More ruins more naga: Lady Vespira

The reason that naga are frequently found in ancient ruins all over Azeroth has never been fully explained, I think. I assume one of the reasons is that the ruins are old kaldorei settlements which may once have been important to the Highborne, and the naga haunt them out of sentimentality. Another possibility is that they are searching for ancient artifacts of importance to them. Whatever the reason, coastal areas with ruins are often populated with naga, and today we spotlight yet another rarespawn naga found in such an area.

This post is about Lady Vespira.



Who is Lady Vespira and where can I find her?

Lady Vespira is a rare mob naga found in the ruins of Mathystra in Darkshore, on Kalimdor.



Vespira can be found in several spots around the large pit in the rough center of the ruins. She does not wander too far and has a different color and weapon than the other female naga in the area, and is thus easy to find.



You may remember that I mentioned Vespira when discussing her twin in Ashenvale. However, while they share almost the same name, the two are not twins in appearance. Vespia in Ashenvale is an orange-scaled naga with purple fins, while Vespira in Darkshore is a blue-scaled one with green fins. As I mentioned, I like the naga models, even if these are all the original versions which did not have access to a number of different weapon and armor textures.



For some reason, while she carries a halberd, Vespira only engages in ranged combat normally. She shoots, has a forked lightning attack and a knockdown. This is also in contrast with Vespia, who uses frost-based attacks. Forked and chain lightning are something of signature attacks for female naga, as it was one of the abilities Lady Vashj had in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Nonetheless, Vespira is easily beaten in combat.

Mistress of Mathystra

Before the Sundering, Mathystra was a kaldorei city. Today only naga dwell here in any permanent fashion (though this may of course change in Cataclysm). The naga tribe who dwell in this area of Darkshore are the Stormscale, and it is likely that Lady Vespira belongs to this tribe.



It is not improbable that she is the leader of the expeditionary force sent to Mathystra. Certainly her abilities set her apart from the lesser naga, as well as the fact that she carries a title. As noted before, naga are very fond of their titles. Vespira is also set apart by having not one but two unique magic item drops. Both are bind on equip and may be traded. She has a dagger (with a rather nice, stylish look to it) and a ring. I want to note that black pearls were quite rare and expensive things back during classic World of Warcraft, and Vespira carrying a ring with such a pearl is a nice nod to her station as well.



I also want to note that one of the reasons the naga are at Mathystra is due to an original design decision which was changed. Originally, during the alpha of WoW, the entrance to Blackfathom Deeps was located here. In fact, you can still see the old entrance there today. It is identical to the present one in Ashenvale too. In fact, the earliest manuals shipped with World of Warcraft had Blackfathom marked as being in Mathystra, but it had already been moved when the game was released. A fan theory is that Lady Vespia was created as a counterpart to Lady Vespira once the BFD entrance changed location, but I have no idea why they would bother with this for just a single rarespawn.



And there you go, a combination of interesting fun facts make Vespira quite fun, in my opinion. She is also one of those rarespawns I remember from my days in vanilla, as I once managed to run into her and loot that ring. Sharing personal memories is one of the best bits in rarespawn hunting!

Until next time
~Dragonshade