Ny'alotha

Ny'alotha, also known as the Sleeping City the Dreaming City, the Waking City, and the Sunken City,  is an alternate reality inhabited by the Old Gods and their minions. It depicts a future in which the Old Gods' ancient Black Empire has been restored and completely conquered Azeroth, and thus reflects the manifestation of all of the Old God N'Zoth's goals and his vision for the future of Azeroth made real. After being freed from his titan prison during the Fourth War, N'Zoth began trying to tear down the veil separating Ny'alotha from the physical world in order to merge the two realities into one and thereby transform Azeroth into the Black Empire. This would also erase all that previously was.

Black Empire Obelisks are what anchor Ny'alotha to reality, allowing its denizens and structures to manifest in the real world. Creations of the Old Gods that die in reality seem to return to Ny'alotha, or at least they did before it was destroyed.

Ny'alotha is the setting of the raid instance of the same name. Players can also enter Ny'alotha through Lesser and Horrific Visions of N'Zoth, depicting versions of Uldum, the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, Stormwind City, and Orgrimmar that have fallen to N'Zoth's influence. The Awakened affix in Mythic+ dungeons causes the appearance of obelisks that allow players to temporarily cross over into Ny'alotha and confront powerful servants of N'Zoth.

History


The events within the Eternal Palace have set the stage for the Old God N'Zoth's release from his titanwrought prison, and the Sleeping City of Ny'alotha has awakened. Under N'Zoth's command, the nightmarish armies of the Black Empire threaten to engulf the world and reshape it according to their master's vision. As part of the Old God's efforts to bring Ny'alotha into being, N'Zoth's minions tried to corrupt the Forge of Origination in order to reshape Azeroth into the Black Empire. The champions of Azeroth venture deep into the horrific realm to confront mad heralds and inscrutable horrors, and ultimately go eye-to-eyes with N'Zoth himself for one final confrontation against the Old God in a fateful battle for Azeroth's survival. N'Zoth and Ny'alotha were ultimately destroyed together when Azeroth's champions used the Heart of Azeroth to fire the powers of the Forge of Origination, empowered by the Engine of Nalak'sha, upon the corruptor.

Previous mentions
Before Ny'alotha's true nature was revealed in patch 8.3, it had been mentioned by various objects and servants of the Old Gods since as far back as Cataclysm.


 * Whisper (Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron)
 * Whisper (Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron)
 * Whisper (Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron)
 * Whisper (Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron)
 * Whisper (Xal'atoh, Desecrated Image of Gorehowl)
 * Whisper (Il'gynoth)
 * Whisper (Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire)
 * Whisper (Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire)
 * Za'qul's title is .

Notes and trivia

 * The name Ny'alotha may be derived from, a deity from 's . Notably, Ny'alotha's description as a "city of old, terrible, unnumbered crimes" is similar to a line from Lovecraft's 1920 short story , in which the narrator describes their home town as "the great, the old, the terrible city of unnumbered crimes". Ny'alotha's actual appearance may be inspired by , the underwater city where Cthulhu slept, or Y'ha-nthlei, an ancient sunken city of the s.
 * Ny'alotha's architecture resembles Ahn'Qiraj. In lore, it is probably the other way around: that the qiraji modeled Ahn'Qiraj after the Black Empire.
 * Ny'alotha is similar to the Emerald Dream, both being alternate planes that are born from the dreams of powerful entities. For Ny'alotha, it is the Old Gods, and for the Emerald Dream it is Azeroth.
 * Ny'alotha does not obey the rules of space and time.

Speculation

 * Ny'alotha could be the city that N'Zoth formerly ruled over before being defeated by the titans.
 * Various Old God-related realms like the Twilight Realm, the Realm of Y'Shaarj, the Dread Expanse, and Za'qul's Fear and Delirium realms may be related to Ny'alotha.
 * The alternate dimension inhabited by the consumers of souls in the Brawler's Guild may be Ny'alotha.