Highlights
- World of Warcraft's Infinite Dragonflight is a persistent enemy throughout the game, but their motives for unraveling the timeways are not well understood.
- The Dragonflight expansion reintroduces many dragon characters, including Nozdormu, who guards the timeline. However, some question the necessity and harm of preserving the canon timeline.
- The recent Fractures in Time update challenges the belief that all Infinite Dragons are driven mad, highlighting the personal reasons of Eternus for joining them. This questline humanizes the Infinite Dragonflight and shows character growth in Nozdormu.
World of Warcraft’s Infinite Dragonflight has been a thorn in Azeroth’s side since not long after the game released. They have featured as minor villains throughout multiple expansions, trying their hardest to undo the past as players know it. However, what isn’t well understood is why these once-noble dragons want so badly to unravel the timeways.
With the release of the Dragonflight expansion, players were reintroduced to many of World of Warcraft’s dragon characters. Some returning heroes include Nozdormu, the Bronze Aspect. He is the guardian of time, nurturing Azeroth’s past, present, and future to ensure the canon timeline is preserved. But not all is as it seems. There are those who feel that this dogmatic obsession with the one true timeline is unnecessary at best, and destructive at worst.
Not All of World of Warcraft's Infinite Dragons Are Evil
It was long believed that all members of the Infinite Dragonflight were simply driven mad by Old God influence and seek nothing but chaos. However, this narrative has recently been challenged by World of Warcraft’s Fractures in Time update. This patch focuses entirely on the Bronze and Infinite dragons and their mutual struggle for dominance over the timeways. Eternus, a former Bronze now turned Infinite, was a key character in previous quests.
But intriguingly, Eternus did not exude an air of madness. She was perfectly lucid, determined to convince those around her that the Bronze Dragonflight pursued an unachievable goal, one that would only bring pain. Back then, Nozdormu chose to spare Eternus for her cooperation, and the Infinite dragon fled. Now, after having saved the timeways, players encountered Eternus once more, as this particular dragon had many questions for Nozdormu.
Through means of a bonus questline, the player soon learns that Eternus had very personal reasons for joining the Infinites. She was once a Bronze dragon wracked with the grief of losing her clutch-mate many years ago. Eternus wanted more than anything to go back in time and save her sister, but Nozdormu would not allow it. WoW's Bronze Aspect neglected to explain why, possibly because it was a rule he believed always worked out for the best.
Enraged by the nonsensical restrictions and apparent indifference, Eternus' pain brought forward a new goal. She swore she would depose the Bronze Dragonflight and free the timeways, allowing all dragons like her to change the past if they needed to. Nozdormu, having recently learned much of tenacity and compassion, did not admonish Eternus for her emotions. Instead, he opted to show her what would have happened if she had saved her sister.
With the player at her side, Eternus is permitted to try, but each time she attempts to save her sister from a corrupted Black dragon, she fails. It becomes clear that Eternus’ clutch-mate died for a very specific reason, to protect a number of Bronze eggs. Without her sacrifice, an entire generation of Bronze dragons could have perished. Eternus finally understood why the canon timeline was so important, and she promised to help protect Azeroth in any way she could.
This particular questline, while not impacting the wider story of the expansion, is still a poignant narrative. It explains how many of the Infinites are not driven by madness or a desire for power, but instead suffer from grief. It humanizes these wayward dragons in a way that had not been offered to the Infinite Dragonflight before now. What's more, Nozdormu himself shows character growth, as he has loosened his uncompromising dogma in favor of a more nuanced approach to keeping time.
World of Warcraft has long been a game centered around the idea of multiple perspectives and how evil is a subjective term. While some foes are beyond redemption, this touching questline and others like it remind players that no world is black and white and that trying to understand the motives of antagonists can end up making them into valuable allies instead.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is available now for PC.