I’ve missed a lot of the story while IRL stuff took over playing the game, but now I’m getting back into it slowly and doing some reading. Just to confirm:
Has everything that’s happened in and since WoD been in the alternate timeline that WoD created?
Is my knowledge correct in that Outlands and Draenor are the exact same place but in two different timelines?
As a result, the timeline in vanilla, TBC, WotLK, Cata, and MoP is “on hold”?
Furthermore, from a metagame standpoint, did Cata “replace” the Azeroth (not Outlands) before it or did it “change” it?
Did Cata + WotLK happen at the same time?
Thanks in advance, and if I’m wrong/missing a huge amount of detail please let me know where I can find it! I’m looking to get all caught up ASAP so I can just enjoy a Demon Hunter
Thanks for your amazing reply! I did a bit more reading and a lot of my questions were answered, though if you don’t mind there’s still one or two things I’m confused about.
So has Draenor in WoD effectively replaced Outland TBC as the canonical true timeline (as much as it can still be accessed)? My understanding is now that, at the end of MoP, Garrosh was imprisoned but (with help) escaped to an older Outlands. We’ve continued from there, and as a result Draenor is now the true timeline’s Outlands: Legion and BFA have taken place in a timeline with a Draenor but no Outlands?
Some reading here answered this question, I think. There is the Azeroth that existed before Cata, which was destroyed, and now Azeroth has been destroyed new quests and conflicts have arisen. I was confused thinking that the Cata events were more of a “redesign”, and that canonically the post-Cata Azeroth was meant to represent Azeroth as it always should have been. However, now I understand that they’re the same Azeroth, just one before and one after destruction in a linear timescale. It’s simply that old Azeroth can’t be accessed on retails servers… because it’s destroyed.
WoD remains an alternate timeline, separate from the true one where ‘our’ Azeroth exists.
To clarify, Outland still exists where it always was, it is still accessible with all its shattered regions that we came to explore during TBC.
As an example, you can see Thrall in TBC’s Outland in this BfA cinematic:
You know it is the Nagrand from Outland and not Draenor because of the floating chunks of land and the border of the region that abruptly ends into a cliff overlooking a wide emptiness underneath.
Oooh okay this is all making a lot more sense now. Garrosh escaped to Draenor, we went there to go finish him off, and then Gul’Dan (who’s all pissed off that they didn’t follow his plan) now goes back to the original Azeroth and the events of Legion and BFA happen?
Its the time travel paradox. Garosh travels back in time and stops Orcs from drinkind the blod so Orks didnt invade Azeroth burring the first war thete isnt amy orcs in Azeroth and Garosh was never became warchief so he didn’t stop Orcs from drinking the blod …
That’s a reason why time travel to past is consideted improbable. Time travel to future is well established and ocurs in nature regurarly.
One way around that is the parallel univers approach. There are biliion billions Azeroths that every posible outcome has happened. As the void says all possibilities are truth. In that sense Garosh didn’t thavel to his past, he created another universe where WoD hapened but it was always his future.
P.S I didn’t play during WoD I hope the facts are correct .
