World of Warcraft’s current big bad Xal’atath has been shrouded in shadow for years, but a new animated short is giving fans their best look yet at her origins and motivations–if she’s telling the truth.

Titled Supremacy, the animated short shows Xal’atath confronting Nexus King Salhadaar, leader of the Ethereals. Salhadaar is reluctant to join Xal’atath and her army of the Void, at first fighting back. But once Xal’atath appears in person to make her case, Salhadaar can’t help but listen.

Rather than using brute force alone, Xal’atath instead tries a different tactic to convince Salhadaar to join her. She offers to tell him “the truth no one living has heard.” That truth is that Xal’atath was once, long ago, mortal. As the short flashes back to show a young, bald girl being consumed by the Void, she recounts how she lost her world to the Void, just like Salhadaar’s world of K’aresh was destroyed by the Void Lord Dimensius.

Like Salhadaar, she says she too “drowned in hatred and vengeance.” The one thing she learned over an eternity, she continues, is that survival is all that matters. She now seeks to ensure the survival of others like her, those who are part of the Void. After her story, Salhadaar makes his choice, joining Xal’atath and committing his Ethereals to her cause.

It’s a short full of revelations, and one that echoes fan-favorite, lore-heavy animations like Lords of War and Warbringers released ahead of previous expansions. But fans in the comments are already wondering how much of her tale is true. Xal’atath is known to lie and manipulate to get what she wants, and this case seems to be no different. If she was once mortal and her world was destroyed by the Void, it does add an interesting wrinkle to her motivations. After all, Xal’atath is known as the Harbinger of the Void. If that same Void was what once destroyed her world and “drowned” her in hatred, why does she seemingly seek to do the same to Azeroth?

It’s a question that might be answered in Midnight, but will likely play out over the course of the expansion and into the next, The Last Titan, bringing a conclusion to Blizzard’s three-expansion-long Worldsoul Saga storyline. Regardless, Xal’atath has come a long way since she was first introduced in 2016 as a talking dagger during the game’s Legion expansion. Now, a decade later, she’s joined the pantheon of iconic Warcraft villains that include the likes of Illidan and Arthas.

Midnight releases March 2, but its pre-patch update that adds a new Demon Hunter specialization, new player housing options, major class talent changes, and big changes for combat-focused, player-made mods is live now. Earlier this month, Blizzard outlined the year ahead for WoW in 2026, outlining what players can expect from Midnight’s major content updates.