I hit revered with Champions of Azeroth today on my main, with only those turtle-folk left before I get Pathfinder part 1, and the quest to get the last (unless it's second to last?) empowerment is fairly interest:
Spoilers to follow.
First off, the Maiden of Vitality, whom I assumed was in the middle of dying when we first got to the heart chamber, actually seems to be doing ok (though you can't talk to or interact with her.) Indeed, despite some remaining damage, Magni comments that it's looking better.
As you power up your artifact, however, an entity that is somewhat shrouded in a field of darkness (I couldn't tell if it was just a faceless one model or possibly even M'uru/Entropius) called "That which hungers" comes and tries to stop you. You're able to stop it with the Heart, but it speaks of his master as a male entity that will consume, etc.
Now, it's pretty obvious that there are a lot of hints N'zoth's coming in this expansion.
The really big question is if he's the final boss.
Despite Uldir having been out for about a week and a half now, with the Mythic race two bosses away from its completion, we really don't know what is coming next beyond an as-yet unspecified raid that involves Azshara (most likely as its final boss.)
Now, there were some different interpretations of Azshara's Warbringers short, and I'd like to offer mine.
Azshara is certainly canny, and her bold move to refuse N'zoth's offer initially, plus his angry outburst as a response, makes it look a lot like she has the upper hand. The folks over at Blizzard Watch seemed to be agreed that Azshara is the smarter one here, and that she could outmaneuver N'zoth.
To which I will rebut:
Azshara is a survivor, to be sure. And she has a great deal of power - Mannoroth mused that she might have been more powerful than Archimonde.
But she is vain, and she seems far less the behind-the-scenes manipulator than the figurehead, and one whose desires rule her to the extent that she is easily manipulated.
Azshara saw herself as an equal to Sargeras, but Sargeras was clearly more interested in securing the Titan Azeroth as an ally in his Burning Crusade. Azshara was a means to an end, and while I imagine she most likely would have become a powerful demon within the Legion - maybe even forming a new triumvirate with Kil'jaeden and Archimonde - I think she would ultimately been disappointed at how Sargeras outclassed her. Seducing Azshara allowed the Legion to invade Azeroth during the War of the Ancients, and brought her empire to ruin.
We see in the short how she makes the deal with N'zoth, and at first it seems she has gotten the upper hand by bluffing her willingness to die rather than submit as a slave to his will.
But let's think about this for a second: Azshara's a powerful asset, sure, but N'zoth is clearly able to extend his will beyond his prison. He's also more or less immortal, which means that he could wait for other exceptional people to show up again (he'd already secured Deathwing, after all.)
Between the two of them, N'zoth had far more to offer, and Azshara had practically no choice in the matter. She was doomed to death.
But let's also take a step back: Azshara's counter-offer is that she wants to be a Queen, not a slave. That's her "putting the foot down" moment in the negotiation. N'zoth ultimately accepts this condition.
But what are queens and slaves to an eldritch abomination Old God? A queen ant is still an insect.
In the moments when Azshara is brought back from her vision, she is left in darkness, drowning again, for just long enough for her to start panicking. This is a message from N'zoth - though she feels she has won, he is in total control.
And he transforms her, choosing her form. As the "camera" pulls back to reveal Azshara along with her new Naga subjects - the new Empire rising in the depths, it's N'zoth's massive eye that is in the background, and the sickly reddish orange light that flashes through the eyes of the Naga is the very same as N'zoth's.
Because what do we know of the two of them? Azshara is an intelligent and charismatic leader, but subtlety has never been her forte. Yes, many Night Elves fought in a misunderstanding attempt to save her during the War of the Ancients in the mistaken belief that she was a prisoner of the demons rather than a collaborator. But that doesn't seem (as far as I know) to be an intentional manipulation of her part. For a person of such ability, Azshara's desires are relatively simple: she wants power and adoration. She built an empire that was more or less dedicated to how awesome she was. And she lost it thanks to her being manipulated by the Legion.
N'zoth, on the other hand:
N'zoth was always thought of as the weakest of the Old Gods, yet despite enduring constant assaults by C'thun and Yogg-Saron, he continued to survive. He managed to usurp the Emerald Nightmare from Yogg-Saron, and corrupt Deathwing. And of the other four best-known Old Gods (still waiting on official word as to what G'huun really is) he's the only one that has never been "killed." (I'll grant that C'thun and Yogg-Saron likely still live on in some way.)
We get more about him from Xal'atath, where the sentient knife muses about how the "god of the deep" always seemed to turn defeats to his advantage. Take the Emerald Nightmare, for example. The defeat of Xavius ended the Nightmare, but the effect seems to have woken up N'zoth. And it wasn't even N'zoth who had created the Nightmare in the first place? Did N'zoth steal Yogg-Saron's big project at an opportune time and benefit from it as long as he needed, while discarding it with no loss when we went in and ended it?
N'zoth, unlike Azshara, is known as a master manipulator.
So why do people put Azshara ahead of him, plotting-wise?
It does, admittedly, look pretty weak of him to have his angry outburst after she refuses his initial offer. His lashing out seems like the same kind of dumb anger that a lesser demon would throw around in an attempt at intimidation. It's the exact thing that a queen of such poise as Azshara would be able to sidestep and work around.
And maybe that's the point?
I'll grant that I'm massaging the fact here a bit, and perhaps putting a radical interpretive spin on the writing of the short. But I do feel it would be in character for N'zoth to play low status and give Azshara a seeming win in order to better manipulate her. Ironically, playing low status requires him to feign playing high status, lashing out with his tentacles and bellowing at her. Thus, he can play the easily-manipulated brute for Azshara to outfox.
But she doesn't. He's in control the whole time.
That N'zoth will be a raid boss in BFA to me feels very likely. The real question is whether he's last, or in true Old God tradition, is in the middle before we face off against something totally different (actually, tradition would dictate something death-related, though I feel they're probably saving that for the next expansion.) An Alliance/Horde-themed final raid would certainly tie into the themes of the expansion, though I don't know exactly how that would work.
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