What was the history between N’Zoth and Deathwing before the cataclysm?
Well, N’Zoth is primarily responsible for corrupting him and the black dragonflight… so there’s that.
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A long long time ago when Deathwing was still Neltharion, Aspect of Earth, he had an innate connection to the physical world. His power was over the land itself, but he constantly felt the weight of it on his being at all times which grew resentment in him because it was absolutely awful.
Being so tied to the land also opened him to the darkness buried in it. The Old Gods eventually began preying on him. In their classic fashion they slowly twisted his mind to paranoia and madness alienating him from the other dragons and promising power and freedom if he served them. Eventually he broke and agreed, the rest of his flight followed.
It’s usually been described as the Old Gods collectively all worked on him. But by his time in WoW N’Zoth had become his main benefactor so a lot of the credit probably goes to him.
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N’Zoth outright mentions being the one that corrupted Deathwing. One can hear a distinctly N’Zoth-esque voice coming from the Dragon Soul before a Tentacle comes out and slaps Deathwing away from the Dragon Soul in the Well of Eternity Dungeon.
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Where is all of this lore coming from? I’ve played WoW for 11 yrs, and somehow I’ve missed all of this lore? I am truly shocked, and because of this missed lore BfA is a total nightmare of confusion, and the first quest in pre-launch refers to unknown, to me, lore (some abduction), so I’m not ready for my pre-purchased SL. Now, I’m in Hyjal picking up old stuff. This is all just great. Ty for answering my question. Now I need to look up Neltharion and find out his story. Idk how I missed all this lore. ugh.
Mostly from the novels, Warcraft 2 Beyond the Dark Portal and Cataclysm.
The key novels / short stories are
Dawn of the Aspects by Richard Knaak (Neltharion’s origins and how he became an Aspect)
The war of the ancients trilogy by Richard Knaak (His corruption by the Old Gods and the creation of the Dragon Soul)
Day of the Dragon by Richard Knaak (This goes into his plots after his defeat in WC2: Beyond the Dark Portal at the hands of Khadgar and Gruul the Dragonslayer)
Charge of the Aspects by Matt Burns
The latter is important as it gives us Deathwings reasons why he sided with the Old Gods in great detail. How he saw it as a curse instead of a blessing. Implying that he willingly joined with N’zoth on the belief that the Old God will free him from this curse. To N’zoths credit he did uphold his end of the bargain, but he never said how he would do it. As we see in End Time, N’zoth freed Deathwing from his curse by killing him.
Night of the Dragon by Knaak and the Shattering by Christie Golden are also important, but they mainly deal with other characters instead of Deathwing. Night of the Dragon introduces the Twilight Dragonflight.
Oh, man, this helps a lot. Tysvm for taking the time to explain. Much appreciated. I don’t recall N’Zoth killing Deathwing. I recall being part of a group that did (it’s been a while). I didn’t even know about N’Zoth until the cinematic (which never gave his name) of him and Queen Azhara under water. It is so disheartening to find out that some of Azeroth’s history is from books and other games; some before WoW was even launched. I’ll just have to accept unknown lore and go back to start picking up as much lore as I can through quests. I play games; not read books. I play games; not watch movies. I play games; not do research. But I guess that’s all changing in gaming trends (not said sarcastically). One used to be able to just play games. I guess my age is showing (the “good old days” routine). I do know now, however, that SL can be played while I am picking up that old lore. That’s a huge relief (I pre-purchased SL). Even though I really don’t like it (novels and research in order to play best) at all, I am somehow comforted to know that part of my problem with lore is not me. That’s surely validating. I’m not really expected to know all of the lore. I’ll go back as far as Rag in vanilla for his story and call it good for backtracking. His story I’ll take from research, but from Cata on I’ll get from questing. I want to live the lore. That’s why I play this game. I do appreciate the novel references, though, because they give me the option of reading later if I want to. I’m always down for options. 
In End Time (the instance), you see Deathwing impaled on Wyrmrest Temple. End Time is basically a what if scenario where Deathwing succeeded in bringing forth the “Hour of Twilight” (so basically we lose). Since N’zoth had no further use for his pawn, he killed him.
Yeah N’zoth got name dropped during Cata, mainly by Warlord Zon’ozz (2nd or 3rd boss in the Dragon Soul raid) but also by Chris Metzen at blizzcon 2013 when asked about other Old Gods.
Well Warcraft as a franchise started as an RTS. So naturally most of the lore that WoW built upon was from those games. Just note that some details from WC1 has been retconned over the years, starting with WC2: Tides of Darkness. Originally the novels covered stories that finished off stories that were not finished in the games (such as Day of the Dragon) while others covered minor stories (Of Blood and Honor by Chris Metzen) that would become important one day to understand character motivations. Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden was originally going to be a point and click game, but blizzard cancelled it and adapted the games story into a novel (there are story elements from the game that never made it into the novel, such as Thrall killing Deathwing (that aged well)). PlatinumWoW has a video explaining the history of the game.
Lately most novels serve as lead ins into the next expansion. This really started with Arthas: Rise of the Lich King and Night of the Dragon. Both of these lead into Wrath for different reasons. Arthas: Rise of the Lich King is basically a biography of Arthas from his birth to him defeating Illidan in WC3: The Frozen Throne. Night of the Dragon introduced the Twilight Dragonflight which appeared in 2 mini raids (OS and RS) in Wrath. They got bigger screentime in Cata (and continue to get some screentime with Legion [shaman order hall campaign] and BFA [Island expeditions]).
Killing his pawn - sounds like N’Zoth. I think that some of this lore I am just going to accept that that I cannot know (too much) the origins of everything, and pick up what history that I can. I will also not push myself to stay current. Casuals never could keep up with raiders (too much game to play to keep up).
Tysm for your in-depth reply. It was kind of you to make the effort. I also appreciate having that list of books: It gives me the option to read should I want to. I always love options.
N’zoth is primarily responsible for turning Neltharion into Deathwing.
Yeah, Neltharion got screwed. N’Zoth seems to be showing up a lot right from the begining.