Let's just assume N'zoth isn't an idiot for the moment. (Spoilers)

Lore Story
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So… N’zoth is free. And wahat does he do with his newfound freedom after millenia of scheming and manipulatting? He starts a brute force attack on Azeroth, trying to take the titan facilities, and making himself vulnerable by opening up Ny’alotha to invasion. He knew about Azshara’s plan to defeat him with Knaifu, he knows about our plan to defeat him with the Forge of Origination and the Heart of Azeroth… And everything goes according to pur plans, and N’zoth is defeated in a single patch. A bit of filler content while we are mentally already preoccupied with the next addon.

Now… Blizzard isn’t known for doing scheming villains justice, but this one sounds out of line even for them. They have been teasing N’zoth for ages, and have declared him the big bad behind quite a few of the catastrophes in the recent years/centuries in chronicles. They also flat out refused to give us the “big bad” of this addon before the faction story was finished in 8.2.5, making him feel kind of tagged on. And that in an addon where their main focus from the start was on the narrative, as much as one might disagree with the narrative decisions they made.

So… call me an optimist, but I’m not buying it. And while we know of a cutscene where we go all super saiyan on N’zoth and blast him with our collected AP, we haven’t seen a cinematic yet. The final boss fight of the addon is sure to have one, and thinking back on Argus and Sargeras’ little present for Azeroth… these cinematics can be kind of game-changing.

It’s just that I can’t really see any further than that. I don’t really think that N’zoth will die, but if he does, I’d still assume that it was all according to his plan, and we’d see some immediate consequences. Possibly something tying directly into Shadowlands…

Anyone any ideas what that could be?

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Honestly, all I am seeing is a filler patch with N’zoth being a loot pinata. I can not see any scheme or any consequence for killing him, but I am quite bitter currently, so eh.

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After we defeat him Sargeras will cone out of the sky again and take his sword from the world again cuz he realized that you can fight the Old Gods an other way.

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Some people (read: US forums) have speculated that the Void is going to sit beneath Torghast based on the puzzle box of Yoggie.

“Beneath the shadow of the darkened spire, there is no light, no mercy, only void, and the chaos within.”

And that would somehow create a tie between the two (Pending resurrection?). Since this was added in Cataclysm however, I call hogwash myself. They don’t plan that far ahead. But it’s a theory I saw being thrown around.

We also have a few of Ogmots journal pages still unresolved if you feel like going down that route. By now, I don’t think the swirly lady and her Horde of sheep are controversial anymore, but there’s still the “unseen victory” for the old god faction to theorize about.

An old god in the afterlife, hijacking the whole thing and bringing his comrades back to life with the souls from the maw? Hey, anything is possible these days. Maybe name their reborn tentacles after Night Elf NPCs from Teldrassil to rub a bit more salt into sore places.

I dunno. It’s the most constructive I can bring myself to be on the topic, I’m afraid.

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Okay, but do you expect a boss cinematic? And if so, what would be in it, if the cutscenet already came before?

They did hint that Old Gods have their own place to go back to, like demons and that the Shadowlands is essentially for mortals, though. So I can’t really see that working, either.

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Ultimately, Old Gods are and have always been filler content. BfA ended in 8.2.5. This patch is just there to give us something to do until Shadowlands.

I reckon N’zoth does actually die and they’ll use him and the other Poundland knockoff lovecraft rejects in some afterlife or another. Likely as more filler.

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Hmm but maybe due to current maintance issue with death mechanic, he will be able upon his death to plant some sort of “void seed” in Shadowlands or the Maw? Just like in Emerald Dream? What that seed would do perhaps seems worth dying for?

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Or being Azeroth-blasted gives him an in to directly corrupt the world soul, or something? But all of this still wouldn’t make much of a cinematic…

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My perception from some thinks they said at 2018 Blizzcon was that they planed this story from Sylvanas suicide.
About the puzzle box of Yoggie there are thinks that point to that interpretation.
“Six seats at the high table. Six mouths that hunger. One will consume all others.”
“Five lanterns, now darkened. The flame they seek will light the masters’ way.”
“Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path.”
Six death entities, Five are without anima. We kill the jailer and he lights the masters’ way.
"The lord of ravens will turn the key.’
“When their mistress beckons, nine ravens take flight. Each seeks a prize to earn her favor.”
Ravens maybe is the valkyrs.

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Well, N’Zoth manages to successfully corrupt us heroes. But as you all know, this patch is VISION of N’zoth and how do you manage to get rid of the heroes’ attention, how do you manage not to be on anyone’s screen anymore and act in the background? by pretending to be dead.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we? To credibly pretend death we have to fight against his troops, you have to have the impression that he is really attacking, and intend to kill us all. You get this impression very fast.

In the end, the troops are completely irrelevant for the Shadow’s goal. Important is that unnoticed the corruption of Azeroth could be continued to create a Void Titan.

So while we avoid leaving Azeroth “safely”, that everything is going a better way, N’zoth has enough time.

In addition, the attack on the Titan stations can also serve a second purpose. By pointing out that there are malfunctions there, we repair them, which ultimately heals Azeroth. The old gods depend on a Titan that is as intact as possible, at least physically.

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Exactly this. We also defeated Archimonde simply like nothing. It is a letdown for sure, but it fits totally the picture of how Blizzard has done those things in the past.

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Remember legion and Sargeras? Search your heart. It will be true.

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Blizzard leans on whatever topic/character/plot that keeps most people hooked.

And, at this point, it’s rather obvious that Sylvanas and the impact she has on a more relatable/closer scale, is an element that interests players more than some Vanilla Bad Guy Template they made Nzoth into.

It’s a shame that they felt like throwing him in this expansion, where he would so easily be eclipsed by Sylvanas (who inspires stronger emotions amongst the playerbase). But at this point, I’m almost certain that the worst case scenario is also the most probable, and we will defeat a fully unleashed Old God in a single patch, while our minds already wander towards what might come next, thus making his threat all the more insignificant in terms of signalled effect.

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I’ll point to my thread title again:
Let’s just assume N’zoth isn’t an idiot for the moment.

That there is something more to be seen is the premise I want to have the discussion on. For the purposes of that discussion it is totally irrelevant if all of you believe it to be true. Your explanations why you don’t believe it don’t really interest me at all, sorry.

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But you don´t answered on the topic, only one member of the discussion :wink:

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I don’t think they have been teasing with N’zoth for ages. I did however notice that in past years, basically before Legion, players for some unknown reason to me, are really interested into this old gods thing. I don’t find them particularly interesting.

If you ask me, I am all fine with some epic cinematic as conclusion. Somehow it makes things easier to wrap around instead of coming up with a battle that won’t feel like you are fighting a titan or god.

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I guess that would be the easiest way to explain his apperent stupidity, but with MOTHER monitoring Azeroth’s status. I’m not sure why being unexpected would make him more undetectable. Apart from that, since time really isn’t a factor for the Old Gods, I don’t see why he had to create an opportunity for himself, instead of waiting for one, like he always did when he was imprisoned.

Also… my main reason for believing that something is up that we haven’t seen yet is still the missing cinematic… and if he pretended to be dead there would really be nothing to see.

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Disclaimer: this has been written from a cellphone so its bound to be a mess.

As someone who loves WoW’s Old Gods as a concept, man have they done them dirty, haven’t they? Each one that appears seems like a downgrade from the previous one.

First, C’thun and his Qiraji are an enormous deal, the factions need to cooperate and an enormous campaign and bloody war ensue which end with us heroes barely defeating his weakened and freshly awakened avatar.

Then Yogg-Saron breaks free from Ulduar, the whole deal has a lot more mystery and intrigue than C’thun’s, befitting of its lovecraftian influence, and he is barely defeated with the help of the Titan Watchers themselves. Still good, but ultimately he is relegated to the, at best, secondary antagonist of its expansion, who is defeated with the factions not even cooperating. His whole story arc lacks the gravity C’thun’s had.

Now, N’zoth, the schemer, the evil behind so many calamities, gets released in earnest and is dealt with unceremoniously in the last patch of a faction war expansion before we go camping at Deathland. Nyalotha not being its own expansion is one of blizzard’s most wasted opportunities to this day.

/Rant_off

So, regarding the topic at hand. Honestly, the only thing that could save N’zoth is if his defeat is part of his plan. We defeat and presumably kill him by depletting the heart of azeroth and overloading or something the forge of reorigination, the only things that could harm an old god, only to find out that we simply defeated his avatar and not himself directly (or we defeated one of his heads -wasn’t there a mention of a multi headed goat?) and he now can get back at corrupting the world unimpeded while we think it’s over.

This could further be hinted at by the post defeat dialogues the player who kept the gift has with various npcs. Presumably, the whispers have ceased for them, or at least abated, while Aleria mentions that they have multiplied. What is it then? Maybe N’zoth ceased whispering to his followers for the time being in order not to get found out, while the more void-attuned Aleria knows that something is up. Maybe N’zoth was simply meant to pave the way for someone else to do the corrupting while he made sure that all means of defeating that hypothetical new big bad are out of commission. Maybe the stupid theory about the Voltron Old God or the existence of another, hidden, sixth Old God are true.

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technicaly all old gods where, their main purpose was to corrupt a titan, to give way to the void lords to enter them.

then again this patch is called visisons of N´zoth, what could realy indicate we end up fighting in his vision and not even fighting him, but we do not realices this at all, and all seems to go as we hoped for, where we win, but N´zoth is just playign whit us, and is still lurking somewhere else, and now due to us been able to heal Azeroth totaly, N´zoth can continue to corrupt her again, becuse she is at full healt and in no risk of dying from his influence.

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There has to be a cinematic. It will most likely be Sylvanas jumping in, tell us “all is going according to plan! You think it was N’zoth scheming for milleniums ? Fools, it was I, Sylvanas, before creation, that I have come up with this plan” throws something at the raid, we are all unconcious, N’zoth is dead, Sylvanas gone, ez end to an expansion.