Fireside Tales: The Discs of Norgannon

By Senppai — Jan 21 2023 17:45 UTC

Depending on your personal history with WoW, the Uldaman dungeon is likely something you know about, but in different ways. Some people know Uldaman as a way to make gold, and some may remember the slog of running through it during the days of Vanilla WoW. Most of us probably went through it without a second thought. I’ll be honest, I did, too. We don’t all start out as lore buffs.

However, my fascination with Titan facilities specifically brought me back to Uldaman later on, and diving into the lore has been fun over the years, but most of it, for me at least, revolves around the Discs of Norgannon.

In today’s episode of Fireside Tales, let’s dig into the relevance of the mysterious Discs of Norgannon and what we know about them in Dragonflight so far.

Loken’s Betrayal
Ironaya’s Mission
Contents of the Discs
Link to Mechagon
Return to Uldaman

Loken’s betrayal

There are a number of Titan Watchers made by the Titans when they came to Azeroth. Loken and Mimiron are names you may recognize, as they are dungeon and raid bosses respectively. Of course, there is a little more to them as well.

Pictured: Loken in Halls of Lightning

Loken and Mimiron are the original creators of the Discs, and while it’s not fully known why they are named after the Titan Norgannon, Loken was given power by Norgannon.

I don’t want to fully delve into Loken’s full story at the moment, as much of it has very little to do with why we’re here. One particular thing to note, though, is that he pitted anyone he could against each other as he succumbed to the whispers of Yogg-Saron, the Old God imprisoned within Ulduar.

When he discovered that the Discs of Norgannon were stolen by Tyr, Ironaya and Archaedas, he sent two C’Thraxxi after the group, these creatures of course being servants of the Old Gods. Tyr was able to hold off the creatures, sacrificing himself in the process.

In order to cover himself, Loken created the Tribunal of Ages and altered the message to Algalon so that he would only arrive upon Loken’s death.

Ironaya’s Mission

After fleeing with the Discs, Archaedas and Ironaya hid them within Uldaman. The Earthen there had also come to the Titan Watchers fearing the mysterious “Curse of Flesh.” The two Watchers agreed to keep many of the Earthen in stasis while the Mechagnomes would keep watch. Archaedas took up hibernation guarding the door behind which the Discs were hidden, and Ironaya hatched another plan.

Ironaya decided to go into a low power mode in order to study the plan set forth by the Titans with the goal of eventually curing or reversing the Curse of Flesh. She’s not close to the Discs themselves, so we’re unsure if this information was given to her by Tyr and Archaedas from the Titans, or if maybe she has another copy of the Discs to access.

The Mechagnomes eventually succumbed to the Curse themselves. Their descendants, the Gnomes, along with some of the early Dwarves that had transformed from Earthen, left Uldaman to make their homes in the nearby mountains, leaving everything else in stasis.

Contents of the Discs

So, what exactly is on these Discs that make them so important? And did we purposely leave that out until right now? Yes, yes, we did.

These Discs contain a record of everything that has happened on Azeroth so that when the Titans returned, there would be a record of what has transpired in their absence. Including Loken’s betrayal.

After making our way through the original Uldaman and defeating Archaedas, we find the Discs behind that locked door. It seems as though we are only given the information pertaining to the Earthen, Dwarves and the Curse of Flesh, however. We are given a copy of the Discs to return to our respective faction’s researchers, but it’s unclear if we’re given only that chunk of information or everything the Discs contained.

According to Mathias Shaw on his exploration of the Eastern Kingdoms, with his lovely partner Flynn Fairwind, only a portion of the content of the Discs has been accessed. Though, we can probably bet that Brann Bronzebeard is working at this as he is able to, as he does with anything Titan-related.

During Wrath of the Lich King, we also gained access to the Tribunal of Ages. You may remember that this was made by Loken as a way to cover up his betrayal, and it was filled with false information. It’s unclear exactly how much was false, but considering it says Loken’s betrayal, we can guess quite a bit. However, the information regarding the Old Gods and how deep their corruption went seems to check out.

Pictured: The Tribunal of Ages in Halls of Stone

Link to Mechagon

When we ventured into Mechagon Island during BFA, one of our daily quests pointed us to King Mechagon having a copy of the Discs; however, their data was corrupted.

This was deemed dangerous, so we brought the discarded fragments to the Data Analyzer R33-DR to destroy them. Thankfully, with these anomalies that are summoned, we get some pretty good rewards, too.

Pictured: King Mechagon in his small aerial unit, and R33-DR on Mechagon Island

Return to Uldaman

So what brings the Discs of Norgannon forward in Dragonflight?

During the Dragonflight pre-patch, we got our first chance to delve into the new section of Uldaman. Sort of. The first section leading to the lost Dwarf explorers, all the way to the room that originally contained Ironaya, are all recreated from the original, including that model map in the middle of that room. The rest of it is opened through the broken wall of Ironaya’s room.

Pictured: Ironaya in old Uldaman

Queen Alexstrasza learned of another Disc locked away that contained the memories of Tyr himself, so she sent us back to Uldaman. The dragons have begun scouring the Dragon Isles for a way to restore the power of the Dragon Aspects and ensure the future of the dragons. But what exactly do Tyr’s memories have to do with this?

We must remind you of something that happened in the very distant past, and which we talked about in the leadup to the Vault of the Incarnates with our first Fireside Tale article. We now bring your attention back to Galakrond – the enormous proto-dragon, whose remains we see throughout the years in Dragonblight as well as within the Hour of Twilight dungeon instance. If you didn’t read that article, worry not, we have a refresher.

Pictured: Galakrond’s remains in the Dragonblight

Originally, Galakrond was peaceful, benevolent, and known as the progenitor of dragons. However, something changed in him, for which Tyr blames himself. He’s very vague about it when he speaks to the dragons that would become the Aspects, and never elaborates. Galakrond became fearsome and also began mutating, and started eating other proto-dragons.

Galakrond also began experimenting with necromancy in some ways, with anything he cannibalized rising as undead creatures called the Not-Living. It’s no wonder why the Lich King sent forces to study the remains of Galakrond. Nice and creepy.

Eventually, Tyr suggested that five proto-dragons band together in order to defeat the monster Galakrond had become. The five were chosen and empowered by the Pantheon and charged with different duties. The red dragon would guard all that is life, and the green dragon would aid and focus on nature. The blue dragon would be charged with magic and the arcane, the bronze dragon would guard time itself, and the black dragon would care for the earth and deep places.

The five proto-dragons became the Dragon Aspects. Led by Queen Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, Malygos, and Neltharion (Deathwing). You may know that last one better as Deathwing after his corruption. If you want to read about all of this, check out Dawn of the Aspects by Richard A. Knaak.

In order to defeat Deathwing in the Dragon Soul raid, the Aspects sacrificed their power. They are still dragons and still incredibly powerful – especially when compared to the mortal races, but they are a fraction of what they once were. Another side effect of this that we learned later on, is that they are unable to reproduce. Therefore, any egg found is precious, as you can imagine.

Now, as it was Tyr’s suggestion that originally brought even the idea of the Aspects, something like a Disc containing his memories should surely hold some secret to restoring some power to the dragons, and ensure their future.

Considering one of the youngest dragons we know is Wrathion, it would be nice to have new blood for the dragons, and I’m not even sure who the last dragon is that was born before him, or how long before him. Besides Deathwing’s experiments with the Twilight, Chromatic, and Netherwing dragons, that is.

Of course, our hopes in securing the Disc of Tyr’s memories are dashed as we run into Chrono-Lord Deios of the Infinite Dragonflight. It’s not clear if he straight up destroys the Disc or maybe just secrets it away with time magic. As he leaves after we defeat him, Deios also asserts that Murozond will be the only aspect.

Pictured: Murozond in the End Time

There are so many little threads to pull on throughout the rest of Dragonflight, and some of them are a little more clear where they lead than others. But in the meantime, I hope the answers we need can be found in the Dragon Isles themselves.

About the Author

Senppai (they/them) is an Indigenous, 2SLBGTQIA+, Canadian content creator and a huge lore nerd. Their stream consists of almost all different WoW content. They're always down to answer questions about lore. They're also the Lore Walker over at Azeroth: A History, a podcast looking at Warcraft lore and how it fits today. Many times, Senppai is joined everywhere by Jarvis, the ginger demon kitty.