The Decline of the Naga Empire

Recent events have revealed the Naga Empire to not be the invincible undersea empire that so many had feared, but a twisted shell of a state kept alive only by Queen Azshara's desperation. This is not to downplay the very real threat that the Naga Empire had long posed to the surface races of Azeroth. Indeed, the Naga Empire counted as the mightiest nation on Azeroth for most of the last ten-thousand years. Yet time takes its toll on even the most powerful polities, and did not spare the naga.

Queen Azshara's greatest advantage in the early days of the Naga Empire was the fact that everyone on the surface believed her to be dead. Azshara's guards and handmaidens worshiped her as a goddess, and still possessed much of the arcane and intellectual capital of the fallen Kaldorei Empire. But as the highest of the high in the old Kaldorei Empire, these survivors knew nothing of hardship. Utterly dependent on magic that soon warped their bodies into the modern naga form, they reeled from shock and fear at the changes to themselves and their surroundings. Their world had been destroyed. It is a testament to Queen Azshara's leadership that the naga survived the lean first centuries of their existence.

With the idea of labor being anathema to them, the naga instead focused on enslaving others. Undersea sapients and animals were forcibly brought into the fold by physical force and, failing that, neurotoxins that compelled obedience. The world beneath the waves had been thrown into confusion after the Sundering and Queen Azshara found this an ideal state in which to spread her burgeoning empire. A thousand years later, the Naga Empire controlled almost all of Great Sea and faced no real competition.

Seniority in naga ranks depended heavily on age—those who'd once been in Azshara's court received the greatest boons from their queen. The generations of naga born after the Sundering developed a culture that diverged somewhat from Azshara's. Consider Zin-Azshari, which still resembles the Kaldorei palace it once was, compared to the sharper and more organic-looking architecture in other naga cities. Despite this difference, all naga obeyed their queen.

The Naga Empire spent most of its efforts on expansion and keeping control of its slaves. Slave revolts were frequent and bloody but the experienced naga forces put them down without mercy. Naga devoted themselves to war, arcane research, and administration. All other work was done by slaves. Azshara eventually prohibited art, since her own refined tastes clearly represented the perfection of the creative impulse. Singers, poets, shell mosaicists, and others would from that point on limit themselves to re-creating existing art, since nothing could improve upon the classics. Some of the early stylistic deviations pioneered by younger naga were preserved, though only if they could be justified in utilitarian terms. This explains why the other strands of naga architecture have survived to present day.

Only the art of cruelty was permitted. With their slaves as canvases, the naga could experiment with new patterns of wounds and the forced tuning of particular nerves. The goal was always the same—dominance, abasement, and pain. It was blasphemy to change the physical form of the naga (which was perfect according to Azshara). The form of slaves, on the other hand, was acceptable to reshape. Great naga houses sought pain artists of particular refinement and creativity.

Though the naga represented the biggest and best-trained fighting forced in the world, the logistical difficulty of an extended land campaign made it impractical for them to conquer the surface. While the naga could function quite well on land for a few days at a time, anything more would quickly exhaust and kill them. Further, the Naga Empire spent many of its resources monitoring slaves and quelling revolts.

Those naga who pushed the frontiers of the empire (which now encircled Kalimdor and much of the Eastern Kingdoms) enjoyed slightly more freedom. Queen Azshara granted this simply because those naga at the edges could not rely on as much central support. The frontier also acted as a pressure valve for naga who violated one of the innumerable minor restrictions of their society but whose offenses were not sufficient to justify death. The Nazja compound word for these naga would take an entire page to write out; a direct translation is: Known-and-Esteemed-as-They-Who-Push-Aside-the-Slow-Currents-That-Must-Fall-Before-the-Eternal-Grace-of-Our-Queen-the-Deathless-and-Ever-Gloried-Azshara (we refer to them as "pathfinders"). Though still slavers, the pathfinders also traded with free underwater sapients and even some surface goblins. These naga represented one of the only dynamic aspects of the empire.

The Naga Empire revealed itself to the surface world in the waning days of the Third War. Queen Azshara detected Archimonde's arrival and believed that the day of her vindication was at hand. She'd hoped the surface races would be in disarray and ripe for conquest. However, her scouting parties revealed that they were far more organized than she'd expected. Azshara quickly ordered a strategic retreat, though she did commit a small army to Illidan's forces in the Eastern Kingdoms. It is believed she'd hoped to use the Illidari as a way exert influence on the surface. However, Illidan's relocation to Outland rendered this less feasible, and she withdrew the bulk of her forces, leaving only a small number in the Betrayer's employ.

Queen Azshara's long-term plan was to capture surface-dwellers and enslave them for use as slave soldiers. This would take time, but Azshara believed she had plenty of it. The surface armies would have an even harder time invading her undersea realm than the naga would have with the surface. Nature was Nazjatar's best defense. Some of her captives became test subjects for vile plagues developed by naga researchers. Azshara intended for these plagues to be used against the surface races in event of war.

The Naga Empire weathered the Cataclysm relatively unscathed. Indeed, the event worked in their favor. The naga conducted hundreds of raiding parties in the confused months that followed, gathering slaves and experimental subjects from the world's coastlines. Many of these disappearances were blamed on the disasters of the Cataclysm and never properly investigated. The Faceless Ones reaffirmed Azshara's old (but largely ignored) alliance with N'Zoth, and the two forces cooperated closely.

Disaster struck at Vashj'ir and the Abyssal Maw. Though the naga forces decimated the Horde and Alliance fleets above Vashj'ir they only did so thanks to surprise. Once the fleets rallied (bolstered by submersibles), the naga learned that their mighty sea creatures were no match for armored vehicles and modern cannons. The Battle of Vashj'ir was an utter rout for the naga forces. Only the quick thinking of their commander allowed the surviving naga to conduct their daring raid into the Abyssal Maw and successfully capture the elemental lord Neptulon. Even this proved no more than a temporary victory. Neptulon eventually escaped, and the naga forces were too few to establish a lasting beachhead on an elemental plane.

The naga again withdrew. Azshara considered unleashing the plague prototypes she had, but feared that would just draw more surface attention. Worse was the fact that news of the defeat had spread, spurring multiple slave rebellions across the empire. The Naga Empire had never suffered a meaningful defeat since the Sundering. The innumerable murlocs, sea giants, makrura, and others who toiled in the slave ranks had done so for countless generations. The reality of naga rule was as undeniable as gravity. Yet Vashj'ir showed that the naga were not invincible. Enraged by the abuse they'd suffered and with very little to lose, the slaves threw themselves with great wrath upon their masters.

Rebellions continued to spread. Now called the Unshackling, it represented the gradual dissolution of the Naga Empire. Ancient cities went dark and entire naga armies vanished in the ocean depths. A violent uprising wrecked Nazjatar's ancient galleries. Ever canny, Azshara devoted all of her efforts to regaining control. Through power and cruelty the rebellions were snuffed out, but she knew the Naga Empire was crippled and would be for centuries. Her only hope was to hide and wait for the surface-dwellers to destroy each other.