I Have Such Fascinating Things to Show You: Ethereals 101
This Tuesday, 8/5, Ghosts of K’aresh will launch and I will scream with excitement. One of the factions we will be interacting with a lot during this patch is the Ethereals, natives of K’aresh who have been refugees across the Great Dark Beyond for eons since their homeworld was blown up by Dimensius the All-Devouring (a Void Lord). Though they’ve always had a “cool” factor and players have enjoyed sparring with the Ethereals, some of us may not know a ton about this faction. In the lead up to 11.2, and likely during Tuesday’s maintenance, let’s learn a bit more about what’s been established about Ethereals before patch 11.2. This post will have no spoilers and is meant solely to act as a recap for what’s already been written.
Ethereals first arrived in WoW during the Burning Crusade expansion in a number of zones. Their operations were split among a number of factions: we saw operatives from the Consortium, Ethereum, Protectorate, and independent actors on Outland. The Ethereals had a significant interest in commerce, mostly arriving on Outland for the chance to steal its treasures and bring them to other galactic marketplaces. Of the factions, the Consortium had the most clear-cut interest in finding cool shit, selling it, and having adventurers assist them with killing things (mostly talbuks in Nagrand). The Ethereum arrived in Netherstorm for much more evil purposes: eating some Void energy and killing Protectorate members. The Protectorate was formed in response to the rise of the Ethereum, who started taking a heightened interest in the Void after Dimensius blew up their planet. If you can’t beat him, at least use his element type?
We had a mix of pleasant and hostile interactions with the Ethereals on Outland: the Consortium became profitable partners (read: a reputation track), the Protectorate offered us quests, the Ethereum tried to kill us, and a few isolated agents acting independently also tried to kill us. Many folks have fond memories of Nexus-Prince Shaffar’s encounter in the Mana Tombs, where he switched places with his beacon adds and melees you unexpectedly.
Next, Ethereals were spotted in Northrend. Several Ethereals were conscripted by Malygos during his crazed war on magic in Azeroth. It makes sense that Ethereals would be sought out by the Aspect of Magic at this time-after all, they’re composed of pure energy. We fought them in various dungeons, quests, and encounters throughout the Nexus War.
In Cataclysm, new Ethereal vendors emerged and used their famous technomancy to provide us with two of our most-used services to date: transmogrification and reforging! Technomancy is a specific type of arcane magic that we’ve only really seen Ethereals use, let alone excel at. Minorly, in Mists of Pandaria, Ethereals made contact with Madame Goya at the Black Market Auction House. I’ve said it before, I’ll keep saying it, my god she is up to some shady shit. I love her.
Even though Malygos lost the Nexus War, his temporary allies still came to collect their promised payment for helping him. In Legion, two artifact quests brought adventurers to the Nexus, besieged by Nexus-Prince Bilaal. Priests searching for Light’s Wrath and Mages searching for Aluneth had to work with Azuregos to beat up these Ethereals. Notably, Bilaal transformed into a void revenant before he got killed by us. Things got a bit more interesting on Argus: while exploring Eredath with the recovered Alleria Windrunner, we encountered a new Ethereal faction named the Shadowguard. This faction bore a resemblance to the actions of the Ethereum on Outland: harnessing the Void instead of scorning it. These Ethereals were genuinely insane and evil and we beat up a bunch of them with Alleria and Locus-Walker, a new character starting in Eredath. He was Alleria’s instructor in Void-101 and has turned up a few more times.
After defeating the Legion, Ren’dorei elves following Magister Umbric were attacked by Shadowguard. These elves became Void Elves, sort of led by Alleria and Locus-Walker, and hang out in Telogrus Rift. The Ethereals sometimes come to Telogrus for business or to chat.
Ethereals most recently got in our way in the 10.2.7 Dark Heart questline. Apparently showing up with Xal’atath, some Shadowguard attacked Ulduar and Telogrus. We also saw some Ethereals on Khaz Algar, such as Nexus-Princess Ky’Veza in the first raid of the expansion, a few additional Ethereal NPC’s in Azj-Kahet, and of course in patch 11.1. These Ethereals came with quite the twist: not only did they nab the Dark Heart from Gallywix first, they were secretly a splinter faction, not working for Xal’atath. What were they working after? We got some hints in 11.1.5 Lorewalking quests, as an Ethereal messenger arrives to tell Locus-Walker he’s got a message from someone: Ve’nari, our companion from the Maw in Shadowlands. How do those two know each other? They last hung out on…K’aresh, as Locus-Walker puts it, “before the destruction of our world,” strongly implying that Brokers also come from K’aresh. We’ll find out on Tuesday, but it’s highly possible that Brokers are the same species as Ethereals, just in a different suit for the different realm they went to.
These appearances are just a brief timeline of when Ethereals have been in the game. They told us quite a bit about their dead homeworld during these appearances. K’aresh was always a harsh planet, typically arid, sandy, and hot, but the K’areshi learned to live there and innovate. Salhadaar, the leader of the Ethereum on Outland, used to be the king of K’aresh. The various Nexus-Princes we’ve encountered were likely nobles of K’aresh who sided with him after the destruction of the planet. Speaking of the destruction of the planet, they’ve informed us that it happened very gradually, with Dimensius making his arrival known as he ate both of their two suns and covering the skies in Void energies.
Ethereals have wraps covering their bodies to stabilize the pure energy that they’re composed of. It’s unclear how exactly they ended up in their arcane state, but speculation has often brought up prolonged exposure to the Void, Great Dark, or Manaforges. Will we learn more on Tuesday?
