Does Path of Fire signal the return of the Old Gods of Tyria? Let's discuss.

The gods have left Tyria(and even the Mists) for their own reasons, one of many being the Elder Dragons. But the old gods did not make such a choice. Abaddon chose to help the races of Tyria, gave them magic, and seemed to have plans for the races beyond fleeing the dragons. Dhumm has never made a choice to leave, he was locked away, his power stolen. And now the world runs rampant with undead energies and resurrected souls, something Dhumm is very much against.But they're gone you say? No longer relevant to the story and with no way to return? Abaddon is dead, and Dhumm locked away in a dormant state forever. But are they really? Let's break it down.

Dhumm

Dhumm is very very far from dead and while we last heard he was dormant we also know he can wake up and send out his minions to wreak havoc again. He's done so three times before in GW1. His minions assault the underworld and capture much of it from Grenth before being beaten back. Later they ally with Abaddon and Menzies. Even later still Dhumm was able to accumulate enough power to temporarily break free.

And now Grenth is gone. Not only gone from Tyria but gone from the mists as well. He is no longer in the realm guarding over Dhumm's prison. And it seems as if these realms are starting to break down completely with the gods' departure. When you return to The Library for the Gryphon quest is is quite clear that without Kormir's(or Abaddon's) presence that the realm is beginning to break down, demons and mist dwellers returning to reclaim it. the same is said by the judge, with Grenth's power gone it is becoming harder and harder for him to maintain the Domain of the Lost.

If this is all true is it not only a matter of time before the prison breaks down enough for Dhumm to free himself to gain power once more?

Abaddon

Everyone says that Abaddon is dead and gone. We killed him in Nightfall. But did we really? And even if we technically did kill him; does that even matter at all considering what we know about death in Tyria? It has been theorized that the Gods cannot die, not truly, only greatly diminished like Dhumm and imprisoned. So did we truly "kill" Abaddon? Or did we merely slay his mortal form, and diminish his power sealing him away again?

Let's say we did kill him. All things that die on Tyria go to the mists. This is a fact that we know. It is hammered home when we see Charr and Asura in the Mists when we die. WHEN WE DIE. We died. Yet we came back. If all things that die go to the mists, is that not where Abaddon's spirit was sent as well? And if so can it not come back in the same manner we did?The player character was 100% dead and gone. But as a spirit, a ghost within the mist, we absorbed the power of a eater of souls and used it to truly reanimate our physical body and bring ourselves back into the living world. We used a great source of magical energy, more than we had likely ever used on Tyria, to will ourselves into existence and heal our body. Whats stopping other Mist beings from doing the same thing? Other than power and knowledge? Knowledge the God of Secrets likely has, and power he can likely get.

We know from Balthazar that the power alone is not what makes up the god. It's true Kormir ate most of Abaddon's power to become a god herslf, but the gods did the same to Balthazar as well. They stripped him of his power but he did not let this stop him. He got more from other places, a Bloodstone, dragons, etc... It's not the power alone that makes one a god, but the amount of power and the knowledge to use said power. With this is mind what is stopping Abaddon himself, or even his faithful followers which we have been shown do still exist, from using this same path(the one the player used) to return to Tyria now that All of the gods have left Tyria and the Mists and are no longer keeping watch?

Wrap Up

So what do you think? With all the knowledge Balthazar and the Path of Fire story has given us it leaves everything open for both of these old gods to not only have a physical path to return to Tyria, but a lore consistent means of doing so as well. Two old and almost forgotten gods who did not make the choice to leave Tyria, two that both have reasons to stay rather than flee the Elder Dragons. Will we see them again?

Thoughts?

As I had mentioned on reddit:

Abaddon is outright stated to be dead by developers. Even ignoring that, Balthazar died in a similar manner to Abaddon - the body breaking up, and all that was within being absorbed by others. Both are gone for good. Dhuum, unlike Abaddon, was never killed. Similarly, Balthazar was stripped of his power without being killed before the events of Path of Fire.

At the end of Nightfall, the conversation with goddess Kormir makes it clear that all that remains of Abaddon is now within her, and that his will is broken. This means the one and only way Abaddon can return is by corrupting Kormir from within - but that would be more of making Kormir a villain, rather than Abaddon's return.

Even then, we cannot say the gods go to the Mists when they "die". Gods are fundamentally different from mortals. To use Taimi's Scanner's words:

Scanner: No—life—detected. Only—magic—energy—present.

A god's very being is basically lifeless, just magic. So if all the magic got absorbed (which according to Kormir it did - the bit about it stirring Primordus' attention is that she didn't absorb it fast enough not that she didn't absorb all of it), then there's nothing left of the god.

In the end, at this point I think bringing back Abaddon would be bad writing. It'd be like Warcraft returning all morally gray characters as pure black villains, and worse with rehashing villains multiple times. That's what they did with Balthazar, let's not continue the trend.

Dhuum may still return to the plot. Even Menzies, by all means (though Menzies should have been the villain of S3+PoF if he is still around). But I do not think there is reason enough to bring back Abaddon without further twisting lore.

Of course, by all means Abaddon can return. Anet but need say "Abaddon returns!" and it is done. Zhaitan can return that way if they want. Or Mordremoth, Scarlet, Varesh, Shiro. Anyone. They can make some reason to explain it away. But in this case it would be, as said, twisting established lore to do it.

One thing to consider is that there are multiple 'levels' of death in Guild Wars.

The PC was just dead. Their spirit was released into the Mists, still able to do virtually anything they could do normally. If resurrection magic was still a thing, Kasmeer could possibly have just ResSigged the Commander and skipped the entire instance.

However, there is also a level where the spirit is also destroyed. That's harder, if not impossible, to come back from.

In between, there are levels where a spirit is said to be utterly destroyed, but is actually trapped in some other being. We see this with the Eater of Souls - killing the Eater releases the spirits that had previously been trapped within. It's possible that something similar is true for Abaddon - his broken spirit remains within Kormir. However, for him to return would require Kormir to release his spirit, either willingly or by force.