How the story's gonna end

Aurene will continue to absorb stuff from evil guys, dragons and so on.After getting rid of the last Dragon she's unable to contain control and turns on us.We then dramatically kill her and all the evil and magic and whatnot gets free and the circle somehow starts again.

Also the small part she absorbed from Balthasar is set free, and someone will become the replacement for the god of war.

Oh and: The sun's refuge is not just a "home instance", it's the new hall of monuments.

thx :)

The original divinity from Balthazar, far as we know isn't on Tyria. That said, we are expecting Aurene to absorb Primordius, Jormagg, Zhaitan, Mordromoth, and Kraalk at once essentially.

This does indeed, seem like a poor idea.

@Loesh.4697 said:The original divinity from Balthazar, far as we know isn't on Tyria. That said, we are expecting Aurene to absorb Primordius, Jormagg, Zhaitan, Mordromoth, and Kraalk at once essentially.

This does indeed, seem like a poor idea.

you are expecting this, i'm expecting we'll find other candidates for the other dragons. like the pale tree for mordremoth.

also wasn't balt's dad the Original divinity? (the one balt killed)

@Loesh.4697 said:The original divinity from Balthazar, far as we know isn't on Tyria. That said, we are expecting Aurene to absorb Primordius, Jormagg, Zhaitan, Mordromoth, and Kraalk at once essentially.

This does indeed, seem like a poor idea.

What are you trying to say? That there cannot be a replacement for Balthazar as god of war, because he actually isn't a god?

Season 3 establishes that we need at least 4, but ideally 6, beings to be attached to, and thus balance, The All.

Aurene's main role is likely to end after replacing Kralkatorrik as we find more replacements.

@Clyan.1593 said:

@Loesh.4697 said:The original divinity from Balthazar, far as we know isn't on Tyria. That said, we are expecting Aurene to absorb Primordius, Jormagg, Zhaitan, Mordromoth, and Kraalk at once essentially.

This does indeed, seem like a poor idea.

Given what we know, Balthazar was replaced between the games and there is a new god of war already.

In Path of Fire, Balthazar is in the same state as Dhuum is in both games, merely a former god. Given that Nightfall establishes that divinity requires a living vessel, he must have a successor out there before he was imprisoned.

The original plan was not to replace every ED with Aurene, but for Glint and her scions to replace the EDs. The Forgotten possibly planned to capture and purify more dragon champions as they had with Glint ("Glaust"). They did apparently attempt to purify Kraalkatorik, which ended in disaster. But with Glint and Vlast dead - and the Forgotten now functionally dead as a people - we are left with only one (known) scion: Aurene. So the current ad-hoc plan appears to be replacing Kraalkatorik with Aurene and then planning our next steps from there. But this seems kinda crazy. Though we know that Aurene hypothetically can replace an ED, we don't know if she can absorb all the necessary magic or is at a stage where she can replace Kraalkatorik. And we have also been told that killing one more ED will doom Tyria. So it seems like the more prudent plan would involve first stabilizing the ecological instability we already created before proceeding with our half-baked plan that risks jeopardizing the known world.

As said, don't be surprised if the Pale Tree gets floated as a possible candidate for replacing an ED. People speculate that her original seed was likewise purified by the Forgotten and that Ronan found this cache of purified seedlings. But we can move Aurene to Kraalkatorik for absorbing his magic, but it's not as if the Pale Tree, as far as we know, can relocate to better absorb ED magic. She may be on a leyline already. She may have already absorbed some magic from Zhaitan and Mordremoth, but if that is the case, we have not seen any signs as of yet that she has.

But who would be after Aurene and a hypothetical Pale Tree? Possibly other dragons from GW1? Who knows? And therein likely resides a core problem of future storylines.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:In Path of Fire, Balthazar is in the same state as Dhuum is in both games, merely a former god. Given that Nightfall establishes that divinity requires a living vessel, he must have a successor out there before he was imprisoned.And then we discover that it was the PC from GW1 who became the new God of War all along.

@Genesis.8572 said:But who would be after Aurene and a hypothetical Pale Tree?

Maybe other trees like Malyck's tree were also purified, presenting an opportunity to revisit that storyline? Maybe Aurene can find a way to delegate, and therefore enable others+her to handle multiple spheres?

Maybe the weapon Vlast spoke of wasn't the spear, but a mechanism to make mortals capable of becoming vessels for the power of the All, similar to the blessing the gods gave to Kormir, but for a different type of magical energy? Maybe we'll end up creating a Tyrian-native version of the Six, sort of?

And then we discover that it was the PC from GW1 who became the new God of War all along.

Doubt it, if only because then they would need to settle on a canonical version. It could be a character from GW1, though. Morgahn, maybe? I don't remember seeing anything in PoF about what happened to him.

@perilisk.1874 said:Maybe other trees like Malyck's tree were also purified, presenting an opportunity to revisit that storyline? Maybe Aurene can find a way to delegate, and therefore enable others+her to handle multiple spheres?I don't really see ANet revisiting Mordrem Trees for this purpose since they will likely prefer preserving a certain degree of thematic symmetry: e.g., replace rock dragon with rock dragon, replace plant dragon with giant tree, replace zombie dragon with the dead remains of human lore in GW2, etc.

Maybe the weapon Vlast spoke of wasn't the spear, but a mechanism to make mortals capable of becoming vessels for the power of the All, similar to the blessing the gods gave to Kormir, but for a different type of magical energy? Maybe we'll end up creating a Tyrian-native version of the Six, sort of?Doubtful on the plan, though the idea that the ED are akin to the Tyrian-native version of the Six has already been hypothesized in varying iterations.

Doubt it, if only because then they would need to settle on a canonical version. It could be a character from GW1, though. Morgahn, maybe? I don't remember seeing anything in PoF about what happened to him.That answer was tongue-in-cheek, especially given the resentment against Kormir for being the chosen divine ascendant and not the PC.

I am much more assured after this trailer that Aurene is going to turn away from us- this will be the final moment of Episode 4.

Why do I think that- she is confused, she has a great burden on her wings, and then she's just a young girl.

Aurene has to turn away from us, because we need something to speed up the events.

I could see Aurene going off on her own or becoming “chaotic” and confused, but I don’t think she’ll become outright evil or turn on us. I’m sure we’ll be chasing our dragon daughter to some extent though.

As for replacements, i imagine a large aspect of the story to come will be searching out and/or vetting candidates — likely dragons from GW1. Pale Tree makes sense though too.

And I hope the GW1 PC is not the new god replacing Balthazar. How on earth could they represent that to us visually that would be meaningful to everyone who played GW1? At the very least they’d have to have two models (male and female) and have them completely covered so as not to show any discernible physical details. Moreover, they’d have to find a single aesthetic that could work for 10+ classes. It’d be a mess.

Much rather have them select an important NPC from GW1 or 2 to fill that role.

Queen Jennah and Emperor Kisu II gonna be married. And happily ever after, forever and ever.

@Genesis.8572 said:

@"perilisk.1874" said:Maybe other trees like Malyck's tree were also purified, presenting an opportunity to revisit that storyline? Maybe Aurene can find a way to delegate, and therefore enable others+her to handle multiple spheres?I don't really see ANet revisiting Mordrem Trees for this purpose since they will likely prefer preserving a certain degree of thematic symmetry: e.g., replace rock dragon with rock dragon, replace plant dragon with giant tree, replace zombie dragon with the dead remains of human lore in GW2, etc.

Anet devs already stated they intend to return to Malyck and have even begun drafting a story for it, it's just a matter of where it'll fit.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/495012/#Comment_495012

That was in April.

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:Anet devs already stated they intend to return to Malyck and have even begun drafting a story for it, it's just a matter of where it'll fit.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/495012/#Comment_495012

That was in April.ANet will likely revisit Malyck and his Tree, but I don't think they will use Mord trees other than the Pale Tree for the ED Switcheroo Plan.

@Genesis.8572 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:Anet devs already stated they intend to return to Malyck and have even begun drafting a story for it, it's just a matter of where it'll fit.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/495012/#Comment_495012

That was in April.ANet will likely revisit Malyck and his Tree, but I don't think they will use Mord trees other than the Pale Tree for the ED Switcheroo Plan.

Ancestor Tree as possible candidate? Perhaps somewhere in Verdant Cascades?

Malyck came from the east, right? Just trying to think of possibilities of where he could come from. Ancestor tree could be particularly interesting as a candidate given that it ties into Elona and wouldn't be a huge side step from the story while also bringing in some more lore with Centaurs. And who knows how it could have changed in the time since Guild Wars 1.

The sylvari will definitely have a role in the new distribution of magic, if for nothing else then because of the Dream and its connection to the All. To a certain level asura-tech can play a role too, considering that their ancient phylosophy of the Eternal Alchemy is the closest representation of the All that tyrians have.

I don't know much about how the Spirits of the Wild work, or if they need living host bodies for their kind of "divinity". Could the existing SotW shape the unbound power of a dragon like Jormag to create a more benevolent version of Dragon worshipped by sons of Svanir today?

What about the gift of divinity? Normally humans are incapable of storing power levels akin to gods or dragons, but somehow they imbued Kormir to do just that. Would a gift of divinity even make sense in this regard? Not sure that gods ever had the same role as dragons: collecting, filtering and releasing magic gradually back to the world. Maybe gods are even greater hoarders of magic than any Elder Dragon.

@"lakdav.3694" said:I don't know much about how the Spirits of the Wild work, or if they need living host bodies for their kind of "divinity". Could the existing SotW shape the unbound power of a dragon like Jormag to create a more benevolent version of Dragon worshipped by sons of Svanir today?

they do not need a body, most of their appearances are in spirit form.

but Koda (the kodan's god) could also be a candidate.

@Genesis.8572 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:Anet devs already stated they intend to return to Malyck and have even begun drafting a story for it, it's just a matter of where it'll fit.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/495012/#Comment_495012

That was in April.ANet will likely revisit Malyck and his Tree, but I don't think they will use Mord trees other than the Pale Tree for the ED Switcheroo Plan.

Well, Malyck's tree is a blighting tree just as much as the Pale Tree is, in all technicality, so if they plan to visit Malyck's tree still, visiting it for sake of replacing Elder Dragons is a strong plausibility.

@"cptaylor.2670" said:

@Genesis.8572 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:Anet devs already stated they intend to return to Malyck and have even begun drafting a story for it, it's just a matter of where it'll fit.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/495012/#Comment_495012

That was in April.ANet will likely revisit Malyck and his Tree, but I don't think they will use Mord trees other than the Pale Tree for the ED Switcheroo Plan.

Malyck came from the west. Deeper from the maguuma. East would be Kryta. Given that his tree wasn't in HoT and HoT covered most of Maguuma, the only spot left is that unexplored area between Dry Top, Metrica, Tangled Depths, and Rata Sum.

I doubt the Ancestor Trees are potential candidates. They seem to just be trees imbued with magic, neither sentient nor capable of withholding a lot more magic than any other living being.

@lakdav.3694 said:What about the gift of divinity? Normally humans are incapable of storing power levels akin to gods or dragons, but somehow they imbued Kormir to do just that. Would a gift of divinity even make sense in this regard? Not sure that gods ever had the same role as dragons: collecting, filtering and releasing magic gradually back to the world. Maybe gods are even greater hoarders of magic than any Elder Dragon.

Given we had to stop Balthazar... probably not a candidate. If he was a candidate, it would have been better to reason with him and make him a replacement for Primordus, tbh.

This is how I think it will go:

• We replace the dragons with friendly entities one by one.
• That stabilizes the flow of magic. All seems fine and dandy.
• Tyria awakens. Turns out the elder dragons were a measure to keep an even larger dragon from awakening. Tyria. She had been sealed in the core of the planet, and the elder dragons had sacrificed themselves to be permanently sealed with her, draining her off her magic to keep her weak and dormant for eons. But over the years the elder dragons got corrupted and mad by the magic they had been draining, the mind of Tyria seeping into theirs and slowly taking over them, making them think that "they are the world" and that "they are Tyria". But the hunger for magic Tyria was suffering also got transfered, turning them into magic-crazed creatures that could only focus on gathering more magic, like the magic-crazed victims of the Bloodstone explosion, to the point that was the only thing in which they could really focus, and that kept the sealing process working even with their madness.
• By stabilizing the flow of magic, the "lifeblood of Tyria", Tyria is no longer drained, and she eventually regains consciousness and awakens. Once awake she musters enough strength to free herself from her planetary cage, destroying the world in the process, then flies off to take revenge on those who trapped her.
• A few people manages to flee into the mists during the final apocalypse, the rest meet a horrible end.

If we gonna theorize...

It is determined that the elder dragons are the arbiters of magic against the greed of individual mortals. But the old dragons, rejecting the value of individuals outright, had become increasingly destructive and detrimental in their methodology, the instances of dragon rises. Aurene, being raised to love and protect the populations of Tyria, must face the responsibility of controlling and culling bad actors. This is what I predict from the foreshadowing of late.

So what could happen from this, what are Aurene's multiple visions of the future?Aurene decides to be compassionate and loving, leading to the end of the destruction of the dragon rise, giving magic freely to the inhabitants. But with the end of the threat of dragons, Aurene will be unable to moderate greed and loathsome qualities of the living. She will be able to protect and mentor the few willing in the world, but mostly old rivalries and hatred will rise up, straining the alliances of necessity against the old dragons. The Pact will weaken forcing Logan to choose between running of failing organization or return home to protect his country. The Charr will return to their conquering ways forsaking the alliance with humans and even the alliance of the legions among themselves. The inquest will see a massive resurgence making the Asura more powerful, but also much more cruel.

Another option. Aurene rejects her upbringing, and although we destroy the old elder dragons, she ends up not much better. She betrays her champion. The world continues to face, and must contain the wrath of the dragon. Although no longer facing complete destruction from newer inexperienced elder dragons, they much remain vigilant to prevent mass tragedies.

Auren asks her champion, to root out and identify unstable and antagonizing forces. Aurene being a kittening dragon is able to stamp out problems, but not without massive collateral. While the people of the world can see hope through such destruction, the Champion becomes seen as the harbinger of the dragons wrath. They live up to all of Joko's wise words.

@"MithranArkanere.8957" said:This is how I think it will go:

• We replace the dragons with friendly entities one by one.
• That stabilizes the flow of magic. All seems fine and dandy.
• Tyria awakens. Turns out the elder dragons were a measure to keep an even larger dragon from awakening. Tyria. She had been sealed in the core of the planet, and the elder dragons had sacrificed themselves to be permanently sealed with her, draining her off her magic to keep her weak and dormant for eons. But over the years the elder dragons got corrupted and mad by the magic they had been draining, the mind of Tyria seeping into theirs and slowly taking over them, making them think that "they are the world" and that "they are Tyria". But the hunger for magic Tyria was suffering also got transfered, turning them into magic-crazed creatures that could only focus on gathering more magic, like the magic-crazed victims of the Bloodstone explosion, to the point that was the only thing in which they could really focus, and that kept the sealing process working even with their madness.
• By stabilizing the flow of magic, the "lifeblood of Tyria", Tyria is no longer drained, and she eventually regains consciousness and awakens. Once awake she musters enough strength to free herself from her planetary cage, destroying the world in the process, then flies off to take revenge on those who trapped her.
• A few people manages to flee into the mists during the final apocalypse, the rest meet a horrible end.

Now that's meta. What if the world IS the dragon?

@"MithranArkanere.8957" said:This is how I think it will go:

• We replace the dragons with friendly entities one by one.
• That stabilizes the flow of magic. All seems fine and dandy.
• Tyria awakens. Turns out the elder dragons were a measure to keep an even larger dragon from awakening. Tyria. She had been sealed in the core of the planet, and the elder dragons had sacrificed themselves to be permanently sealed with her, draining her off her magic to keep her weak and dormant for eons. But over the years the elder dragons got corrupted and mad by the magic they had been draining, the mind of Tyria seeping into theirs and slowly taking over them, making them think that "they are the world" and that "they are Tyria". But the hunger for magic Tyria was suffering also got transfered, turning them into magic-crazed creatures that could only focus on gathering more magic, like the magic-crazed victims of the Bloodstone explosion, to the point that was the only thing in which they could really focus, and that kept the sealing process working even with their madness.
• By stabilizing the flow of magic, the "lifeblood of Tyria", Tyria is no longer drained, and she eventually regains consciousness and awakens. Once awake she musters enough strength to free herself from her planetary cage, destroying the world in the process, then flies off to take revenge on those who trapped her.
• A few people manages to flee into the mists during the final apocalypse, the rest meet a horrible end.

So the game will end like a rehash of 90s video game plots?

Eh, seems legit.

Assuming we manage to replace the Elder Dragons with benevolent balancers of magic, there's always a chance we might face an even more sinister threat than dragons depending on how the story goes: demons are arguably worse than Elder Dragons as they don't cause destruction to recreate the world in their image/devour magic like dragons do but to delight in causing suffering and feasting on souls/lifeforce while deliberately prolonging the agony as long as possible (as demons are said to have an instinctual hatred for the living). If there are any complex Mist beings like Razah out there who, instead of being influenced to be "good" by a Hero, use their intelligence and powers for evil purposes to lead demons on some unholy crusade, these "archdemons" or whatever you'd want to call them could become a serious threat to all Tyrian races and perhaps eventually lead us back to the gods' stories if their actions threaten not only Tyria but the other realms of the Mists, including the gods' realms and that possible "backup realm" where the gods might be taking humanity and whoever else to in the face of calamity. It'd also be a nice callback to the original, pre-Elder Dragon plot ideas for GW2 where the concept was that demonic and angelic beings would descend on Tyria to judge the races.

Another idea is that we might see a Fourth Guild War beginning as ambitious individuals, guilds and mercenary companies desire the power of Elder Dragons, Bloodstones, and other sources of powerful magic for themselves. There are already hints at guilds growing in power via the Guild Initiative and amoral mercenaries becoming more prominent in Tyria following the Pact's weakening post-Maguuma campaign, so we may have to race against the clock to stop the mortal races from dooming Tyria in their ambitions while facing a similar calamity King Doric once did during the Third Guild War. :)

@"Kossage.9072" said:Assuming we manage to replace the Elder Dragons with benevolent balancers of magic, there's always a chance we might face an even more sinister threat than dragons depending on how the story goes: demons are arguably worse than Elder Dragons as they don't cause destruction to recreate the world in their image/devour magic like dragons do but to delight in causing suffering and feasting on souls/lifeforce while deliberately prolonging the agony as long as possible (as demons are said to have an instinctual hatred for the living). If there are any complex Mist beings like Razah out there who, instead of being influenced to be "good" by a Hero, use their intelligence and powers for evil purposes to lead demons on some unholy crusade, these "archdemons" or whatever you'd want to call them could become a serious threat to all Tyrian races and perhaps eventually lead us back to the gods' stories if their actions threaten not only Tyria but the other realms of the Mists, including the gods' realms and that possible "backup realm" where the gods might be taking humanity and whoever else to in the face of calamity. It'd also be a nice callback to the original, pre-Elder Dragon plot ideas for GW2 where the concept was that demonic and angelic beings would descend on Tyria to judge the races.

Another idea is that we might see a Fourth Guild War beginning as ambitious individuals, guilds and mercenary companies desire the power of Elder Dragons, Bloodstones, and other sources of powerful magic for themselves. There are already hints at guilds growing in power via the Guild Initiative and amoral mercenaries becoming more prominent in Tyria following the Pact's weakening post-Maguuma campaign, so we may have to race against the clock to stop the mortal races from dooming Tyria in their ambitions while facing a similar calamity King Doric once did during the Third Guild War. :)

I think King Doric died before the Guild Wars started...

@"Kossage.9072" said:a similar calamity King Doric once did during the Third Guild War. :)I want to say "did you mean King Adelbern" but he didn't really face a calamity, nor did Jadon or Reza, until the charr invasion at least. And those are the only kings of note during the Third Guild War known (well, Zoran too, I guess, but he's even less of note than Reza).

Yes, ignore that particular statement about the Third Guild War. For some reason my brain kept combining Doric and Reza (who lived over a thousand years later in the Third Guild War) together. :)

But basically the idea is that right before the Exodus of the Gods over a thousand years ago (and before the subsequent three Guild Wars in lore, the latest of which ended around the time of Guild Wars Prophecies and where Reza fought in), Doric witnessed the mortal races growing greedy and warring for magic. It prompted him to ask the gods to do something to stop the suffering, which led to the sealing of the magic in the original Bloodstone and it being sundered it into five smaller stones. The same kind of war for magic could be upon us once the overarching threat of the Elder Dragons (which forced the races into collaborating more closely) has been dealt with, somewhat mirroring (funnily enough) the whole Horde vs. Alliance conflict once they dealt with their common enemy, the Burning Legion, in WoW.

This time we don't have gods to help us out anymore (necessarily), and as we learn in the stories with Zhaitan and Mordremoth, Elder Dragon entities can be slain by mortals with sufficient knowledge, power and resources. Ambitious guilds and mercenaries could easily incite this hypothetical Fourth Guild War for access to that magic, believing that they should be the ones to wield that ultimate power for their own purposes (whether for altruistic or selfish reasons) without necessarily realizing that not just anyone can become a balancer of magic without going bonkers and/or hungry for more magic (as seen in a small scale with the ley crazed creatures and the victims of the Bloodstone explosion in Bloodstone Fen who created a strange, almost dragon minion -esque hierarchy of one veteran gathering a group of lesser allies around him/her and sending them to gather magic for him/her). Even if the hopefully benevolent replacements for Elder Dragons did their best to stay out of these warmongers' way or fight them with or without our help, it would only be a matter of time before this or that guild or mercenary company succeeded in slaying a balancer (as Dragon's Watch can only be in so many places at once) and could lead to the destabilization cycle all over again unless one or more guild leaders could truly grow into powerful beings similar to Gaheron Baelfire attempting "godhood".

While thankfully most Tyrian races and cultures seem to be getting along just fine at the moment, and the Pact members fighting together against Elder Dragons has helped bond the orders and individual races to an extent, the disaster in Maguuma has upset the delicate balance of power. Who knows if the next Pact Commander serving under Marshal Thackeray ends up being a scheming, ambitious individual who might attempt to manipulate the Marshal, and how well the orders continue working together after gossip that the orders may be bickering again after the campaign against Mordremoth had reduced their respective numbers. While sylvari are still recovering from the Mordremoth incident, humans are putting the pieces together after Jennah crushed Caudecus's faction and solidified her position on the throne with a "purged" Ministry, the Pact is recovering and struggling for funding, the asuran Arcane Council continue scheming for asuran world domination, norn continue being relatively individualistic, and if charr face a conflict of their own that might reduce their effectiveness (should Blood Imperator Bangar Ruinbringer decide to realize his ambitions), nothing's stopping the guilds/mercenaries from further stepping into the void and become a power player in the politics of Central Tyria thanks to the rights to claimed guild hall lands (and the magic within as seen with those strange growing crystals) granted by the Guild Initiative. Then we have the decidedly nefarious guilds like Modus Sceleris (who hopefully make a return to the story one day) being out there and causing chaos for selfish reasons.

All in all, it would be a rather poetic ending to the saga, showing us that the biggest enemies to peace are ultimately the selfish, greedy and shortsighted ambitions of mortals, mirroring Doric's dilemma when the gift of magic was abused over a millennium ago, while also letting Guild Wars live up to its name: us facing an actual war between guilds in the story with us desperately fighting for peace before Tyria faces a similar calamity foreshadowed in the planet-shattering texture on the enigmatic Harbinger of Woe. :)