Chapter Summaries

Thrall and his companions learned about the Zandalari Empire’s belief in the Crystal Firmament and attended a banquet hosted by Emperor Ata. The banquet revealed that the passage to the gods’ realm had been closed, shaking the Zandalari’s hopes and leaving the cause uncertain.

• Dasa explained that Zandalari status was once marked by the size of one’s tusks, while Yeh'kinya made language scrolls for the group.
• A Zandalari Priest described the City of the Sky and the Crystal Firmament, and Dasa confirmed that the Priest’s account matched his returning memories.
• Thrall reminded the group that they had come to obtain a superweapon, and the Priest invited them to Emperor Ata’s banquet.
• Emperor Ata appeared before the guests, whose praise was intensified by magic, and a Priest reported that a Loa had found the Crystal Firmament only five hundred and thirty meters above the city.
• The Priest announced that the passage through the Crystal Firmament had been closed, prompting alarm among the Zandalari Priests and Witch Doctors.

Apate revealed nine ancient riddles that had to be solved to open the sealed passage through the Crystal Firmament, and Emperor Ata offered five hundred years of life as a reward. Thrall forbade his companions from answering, but Yeh'kinya disappeared and submitted a solution to the summoning riddle, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Apate showed Emperor Ata and the assembled guests the nine riddles engraved on the sealed door in the Crystal Firmament and explained that Torga had translated them.
• Emperor Ata offered five hundred years of life to anyone who solved one of the riddles, prompting Hagara and Morchok to recognize questions they might answer.
• Thrall ordered his companions not to solve any riddles, but Yeh'kinya was missing the next morning.
• Mulgore warned that one riddle concerned summoning a god, and Thrall concluded that Yeh'kinya had gone to summon Hakkar the Soulflayer.
• Dasa explained that the Zandalari could use magic but did not understand its underlying principles, while Thrall had hoped to trade the answers for the empire's superweapon.
• Yeh'kinya submitted his answer to the summoning riddle, hoping to help the Zandalari people reach the realm of the gods.

Yeh'kinya agreed to lead Emperor Ata's attempt to summon Hakkar the Soulflayer, realizing the emperor's riddles had been bait to find someone capable of contacting powerful beings. As preparations advanced, Dasa recovered memories of the Ancient Zandalari Empire's coming catastrophe and warned that Hakkar might have caused its collapse.

• Yeh'kinya answered the priests' and Witch Doctors' questions about the riddles, and they confirmed his answers were correct.
• Emperor Ata asked Yeh'kinya about his origins and whether he had summoned an otherworldly god; Yeh'kinya admitted he had called forth Hakkar's avatar.
• Emperor Ata offered Yeh'kinya five hundred years of life and the title of grand imperial preceptor if he led a new summoning, and Yeh'kinya accepted under pressure.
• Yeh'kinya moved into a luxurious but guarded residence and assigned priests and Witch Doctors tasks to prepare the ritual in the City of the Sky.
• Dasa entered Yeh'kinya's room with a dark blade, revealed that his memories had returned, and warned that the empire's disaster was near and Hakkar might be responsible.

Robbie and Vanessa reached a village in the ancient Zandalari Empire and learned that Emperor Ata’s rule reduced sinners to monsters and demanded people as taxes. The chapter ended with Akalari and his wife accepting that their eldest son, M'qinba, would be taken next.

• Robbie and Vanessa followed a river through the forest and met Akalari, who had killed a monster called Blood Food.
• Akalari explained that Emperor Ata punished sinners by stripping away their reason and turning them into Blood Food.
• The villagers welcomed Robbie and Vanessa with food, while Akalari refused Vanessa’s magic bread in defense of Zandalari dignity.
• Akalari’s eldest son recognized a pendant on the Blood Food as one he had given his brother, but Akalari silenced him and threw the pendant away.
• A tax collector announced increased taxes to help solve a puzzle discovered by the Crystal Firmament.
• Akalari and his wife discussed sending M'qinba as the next tax, after seven of their other children had already been taken.

Robbie questioned Muiba’s ghost and concluded that the Zandalari Empire’s known capabilities could not explain the construction of the City of the Sky. Meanwhile, Yeh'kinya challenged Emperor Ata over summoning Hakkar and learned that Ata hoped the god would explain a mysterious image threatening the empire’s survival.

• Robbie summoned Muiba’s ghost, who recalled being forced to build Emperor Ata’s tomb before escaping through a Portal and losing his memories to a curse.
• Robbie and Vanessa discussed the Zandalari Empire’s limited labor and considered whether an outside power had helped build the City of the Sky.
• Yeh'kinya asked Emperor Ata why he intended to summon Hakkar, and Ata threatened to punish him for questioning his authority.
• Yeh'kinya warned that the priests could not safely perform the summoning without his people’s knowledge, and Ata admitted they needed him.
• Emperor Ata explained that a picture of a flayed Zandalari Troll hanging upside down had appeared on a door, and he wanted Hakkar to interpret its warning about the empire’s survival.

Emperor Ata took Yeh'kinya into the Emperor's Temple and recounted the deeds of Zandalar's greatest rulers. After hearing how Emperor Rast, Emperor Gula, and Emperor Grid had saved their people and Azeroth, Yeh'kinya listened as Ata began describing Emperor Silute.

• Yeh'kinya hesitated to trust Emperor Ata, but Ata invited him to the Emperor's Temple.
• Emperor Ata permitted Yeh'kinya to enter, then showed him the seven emperors' golden statues.
• Ata told Yeh'kinya how Emperor Rast defeated the Aqir and negotiated a lasting peace before dying abroad.
• Ata recounted how Emperor Gula defeated Archimonde in single combat and repelled the Burning Legion.
• Ata explained how Emperor Grid discovered a cure for the Void contamination from the Well of Eternity.
• Ata began describing Emperor Silute's peaceful, prosperous reign and the Dragonkin's demands on Zandalar.

Emperor Ata secured Yeh'kinya's help in preparing to summon Hakkar, while Thrall and his companions learned of the plan and left the City of the Sky for King's Rest. On the way, they discovered that Prince Dasa used necromancy on slaves to build the tomb and were left fearing there was nowhere safe in the Zandalari Empire.

• Emperor Ata told Yeh'kinya about the seven emperors and asked him to help ensure the realm of the gods was safe during Hakkar's summoning.
• Yeh'kinya pledged himself to Ata and spent the following days preparing the summoning, convinced the Zandalari people would ascend to the realm of the gods.
• Thrall criticized Yeh'kinya's devotion to his people and decided that he and his companions should leave the City of the Sky to avoid being caught in Ata's plans.
• Thrall and his companions traveled through a Portal toward King's Rest to meet Prince Dasa, while a Priest praised the Prince as kind and welcoming.
• Mulgore secretly cast a truth spell, and the Priest revealed that Dasa resurrected slaves as Undead to build the tomb on Mount Mugamba.
• Thrall and his companions stopped in alarm when they learned Dasa turned outsiders into Undead overseers.

Yeh'kinya's attempt to summon Hakkar for Emperor Ata's questions turned into a betrayal when Ata ordered Hakkar's full descent. After Hakkar arrived, Yeh'kinya broke free and savagely attacked Ata, leaving the emperor near death.

• Yeh'kinya and the Zandalar priests summoned Hakkar's phantom, and Emperor Ata ordered the final summoning so Hakkar could descend upon Azeroth.
• Yeh'kinya confronted Ata over his deception, but Ata had guards and Court Mages bind him while Hakkar taught the priests how to complete the summoning.
• Yeh'kinya exploited conflicts between the restraining spells to break free as Hakkar's true body approached.
• Yeh'kinya used Restless Souls to break Ata's magical shields, then attacked and tortured him while fending off the Court Mages with his Magic Shield.
• Yeh'kinya left Ata barely alive and told Hakkar that he could not kill anyone in Hakkar's presence.

Hakkar named Yeh'kinya Jin'do the Godbreaker and made him his Priest, then negotiated with Emperor Ata over restoring the emperor's strength. Emperor Ata agreed to sacrifice half of Zandalar's people, while Yeh'kinya suspected Hakkar had a larger plan but chose not to intervene.

• Hakkar named Yeh'kinya Jin'do the Godbreaker and ordered him and Emperor Ata to work together.
• Hakkar healed Emperor Ata, who requested a strong body despite being unable to escape the imperial family's shortened lifespan.
• Hakkar demanded the souls of half of Zandalar's people in exchange for fulfilling Emperor Ata's wish.
• Emperor Ata silenced the Priests and Witch Doctors' objections with his black scepter and agreed to Hakkar's terms.
• Yeh'kinya suspected Hakkar's demands concealed a greater conspiracy but decided it was no longer his concern.

Robbie and Vanessa investigated Emperor Ata’s oracle and learned from Ulda that the emperor might be sacrificing the marked citizens to an evil entity. At the City of the Sky, Robbie saw through the illusion and discovered that the supposed 32,000-meter stairway to the gods was only 130 meters tall.

• Emperor Ata’s notice claimed that citizens marked on their right hands had been chosen to ascend to the realm of the gods, and the marked people celebrated.
• Robbie met Ulda, a Moonfolk scholar who said his people worshipped Blue Child and shared an origin with the Zandalari.
• Ulda warned Robbie and Vanessa that Emperor Ata had turned his father undead and might be offering half the population as sacrifices.
• Robbie, Vanessa, and Ulda traveled through a Portal to the City of the Sky with the marked Zandalari.
• Robbie used the Eye of C’Thun and revealed that the City of the Sky was an illusion hiding a structure only 130 meters tall.

Thrall was captured by Yeh'kinya and sent to Nazmir to stop Dasa and Mulgore from releasing G'huun, but he decided that summoning G'huun might force Emperor Ata to use the superweapon. The chapter ended with Thrall explaining his plan to Hagara and Morchok as they trekked through the swamp.

• Mulgore returned to Dasa and revealed that Thrall and his companions had been taken to the City of the Sky, where Dasa explained his plan to oppose Hakkar by releasing G'huun.
• Yeh'kinya imprisoned Thrall, Hagara the Stormbinder, and Morchok, then offered Thrall freedom if he went to Nazmir to stop Dasa and Mulgore from releasing G'huun.
• Thrall accepted Yeh'kinya's offer and traveled with Hagara and Morchok through the muddy swamps of Nazmir.
• Thrall told his companions that he intended to summon G'huun because Emperor Ata would use the superweapon to protect his throne from G'huun's threat to the royal succession.

Dasa and Mulgore reached Uldir and began using G'huun's blood power to break its seal, while Thrall hurried toward the ruin hoping to recruit the Blood God. Dasa learned that they could summon only a weakened avatar, and Robbie realized it would not be strong enough to face Hakkar.

• Hagara questioned whether Zandalar's superweapon existed, but Thrall decided that controlling G'huun would serve the same purpose and ordered Morchok to carry him.
• Dasa and Mulgore reached Uldir and concluded that they had to use G'huun's power from outside to break the Titan prison's seal.
• Mulgore absorbed G'huun's blood power into a crystal ball, and Dasa transformed into the first Blood Troll matriarch as G'huun whispered instructions to him.
• Dasa raised blood-infected skeletons from the swamp and explained that destroying the buried seals would create an avatar with only one-tenth of G'huun's true strength.
• Thrall, Morchok, and Hagara raced through the blood-red swamp as Robbie told Vanessa that Dasa's summoned G'huun could not stand up to Hakkar.

Robbie struggled to find a way to use G'huun against Hakkar, who planned to fuse G'huun's blood power into a weapon. After Vanessa suggested waiting for the right moment, Robbie contacted Dasa and promised to create an opening for G'huun to act.

• Dasa destroyed the Blood Marsh's seals, but G'huun interrupted the spell to assemble his avatar because he feared Hakkar would attack.
• Dasa asked Robbie to free G'huun's true body, but Robbie refused because he had no safe way to reach it and feared what G'huun might do.
• Hakkar told Yeh'kinya he intended to take G'huun's power and began experiments that transformed believing Zandalari slaves into Children of Hakkar.
• Vanessa advised Robbie to wait for the right moment to kill a god, and Robbie decided to arrange an opening for G'huun.
• Robbie contacted Dasa and told him to persuade G'huun to assemble his avatar when the opportunity came.

Dasa negotiated with G'huun to oppose Hakkar, but Thrall nearly secured G'huun's allegiance before refusing the transformation required to become a Blood Orc. Meanwhile, the Zandalari gathered at the City of the Sky faced starvation, prompting Hakkar to move his ritual forward.

• Dasa offered G'huun the Zandalari Empire's subjects and faith in exchange for helping stop Hakkar, and G'huun agreed to spread his blood plague when the opportunity came.
• Thrall arrived with Hagara and Morchok, claimed the Orcs would rule Azeroth in the future, and persuaded G'huun to side with him by promising Orc reinforcements through time.
• Mulgore revealed that accepting G'huun's blood power required Thrall to become a woman, so Thrall withdrew from the deal, and G'huun reaffirmed his agreement with Dasa.
• Robbie watched the negotiations and began planning a contingency while Zandalari arrivals at the City of the Sky exhausted their food supplies.
• Emperor Ata could not feed the gathered Zandalari, so Yeh'kinya proposed an early ritual to Hakkar, who agreed to begin it ahead of schedule.

Robbie and Vanessa watched Emperor Ata force ten million Zandalari into a sacrifice ritual for Hakkar, while Hakkar diverted to stop G'huun's blood plague from reaching the crowd. The ritual neared completion until seven undead emperors appeared and ordered Ata to stop, leaving him struggling to keep hold of the Dark Scepter.

• Robbie and Vanessa observed the ten million silent Zandalari gathered outside the City of the Sky as Emperor Ata prepared the ritual.
• Emperor Ata used the Dark Scepter to compel the crowd to praise him and accept being sacrificed to Hakkar.
• Hakkar began channeling corrupted blood toward the Zandalari, but G'huun formed an avatar in Nazmir and sent a blood plague toward the city.
• Hakkar ordered Yeh'kinya to continue the ritual while he intercepted G'huun's plague cloud.
• Seven undead emperors from the Emperor's Temple confronted Ata and ordered him to stop the ritual, prompting Yeh'kinya to pause it.
• Ata resisted the ancestors' authority and clung to the Dark Scepter as it began slipping from his control.

Emperor Ata used the Dark Scepter to expose the hidden crimes and failures of Zandalar’s former emperors as they challenged his right to keep it. He began revealing Emperor Gula’s true appearance, leaving the judgment unfinished.

• Emperor Ata accused Emperor Puruide of betraying his people to the Man-eating Tusk Clan, and Emperor Puruide collapsed in anguish.
• Emperor Ata revealed that Emperor Silute neglected his rule, provoked the Dragonkin, and spent the rest of his life imprisoned.
• Emperor Ata admitted his own guilt, then condemned Emperor Puruide for driving proto-dragon Galakrond mad and nearly destroying the empire.
• Emperor Ata accused Emperor Enwei of wasting millions of lives in a failed invasion of the Elemental Plane.
• Emperor Ata blamed Emperor Grid for giving Azeroth’s coordinates to a Void Creature, which unleashed corruption and plague.
• Emperor Ata told Emperor Gula that his celebrated appearance was false and that he had once been a fat man unable to get out of bed.

Emperor Ata condemned the failures of Emperor Gula and Emperor Rast before Hakkar’s followers prepared the Zandalari for sacrifice. Emperor Zandalar, the empire’s founder, appeared and Yeh'kinya began judging him, revealing that Xal'atath had freed the Trolls before Zandalar rose to power.

• Emperor Ata recounted how Emperor Gula surrendered to Burning Legion survivors and how the Zandalari were thereafter forced to sacrifice souls.
• Emperor Ata accused Emperor Rast of surrendering the City of the Sky to the Aqir, leading to mass slaughter and generations of tribute.
• Emperor Ata urged the Zandalari to become vessels for Hakkar’s Children, and Yeh'kinya resolved to continue the judgment.
• A black-robed figure appeared and injured Emperor Ata, who identified him as the founding emperor, Dark Emperor Zandalar.
• Emperor Ata gave Yeh'kinya the Dark Scepter and ordered him to judge Emperor Zandalar in his place.
• Yeh'kinya challenged Emperor Zandalar and described how Xal'atath had freed the Trolls before Zandalar appeared.

Yeh'kinya exposed Emperor Zandalar as the Qiraji Prophet Skeram, who had taken the Troll founder’s body and oppressed his people for over a hundred thousand years. After Yeh'kinya declared the emperor guilty and the Dark Scepter shattered, the Zandalari lost its influence and began reverting to their Man-eating Tusk appearance, leaving Emperor Ata to ask Yeh'kinya to kill him and disappear.

• Yeh'kinya confronted Emperor Zandalar over the slaughter, slavery, and prohibition of magic that had harmed the Trolls.
• Yeh'kinya revealed that Emperor Zandalar was Prophet Skeram, a Qiraji who had devoured the real Zandalar’s soul and seized his body.
• Yeh'kinya declared Emperor Zandalar guilty, causing the Dark Scepter to shatter and Xal'atath to withdraw its authority.
• The Zandalari, including Emperor Ata, began changing as the Dark Scepter’s suppression of their Man-eating Tusk bloodline ended, and chaos spread.
• Emperor Ata removed his crown and finery, then asked Yeh'kinya to kill him and live anonymously among the Zandalari.

After the Dark Scepter shattered, Robbie learned that the founding Emperor of Zandalar had not been an Aqir, while Hakkar forged Corrupted Blood from G'huun and unleashed it on the Zandalari. As the plague threatened mass death among people forbidden by custom to learn magic, Robbie gave Ulda a crystal ball that could track Emperor Ata's key.

• The founding Emperor of Zandalar asked Robbie whether he had been an Aqir, and Robbie explained that Hakkar's priest had been deceived by a false message.
• The City of the Sky shattered before the panicked people outside it, while Hakkar defeated G'huun in the Blood Marsh.
• G'huun revealed that Mother Dasa and the resurrected Blood Trolls were spreading plague seeds, and Hakkar refined G'huun's body into a Blood Crystal.
• Hakkar created Corrupted Blood and spread it across the Zandalari Empire, exploiting the people's longstanding refusal to learn magic.
• Ulda urged Robbie to have Emperor Ata order the Zandalari to learn magic, but Robbie said the people would treat that as defying their customs without the Dark Scepter.
• Robbie gave Ulda a crystal ball that tracked the key Emperor Ata had taken when he disappeared.

Emperor Ata was beaten and enslaved while trying to reach a hidden Portal, and Ulda traced the key to Prince Dasa at the construction site of King's Rest. Ulda discovered that the Zandalari imperial bloodline had apparently died out, while Thrall confronted the devastation caused by Corrupted Blood in a coastal city.

• Emperor Ata was attacked by a tax collector, who dragged him away to work on the mausoleum at King's Rest.
• Ulda found Prince Dasa holding the key taken from Emperor Ata and explained the chaos in the City of the Sky.
• Ulda tested more than five hundred slaves for imperial blood but found none, then learned that Dasa had been born in the Blood Marsh rather than a temple.
• Ulda concluded that Prince Dasa might be the last descendant of the Zandalari imperial bloodline and that the Zandalari were actually members of the Man-eating Tusk Clan.
• Thrall saw the deaths and decay caused by Corrupted Blood in a coastal city and questioned the point of fighting over it.