What causes the game to skip the Nerevarine/Hortator portion?

One time when i was playing Morrowind, i went to get the disease immunity as apart of the main plot line so that way i could go out exploring/doing quests without having to worry about not having potions of spells to cure disease (or being turned into a Vampire), but i held off doing the next part of the main quest line which would see me get Moon-and-Star because i remember the Nibani Maesa saying i be marked an enemy of the Imprials or something like that and i had wanted to do their quests.

After spending a lot of time exploring and questing i thought it'd get the ring, but when i spoke to Nibani Maesa she told me to go right to Vivec, following the instructions i ended up meeting Vivec himself and he seem to imply i was taking too long and named me Nerevarine/Hortator and then went onto what he normally talks about (the plan for me to assault Red Mountain), effectively skipping out what i see as a huge part of the game.

So i am wondering what caused this (provably x days having pasted) and if there is a point in the game where i can quest/explore at my leisure but not have to worry about the Nerevarine/Hortator part being forcefully skipped (because Ashlander camps and that Wizard based Great House are dotted around the east i tend to spend a lot of time exploring the west before walking over to the east, discovering each place/doing quests as i pass though)