Just what is going on in the Crucible of Storms?

Why are we going into the Crucible of Storms? Currently on the PTR, we’re able to play a series of quests that explain exactly that. Before I talk about those, though, I should give you a spoiler warning.

This is that spoiler warning.

No, seriously. I’m warning you about spoilers.

Spoilers to follow, guys, I’m serious

Okay. Here’s the skinny.

Mitch’s knife girlfriend sells us all into slavery.

No, seriously. Y’see, the Naga are attacking and everybody, Horde and Alliance, want to stop them. Why wouldn’t we? We don’t want to work together or stop killing each other, of course, but we absolutely do want to stop those pesky Naga. And so, when one of the Naga drops a medallion bearing orders from Queen Azshara, we’d like to find out what those orders are. So we turn to one of our allies, Collector Kojo, who might be able to help us decipher the Naga script.

This leads him to tell us about an artifact that just might be able to tell us what those pesky Naga are up to. Something that was last used by a crazy Shadow Priest to fight the Legion. A blade infamous for its malevolent trail throughout history.

Mitch’s Knife Girlfriend is unhappy

Kojo tells us about Mitch’s knife girlfriend, only he calls it Xal’atath because that’s its actual name. Oh, and if you’re playing a Priest who has Xal’atath, the quest is slightly different to reflect that you have a prior acquaintance with the weapon.

Despite being a little upset with the way her previous wielder used her as a sacrifice in Silithus to drain the poison out of Sargeras’ sword — and really Mitch how could you do that to her — Xal’atath reveals to us that the Naga are seeking to use three powerful artifacts in order to wash away all the enemies of N’Zoth. Since we probably count as those, we’re pretty eager to stop the Naga from getting those artifacts and of course we don’t suspect Xal’atath — as in Xal’atath, Blade of the Black Empire — of having any ulterior motives for telling us all of this. Sure, she tells us where the three relics the Naga are seeking have ended up. And sure, she gets us to use those relics to empower her, allowing her to assume a humanoid form similar to that of a Void Elf.

But once we have all three relics, I’m sure we can trust Xal’atath when she asks us to take part in a ritual just outside the Crucible of Storms.

Curse her sudden but inevitable betrayal

In a shocking twist that literally no one, not even a blind man writing a post about it, could possibly miss Xal’atath betrays us to N’Zoth in exchange for freedom from the blade that has served as its home and its prison all these countless eons. N’Zoth agrees, but demands that Xal’atath leave its former body behind, meaning that Mitch’s knife girlfriend is now Mitch’s ex-knife ex-girlfriend. It turns out that the true prize N’Zoth was seeking wasn’t the artifacts, however — it was us, and now he bestows his terrifying Gift of N’Zoth upon us.

Yes, N’Zoth puts an eyeball on your head. It seems that you can choose to reject this gift, or accept it — we don’t as yet know what the final results of this decision will be, it’s another of those player choice moments they’re adding into Battle for Azeroth to pay off later. But one thing is sure — when we return to the Alliance or Horde leadership and tell them we may have accidentally empowered an Old God because a painfully obviously evil magical knife told us to, they’re not entirely happy with us. We’re sent to go back into the Crucible of Storms and reclaim those relics before the Naga go ahead and use them to wipe out everything.

We end up having to fight various servitors of N’Zoth, namely the Restless Cabal and Uu’nat, the Harbinger of the Void, to retrieve those relics. It seems that the Horde also finds the abandoned body of Xal’atath and hands the blade over to Sylvanas, who has big plans for it — plans that make Anduin Wrynn nervous even though he doesn’t know exactly what she’s planning.

So what the heck just happened?

To sum it all up:

Naga attack the surface looking for three magic relics. Xal’atath tells us what those relics are and where to find them. She then betrays us to N’Zoth and the Naga take the relics into the Crucible of Storms, while Xal’atath is freed from her dagger body and we’re given a ‘gift’ that causes an evil eyeball to sprout from our foreheads. We can choose to reject or accept this gift, which may have consequences down the road we can’t foresee, but if you keep the eyeball you can see other players who have it as well. Then we’re sent after the relics we just kind of handed over because we still don’t want them used to destroy us. As a result, Sylvanas gets her hands on the former body of Xal’atath and she’s up to no good with it.

That’s the basics, guys. That’s what’s going on in the Crucible of Storms. We got played by Mitch’s ex-knife ex-girlfriend.