Indeed. At the very end of the War of the Ancients triology Nozdormu admits as much when he comments on the comming sufferings of Alexstrasza (paraphrased) "It is my curse to know these things and be unable to do anything about it".

Right, but without the orcs getting into Azeroth there would have been no Ner'zul in Northrend, so no Kel'thuzad, who summoned Archimonde.

I think it's safe to assume that Archimonde would have looked for and probably found another way to bring the Legion's plans to fruition in Azeroth.

That and the fact that were the Alliance not to be formed in the face of a common enemy, the various nations involved would end up turning on each other and thus weakening Azeroth's defences on the Eastern Kingdoms further. With the Horde on Azeroth, Thrall was there to lead his forces west to Kalimdor and encounter the Tauren, then to fight alongside the Alliance and Night Elves against the Legion at Hyjal. Had the Horde not been there to help, Archimonde might have overrun the Night Elf and Alliance forces -- had circumstances even led them to join forces.

I don't mean this as a snark, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to take the Bronze Dragonflight's word when it comes to the "what ifs" of changing timelines. They say, with certainty, "this is what happens in that other timeline," which I'm inclined to believe isn't supposed to be a guess or supposition.

As has been mentioned earlier, the Titans are obsessed with order, so it makes sense that the Aspects they empowered would be similarly aimed towards that goal. Consider how two of the Aspects have been twisted from their path, already - Neltharion driven insane by some Old God using this against him, and Malygos going all lockdown on magic for the sake of perfect order. It's obvious that the Aspects aren't immune to the ravages of stress and time (no pun intended), so it stands to reason that Nozdormu, after centuries of having to see things he can't change come to pass, finally loses it. It's also possible that the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight isn't technically Nozdormu himself, but some sort of split personality or even his anger and frustration made manifest?

Or Noz is on both sides of it at different times simultaniously. WoW time control allows for that - you can coexist alongside your earlier or later self and even talk smack about poor gear or lousy fighting skills. Apparently no inherent paradox or damage results from this. Pick any given moment and you probably have another "you." This is classic multiverse theory.

There's no inherent reason why this wouldn't be true for Dragon Aspects as well. The only difference with the Bronzies is that they have the means to go to any part in any timeline they want, and exist outside of any given timeline as well. Noz has the added complication that he "knows" time, or at least how some parts of it end up.

On top of that, whatever Noz has been doing is apparently so far into the arcane of the Bronze discipline that Chromie and other high-level Bronze dragons haven't even known where to look for him. As the strongest of the Bronze Flight, Noz could probably make quite sure that he couldn't be found by any of them.

Which seems to me the difference between the bronze and infinite dragon flights is a matter of opinion. Much like Malygos' descision that the way to protect magic is to eradicate those that abuse it, it is as if the infinite are doing what they are doing for the good of time/azeroth/order etc. Throughout all the 5mans the bosses and sub-bosses were always pleading with the player to see reason and were foreshadowing what comes about because of our actions. Now either that means what has happened so far is leading to something far worse in the future the infinites are trying to avoid (remember the bronze isn't in the saving people business, just the keeping time as it ought to be business), or in another scenario, the players' and other lore figures' constant drive for self-preservation is delaying and worsening the inevitable and that the world would be better off if we died. I never saw the infinites as evil, they just seem like a renegade sect of the bronze that are going against their directives to preserve time in order to right some wrongs. There is also the option that the OG corruption(tm) convinced noz that he has the power to stop it and the titans were wrong stopping him from doing so.

Or maybe Nozdormu has already seen it?

Just a thought.

I have to admit though the idea of the Infinite Dragonflight being led by some twisted/corrupt/insane/whatever version of Nozdormu just doesn't really fit with me. The Infinites aren't evil or malicious, they don't appear to be acting in the interests of power or any kind of personal gain, all the Infinites we've come across seem to be fairly reasonable individuals doing what they believe will save lives, their only vice is that they're too short-sighted, they're trying to do good but going about it in stupid, counter-productive ways.

I'm glad the Argent Crusade has found the time to build Coliseums and conduct tournaments while they wage war on the Lich King? *Head-scatch*

I can think of two possible explanations for this:

1. Tirion is preparing an assault force on Icecrown, but he needs to find the greatest champions to assist him so that he'll be sure none of them will stand in the fire... I mean ice. Never mind that when we actually assault Icecrown in game, it'll be our 24 guildmates, not the 25 greatest champions of the Argent Tournament. But it gives them yet another convenient reason to avoid giving Lolstabsu the Rogue any credit for Arthas's defeat. (Alternatively, the Icecrown raid could just assume that the champions are all NPCs, leaving us to go in alongside the Ebon Blade.)

2. Remember that picture that was floating around after 9/11... that claimed to be an artist's rendering of the 5 buildings that would be built on the World Trade Center site... in the shape of a middle finger? Okay, now imagine that we build that in Osama bin Laden's front yard. Tirion knows that Arthas the paladin was excessively arrogant, so he's betting that Arthas the Lich King will see this and make a tactical blunder of some kind.

Yes, this has also struck me as pretty strange. At first I found the association of Argent Crusade with tournaments totally out of place, but then realized that it might be quite a successful event in terms of PR - getting people interested in joining or supporting the cause of the Crusade in the "Show us your worth" and "Argent Crusade wants you" kind of way. This, however would make sense in the times of peace, not war, indeed.

I think Nazjatar rising from the sea would make a lot of sense. That would mean that Blizzard doesn't have to deal with problem of having majority of things underwater in the Maelstorm expansion.

And it gives us a reason to go there too. It makes the naga a real threat.

[e] Now if only it could explain Vashj... and SSC.

Well these pictures linked on MMO-Champion pretty much make it clear who´s going to be the endboss in Ulduar (Beast of thousand Maws 'n stuff):

That is one sexy boss, time to go digging in the MPQ for sound files.

Err, as soon as I get the patch, *foot-tap*

WoW #16 should come out tomorrow or Wed also.

Edit: Oh poo, doesn't look like they've added boss sounds yet. *Grumble*

I disagree, the pleading from the (sub)bosses sounds more like an attempt to trick the players into surrendering by appealing to their limited understanding of the consequences of altering history ("think of how many lives could be saved if the portal is never opened, if the resulting wars could be erased", sounds to me like "if you get in the way, all those deaths from the horde invasion will be *your* fault"). Aeonus doesn't even bother with that and claims to want to end the linear timeline as we know it ("The time has come to shatter this clockwork universe forever. Let us no longer be slaves of the hourglass.")

This theory could be interesting. What if all the Old Gods were actually the same, gigantic creature before the Titans broke it to pieces, and cast it all over Azeroth?

Stormwind wing? Wyrmrest temple? Lich King wing? Tram?

I thought PTR coming out would answer questions not give me more.

Well, the tram makes sense with the Gnomes originally being equally nerdy constructs, so I don't think these are random.

"Lich King Wing" also sure sounds like it is part of a winged raid instance, so there's no real reason to assume he's not part of it. People have previously discussed the idea of the Lich King showing up to settle some business with Yogg with how they are tied together. Arthas does have air mobile divisions after all - and he's been building a presumably indestructable living saronite necropolis next to Icecrown Citadel.

Wyrmrest Temple and Stormwind...bwah? Maybe that's insanity - or an escaping Old God?

Assuming "Stormwind" "Wyrmrest", etc are actual raid wings, it is possible that Yogg-Saron puts player under insanity and fight NPCs that appear to be of the corresponding faction.

While Uludar itself may not be divided into wings (can't tell yet since my character didn't transfer to the PTR yet), the breakdown of the sounds into 'wings' might just be in place to correspond to the various chunks of the instance that will be released for testing, since we already know we'll be getting it in batches.

Whether or not it's related or has any meaning; WoWWiki states that Wyrmrest Temple was originally inhabited by Storm Giants; who now hide in Ulduar(and Storm Peaks which may have been retconned for Frost Giants) to escape genocide. They're also scared of the scourge, who've killed them and used their corpses to create Flesh Giants. Could be some kind of additional war within Ulduar. I'm not sure this is too likely though. Furthering the old gods/dragons and Yogg-Saron/Lich King story or the insanity angle seems more likely.

Onyxia was also in Stormwind, so perhaps a throwback to it if dragons/Yogg is indeed true.