In the Threads of Destiny cinematic, Ansurek and Neferess talked a bit about some hardship that Azj’kahet was going through, that their greatness was tarnished. We briefly saw some “wretched” nerubians as Ansurek called them begging for help. Whatever this hardship was, it seemed to be what incited Ansurek to usurp her mother. Do we ever actually find out what it was? Seems like a pretty significant plot point. I figured we’d get context playing through the zone, but I can’t recall anything about it.
From what can be gathered the hardship started around the time they cut off azjol’nerub, maybe it was a bread basket or something, then the old gods offer help Ansurek tells them no and the rest his history
There’s a few different theories on the matter.
I. The faceless one at the beginning of the cinematic placed an actual curse upon their kingdom.
II. Hallowfall was once used by the nerubians as a place to gather resources, and the presence of the Arathi ‘invaders’ cut them off from a vital source of food.
(or possibly their conflict with the Arathi just led to a ton of poverty, injured nerubian war vets, etc.)
III. Azj-Kahet was suffering from late stage capitalism plus an archaic caste system which concentrated wealth at the top and left poorer nerubians increasingly bereft of resources.
IV. They had an economic recession or a pandemic or something.
Remember that Azj-Kahet’s decline happened post-BfA (year 34), while Azjol-Nerub was sealed off from Azj-Kahet’s tunnels during the war against the Scourge (year 10). Ansurek stabbing her mom and usurping the throne (year 41), according to her, comes from her desire to “make the nerubians great” and “seize the moment”.
I think the most likely explanation is Ansurek is pinning all of Azj-Kahet’s problems on the Arathi, but the city was actually suffering from a decades-long collapse from the greed of the High Hollows bourgeois nerubians and the humans were just a convenient scapegoat. She’s a teenage Garrosh-type who believes that conquering their enemies will magically fix all of their internal rot (not to mention nerubians are pretty culturally xenophobic to begin with).
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Now the Earthen and Arathi can offer aid to the Weaver, Anub’azal and the Vizier for aiding in the fight against Princess Ansurek.
Our rescue of Princess Neferess who usurped Queen Zaltra(who looks less queenly than Neferess did then again the same goes for Ansurek before her Ascension) will also help with Nerubian relations.
Queen Zaltra incidentally laments her fall from grace. The rightful Queen still has Pheromones therefore any Nerubians who refuse to serve a Queen without Pheromones will probably return to Mad Queen Zaltra despite her not looking any different from the rest of the Nerubian rabble.
She is also like Ansurek in terms of goals and would be useful as a replacement for Ansurek to get Xal’atath more Wrath for her goals.
Zaltra will be a lesson that it’s not Ansurek being a Usurper that makes her a Villain but her being a tyrannical conqueror that makes her a Villain!
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I was gonna say mostly economic embargo effects, but yeah, a top heavy economy would exacerbate that for the lower status castes.
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I guess before Arathi and Earthern showed up must have been ether been the Scourge wiping out the Nerubians in the North or the Arathi set up a Bastion Hold against the Nerubians.
I would enjoy seeing this stuff in game, instead of players needing to assume.
I definitely like your idea that the spiders are struggling and fighting the Arathi in hallowfell due to lack of resources. That makes so much more sense than what I have found in-game.
If the spiders were just chilling, but having societal problems with caste and now suddenly Arathi are present. Being stuck in a cave system that is finite, 100% there will be resources fought over.
Then there is the crystal, is that something the spiders were hanging out near before the Arathi showed up?
Sadly doesn’t matter anymore as we are all friends now.
I honestly like that it’s open to speculation.
We don’t know whether the arathi or the nerubians are the true aggressors. Maybe the arathi’s colonization of Hallowfall was viewed by the nerubians the same way the humans of Stormwind view murlocs in Elwynn Forest.
“Oh no, there’s an invasive primitive species infesting our lands, better thin out the herd before they populate too much”
Perhaps nerubians view humans the same way humans view murlocs/kobolds/gnolls.
Annoying quest mobs that exist to be killed for pocket change and experience.