The storyline from the latest World of Warcraft patch ends way too positively. There is evidence that we have only condemned Nozdormu to its fate…
Patch 10.1.5 Rifts in Time has been online in World of Warcraft for a few days and with it the mega-dungeon “Dawn of the Eternal”. The heroes accompany Chromie to save Nozdormu. But it’s all going a little too smoothly to be true…
There are many indications that Nozdormu was not saved at all. We break that down.
Spoiler alert: The article covers the plot of patch 10.1.5 and more specifically the Dawn of the Eternal mega-dungeon. Don’t read any further if you don’t want to be spoiled.
The tale of the bronze dragon Nozdormu, doomed to eventually become leader of the Infinite Dragonflight and ruin the timelines as Murozond, is one of the more tragic tales of World of Warcraft. It is a dilemma that cannot be resolved.
When Nozdormu was empowered by the titans, he was given the power over time. But with that came a vision. He saw himself dying and at the same time knew that death must occur in order to protect the “true” timeline. Nozdormu’s transformation into Murozond, and with it his death, is inevitable.
At least that’s what we thought so far. In the dungeon “Dawn of the Eternal” we are supposedly taught better. We accompany Chromie, solve a few problems with the timelines and in the end make a decision: do we prevent Iridikron from receiving the essence of Galakrond? Or do we prevent Nozdormu from becoming Murozond even as a proto-drake?
Chromie’s decision is clear: she wants to protect Nozdormu, so let’s prevent that and let Iridikron escape with the Essence of Galakrond.
Nozdormu is saved and so are the timelines. Or?
Presumably that’s not the case. Because there are many indications that Nozdormu is still becoming Murozond. We may have delayed his transformation a little – or, in the worst case, even guaranteed it through our actions.
Colleagues at wowhead and Twitter user Portergauge have had some thoughts on the incidents, which we’re breaking down here.
Everything wrong
The Aspect Paradox
In the Dawn of the Eternal dungeon, we experience the Aspects before they became the Aspects. They are still proto-drakes and have not yet been empowered by the titans. So they don’t even have their aspect power yet.
But that creates quite a paradox. If Nozdormu is to become Murozond in the true timeline, it cannot be done before he is given the power of an Aspect. Because in that case he would already become Murozond before he even saw the vision of his own death or had the power over time. This would also prevent Murozond from having that power, so that doesn’t make much sense.
The second clue is in the old dungeon “End Times”. The boss Murozond has a clear description there in the dungeon journal explaining how he actually became Murozond. According to him, “He was tricked by the Old Gods into trying to avert his own mortality.” In doing so, Nozdormu destroyed the timeways and created the Infinite Dragonflight.
In other words, Nozdormu never envisioned himself becoming Murozond in the Dawn of the Eternal dungeon. This was not the vision of his death that he had from the beginning.
The second inconsistency is how we prevent Murozond. After Chromie sees the rise of Murozond, she travels back in time a few hours and we travel to the same place again, but this time dealing with Deios who wants to transform Nozdormu.
If preventing Murozond really was that simple as just “going back in time for a moment and doing one thing differently” would it have caused such problems and nightmares for Nozdormu? If the solution to his transformation is for the bronze dragons to only have to travel back in time briefly and restore the true timeline, that would hardly have been a problem for Nozdormu. Because exactly such difficulties solve the bronze dragons since they were empowered by the titans.
Nozdormu must become Murozond – And many clues are missing
Above all, there are clear indications in the game that this story is not closed. A clue is a piece of loot from the dungeon. The Murozond’s Ageless Scale shield (link to wowhead) drops from the final boss Deios and has quite an interesting flavor text. This shows that Deios does not act of its own accord, because:
“Care for my ascension, Deios. There is no one I trust more.”
Further indications are that important information does not appear in the dungeon at all. So we learn very little about the motivation of the Eternals in the dungeon. While patch 10.1.5 has us covered at every turn as to what the bronze dragons swear and what their purpose is, very little is said about the Eternals. Sure, we already know their goals – but why they deviate from their original plan or what advantages they get from an alliance with Iridikron, that’s not mentioned at all.
Soridormi in particular, who is present at the time rifts, keeps mentioning what the bronze dragons actually do and why their task is so important. By the way, Soridormi is also doomed to die in the true timeline.
Also absent: Eternus. The Dragon Lady of the Eternal Swarm was an important part of the Thaldraszus questline in the 10.0 storyline and didn’t appear at all in patch 10.1.5. Blizzard is unlikely to have forgotten about this character, especially since it was the first “friendly” eternal dragon ever encountered. The fact that a character that is so important for Chromie does not appear makes many skeptical.
A final clue is the name of the dungeon itself, although the clue is somewhat lost in the German version. “Dawn of the Eternal” means “Dawn of the Infinite” in the English original, which would be more precisely translated as “Dawn of the Eternal”. Because “Dawn” is clearly the beginning of a day, a beginning. In the dungeon itself, however, we seem to be bringing about the end of Murozond – so that doesn’t fit at all.
So it’s very likely that our actions, and Chromie’s, guaranteed that Murozond would be created exactly as he envisioned it back then.
We’ve stopped his transformation now—making his transformation possible later.
So it remains to be seen what happens to Nozdormu. Because the fact that he will and must become Murozond hasn’t changed.
Did Blizzard just screw it up?
Of course, all of these problems can be solved with a simple answer, which WoW critics in particular will easily accept: Blizzard simply ruined the story and provided an actually so important part of the story with a much too simple solution that also defies contradictions .
We will certainly see which of these two variants has occurred in the coming months and years. For starters, though, it would probably be wise not to assume that we really did save Nozdormu permanently and that he, Soridormi, and Chromie will now live on happily ever after until the end of the timeline.
What do you think of the patch 10.1.5 story?
A particularly cool quest from patch 10.1.5 is even “hidden” – have you already done it?