Blizzard is revealing more about the content of the three heroic-difficulty 5-man dungeons that players must do in order. The Bronze Dragonflight plays a critical role in this.
Players speak to Nozdormu the Timeless to go back in time to before Malfurion hid the Dragon Soul, and acquire it to stop Deathwing. But something is keeping him from doing this. So he sends players into the future to stop who or what is causing the disturbance.
The first dungeon, called “End Time”, is five years in the future (though this isn’t confirmed, it’s my guess). A “worst-case scenario” version if Azeroth’s defenders fail to stop Deathwing, and he torches the planet. He’s killed all the aspects, all the dragons, and every living thing.. including you. It truly is… the end OF THE WORLD… of Warcraft! For real this time.
Though Wyrmrest Temple itself survived the onslaught, Deathwing is seen impaled on the top of it. So at least we know he’s dead in the future. Why he’s dead, Blizzard isn’t going into details. And it’s driving me nuts.
Upon entering Azeroth’s grim future, Nozdormu is seen and tells players what he thinks might be causing the disturbance, and mentions four former heroes of Azeroth, echos of their former selves. Players must battle two of them. No one knows how they got there, not even Nozdormu. They are the Echo of Baine, the Echo of Jaina, the Echo of Sylvanas, and the Echo of Tyrande.
UPDATE: 9/30/11: New video showing a walkthrough of the End Time dungeon. Showing detailed info of the bosses, and trash mobs. There will be a portal near the instance portal that will take you to two of the four dragonshrines. What they don’t explain is if you can walk freely around the desolate, torched landscape just to get a feeling of how devastating losing the battle to Deathwing really was (and attempt to find landmarks from the current Dragonblight). This could change with time. All bosses are 87 Elites, and all trash mobs are 85 Elites.
Once done, a strange dragon from the annoying Infinite Dragonflight, Murozond, shows up at the Bronze Dragonshrine. They must defeat this thing to finally gain access to the second dungeon. Turns out this dragon is Nozdormu’s evil side, and is the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight.
Finally, Nozdormu regains control and sends players back 10,000 years ago to the second dungeon, labeled the “Well of Eternity”, when Azeroth was young. The Highborne are planning to bring the Burning Legion to Azeroth through the Well of Eternity during the War of The Ancients, which causes The Sundering and Kalimdor to be created. Players must fight bosses from the past, and then get their hands on the Dragon Soul. Thrall, Alexstrasza, and her Emerald Dragonflight sister Ysera are all seen in this. What parts the dragon aspects play is still unknown. Thrall is seen who is trying to acquire the Dragon Soul. Young Illidan and Malfurion will also be seen there.
And the third, labeled “Hour of Twilight” sends players back to the present Dragonblight when Patch 4.3 was released. Players have possession of the Dragon Soul now. Thrall has to be escorted back to the temple, but the Twilight’s Hammer are marching there too, to welcome Deathwing to kill everyone. The Twilight’s Hammer have also brought minions of the Old Gods. It’s unknown how battles will be done at this time.
It still doesn’t explain what is the purpose of the Dragon Soul, and how it will be used to stop Deathwing. I assume in the next few weeks, we’ll find out something. I’m curious to know.
Wowhead has more info about this patch that Blizzard hasn’t mentioned on battle.net, mentioning the three new heroic dungeons and the raid will be in the Caverns of Time, which does make sense since the Bronze Dragonflight helps. I’m sure they will be leading us as the days go by with new info.