In the midst of all the escalation that will ultimately lead to a battle in the Horde's central capital, we will also be granted access to a strange place: the Timeless Isle.
The Timeless Isle seems to appear from time to time, always locked in time, such that it is always sunset there. This could be a window into the past, or a vision of the future. Why has it appeared? What is its significance?
Let's rewind (or time-travel, if you will) back to the end of Cataclysm. Deathwing's rampage across Azeroth required the other four Aspects to unite, along with Thrall, to defeat the Worldbreaker. In order to do so, we used the Caverns of Time in order to travel back to the War of the Ancients, to retrieve the Dragon Soul before it became corrupted, so that we could use it against Deathwing. Yet in order to do that, we first had to defeat Murozond, the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight. Finally, we had confirmation: Murozond was none other than a future version of Nozdormu. The Aspect of Time had been granted a vision of his own demise by Aman'thul, and knowing what he would become, orchestrated the whole thing, even watching his own future death as he he aided us with the Hourglass of Eternity.
And yet, time is pretty slippery. After all, we defeated Deathwing before he could bring about the Hour of Twilight. So the future in which Murozond died never occurred. Is Nozdormu off the hook? Or has his loss of power led instead to the very madness that will ultimately corrupt him?
While the Timeless Isle is not quest-heavy, it does appear that there is a plot that will slowly be revealed. With the de-powering of the Aspects, reducing the dragons to mere mortals, the Keepers of Time can no longer patrol the timeways to keep them safe. Instead, the mortal Timewalkers have arisen to fill that role.
Yet there appears to be a traitor in their midst. What might this traitor's goal be? And is Nozdormu involved in the Timewalkers' activities? Have we averted the creation of the Infinites? Or guaranteed their eventuality?
Why are we dealing with a time-travel themed area now? This is, after all, the first expansion where we have not once encountered the Infinite Dragonflight or spent any time in the Caverns of Time. Is the Timeless Isle connected to them? In some ways, it seems to be the opposite.
Going into pure speculation mode: While I loved the fight, I was always a little disappointed that we beat Murozond in a simple 5-man dungeon. Here was a corrupted Aspect, just as if not more dangerous than Deathwing. Sure, Malygos went down relatively easy (if your raid could handle the drakes) but having mastery over time seems like a real gamebreaker ability. Yet perhaps the defeat of Murozond was just a demonstration of how dangerous he really is. We defeated him in one reality, but given that he knows exactly how he will die, he could easily have created multiple timelines. When Deathwing was killed, Nozdormu used his powers to ensure that Deathwing would be killed at a kind of time-nexus, utterly ensuring his destruction (no backsies.) Not so with Murozond. Perhaps that first encounter was only the first time we would meet him. Hell, he could even still die in that cancelled timeline (somehow,) but he's a time-traveler! He could have been thousands of years older than he is now when we killed him, with plenty of time to crush, kill, and destroy. In fact, by ensuring that he would die at that exact time, he's given himself a sort of causality-enforced invincibility for the time being.
We've been dealing with the Infinites since the Burning Crusade. But for all we know, they haven't even been created yet.
Sure, we're probably meant to believe that the Timeless Isle is our last little trip to enjoy Pandaria before we head off to new lands, but it might be far more important.
A time-traveling foe has the potential to be more dangerous than the Burning Legion and the Old Gods combined. When you can mess with the nature of causality, you can do practically anything.
I know we're all pretty sure that the next expansion will be "The Dark Below," and it may indeed be so. On the other hand, consider this: Sinestra was experimenting with the Netherdrakes in Shadowmoon Valley two whole expansions before we had to deal with the Twilight Dragonflight. Sure, you might figure that after Endtime, the whole Infinite Dragonflight plotline is finished, but what if it's all been setup?
What if the timeline will soon (as if that term has any meaning regarding time travel) be manipulated beyond recognition?
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