How do we handle the upcoming calamity?

Back during Nightfall, we saw one way of dealing with a god. All that magic has to go somewhere, and it went into Kormir. I've heard theories- about Rytlock, about Aurene, about Kasmeer, and this idea that if Balthazar dies, one of them is going to rise up into his position as one of the Six. I'm not sure that I buy it, just because I think Arenanet knows how closely people scrutinize their writing, and they wouldn't be happy with the outcome looking so much like what happened to Abaddon- "they" here meaning both the writers themselves and the critics.

We have a lot to worry about adjacent to Balthazar- what will Kralkatorrik or Palawa Joko do? Will they empower Balthazar somehow, in the process of fighting with him? What's the deal with Menzies? Is Menzies going to be an unlikely ally against Balthazar?

There are a lot of wheels spinning, and I don't know if I can construct one cogent theory out of them all. It looks to me like Aurene might be put in a position to intervene when if Kralkatorrik is killed, maybe taking on his magic herself and becoming some kind of New Glint. That would be a pretty serious asset against Joko and Balthazar- but I can't imagine how Joko and Balthazar are going to interact, if their stories even overlap to the point that they come into contact with each other. It could just be that Joko's meddling on the ground makes Elona the most convenient staging ground for Balthazar to do what he wants. And don't even get me started on how popular Kormir is in Elona- is she going to intervene with the Balthazar situation?

On the 22nd- just 10 days from now- things are going to come to a head, and we'll at least get a clearer picture of how this is going. But in the meantime, I'm drowning in characters and having a hard time drawing clean lines between them. What do you see coming out of all this? How are we going to handle what's happening in the desert?

At first I thought it would end similarly to Nightfall, with someone absorbing Balthazar's power and becoming a replacement god, but now I'm not so sure. Best case we would beat some sense into Balthazar until he's calm enough to listen to reason. I have my doubts Kralkatorrik will be killed, since it's been setup to be a global doomsday scenario if that happens.

What I'm thinking is that Balthazar gets close to finishing off Kralkatorrik when we catch up to him, and after we get him to settle down Menzies reveals himself as the mastermind having been the one draining Balthazar's power, then we have to fight him with Balthazar as our ally. Maybe that's a bit too optimistic, but it's a possibility.

As for Balthazar and Palawa Joko, I have trouble seeing them interact with each other much. If anything I would think Joko is just trying to get Balthazar to leave so his reign goes uninterrupted, while Balthazar sees him as little more than a speed bump.

I think all we can say at this point is we don't know. We're basically at the beginning of the storyline - the major players have been introduced and the scene has been set but the story hasn't really started. So I think it's deliberate that we don't know what's going to happen or how, otherwise it wouldn't be a very exciting storyline.

However I think you're right that it won't be just like Abaddon. My first thought is there's no guarantee we're even going to kill Balthazar. We have to stop him killing the elder dragons, sure, but that doesn't mean killing him. Since we're trying to stop killing elder dragons it would make sense to start exploring other options.

It's also hard to say what those might be, but I'm expecting that PoF will involve finding out more about why he's trying to take the dragons power (maybe from the other gods) and that will give us an alternative.

Well, my theory is as follows: We will beat Balthazar but won't kill him. He'll be imprisoned and Menzies will replace him. Before we'll find out that Rytlock has started all this mess with Balthy somehow. Maybe Rytlock was the one who stole Balthy's powers and so Balthy came back for revenge. We can be certain that there will be other gods, Anet has talked about that/implied this in couple of interviews (please don't make me look for source). So IMHO they will help us beat Balthazar.

I'm unsure whether Kralkatorrik will survive. IMO there are two options: Either he dies and Aurene will be finally useful and devour his magic (which seems the way they want to go IMHO) or Kralk won't die and we'll somehow make him sleep also. My money's on the first option.

Another unknown variable is Palawa Joko. We know that we'll meet his armies, I'd be surprised if he wouldn't appear. I just wonder whether Anet shall pull Nightfall 2.0 on us and we'll ally with him against a rogue god (damn, what a deja vu) or he'll present just another threat to us, or he'll be even neutral force in Kralk vs Balthy duel. I just hope that he won't be the comic relief. I could however imagine him being corrupted by Kralk. We know that Kralk flew down south, so why not. Joko being a powerful champion of Kralk would be very interesting option for me and it wouldn't be the first time Anet combined two different forces (Molten alliance, new dragon minions, etc)

I'm quite curious what will happen.

What if we kill someone outside our world? The magic still has to go somewhere, but it goes somewhere else with its own limit

@Fenom.9457 said:What if we kill someone outside our world? The magic still has to go somewhere, but it goes somewhere else with its own limit

Now that you mention it, Balthazar has magic from a Bloodstone and 2 dragons now, maybe not all but a lot of it. Won't killing him destabilize Tyria in the same way as killing an elder dragon would?

With this in mind, killing someone in the Mists would IMHO affect Tyria anyway. Many professions draw their magic from the Mists. Killing a powerful entity like a god or elder dragon in the Mists would IMHO make the Mists much less stable and the magic would start to leak much more into "real world" = Tyria from there which would affect Tyria regardless. I don't think that we can avoid the catastrophe if we kill an entity that powerful irregardless of where and don't have a "battery" to store up the magic. But let's say that we have something like that - Aurene. But my theory is that not the amount of magic being released out is the most dangerous but rather the process of sudden release of such amount of magic by death of an entity that stored it.

I think we'll go to the desert trying to save Krakatorrik or make Aurene munch on his magic only to find out that Snaff's mind is still trapped inside him somehow. Like the golem personal story.

We'll defeat Balthazar and Joko will try to become a new god.

@leviathan.2148 said:Now that you mention it, Balthazar has magic from a Bloodstone and 2 dragons now, maybe not all but a lot of it. Won't killing him destabilize Tyria in the same way as killing an elder dragon would?

Not necessarily. From my understanding of the cinematic and dialogue it isn't the access of magic that will kill Tyria, so much as it is the destabilization of The All. While too much magic is an issue, the cinematic simulation seemed to show Tyria just ceasing to function - while too much magic is acting more like explosiveness and causing chaotic effects. So killing Balthazar without finding a new container for the magic would increase the magic in Tyria - and that's bad - but it won't destabilize The All, so it won't lead to the world's death like killing one more Elder Dragon would.

First, i feel like they might try to make someone or something take the place of Balthazar in the end, and i'm praying that doesn't happen. Second, in the trailer Taimi says if we kill more Elder Dragons we might destroy the world. I want to understand a solution for it, because what can we do.... TAME THEM!?

Things that make me curious NOW that Balthazar appeared are: I tought the Gods were either missing or dead, so my question is where have they been, and will we see more of them? It's kind of interesting to see what they will do, but please...... for everything thats good, dont make a God Bonanza!!! (God's appearing left and right. Balthazar twist was good enough to be just it).

And i agree Aurene is going to have a major impact in the story, everything from the second season, heart of thorns and season 3, is leading to it, i'm just too goddam curious to what it is (perhabs more eggs? New Dragons and/ or Champions to replace the Elder Douches?).

Also the mists will have the solution to our God problem. I just feel it, now that the old Tribune is going to tell us about what he saw, and how he became what he is!! Perhabs we might get to see EIR!!!

HELL PERHABS EIR IN THE MISTS MIGHT HELP HER SON UNDERSTAND AND GRIEF HER DEATH, AND HE MIGHT BECOME BEYOND WHAT HE ALREADY IS!!!

@Ludovicus.7980 said:I think we'll go to the desert trying to save Krakatorrik or make Aurene munch on his magic only to find out that Snaff's mind is still trapped inside him somehow. Like the golem personal story.

We'll defeat Balthazar and Joko will try to become a new god.

I actually really like the sound of this one. Joko, known opportunist, jumping into the magic to mimic how Kormir ascended. Palawa Joko wielding Balthazar's power- especially in combination with the other magic that Balthazar gathered- is one of the most threatening enemies I could ever imagine.

He'd be triple-classing, if you look at it from a GW1 perspective. N/E/W. Wild.

And almost all of the new classes revolve around heat and fire. Just how are we going to kill him with that?

We use our foot key on Balthazar until he open his eyes

Blasphemous talk about killing Balthazar. How dare you! It is outrageous!

Balthazar is on a rampage to seek justice! He is angry and he wants revenge to what has been done to him.... yes he is a little bit careless. But come on. Collateral damage happens in war. Tyria still exists so nothing bad has really happend... yet... as far as we know... So yeah Balthazar seems to be the antagonist.

But obviously more is going on. Dont be blind to the most important questions at hand... who has taken Balthazars power and why? and maybe how? What have they done with his power? Who is using it now? What do they plan with it? Could it be that those who have weakend Balthazar are the true evil ones?

The only one I can think of who profit from all this the most is Balthazars half brother Menzies. In fact it is Menzies goal to weaken Balthazar to gain an advantage in Balthazars domain the Fissure of Woe where Menzies Shadow army is in an ever ongoing war against Balthazars Eternal army.

And now Balthazar is weak. Menzies just makes the most sense. If he is behind all this he has allies now. Palawa? Kralkathorrik? To think about this sounds way more fun than just killing Balthazar. Yes, we will have to deal with The god of war but not eliminate him.

Anyway, killing or not killing Balthazar.... I am... "burning" to know what does all this mean for the Fissure of Woe. I want to go home.

FoW is in the Mists, right? It'd be awesome if we'd make a trip to the Mists!

Also killing Balthazar is the last possibility.

Even this theory about the replacement is a bit odd. The biggest possibility (if Balthazar will be killed) is Menzies, the people we know don't fit to be the God of War as Menzies does.

People are scared if this story will be only repeating Nightfall's story, but I think the writers are smarter than that.

And Balthazar is not imprisoned as Abaddon, so looking for any resemblances is pointless.

All we can do is to wait.

There're many different topics to learn about so it just must be really long story, especially because we have so many villains.

8 days, guys! :)

@Ashgard.5132 said:First, i feel like they might try to make someone or something take the place of Balthazar in the end, and i'm praying that doesn't happen. Second, in the trailer Taimi says if we kill more Elder Dragons we might destroy the world. I want to understand a solution for it, because what can we do.... TAME THEM!?

Things that make me curious NOW that Balthazar appeared are: I tought the Gods were either missing or dead, so my question is where have they been, and will we see more of them? It's kind of interesting to see what they will do, but please...... for everything thats good, dont make a God Bonanza!!! (God's appearing left and right. Balthazar twist was good enough to be just it).

And i agree Aurene is going to have a major impact in the story, everything from the second season, heart of thorns and season 3, is leading to it, i'm just too kitten curious to what it is (perhabs more eggs? New Dragons and/ or Champions to replace the Elder Douches?).

Also the mists will have the solution to our God problem. I just feel it, now that the old Tribune is going to tell us about what he saw, and how he became what he is!! Perhabs we might get to see EIR!!!

kitten PERHABS EIR IN THE MISTS MIGHT HELP HER SON UNDERSTAND AND GRIEF HER DEATH, AND HE MIGHT BECOME BEYOND WHAT HE ALREADY IS!!!

The problem is that the devs have stated that Braham is concerned with his matters and will not be involved in PoF story. I doubt talking to Eir would repair anything, Braham must grow up. :)

Taimi made the simulation with Phlunt and they stated that killing Primordus, Jormag or any other dragon would be catastrophic but I understand it in this way: if we have the "sponge" to consume their powers we are save, because somebody else can gain their powers, the problem with Mordremoth's death was that it'd spread out in every corner of Tyria, not to one force; same with Zhaitan's death.Also using Balthazar would be a wonderful way to get rid of dragons forever, but he lied to us, manipulated us, used a disguise. Now we just cannot cooperate with him.

In the 1st demo chapter his champion came to us and asked to unite our forces to get rid of the dragons and most likely Balthazar would gain their powers for himself and we'd be save from any dragons' danger.

And this "I'll be the only God" would mean that he wants to be the only huge force in Tyria with us. We know it can't happen because we don't trust him at all.

I am curious how devs want to solve this problem. But at least we know that Tyria won't be destroyed because Season 4 awaits :D

@Arden.7480 said:

@Ashgard.5132 said:First, i feel like they might try to make someone or something take the place of Balthazar in the end, and i'm praying that doesn't happen. Second, in the trailer Taimi says if we kill more Elder Dragons we might destroy the world. I want to understand a solution for it, because what can we do.... TAME THEM!?

Things that make me curious NOW that Balthazar appeared are: I tought the Gods were either missing or dead, so my question is where have they been, and will we see more of them? It's kind of interesting to see what they will do, but please...... for everything thats good, dont make a God Bonanza!!! (God's appearing left and right. Balthazar twist was good enough to be just it).

And i agree Aurene is going to have a major impact in the story, everything from the second season, heart of thorns and season 3, is leading to it, i'm just too kitten curious to what it is (perhabs more eggs? New Dragons and/ or Champions to replace the Elder Douches?).

Also the mists will have the solution to our God problem. I just feel it, now that the old Tribune is going to tell us about what he saw, and how he became what he is!! Perhabs we might get to see EIR!!!

kitten PERHABS EIR IN THE MISTS MIGHT HELP HER SON UNDERSTAND AND GRIEF HER DEATH, AND HE MIGHT BECOME BEYOND WHAT HE ALREADY IS!!!

Well, season 4 could also take place on a Fractured Tyria. Imagine each zone broken and floating as the world breaks up much like the fractals. Not saying that it is likely, just possible. Which begs the question, with the Harbinger located in the Mists... What if the Fractals themselves are what is left of a world that was destroyed when The All was made out of Balance. What if the excess of magic would do that to Tyria...

I've not thought about it in that way! It's really great theory and I support it. :astonished:

It's not only the Harbringer, but also the norns from the newest fractal Viirastra and a men... Starting with S. Anyway it might be another secret organization, but norn organization. We know that Norn have an access to the Mists through the Spirits of the Wild (in Norn Personal Story we traveled to the Mist in this way), maybe they are uncorrupted Svanir or something like that.

Also Viirastra is pretty suspicious, she treats everything as a play, she also wears the blindfold. Interesting.

I am looking forward to Fractal Lore and I am a bit unhappy that DDR was switched off... We could make travels to the past, past events like Orr just before the Cataclysm... But it'd mean the huge disorder in the part of the Mists we have an access.

Anyway I'd like to see some references to Fractal lore, like the Raid lore was involved in Season 3.

Can't wait to find it out, but not sure it is going to happen... I am hopeful. :)

@Narcemus.1348 said:

@Arden.7480 said:

@Ashgard.5132 said:First, i feel like they might try to make someone or something take the place of Balthazar in the end, and i'm praying that doesn't happen. Second, in the trailer Taimi says if we kill more Elder Dragons we might destroy the world. I want to understand a solution for it, because what can we do.... TAME THEM!?

Things that make me curious NOW that Balthazar appeared are: I tought the Gods were either missing or dead, so my question is where have they been, and will we see more of them? It's kind of interesting to see what they will do, but please...... for everything thats good, dont make a God Bonanza!!! (God's appearing left and right. Balthazar twist was good enough to be just it).

And i agree Aurene is going to have a major impact in the story, everything from the second season, heart of thorns and season 3, is leading to it, i'm just too kitten curious to what it is (perhabs more eggs? New Dragons and/ or Champions to replace the Elder Douches?).

Also the mists will have the solution to our God problem. I just feel it, now that the old Tribune is going to tell us about what he saw, and how he became what he is!! Perhabs we might get to see EIR!!!

kitten PERHABS EIR IN THE MISTS MIGHT HELP HER SON UNDERSTAND AND GRIEF HER DEATH, AND HE MIGHT BECOME BEYOND WHAT HE ALREADY IS!!!

So, we replace every zone transition with an asura gate, and instead of having those mysterious rectangular impassible mountain ranges everywhere, we get a misty void?

Reminds me of Spellforce, actually, which justified map boundaries in a similar fashion: the world was destroyed except for specific bits that weren't.

Again, not stating it's likely at all. It seems like way too much work for a living story, but I was trying to point out that the story could continue with the world having "ended".