Azshara’s inevitable return in the upcoming Worldsoul Saga will undoubtedly mark her next appearance as antagonist in the plotline, possibly even for the last time. Azshara, after exhausting her other avenues for world dominion, is now in her endgame, seeking the “true throne of power.”
Azshara: The true throne of power beckons, and I intend to claim it.
When we last left the Court of Farondis in Legion, they still exist in a state of undeath due to a curse Azshara placed on them. Azshara even makes an appearance in the Azsuna questline taunting Farondis and his people, promising that her wrath is coming.
I ask simply that when the time comes for the scattered elven tribes of Azeroth unite, that this group not be forgotten and that this plotline find a resolution.
On the one hand, I feel like Farondis realistically should be simply to minor to really be more than a blip on her radar. On the other hand, Azshara is so petty that I’m sure she would take the time to attack someone who simply defied her 10000 years ago and has little power to factor in her modern plans.
The scene opens with the gathered elf-people represented by their leadership.
Tyrande is there, staring coldly at Thalyssra. At Thalyssra’s side is Lor’themar, and flanking Tyrande are Alleria, Vereesa, Mordent and Farondis. They have all been summoned here to discuss elven unity by a mysterious entity…
Suddenly Azshara appears in her night elf guise.
Azshara: I have sought the true throne of power to claim it as my own. I have sought it among the void lords and saw their offer lacking. I sought it among the remnants of the Burning Legion and saw naught but weakness and chaos. But I have also seen what it is that you have all accomplished.
Azshara: I propose a union. Night Elf, Nightborne, High elf, Blood Elf, Highborne and… You misfit toys over there, along with my Naga. All of us, standing together as one. The true throne of power has always been elusive to me, until I saw it for what it truly is.
Azshara: The true throne of power… Is friendship. And family. Come, let us reunite the long disparate elven family!!
Tyrande and Thalyssra look from Azshara to each other. Their gaze then moves to the other assembled leaders of elfkind. They all nod in agreement. There is only one path forward, and it is unity.
Unity in kicking Azshara’s butt!! A cinematic then plays as elfkind bonds over curb-stomping Azshara and throwing her into a magic prison of whatever sort. The naga forces who stay out of the curb-stomping are allowed to join up with the Elven Empire, and we get playable naga as a result.
No Azshara raid again, at least not yet, and a true bonding moment for all elves as they beat down their boogeywoman.
That may be so, but Azshara is on Farondis and his peoples’ radar, and I’m sure they would love to play a part in her defeat.
The resolution I propose is that Farondis and his people get to contribute in some capacity to Azshara’s defeat, break their curse, and finally be allowed to pass on.
Stewardship of Azsuna could then be passed on to the Nightborne and Night Elves.
Malfurion isn’t present, so this line-up is sounding very plausible.
I feel like the raid encounter with Azshara in Battle for Azeroth was just a warm-up for what could be the final showdown in Midnight, with all the elves present to oppose her. No unnecessary Jaina tagging along, and no Shandris filling in for Tyrande.
And have a major event without a human character to steal the spotlight? What new spore of madness is this? On a serious note, yes that would be awesome.
True. When we fought Azshara in BfA, she was channeling some of her power into the ritual to free N’Zoth. So she wasn’t fighting us with her full strength.
The entire storyline of the court is that they don’t want to be stuck as they are. On a very basic level, Blizzard has two choices: they can either let them pass on, or they can retread the entire Forsaken storyline with Night Elves instead of Humans.
I think it’s pretty clear that the latter option sucks.
Shortly after the events in OP’s video, the Court of Farondis which originally DESPISED him… apparently witnessed him slinging fireballs at Azshara’s face. Their response?
“Hey that was pretty based, Farondis. We’re with you, bud.”
I present to you option 3: become living and break Azshara’s curse through Amirdrassil’s duality between life and death, and join the remaining night elves to live out their days.
I think “curing undeath” is an extremely dangerous box to open - and suggesting that Night Elves basically don’t need to ever die anymore thanks to Amirdrassil totally inverts everything that’s been learned since WCIII.
As long as the Aszuna people (Azsunites?) want to, i don’t really see the issue. They have been trying to break their curse for a while now- you even do several quests/world quests for it, and Farondis himself was offered the possibility by Aszhara.
Besides, their “undeath” wasn’t really from “death” in the first place. They just became ghosts, on the edge of death but neither living nor dead. Amirdrassil could push them back into the life realm.
Night elves don’t need to die? What does that have to do with it? The cycle of life and death isn’t broken, Aszhara’s curse just meddled with it, and now they may return to that cycle.
Yeah, my impression of the Faronis ghost elves was that they weren’t risen dead style undead and more… Weird. Living beings who were polymorph-esque turned into ghosts? I’m wording it terribly, but they were not the dead souls haunting the land. The impression I got was that breaking their curse would… Re-alive them?
But I don’t remember anything explicit (which isn’t to say it doesn’t exist, just that I don’t remember) clarifying their whole deal. It’d be nice to have some closure for them, either making them re-alived or all-the-way ghost or something.
They’re dead dead and their curse is that they’ll never know true death. It’s why some of them keep reliving the past and why Farondis was hated by his servants for what happened.
This is Senegos description of Azsuna and its inhabitants:
The ghostly elves, to the south, once had the Pillar of Creation known as the Tidestone of Golganneth.
Their great city of Nar’thalas was destroyed an eon ago. The city’s ruler, Prince Farondis, fell with the city. You small ones die so easily.
In the quest, Our Very Bones, Prince Farondis says this:
Our bones are all we have left of an existence we left behind a long time ago.
When Azshara used the Tidestone on the Court of Farondis, it ripped through the land of Azsuna presumably killing them and then cursing them into undeath.
When Magister Garuhod broke the curse he turned into a Wisp, so more likely the rest of the court could also turn into Wisps through Amirdraassil like the other souls that saved its heart.
Speaking of whom, Farondis clearly thinks breaking the curse is more than just turning into a wisp (i.e., dying), as Garuhod did:
Prince Farondis says: It seems Garuhod’s recipe was incomplete. My alchemists think some bile might be needed to balance this out. It’s supposed to have some amazing properties!
Prince Farondis says: Wonderful! I feel like we’re on the cusp of discovering a cure to this curse! Who would’ve thought that a lush like Garuhod might have held the key to our freedom?
It separated their spirits from their bodies and their bodies rotted away. One could see this as dying, but their souls never reached the Shadowlands, as all other undead souls have been (torn back into the living realm by magic akin to that used by Maldraxxus).
