Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects

When Azeroth was young, the noble titans appointed the five great dragonflights to safeguard the budding world. Each of the flights' leaders was imbued with a portion of the titans' vast cosmic powers. Together, these majestic Dragon Aspects committed themselves to thwarting any force that threatened the safety of the WORLD OF WARCRAFT.

Over ten thousand years ago, a betrayal by the maddened black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, shattered the strength and unity of the dragonflights. His most recent assault on Azeroth—the Cataclysm—has left the world in turmoil. At the Maelstrom, the center of Azeroth's instability, former Horde warchief Thrall and other accomplished shaman struggle to keep the world from tearing apart in the wake of Deathwing's attack. Yet a battle also rages within Thrall regarding his new life in the shamanic Earthen Ring, hampering his normally unparalleled abilities.

Unable to focus on his duties, Thrall undertakes a seemingly menial task from an unexpected source: the mysterious green Dragon Aspect, Ysera. This humble endeavor soon becomes a journey spanning the lands of Azeroth and the timeways of history itself, bringing Thrall into contact with ancient dragonflights. Divided by conflict and mistrust, these dragons have become easy prey to a horrific new weapon unleashed by Deathwing's servants . . . a living nightmare engineered to exterminate Azeroth's winged guardians.

Of even greater concern is a bleak and terrifying possible future glimpsed by Ysera: the Hour of Twilight. Before this apocalyptic vision comes to pass, Thrall must purge his own doubts in order to discover his purpose in the world and aid Azeroth's dragonflights as they face the Twilight of the Aspects.

-Book starts with Thrall at the Maelstrom trying to soothe the elements with a spell he and the other shaman are casting. Nobundo is leading the spell this time, so apparently they've had to cast this spell many times over, even after the World Pillar has been fixed. Thrall screws up, people (especially Aggra) yell at him, and a refference is made to Thrall's apparent relationship to human women.

-We see Alex and Krasus in the Ruby Sanctum, which is described as damaged but recovering from a recent black dragonflight attack (hey, I was there for that!) They talk about the new blue aspect, Krasus seems prejudiced against the blues after the nexus war, though he grudgingly admits that he likes Kalecgos. Krasus stays with the eggs to read them a bedtime story while Alex goes to the meeting at the top of the temple. Arygos is there, he really hates Alex and the red flight, calling her arrogant to assume she should direct the destiny of the blue flight. Kalec tries to talk him down. Ysera appears and starts saying cryptic things about the Hour of Twilight. Arygos calls her crazy.

-Suddenly the Twilight Dragons appear! They're being led by the Twilight Father, who we all know by now is Benedictus (See soundfiles from Clysm Beta). The three dragonflights band together and start fighting them off, but Alexstrasza realizes that the attack had to be a diversion, and then we see the sanctums destroyed, with Krasus still inside. All signs point to Krasus being the one who did it, with Arygos saying that he had joined the twilight's hammer. Kalecgos doesn't believe it but has no proof. Alexstrasza goes mad with grief, shatters the Orb of Unity (effectively ending the accord), and flies away, attacking anyone trying to stop her. Later we learn that the eggs in the sanctums had been turned into chromatic whelps, and that they would eventually infect all the living dragons as well. Krasus uses his magic to destroy the sanctums. Meanwhile, Alex flies to a mountaintop in Desolace, where she says she's going to wait to die.

-Benedictus and the Twilight's Hammer capture Wyrmrest after the dragons flee. It's revealed that he has Arygos' sister, Kirygosa, captured on a magical chain that forces her to remain in human form. He reports to Deathwing, who is displeased that the dragons merely fled, and were not destroyed. In particular, he's angry that Ysera escaped. Apparently there was a prophecy that that says a single orc would one day rise up to challenge Deathwing and possibly defeat him. Deathwing, obviously, does not want this to happen and realizes Ysera would probably seek this orc out.

-Ysera realizes that Thrall is the only one who can stop the Hour of Twilight. She sends Thrall to go soothe the elements in a druid village in Feralas. He does so, meeting and befriending some night elves who live there. After putting out a fire, he realizes the forest was actually a grove of Ancients, and one of them gives him an acorn full of knowledge. The Ancients say that they're "confused." (Spoilers: it's because timeline fuckery)

- One of the night elf druids reveals himself to be a green dragon and says that soothing the elements of Feralas was a test by Ysera, and that they needed to see if Thrall was ready to go to the Caverns of Time and stop previously mentioned timeline fuckery. They go to the Caverns and Thrall learns about the infinite flight. He sees a little bit of hillsbrad - his past - and is a little freaked out. Desharin (The green dragon) suggests that they meditate. Just before Thrall starts, though, A Time Assassin appears! He beheads Desharin and starts attacking Thrall. They fight for a little bit before a bronze dragon throws him into a time portal, saying that Thrall's task is to find Nozdormu

- Thrall gets to relive certain parts of his past that were important to him. The murder of his parents, the landing on Kalimdor, a meeting with Medivh. The assassin shows up again during the murder of his mother and father, and thrall throws him into a river where he supposedly drowns. All the while he follows flashes of Nozdormu through important points of his life. Eventually he gets into the alt timeline we've all heard about*, talks to Taretha and Krasus, and figures out Blackmoore is the time assassin. Then he realizes that he has to live in the moment, and realizes that time is an illusion. When he opens his eyes he's outside of time itself with Nozdormu, who had gotten stuck in the timelines while searching for an answer to the dilema of the Infinite Flight.**

-Meanwhile, the blue dragonflight is trying to figure out who their next Aspect is going to be. Though most of them are more concerned with the problem of actually making someone a new aspect rather than actually deciding on one. Some of them believe that maybe they can't make a new aspect, and think that they'll simply vote one someone to take up the title. Kalec dislikes the idea of voting to give someone an empty title. It's also said that there's a schism in the flight between Arygos' supporters and Kalecgos'. Though apparently the two moons are going to be in conjunction in a few short days, just like is was when the Titans originally empowered the aspects***. Nozdormu also believes there's a conspiracy against the aspects.

-Ysera has a vision of the Hour of Twilight, in which the entire world is completely dead, with all of the aspects killed and deathwing impaled upon Wyrmrest. The twilight dragons are the only thing left alive, and they fly around Wyrmrest in victory.

-Nozdormu sets Thrall out on a task to rouse Alexstrasza from her grief. He rides Tick (who is a girl dragon!) to Desolace and confronts her, but fails in revitalizing her. He and Tick head off to the Nexus to unite the blues with the other flights.

Loktheris wrote: There's something about the lore for this that feels very... err... I don't know but very fan-fictiony to me, it's always been a long standing belief of mine that time travel should never have been implimented in Warcraft simply because of situations like these. What's everybody elses view on it?

Anaei/Vezullia wrote:

Loktheris wrote: There's something about the lore for this that feels very... err... I don't know but very fan-fictiony to me, it's always been a long standing belief of mine that time travel should never have been implimented in Warcraft simply because of situations like these. What's everybody elses view on it?

It kinda implies that once WoW dies they can keep the franchise going through books and movies..

Drustai wrote:Lame. Here I was hoping they'd scrapped the stupid 'BENEDICTUS IS TWILIGHT CULTIST!!!' idea.

Anaei/Vezullia wrote:

Drustai wrote:Lame. Here I was hoping they'd scrapped the stupid 'BENEDICTUS IS TWILIGHT CULTIST!!!' idea.

I never saw it as stupid. I think the idea the highest and most influencial being able to be turned was spooky and frightening.

Apparently there was a prophecy that that says a single orc would one day rise up to challenge Deathwing and possibly defeat him.