his power through his own nature as a Titan, but he got his dreadful motivation from the Dreadlords. Deathwing's lineage is perhaps simpler, his power granted by the Titans and the Old Gods, with the madness coming only from the latter.

In most of these cases, the villain is a member of either the Demon side of the evil coin or the Old God side. But Queen Azshara gets both.

Azshara, when she was still a Night Elf, was contacted by Sargeras. Indeed, her situation was almost identical to that of the Eredar Triumvirate. Azshara might not have truly ruled all of Azeroth (the benevolent Emperor Shaohao ruled the area in the south of Kalimdor that would become Pandaria,) and the Night Elves, as amazing as their society might have been, were not on the same level as the Eredar, but it's pretty clear that Azshara was the most powerful person on Azeroth, and had Sargeras' invasion succeeded (assuming his claiming the Well of Eternity wouldn't just complete the Burning Crusade right then and there,) it's likely that Azshara would now be one of the chief lieutenants of the Legion - perhaps even on an equal level as Kil'jaeden and Archimonde, or possibly even higher if Sargeras made good on his promise to make her his consort.

Of course, the War of the Ancients ended in the Legion's defeat. Far from being elevated and transformed into a demon lord, Azshara sank beneath the ocean.

And it was here that the Old Gods reached out to her, transforming her and those loyal to her into the Naga - the underwater serpent-people who rule Azeroth's waters.

The Old Gods are masters at corrupting minds. They seem to radiate madness and control without even making an effort - just digging up saronite was enough to drive a bunch of miners crazy.

But Azshara has never seemed crazy in the way that Deathwing was. The Dragon Formerly Known as Neltharion, at least as he was portrayed in Cataclysm, was flaming ball of rage. The apocalyptic future of End Times showed us that Deathwing never even intended to survive the final cataclysm - he was a tool of destruction, nothing more.

Azshara seems different. We've barely seen her, but the Naga are an entire race, and while they're brutal and imperialistic, they don't seem self-destructively insane. Granted, that's true of the various Aqir races as well. They could be operating under the impression (or delusion) that should the Old Gods prevail, they will simply rule the world more easily, but I've always wondered if perhaps the Naga are somehow different.

I have a longstanding theory - one that would work with the lore, but has little in the way of direct evidence - that Fel magic is the perfect antidote for the Old Gods and their corruption. We see this a lot in Northrend - the Scourge is basically unaffected by the fact that pretty much everything in Icecrown is made of Saronite - the same metal that drove the aforementioned miners insane.

It's possible, then, that the Fel magic that pervaded Azshara and her most loyal Highborne immunized them from the mind control of the Old Gods. The OGs were able to transform their bodies, but the Naga were not forced into serving their mad plans.

The Naga are certainly willing to work with the Old Gods and the Faceless Ones, but I suspect that Azshara's real motivations are to serve another master - the most important, powerful, and beautiful person on Azeroth.

Azshara's looking out for number one.

The Queen is egotistical - it's basically her defining personality trait. It's how she was able to convince herself that she would be the queen of the Burning Legion (and why she thought that only a Titan like Sargeras would be a worth husband.) The Highborne, as I understand it, were basically established as a social class simply by who was willing to flatter her the most.

Were I to write her, I would have Azshara consider herself the rightful ruler of all of Azeroth, and she would strike out against the Alliance and Horde as pretenders to her throne. I don't really think that she needs to be corrupted by the Legion or the Old Gods to be that kind of villain. In fact, it would be kind of great if she used her great power (remember that she's probably the most powerful living Mage,) to bend the powers of Demons and Old Gods to serve her, rather than the other way around.

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