Say what you want about World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion, but you cannot deny the impact that the crazed Black Dragon aspect Deathwing left on the world of Azeroth. In fact, a lot of the leveling content from old zones still has his mark over a decade later. Now, it looks like Blizzard may be planning to utilize the villain again in some way. Deathwing, known as Neltharion before becoming corrupted by the Old Gods, still very much has an arc in Dragonflight’s narrative (even though he’s been dead for many years) as he is the creator of the newest playable race, the Dracthyr. Dataminers have managed to discover the name of the next narrative campaign coming in Dragonflight Patch 10.1, titled Embers of Neltharion.
Previous datamining during the Dragonflight Beta has hinted that players will be going underground for the next adventure in the expansion. Current public testing content continues to hint at this, and there is also the pesky matter of the Primordial Aspect of Earth being released at the end of the events of the Vault of the Incarnates raid.
All of these facts seem to indicate that the future narrative will either directly involve Deathwing’s return in some way, or at least his legacy leaving an even greater imprint on the events to come. Embers of Neltharion could see players dive into the deeper areas of Azeroth, perhaps opened up by Iridikron the Stonescaled, the primordial equivalent of Deathwing and the new main threat established at the end of the initial Dragonflight campaign after the defeat of Raszageth.
While Deathwing is long dead, the matter of who will succeed him is still up in the air after two of his children, Wrathion and Sabellion, have been vying for control in Dragonflight. Embers of Neltharion might take a different turn to see the end of this narrative beat, or it could even further explain his involvement with the creation of the Dracthyr. The deceased dragon has his claws in so many active plots that it is hard to truly know what is coming from this title alone.
