Naga

The Naga are one of the monster races of Warcraft. They were originally Night Elves^A) that sunk under the sea with their Queen Azshara. After sinking, the energies of the Well of Eternity transformed them into Naga. Or, if you believe the retcon, they were transformed by the Old God N’zoth.^B)

I’d do ‘em ‘cause Naga are hot…but I’m not a scalie.

Most Naga live in the Nazjatar Empire, which is ruled by Queen Azshara. Though there are at least two other Naga factions of significance. However, it’s not super clear to me whether these two other factions are subservient to the Nazjatar or not.

Naga society, like Night Elves society is split among strict gender lines, though here it seems to be due to biological reality: males are typically bulkier and stronger, while females are slender and intelligent.
So in a reversal of the Nelf situation, the Naga females are the spell-casters while the males are the warriors.

Most Naga females have 4 arms, though by implication some have 2. Sometimes they have snakes for hair and sometimes they have extra appendages and/or tentacles.

Illidan’s Naga are led by Lady Vashj (as far as I’m aware). They mostly followed Illidan’s orders for some unclear reason.

Zar'jira is the Sea Witch that is encountered in the Warcraft 3 demo Orc campaign. She rules over a group of murlocs to do her bidding.
She is also apparently canonically dead.

Whether she’s connected to Nazjatar or not is unknown.

The Naga Anomalies are really freaking cool conceptually. It’s honestly baffling that they weren’t integrated into the lore. I’m guessing the reason why is due to the whole N’zoth retcon, which really doesn’t mesh with their lore.

So, what is that lore? Well, Naga Anomalies are those Naga who found themselves affected waaaay more by the residual energies of the Well of Eternity than the average Naga. Consequently, they experience more mutations than the average Naga.
So, for example, Naga women can grow more arms…but Naga Anomalies can grow even more arms…or grow tentacles…or learn to squirt ink.

It’s speculated that Naga Brutes are a (half-assed) rehash of the Anomaly concept.

Naga sirens, not to be confused with sirens or sirens.

All Naga Sirens are female Naga but not all female Naga are sirens.
Sirens are, as far as I understand, just a class of female Naga. They aren’t actually a sub-species or anything.
All the Sirens in WC3 have four arms, which I didn’t know until more recently.

Most Naga females are born with 4 arms, according to the RPG…so what if you’re born with only 2? Does that place you at a disadvantage in society?

Zar’jira showcases an interesting idea that could be explored. I’m not sure whether Blizzard has tried to or not though.

Basically, what if the Nazjatar Empire is kinda a loose coalition or a federation/confederation instead of one unified centralized Empire? All Naga revere Azshara, but not all Naga are directly subservient.

It’s here that Zar’jira shows a concept for what this might look like. Imagine a scenario where Zar’jira is chilling in her own little realm when a messenger arrives from Nazjatar. This messenger requests that Zar’jira provide some kind of aid (attack a target; supply with x, y, z) in exchange for something or other. And that this is a request of the Queen.
Zar’jira then has the option of saying “No, currently I’m doing x so I can’t do it.” or going “Yes, anything for the Queen.”
This could result in an overall more interesting dynamic. You could have individual Naga factions actively fighting each-other, but putting aside their differences to do something for the Empire as a whole.

• Naga
• Naga anomaly