Psientist.6437

Then we will have to face the deadly elder dragon of gas! Jormag points at the Commander: Aurene's Champion! Only you can do what must be done!Commander: reaches for Jormag's finger

I see this getting thrown around every now and then. Can you please elaborate on what you mean by this and perhaps get into it a bit? It's terribly confusing otherwise. Sure. It is a quick way to refer to Tyrian physics and the manifestation of Tyrian physics. The Tyrian universe seems to use gravity, the weak and strong nuclear forces, and electromagnetism. When I use the term I am referring to the laws governing magic and how it manifests. I think most people are using it to refer to things such as the Mists, The All, the Elder dragon cycle, and the Eternal Alchemy; large scale phenomenon that, if the Tyrian universe were realistic, would emerge from natural laws. A "real world" example of how the term is being used here in Tyria would be the term "Christian cosmology" that includes God, Heaven, Hell, Earth and the eternal struggle between good and evil. The cosmology of the Star Wars universe would include the Light and Dark sides of the Force. I have some theories for Tyrian cosmology. Magic could be a form of matter that reacts to, or is given form by, will power. There would be a quantum magic field and magic particles/waves. Or, and this is my preferred cosmology, there is a Will field and it is the effects of Will that we confuse for magic. On a cosmological scale, Will would form emergent structures similar to how gravity, the weak and strong forces and electromagnetism form structures. A sufficiently powerful Will structure behaves in ways similar to a black hole. A black hole grabs hold of a virtual particle at its event horizon where sheer forces inject sufficient energy into the virtual particle making part of the virtual particle real. That's the basics of Hawkings radiation. A powerful Will structure would do something similar but with more sophisticated results. Magic is what we have been calling the manifestation of Will being used to pull matter and energy from the quantum ground state or zero point energy.

Dragons are the personification of natural, untamed magic. In the western tradition, they are foes that need to be destroyed or domesticated and in eastern traditions they are to be understood and respected. In both cases though, they symbolize the power of nature and a connection to nature. In fantasy and hero journeys in general, they are often the source of deeper knowledge about how the world works. I think the studio went with dragons so they could tell a complex story about discovering deeper knowledge about the nature of Tyria. I am not sure if they started off knowing what Tyrian cosmology would look like. Some of their descriptions are hand-wavy magi-babble. I am cautiously optimistic that they have figured out a concrete model for the cosmos.

Thus you agree that the plot had added nothing upon the dragon's depth, good. Obviously, you are not discussing in good faith because making Elder dragons more dangerous adds to their depth. You are attempting to gaslight. Why does the All dilemma make our fight against Zhaitan, Mord or Kralk 'wrong'? The fight against the Elder dragons is more complicated but not even remotely 'wrong'. How does adding the need for replacements make fighting Elder dragons wrong?!?! Our hero is still on a righteous path and the All dilemma makes it longer and more interesting. Tyria is a bigger, more realistic place because of the All dilemma. In the context of plot mechanics, there is no there no other way to describe the All dilemma. You're welcome to your position, just know it isn't objective. You are making a emotional plea to limit how complex Tyria can be.

How are Elder dragons less of a threat or less 'evil'? You keep saying the All dilemma makes them so but I don't see how that works. The Elder dragons are now more dangerous. The All dilemma forces us to change our approach to overcoming their danger. That hardly qualifies as a slap in the face or the studio committing a breach of agreement or intent. We still need to defeat Elder dragons. Why are you claiming that requirement has changed? Why does changing our strategy mean abandoning any strategy? If the fate of Palpatine and the galaxy were linked then 99.99% we would discover a way to break that link, change the system, or a new Emperor less intent on carnage. There are countless, exciting stories about eliminating bad guys in positions of power and changing the system to make bad guys in positions of power less likely. Stop acting like what the studio is doing is baffling or fated to inadequacy. They are simply trying to tackle the power vacuum frequently caused by resolving the power fantasy. That power vacuum is realistic, killing Palpatine caused a power vacuum. The studio is trying to show us a bigger, richer, more realistic picture of Tyria and it is making you angry. Be honest, is it the power left over, the need for a Kormir, that is making you angry?

Post the discovery of the All dilemma, Elder dragons hold a more powerful position. They can now hold the fate of the world ransom. Their physical ability to prevent their death hasn't changed but they have gained a strategic advantage. Obviousally the tone has changed but the change hardly comes as a 'smack in the face' or a destructive twisting of our goals. Of course it isn't wrong to defend Tyria and mortals. We still must defeat the remaining Elder dragons. Now they are more powerful and more of a threat than ever before. Do you think we will resolve the All dilemma and the Elder dragon threat by explaining that some people just have to die for the sake of the All? Make Tyria great again by making every Tyrian for themselves? Face it Slowpokeking, your problem is with changing how the power fantasy is resolved. You want a simple resolution where the heroes gain power and defeat dragons with no power or responsibility left over to be distributed. Only fame is left over to distribute. This resolution is boring and just as vulnerable to Suziness. The only real difference with adding the All dilemma is this resolution becomes impossible.

The elder dragons as Eldritch beings bound to a cosmic mechanism isn't stupid. It just makes it impossible for the PC to hold the ultimate role. From your comments Slowpokeking, it seems as though that is your actual complaint. We no longer have a reliable, dull, power fantasy that the PC can climb to the ultimate peak. The plot you want is the equivalent to playing wack-a-mole until there are no more moles. I want a story about the whole fucking carnival. We can still kill the bad Elder Dragons, but it will take longer and need more set up. We may even be on a journey to change how the All is configured; we could defeat the evil Elder dragons and ensure the end of Elder beings and the risk they pose. The main difference I can find between the OP's plot preference and what we have is there is less smoke available to blow up the PC's behind with the plot we have. That being said, Aurene keeps playing chicken with the definition of a Sue. We are told her physiology makes her resistant to magic dissonance but her physiology is also a coincidence. Has the problem always been the lack of crystal dragons? That would be a very weak way to resolve the dilemma of the All. You could make the argument that being raised by mortals changed her physiology but not without making her physiology plastic and less reliable. I don't agree that using Lich magic to explain her resurrection was lore breaking or 'wrong' but it was handled so flippantly that it became Suzy. I also agree that if we take the All dilemma seriously, then replacing the current Elder dragons with nice Elder dragons or just Nicest Aurene is a weak resolution. The All dilemma describes the trope that power corrupts and absolute/cosmic power corrupts absolutely/cosmically. The All mechanizes this trope, the more magic or power flows through an Elder dragon, the more likely they are to be corrupted. An Elder dragon may not be evil, wanting to kill mortals, but just pathologically fixated on efficient cycling of magic. Mortals just aren't important to them. The All may be completely responsible for their pathological personalities. I want the All dilemma to make the plot more complex and I want the resolution of the dilemma to be complex enough to offer a genuine resolution. I think the financial crisis of 2008 is a great analogy for the All dilemma. The necessary cycling of magic is the necessary cycling of money. The six sphere All configuration is the too big to fail configuration of financial institutions. Sticking with six spheres but making sure they are filled with nice dragons is a Dodd-Frank approach that doesn't change the too big too fail configuration. Using just Aurene is the equivalent of replacing all financial institutions with one institution. This approach maximizes the risk of failure and the demand that Aurene be perfect or a Sue. I am hoping for a more aggressive resolution to the power corrupts and too big to fail tropes and those resolutions exist.

I almost didn't include the term 'min-maxing' in the thread title. I knew it would create a place where people trashed the concept of maximizing individual output or denied its value. However, building competency is right next to, or on the path towards, min-maxing. We can't avoid the topic by avoiding the term. I am not claiming you are, but explaining my thinking. If we ever do see a training area or in-game tutorial it will have to defend itself from elitist conformists and elitist rebels. I dunno what you're talking about but "Min-maxing" is not the same as "good enough". Maximizing individual output, isn't the same as simply defeating the obstacle in front of you. You can easily have had this discussion without talking about min maxing, if your only goal is to teach players how to be better players. I could have not used the term min maxing. However, the concept would still be there. Any approach to providing a place where players can learn and teach how to be better players would have to include target dummies or other devices that makes min maxing possible and therefore inevitable. Number thresholds are not the exclusively important aspect of competency but we are in trouble if we can't talk positively about hitting the highest number and learning how to hit higher numbers in the same sentence.

Unless Kralk's mention of her being "the first of her kind" means she has her own children at some point with similar powers. This is a strong possibility. We learn that the right dragon can run the All alone, the other Elder dragons are coming for Aurene, Jormag's offer to help is sincere or a ploy or both. We could get a more complex version of Nightfall's plot. Which is ok. Just ok. It is reliable, inexpensive, and vicariously satisfying. I admit to being a snob but I want a more complex plot. I think we are going to get one. The only new thing we would need to learn about the All is that non-dragons can be plugged into one of the six spheres. The range of compatible beings could be broad. The broader the range, the easier it is to democratize the payout of the Tyrian power fantasy. Cantha presents some real potential. There is a stark difference between Western and Eastern dragon traditions. We have been following the Western dragon power fantasy of Saint George; the hero gains power to slay the dragon and gets power from killing the dragon. The studio will have to appropriate Eastern culture and hopefully decide to pay respects to the Eastern dragon tradition.

I have never been into raiding, but I would wager that raiders dynamically select skills and practice dynamic gameplay. I believe you are comparing the emotional thrill of dynamically navigating through a new encounter to the emotion thrill of maximizing competency of a known encounter. I agree that they can be compared but think ranking them is nonsensical, illogical even. Why would you dynamically select skills unless you intend to maximize or optimize output? Concepts such as skill rotations are intentionally designed into the game. I think you are making the same 'no true Scotsman/Tyrian' argument that min-maxing elitists use. That's not the impression I came away with. I came away thinking they'd meant that players swap skills/weapons around to find things that they like, and that work for what they're doing, whether they're in the "squeeze every 1/10th of a point of DPS out of a build" club or not. I recently rolled my first Guardian. I have no idea how I'm "expected" to play it, and I don't care, overmuch. What I do want is to be able to complete things that I start. To that end, I've tried almost every weapon type available, dynamically swapping to each to see if it's better than what I've been doing, or worse. When I find a set and swap that works for how I think it needs to be played, I'll start shuffling the utilities around, and swapping builds around to get what I need to get out of it. If, along the way, I'm a boon to have in a group situation, that's outstanding, but, and there's always a but, it's not my driving motivation. Having fun, and playing how I want to play on whatever class I'm playing is my main goal. I am seriously considering rolling a new Ranger, and sticking with the core build, instead of either of the specs. Contrary to the min/maxers, these builds worked really well when they were endgame builds, and just because something may be a bit better, or even a great bit better, doesn't mean that they suddenly became bad. However, if you ask some, if that Ranger isn't a Druid, and is using their pet, they're bad. I've even seen "Rangers using a long bow are bad". At least here on the forums, I seem to see a lot of Rangers using long bows in the OW, and I know I use them too. Of course I also use an axe and a torch on one, and an axe and a sword on the other. One's a Beastmaster, and the other isn't 80 yet, but will be a Druid. I'll have to see what works when I get there, but initially, it's going to be Druid in name only, just like all the builds are, initially, since you've got to earn those HPs to unlock stuff. But that's just what my impression was of "play dynamically". Maybe you're right, I don't know, for sure. I do know, however, that whatever the current FotM builds are, there were players that turned their noses up at them initially, because they didn't conform to the then current meta. I know this because I've actually seen that attitude in play in every other MMO I've played where build diversity is a thing.I am confident I understood vesica, but I am more interested in something you said. I am not attacking you or your position. I am not a min/max elitist and approach personal optimization as you do. " If, along the way, I'm a boon to have in a group situation, that's outstanding, but, and there's always a but, it's not my driving motivation." You clearly understand the value of optimizing personal competency. Do you place a competency threshold on yourself before engaging in group content, especially where group size is limited? Do you recognize the middle ground between pathological build conformity and pathological build rebelliousness? I think you do. I think most people do and yet we keep getting stuck debating from pathological positions.

The Spirits of the Wild are in constant communication with the norn. If they didn't say "hey, you guys, stop dying to Jormag and go south" then they would have told at least their havrouns "uh, we never told Asgeir that... but better keep it secret from other norn so you all don't kill yourselves against Jormag." The way Wolf treats Braham seems to indicate that the Spirits of the Wild believed that the norn race on their own, even now with three other Elder Dragons slain, cannot win against Jormag. That a champion of sorts is needed. The whole "freezing the world" has been its spiel since the core game, and one of the subtle plot points of Icebrood Saga is that Jormag has noticed and acknowledged a change in the status quo, and is shifting their goals and actions in accordance to this. Obviously this means acknowledging the Commander and offering assistance to Aurene as seen in Episode 1, but I think it may also mean changing the whole "freeze the world" thing. And I would argue that if Jormag did have scions to replace the Elder Dragons, that such scions would likely being under their thrall, and thus having 2+ scions under their command would change the Elder Dragon cycle, since it would no longer be six Elder Dragons vying for magic with different goals and intentions, but one Elder Dragon with several subservient Elder Dragons vying for magic and one singular goal. The question then would be how innate is destruction to the Elder dragon cycle. Can magic be cycled, routed, what have you without destruction? Is Aurene the only Elder dragon that could and would Jormag's scions be able to? Jormag may be responding to the change in status quo because it presents an opportunity to finally freeze the world.

You just answered yourself there. Also, the Elder Dragons do not configure The All. This needs to be stressed - the Elder Dragons are pieces of the All, not controllers of the All. The All will always have six spheres, as that is the nature of The All. Just as there can never be more or fewer than Six of the Six Gods, there can never be more or fewer of the six spheres of The All. If an Elder Dragon dies, the sphere doesn't disappear, doesn't dissipate, or anything else - it just goes inert as shown to us in Flashpoint's Elder Druid Protection story cinematic. I think we have reached a point where we are repeating ourselves, each unable to agree on the importance of the others evidence. I think you are exaggerating how much we understand the All and that most signs are pointing to a revelation and a change of thinking about the All.

Wow, Braham may have made a deal with Jormag. That is a convincing possibility. Perhaps the studio will wring every last ounce of agency from Braham. I mean, he did yell at us! There is a problem with the Jormag vs Primordius vs DSD plot; the All, in its current configuration, requires 6 Elder dragons. If Jormag plans on killing Primodius or the DSD, then they must also know how to change the configuration of the All. Though, they might also have some scions available to fill the other Elder dragons roles. Without scions, the plan you offer would destroy Tyria. With scions, your plan wouldn't end the Elder dragon cycle. I agree that Jormag wants to end the cycle but think his reasoning leads him to believe the only way to do so is to freeze Tyria. Kill the disease by killing the host.

I have never been into raiding, but I would wager that raiders dynamically select skills and practice dynamic gameplay. I believe you are comparing the emotional thrill of dynamically navigating through a new encounter to the emotion thrill of maximizing competency of a known encounter. I agree that they can be compared but think ranking them is nonsensical, illogical even. Why would you dynamically select skills unless you intend to maximize or optimize output? Concepts such as skill rotations are intentionally designed into the game. I think you are making the same 'no true Scotsman/Tyrian' argument that min-maxing elitists use.

I almost didn't include the term 'min-maxing' in the thread title. I knew it would create a place where people trashed the concept of maximizing individual output or denied its value. However, building competency is right next to, or on the path towards, min-maxing. We can't avoid the topic by avoiding the term. I am not claiming you are, but explaining my thinking. If we ever do see a training area or in-game tutorial it will have to defend itself from elitist conformists and elitist rebels.

Konig Rational people wouldn't look at Bangar and rule out his actions leading to Jormag's death. He is leading an army to confront Jormag. Braham's bow need only be potent and everyone must assume some level of potency. Bangar's threat to the All would be foremost on the Commander's mind. We are always looking out for Tyria. You're approach demands we assume a top down homogeneity of thought among actors. Everyone would only ever talk about what is right under their noses. Experienced Elder dragon fighting armies aren't saying a word about what is right under their noses. The studio is very sparse with words and what I am seeing may be caused by their fugal nature. I doubt it though. They have spent money on words eroding the Six sphere configuration. Other attempts to provide replacements failed because people didn't understand the All well enough. It doesn't have to be any more complex than that. Going from 'someone' to 'something' is a stretch, but it doesn't break anything or force retcons, just an increase in knowledge. It would be analogous to going from Newtonian gravity to General Relativity. To provide 'high dragons', the studio would have to explain how the dragons first gained control of the All. Elder Dragons couldn't be eternal beings. The studio would have to provide a history for Tyria that includes a deeper understanding of All-chemy or All cosmology. Which isn't the worst thing that could happen. How is the six sphere configuration a proven plan? Yes, it runs, but you can't deny that there evidence that it is innately risky for Elder dragons because of how it focuses magic through a small number of magi-minds. Elder dragon pain becomes everyone's pain.

You are broadly accurate about the challenges and I certainly don't have answers for all of them. There are resources available to any player that is already committed to doing difficult group content and understands sharing the responsibility for group success. Raids, fractals and strike missions all provide top down incentive for players who are already willing to judge their own fitness in a public setting. Being judged in a public setting can be extremely uncomfortable. I prefer the setting of a carnival over a military training camp, a carnival is a less competitive, less emotional place. Look at the responses to this thread or any thread about maximizing the individuals output. It is vitally important for a carnival or training camp to be fun and encouraging. How many players decide to not use training dummies because they want to avoid any PvP environment? Designing the games would be a challenge. However, a carnival would not have to provide all the productivity that a guild or wiki can provide. A carnival would take a bottom up approach; teach concepts such as skill rotation, buff stacking, combo fields. A carnival only needs to train basics. That being said, a carnival could have several locations with each location offering more complex games. Some thoughts on design: Players have to select a full set of an armor prefix. A guild or wiki can teach about min maxing armor stats using a mix of prefixes. Everyone could be leveled up to 80 or be equipped with max stats for their level. Games could provide personal best test/reward tracts and global best test/reward tracts. This would provide many opportunities for a pay out display. Games could be solo, competitive and cooperative. The real world game of High Striker could be adapted for all three types. Solo is obvious. Competitive mode could measure hammer strike directly against hammer or provide a bar to fill and players compete to fill it on their turn. In cooperative mode players would need to fill a bar within a time limit. It may be best or vital to provide only solo and cooperative games. I am learning towards vital, which rules out monetizing through the BLTP. A carnival looks only like a retention tool. Rewards could be minimal. The place itself could provide reward through NPC banter. I think the impulse for this place, the reason for building it, demands the place be significantly different from other more stressful areas of the game. Builds....is ignoring them an option? Lol. Builds will flow freely in chat. I would not underestimate how productively chat could teach builds. This comes with the risk of chat creating toxicity. NPC dialog and banter could help here. A NPC that explains the basics of builds would arm every player against toxicity. NPCs could even "host" build discussion areas, by defining a space and providing rules for civil discussion. Relying on chat isn't an ideal option, but ultimately, the studio's goal is to always leave build discovery up to us. edit: Gear stats could be controlled by the individual game since most or all games would have an ideal gear. This link is an example of how the carnival can teach concepts.

Kralk had visions of mortals and dragons peacefully living and working together. I beleive Glint also makes mention of seeing something similar. I don't think we have to approach the idea of mortals "doing the work of dragons" as meaning that mortals can wield Elder dragons as weapons, enslave them, or be as powerful. It could be similar to the difference between market monopolies and distributed small businesses. Both can do similar economic work but only one is can wield totalitarian control. The Elder dragon problem is analogous to the real world's problem of too-big-to-fail banks.

I want us to go in a different direction as well. Your reason #2 is funny but also true. The way to avoid underwater combat is to freeze the water. However, even if we team up with Jormag and defeat the DSD we still would need Elder dragon replacements. We would still be on a similar narrative treadmill of killing Elder dragons and finding replacement Elder dragons. If we change the requirement for replacements we could still partner with Jormag which could be interesting. I am just convinced that being an Elder part of the All drives Elders mad. Jormag, Primordius, and the DSD may be beyond saving. Jormag is actively "consuming" mortals.

Being good at game-play is valuable. So valuable that the wealthy of skill become rich snobs. The rich and snobbish get in the way and given the chance I would gladly reprogram them. However! Their behavior should never make us so annoyed that we lose sight of good game-play's value. Rich snobs everywhere use snobbery to keep valuable things to themselves. Tyrian Git gudders are claiming a place. My point! Being good with a class is broadly valuable and motivating players to learn game play and class mechanics pays dividends. Would a carnival that offered games based on game play and class mechanics be successful? Games could measure raw outputs of damage, damage types, healing, etc. Games could measure stacks of buffs. Games would be miniature, specific challenges. The carnival would provide a public space where min-maxing could be explained and taught in a fun and public way. A carnival would need a minimum number of games and I think there are enough specific challenges to turn into games. Rewards could be very small.

If an Elder dragon's death is important, why isn't anyone talking about the full risk Bangar poses? Braham's bow doesn't work to rally Charr to his cause unless it is a potent anti-Jormag weapon. Bangar is as dangerous as Balthazar and we only talk about Ryland's fate and the effect of who gets credit for killing Drakkar. Obviously, we should also be frantic about replacements. I think the absence of obvious questions and dialog is telling. A studio that only pays for the minimum of words isn't spending money on irrelevant plot points. Since Aurene's ascension, Taimi's claimed that everything she knew about Elder dragons may be wrong. Aurene has new abilities the make her more resilient to the demands of the All. Aurene tells us that she is discovering deeper knowledge of the All. She knows more about the All than Tiami. Them working together would reveal even more about the All. The six sphere All configuration plot isn't as strong as it used to be. I just don't see us going on to plug more Elder beings into the All magitech. Being an Elder being looks dangerous. The likeliness of going mad and doing Elder damage is high. Suppose Elder beings are tasked with keeping magic flowing and growing. How easy to loose sight of mortals, of civilizations and make decisions about what is best for themselves or an abstract philosophy for All efficiency. Aurene alone in the machine may be the greatest threat. The term high dragons works. I think there is a song about their leader. High dragons would practice magic that demonstrated their knowledge of the All. Taimi would tell us that high dragons are natural masters of the Eternal Alchemy. "It would look like all these columns of symbols moving and flowing everywhere. They see it! They see the Eternal Alchemy!" Plugging cities into the All-chemy is the very limit of what I would believe possible. High dragons would be studying ways to run All-chemy without needing and eliminating the potential, for Elder beings. They could have madly effective temple magic. Cities and other places that receive magi-prayer could be given life enough.

I think Jormag dies before we get to Cantha. The question is who kills them and why. In Still Waters, Wolf Spirit tells Braham that; "You cracked the Fang of the Serpent. Fate now decrees you will either slay Jormag or fall to Jormag." I think it is likely that Braham deals the final blow with Eir's bow. We will just pretend that everyone is acting sufficiently worried about the bow's potency, we can't have people learn from past encounters with potent anti-dragon weapons. If Eir's bow isn't used, then we will need to discover some other potent weapon. As to why we kill Jormag; his plan may be to end the Elder dragon cycle by freezing all Tyria. In their mind Tyria would be "saved" from the cycle of death by preserving everything in ice. I'm even more confident that we are going to learn more about the Elder dragon cycle and the All and then use that knowledge to change how the All functions. We won't be plugging Aurene's children or other entities into the cosmic mechanism because it is too easy for the mechanism to drive its conscious parts insane. We will have to figure out how to fundamentally reconfigure the cosmic machine. My wild guess for Cantha.... The Tengu have been protecting a clan of dragons that could become Elder dragons. This clan has developed techniques that hide them from the Elder dragons and allow them to cycle magic without succumbing to pathological hunger or All corruption. They share this knowledge with other races and each race develops techniques for cycling magic. Cities could become part of the cosmic mechanism. I would love to see Aurene shed her Elder Dragon status, channeling her magic into a newly configured All, and then joining a dragon people. I like this approach because it isn't the typical frustrated or vicarious resolution of the the power fantasy the studio usually delivers. We can't pursue the power fantasy to the point where the PC becomes an Elder dragon or god so someone else gets the power. My approach would distribute the power among many.

The forum looks awful, I hope the format bug gets fixed soon. "Do the norn know that killing another Elder Dragon would end the world? As far as we've seen, only Dragon's Watch and maybe the Pact knows this. Given how the charr react to Aurene, it's likely that it isn't common knowledge how important Elder Dragons are to the world's existence, so it makes sense that the norn are seeing "Braham gave up on killing Jormag" and not "Braham gave up on killing Jormag and the world". Right now, you're assuming that what the players know = what everyone knows. This is never shown to be the case." Konig Des Todes.2086 I hope the studio doesn't use this logic. Tyrian cities are better connected than real world cities. The role of Elder Dragons is one of the most important discoveries in the history of magi-physics and possibly the most important factor influencing the struggle against them. How does it stay a secret? Why would it stay a secret? Why wouldn't there be weekly or even daily updates on Elder dragons that spread through Tyria? An obvious answer would be that the studio said so, but I hate that type of impossibly 'just so' scenario. It makes me feel as though I'm viewing Tyria through a tube and nothing happens outside of the tube. Obiously the player will know things that not every Tyrian knows, but the role of Elder dragons would not be one of them.

The bolded section has legs. I can picture Braham picking a lot of immature people to join his guild. This approach could turn the focus of failure towards him leaving his guild and turning his back on Norn culture and Hoelbrook. That understanding of his failure wouldn't require Norm be irrational and would allow the studio to explore deeper into the relationship between the Commander and Braham. I would love to see the Commander deal with the guilt.

The ice claw through the torso, is that Jormag?