#11 - July 1, 2016, 10:11 p.m.
The comic's timeline corresponds to the moment that 7.0 pre-patch goes live. When you log in, you'll see that he's broken out from Ironforge and headed off to parts unknown. You can talk to NPCs down where he used to be to hear about his transformation.
As for players not knowing about the Pillars of Creation - I totally empathize with you on this one.
That said, most players that are lore hounds will log in during the pre-launch and experience the major lore changes as they occur in the world. Forcing players that come back after Legion's launch to go through the FULL gamut of quests, which are lore-heavy and combat-light and take over an hour, felt like it took too much time.
Some players care most about getting to the new content, getting an artifact, and playing with their friends. This was our impetus for making them optional after the launch. The lore is still there, just not required.