Caverns of Time

Full History

The Caverns of Time in Tanaris are associated with the bronze dragonflight and its charge to watch over the flow of time. Their hidden chambers reflect duties given to Nozdormu by the titans in the old history of the dragon Aspects.

The original era preserves the caverns as a guarded and mysterious place. Their presence is not license to narrate every time-travel adventure introduced in later expansions as already occurring in the patch 1.1 world.

The bronze dragonflight's charge was unlike the obligations of most mortal kingdoms. Nozdormu and his kin watched the passage of ages and sought to preserve a coherent ordering of time. Their secrecy made sense in a world where learning the future could itself become a temptation to tamper with events. The caverns in Tanaris stood as an approach to that hidden duty, guarded from people whose lives were shaped by wars they might wish to undo. Human travelers and goblin merchants could reach the desert, but that did not mean its deepest chamber was an ordinary destination for trade or conquest.

For Warcraft: Forever, the distinction between established background and later instance design is crucial. The bronze flight and its duty can be discussed from the older lore, while adventures introduced in later expansions cannot be described as events that had already happened in the original patch 1.1 world. The caverns therefore invite a history of responsibility, restraint and the mystery of time rather than a list of future dungeons. Their story is especially fitting in an archive devoted to a preserved game era: they symbolize the danger of treating all later versions of history as though they belonged simultaneously to one world.

The caverns represent the difference between a location’s deep historical purpose and the much later discovery of what lies within it. The relevant pre-2007 account is the bronze dragons’ guardianship, not future instance storylines.