Azshara Pops Up on the PTR

Take this with an absolute boulder of rock salt, but apparently Azshara's model has been updated on the 6.1 PTR.

What does this mean?

Well, let's talk about Azshara. The Queen of the Kaldorei and later the Naga has shown up twice in-game. In Darkshore, we see her briefly taunting Malfurion (though she just uses the Lady Vashj model, which I'm sure will be updated at some point.) We then fought her as the second boss in Well of Eternity (of course, we couldn't actually damage her in any way, but we could interrupt her.)

Supposedly, the Well of Eternity model has been updated to have golden eyes (which she has in canon.) That's a pretty minor change, yes, but why is Blizzard going to the trouble of changing it?

I have no idea. Ok, not no idea - but I'm not stating this as an ironclad proof of what I'm about to propose. To me it seems like a possible indicator that we might see Azshara as next expansion's main villain.

Does that sound like a bit of a logical leap? Well, consider this: The first we ever heard of the Iron Horde was through a random graphical texture in a PTR build. The idea that Garrosh would survive Orgrimmar and go start his own Horde was already germinating before we got into Siege of Orgrimmar, which I'll remind you came out 14 months before Warlords of Draenor. So these small things can sometimes lead to big things.

And honestly, it's probably time we deal with her. Azshara is one of the oldest inhabitants of Azeroth, and she's arguably the most powerful quasi-mortal humanoid on the planet. This is a lady that Mannoroth couldn't even hurt - and that guy was basically the number 4 player in the whole Burning Legion (after Sargeras, Archimonde, and Kil'jaeden.)

The notion of a Naga-filled South Seas expansion that has us taking on Azshara is one of the perennial points of speculation in WoW. After dealing with Illidan, Arthas, and Deathwing, Azshara always stood out as a villain who could totally headline and expansion.

Then consider the fact that Azshara has connections to both the Burning Legion and the Old Gods. It's clear that we'll be dealing with the Legion in Draenor (I'm about 60% convinced Gul'dan will be the final boss,) and Blizzard has noted that they want to be a kind of thematic continuity between expansions. This time around, we saw Garrosh's radicalization of the Horde reach its logical conclusion - where he alters time and space to recreate the Horde in his own image. The Legion connection would be more than enough to lead us into conflict with Azshara back on Azeroth.

Here's where I start to get a bit wish-fulfillment fantasy - it'd also be a great time to resurrect Illidan, and with him, give us the Demon Hunter class. So far we've had a new class every second expansion, meaning that - if Blizzard is willing to keep adding them to the game - this would be a golden opportunity to bring them aboard. Illidan's connection to Azshara is strong, and while she's a bit more Team-Old Gods now than Team-Legion (though clearly Azshara has always been Team-Azshara,) just the idea of bringing back Illidan seems to necessitate bringing in Demon Hunters.

Am I totally jumping to conclusions here? Absolutely. This could be nothing.

But!

If I'm right, I thought I'd have a little record of it here so I could brag.