With the Eternal Palace defeated, Blizzard Entertainment has made public the Raid’s Finale Cinematic. Azshara lays on the ground as Lor’Themar and Jaina close in for the kill, but Azshara expires with a I-Can’t-Believe-They-Have-Defeated-Me face.

At that moment, a mechanism falls into place, completing the circle circuit. A blast of light explodes outwards, shaking the ground, and the chains that held N’zoth imprisoned are shattered.

A huge eye is seen at the bottom of the prison, and after a flash of light, shadowy tendrils of “smoke?” dart out of the prison, slithering its way toward the platform to grab Queen Azshara’s corpse.

Azshara suddenly comes to life in horror, with a big surprised eyes. Azshara disappears out of view, engulfed by the shadows.

N’zoth proclaims: “All Eyes Shall Be Opened.” Read some points of views about what might come next for Battle for Azeroth, after the break.

I am pretty sure fans now think that N’Zoth is the final boss of Battle for Azeroth. It feels like a possibility, but I will try to explain how it might not be what you thought.

We have seen this play out before. The Bait and Switch. We thought we had defeated Garrosh at the end of Cataclysm, but he managed to escape through time (in the War Crimes novel) and build an army alongside his father Grommash Hellscream.

So the next expansion, Garrosh is killed by Thrall and we have to deal with Gul’dan — who later we thought would be the last boss of Warlords of Draenor. Blizzard pulled the Bait and Switch again.

We defeated Kil’jaeden, and he throws Gul’dan through a portal.

The World of Warcraft: Legion is launched. Eventually, we killed Gul’dan at the end of the Suramar Raid.

However, the final boss in Legion wasn’t Gul’dan. We head to Argus, and there we defeat Argus the Unmaker, which releases the Legion’s grasp on the Pantheon. The Pantheon siphons Sargeras off Azeroth and depart with Illidan in tow.

Here we had a bit of a weird change where we had absolutely no idea what the next expansion would be about as there was no Bait and Switch. Sargeras plunges his sword into Azeroth, woulding the world, and Azerite begins to leak out into the surface. Ultimately, that Azerite leak becomes the main stuff of Battle for Azeroth as the Heart of Azeroth is the very key that opens N’zoth’s prison.

However, there was a lingering plot in Legion that had not been explored. What was Sylvanas doing in Hellheim, and what was her pact with Helya?

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth launched with Sylvanas setting fire to Teldrassil with Azerite-powered ammo. So it is evident that Sylvanas will be the last boss of Battle for Azeroth, now that Azshara has been defeated, and N’zoth is loose.

N’zoth just came out of his prison. He is now loose upon Azeroth. The logical thing to happen here is for Blizzard to make Azshara the last boss of a raid in the next expansion (same as Gul’dan was for Legion), and N’zoth to be the last boss of the next expansion — with some sort of Bait and Switch for what comes afterwards.

It will take N’zoth time to build and empower his army, before we are able to fight him. For that to happen, that raid can’t happen in Battle for Azeroth. Not yet.

With N’zoth gone to put his army in place to conquer Azeroth, the Horde and the Alliance can only come together to confront their must immediate threat: Sylvanas.

There might be a new Warfront, followed by the final Raid of Battle for Azeroth against Sylvanas. However, there are other plots lingering still in Battle for Azeroth. For example, during the Island Expeditions we learned that Helya is not dead; and in fact, she is becoming more powerful.

Will we see Helya and Sylvanas in the final Raid? Unsure at the moment. Sylvanas, yes. Helya… not sure what the pact was to begin with, so I can’t foretell what might happen.

It confuses me now to think of Xalatath’s “third death” whisper: ““At the hour of her third death…She ushers in…Our coming…”

Was Xalatath referring to Sylvanas’ third death… or was he referring to Queen Azshara’s? If we keep count, Azshara was dying when N’zoth stroke a deal with her. We might count that as her first death. In the Eternal Palace Raid… we saw Azshara die before our eyes… yet, N’zoth clearly resurrected her. Which means in the next expansion, when Azshara dies… that will be her third. I’m curious.

 

SYLVANAS

It is possible that Sylvanas might attack Thunderbluff to put an end to Baine. That will definitely bring several Horde races together against Sylvanas. But what is in it for the Alliance? Will Sylvanas make an attack on Stormwind? That has been her goal since the Christie Golden novel. To attack Stormwind.

It is a bit difficult to know what the timeline will be here taking in mind Thunderbluff, Stormwind, and the final Raid. One of these will likely be a new Warfront. Maybe one of them is the final Raid.

One thing that Blizzard floated at BlizzCon, but not completely confirming it, was the tease that Silvermoon City might be a Warfront (unless the idea has been scrapped). I can see why Sylvanas would take Lor’themar’s involvement in the rescue of Baine a personal offense. I could see Sylvanas making an example of Silvermoon City as traitors.

Another possibility might be that we will see something akin to Invasion World Quests (like the Legion and Naga invasions) with Sylvanas’ forces attacking Alliance and Horde-traitor zones.

All I see is that Blizzard Entertainment has its hands busy in Battle for Azeroth, and things can go in different ways — but N’zoth as final boss, I can simply not see that happening in this expansion unless Battle for Azeroth is going to last longer than previous expansions.