New Xal’atath animation gives us a glimpse at the origins and motivation of WoW Midnight’s antagonist (assuming she isn’t lying)

Folks who’d been hoping for a new World of Warcraft animation like the Harbingers and Warbringers series that predated Legion and Battle for Azeroth respectively finally got a little something today to whet their appetites: a Xal’atath-focused animation, subtitled “Supremecy.” Seemingly set sometime between the end of the Manaforge Omega raid and the beginning of Midnight, this animation shows Xal’atath winning over “loyal, tractable” servant Nexus-King Salhadaar by wielding something very unusual for her: the truth.

Of course, Xal’atath is well-known for telling people exactly what they want to hear; it’s kind of her whole shtick. Lying by omission is still lying, and there’s a lot of room in her story for wiggle room: yes, she may have been mortal once, but was that little girl conscripted, or did she join up with the forces of the Void as the Harbinger of Dimensius willingly? I’d bet money on the last one: after all, as the famously prudent Ve’nari puts it during the story campaign on K’aresh when asked how she can trust Xal’atath, “I trust her to do whatever she needs to do to survive.”

It’s also interesting to note the parallels here between this animation and a previous one — Warbringers: Azshara. In this video, Salhadaar plays the part of Azshara; backed into a corner, tasked with the survival of his people, and stubbornly defiant until confronted with the truth of who holds all the cards in this situation. Meanwhile, Xal’atath is aping the behaviors of N’zoth, if not his fish-faced form; she offers her would-be opponent the truth, and the opportunity to do something besides die, and all they have to do… is kneel. There are differences, of course: N’zoth simply wanted his freedom, whereas Xal’atath seems to be gathering power to protect the forces of the Void from some kind of existential threat — an interesting turn of events, since we usually think of the Void as being that very same threat. Who does Xal’atath fear? Meanwhile, the losing party does take the offer in both cases, Azshara was a bit more devious with her newfound lease on life, using her arcane power and rulership of the seas to seemingly do anything except free N’zoth over the years, whereas we know that with Midnight Season 1 beginning next month, it won’t be long before we’re running into Salhadaar again.