The Hour of Twilight

[Zimakai]

Hey y'all,

My lore is a bit fuzzy, so bear with me.

In Cataclysm the intended unleashing of the old gods by Deathwing and cohorts meant we'd enter the "hour of twilight". That didn't happen. However, seeing as N'zoth is free now, could this happen now instead? Or were those events different somehow?

If I remember correctly, we did have some recent cultist scribblings in Silithus as of end of Legion talking about this stuff. We are also seeing the return of the Aspects.

Lastly.. if this scenario is still plausible, would it make sense for this to be the new expansion?

[Schmilblick]

I hope so, I want to see azeroth destroyed.

[Tiwack]

I think you're right on the money, we'll learn for sure in 2 weeks time.

[naabu]

The Hour of Twilight is an apocalyptic event prophesied at far back as Pre-Invasion Draenor. According to Chronicles II, the Pale Orcs converted Cho'gall to void worship by telling him about the Hour of Twilight. The implication, though never directly stated, is that the Hour of Twilight is on a universal scale, likely referring to the Void corruption of a Titan's World Soul. It is clear from the End Time dungeon, as we see an impaled Deathwing, that he is just a tool of the Old Gods. They promised him power, not oblivion. They were lying to him about his "reward". It is therefore likely that Deathwing was never made fully aware of the scope of the Old Gods' plans.

Perhaps Deathwing, Cho'gall, and their Cataclysm, were meant to do exact what they did? Get the Dragon Aspects to sacrifice their titanic powers. Thereby inching us closer to the true Hour of Twilight.

But personally, I think Old Gods work best as a behind the scenes villain. They are the real threat lurking just beneath the water or just out of sight. I think MoP handled this base. It was an Old God expansion. The Sha were literally remnants of Y'shaarj. The Mantid were it's creations. Garrosh was possessed by its still beating heart. Yet, we never saw Y'shaarj. It was long "dead". Only its influence remained. BfA did a pretty good job of this with N'Zoth, slowly revealing its role as mastermind and end boss.

Also, this idea of a "Subject" expansion really only has one example, WotLK. Vanilla had no theme. BC was not the "Demon" expansion, it was also stuffed with sci-fi. Cata wasn't the "Dragon" expansion, it had a proto-war campaign plot and a ton of elemental stuff. MoP was the "Pandaria" expansion, but that itself was so much lore, and turned into a world war plot that had nothing to do with Pandaria. WoD was the "Orc" expansion, until it became the long awaited Demon expansion. Legion intentionally pushed Demons as far away as possible, with only 7.2 feeling like a a demon invasion. And BfA... death magic, Naga, and Old Gods in our "War" expansion?! I do not think we will be getting an Old God expansion or a Shadowlands expansion, though I believe we will be dealing with the Old Gods, the Void, and Death. We'll also be dealing with Naga pt 2, Night Elves reigniting the War with the help of the Worgen, whatever is going on with fractured and leaderless Burning Legion, Dragon Isles, the Infinite Dragonflight, Kezan politics, and a thousand other things.

TL;DR the Hour of Twilight is always ahead of us. Never behind us. We did not stop it. We did not escape it.

[Theoris]

The Hour of Twilight references a prophecy foretold by the void lords about the universe being consumed by the Void, starting with Azeroth, so only if N'Zoth wins (which he won't).

They could still use it for the name of the expansion that will include the void lords themselves, though.