Azshara and surviving Highborne become naga

Full History

Queen Azshara and members of her Highborne court survived the destruction of the Well of Eternity, but they did not emerge unchanged. Their realm sank as the Sundering reshaped Azeroth, and the survivors became the naga beneath the sea. The transformation carried the legacy of the old empire into a world that its former rulers could no longer command from the surface.

Azshara's court had invited the Burning Legion through the Well, believing itself allied with powers greater than the inhabitants of Kalimdor. When the gateway failed, the resulting catastrophe destroyed the imperial capital and scattered the surviving night elves. Yet the queen and her followers endured in altered bodies, and the ancient divide between the Highborne and the defenders took another form. The naga would later appear as a people with their own ambitions and long memories of what the empire had been.

The Frozen Throne campaign introduces naga under Lady Vashj aiding Illidan and Kael'thas. Their presence is evidence that the consequences of the Sundering remained active long after the event. The original-era account establishes Azshara's survival and transformation, without needing to supply a later explanation of a bargain with powers not identified in these early sources.