What happened to N'zoth?

[Lovestar]

His war came to an end with the destruction of his champion, Deathwing. Hour of Twilight was averted and he needs a new pawn. Perhaps he has one in Azshara already and is helping her in the depths of Azeroth's oceans.

A lot of parallel plots were going on in Cata — Azshara was prodded into action against Neptulon at the same time Deathwing was let loose, and this was shortly after the Emerald Nightmare plan was somewhat derailed by Malfurion's interference.

It's a nice idea that N'Zoth just plays with a million pawns at once and whenever one goes down, he just shrugs and starts building up the next one in line. Kind of a meta-aware Old God that says, "Yeah, every expansion they defeat the other guys' big plan so let me just assume they'll do that again. I'll give the heroes some nice loot-filled decoys to deal with and sooner or later they'll mess up enough I can capitalize on it".

Would be cool.

[ZenX]

Didn't you get the memo, (s)he's getting ready to Flood the Azeroth :P

[DarkTZeratul]

Are we seeing him at all this expansion? I just find it odd that N'zoth had a build up in cataclysm but we haven't had any sort of encounter with him yet or even a picture.

What build up? No, I'm dead serious. Show me where N'zoth was built up in Cataclysm. Apart from being name-dropped at Blizzcon, the only time N'zoth is referenced anywhere in the expansion at all is the two faceless generals in Dragon Soul.

The plan was a raid, called Abyssal Maw, where the rest of the story of Neptulon was supposed to be told, but we never got that raid dungeon.

Nowhere was it said that Neptulon's story would be continued in the Abyssal Maw dungeon/raid. In fact, what little information there is suggests that it may have been unrelated, as it sounds like it would have focused on the naga taking control of a third shelled demigod. That, combined with Blizzard's statement about Neptulon's story and the reasons they've given for canceling development lead me to believe that the intention was always to continue that plot thread in a theoretical naga expansion (which was likely the one they were starting to work on before shifting instead to Mists of Pandaria).

[ghostblade]

n'zoth is one of those points you can say. we know about him and we don't.
As players we know he exsists. but ingame we don't. no faction maybe knows about him XD

[ZenX]

What build up? No, I'm dead serious. Show me where N'zoth was built up in Cataclysm. Apart from being name-dropped at Blizzcon, the only time N'zoth is referenced anywhere in the expansion at all is the two faceless generals in Dragon Soul.

Nowhere was it said that Neptulon's story would be continued in the Abyssal Maw dungeon/raid. In fact, what little information there is suggests that it may have been unrelated, as it sounds like it would have focused on the naga taking control of a third shelled demigod. That, combined with Blizzard's statement about Neptulon's story and the reasons they've given for canceling development lead me to believe that the intention was always to continue that plot thread in a theoretical naga expansion (which was likely the one they were starting to work on before shifting instead to Mists of Pandaria).

It was going to be continuation of the Vasjh'ir questline which ended at the Throne of Tides with Neptulon being kidnapped by a frickin' squid -_-

[Myzou]

It's pretty clear Azshara has some sort of communication with him, and is either corrupted by him (dear god I hope not), or simply has a way to draw power from him.

We'll most likely see him in the Azshara expansion. We know he's in the underwater city of... something. xD

And to the people asking where's the build up, read the Dragon Soul book. It's revealed N'zoth is the one who corrupted Deathwing way back when he was Neltharion. He also had a hand in someone else's corruption, I just can't remember who it was.

[deviantcultist]

I cannot understand why people are so obsessed with underwater,island or emerald dream expansion scenarios. No one has missed the outland/space theme?

[GennGreymane]

It's pretty clear Azshara has some sort of communication with him, and is either corrupted by him (dear god I hope not), or simply has a way to draw power from him.

We'll most likely see him in the Azshara expansion. We know he's in the underwater city of... something. xD

And to the people asking where's the build up, read the Dragon Soul book. It's revealed N'zoth is the one who corrupted Deathwing way back when he was Neltharion. He also had a hand in someone else's corruption, I just can't remember who it was.

Azshara and the other highborne were turned into naga by n'zoth it seems.... soooo yes she is curropted by him, but she was always an evil witch

[ZenX]

I cannot understand why people are so obsessed with underwater,island or emerald dream expansion scenarios. No one has missed the outland/space theme?

For me its not about missing something but more about story progression. With Cataclysm the Naga threat was vastly elevated and even though our heroes are brave and rash, Blizzard should not make so that they prove that they are dumb as the moment we leave for an outside planet or pass through portal to another realm, we'll leave the Azeroth behind for the Nagas' and their master's taking.

[deviantcultist]

For me its not about missing something but more about story progression. With Cataclysm the Naga threat was vastly elevated and even though our heroes are brave and rash, Blizzard should not make so that they prove that they are dumb as the moment we leave for an outside planet or pass through portal to another realm, we'll leave the Azeroth behind for the Nagas' and their master's taking.

As for story progression, hints about the Legion come from here and there in MoP. Therefore that is more than enough to work with for our next xpac

[Madruga]

It's pretty clear Azshara has some sort of communication with him, and is either corrupted by him (dear god I hope not), or simply has a way to draw power from him.

We'll most likely see him in the Azshara expansion. We know he's in the underwater city of... something. xD

And to the people asking where's the build up, read the Dragon Soul book. It's revealed N'zoth is the one who corrupted Deathwing way back when he was Neltharion. He also had a hand in someone else's corruption, I just can't remember who it was.

Well, we don't really know if it was N'zoth that saved Azshara when the Wll of Eternity imploded...

There almost certainly is an Old God underwater, as seen in the Puzzle Box, and proved by the Naga activity in Vashjir...

But we don't know if it is N'zoth at all. All we know is he was the mastermind behind Deathwing and he was responsible for the corrutpion of the Emerald Dream. We don't really know where he lays.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Well, we don't really know if it was N'zoth that saved Azshara when the Wll of Eternity imploded...

There almost certainly is an Old God underwater, as seen in the Puzzle Box, and proved by the Naga activity in Vashjir...

But we don't know if it is N'zoth at all. All we know is he was the mastermind behind Deathwing and he was responsible for the corrutpion of the Emerald Dream. We don't really know where he lays.

It's speculated hes at the bottom of the sea beneath the Maelstrom where the original Well of Eternity lies. According to Stormrage The Rift of Aln is the Emerald Dream's area where the Emerald Nightmare lingers and refuses to go away and in the mortal plane...it's where the Maelstrom is...


N'zoth I can safely say is at the Well of Eternity remains. I've always theorized this since Vash'ir. It makes too much sense.

[Madruga]

It's speculated hes at the bottom of the sea beneath the Maelstrom where the original Well of Eternity lies. According to Stormrage The Rift of Aln is the Emerald Dream's area where the Emerald Nightmare lingers and refuses to go away and in the mortal plane...it's where the Maelstrom is...


N'zoth I can safely say is at the Well of Eternity remains. I've always theorized this since Vash'ir. It makes too much sense.

There was indeed an Old God beneath the Well of Eternity. There was a tendrill erupting from the ground right before it imploded. This Old God probably is still there, and much likely it is N'zoth.

We just don't know for sure yet.

[Immitis]

you know what i think would be cool? next expansion we fight the legion but near the end of it while the greatest heroes are out on whatevermajig planet fighting the legion azshara attacks azeroth which leads into the next expansion where we go after azshara

[JhanZ]

I want a 2 part Legion-Old God story, told through 2 expansions in a row. I can easily picture it:

6.0: Azshara
6.1: Nathrezim council: Mal'ganis, Anetherom, Destromath, Tichondrius etc.
6.2: vs. Burning Legion Army with Azgalor and some other generals
6.3: N'zoth and his forces

7.0: Tothrezim and some other cool legion races (Look 'em up)
7.1: Dark Titan raid (there was more than one?!)
7.2: Kil'jaeden raid
7.3: Sargeras raid

[DarkTZeratul]

It was going to be continuation of the Vasjh'ir questline which ended at the Throne of Tides with Neptulon being kidnapped by a frickin' squid -_-

It was going to be related to the Vashj'ir storyline. That doesn't mean it was necessarily going to be a continuation from Throne of the Tides.

[Drilnos]

Abyssal Maw was going to be a five-man dungeon with three bosses that took place almost entirely in a Nespirah shell. They wanted to make it alongside Firelands because it would have required very little effort to make it, being able to put together assets they already had. Once they had a rough outline of how it would play out they realized that wouldn't go over terribly well, mixing the fire and water themes wasn't as good in execution as it was on paper, and it wasn't a great concept anyway, so they scrapped it. We got the Molten Front instead.

Honestly I think the main reason people think we really missed out on this one is because "Abyssal Maw" is a completely badass name. A badass name does not, however, translate directly to badass content.

[Szemere]

Abyssal Maw was going to be a five-man dungeon with three bosses that took place almost entirely in a Nespirah shell. They wanted to make it alongside Firelands because it would have required very little effort to make it, being able to put together assets they already had. Once they had a rough outline of how it would play out they realized that wouldn't go over terribly well, mixing the fire and water themes wasn't as good in execution as it was on paper, and it wasn't a great concept anyway, so they scrapped it. We got the Molten Front instead.

Honestly I think the main reason people think we really missed out on this one is because "Abyssal Maw" is a completely badass name. A badass name does not, however, translate directly to badass content.

A pretty sick unfinished dungeon/raid layout was leaked/datamined tho, and it looked a lot more interesting than just the insides of Nespirah. I don't know where you got your information, but yeah, it definitely didn't look like the insides of some giant clam like the 2 in vashj'ir.

[DarkTZeratul]

A pretty sick unfinished dungeon/raid layout was leaked/datamined tho, and it looked a lot more interesting than just the insides of Nespirah. I don't know where you got your information, but yeah, it definitely didn't look like the insides of some giant clam like the 2 in vashj'ir.

Info comes from several sources, at several points in time.

Pre-Cata: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/pos...ecrets-inside/
"There are two - actually three - huge animal gods throughout Vashj'ir. They're these huge shells... Nespirah and another one whose name escapes me right now. But there is a third one that the naga fully corrupted, and at some point in time in the future we'll see that thing come out as some kind of bad guy."

Patch 4.2: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2151656030#1
"Our initial plan for this raid tier was to have fewer bosses in Firelands and a small number of bosses in the Abyssal Maw. As we looked more closely at Firelands, though, we realized that it deserved more bosses. We also got excited about designing item art (and set bonuses!) that were very fiery in nature, and the Molten Front questing area was turning out to be really cool, so we ended up piling more resources into Firelands. That led to the decision to focus on one strong theme (fire), rather than a more diluted fire-and-water theme.

The case for Abyssal Maw pitch was that we could reuse a lot of existing assets (the fights were to take place in a giant shelled demigod like Nespirah), and while we are willing to do that, we thought Abyssal Maw would just pale in comparison to the magnificence of the Firelands."

Post-Cata: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/4519250/
"I feel like I should mention Abyssal Maw again. As with many cancelled features, it somehow took on a life of its own in the minds of players. Believe me, though -- you just don’t cancel things that you think are going to be awesome. It was three bosses inside Nespirah, with no unique art. The reason it was originally appealing to us was because we had so many Vashj’ir assets that we could use. But by the time it was time to do the work, we felt like we (and many players) had Vashj’ir fatigue. Now don’t get me wrong -- I loved Vashj’ir. I was an oceanographer, remember? Vashj’ir delivered on the promise of an underwater zone, but we feel like most players were ready to be done with it by the time they had quested through that. (Individuals will feel differently -- it’s that diverse player base thing again.) Firelands received a lot of new art, from bosses to environments, and we just didn’t feel like Abyssal Maw was going to compete. "


Based on the instance map they showed off at Blizzcon (http://www.wowpedia.org/File:Abyssal...layout.jpg?c=1), my guess is that the chasm was simply an outdoor section of the dungeon that led to the shell.

[Arbs]

N'Zoth is linked to Azshara who is linked to Sargeras who is the leader of the Burning Legion. Also MoP isn't over we could still see Azshara or N'zoth.

But there are alot of plot holes from Cata which makes me a sad panda .