Tinfoil time, with emphasis on Time and Aurene's progression - Spoilers of course

[Bast.7253]

I don't know how many people saw the reddit post ages ago before the saga was announced, but there was what looked like an incredibly fake seeming leak that mentioned a dragon of time.

If you've played through the recent episode, we wind up in the Hall of Monuments and Aurene has this newfound fascination with the Scrying Pool. She seems to have this much greater understanding after her ascension of the world, seeing the interwoven threads of time, mists, and presumably all reality.

With that being said, I think it's fairly obvious that the new visions will probably launch from here and arrive directly as a result from her studying of the scrying pool. So, while it could likely just be a device to allow for the implementation of those, I have to wonder if it isn't meant to be much more going forward.

Being the first of her kind, being a dragon that's absorbed a fallen God's magic and gained an ability and connection to the mists as well as numerous other elder dragon's magic... AND already belonging to a family of dragons that are known for farsight, it's within reason to assume that, even if not now, she could eventually gain some control over time.

With that being said, what effect could that have on the story moving forward?

For one, I really hope visions wind up being a way for us to explore things we otherwise wouldn't be able to in the current plot, though fractals to some degree could also serve this purpose. But imagine being able to explore a vision of Arah pre-cataclysm, or Jotun before their fall, a dwarf in the height of their civilization, an asura before they were pushed from the depths, or witness the birth of some of these mysterious beings in lore like the spirits, or the elder dragons, or the celestials. Or for that matter, Malyck's tree and the adventure he embarked on. Or Joko as he became a lich. (Though unlikely as that ship seems to have sailed and we've had a few hints that seem to further imply the Djinn and wish theory.)

There are so many possibilities this could open up to really dive deep into lore without being forced to read about it in collection items. (Which they don't even do anymore anyway.)

As far as the overall story, without reliving the past, Aurene having some deeper connection, ability, or sphere of influence of time, could be a jumping off point for some other exciting plots moving forward.

We could have long-gone beings from the past being brought back.

For that matter, though I'd prefer it not go this route, we could up in a situation where Aurene's power over time actually winds up unintentionally being a more destructive force than the other elder dragons. (This also seems unlikely, but is really just meant to explore the subject.)

A jumbled mess of what if's and theoretical, but it is an angle they haven't really taken yet. It's most likely just setting the stage for the new visions with little long-lasting impact on the story, but food for thought and nutty speculation.

Despite having the new saga and expanding of lore (though not nearly as much as I had hoped), there doesn't seem to be much excitement or crazy speculation in these lore forums these days. Not sure if that's general lack of interest from the playerbase, or if the story just hasn't reached the point that people are wanting to even bother speculating, or people became disinterested in lore because of previous story developments.

But it's still fun to speculate and I still have a passion for the story. Despite the game seemingly drudging downhill for sometime now and the focus fading, it still has so much potential with gameplay and still has so much story to tell. And that's just with building onto or elaborating on pre-established lore, without diving into anything new for the franchise.

[Stephen.6312]

Hi cptaylor!I don't know if you know of my theories. Look, I love your speculation. As I have already detailed previously, I believe that there are six threads that form the fabric of reality. Ley-lines are missing threads in this fabric. What Aurene thinks of as threads are probably timelines.

Just a few thoughts. I have a bit more that I've been working on too, but this isn't really about me so I'll just leave this here.

[Stephen.6312]

1. The Search For Answers: Part I

2. The Search For Answers: Part 2

[ugrakarma.9416]

time-related stuff is normally a cheap resource for lazy lore and make history poor, i hope GW2 dont become a MK11.Fractals had room to all these stuff, and have a dedicated playerbase that urge for new fractals.

[Yasai.3549]

No doubt Anet is planning for us to revisit previous GW EotN scenery which is pretty cool. (haha cool)

I'm not keen on them trying to mess with the Mists right now, but if Anet decides to mess with the Mists, I think it should deserve its own story arc because there is so much potential in exploring the Mists.

And I'm pretty sure that Aurene has better plans to mess with the Mists.

Look at what her grandaddy did trying to eat the Mists : almost caused the entire world of Tyria to collapse

[Bast.7253]

@ugrakarma.9416 said:time-related stuff is normally a cheap resource for lazy lore and make history poor, i hope GW2 dont become a MK11.Fractals had room to all these stuff, and have a dedicated playerbase that urge for new fractals.

Agree. I really hate that they haven't put more into fractals over the years. I think it just boils down to penny-pinching and cutting everything they can. But there are so many story arcs they could have done that could have been really cool. They could have done a whole set of Arah-themed fractals. I really enjoyed the fractal they introduced with Joko, and it tied in nicely with the story. I wish they had done this more often. Even now, with Eye of the North territory they could have released a fractal with Svanir's corruption, or something involving Jotun or the Spirits of the Wild. There's just more they could have done in general, but I guess they just decided to funnel all of whatever resources they had left into living story with the rest going to their other projects.

@Yasai.3549 said:

No doubt Anet is planning for us to revisit previous GW EotN scenery which is pretty cool. (haha cool)

I'm not keen on them trying to mess with the Mists right now, but if Anet decides to mess with the Mists, I think it should deserve its own story arc because there is so much potential in exploring the Mists.

And I'm pretty sure that Aurene has better plans to mess with the Mists.

Look at what her grandaddy did trying to eat the Mists : almost caused the entire world of Tyria to collapse

I'm not sure what she plans to do with the mists though. I still have to doubt the longevity of the game in general, but if it had a long future still I could see some plots involving her guiding us to new locations in the mists, reaching out to the human gods, or even communing with the Oracle of the Mists tying in the celestials and Cantha. It just doesn't feel like they have that much more planned for the game moving forward to warrant that kind of direction.

If anything I think her talking about the mists and its connection the scrying pool could just be how she wields whatever power she has to lead us into these Visions. Beyond that, the only other possibility I can think of would be if she were using her connection to the mists to find beings that are capable of maintaining the balance that's currently off in terms of Tyria/Magic/The All so that she doesn't wind up being the one being responsible for everything.

Lastly, on that note, with Dragonfall we essentially saw the creation of Skyscales. Creations that spawned from the power of the mists, right? So she may not even necessarily need to find existing beings to fill those gaps, she may just be able to wield the mists in a way that she can create them.

[Randulf.7614]

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:time-related stuff is normally a cheap resource for lazy lore and make history poor, i hope GW2 dont become a MK11.Fractals had room to all these stuff, and have a dedicated playerbase that urge for new fractals.

Completely agree. A Dragon of Time is not a concept I like...unless it is purely a tool used for the Visions of the Past and nothing else. Extraordinarily few writers can pull off using time in fantasy writing. Anet are not a team capable of that (sorry Anet). Anything more involving or related to the main narrative can stay out of the game. It's already a mess of metaphysical nonsense plot strands as it is.

However, I do like the idea of being able to revisit some of things in the OP. And I don't need a logical explanation for it either. "scrying pool" or "fractals" is good enough for me. There's plenty of interesting stories to be had if these Visions of the Past take off and the OP mentions some of them, although my impression is that these Visions are exclusively related to the current plot.

[doogal.9368]

@"Stephen.6312" said:

1. The Search For Answers: Part I

2. The Search For Answers: Part 2

Wow! Read a lot of your sylvari and Markis theory. SUPER NEAT STUFF.Now I wanna go through it again, or maybe just introduce some rp around it. I nearly got rid of my only sylvari. (it also reminded me of my original background story stuff which involved her aura/glow, or lack of, and why she's so estranged from The Grove.

[Stephen.6312]

@doogal.9368 said:

@"Stephen.6312" said:

1. The Search For Answers: Part I

2. The Search For Answers: Part 2

Wow! Read a lot of your sylvari and Markis theory. SUPER NEAT STUFF.Now I wanna go through it again, or maybe just introduce some rp around it. I nearly got rid of my only sylvari. (it also reminded me of my original background story stuff which involved her aura/glow, or lack of, and why she's so estranged from The Grove.

Thanks.