Can dragons eat/use... spoilers

divine magic now?Just before Kralkatorrik fires his megalaser, the Antikythera from our vision circles his mouth, and Mordremoth, Zhaitain, and Balthazar appear. But the vast majority of the magic Balthazar released should have been from the bloodstone/Primoridius/Jormag, with only a small fraction being his leftover divinity. Wouldn't it make more sense for four dragons to have appeared? Does this mean gods convert the magic they consume like dragons?

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:divine magic now?Just before Kralkatorrik fires his megalaser, the Antikythera from our vision circles his mouth, and Mordremoth, Zhaitain, and Balthazar appear. But the vast majority of the magic Balthazar released should have been from the bloodstone/Primoridius/Jormag, with only a small fraction being his leftover divinity. Wouldn't it make more sense for four dragons to have appeared? Does this mean gods convert the magic they consume like dragons?

I suspect as much, otherwise Kralkatorrik would in theory have the magic of 5 Elder Dragons including his own. Also Balthazar would have technically absorbed Zhaitan and Mordremoth magic from the Bloodstone.

@"Daniel Handler.4816" said:divine magic now?Just before Kralkatorrik fires his megalaser, the Antikythera from our vision circles his mouth, and Mordremoth, Zhaitain, and Balthazar appear. But the vast majority of the magic Balthazar released should have been from the bloodstone/Primoridius/Jormag, with only a small fraction being his leftover divinity. Wouldn't it make more sense for four dragons to have appeared? Does this mean gods convert the magic they consume like dragons?

Balthazar never utilized ice magic, and he used fire magic long before taking power from Primordus - since he took from the Bloodstone, you'd think he'd be limited to just Preservation (presuming the theories be right about which Bloodstone the Maguuma Bloodstone was), and in smaller quantities: plant, mind, and death magic during Season 3. But the entire time he uses his uniquely almost golden-looking flames that we see throughout Path of Fire.

As such, Balthazar apparently was capable of converting magic, much like the Elder Dragons must be able to. Before any Elder Dragons' death, no matter what magic the Elder Dragons ate, the magic they used was always their domain's magic. Zhaitan could devour Orrian artifacts left and right, but could only ever use death and shadow magic. Balthazar, even as a former god, seems to be the same.

But I'd argue that's not divine magic. Best we can tell, it's basically "war domain". It might be something slightly different, since it involves dimension hopping as what Kralk and Aurene show they've taken from it, but without really knowing all that much about how gods and domains work still, "war" is our best bet, even though he's merely a former god (it seems becoming a god leaves a hefty imprint on the being, as both Dhuum and Balthazar function fairly similar to each other and to Abaddon where we are able to compare).

Dhuum seems to do the same as Balthazar in that he converts power from souls into his particular brand of Death magic. With a flavor of... mind? Not sure what to call Dhuum seemingly taking over people by getting in their heads that takes on the visual appearance of a dark green energy transformation.

What Balthazar and Dhuum use isn't really divine magic, but they seem to be still connected to, and thus convert magic into, their domain. Comparing to dragons and their minions, I guess it would be like they've gone from Elder Dragon to dragon champion; still tied to their flavor of magic, but not using what makes them a god (divine magic).

Perhaps a better way to term it would be 'signature magic'. Balthazar's signature is fire, so he converts magical energy he absorbs into that signature magic because that's just what he's been attuned to all his existence. I'd imagine the ability to traverse the Mists comes with the type of magical being Balthazar remains as despite not being a God.

But yes, it's quite clear that even without Divine magic, ex-Gods still firmly continue to stick to their 'signature magic' even when losing their divinity (See: Dhuum), and have access to all the knowledge they gained whilst they were a God to still be massively dangerous and powerful, even to Elder Dragons.

So no, Dragons cannot absorb Divine magic as far as we know because they have never had the chance to and if they had the chance I still don't think they could unless it was separate from the God that has that Divine magic - And as we know from a previous example: Abaddon, Divine magic MUST have a vessel. Therefore, to get Divine magic a Dragon would have to kill a God, and that's not a surefire thing. (And would destroy everything in the vicinity as the God will obviously fight back and we know what that causes from the Crystal Desert)

Balthazar had no Divine magic in Path of Fire, at any point.

The game has never really been clear about what "divine" actually means, to be able to say whether or not fallen Balthazar is it or has that sort of magic. At least, I don't think the game has ever said much about the difference between gods, generally, and the Six, with the exception that fallen gods don't have a blinding aura, and don't seem to control any domain in the Mists.

Arenanet seem to be drawing both from the polytheistic idea of gods, as well as the monotheistic concept of angels and fallen angels. To the extent they hew toward the former, "divinity" could simply be an attribute of any of the class of beings called "gods", which includes but is not limited to the Six (and might even include beings like Koda, or to a lesser extent, demigods like Grenth was originally).

To the extent that they hew toward the latter, "divinity" might only refer to some higher source of power that the Six draw from, possibly along with their servants or other Ascended mortals (maybe even certain ghosts, which would explain why Glint-affiliated ghosts like Eir, Snaff, and Gwen have a different appearance from other souls), but not fallen gods like Balthazar or Dhuum. In which case the source of that divinity could be anything from a monotheistic personal God to a pantheistic universal divine "force".

The Fallen Gods do not have the blinding aura which is specifically connected with the magic that the Gods hold (Aka, 'Divine' magic) because they do not have that Divine magic. The two are one in the same. Blinding aura = Has Divine magic. (Unless constrained via God-forged bindings like Abaddon, apparently)

@"ThatOddOne.4387" said:The Fallen Gods do not have the blinding aura which is specifically connected with the magic that the Gods hold (Aka, 'Divine' magic) because they do not have that Divine magic. The two are one in the same. Blinding aura = Has Divine magic. (Unless constrained via God-forged bindings like Abaddon, apparently)

The blinding effect is something ANet invented to make the Six more goddish. Is on the same level of credibility as the "divine magic" concept.Speaking of Auras with blinding effects, I remember that until recently the Mesmers had the blind as an effect of their Chaos Armor. Is this a proof that all the mesmers had divine magic ?

If i remember correctly, Kormir says he was stripped of divinity. Now that could be interpreted as in divinity as position of a god, but I would say most of us agree it relates to divinity as in divine powers

@Cristalyan.5728 said:

@"ThatOddOne.4387" said:The Fallen Gods do not have the blinding aura which is specifically connected with the magic that the Gods hold (Aka, 'Divine' magic) because they do not have that Divine magic. The two are one in the same. Blinding aura = Has Divine magic. (Unless constrained via God-forged bindings like Abaddon, apparently)

Do not be obtuse, you know exactly what I mean, we've even seen the effect in game and the status effect inflicted by conditions is no where near the same significance or level. In the lore we have the evidence of Malchor attesting to the power of the blinding effect and it's significance, and it's tie to the divine magic the Gods wield.

You are wrong on this.