WoW Classic's mysterious Shadowy Figure: Who could it be?

Modified Jan 02, 2025 17:05 IST

WoW Classic Shadowy Figure — No, we don't mean the Alliance quest. Who could be the mysterious figure introduced in WoW Classic SoD? (Image via Blizzard Entertainment || YouTube/@Bue)

In many WoW Classic players’ eyes, the Shadowy Figure being Xal’atath is not even a debate. While this has not been 100% confirmed, there’s certainly enough evidence in her appearance, and what she influences throughout the early days of the Season of Discovery content. Players who sought out greater power throughout the Phase 2 and Phase 3 days would have run into this mysterious Shadowy Figure — if you didn’t, you might not know what this is.

The Shadowy Figure in WoW Classic SoD was introduced to help players craft Void-touched Armaments, which are powerful new equipment never seen in the game before. This figure would return in Phase 3, but since then has been silent — until now.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely rely on the writer's opinion.

Speculation leads to the WoW Classic Shadowy Figure being none other than Xal’atath

The idea that the WoW Classic SoD Shadowy Figure is Xal’atath is certainly one that makes sense. For those not familiar with her, she’s the primary antagonist of the current WoW The War Within storyline. However, she made her first appearance in the Legion expansion, seemingly trapped within the Shadow Priest artifact weapon.

It all began with this mysterious quest NPC (Image via Blizzard Entertainment || YouTube/@Bue)

Whispering through the blade, it was such a cool, unique take on an artifact weapon. The whole “item whispering to player” thing was really made famous by Yogg-Saron’s Puzzle Box, and this whole situation felt very similar. This makes more sense since Xal’atath has some connection to the Old Gods.

What brings this discussion up is that in WoW Classic SoD Phase 6, the Shadowy Figure appears again. Months after their last appearance, they return in Ahn Qiraj. She lurks in out-of-bounds areas, just watching your character silently. Unless, of course, you have a particular cosmetic.

If you have the Void-Touched Emblem, and use it to grant your weapon a shadowy, cosmic effect, you’ll get a whisper from the Shadowy Figure. It will say, “Ah, the so-called ‘Old Gods’...washed-up has-beens. Boring and misguided as ever…but useful in their own way.”

Redditor Alternative-Task9615 spotted the Shadowy Figure in the Twin Emperors boss room, in AQ40 on the PTR (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Frankly, this feels incredibly similar to my Legion experience when I briefly went Shadow Priest, before going back to Discipline. When you add this to the already deep connection Xal’atath has to the void, her general aesthetic, and the tendency to whisper to you from nowhere, it all seems to come together nicely.

Some think Xal’atath is breaking the timeline and coming back to interfere in events — perhaps this would make her ultimate goal in the Retail version of World of Warcraft even easier. There were Redditors, who as far back as five months ago figured that if we ever saw the Shadowy Figure again, it would be when AQ40 launches. Now, there are sneak peeks of her within the walls of Ahn'Qiraj.

It is the home to the first Old God we encounter, C’thun. Who else other than Xal’atath could it possibly be? Hopefully, Phase 7 shall introduce something even bigger involving this mysterious NPC.

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Edited by Abhishek Manikandan