With 8.2 dropping a week from yesterday, we've got BFA's big middle patch coming up. If tradition holds, that means we'll likely be getting one final patch before the next expansion, which, again, if tradition holds, will be announced at Blizzcon this year.
With Azshara serving as the middle boss to the expansion, and given the heavy Old God-focused storyline and increased presence of N'zoth, it seems very likely that we'll be taking the fight to the God of the Depths.
For 8.3, it's rational to believe that we're going to go to Ny'alotha, though whether that's a full zone like Nazjatar (I hope so) or just the name of the final raid, we don't quite know.
Blizzard does like to pull some unexpected stuff in final patches to push us into the next expansion, and I imagine we'll get a continuation of the story even if we have a different general vibe to expansion eight.
So let's talk N'zoth and his plans.
N'zoth is a master manipulator - we often hear about how he was the weakest of the four Old Gods, and yet managed to come out ahead in many conflicts. He usurped the Emerald Nightmare from Yogg-Saron, and he's the only one not to be slain by adventurers or Titans (the degree to which C'thun and Yogg-Saron are truly dead, to be fair, remains up for debate.) So, assuming we do go fight him, what's his angle?
Here's the thing that I think is important to remember. The Old Gods were created for a purpose - to corrupt the Titan Azeroth and turn her into a Void Titan. It's debatable to what extent they have deviated from that purpose, but let's imagine that they actually never did - that even their endless wars served as an engine of corruption.
For N'zoth to put himself in a position where the forces of Azeroth are coming after him to kill him, it would seem like a real failure in his ability to plan ahead. Now granted, in a narrative where the heroes get to win sometimes, it could just be that his plans fall apart - that he underestimated us in some way.
But to my mind, I think that he's really just purpose-bound. I think that if we come and kill him, that's actually part of his plan.
BFA might see us destroying N'zoth, only for us to realize that this was his intention for us anyway. Because he's not there to build an empire or rule over the world. He's not actually there for himself. His purpose is to sow chaos and corruption, and if self-destruction suits those ends, he has no reason to avoid it.
Most villains we face have some kind of hope at self-preservation. Even Sargeras, who wanted to see the universe burned to save it from void corruption, had deviated from his annihilation plan in favor of creating his a kind of Fel Empire - where some things would survive, but would be free of the void because the Fel corruption had already taken root. Thus, rather than destroy Azeroth, he wanted to recruit her.
But the Old Gods? See, Sargeras might be evil and arguably crazy, but he's got a kind of logic to his actions. His mind is godlike in its complexity, but still built on principles we can recognize. The Old Gods, however, are utterly alien.
So what does this mean for 9.0?
I think N'zoth wants us to kill him. I think that victory in the final boss fight of BFA is going to be exactly what N'zoth wants to happen. And I think his death, or whatever that counts as for an Old God, is going to put in motion something that will serve his very purpose for being - corrupting Azeroth.
Now I'm going to get a little more speculative:
Given the prevalence of Death-related things in BFA - from the Drust to Bwonsamdi to the mysteries surrounding Vol'jin to Sylvanas to the Lich King's own freaking daughter being around - I think Azeroth is going to die if and when we kill N'zoth. I think that his essence will do something to corrupt her, and we'll basically use whatever tools we have - maybe the Heart of Azeroth - to essentially mercy kill her.
But the consequences of that are going to be horrible. We might not have a Void Titan extinguishing existence throughout the universe, but I imagine that if a spirit as powerful as Azeroth arrives in the Shadowlands - the land of the dead - it'll have some terrible effects on the world. The dead will rise from their graves and we'll be facing the threat of a zombie apocalypse that makes the Scourge look like a band of gnolls.
And so, the heroes of Azeroth will need to do the impossible - to recover Azeroth's soul from the Shadowlands, and restore her to life. Perhaps her death freed her from the void corruption, but in journeying into the Shadowlands, we'll have to face powerful forces of Death that wish to keep her there.
This is maybe a bit more wish-fulfillment, but I think the following would not be impossible:
The Shadowlands would be a spooky "continent" with a bunch of death-themed zones.
We'd fight alongside various powers like the Lich King, Bwonsamid, and Eyir as the factions with which we gain reputation.
The world design could afford to go much more otherworldly, giving us lands of ghosts and ghouls and undead stuff we've never seen before.
We could continue the story of Sylvanas Windrunner - perhaps if she is removed as Warchief, she flees into the Shadowlands, and we need to look for her.
It's an even-numbered expansion, which has historically given us new classes. I would advocate for a Necromancer - a ranged caster/healer hybrid who uses mail armor.
Give the place a real Ravenloft vibe to it - maybe the Shadowlands has some friendly figures as well as foes.
Mechanically, this has very little to do with lore, but we'd probably be getting a level squish. Maybe the cap will be 60.
Anyway, Blizzcon is still months away, but I'm eager to find out where things are going.
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