Originally Posted by
Malefic
One of the issues is Blizzard never does these things in a real time manner. You mentioned a realm of deathly powers seeping into Azeroth and Azeroth itself never changing, it's possible it does. It's just Blizzard will use that as a connection to the next expansion, or some content patch.
When Cataclysm happened I remember them saying from a story perspective, we left Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and were in Northrend dealing with the Lich King for many many years (I believe it was like 10-20 years story wise, I may be wrong), during that time the Cataclysm had happened and when we returned after defeating the Lich King, we returned to a post Cataclysm world.
Blizzard like to do things like that. It's the nature of how MoP came about. Pandaria as a continent was unmasked from the cloud covering it, by the Cataclysm, we just didn't know until several years later because we were dealing with the threats of the Cataclysm in Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms.
It's unfortunate because I agree it makes sense that events that happen should have more immediate affects felt in game. Where in this case like you say, the giant rift open above Northrend should likely be doing something to Azeroth. That said if it is, it's likely not something we see until a major content patch, or the next expansion.