Part of me assumes that the Timeless Isle was simply a way for Blizzard to create some (relatively) quick outdoor content that played with the conventions, serving primarily as an experimental grounds for doing level-capped content that did not involve daily quests.
And yet, the place has some odd stuff going on. It's called the Timeless Isle because time doesn't really flow there. It is perpetually stuck at just before sunset. It's haunted by the ghosts of human sailors (and a small handful of living ones) as well as ancient elemental spirits and a tribe of fire-worshipping Yaungol. And, for some reason, the spirit of Shaohao and the August Celestials hang out there.
Most of that stuff would work just fine as a standard "farewell to Pandaria" zone, but it's the time issues that make me curious.
Canonically, we haven't traveled through time since going to the War of the Ancients to retrieve the Dragon Soul before it was corrupted into the Demon Soul. In order to do so, however, we first had to contend with the fact that Murozond, the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight and future incarnation of the benevolent Nozdormu, had somehow locked things up, forcing us to travel to a post-apocalyptic future and defeat him.
On the Timeless Isle, there are two dragons. One is Wrathion, who is interested in using the odd phenomena of the place to help outfit his champion. The other is Kairoz, a member of the Bronze Dragonflight who is accompanied by many of the Timewalkers - a mortal group who is gradually taking on the role that the Keepers of Time used to play - protecting the timeways from interference.
Kairoz has you gather Epoch Stones in order to augment his ability to see through time. After the fall of Deathwing, all the Aspects expended their powers, significantly weakening their ability to perform their duties. Kairoz is thus trying to gain some of that power back - for benefit of Azeroth, of course.
Yet as we watch the visions, first seeing Thrall and Saurfang fighting their way into Ragefire Chasm, we gradually begin to see other aspects of the future. We see Garrosh defeated, yes, as one might expect of a raid boss. We see him (spoilers!) imprisoned at the Temple of the White Tiger, with Anduin presumably attempting to help rehabilitate him (good luck, kid.) Yet we see Kairoz himself in a number of these visions. Lastly, we see him standing by while Soridormi, Nozdormu's consort and probably the second most powerful Bronze Dragon in the world, dies.
There's a dangerous fact that the Bronze Dragons must realize: the Infinite Dragonflight is them. Murozond is the future Nozdormu, and he apparently dies just as Aman'thul had told him he would. The other Infinites may indeed be our own Bronze friends.
Kairoz himself, could become one of their agents, even if at this point in the timeline, he wants nothing more than to fulfill his Titan-assigned duty.
So, to go meta here, what is the purpose of the Timeless Isle? In many ways, it is a farewell to the lush land we've spent the last year in. We get to chill with nearly all the characters we've met along the way, and we get to find even more toy-like items in case our bags weren't filled up enough.
And yet, to throw all this stuff in here... Is Blizzard hinting at something?
Granted, sometimes Blizzard plays the long game. After all, we had Lady Sinestra gathering Netherdrake Eggs in Outland two expansions prior to culmination of the Black/Nether/Twilight Dragon plot.
But on the other hand, what if we're getting a huge preview of the next expansion and we don't even know it?
It seems like the two big concepts that are being tossed around for the next expansion are either a South Seas one with Azshara, or a Burning Legion themed one. Granted, some of that is based on the possibly-fake title that was floating around, the Dark Below, but those seem to be popular ideas - expansions that seem inevitable.
In theory, you could say the Infinite Dragonflight story ended in End Time. And yet, as I was saying in a post not too long ago, when you're dealing with time travelers, you can't get too comfortable with cause and effect. Sure, we may have seen the death of the Infinite Dragonflight (in a future that never came to pass, mind.) But we have still yet to see their creation.
Could we find out on November 8th that the next expansion will be all about time-travel?
Theoretically, we're going to get a 5.5, but rather than a raid patch, it will be another story-based, transitional one. (I don't know if this will simply take the place of the pre-expansion 6.0 patch.) Imagine, then, if the Timeless Isle, known for being totally unchanging, suddenly changes - and dramatically so. Shattered Timeways splinter out from this temporal anomaly, and it all centers around our buddy Kairoz. Hell, take a look at the Sha and then at the Infinite Dragons. Notice a similarity?
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hop in my virtual time machine and check in with the guys in November.
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