Kossage.9072

What we've learned from Glint and the Forgotten Josso Essher's recordings is that the "Glint's Legacy" plan requires using multiple, benevolent entities to replace the Elder Dragons. We've learned that at least four main domains must be in active push/pull motion at all times to keep the Antikytheria mechanism of the All stable enough. Given dev comments and what Glint and the Forgotten envisioned, Aurene won't be able to hold all this magic herself and such will need fellow Elder Dragon replacements to balance the system. A good outcome would be having six benevolent balancers of magic or, depending on how much holding on to two magic domains per dragon affected their respective Torments, possibly even twelve balancers with one domain each, or less if Aurene holds on to at least two domains (so far we only know of one of her domains being Light). It also seems that Zhaitan and Mordremoth's "spheres" in the Antikytheria are dormant even after other dragons absorbed aspects of their magic, so it'd be beneficial to replace those two dragons ASAP so we can truly stabilize the system and give us some leeway with killing other dragons without worrying about destroying the world in the process. What the developers have told us since is that lesser dragons (hydras, skyscales, wyverns etc.) can't become Elder Dragons because their bodies apparently can't contain the massive amount of magic that Elder Dragons have consumed over the ages. So far the only viable candidates appear to be the bloodline of Elder Dragons (e.g. the Crystal Dragon family) and potentially the dragons' champions (implied with Tequatl the Sunless beginning to evolve after Zhaitan's death although we don't know if it had been able to become a neo-Zhaitan over time and take over the Death and Shadow domains if allowed to grow). We don't know if the saltspray dragons of Cantha should be considered lesser dragons (and thus unable to become Elder Dragon replacements) or if they could potentially be "high dragons" that we can use as replacements. They do have two distinctive differences compared to other lesser dragons: they can speak, and they have unique and powerful magical abilities (e.g. Albax granting good and bad luck to mortals, and Kuunavang granting celestial skills while famously stating "Let me give you a piece of advice. Never refuse a gift from someone who can swallow you whole."). While we don't yet know what has become of the saltsprays of Cantha since GW1, we'll likely encounter a few of them in some capacity and possibly learn if they would be viable for Glint's plan. The developers also left the Elonian saltspray Shiny's fate open as it was no longer in Ahdashim by the time of Qadim's invasion. Another notable thing that the Exalted learned is that the would-be replacement dragons should bond with mortals from an early age to avoid the tragedy of Vlast. While it's arguable that someone like Kuunavang might be a potential replacement as she clearly cared for mortals despite never being raised by them, she may be an exception to the rule and still had a fierce side. Shiny, however, was raised by the mortal Goren and the djinn of Ahdashim and thus bonded with other races as it likely learned some of the djinn's knowledge. It's thus possible that out of all the saltsprays Shiny might be our best bet for an Elder Dragon replacement (if saltsprays are revealed to be more than just "lesser" dragons) assuming that Shiny is benevolent enough and hasn't grown to be too selfish or pampered. It's still unclear whether Elder Dragon need to be replaced by dragons per se. It's possible that we could use artifacts like Shadowstone or otherwise find some useful magical rituals to allow other mortals the resistance to surviving vast amounts of magic entering their system, so an asura, charr etc. could become a balancer in the All. I imagine future storylines will explore this option as it seems unlikely we can just keep hatching and raising would-be replacements through the rest of the saga. It's going to be interesting to see how this magical problem will be tackled and if we ultimately end up with more than six balancers of the All in the new system once all is said and done. :)

If you listen closely, Cinder's line is also voiced in the cinematic. Those looks in their eyes truly showed the deep bond and love between the two. :(

I'd disagree with the idea that charr have no threats left even if the developers themselves seem to support your idea. My reasoning is this based on lore: 1) Ascalonian/Foefire ghosts While Rytlock's ritual in Season 2 was partly successful, it only really weakened the ghosts at Barradin's tomb and not the Foefire ghosts at large. Adelbern has been defeated a few times even before Ascalonian Catacombs story, but he always reformed and returned to continue his plans. What's also significant is that Tom Abernathy has teased that Aurene may not have been able to contain all of Kralkatorrik's magic upon her ascension and thus some of it spread into the world. We already have proof that at least Jormag was affected by this as the journals in Western Bjora Marches discuss how Drakkar's whispers grew louder after each Elder Dragon's death until Kralkatorrik's demise made them unbearable. We also see volatile ley-crazed Icebrood champions in Asgeir's Legacy, which shows that the magic Balthazar's demise introduced to the environment (as seen in Elona) has affected beings as far north as there. Looking at the probes Scarlet planted on notable ley line routes and the place of Kralkatorrik's demise on top of a significant ley line nexus, it stands to reason that some of the magic (the bits that Aurene couldn't absorb) heading north via ley lines from Dragonfall must have passed Ascalon on the way to Jormag and Drakkar in the Far Shiverpeaks. As we've seen ghosts going crazy when absorbing excess magic (see e.g. the bounties at the Desolation), it stands to reason that Adelbern, Barradin and the remaining Foefire ghosts should've received a significant power boost too and should arise and become a major threat eventually with their newfound strength. Imagine a sorcerer-king of Adelbern's caliber becoming even more powerful if he can actually control all that new magic...and even if he can't, he'll now be even more unhinged than before with the power to actually turn himself into a bigger menace this time around. It would be logical that Adelbern eventually delivers on his promise from Ghosts of Ascalon novel to invade the surface world with a massive ghost army with likely new abilities spawned by magic derived from Kralkatorrik, Balthazar etc. This would necessitate a return to the Heir of Ascalon and the Krytan royal locket plot to find the heir ASAP, as well as use King Adelbern's crown, Magdaer and Sohothin to end the Foefire curse and release Adelbern and his spectral ilk from their madness. Given Logan's comments during Season 2, Rytlock may have misunderstood what is needed to end the curse; perhaps the ritual needs the two swords and the crown plus heir and wielders to succeed, so we could see Logan wielding Magdaer to represent Ascalon's human past, Rytlock wielding Sohothin to represent Ascalon's charr present, and the heir wearing the crown to represent Ascalon's future with a truly harmonious coexistence between charr and humans. I'd love to actually see Rurik and Althea appear in such a storyline and convince the cleansed Adelbern and Barradin to aid us in the battle against Jormag's forces, and maybe see Adelbern and Barradin sacrifice themselves in a heroic last stand to save the remaining charr from ruin from Jormag's massive invasion, thus redeeming themselves while allowing Rurik and Althea to lead the remaining ghosts to a well deserved rest in the afterlife as they bless the heir as their successor. The heir would then acknowledge the charr's presence and a true end to hostilities between man and charr, perhaps even turn Ebonhawke truly independent from Kryta, and usher in an age of enlightenment while persuading the Separatists to turn into Royalists to support the heir in the now peaceful endeavors so some of the Separatists can be redeemed as well. 2) Flame Legion In the Bound by Blood prologue, Efram specifically states that he only leads those from the Flame Legion who sought peace, so most of Flame Legion still remains at large and is not assimilated into either Bangar's Dominion or the United Legions. This suggests that there should be more factions out there who refused to see reason and continue being a threat. Given how the Iron Legion has at least six tribunes, the Flame Legion should have approximately the same number too. Even if the two slain tribunes from core Tyria were never replaced, that'd still leave us with at least four remaining evil Flame tribunes and possibly a new Hierophant to replace the late Improaster as I can't see Efram ascending to become the new Hierophant before he became the would-be Imperator. The Flame splinter groups would oppose Efram's ambitions but also each other; we could see one faction being shaman zealots led by Crecia's high-ranking but so far unseen shaman sire (who was referred to in the prologue), one could be a counterintelligence faction full of Flame stalkers (spies) reminiscent of the famous Fireshadows of old, and a third faction could be all about brute force or actually being a faction of Godforged who are dedicated to trying to resurrect Gaheron again as they view every other would-be Flame imperator as pretenders to the vacant throne. Maybe the Godforged could even succeed for a time and bring Gaheron back for a neat cameo role for an episode, and he may hold knowledge about the Eternal Flame etc. that we need to help defeat Jormag. The fourth tribune could very well be the leader of the Molten Alliance, as Angel McCoy once stated in an interview that the leaders of the Molten and Toxic Alliances are still out there with identities unknown to us, so who knows if the Molten Alliance ever returns to haunt us alongside these Flame splinter groups (at least we got a shout-out to Molten Alliance during dialogue with the Flame shaman near Smodur's pavilion). As recently as Season 2, Smodur mentioned that the Flame Legion were still a serious threat even without Gaheron to lead them. Given how busy he was fighting against ghosts, Branded, ogres, Separatists, Renegades etc. at the time, I've no doubt that the evil Flame splinter groups can return to threaten us later on if the writers ever choose to want to bring them back. I could see quite a few juicy plot possibilities here with potentially one evil Flame splinter group seemingly atoning and joining our side only to backstab us by later once they've used us to get rid of most of the competing factions' leadership so this "atoning" faction can try to assassinate the last candidate, Efram, and then install their own faction's leader as the de facto Flame Imperator. Bonus points if one of the high-ranking officers of this treacherous faction actually grew close to the Commander in a way Gavin did in the White Stag storyline for sylvari, and we'd see this officer genuinely conflicted about orders to kill the Commander and Efram while still being loyal to their tribune. I'd love to see some tearjerking moment of a friendly enemy who is torn between loyalties just like we are torn about whether to bring them down after they've proven themselves to be a great ally prior to the scene of their superior's inevitable betrayal. 3) Separatists According to Malice, charr still have to deal with human threats. She mentions in the prologue that the Separatists have had a resurgence lately. I find this statement curious as the Separatists lost many of their notable leaders in core Tyria (e.g. Monique DeLana who died during Caudecus's Manor story mode), and their major backers from the White Mantle (e.g. Caudecus via his funding) were cut off after the White Mantle's collapse in Lake Doric. If the Separatists are becoming a threat again, it begs the question who their new charismatic leader is and where that leader is getting funding from since the defeat of the Mantle and their backers in the Ministry. We already see tensions rising between some Seraph and charr in Drizzlewood Coast in ambient dialogue (which is significant considering that the charr who view the humans only as temporary allies and potential enemies in the future are still the same charr who didn't defect to Bangar and remained loyal to the High Legions). Likewise, Marjory discussed how Logan and Kasmeer would attempt to keep the volatile human factions at bay as news of Bangar's rogue actions would add fuel to the Separatists' fire, so the animosity between charr and humans seems mutual even though we also see friendships forming between the two races (e.g. Logan and Efram's heartwarming banter and bonding during their assault events). I wonder if the Separatists will play any part in the saga. I'd be happy to tie them to a potential future Heir of Ascalon and Foefire cleansing storyline (see the section about Adelbern and Foefire ghosts above) where the heir might be able to redeem them by turning them into new Royalists to honor that old faction from Ascalon's pre-Searing past except these new Royalists wouldn't be a threat but a supporting force for a new era between charr-human friendship if everything went well. If we ever run into the current Separatist leader, I want them to be a memorable antagonist who hopefully lasts longer than just one story instance as there's juicy plot potential for the mystery behind the Separatists' new rise and if it may tie into some bigger conspiracy (such as the necromantic Cult of Verata if it survived over the centuries and how it might tie into Marjory's backstory trying to investigate a case of macabre human sacrifices in DR with some unnamed minister being involved in such and perhaps even tie in Riot Alice's unresolved story about a potential conspiracy surrounding the events of the Great Collapse in DR). 4) Branded While some believe that the Branded are more or less gone, I'd disagree with that notion. The Risen and Mordrem continue being a threat (even if a diminishing one) years after their dragon master's defeat. Their champions, while less threatening now, still continue spreading corruption in any way they can while the Pact and allies do their best to cull the minions' numbers. Given how vast a horde Kralkatorrik created, I doubt that even Aurene's active flyovers and the Pact/legions' efforts were able to fully eradicate the Branded a year since Kralk's defeat. Some champions will still lurk out there for who knows how long and continue carrying out Kralk's last orders to the best of their abilities, refusing to stand down. They may not be as big a threat as they once were, but Sentinels will continue fighting the Branded to the unforeseeable future as far as I understand it based on the Unchained Risen/Mordrem lore. 5) Ogres We know less about the situation with the ogres, but I'd be surprised if they weren't still causing some havoc here and there. Given how Bangar had apparently kept the majority of his forces in Blood Legion lands (as there were only two tribunes in Smodur's Ascalon rather than more Blood tribunes appearing there to help with the war effort), these forces must've been doing something since the end of hostilities with Ebonhawke. While some may have fought some ghosts here and there, maybe the rest of them focused on fighting against the ogres in the east? If so, the ogres should still continue to be somewhat of a threat (even if they might be arguably the least of these five threats the charr face) and thus no joking matter given how tenacious they can be when they pour down from the mountains. This is how I see it too. This "civil war" (I hesitate to use that term as technically the four legions are more like the hordes that formed after Genghis Khan's death and thus should be considered autonomous states) will definitely decide what path the charr will take and which ideology, if any, reigns supreme by the end. Perhaps the charr will wisen up and actually melt the Claw of the Khan-Ur for good to prevent any future temptations, and they may take a cue from the Olmakhan and establish their own Council of Five consisting of elders and/or respected figures within charr society rather than relying on bloodlines or legion identity per se. Time will tell where the Icebrood Saga takes them. I do hope that the legions at large get to interact with the Olmakhan beyond the teases we had in Season 4, though; I'd love to hear the current imperators' opinions on the Olmakhan, and a potential reconciliation between Efram and the Council of Five and if the Olmakhan can learn to forgive at least Efram's splinter group for the sins of the past. :)

While Drakkar was a known conduit for the whispers, it may not necessarily be the only whisperer infused with Jormag's avatar. For all we know, Jormag may have planted multiple whisper avatars into various hosts over the centuries or after the latest dragonrise until Taimi's Machine forced it back into hibernation. We certainly saw something similar with the Dragonspawn in Edge of Destiny as it used its mesmeric magic and persuasive whispers to nearly turn Eir, Snaff and Zojja to its side until Garm resisted its mental probing (as he stubbornly viewed Eir as his only alpha and thus could not be swayed by the Dragonspawn's temptations; Garm is such a hero, and I hope he gets to play a bigger part in the saga and show that even Jormag can't tempt his resilient mind unless Jormag really finds something emotional to tempt him with such as revealing that the rest of Garm's dire wolf pack may in fact still be alive somewhere) and brought the rest of the team to their senses. Even if only one Whisper of Jormag avatar can exist at a time rather than many of them, who knows if another such whisper can't manifest and take over a new host, whether that host ends up being Bangar or someone else. What's also interesting regarding whether Jormag's whispers might still be spreading is that we hear a fascinating "blink and you'll miss it" ambient dialogue (which doesn't get recorded in chat box; ANet, please consider "fixing" this because Western Bjora Marches ambient dialogues were great as they were all recorded in chat box to be read at one's leisure). It takes place between an Iron Legion charr and a Seraph in the eastern part of Fort Defiance outpost (once it's been taken over by our allies) near the fortifications where the charr reveals something troubling: To me this brief dialogue suggests that "her" voice does not belong to whoever the charr thinks it does, but it is in fact a continuation of the seductive whispers that tempted so many Vigil in Eastern Bjora. Like Konig noted, Smodur does repeat the "no traitors needed" creed in various guises, which gives me flashbacks of Bangar's repeating use of certain paranoid phrases in earlier episodes. Both charr imperators may already be compromised by Jormag's seductive whispers (which bring forth their own insecurities and desires that already exist deep within said charr's psyches) without them realizing that they're being played. Bangar seems to have caught on to the whispers somewhat based on his dialogue in "Voice in the Deep" in Ep2, but Smodur may still be oblivious to the true mental threat that Jormag poses as the dragon's suggestive thoughts become your thoughts and "persuade" you to act in certain ways that benefit the dragon's agenda. Of course, if this does foreshadow Jormag's growing influence in Woodland Cascades, it can mean one or many of the following things: 1) A successor to Drakkar has arisen by now to take over as a new conduit/host for Jormag's avatar to spread the whispers. This new host may or may not be Bangar based on the fact that a lot of Dominion have already been corrupted into Frost Legion, and Bangar should be aware of this fact to some extent unless Jormag is somehow deliberately keeping him in the dark about his own forces' fall to corruption. 2) Drizzlewood Coast may be very near to Jormag's current "lair" so Jormag won't need a special host to spread whispers to such a location that is close by. This may be supported by Varinia Stormsounder (Minister of Morale) turning into an Icebrood champion between the first parley in Umbral Grotto and the ambush at the bridge; the entire Battle of Drizzlewood Coast couldn't have lasted more than a few days or a week at most lorewise based on how quickly stuff happened and led to the following story steps. Then again, we don't yet know if Jormag's whispers or something else (another champion?) corrupted the Frost Legion, but my bet would be on Jormag itself given the huge number of converted charr that no single Icebrood champion could corrupt so quickly. Based on Varinia's parley dialogue hinting that she was already aware of the Frost Legion to some extent (and which she refers back to during the battle against her), it suggests that these charr have been converted over time, and the non-corrupted Dominion seem to be totally okay undergoing the transformation as they believe it helps them evolve and become stronger. 3) Bangar may have already done something to make Jormag awaken, and thus Jormag may not even need a conduit for the whispers anymore if it's fully awake to spread its corruption with the potential assistance of Mordremoth's Mind magic that it may possess. I sincerely hope that Smodur's somewhat "off" actions in this episode can be explained by Jormag subtly manipulating him with whispers and manifesting his innermost desires and fears in a harmful way. Smodur has always been very friendly with Rytlock (possibly because he may be aware of the special relationship between Rytlock and Bangar) until this episode (see e.g. their interactions in Season 2 and Smodur comforting Rox about Rytlock when the three of them tried the Foefire cleansing ritual with the Commander's help during the "Plan of Attack" instance). He was certainly respectful of the charr Commander too once the charr Commander proved themself during the charr personal story chapters (e.g. the two of them fighting side by side during the Flame Legion's invasion of the Black Citadel in "Tribunes in Effigy"): One could argue that such praise is just Smodur's way of manipulating the then-Legionnaire player to view him favorably as a trustworthy ally. He says the same regardless of if you're Ash, Blood or Iron, and his sentiment nevertheless seems genuine. Smodur respects people who both use their wits and get stuff done. Yet in No Quarter he acts in an almost hostile manner towards the Commander, withholding information from them and even belittling Rytlock as being dumb when in Season 2 he had praised Rytlock's resourcefulness. Rytlock, likewise, acted weirdly that he even resorted to calling Smodur a bastard when he had always been on friendly terms with him...at least whenever we've seen them interact. If there's always been some hidden animosity there all along, I hope the story explores this more in the future to explain Rytlock and Smodur's change of heart towards the other. Smodur's concerns that were raised in "The World Summit" instance in Season 2 also painted him as a rather meticulous leader who thought about war from many angles and to reduce loss of life by not partaking in too many wars at once. His responses to the Commander during that instance was particularly illuminating in showing how forward-thinking he was. Yet in No Quarter he kills a defenseless prisoner when we know that the only time an execution of a surrendered combatant/helpless prisoner is deemed "okay" among the charr is in a proper execution by a firing squad or in an honorable duel to the death in an arena as seen if we fight our sire Vallus Smokemane in one of the story branches, or if the surrendered charr shows weakness that disgusts the winning charr as seen with Pyre Fierceshot executing the begging Flame Legion prisoner during Eye of the North. While some individual charr grunts have slipped from that creed from time to time, Smodur as an imperator should know better, especially because his actions were against the interests of the rest of his allies at the time. If he wanted Cinder and Ryland gone eventually, he could've at least waited to see a resolution to the parley and maybe kill the two later on the United Legions turf rather than jeopardizing what could've potentially ended the current conflict in a location where his allies were vulnerable to enemy ambush. Tactically acting such way makes little sense too; not only should most of the imperators not agree to gather in one place to meet Ryland because Ryland could've set the lair to collapse and kill the entire legion leadership in one stroke, but Smodur didn't even bother having enough soldiers accompany him to cover both exits just in case Ryland tried to escape or summon reinforcements. The ultimate nail is Smodur deliberately manipulating the Flame Legion to set the stage for recreating a searing crystal when he could've easily just used some new prototype grenade for the job (his engineers certainly have the knowledge to build such). Not only did he keep the Commander and Rytlock in the dark, but he also caused a serious issue between him and Efram. Instead, he should've used the opportunity of Bangar's absence to win Efram to his side; even if Smodur personally hated all Flame Legion, he should see the political opportunity to earn the gratitude of Efram's faction by saving their cubs from Bangar's ilk and offering them sanctuary if they swear their allegiance to him, the progressive visionary who'd be publicly happy to set past grievances aside, instead of Bangar. But thanks to his shady decisions, he's lost Efram's support...likely forever. While we know from lore that Smodur tore out his own eye to intimidate an opponent once (I wonder if that opponent was Gaheron or someone else) and that Scott McGough's TowerTalk interview mentioned that Smodur has always been an opportunist and populist to some degree (he agreed to the Ebonhawke Treaty proposal for selfish reasons to promote his status as the undisputed leader of Ascalon, strengthened his claim for Khan-Ur via accepting the Claw, and established trade between him and humans which would stop a more costly war but also gain rich trade partners that he can milk dry by selling his weapons to them), he isn't someone who jeopardizes deals already made because those affect his reputation as a competent leader. Like Smodur says in "A Race to Arms" instance in the prologue when talking about whether the Ebonhawke Treaty with humans is in jeopardy: "Deals I broker don't fail." However, he has just broken the most important deal: a trustworthy alliance between his fellow imperators and allies as well as losing more and more support from his own troops. The recent guild chat was very illuminating about Smodur although it also seems to suggest that Smodur's actions may not necessarily be driven by Jormag unless the devs want to keep it a secret for a future twist (see the quoted ambient dialogue about "her voice" above). I'd prefer some Jormag influence even if the dragon's whispers only bring forth the worst aspects of Smodur's personality: that despite his great public image and genuine concern for a commercial charr future, deep down he's the same savage who tore out his own eye and who can never forgive those who betray his trust or who he deems a threat to his ambitious plans. Wherever Smodur's story ends up going, I'm intrigued to watch how the writers tell his tale. I hope he's given his due time in the narrative and he gets fleshed out if he must go down this dark path and lose everything he's worked so hard to build up. I'd hate for him to be painted as a villain in the end; if that must be his fate, I hope there's a dose of tragedy added into it to show the fall of a once progressive if populist visionary falling prey to the charr's suggested "true" nature as predatory warmongerers that Jormag seems to view them as. If Jormag did end up contributing to Smodur's downfall in some way by bringing forth Smodur's "true" nature from behind the facade of a popular politician, there's one more reason for my character's bucket list to kick Jormag's tail hard when the time for the confrontation comes. :)

To me Bonnie sounds more like Nika Futterman, Aurene's VA, who also seems to be voicing Crystallographer Smoxxi (at least the register sounds somewhat similar to me). Nika (who voiced e.g. the assassin hero Vizu and the enigmatic Emissary Heleyne in GW1 Factions) has quite a good range so the connection wouldn't surprise me. I do hope Stephane or one of the devs updates the wiki's voice actor list for Visions of the Past page so we can properly credit each VA for their contributions; so far the list only has a few VAs listed as editors have only gone by listening and comparing the VA role videos on youtube to match the voices with the respective actors. :)

Thanks for sharing. Although the translation has a few issues, it can be understood easily enough and gets the message across. With "Kant" I think you're referring to Cantha, and the accurate term for "the fogs" should be "the Mists", while "wintering" Elder Dragons should be "hibernating" Elder Dragons. Cormyr, Doom, Dvina and Grench should be Kormir, Dhuum, Dwayna and Grenth. Admittedly many of these names are quite exotic so it's very easy to misspell them; all in all, you did a nice job with the translation of the lengthy text. I appreciate the passion you have for the lore; it seems that the gods in particular are of interest to you, and they are definitely interesting characters with virtues and flaws. :) Summarizing the vast history of an ancient world like Tyria is no easy task. I like the way how your summary doesn't just go in chronological order but offers an alternate way of looking at history: via connections and parallels between the described races and entities and their respective relationships. It gives the text a nice flow and makes the reader curious to learn more. Below, there will be some spoilers relating to Path of Fire: I do feel a bit sad that we mostly saw the darker, more psychotic side of Balthazar in GW2 as opposed to his more honorable side which was described by first-hand witnesses (who were not brainwashed or forced to obey like the Forged, mind you!) in GW1. While the devs did draw inspiration from the Orrian history scrolls that described Balthazar arriving on Tyria wielding the severed head of his father, not heeding Melandru's suggestion to make peace with the other races rather than promote human superiority, and angrily killing the ritualist Kaolai who beat him in a lengthy game, GW1 stories--and even the Zaishen's stories in the "Requiem: Zafirah" short story--paint Balthazar as more than just a raging child who is simply seeking more power. We get a glimpse of Balthazar's more honorable side in GW2 when he chooses to spare Rytlock (a charr who were humans' mortal enemies and who Balthazar even fought against to claim Ascalon for humanity!) and even call him friend because of their past interaction in the Mists. There can certainly be an explanation for Balthazar's mental fall from grace as the developers have teased that there is more to Balthazar's story (and the story of the gods) that we've yet to learn; perhaps in the gods' case the divine power they wield eventually turns them into true avatars of that power so Balthazar becomes the embodiment of war and needs to keep fighting and being confrontational even when it contradicts his earlier, more benevolent actions. If this turns out to be true, gods would be just as much victims of magic as the Elder Dragons seem to be. I can only hope we return to the gods' story one day, and the gods give us a plausible explanation why they didn't consider Glint's idea of replacing the Elder Dragons with more benevolent entities rather than just deeming Tyria and fighting the Elder Dragons as a mostly lost cause, and why the gods never informed any of their human and non-human followers about their greater plans (this lack of communication led to Desmina growing angry at Grenth for fleeing the Underworld, Kormir's departure led to the Sanctum being briefly invaded by demonic entities that killed many of Kormir's spiritual followers, Freezie became more angry when he perceived that Dwayna had abandoned him and the snowmen, the druids grew desperate when they suddenly couldn't sense Melandru anymore, and even Gwen viewed the gods' departure as cowardice if not an act of villainy as we learn in Dragonfall meta event in Melandru's Domain). It's also strange that the gods left Balthazar seemingly unguarded in the Mists rather than using what few Forgotten remained to watch over him like how those Forgotten had once guarded Abaddon's prison; perhaps we'll learn more about the gods' decision later, as well as if Balthazar's half-brother Menzies is still alive (and if he is alive, why Balthazar wanted to focus on Elder Dragons rather than ending the war with Menzies), and why Balthazar never cursed Lyssa in his final moments. I'd be okay if in the future we met one half of Lyssa (either Lyss or Ilya) as a potential antagonist because Lyssa is said to have a darker, more chaotic side and fierce wrath that her followers respect; if any god, or half of a god, can return to Tyria without her fellow gods or mortals realizing it, it'd be the master mesmer Lyssa, although she needs to have proper motivation to return to Tyria later since she was absent in Path of Fire. :)

The charr player likely continues using "tribune" out of respect for Rytlock's superior rank (since we're still of centurion rank in the legions) even when Rytlock himself prefers to act more casual (interestingly, in some later story instances like "Facing the Truth" Rytlock formally refers to the Commander as a superior, a "boss", despite outranking the Commander in legion hierarchy, which shows that Rytlock considers the Commander the guild leader even though he has more combat experience and is a veteran from Destiny's Edge). In the quotes I've provided in my earlier post, the charr player has gradually been using "tribune" in a playful way too so it shows the relationship between the two charr evolving over time even if the formality is still there between the two in some cases (the Commander occasionally calling Rytlock "tribune" while Rytlock may use "boss" to refer to the Commander every now and then). :)

Yes, non-charr do also refer to Rytlock as tribune every now and then although charr players would obviously use the title more often when necessary as per legion custom. SPOILERS FOR PATH OF FIRE The latest moments in the story where non-charr have specifically used the rank to refer to Rytlock have been towards the end of PoF story in "Beast of War" (where the Commander and Rytlock talk about Sohothin: "I'm honored, Tribune. I'll bring it back in one piece.") and "A Small Victory (Epilogue)" (where the Commander cheekily refuses to tell Rytlock whether the Commander has talked to Kasmeer before Rytlock: "Sorry, Tribune. I'm not saying."). :)

It's interesting that it's said how the district collapsed naturally due to being built on an unstable foundation (above vast caverns that housed tombs of some humans who had lived in the area before the Rising of Orr), but conflicting stories from citizens and Shining Blade (and how the Shining Blade were seemingly at the site in advance as if they had expected something bad to happen while not telling concerned citizens like Alice what was going on while odd sounds are coming from the sinkhole) suggests that Riot Alice's conspiracy theory may have some merit. Looking at the quotes above, the Shining Blade mention there were no casualties despite Riot Alice claiming that at least her father perished in the collapse, and how strange noises are coming from the sinkhole. While the Shining Blade mention the Seraph evacuating citizens too, the citizens themselves only mention the Shining Blade being present. The Shining Blade also aren't forthcoming with answers even though there shouldn't be anything suspicious per se with a natural collapse. Was something unnatural taking place in the tombs underneath the Canthan and Arts district before the collapse? Are the strange sounds somehow related to the collapse? If something happened down below, what could it have been? Interestingly we have this bit from Marjory's origin story telling us how something shady is going on in Divinity's Reach, and we even got a later comment from devs that they'd intend to resolve it (but haven't yet due to changing focus in story): While it seems likely that the White Mantle may have been involved in the collapse (or the strange sounds coming from below) or at least in the boy Mendel's murder in Marjory's story (given the hints of a minister being behind the crime and hiring a Ministry Guard and a necromancer with a very White Mantle-ish name Kraig the Bleak to kill the boy witness), it still leaves the question of what the White Mantle (if they were the culprits) were hoping to achieve with these macabre rituals. Unfortunately this plot was never brought up in GW2's White Mantle arc, and thus Marjory's first case remains unsolved to this day and Alice's father remains unavenged. While it's understandable that plot priorities change and the originally planned resolution to Marjory's arc was scrapped, wouldn't it be interesting if Marjory and Riot Alice's stories (and the suggested conspiracy within them) could be tied together in the future to resolve those lingering plot threads? But if the White Mantle can't be used anymore given what's happened in the narrative since the writing of those stories, who could the culprit be then for the sacrifices and rogue necromancers for hire to make sense? For a fun theory's sake, let's look at Bobby Stein's response to one of the lore questions from the old Arena Forum Chats (which have sadly been discontinued since although I'd love to see them or the old Dolyak Express dev lore answer threads to return one day): Verata was a member of the Order of necromancers until he went rogue and had a bounty placed on him as the Order didn't want bad publicity from his unprovoked attacks and experimentation on innocent Ascalonians. He escaped during the encounter with the Hero while promising to return one day, and even the Zaishen became interested in stopping him. By this time he had gathered a cult of likeminded people to help him with his experiments, and curiously enough they were found near the Wizard's Tower at Kessex Peak: If we look at the above examples (the site of the Great Collapse having housed many ancient tombs, the strange sounds coming from the sinkhole, Marjory learning about macabre human experimentation with magic while a necromancer in particular targeted the sole witness's ghost, and mysterious disappearances happening within Divinity's Reach), all of these details would neatly connect to a potential resurgence of the Cult of Verata which could've been experimenting on people throughout DR and accidentally (or deliberately?) causing the Great Collapse with their magical interference in the tombs. While the Zaishen bounty seems to suggest that Verata was ultimately slain, the plot could work either way: maybe Verata was slain and he ended up being buried within the old mausoleum beneath what would one day be DR while his disciples would search for the exact tomb in hopes of resurrecting him, or maybe he survived the encounter or had gotten hold of forbidden scrolls (or whatever other means) to become a lich so he could continue his experimentation beyond the lifespan of his mortal body? This way Riot Alice's conspiracy theory would have justification. After all, maybe the Shining Blade suspected something foul going on (E certainly seemed aware of stuff as they stopped Marjory from catching Kraig the Bleak while warning about dangers in the city), and it wouldn't surprise me if Anise and Livia (a powerful necromancer with ties to the Shining Blade) knew a thing or two about shady stuff happening beneath citizens' feet, hence that two weeks advance warning of the collapse. The Shining Blade could've erred by believing that the White Mantle were behind the sinkhole while the Cult of Verata would've been the true culprits. Alice could return, having learned something crucial from her bandit contacts in Prosperity in Dry Top before her disappearance. Marjory's separate investigation of the murders could lead the two women to meet and realize they were after the same source. Verata's cult could've dabbled in Majesty's Rest, perhaps attempting to resurrect the bone dragon Rotscale or be after some magic artifact hidden within the tombs there if the story wanted to take us to a new zone in GW2 with GW1 roots before ultimately leading us to the tombs beneath DR in a unique instance where Alice, Marjory and the Commander would face lich Verata and/or his cult and stop whatever they're hoping to accomplish (which might also involve seizing the Wizard's Tower if it was no accident that they just happened to hang around near that location back in GW1 before being driven underground). This way Alice could finally unravel the conspiracy involving Verata's cult and the necromancer's secret supporter in the Ministry and avenge her father, while Marjory would avenge Mendel and finally solve her first case to bring some neat closure to both women's story arcs. As an added bonus the writers could even use this potential Verata conspiracy (especially if he became a lich) as a means of finally revealing how liches are made in GW verse as they differ from the stereotypical liches in that they don't always have phylacteries and require specific means to kill them (and how at a few known liches, such as Palawa Joko and Vizier Khilbron, had possessed the fallen god Abaddon's scrolls at some point so there's a chance that Abaddon's forbidden magic may have been involved in the creation of liches somehow unless that's just a happy coincidence). It could lead to lots of juicy story opportunities while also closing the chapter on some of them at the same time. :)

Funnily enough, if the developers had kept the wendigo name for Boneskinner, they would've had two unrelated creatures with a similar name in GW lore. In GW1 there were specific minotaur enemies named Berserking Wendigo. Sadly these wendigos are nowhere to be found in GW2's Bjora Marches (which contains GW1's Jaga Moraine and Bjora Marches where these wendigos once roamed), but maybe we'll see some wendigo minotaur action in Varajar Fells if/once we travel there in GW2. It'd make sense to see these berserking wendigos there if the devs intend to honor several lesser Spirits of the Wild as masteries in upcoming episodes (with Ep 1-2 having already honored Ox, Eagle and Wolverine alongside the Great Spirit of Raven), so having Minotaur and his herd play a role in the story of Varajar Fells would be thematically fitting so he can have his long overdue revenge on Jormag and the Sons of Svanir for trying to feed him and his herd to the Dragon Beast back in norn personal story. :) Interestingly a section of norn players have actually spoken with Garm if they sought out Wolf's blessing in "Twilight of the Wolf" story step before going to face the jotun king Korag in "The Last of the Giant-Kings." While transformed into a spiritual wolf, the norn Slayer was able to converse with Garm who revealed himself to be old and wise with a bit of insight on his relationship with Destiny's Edge: I hope that once we unlock Wolf's mastery in upcoming Icebrood Saga episodes, there'll be a chance for every Commander regardless of race to hear Garm speak out loud (and I imagine they'll choose as fitting a voice actor for Garm as they did for Wolf in Episode 2 if they go this route) either permanently or in a specific magical event. In fact, it would be fascinating if the barriers between the Mists and Tyria remained thin and we were able to recruit the ghost of Ormi, one of Wolf's favorites who was corrupted and put out of his misery in "Twilight of the Wolf", so he can return and fight side by side with Garm and Wolf against Jormag's minions and have his revenge on the Sons of Svanir who had corrupted him. As the shamans of Wolf say, "Run with the pack," so I'm sure Wolf would love seeing his two champions Garm and Ormi fighting side by side as they hunt a bigger foe. :) Back in the day, narrative designer Angel McCoy suggested that there may be a lot more to Garm's story than what's been shown in game so far regarding what happened to his pack, how he met Eir and chose her as his alpha etc.: Instead of just writing it as a blog post, I think this story should merit in-depth exploration in a Wolf-centric Icebrood Saga episode now that the Spirits of the Wild are playing a bigger role in Tyria's story. Imagine if we actually found Garm's old dire wolf pack but corrupted by Jormag, and Garm had to end their lives while we learn from Garm what his life before Eir was like and how he eventually met and befriended her, and how she earned his trust and admiration. We could also get insight into why Garm, despite viewing Eir as his only alpha, was willing to follow Braham's orders without protest during Season 3, why he decided to "retire" during Season 4 and how Wolf was able to nudge him out of retirement to go help Braham in Bjora Marches as shown in "Shadow in the Ice". Or alternatively we could find that some dire wolves have survived in the north, and Garm has to prove his worth as an alpha to lead what remains of them so they can reclaim their homeland from the Icebrood with Braham supporting his wolven companion to honor Eir's legacy. I'd likewise love to see Eir and Garm be reunited one last time so they can say proper farewells in a touching scene (just like I'd love to see one more scene between Snaff and Zojja so they can do the same); maybe once Garm has fulfilled his promise to Eir to hunt Jormag and ensured that Braham walks in Wolf's steps, he can retire and become an alpha of the rejuvenated dire wolves so they can repopulate the north and usher in a new age of Wolf free from the Ice Dragon's shadow. :) As for Fenrir, curiously we've actually faced a wolven beast named like that back in GW1. The Fenrir in GW1 was the alpha and sire of the two-headed kveldulves who terrorized Norrhart Domains near Gunnar's Hold. Despite being defeated, he proved to be quite sturdy and returned once again to threaten the countryside so the Zaishen were forced to place a bounty on him. If the narrative designers wanted to go wild with the story, they could actually tie Fenrir and the Kveldulf story with the fate of the dire wolves as discussed above. Perhaps in the distant past the kveldulf and dire wolf packs were rivals. After the defeat of their sire Fenrir, perhaps the son of Fenrir (they could call him Hati to reference Hati Hróðvitnisson, Fenrir's son known as the "Enemy" who chases the Moon across the night sky in Norse mythology) took over what remained of the kveldulves but found his pack weakened, so in his desperation he fell to Jormag's temptations and gave in to corruption to receive enough power to crush his hated dire wolf rivals once and for all. This could've led to a dire wolf massacre (or mass conversion into Icebrood), leaving Garm and a few other survivors scattered throughout the wilderness with Garm being separated from the rest and being unaware if any of them survived the slaughter. Maybe Garm was the son of the previous dire wolf pack leader, so he and Fenrir's son would be destined to collide again in the future to settle their sires' dispute. Just imagine us returning to Norrhart Domains where Garm finds what remains of his pack, manages to regain their trust to become their representative and challenges Fenrir's son to a duel to settle the dispute between the two wolf packs once and for all. The Commander and Braham could be Garm's seconds while Fenrir's son could have his own seconds too, thus leading to a fierce struggle and, if we wanted to be hopeful, redemption for not only the dire wolves but possibly some of the kveldulves who had not yet been fully tempted by Jormag's lies. This could lead to Garm's victory, and what remains of the dire wolves and kveldulves setting aside their rivalry and uniting forces into a temporary bigger pack to go hunt Jormag in a touching, heroic scene so the north may one day belong to the wolves once again, while Wolf will be pleased that the packs are once again living in harmony according to his creed. :)

It's been a nice and informative series so far. WP not only reads out loud the fascinating _An Empire Divided_ document (which any GW1 or GW2 fan should read if they even have an inkling of interest in Canthan lore) but also adds his commentary on top of it to give the text's references some context to ease in people who may not be that familiar with Canthan lore. :) Some of his speculations are quite amusing and/or eye-opening to me such as him discussing the potential fate of the second emperor Yian Zho's two elder sisters in one of the videos in this series. For example, I've always interpreted the text so that Yian Zho may have gotten rid of his sisters (who curiously vanish from historical records weeks after Yian Zho's ascension to the throne in the aftermath of the rather suspicious death of the first emperor Kaineng Tah) so none could challenge his rule, but WP presents an alternate theory that perhaps the sisters left Cantha with potential like-minded followers and settled somewhere else to found a new dynasty. Both interpretations open some pretty intriguing avenues for plots if the writers decide to explore them more via in-game lore books or otherwise. Just imagine a society with Canthan roots but ruled by women descended from the two sisters rather than following patrilineal succession like the current imperial family does (where the title of "empress" has historically only been bestowed through marriage and has held little real power).

That may very well be the case. Back in Core Tyria we already learned this piece of information about a potential centaur-Flame Legion alliance from undercover agents if we were a member of Order of Whispers: Assuming that some of the defectors from Efram's Flame splinter group were aware (or even part of) these early tentative probings for an alliance with the centaurs, Bangar may be using the intel of the Flame defectors working alongside his renegades to reach out to the centaurs in Woodland Cascades. Although the centaurs have weakened in the aftermath of Ulgoth's demise and the failed Siege of Divinity's Reach (which curiously only saw some of the Harathi aiding the White Mantle there with no sign of the Modniir overlords who tend to lead the centaur alliance), it's possible that the Modniir High Command (or a new War King if such has arisen in the power vacuum) will be more than happy to gain new charr allies now that the centaurs' White Mantle supporters are gone. One can only hope that by this time we'll also encounter centaur civilians and rebels who wish to overthrow the tyrannical military dictatorship while we could use charr and sylvari as negotiators for a potential human-centaur peace treaty now that Jennah has the evidence to prove that Caudecus was deliberately playing Ulgoth and the centaurs to keep the war raging while pinning the blame of human atrocities against centaurs on the Queen's Seraph. It also begs the question what the rest of the Flame Legion is doing at this time; they're certainly not supporting Efram, but they also shouldn't be supporting Bangar either. Efram is only leading a small splinter group and is not widely recognized as a Flame Imperator candidate yet, and we know that Flame Imperator Baelfire, Hierophant Improaster and two tribunes have fallen since personal story, but realistically the Flame Legion should still have at least four tribunes left (if the Flame Legion has the same number of tribunes as the Iron Legion has) to lead various splinter groups as well as a potential replacement for the late Hierophant Improaster in the shaman caste. It would be interesting if Crecia's sire, who is said to be a high-ranking shaman, has become this new Hierophant, and we'd witness some lovely family reunion between the two; after all, Crecia still has unfinished business with the Flame Legion based on what we learn from her backstory in Bound by Blood. We've also yet to hear what has become of the Molten Alliance and whoever its dredge and Flame Legion charr leaders are as devs have confirmed that the leaders of Scarlet's alliances (unknown leaders of the Molten and Toxic Alliances, and Mai Trin of the Aetherblades) did not participate in the Battle for Lion's Arch (they instead handled the logistics of the campaign) and are still out there plotting something. We've also been told that the Flame Legion excommunicated any Flame Legion who joined the Molten Alliance once that alliance failed in their objectives, so this will be yet another splinter group to potentially worry about (particularly if the charr leader in the Molten Alliance is not just some centurion but potentially a dishonored Flame tribune). Likewise, the Iron Legion has a potentially huge Bangar sympathizer within its ranks: the so far unseen Tribune Fume Brighteye who dislikes the Ebonhawke Treaty because of what the humans did to her sire, is among the top three most respected Iron tribunes (alongside Mia Kindsleshot and Bhuer Goreblade), and is bucking to be the next imperator. That kind of ambitious, vicious and cunning female with a sympathetic backstory would be the perfect candidate for being one of Bangar's moles in the Black Citadel as she bides her time to stage a coup and seize the Claw of the Khan-Ur while Smodur is busy fighting Bangar's forces in Woodland Cascades. We've yet to learn about the Ash tribunes in the Ash Legion homelands, but we know from Grothmar Valley dialogue that some Ash Legion (who are not part of the renegade expedition) are already planning to make preparations for something under Malice's nose, so who knows if some Fume-like peace-hating tribune may be staging a coup against Malice at the same time that Fume makes her move against Smodur if it comes to that. One can only hope that we'll also run into the rest of the Blood Legion tribunes as well as Rytlock and Crecia's Stone Warband as the warband members are all said to be notable military officers in the Blood Legion. :)

Yes, I should've been more clear about what I mean by "losing his divinity" as we have different interpretations of the phrase. As I stated in my post, post-imprisonment Balthazar would have had a severely reduced power level (hence his lack of blinding effect on mortals, his inability to kill Marjory in Rata Novus when a typical full god would've just killed all the people there in a second without the assistance of mercenaries, his need to stay hidden from the rest of the gods until he had regained enough power, and why he couldn't even manifest his greatsword until he had gotten enough juicy from Jormag and Primordus). While it's unclear what his power level was, I'd speculate he'd be at most at demigod level at the end of PoF after all his powerups because he still lacked the blinding effect and still needed Aurene to battle Kralkatorrik when as a full god he could've just used his own divine magic to counter and harm Kralkatorrik by himself (as shown by divinely imbued artifacts such as the Divine Fire that scared off Mordrem and was the undoing of the "immortal" Shadow of the Dragon, Kormir's spell protecting Sun's Refuge from the Branded, and the djinn using remnants of Abaddon's magic to become impervious to dragon corruption until getting access to Balthazar's magic allowed Kralkatorrik to corrupt them). Although no longer a god in a typical sense, S3 and PoF Balthazar would be more akin to a former god like Dhuum (whose position as a full god was usurped by Grenth) than a fallen god like Abaddon. The latter, unlike Dhuum, actually retained his position as one of the Six upon imprisonment but had lost his original body and had his magic divided and sealed behind multiple locks while keeping him in this "limbo" state until he began taking back his power. It's unclear, though, why Abby's magic just didn't go rampant when it was divided behind the seals when we know from his death that his unleashed magic needed to be contained, but maybe it was still tied to him because he was "alive" during imprisonment as a being of magic. If I were to hazard a guess, maybe that ability to exist without a shell if not fully slain is similar to what we see Balthy doing in this shot of the S3Ep1 trailer with the Bloodstone, and in this shot from S3Ep5 after he's become a being of energy while inserting himself into Taimi's machine: as long as you still have enough energy left to maintain your will even if your physical form is altered or shattered, you don't suffer the outburst of magic unlike when you're weakened enough (as seen with Abaddon and Balthazar upon their respective demises). Since Abby was still conscious upon imprisonment, he was able to maintain a tenous connection to his sealed magic even if he couldn't access that power until the gradual weakening of his prison, thus ensuring that that magic wouldn't just go rampant and destroy all of reality then and there. As we know from Nightfall lore and from Grenth's lore, any power taken from a god has to be stored somewhere (preferably a living host as shown with Grenth and Kormir) or it will destroy everything around it. For some reason the gods (presumably) didn't seal away Balthazar's magic behind locks like they did with Abaddon; it could be that the only way to do so is if they destroy the original body, so maybe they didn't want to do something so cruel to their former comrade and felt imprisonment was enough of a punishment. It still leaves the question what exactly happened to all that magic the gods had taken from Balthazar, though. If it wasn't sealed behind locks that Balthazar could've had access to, it must've gone somewhere else. I theorized in my earlier post that that divine energy must've been transferred to a new presumably mortal host who became Balthazar's successor as a new deity of conflict. The new deity likely won't be called the God(dess) of War and Fire but some variation of that with some unique aspects; Kormir's portfolio changed from Abaddon's "God of Knowledge and Water" into "Goddess of Order, Spirit and Truth" upon her ascension (while Lyssa curiously took over the portfolio of Water for some reason), and Grenth likewise added Ice to the portfolio of God of Death which his predecessor Dhuum apparently hadn't had during his reign. With that said, I'd agree with you that the mantle of godhood isn't so clear-cut although by "divinity" I generally refer to their status as one of the Six with all the blinding and world-shaping perks that come with it as opposed to the more limited powers of less powerful "deities" who can't blind people and don't need armies to defeat. While apparently there can only ever be no less than Six Gods as far as we know (otherwise the gods could've just taken Abaddon's power instead of imprisoning him and sealing his power and waiting for a suitable replacement to usurp him centuries later), it's possible to have half-gods running around without issue. After all, Grenth existed as a half-god (inheriting some "divine" magic from his mom Dwayna) for some time before usurping Dhuum, and if Menzies ends up being revealed as a half-god too in the future, that'd mean at least two half-gods were out there while the Six reigned. I'd theorize that although you can strip a god of their godhood, the former god can still retain a spark of that lost divinity because their original ascension and how it shapes their body and magic seems to be an irreversible process on the host of that magic. Once a being's mortal shell has perished and it has transcended into an "immortal" magical entity without "life" (as shown by Taimi's device scanning Balthazar and only finding magic but no sign of life), a fraction of that power may remain in the former god because of the nature of the transformation. We also know that divine magic, possibly because it appears to be foreign to Tyria due to gods coming from another world in the Mists, is anathema to dragon energy which is based on native Tyrian magic (see above examples of god magic with dragon-repelling effects such as Divine Fire, Kormir's spell in Sun's Refuge, why dragon minions generally avoid areas affected by the Foefire which was based on a divine magic ritual etc.), so the dragons may have been at a disadvantage if they fought fully powered gods. This would explain why Balthazar, despite no longer having the immense powers and blinding effect of the Six as a former god, could just waltz into Primordus's lair and set up Taimi's Machine without being devoured outright by Primordus or the hundreds of Destroyers that resided within (when he had previously been revealed to have gotten tired just from a bit of fighting with the Commander and trying to set Marjory ablaze and failing in Rata Novus). This would explain why Dhuum and Balthy, despite being former gods, can still attempt to regain at least some of their lost power even if they can presumably never regain all their abilities and perks of full godhood like the blinding effect (as far as we know, anyway; Dhuum had no blinding effect despite having devoured souls to empower himself for centuries and being potentially on par power-wise to PoF Balthazar). Interestingly Balthazar was able to convert the remnant magic of the Maguuma Bloodstone, and the magic from Zhaitan, Mordremoth, Primordus and Jormag into his own "divine" fire magic rather than absorbing and using the Death, Plant, Ice etc. aspects of these dragons whereas the dragons seem to be able to utilize their brethren's dispersed magic (and even a slain former god's magic) to gain more abilities. Perhaps this is what Kormir meant by the dragons being even beyond the gods in that they're somehow able to use different kinds of elemental magic more effectively than gods who instead have to convert other magic elements into their own brand of magic? Similarly, while not being a full god (and not a member of the Six) anymore, that spark of god magic that remained in Balthazar (due to his state as a being of magic and absorbing more magic to "refuel" himself with some limitations as discussed above) gave Kralkatorrik, Aurene (and supposedly several other affected beings like the rest of the Elder Dragons and other magically potent beings like Foefire ghosts etc.) a power boost that would theoretically allow them to become threats to the gods now that they get adjusted to the "frequency" of divine magic. Like Tom Abernathy said via Julia Nardin: Case in point, Kralk and Aurene gained an ability to enter the Mists from Balthazar, and apparently it also allowed at least Kralk to circumvent djinn protection to dragon corruption so he could start Branding them (the djinn had gained their protection from another divine source, Abaddon, as heavily implied during PoF and Season 4). Although Tom mentions just the Elder Dragons gaining this magic, I'd argue it affects every magical being on Tyria as that magic would've spread through the ley lines and hit beings such as Adelbern and the Foefire ghosts who should've received a notable power boost from this too. It could be a pretty cool plot thread for the future, witnessing the return of an empowered Adelbern leading his strengthened Foefire ghost army to invade Ascalon and us being forced to locate the prophesied Heir of Ascalon teased in Season 2 (via the Krytan royal locket's sadly weakened magic signature) ASAP and use Sohothin and Magdaer and King Adelbern's crown with the Heir (and possibly with help from Rytlock and Logan if they wield the respective swords while the Heir wears the crown) to perform the ritual to end the curse at long last. :) Then of course we have Connie Griffith's statement on Reddit (it's under spoiler tags there, so you gotta hover your cursor above it to read the statement, or look at the transcript I've provided below) that supports the statements of Balthazar's depowering by Kormir and the story journal, as she clarifies how the Commander was able to defeat Balthazar who, despite no longer being as powerful as he once was, still was enough of a challenge that soloing him would've been a very tricky task for a mere mortal: With all that said, I assume the devs' internal lore bible probably doesn't go that much into detail about gods, half-gods, fallen gods and former gods as the writers generally want to leave room for themselves if they want to tackle this or that subject in the future or if they want to keep some air of mystery around these entities. It's a fascinating discussion, nevertheless. :) So, summa summarum: Balthazar is a former god (assuming there are no lore discrepancies) stripped of his power so he's no longer a full god or member of the Six. However, as an entity of magic (due to the way gods seem to be created via the death of a mortal shell if Koss's writings on Kormir are to be believed as I explained in my post above) he still has a remnant/spark of his native divine magic within him that allowed him to pull off all his crazy stunts in S3 and PoF (manifesting Temar and Tegon, inserting himself into the stream in Taimi's machine, summoning dire generators etc., and manifesting his greatsword after he had gotten enough Bloodstone and dragon juice inside himself) even though he didn't regain his full god abilities such as the blinding effect and why he was so "easily" defeated in PoF. I was about to argue against Rurik because in my opinion he hasn't done as many major things to "deserve" godhood (especially when compared to the actions of the GW1 Hero who had a much bigger impact on the world) unlike Kormir who did do many more things until I realized that he and Kormir do have a potential connection that might allow the writers to make him a new deity of conflict if they wished. We know that the gods granted Kormir a special gift that allowed her to take in Abaddon's magic and ascend into godhood. But there may have been another prerequisite for this replacement to happen, and it may or may not be the reason why the gods chose Kormir specifically out of all the candidates. Kormir's story was tied to Abaddon from the moment she accidentally awakened the Apocrypha which had been infused with Abaddon's power in Fahranur. This act that allowed Abaddon to speed up his progress may have bound Kormir and Abaddon in unexpected ways, and we even see Kormir say the following before she's dragged into the Realm of Torment: Kormir had nightmares since the encounter with the Apocrypha. Her mind was already being bound to the Realm of Torment and to Abaddon, so much so that she claimed to even feel Abaddon in her soul. Perhaps this connection prepared her to be Abaddon's replacement and why the gods chose her specifically. As for Rurik and him potentially becoming Balthazar's successor (if the devs went with that idea instead of using one of the GW1 Heroes or some other candidate), there is a connection between the two too. Just like Kormir had been "touched" by Abaddon when she awakened the Apocrypha, Rurik wielded Sohothin which Connie Griffith revealed had been Balthazar's own sword (which we sadly never learned during PoF; maybe it was another line that fell victim to the late rewrites?). So if we go with this theory, Rurik wielding Balthazar's sword might give him big enough of a link to Balthy that the gods chose him as a suitable replacement. Sadly we don't really know what the requirements of replacing a god are, but maybe these ideas will be discussed in game once the gods return to the story in some form as devs such as Linsey Murdock have said that there's more to the gods' story (including whatever they're planning in the Mists) and that there's more to being a god of war and Balthazar's story than what we've seen. Of course plans can change, and they may just drop the gods from the plot entirely, but I feel it's a worthy story thread to follow one day, especially if we visit Doern Velazquez's mysterious homeland and if that homeland turns out to be the first nation all the human tribes and gods settled once the gods had brought them to Tyria the planet via Orr. :)

1) What the gods are There are a few interesting tidbits we've learned over the course of the game. As far as what the gods might be, we get this curious line when trying to scan Balthazar with Taimi's device during "Heart of the Volcano": What's also interesting is this particular statement from Koss regarding Kormir's fate: If, in addition, we look at Balthazar's final moments in the cinematic of "To Kill a God", we see what almost looks like a golem or armor type of thing (e.g. how looks like a helmet about to shatter with fire pouring out of the eye sockets rather than it being actual bone despite sharing skull-like features) disintegrating around him as the magic inside goes wild rather than showing a skeleton, organs etc. When his arm is torn off and shatters, we see a beam of magic shooting out but no veins, tissue, or bones. While it's possible that this was an artistic choice to reduce graphic imagery due to the game's rating, there may be more to this choice of imagery than that.There's also the curious line from Kormir in the immediate aftermath of : If we look at these lines with their descriptions as well as the cinematic of Balthazar's final moments, I theorize the following possibility: When a being becomes a deity, they sort of "cease to be" as they transform into something new resembling their old self to some extent with some added perks like blinding presence in front of mortals, superior powers etc. Kormir the mortal died during the sacrifice, only to emerge as a new being who seems to have consumed Abaddon's memories (the statement of Abaddon's will being broken is curious as it suggests that in some way that will still exists, although it could just be a poetic way of saying that Kormir has absorbed all of what was once Abaddon). In essence, gods seem to be vessels that contain their unique magic, and apparently this magic can't (or at least couldn't in the past) be shared between them because they chose to imprison Abaddon with his full godhood (even if they divided that godhood behind several locks to weaken him) rather than outright taking his power. They also didn't store that divine power into any artifact, so apparently it needs a "living" vessel. Curiously the gods' avatars, and later Kormir, stated that the act of replacement requires a choice that only a mortal can make. If that vessel is damaged enough, the magic within it pours out in a violent manner, threatening everything around it, so it needs to be contained. In Aurene's case we hear her reciting Balthazar's scriptures (which she shouldn't have any knowledge of because she had been busy fighting Awakened and Branded until then) to Zafirah upon her resurrection. This, along with Balthazar's sword reacting positively to her compared to Kralkatorrik, suggests to me that Aurene (due to proximity to "ground zero") may have absorbed Balthazar's soul in its entirety for the sword to treat her as its master rather than Kralky who otherwise had absorbed the lion's share of Balthy's magic. 2) Balthazar's divinity in GW2 As for Balthazar's godhood and whether Aurene is now the god of war, I'd argue that Balthazar in GW2 was not a god anymore. While we've had a statement from Jessica Price (who otherwise has had pretty lore-accurate statements) claiming that in planning stages of Season 4 Aurene was meant to become the new god of war and combine dragon energy and divine magic in harmony to balance the system, Tom Abernathy later stated that such was never the plan. So either Jessica Price misunderstood Tyrian cosmology and how the whole Abaddon and Dhuum saga had established specific rules for god replacement, or this issue was heavily debated (or misremembered; after all, there's the unfortunate lore issue in the Book of Vlast which claimed that Vlast had fought against Branded for generations which earned him a legendary reputation in Elona when Kralkatorrik had only been awake for a little over a decade, and somehow this lore discrepancy got past QA in the editing phase) within the Narrative Team during the rewrites of Season 4 story arc until the team members decided to go for the more ambiguous ending regarding the fate of Balthazar's divinity and whether Aurene had replaced him. I for one prefer the more ambiguous ending regarding Balthazar's divinity because it supports other statements that suggest that Balthazar was no longer a god in GW2. A couple of sources: I doubt all of these sources would be erroneous as we learn similar stuff not only from Balthazar but his opponent Kormir, and Taimi and Marjory likewise have supporting statements speculating similar things. First, a true god has a blinding effect on people as seen when we get the blinded effect upon interacting with Kormir whereas we never get this with either Balthazar or Dhuum (the latter being confirmed as a deposed aka former god). Granted, Abaddon wasn't blinding us either despite being a full god in GW1, but that could be explained because his original body had been destroyed while the prison kept his magic from going rampant and he formed a new monstrous body for himself from the Realm of Torment while trying to re-absorbed his sealed power (having already unlocked some of it in Nightfall) so he had not "regained" that blinding effect. Second, Balthy mentions how his light had been dimmed. He also wasn't powerful enough to kill Marjory despite massacring several White Mantle a few months earlier whereas Dhuum was still able to nearly wipe the floor in battle against Seven Reapers, Desmina, and ten experienced raiders. And this was when Balthy had already absorbed the Maguuma Bloodstone's power which was already a significant power boost with some of its remaining "old school" magic, and some of the magic from Zhaitan and Mordremoth. Third, Kormir herself states that Balthy is no longer one of the Six as his claim, title and power had been stripped. The story journal for the mission likewise reaffirms Kormir's statements. The way I understand it is that the gods were able to somehow transfer Balthazar's divinity (well, most of it) from him without killing him, thus reducing him to the power level of Dhuum at most. We still don't know why Grenth wasn't strong enough to kill Dhuum. Were his genetics as the half-god son of Dwayna preventing him from absorbing all of Dhuum's divinity upon his ascension and thus allowing Dhuum to continue existing as a sort of Anti-Grenth half-god version, or did Grenth possibly assault Dhuum without consulting with the other gods and didn't have their granted gift that Kormir had which would then prevent him from fully absorbing the power? I believe that the avatars' statement of a "choice only a mortal can make" may in fact refer to an idea that a half-god can't fully replace a full god; a mortal with no divine ancestry is more of a blank slate to make this transfer more complete (think of it like a hard drive being half full of divine magic already rather than being completely empty and thus allowing all those terabytes/whatever to fill the void). Of course this theory does become problematic when we think about Balthazar and Menzies's parentage and if either or both of them were half-gods, but it isn't out of the realm of possibility that Balthy's predecessor may have been reduced in power to the level of a half-god upon Balthy's ascension and was then killed off. Dhuum could be a special case of "unkillable" former god, after all. If the gods did in fact take away Balthy's divinity, though, we then run into an important story detail that's yet to be addressed (and why I found Jessica Price's possibly mistaken statements about Aurene being planned to become the new god of war troubling): we know from Balthazar and Abaddon's deaths that the unleashed divine power requires a vessel. If Balthazar was no longer a god, someone must've already replaced him in the pantheon, especially as Kormir referred to the current pantheon specifically as the Six rather than the Five: "He is no longer one of the Six." One could argue that this is simply ambiguous writing and that no longer being one of the Six implies that the current pantheon is simply the Five now. We know from dev statements and from Kormir's alternate line in S4Ep1 Daybreak trailer that the "Facing the Truth" instance went through several rewrites during the curious PoF rewrites that even led to the recording of newly written lines, so this line may have been more straightforward in the previous recording such as the alternate line we heard in Daybreak trailer that explained the gods' reason for abandoning Tyria more clearly than the shipped line in PoF. But even if we go with the idea that the pantheon consisted of five gods after Balthy's imprisonment, it still begs the question what happened to Balthy's taken divinity. The gods supposedly can't take that power into themselves because they didn't just absorb Abaddon's power. Even if we go with the idea that they may have just wanted Abaddon to stay imprisoned for a few thousand years so he'd come to his senses and repent, we'd still have the question why they simply didn't lock Balthazar with his full power but simply seal that power behind multiple seals as they did with Abaddon. In fact, it's rather strange that we've been given no indication that the gods left anyone to guard Balthazar's prison unlike with Abaddon. They could've just asked a few of Glint's Forgotten allies to move over to the Mists to act as Balthy's jailers; I'm sure Josso Essher would've been okay with a few less acolytes to work on the Legacy project. The gods somehow didn't seem to be aware of or didn't believe in the Legacy project because they couldn't think of any good way to deal with the Elder Dragon dilemma when Glint and Josso already had some inkling of a plan on planting the seeds of a new Tyria with her scions as benevolent replacements. Oddly enough Glint herself had no idea what the gods were up to as she lamented in "Crystalline Memories", so are the Forgotten to blame for keeping info from both the gods and Glint while acting as those two parties' middlemen? A logical answer, based on the lore of Grenth/Dhuum and Kormir/Abaddon (who had replaced a predecessor), would then be that the gods had already chosen a replacement who they'd bestow Balthy's magic on. One can wonder which person from GW1 times (or from before or after, depending on if spirits can also be granted the gift to take a god's power) would be deserving of such a title. I'd support the theory that one of the five hinted heroes of GW1 may have become the new deity of conflict to embody the more virtuous aspects of Balthy. The GW1 hero(es) had saved the world many times over, and we even get an emotional monologue from the GW1 Hero about how Reiko's manipulations had turned him/her jaded to heroism in general and that the Hero understood that he/she was a killer but was at least acknowledging that he/she would not become a "knight templar" hero like the Ministry of Purity who, in their quest to defeat evil in Cantha, resorted to increasingly evil acts that made them no different from the foes they wanted to destroy: Then there are the Hero's arguments with Reiko during their final battle that show how the Hero has chosen not to be a pawn ever again: That kind of emotional maturing, as well as the GW1 hero's sudden disappearance from Tyria when the world needed him/her the most (why did the Hero not go help Elona deal with Joko who the Sunspears already suspected of amassing an army until Koss and Lonai led their doomed crusade against the lich, or go help Ascalon to prevent the fall of the capital and the tragic effects of the Foefire dooming the nation's human population?), could be explained if one of these GW1 heroes had impressed the gods enough to become Balthy's successor. As shown with Kormir, the new deity would come to realize their responsibilities go beyond helping Tyria, and the Hero's absence would thus be understandable due to having greater duties elsewhere with the rest of the pantheon. The added benefit of using one of the five suggested Heroes would also leave it ambiguous enough for devs so the actual identity would never have to be defined; that way they can preserve players' RP in case players had already thought of their own fanon fates for their characters. As for how to solve the new deity's sex (as we had both female and male Heroes), they can go the route they did with the Luminate of the Exalted who has gender-neutral armor and whose voice sounds like a mix of male and female: just have the new deity of conflict adopt a new name fitting of a god(dess) of war and have them be fully armored so we can interpret them as either male or female. I, for one, can't see any other person from GW1 becoming Balthy's successor, and this would likewise solve the aforementioned problem of the Hero's absence. Perhaps the writers will go with this idea or introduce another candidate down the line; either way, it would be nice to lift the veil of secrecy a bit. :) Interestingly the short story "Requiem: Zafirah" also seemed to suggest that Balthy may have already been replaced by a new deity when contrasting her earlier feelings with her actual meeting with the fallen Balthazar. If we look at the virtues that Atsu tells Zafirah, these would easily fit the virtues of what Balthy's successor (e.g. GW1 Hero) represents even though that successor never announced having replaced Balthazar (also take note how, unlike Balthy who craves conflict so much he'd wage war on the dragons, the way Atsu interprets the deity's tenets is about not killing for glory but securing the safety of many): Given the timeline here (and Zafirah's age), it seems unlikely that Balthazar would've still been a member of the Six at the time, and thus Zafirah may have initially felt the presence of the successor without realizing it, while Balthy's return as a somewhat empowered shadow of his former self might make her mistake that voice, that essence of war, with that previous god of war. Would Balthy really have waited for over two centuries and allowed 4-5 Elder Dragons to awaken and assault Tyria, without doing something about it? It would seem more likely to me that Balthy's temper tantrum took place earlier than that, perhaps sometime after Zhaitan's awakening if not before...unless the idea is that Balthy's temper tantrum was really recent, and he had had enough conflict to entertain himself with Menzies etc. until eventual boredom kicked in and he shifted his focus on the dragons...while letting them destroy Tyria for centuries when he could've gone after their power so much earlier as Kormir's flashback showed how power-hungry he already was). This, then, brings us back to the question of Aurene's "godhood." Given the suggestions above and the lore of Nightfall, I doubt she's become Balthazar's replacement as a god per se. However, she seems to have devoured his soul given her reciting his scriptures upon her resurrection and how the sword reacted positively to her, so in essence she has taken over what was left of Balthazar. There should (hopefully, given all the hints above) be a replacement for Balthazar out there, and perhaps we'll meet them and the rest of the gods one day as devs have said that the gods' story isn't over, and there are many ways to get them involved (such as the big mysteries about whether Lyssa or one of her two halves aided Balthazar in some manner, why she mocked Kormir for staying behind as revealed in Kormir's journal despite being presented as a great friend to humanity unless Kormir has somehow become an unreliable narrator and manipulator despite being the Goddess of Truth, why Balthy specifically didn't curse Lyssa in his final moments, and if the Mad Souls' prophecies about Kormir repeating the cycle Abaddon and potentially his predecessor had fallen victim to and becoming the downfall of the gods end up being true). One more interesting bit about Balthazar's fall from grace and the fate of Menzies is the following line we get from a knowledgeable djinn who presents it as an intriguing theory. Given how we see the Shadow Army fighting in the Burning Forest part of Dragonfall, one wonders if Menzies could've survived Balthazar's wrath and let Balthy forcibly take the Forged (converted Eternals) to Tyria: 3) Humans as aliens and the potential first human kingdom We do have a few in-game sources suggesting the gods, Forgotten and humans came from somewhere else, and some of these are from non-human sources such statements from Warden Illyra referring to the Forgotten returning to the Mists from whence they came, and Enduring Icicle referring to the Forgotten as the "beings from the gods' realm." However, there have also been some dev interviews which have stated that humanity originates from somewhere in the Mists as well as a PoF promotion timeline article which imply such. Here are some I could find although I'm sure there are more statements out there: What's also interesting about these statements, as well as from what we learn in in-game Factions and the "Empire Divided" article is that it's suggested that first the Canthans and later the Kurzick and Luxons arrived at Cantha at different points in time, but we've never learned where they actually came from per se beyond the Reaper and the Orrian history scrolls stating that the gods first brought humanity with them to Orr but then transported them elsewhere. If we take into account Doern Velazquez's curious statements that suggest he's not from any of the known human kingdoms (while he's being oddly cagey about his place of origin in general), it's possible that he may originate from the original Tyrian homeland for humans somewhere beyond the ocean. It does beg the question why Doern would want to keep his homeland a secret. If a fourth human continent (possibly with Hispanic influences given Doern's name; perhaps it could even use some of the scrapped GW1 Utopia expansion ideas that were left over when some of that stuff was repurposed for the asura) exists out there, why hasn't this kingdom tried to reach out to the other human kingdoms and instead we get a clandestine agent like Doern who prefers to keep it a secret from even the trusted Commander (even if they're in Whispers)? Why hasn't that hypothetical kingdom ever tried to help the rest of humanity in a major way, especially if all the human tribes that were transported to the world of Tyria first settled there with the gods (potentially)? Once the writers have explored Cantha in the upcoming expansion, this fourth human homeland and why it's remained secret from the rest of the world opens a nice story avenue for a future expansion or living world plot, perhaps even tying it to the gods' potential return as surely that land may have the most artifacts, records and such of the gods' actions in their earliest days on Tyria if in fact Canthans, Luxons and Kurzicks have originated from there (and if other ethnicities like Elonians etc. also hailed from there but have simply forgotten their ancient past somehow). Unless this is the land of the Sunbeam Throne, and the King of All Cats reigns supreme there with his human slaves...err, caretakers... Now, where could this potential fourth human continent be as a sibling to Central Tyria, Elona and Cantha? If we look at the world map of Tyria found in the Priory or its cleaned-up and translated version in the wiki, we notice what look like naval trade routes between some port cities. The recognizable ports on the map are Lion's Arch (Central Tyria), Kamadan/Palawadan (Isle of Istan), Kaineng City (Cantha), and the (sunken but it could potentially rise from the depths again if devs so decide) Battle Isles' port. However, we see that a solitary, extended trade route continues west from the Battle Isles, stopping by locations called Sunken Islands and Sunrise Crest (the latter being a region containing a continent-size Wetland and Howling Peninsula as well as Arid which is either another continent or a really big island). I'd hazard a guess that Sunrise Crest, more than the way smaller Sunken Islands, would be Doern's homeland; sadly we know nothing whatsoever about these locations (or most of the regions in the full world map, for that matter, so most of the planet still remains unexplored to this day). I can't help but wonder what mysteries those locations hold, and what other lore humanity can still offer us beyond what we'll learn in Cantha. :)

Well, if not counting any potential Primordus and Depths of Tyria shenanigans, there are still quite a few teased plots that the writers can go for (let alone create entirely new plots) for post-Elder Dragons content. Some of these plots are bigger than others, and most of them are not expansion material per se, but they're fun to think about. :) 1) Glint's Legacy and the hunt for the replacements Although Tom Abernathy has said that GW2 is Aurene's story, I'd disagree with him slightly and say GW2 is less about Aurene than it is about Glint's Legacy to replace the ravenous Elder Dragons with more benevolent balancers of magic who share a deep bond with the mortal races rather than being distanced from them. Like Kralkatorrik stated, Aurene is "the first of her kind" and thus plays a crucial role in guiding future Elder Dragon replacements to take their mantle as balancers of the cosmic Antikytheria system that balances Tyria's The All. The current problem we face with the remaining Elder Dragons is that we can't kill any more of them without finding replacements. Aurene barely balanced things out by replacing Kralkatorrik, but Zhaitan and Mordremoth's orbs are still inert in the All, and we know from Season 3 that we need at least four balancers to keep the Antikytheria mechanism somewhat stable. It follows, then, that we need to find a replacement for Jormag (or Zhaitan or Mordremoth) ASAP to further balance the magic system as Aurene can't contain all six dragons' worth of magic in her let alone keep the push/pull motion of the orbs stable. I just don't see how we'll manage to rush that plot to find some sudden replacement if the Icebrood Saga ends up being as short as that_shaman's datamining of the portal tome entries suggests; I guess we'll see how the narrative handles it unless we simply incapacitate Jormag for a time while working on a solution. Either way, eventually we'll have to find at least three replacements, although the optimal number would be five replacements and Aurene, or maybe twelve replacements in total if we want to truly lessen the burden and torment of magic caused by being subjected to too much magic. It's still unknown if the Elder Dragons' torment was caused by them controlling two spheres of magic instead of one, or if the torment such as Kralkatorrik's predates even that. But I feel it would benefit the plot (and give writers more room to navigate and even things out) to have us hunt for 10-11 replacements in the system. Maybe Aurene can be special and hold on to Kralk's two spheres, but the rest of the replacements can just hold one sphere each. For example, we could possibly let Pale Tree and Malyck's Tree (if she's deemed another suitable and trustworthy candidate) take over Mordremoth's spheres so Pale Tree controls Mind while Malyck's Tree controls Plant. We know a few things about limitations for becoming an Elder Dragon as per Glint's plan: a) lesser dragons that are not capable of speech (skyscales, drakes, hydras, wyverns, rockhides, and likely dragon mosses) can't become Elder Dragons (possibly because they can't contain all that magic without going insane like the ley-affected bounties we fight in Elona), and b) the replacements need to bond with Tyrians, possibly from a very early age, to empathize with them (which is why using the jaded and adult Vlast as a replacement would've seemingly failed as he never cared for mortals and only helped them because he wanted to honor his mom Glint's wishes). It's unknown if Cantha's saltspray dragons (who can speak since birth as shown by the saltspray hatchling Shiny immediately calling its mercenary caretaker Goren as its "mommy" in GW1) will be classified as lesser dragons or if they're actually "high dragons" who have the potential to become Elder Dragons due to their intelligence and control of impressive magic (like the saltspray dragon Albax granting people good or bad luck, or Kuunavang having great control of the elements and other blessings). If they do, then Shiny is a very good candidate for a future Elder Dragon since it (he? she?) was actually raised by Goren and the djinn of Ahdashim and thus had plenty of time to bond with one lovely mortal and a bunch of wise, nigh-immortal elemental caretakers. Devs left it open-ended what had happened to Shiny since it was absent during Qadim's invasion in the Key of Ahdashim raid, so that's a story hook right there. What's also fascinating about this hunt for replacements is that we can use the Scrying Pool with Aurene's guidance to find their locations, thus opening the entire world of Tyria for us to explore (kind of similar to the globe-trotting adventure we had in Season 3). We may end up with a trial and error scenario of meeting potential candidates where some of them turn out to be rotten eggs (either because of their personal ambitions or because some villains corrupt them and lead them astray), so not every quest will necessarily end in a victory for us. We also don't know if there's a way to circumvent the magic sickness via the Shadowstone or otherwise and if theoretically we could even bestow some mortal races' representatives with the power to become such replacements without the nasty side effects so we don't just have to rely on draconic replacements. We've already seen hints that factions like the Inquest want to control dragon minions and potentially the Elder Dragons as well, weaponizing their magic. In this "hunt for replacements" story we might encounter cunning mortal villains (from Inquest or otherwise) who race to get to the candidates before we do so they can get their own Elder Dragon into the system and grow their own power in the process while enslaving the new dragon to their will. We may see stories where heroic candidates ultimately fall to the dark side and have to be fought while candidates who were initially villainous or led astray are redeemed with the power of love, friendship etc. in a heartwarming moment or two to balance the scales. This also opens the plot regarding the fate of the current dragon minions. We know since personal story that dragon minions and the champions continue existing even after their dragon master is gone. While the intelligent champions may become aware that Zhaitan, Mordremoth and Kralkatorrik are gone, they may still seek to carry out their master's wishes while also developing a personality of their own. Imagine us encountering some empowered Risen, Mordrem and Branded champions who are amassing their armies to realize their own vision of the world and how they cope with the fact that their master is no longer there and they're "free" to do as they please if they have the will to do so. One of my dream scenarios would be having Chief Kronon, a notable villain from the novel Edge of Destiny who was unceremoniously killed off as a PoF bounty, actually return as Death-Branded Kronon as he amasses a Branded army to ostensibly carry out Kralkatorrik's will while his former personality as a grieving father starts materializing through the cracks. He might remember how Caithe, Logan and Rytlock killed his beloved son (there's a really touching moment in the novel where Kronon discovers his son's body and lets out a wail of anguish that any father can sympathize with), and he plans an elaborate revenge on the trio for the sake of his son. We could see some Risen potentially reaching out to sylvari and/or Awakened, maybe even offer a chance for a redemption story for the more reasonable Risen champions if they choose to embrace a path of atonement. The Mordrem may still hold some Mordrem Guard in their ranks, and seeing their and Nightmare Court's interactions would be fascinating, ditto if they seek out Malyck's Tree and all the drama it leads to. Then we also have the wild card in the equation: the crosscorrupted minion Subject Alpha who was explicitly shown to survive the battles against us in Crucible of Eternity's explorable mode. What if Alpha survived the facility's destruction and has spent the time out there in the wild gaining strength via devouring beings and magic to increase its intelligence? Alpha was basically immortal in the dungeon as it could separate itself if on the verge of death, and it seemed a very curious individual who had the uncanny ability to take control over rival dragon minions, potentially becoming a "seventh" Elder Dragon of sorts. Alpha could be the kind of morally grey figure who may be an antivillain who only seeks to find a reason for its existence in the changing world while perfecting itself via devouring more magic, and we might have some intriguing interactions with it if it became a temporary ally or even if it showed up as a recurring, dangerous antagonist. Alpha would be a nice contrast to its seemingly more docile cousin, Subject Beta, who is currently under the control of Inquest's Overseer Kuda. An encounter between Alpha and Beta would certainly be juicy and give its own spin on this "replacements" storyline. 2) Verata, Marjory, Riot Alice, and the Great Collapse Back in the early days of GW2, we had a few mysteries going on. Riot Alice from human personal story was convinced that the Great Collapse of the Canthan district in Divinity's Reach and the Shining Blade silencing people who tried to investigate it on their own was part of some conspiracy, and she set out to find the truth among bandits. We last saw her at Prosperity in Dry Top before the Mordrem invaded. In her origin story, Marjory got to briefly talk with the ghost of the boy Mendel who revealed having witnessed some macabre sacrifices somewhere in DR before his ghost was banished by a necromancer mercenary Kraig the Bleak who working for someone; this also led to Marjory's first encounter with the enigmatic spymaster known as E. At the time I thought that both Marjory and Alice's stories would ultimately tie into the White Mantle storyline (especially as devs like Scott McGough said that they intended to let Marjory find out the truth and finish her one unsolved case as an investigator) but nothing came out of it as Mendel's murder is still unavenged and Alice is still MIA. When asked about if the Cult of Verata was still around, Bobby Stein left a cryptic answer where he neither confirmed nor denied it, preferring to leave such a plot for later if the writers ever felt exploring it. Verata was a necromancer from GW1 who went rogue, causing alarm among the Order of Necromancers who didn't like the bad press he was causing. Verata formed a cult around himself, was fascinating with experimenting with undeath in ways that seemed to frighten even the Order. What if the Cult survived to the present day and has bided its time in the catacombs of Divinity's Reach? They may have continued experiments with living subjects, hence the grisly display that Mendel witnessed, and these experiments may have even caused the mysterious collapse that had the Shining Blade on edge. Perhaps this way the story could still resolve Marjory and Alice's unfinished plots and tie them to another unsolved plot from GW1 (Verata surviving the hunts against him and continuing his cult). The story could even show that Verata has since become a lich, and we'd finally learn what exactly is required in GW verse for one to become a lich since the writers chose not to explore that subject with Joko. We've never gotten a chance to truly explore the crypts of DR which were depicted in Ghosts of Ascalon, but we know some crypts were located below the Canthan district that later became the Great Collapse which was transformed into the Crown Pavilion. Verata's cult and its sacrifices could even open up possibilities that Verata and his lackeys might be collaborating with some demons, opening up more Mists lore for us to explore. 3) Demons, Razah, and the Mists Although Elder Dragons are notorious villains, most of them seem to have somewhat "justifiable" goals based on clues even if their methods are quite warped. Zhaitan wants to reunite loved ones and create an eternal kingdom where death doesn't exist, Mordremoth wants to become the sustainer of all life and create a perfect world with its "superior" mordrem clones that are all part of the same harmonious hivemind so there is no conflict anymore while nature thrives etc. But there are worse things out there than the dragons can ever hope to be, beings that are born of malignant energies themselves: demons. So far demons have been shown to make pacts with greater forces or being forced into servitude. In the "voluntary" cases they, more often than not, just bide their time before they start manipulating their summoner so they can betray the foolish mortals at the right moment. Our knowledge of demons and how powerful they can become is still somewhat unknown although GW1 gave us some vague clues. What we do know is that demons love to prey on and devour the weak amongs their kind, they enjoy torturing their mortal and ghost victims as they savor their victims' life essence or they rob their victims of their memories. It's known that some demons can digest souls in their stomachs for centuries, likely for the sheer pleasure of it. Demons are basically pure evil or as close as we get to it in GW verse. Now imagine if we ever encountered greater demons who start controlling vast armies of demons, and if these greater ones become archdemons. Such beings with potentially limitless power (as they form from the Mists and can theoretically siphon Mist magic to empower themselves) can become a force that rivals the Elder Dragons and the gods themselves. The writers could have fun with such characters as we need to not only empower our demonic villains but also outsmart them. Then there are beings of unclear origin like Razah who was hidden deep within Abaddon's domain. There must've been a reason why the God of Secrets wanted to hide him away although we don't yet know if Razah was potentially one of Abaddon's children (assuming if the noncanonical, datamined entry for the Graveyard of Abaddon's Rebellious Children will ever be canonized), if he was intended as Abaddon's new vessel once Abaddon's corrupted and splintered body had served its uses, or if Abaddon's plans were greater than we could've anticipated. We've yet to learn what Razah's been doing in the centuries since he was taught heroic actions by the GW1 Hero; maybe he's found similar beings of the Mists like himself and has become their teacher so they learn to control their ravenous impulses and become forces of good for the worlds in the Mists. Maybe one of Razah's apostles becomes power-hungry and betrays him and the rest of the group, becoming a major antagonist in the future. The possibilities with Razah are endless and could be tied to an overarching threat of demons. 4) The gods and Menzies PoF left quite a few plots open regarding the gods. We were told there's more to being a god of war than we know, we don't know what happened to Balthazar's half-brother Menzies, why Kormir's depiction shows Lyssa as less caring than other accounts, why Balthazar didn't curse Lyssa in his final moments, what the gods intend to do in the future, and if the Mad Souls' prophecy of Kormir continuing the cycle of Abaddon and his predecessor and ultimately causing the downfall of the gods becomes true. The gods' story isn't over like Linsey Murdock has said, so there's a chance we may explore it via Kormir, Menzies or even Lyssa. Perhaps Lyssa's two halves are different, and, say, Ilya might be the chaotic half who agreed with Balthazar's methods. If even a mere Mirror of Lyssa was enough for Balthazar to hide himself from the gods, then it should be easy enough for one half of Lyssa (let's say Ilya) to eventually return to Tyria. If they went with this idea of an "evil" half of Lyssa causing mayhem, they'd just need to explain why Lyss would let Ilya go on a rampage, why Ilya didn't help Balthazar if there was some sort of alliance between them etc. Devs like Scott McGough have said how fascinating it'd be to go to a city fully under Lyssa's illusion and how the people whose minds are affected would act there. Imagine Ilya conjuring all too lifelike images of all our loved ones from personal story etc. suddenly being alive and happy in this utopia and we know something isn't right in the back of our mind but we still can't help but go along with the illusion because these emotions overwhelm us. If the writers intend to escalate the threat with each antagonist, it'd make sense to eventually fight one half of a proper god (Ilya or Lyss) in contrast to a former god who was at most at demigod level in PoF (Balthazar, Dhuum). If Menzies has survived to the present day and wasn't defeated off screen by Balthazar, it'd make sense for him to seek revenge after learning that the Commander and Aurene defeated his half-brother before he had the chance to. If Menzies himself is compelled by the curse of the Shadow Army to fight Balthazar, he'll sense the remnants of Balthazar in Aurene and thus be naturally opposed to her. If the plot wasn't already going for the Jormag and Bangar manipulations plot, it would've made sense to involve Menzies as a shadowy Lord of Destruction stoking the fires of conflict via power and deceit to weaken the races of Tyria to get close enough to Aurene. It would be fascinating if Menzies initially appeared to us as a seemingly benevolent spirit (or even masquerading as a mortal) whom we befriend over several episodes until he reveals his true colours and name and betrays us in a shocking twist. I'm also curious how Linsey's words about there being more to the gods' plot will be realized. There are suggestions that they may be searching for a new world to transport humanity (and possibly the other races) to in case Glint's plan doesn't work, but what other roles may they have in future storylines? I'd be happy to meet with the rest of the gods and learn more about their reasoning for not only leaving Tyria on its own for now but not even bothering to inform at least their high priests of their contingency plan or the weaknesses of the Elder Dragons that the gods seemed to know of to some extent. Perhaps we'd also learn who has replaced Balthazar as the new god of war; my bet would be on the GW1 hero to explain his or her odd absence from Tyria when it needed the Hero the most, and the fact that canonically there may have been more than one Hero active in GW1 would give the writers enough leeway to leave the Hero's identity ambiguous enough so roleplayers wouldn't have to worry about their personal stories being trampled on regardless of which Hero became the god. 5) Humanity's homeland, Sunrise Crest? Although we'll have explored most of the human lands once Cantha's released, there's at least one more notable land that we could yet explore. If we look at the map of the world of Tyria, we see dots which indicate cities with naval trade routes, and a particularly notable area to the west called Sunrise Crest. Why is this area so intriguing then, you might ask? A couple of reasons: In the personal story, the Whispers Preceptor Doern Velazquez hints that he doesn't come from any of the known human kingdoms, which suggests there's another human land out there. In the Factions lore documents like "An Empire Divided" it's suggested that the Luxons and the Kurzicks arrived from somewhere else to Cantha even though Cantha is the first historically documented (that we know of) human kingdom. Given how the majority of Canthans are Asians while the rest of the human cultures are of different ethnicities, it suggests that various human tribes sailed to their future homelands from somewhere else. We know the gods took humanity to Orr but quickly took them elsewhere, leaving to a gap in history until some humans appeared in Cantha in 786 BE. As such, it's reasonable to suggest that Sunrise Crest might be humanity's first kingdom in Tyria, long before Cantha became the Empire of the Dragon, and is the cradle of all the ethnicities that eventually spread around the world. Perhaps Sunrise Crest will have Hispanic influence as a tribute to the scrapped GW1 Utopia expansion whose Mesoamerican influences were transferred to asura. Perhaps Doern's homeland is more advanced than the other kingdoms, and we could truly get to learn about the first years of the gods and humans and what led the gods to leave Sunrise Crest (if that's where Doern's from) and settle into Arah instead. In this land we might even discover clues to humanity, Forgotten and gods' original homeworld if any such evidence survived over the millennia in some obscure, long forgotten stories. 6) Forgotten, mursaat, the Isles of Janthir, and the remaining Bloodstones Bastion of the Penitent gave us a rather big hint that one of the mursaat's prisoners had been a Forgotten. However, when we explored the bastion after the prison riot, we didn't find any Forgotten body there despite every body in the bastion being preserved due to the magic there. This might suggest that the Forgotten prisoner successfully escaped the bastion during the riot and Samarog's rampage, and might now be out there in the Woodland Cascades as the last living Forgotten on Tyria. What if this Forgotten had gone mad from torture and was seeking out the mursaat capital (implied to potentially be somewhere in the Cascades) or the Isles of Janthir for some reason? What if it turns out that the mursaat aren't fully extinct, and the Eye of Janthir simply phased into the Mists to find the last mursaat survivors there? We could eventually find our way into the abandoned mursaat capital and maybe even explore the Isles of Janthir and finally reveal if the Eye of Janthir was a mursaat creation or potentially tied to the Seers, and how the war between Seers and mursaat began. Perhaps the mursaat in the Mists would wish to atone for their actions while the crazed Forgotten would want to kill them all to fulfill the Flameseeker Prophecies, and in a twist we'd have to defend these mursaat from the Forgotten. I always like a good redemption story, and it'd be nice to see the remnants of mursaat society being humbled by their setbacks and realizing that the path of Lazarus only leads to destruction. The Forgotten could likewise be made into a sympathetic villain due to the torture he or she experienced and how the Forgotten has legitimate grievances with the mursaat. The plot could even involve the four remaining Bloodstones. Since the Maguuma Bloodstone's explosion, we know that the Ring of Fire Bloodstone is located at Abaddon's Mouth where the Flame Legion excavated Sohothin from, the Shiverpeaks Bloodstone is (was?) at the Bloodstone Caves in northeastern Straits of Devastation (although the cave in GW2 is empty, so it begs the question if the stone is now deeper inside or if someone has transported it from there), while the locations of two other Bloodstones (one of which is potentially the Keystone which is said to be able to unite the Bloodstones into one) are unknown. These could tie into the Forgotten's plot, or they could be tied to demons, Menzies, Inquest, or whatever other force the writers deem fit for them. 7) The Fourth Guild War If I were to decide a definite end for GW2 as a whole, I'd prefer the final saga take place after we've found all the replacements in the All and fought off most of the villains. Like the gods said, Tyria is our world now, so we need to face our greatest enemy as our final trial: ourselves. There have historically been three Guild Wars that were devastating, and GW1 began towards the end of the Third Guild War. It would make thematic sense if the races of Tyria, empowered by their victories and having new Elder Dragons aligned with them, began desiring more power as they gain more magic. Perhaps we'd face a similar calamity as in King Doric's time where magical warfare would begin and be close to devastating Tyria unless the gift of magic is revoked. The Commander's ultimate challenge would be to prevent the escalation into a Fourth Guild War as various nations' and tribes' guilds grew into prominence and began competing for the available magic and the blessings of the neo-Elder Dragons. The solution to this problem might ultimately be similar to the ending cutscene of the Key of Ahdashim: perhaps Aurene and the rest of the replacements need to fulfill Abaddon's wish and martyr themselves to truly spread magic to every race on Tyria so--similar to the Key of Ahdashim sharing the elemental power with all the djinn rather than keeping it all to herself or creating four cardinals--everyone becomes part of the Antikytheria as a balancer of magic and thus no one can overpower the other due to equal distribution. Regardless of how the Fourth Guild War plot would go, the writers would need to be extra careful not to demonize most of the guilds too much. While each of the Tyrian races and heroes have their respective flaws, the lesson from Glint (and to an extent, from Abaddon) is how sharing is caring. Only through patience, understanding, friendship and love can we overcome the final trial and prevent repeating mistakes from the past where the magic was only hoarded by the elite (whether it was the ancient races or the Elder Dragons themselves). This is the ultimate lesson of both GW1 and GW2 and, like Andrew Gray said, the overarching storyline of the franchise concerns the responsibility and burden of magic. The best way to handle your burden is sharing it with someone who is kind enough to help you, and that's what friends--and ultimately guilds who are big groups of friends--are for. This would be the perfect finale for the Tyrian saga, leading us to the golden age that both Abaddon and Glint had envisioned in their own ways. :) Well, the Arcane Council was interested in that place, and we know Councillor Yahk is the Inquest's representative in the council. We also know how thrilled the Inquest were to discover Rata Arcanum in Draconis Mons so that they ditched Balthazar's mercenaries to go explore the ruins instead. If the Inquest are as crafty as they seem to be, Yahk should be sending lots of Inquest to explore every nook and cranny of Rata Novus, especially now that Phlunt's takeover has left the Dragon Lab open for more exploration. I'm sure Overseer Kuda would be most interested in the research Zinn's council did on the Elder Dragons and their spheres and weaknesses as she and a few other Inquest seem to be thinking of weaponizing the Elder Dragons' magic via crosscorrupted, controllable minions and control devices (as seen in the Specimen Chamber and Arah's mursaat path, respectively)... ;) That seems unlikely unless the Empire of the Dragon has slipped up in the centuries after Emperor Usoku annexed the Kurzicks and the Luxons into the Empire: Incidentally it turns out that Minister Reiko, the villain of Guild Wars Beyond: Winds of Change, is the only villain in GW franchise history who actually won in the end. She planted the seeds of the Ministry of Purity to unify and purge Cantha, rallied the people behind her, became a martyr via her "heroic" last stand against the meddling "heroes" whom she had manipulated earlier to advance her cause, and inspired her successor Ashu to improve on her methods. I'm sure quite a few GW1 veterans have beef with all of this and want to set things right...although that's easier said than done because most Canthans should be more grateful towards their Emperor/Empress and Prime Minister of Purity than most of the oppressed Elonians were under their dictator Joko unless the writers introduce a twist of a large Canthan underground rebel movement being active against the seemingly ironclad imperial regime. The Commander also shouldn't have any political right to meddle in Cantha's affairs and its politics unless we get the Joko scenario of the Ministry and/or the Empire declaring war on Tyria which would justify Tyria's aggressive measures against the Empire. Given how Reiko's death took place in 1080 AE and Emperor Kisu's successor Usoku began realizing the Ministry's vision by 1127 AE, it took less than 50 years for these ideas to bear fruit and turn Cantha into the kind of state Reiko had always wanted it to be. It's possible that Ashu (who was quite young during Winds of Change) was still alive to witness these events and possibly approved of them unless the idea is that it was Ashu's successor in the Ministry who manipulated/collaborated with Usoku to realize the new Emperor's ambitions, or someone else in the Ministry acted behind Ashu's back to coerce the Emperor to carry on Reiko's flame. It'll be fascinating to (hopefully) learn more about this timeline and see where Ashu went wrong despite the GW1 Hero saving him from Reiko's manipulations. Perhaps the Zephyrites, who are heavily implied to have visited Cantha between Seasons 1 and 2 (the trip during which the Master of Peace also fetched the egg containing Aurene from the Crystal Desert from an unknown individual who is yet to be named but who I believe was Vlast) as per the Season 2 prologue where Marjory (who has confirmed Canthan ancestry) mentioned the Zephyrites' Canthan decorations reminding her of her family belongings, also know a thing or two about Cantha. Maybe the Zephyrites can offer us some pointers about Cantha's current political climate since they seem to have a good enough relationship with Canthans to be allowed to trade with them. Healthy trade with foreigners also suggests that Cantha may still be relatively prosperous and hasn't seen much warfare (as far as the Zephyrites know, anyway) while Canthans should have hopefully learned about the Pact's victory over Zhaitan if the Zephyrites divulged that information to them. The big question here becomes if the Zephyrites only visited Cantha to trade or if the Master of Peace had some other reason to visit that land rather than beelining straight to Aurene to carry on the Legacy project. Maybe he sought out the wise saltspray dragons Albax and Kuunavang to consult with them about Glint's plans to replace the Elder Dragons. There are lots of story possibilities there depending on what route the writers take... :)

I'd only accept such an option if we got as detailed login screens as GW1 had later on with that slowly scrolling, epic vista such as .

As far as Braham's moments throughout the narrative go, my issues with his Season 3 actions were how they were a total 180 on his earlier behaviour if we look back. We got this dialogue from Braham after defeating Mordremoth: This kind of brotherhood between the Commander and Braham, as well as Braham already coming to terms with Eir's death in HoT via avenging Mordremoth, showed that he was eager to fight Jormag but it wasn't as urgent an issue as Season 3 made it seem. As "A Crack in the Ice" took place over a year after the events of Heart of Thorns, Braham somehow not only started mourning Eir when all that time had passed and became singularly focused on defeating Jormag. While he set up Eir's memorial, he failed to attend that important event, choosing rather to kick some Svanir and Icebrood butt in the north and research the existence of the jotun scroll. For norn the most important thing is to build their legend and be remembered in tales, and yet Braham chose to neglect honoring Eir's memory by giving her the farewell she deserved when all her other friends gathered to pay their respects. Not only that, but Braham left Garm to wander the jungle all by himself for all that time (aka over a year), and it was only thanks to Rox that Garm returned home barely alive. Braham should've honored his mom's memory by saving her trusty companion, but instead his sudden anger towards Jormag clouded his feelings regarding Garm's well-being. He also acted rather disrespectfully towards Garm, ordering him around after parting ways with the Commander, and the poor confused Garm decided to follow him despite the fact that his only alpha had been Eir (maybe he figured that he needed to honor Eir's memory by making sure that Eir's cub would be safe from harm, but still...). As if that wasn't enough, Braham's recklessness not only got Rox frozen with nearly fatal results in the ice cave, but he did not even bother apologizing to her afterwards. While that's already rather disrespectful towards her, what makes it worse is remembering how Rox failed her final test to join the Stone Warband (her life's goal) by choosing to tend to Braham's wounds (which Braham had brought upon himself when he tried to get to Scarlet himself) rather than finishing off Scarlet in Season 1. Rox's sacrifice was great when we consider how disrespected gladia are among the legions, and yet Rox was willing to accept that station in life rather than getting a membership in one of the most famous charr warbands ever just because her friendship with Braham was that great. And despite all that, Rox still accompanied Braham on his trek north like a true friend and even helped him investigate the Awakened attacks in Hoelbrak. I've been waiting for Braham's apology to Rox ever since; maybe it's happened off screen, but we've had no indication of such. However, I can kind of understand Braham getting angry at the Commander for starting Dragon's Watch instead of continuing Destiny's Edge, as that could be seen as disrespecting the legacy of Eir who was the leader of the latter guild. It's strange to me that Rytlock suggested just starting a new guild rather than just repurposing Destiny's Edge with new members; it wouldn't be the first time guilds added to their roster in the history of Tyria, after all, so Rytlock is as much to blame for that decision as the Commander is, so I'm not blaming Braham for being baffled by that decision. When considering all of the above, Braham's actions were somewhat strange as a whole. Even if he suddenly started grieving Eir after a year had passed (despite the ending of HoT hinting he had already gotten to terms with his mom's passing), the rest of his actions are baffling. Now that Episode 1 proved that his norn guild buddies were actually decent folks and not toxic friends until Jormag got to the male members, the only plausible explanation for Braham's 180 in personality and his disrespect towards Garm and Rox (and not even bothering to attend Eir's memorial) is if Jormag, Drakkar or w/e had already begun manipulating him during the year between HoT and S3. Perhaps Braham was already investigating the jotun scroll's whereabouts while coming across Icebrood, and Jormag learned about this and how dangerous it would be if another Asgeir wannabe came barging in with an enchanted weapon AND an army by his side, so the dragon began manipulating events to draw Braham to it ASAP so it could corrupt him and use his anger against him while also getting rid of the enchanted weapon. It would make sense, too, since Braham's attitude towards the Commander was already changing for the better by the time we saw him next in S4 when Jormag had already retreated into the ice and thus lessened its influence on the world for the time being. With all that said, I think it's nice that Braham gets a bit of a center stage. After all, he found the means to damage the tooth, so he has fulfilled the conditions of the prophecy (at least the parts we know so far). He's far from useless, and anyone who has played previous content, especially Season 1, can attest that he may be flawed but is also an exceptionally skilled guardian who has saved us many times. The Commander has already fulfilled several prophecies (e.g. the ones regarding Lazarus and Kralkatorrik, and even more if we count the sylvari Commander's Wyld Hunts against Zhaitan and Mordremoth) and defeated several villains by now, so it's only fair that more of the Commander's allies have a chance to shine; the Commander doesn't need to be the only hero as the world is big enough for many people's heroic feats. As for the "I Win" button, keep in mind that we already know that there have been at least two jotun scrolls as in Season 3 Braham mentioned that the scroll we found in the ice cave was similar to the one Asgeir had used (and how that scroll incinerated once it had enchanted the bow so these can only be used once per weapon it seems). It wouldn't surprise me if more such jotun scrolls exist out there in secluded locations guarded by terrifying monsters and that the Commander or whoever else in the allied forces can enchant their weapons with them; alternatively we could find ancient jotun stelae which might reveal how to replicate the rituals that created such enchanted scrolls to begin with. As if that isn't enough, we also know that the Priory currently holds the Sanguinary Blade, forged from Jormag's frozen blood, after it was delivered there by Magister Sieran and the Commander. Given how both Mordremoth and Kralkatorrik were weak to weapons linked to them (Caladbolg and Dragonsblood Spears, respectively), it's not out of the question to think that the Sanguinary Blade can be one of Jormag's weaknesses too in case we fail to find more jotun scrolls to enchant weapons with. If we end up using the blade, we just need to figure out how to wield it unsheathed because its power corrupts its wielder over time, but we could feasibly learn such information from the ruins of the dwarves who forged them, whether that info comes from Darkrime Delves, Sepulchre of Dragrimmar etc. We've already seen a Jormag-influenced Suspicious Traveler near the asura gate at the Priory, so it wouldn't surprise me if Jormag's minions (or Bangar's charr sleeper agents in the Priory) have already set their eyes on the Sanguinary Blade and desire it for their own purposes. As for what Wolf means by Braham becoming a true norn, I take it to simply mean that Braham hasn't yet mastered the ability to Become the Wolf. Devs mentioned how the saga would explore the norn's cultural heritage and their totem transformation ability, so it makes sense that Wolf would teach Braham important lessons of penance and brotherhood before granting him the power to transform. I look forward to finding out where Wolf and Braham's journey takes them and if Garm gets involved too (the trailer already showed a wolf approaching the shrine with Braham in the trailer, so I hope that's Garm, or that we'll at least meet Garm in a later episode once we learn Wolf's masteries). :)

A good candidate for such a skin would be the Canthan saltspray dragons (famous representatives of that species being Albax, Kuunavang, and Shiny). Such skin would be problematic lorewise, though, as the creatures we generally ride aren't able to speak whereas saltsprays can speak. Skyscales are said to be lesser dragons akin to hydras and drakes and thus they work as mounts, but saltsprays muddy the waters as they're not quite Elder Dragons but seem to be higher in the dragon hierarchy than the speechless skyscales. It might be demeaning to a saltspray to be ridden as a mere mount, and I'd rather not risk any saltsprays offering thinly veiled threats to their rider like Kuunavang famously did to mortals who initially intended to refuse her gift in the "Unwaking Waters" mission in Factions: After the inclusion of the alluring shimmerwing "fairy dragon" skyscale skin, though, who knows what other surprises the ANet artists have in store. For all we know, they may already have some ideas for future oriental-inspired dragon skins for skyscales as those would sell well. I only lament that there's so little lore about many of these curious mount skins and that we don't see the uniquely modeled mounts out there in the wild. Imagine running into ambient Kourna Jackrabbits in Kourna, or Exalted Ley Vaulters in Auric Basin, for example! While kirin would look nice as mounts, they are also higher beings who are capable of speech with some sage words of advice to Canthan adventurers of old, so they may not fit into the mount skin idea any more than saltsprays do unless the artists decide to play it loose and include them as skins anyway just for the cool factor. I wonder how a wise kirin would feel about being a mortal's mount, though. :)

They've actually added callbacks to HoT here and there. Jora's Keep in particular is crazy in that it has lots of ambient dialogue and NPC placements that change between each story step (e.g. the reinforcements that start by cleaning up the bodies, place the bodies on pyres to burn them, go inside the keep to sit down and talk about their options, mourn their losses and finally decide to avenge the deaths of their officers and comrades while voicing out their worries about the potential treachery of the male norn around them; we can see the progression through each story step if we visit the keep between certain story mission objectives). Once you progress through the story, the dialogues gradually become unavailable as they're replaced by updated ones, so the only way to experience some of these dialogues again is to go through the story with another character. So it's easy to miss this stuff if one just rushes through the story or doesn't have the time to wait at the keep for an hour per story step and run from spot to spot in the keep to catch all the dialogue going on during the story steps. For example, in the story step "What's Left Behind": Ambient dialogue in Jora's Keep: Almorra's really something special, isn't she? Thanks to her burdened past (as a gladium who was forced to kill her own Branded comrades and who seemed to have contemplated suicide until Laranthir and other future Vigil warmasters-to-be talked her into directing her feelings towards making the world a better place), the general welcomes other shunned outcasts with open arms regardless of their perceived deeds and gives them a new life, family and purpose for the good of all as shown in the Vigil motto that Almorra coined: "Some must fight, so that all may be free." I hope Almorra's so far unnamed daughter (who apparently has an interesting past based on what little Almorra has chosen to reveal about the subject when we tried to pry her for information about her family following her Renegade son Ajax Anvilburn's demise)--as well as her granddaughter Ember Doomforge--have been inspired by Almorra's noble actions. I'd love to see the daughter appear and Ember to return to the story one day too alongside Almorra's good acquaintance Dougal Keane who happens to be Ember's good friend after their adventures together to retrieve the Claw of the Khan-Ur and cause the ceasefire talks of the Ebonhawke Treaty begin between humans and charr. :) As for the sylvari and Jormag connection, it's interesting that at least some sylvari seem to realize the voice speaking to them is in fact Jormag like this chilling ambient dialogue example from Ravensfrost Caverns shows: It'll be fun to find out if Jormag eventually mentions Mordremoth (whom it might admire to some extent with the way Ol' Mordy pulled off the Mind hijinks) and if we hear more sylvari commentary on it...or even commentary from other races now that the parallels between sylvari (HoT) and norn (The Icebrood Saga) threats have become apparent. :)

Well, Lovecraftian writing includes psychological horror and many characters' descent into madness due to being unable to comprehend the terror ahead of them, and we have seen hints of such during Season 1 and the overall sylvari arc in HoT. From Scarlet Briar's journal where she describes Mordremoth's growing influence: From Buried Insight in HoT if talking to the Mordrem Guard Punisher where we learn the extend of Mordremoth's grasp over sylvari: I enjoyed Mordremoth's creeping influence throughout "The Mordrem Saga", and I look forward to even more nuanced horror writing in "The Icebrood Saga." How the plot addresses Jormag's whispers and other horrific things that will no doubt be going on as we progress deeper into the harsh wilds of Tyria will be fascinating to witness first-hand. :)

It should be noted that the Lost Scrolls are not stated to be Abaddon's. They were kept away by the gods, and predated the Exodus, but that's all we have on their origins. The Hunter wasn't a Margonite, but a Shiro'ken - a construct created by Shiro Tagachi and empowered by a trapped soul. Which makes the lichdom magic on it even more curious, because it wasn't even a flesh body like normal liches, but an artificial body created of metal and, well, some bone. Whoops; I did intend to write Shiro'ken, but apparently my mind was still dwelling on the mysteries of the Margonites so I ended up using one over the other. Given how souls are tied to magic, though, one wonders how easy it would be to create artificial souls, plant such in constructs, use whatever causes someone to become a lich, and start mass producing liches if given enough time and knowledge. It could lead to a fascinating plot. The Lost Scrolls' mystery could indicate that if in one scenario the knowledge of lich magic didn't come from Abaddon given the ambiguity, he might have discovered this knowledge from somewhere else--whether from some corner in Tyria or somewhere else in the Mists--before taking that knowledge to his safekeeping and study. It's a shame that we haven't had that many updates on the Priory's findings in Arah beyond some suggestions here and there. Revisiting Arah and entering the Great Margonite Temple in the Sulfurous Wastes might provide us with some juicy answers if we're lucky and give the writers a nice plot hook should they ever wish to explore this corner of lore. :)

The interesting thing to think about is if Glint and the Forgotten ever had more candidates in mind for the Legacy project. Even if Glint's plans had succeeded beyond wildest expectations, we'd still have at best three benevolent Elder Dragon replacements (likely Kralkatorrik, Zhaitan, and Mordremoth based on the placements of Glint and the scion nursery cities) while three problematic Elder Dragons (likely Jormag, Primordus and the deep sea dragon) remained to cause chaos. It's fun to think about if Glint was willing to gamble with magical balance by guiding the races to create the Pact with her and her to-be-ascended scions' help and take on the three Elder Dragons one by one or if they found another workaround to the problem as a direct dragon vs. dragon conflict (even if it was three on one) could cause unforeseen consequences. As for what happened with Kralkatorrik's magic, as well as Balthazar's, in the Battles of Kodash Bazaar and Dragonfall, we had these fascinating and foreboding statements from narrative director Tom Abernathy in the forums' lengthy Lore Q&A thread: While Tom slightly misunderstood the player who was asking about Balthazar's original divine energy which the other gods had stripped from him between GW1 and PoF (leaving the depowered Balthazar chained in the Mists with no clues given about the ultimate fate of his taken divinity beyond some slight nods in Kormir's speech and in Requiem: Zafirah if a new god of war has risen to take his place in the pantheon), the answer nevertheless suggests that Aurene and Kralkatorrik weren't able to absorb all of Balthazar's magic which is also supported by unbound magic from Season 3 turning into volatile magic in Season 4. This means that at least some of that "divine" energy spread into the environment after the Battle of Kodash Bazaar, causing more crazed bounties to emerge and presumably empowering the other Elder Dragons despite the distance. Assuming that we go with the theory suggested by Taimi in Season 3 regarding distance playing a big part in how much ambient, released magic an Elder Dragon can absorb (compare the number of new minions of Primordus to one known new minion of Jormag), some Elder Dragons would have gotten a bigger slice of this magic pie than the others. Based on proximity, Primordus may have gotten the lion's share of this magic by being the closest to Elona with Jormag likely getting the second place and deep sea dragon being the farthest and thus receiving the least magic (as far as we know). By the time Kralk himself was slain at Dragonfall, there's yet another suggestion in Tom's reply that Aurene may not have been able to absorb all of his magic despite taking it in at ground zero. Perhaps this was because Aurene was still relatively juvenile in size and experience and snacking on Kralk's magic would be a bigger undertaking than taking on Joko. If Jormag has received enough magic from both Balthazar and Kralkatorrik (as well as some additional Zhaitan and Mordremoth magic given Kralkatorrik's power boost, and potentially even Primordus magic depending on how that magic had changed when Balthazar took some of it into himself in Season 3 as we did not see him using any Elder Dragon magic during PoF), the Ice Dragon and some of its champions may possess any combination of the following magics now (depending on the amount of magic absorbed, and the distance between them and the death sites of Balthazar/Kralkatorrik): Crystal, Fury, Death, Shadow, Plant, Mind, Fire (of Balthazar with potentially a slice from Primordus as well depending on how Balthazar had absorbed the magic into himself) and whatever remnant of Balthazar's divine energy allowed Kralkatorrik the ability to enter and exit the Mists at will, create remote storms in distant locations as well as bypass protection from divine magic (as seen by how Kralkatorrik was able to circumvent the djinn's Brand protection which had been derived from remnants of Abaddon's magic in Season 4). Given Jormag's interest in the Mists (as shown in the norn personal story branch, "Guard the Mists", where the Sons of Svanir and Icebrood abused a captured havroun's Mist-traversing ability by forcibly opening portals into the Mists to spread Jormag's influence there) and its already considerable abilities in persuasion and with storms (like how it created years-long blizzard when it woke up), I could see Jormag attempting to boost its power with: Fury (Kralkatorrik's storms which could be cast remotely after the absorption of Balthazar's magic; just imagine Jormag creating remote blizzards that bury the entire Tyria under snow like its mere minion Dragonspawn was able to bury Hoelbrak under snow in retaliation for the actions of Eir's group in Edge of Destiny),Mind (boost the synchronization of the icebrood consciousnesses and perhaps find a way into the Dream to turn the Ice Dragon's essence immortal Mordremoth-style even if the dragon's physical body and heart are destroyed, as well as affect sylvari via the Dream and Nightmare depending on how deeply Mordremoth's Mind spectrum is tied to sylvari consciousness compared to the Plant spectrum),Balthazar's divine magic (allows the ability to enter the Mists and circumvent the protection from divine magic so Jormag gains the ability to possibly even corrupt the gods should they ever dare to return to confront it, and we can no longer rely on the protective and minion-repelling effects of divine magic such as Season 2's Divine Fire or Kormir's protective magic surrounding the Sun's Refuge).I could imagine Jormag either wishing to use Death or Shadow spectrum from Zhaitan. While in Edge of Destiny the Dragonspawn was already able to raise dead corpses as icebrood, this may not be canon anymore given later dev statements that none of the other Elder Dragons had the Death ability to raise corpses until Zhaitan's demise. Perhaps we'll see Jormag using the Death spectrum to resurrect powerful slain champions or use the Mind spectrum to clone their consciousnesses into new bodies to effectively turn them immortal as we saw Mordremoth do with the three Mordrem Guard Commanders at Dragon's Stand. The Shadow spectrum is a bit more elusive but depending on how the devs intend to use it (beyond minions arriving under a cloak of darkness as shown in personal story with the Risen), I could see Jormag and its champions using blizzard abilities and the ensuing darkness to further boost their minions' effectiveness in battle and to demoralize the enemy.Where this all leads will be intriguing to witness depending on how wild the story gets. How many of the aforementioned abilities, if any, will Jormag and its greatest champions show during The Icebrood Saga? If Jormag gains the practical immortality from Mind magic, is able to enter the Mists with Balthazar's magic, if it learns of a way to create liches and consume a newborn lich to gain Aurene-like resurrection ability, and if it finds out about the Hall of Heroes in the Rift which lies in the center of the Mists and how the hall acts as an access point to all space and time (i.e. past, present, and future) in the entire multiverse, we could see some serious problems rising with this basically unkillable Ice Dragon: Jormag would be more or less "immortal" in both mind and body with the combination of Mind spectrum and lich magic while trying to exist in all place and time simultaneously alongside its alternate Tyrian Jormag counterparts. According to past GW2 head writers, each alt Tyria has its own set of Elder Dragons and follows the same timeline with the Pact Commander being the only unique creature per each alt Tyria for unknown reasons, so in each alt Tyria its version of Snaff has died and Aurene has ascended, and each alt Jormag would enter the Mists and the Hall's nexus at the same time as our "Jormag Prime" according to this wild theory and create a "glory" of Jormags who may or may not ally with themselves once they realize that a multiverse and other Jormags exist in the timeline. Makes one's head spin, right? I could imagine such a complex scheme for Jormag if it's allowed to carry out its hinted plans for the Mists, depending on how knowledgeable it is about the inner workings of the All, the cosmos and other Mists realms in general. :)

Well, Khilbron was also immortal and needed to be slain atop the Ring of Fire Bloodstone in order for heroes to use it to siphon his lifeforce (as souls are basically a form of magic, and Bloodstones were meant to contain magic) off of him and render him vulnerable. I always wondered how Rurik learned this information so he could inform the heroes on how to beat the Undead Lich at Hell's Precipice. While the Vabbian djinn overseer is certainly one candidate for Joko's lichdom (if the devs thought of making the djinn be a trickster whose wishes tend to be literal or have another hidden twist), I always wondered if Joko possessing some of Abaddon's forbidden scrolls (as suggested by the Ascension Pilgrim dialogue) had something to do with his turn, especially when we remember that Khilbron also invoked Abaddon's forbidden scrolls to cause the Cataclysm and returned as a lich sometime later (and how Fendi Nin was cursed by King Zoran's vizier who could've had access to the forbidden scrolls in Arah similar to Khilbron). It would make sense for the God of Wisdom/Secrets, who likely hoarded knowledge of all kinds similar to the goddess Kormir, to have written down forbidden information on how to cheat death and use souls to sustain an undead body with lifeforce indefinitely, and Joko may have abused this information to his leisure. If this lich magic is of divine origin (via Abaddon or otherwise), it would also explain why Joko's magic would be notable enough for Aurene to use so effectively given the way dragons and Elder Dragons feed on and learn from specific forms of magic. One of the reasons I wanted there to be an Episode 5.5 in Season 4 was to explore the origin of liches to figure out what grants them such power and how it could be used to Aurene's benefit. It would've been nice to seek out the guidance of Raven as a spirit guide in the Underworld to find Aurene's trapped soul in whatever dragon afterlife she'd end up in and help her, as a newborn lich, in her first resurrection. We could've traversed the Sulfurous Wastes and maybe entered the Great Margonite Temple, Abaddon's intended seat of power had he been able to succeed with Nightfall, to find the Abaddon scrolls that Joko might have hidden there. Perhaps we could've run into the surviving good Margonites like the Apostate and the Lost who could've told us more information about the All, and we'd help Aurene find her path through the afterlife while fending off the Hunter, a Margonite granted lich-like powers by Khilbron and trapped in the Mists, who might mistake the Commander's scent for the GW1 Hero he had been sent to hunt back in Nightfall (as some NPCs have commented on a familiar sensation on speaking with the Commander if the GW2 player has linked Hall of Monuments with GW1) and would act as an obstacle to Aurene's revival that we needed to overcome. :)

I never quite viewed charr as anything but different shades of grey in GW2 to make the troubled history between them and humans more nuanced and interesting (along with revelations of more human crimes to even the odds and show how both sides had their share of heroic and villainous feats and why reconciliation between the races has been quite a long journey). The charr are shown to deliberately manipulate historical narratives to paint themselves as victims or heroes in their biased narrative (see e.g. charr accounts in Black Citadel about the "tyrant" Rurik using the Stormcaller to massacre the charr "hero" Bonfaaz Burntfur in a "treacherous ambush"). The game doesn't forgive or brush over charr crimes but gives us a reason to view events from their point of view to understand their way of thinking to make Tyria more complex as a world. This is admittedly also done to justify having charr as playable characters in a game which specifically doesn't let players act like villains (with some exceptions like ogre genocide hearts etc. but one could argue that those could be seen as antiheroic feats...although the jaded Hero of Nightfall would have a harsh thing or two to say about whether good intentions should ever justify evil deeds). We're still lacking information about the circumstances of the Khan-Ur's death beyond him being assassinated, and it would be intriguing to learn if some charr, humans or even the gods were responsible for that feat. Humanity committed horrific atrocities in their waves of conquest, and ironically there are quite a few similarities between human and charr ambitions when it comes to struggles against those they deem "lesser races" and against those within their own ranks via civil wars and such. The three High Legions, even after placing the blame of many of their past deeds on the Flame Legion, still show that they're far from angelic saints; while they have warmed up to non-charr to some extent, we still see inter-legion rivalries, racism towards other races and spellcaster allies within the High Legions (poor Euryale), and Renegades going rogue and continuing the fight against their leaders' orders. Fields of Ruin in particular is a lovely map to showcase much of this comparison when we look at the Renegades and Separatists and how their minds are stuck in the past, unable to let go. The handling of the mature narrative of letting go of old hatreds and learning to forgive ancient foes, while also being aware that such hatred and guilt can never be washed away but that we should struggle for such anyway so future generations have a better, less violent world to live in, is something worth telling. It's the kind of nuanced storytelling I hope to see more of in The Icebrood Saga after the promising beginnings of Bound by Blood, especially if we touch on the rightful Heir of Ascalon storyline (with Magdaer, King Adelbern's crown and the Krytan royal locket) with a chance of possibly cleansing and redeeming Adelbern, Barradin and the ill-fated ghosts of Ascalon in the face of a greater threat. To quote Ebon Vanguard Captain Tanner who puts the narrative of hate and forgiveness the best in Fields of Ruin: Regarding Bangar playing politics and how justified his actions are, he is about to break the terms of the treaty via scheming to assassinate the other imperators as soon as he's "evened the odds"...assuming that the Renegades are referring to Bangar with "he" in their speech rather than some third party (as Crecia believes that Bangar is being played by the Renegades or some other party that may or may not have ties to Jormag): Bangar also allowed and possibly even encouraged charr acts of violence against other races during the Rally under the pretense of charr forgetting how "fragile" humans can be and how it is simply in charr nature to have a bit of rough fun during celebrations. He has likely planted spies, possibly with Renegade and rogue Flame Legion assistance (in case any of these Flame moles were part of the late Trybulus Griefblade's spy network) within the Legions and likely within the three Orders as well depending on how far-reaching his contacts are. It wouldn't surprise me if Bangar has planted spies in the Priory and is aware of them guarding the Sanguinary Blade (aka Dragon's Blood blade) which, like the Dragonsblood Spear was to Kralkatorrik, may be harmful to Jormag due to having been forged from Jormag's frozen blood. After the developer reveal that Jormag's speech in the Icebrood Saga announcement trailer is specifically addressed to Bangar, we learn what Bangar's fears are via the dragon's whispers: "You do not fear death. You fear something far worse. You fear outliving the ones you swore to protect. You fear the day your children no longer feel the chill of the frost or the warmth of the flame. It is this fear that is your enemy, not I. The prison in which all races of Tyria suffer. But you need not fear me, champion, for I can set you free. Join me, and you shall have the strength to protect your people in the trials to come. Stand against me, and you stand alone." Whether we actually hear this speech in game in full when the time of confrontation comes or not should be interesting to find out. :) That speech--along with suspicious appearances of pro-Jormag norn in the valley, an icebrood construct raised by some unseen Svanir shaman or other magic user to stall the Commander's party, mysterious footprints on the roof near Bangar's office, and two corrupted weapons (which are Jormag related) in Bangar's office--suggest that Bangar's fears may have possibly been stoked by an unknown party. What's also particularly interesting about that sudden Branded incursion into the valley is Vetia Foerazor voicing out speculations that someone may have deliberately sabotaged the Brand Stompers in the valley as they all broke down at the same time under mysterious circumstances. This sabotage thus rended protection from Brand null and allowed the Branded broodmother and its minions to emerge and invade at a crucial moment, leading to Aurene's shocking flyover. It was almost as if someone was making sure that this Branded invasion would happen according to a plan to force Aurene into action and make her and the Commander look suspicious in the eyes of Bangar and other visitors who didn't know them any better (and thus further make Bangar feel justified to continue with his plans): This--and the inclusion of Researcher Dwidd (one of the valley's few non-charr uniquely named NPCs who appears to be Inquest based on his clothes and who voices out the possibility of harnessing Aurene's magic as a weapon)--suggests that the Inquest and/or possibly some other party have become interested in the changed status quo since Aurene's ascension. While it's possible that the Rally just happened to have a visiting asuran genius, who not only spotted the stompers malfunctioning before Vetia realized something was wrong with them but also offered some golems to help fix them, the timing seems too beneficial given the recent(?) sabotage. The whole conspiracy opens the question whether Bangar deliberately had the stompers sabotaged via his associates to manipulate Aurene's actions and use it as a means to scare several charr into siding with him (while providing grade A acting of shock to not raise suspicion) or if the proposed third party (Inquest or some other tech-savvy villain/faction) used the sabotage to manipulate both Aurene and Bangar into this escalating arms race for as of yet unknown reasons. :)

Stephane Lo Presti posted the voice actor list for Bound by Blood in GW2Wiki. According to the list, Jormag is voiced by Debra Wilson (who also voices Varinia Stormsounder, the charr Minister of Morale, seen during Bound by Blood story talking to Almorra, appearing in the aftermath of the Metal Legion concert and having chats with the band members in their camp, and announcing events throughout Grothmar Valley). :)