The Jade Sea GW2 Era

[Poormany.4507]

My main guess is that the Dragonjade, particularly the newer one with all of the elder dragon/Balthazar magic who we have killed so far, has very serious side effects. In the trailer at 0:30, there's magic seen leaking out of the jade that does not look too good. I'm guessing it'll either drive people mad or something and/or drive the DsD to attack Cantha en masse to get to the large concentrations of magic in the Jade Sea and we'll have to somehow avert those while at the same time not shut down all of Cantha's technology. Maybe that will be Joon's conflict that she's referencing in the trailer?

Edited November 20, 2021 by Poormany.4507

[The Greyhawk.9107]

5 hours ago, Poormany.4507 said:

My main guess is that the Dragonjade, particularly the newer one with all of the elder dragon/Balthazar magic who we have killed so far, has very serious side effects. In the trailer at 0:30, there's magic seen leaking out of the jade that does not look too good. I'm guessing it'll either drive people mad or something and/or drive the DsD to attack Cantha en masse to get to the large concentrations of magic in the Jade Sea and we'll have to somehow avert those while at the same time not shut down all of Cantha's technology. Maybe that will be Joon's conflict that she's referencing in the trailer?

I like this.

[Fueki.4753]

11 hours ago, Poormany.4507 said:

My main guess is that the Dragonjade, particularly the newer one with all of the elder dragon/Balthazar magic who we have killed so far, has very serious side effects. In the trailer at 0:30, there's magic seen leaking out of the jade that does not look too good. I'm guessing it'll either drive people mad or something and/or drive the DsD to attack Cantha en masse to get to the large concentrations of magic in the Jade Sea and we'll have to somehow avert those while at the same time not shut down all of Cantha's technology. Maybe that will be Joon's conflict that she's referencing in the trailer?

By why is only the jade capable of absorbing the magic?

Amber should be equally capable of that, given that's also a result of the Jade Wind.

Yet Arenanet completely disregarded that (so far).

Edited November 21, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[EdwinLi.1284]

10 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

By why is only the jade capable of absorbing the magic?

Amber should be equally capable of that, given that's also a result of the Jade Wind.

Yet Arenanet completely disregarded that (so far).

I can only assume the difference is how exposed they are. Amber still remains in the tree so the tree themselves protects them from outside magic until the amber is exposed by removing them from the tree they are in. Thus every time large amount of magic is released per elder dragon death, the trees blocked off any of the dragon magic from hitting the ambers inside them. 

Jade on the other hand is out in the open in the Jade Sea so they are exposed to the dragon magic compared to amber which are protected by the trees they reside in.

On possible reason why the Canthan government does not farm Amber as well, the quantity is vastly different since amber is produced in lower amount per tree while Jade is larger in quantity and easier to mine in the Jade Sea than cutting down trees for what small amount of amber is in each one. 

Edited November 21, 2021 by EdwinLi.1284

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

1 hour ago, Fueki.4753 said:

By why is only the jade capable of absorbing the magic?

Amber should be equally capable of that, given that's also a result of the Jade Wind.

Yet Arenanet completely disregarded that (so far).

Nothing says it isn't capable of absorbing dragon magic, though. There's just a focus on the jade because that's what the empire can easily mine and exploit in large quantities.

[Fueki.4753]

31 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Nothing says it isn't capable of absorbing dragon magic, though. There's just a focus on the jade because that's what the empire can easily mine and exploit in large quantities.

If it was, there'd at least be some dragon magic application of it to tell us about, especially in the Echovald region. But there wasn't.

So far, the only thing using Amber is Bladesworn, which is the worst of the new elite specializations. It also needs to charge it's Amber rounds itself, rather than them being fueled by dragon magic.

In the Echovald Wilds map preview, they also directly told us about Amber being nearly worthless in comparison to Dragon Jade and in comparison to GW1.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[draxynnic.3719]

On 11/18/2021 at 4:35 AM, EdwinLi.1284 said:

I suspect that the Jade in Cantha maybe absorbing the dragon magic passively.

If this ends up being true then Jade maybe another alternative to manage the balance out side of Aurene. However, the trailer mentions consequences so I am speculating that Jade does not properly release magic back into the world so the negative effects are now being felt. 

This does also bring us a possible reason why DSD may go to Cantha because if the Jade in Cantha is passively absorbing dragon magic released on the Elder Dragon's death that means Cantha is basically a all you can eat buffet for the DSD compared to other locations.

 

Interesting hypothesis. We've had no indication previously that the DSD has any interest in Cantha, but despite that the material does seem to be implying that we're going to be fighting the DSD there. If the jade has been sucking in magic, that would give the DSD a motivation - a high concentration of magic trapped within what is essentially petrified ocean would be likely to catch the DSD's attention.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

17 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

If it was, there'd at least be some dragon magic application of it to tell us about, especially in the Echovald region. But there wasn't.

So far, the only thing using Amber is Bladesworn, which is the worst of the new elite specializations. It also needs to charge it's Amber rounds itself, rather than them being fueled by dragon magic.

In the Echovald Wilds map preview, they also directly told us about Amber being nearly worthless in comparison to Dragon Jade and in comparison to GW1.

They've been very tight-lipped about most of the worldbuilding that isn't directly related to Beyond or The Movement of the World or the promotional stuff. Just because they haven't talked about it, doesn't mean it isn't there. Because otherwise, this would be the most abysmal story ever with there being literally nothing but dragonjade to its narrative.

As to Bladesworn, I wouldn't take the mechanics to mean much of lore around amber much at all. And to the "nearly worthless" I don't think I caught that, got a time stamp? I don't think the Jade Brotherhood would camp out at Fort Aspenwood - the second largest amber deposit - if it were useless.

I'm all for criticizing where criticism is worth, but I don't think "we haven't heard about it yet when they're tightlipped, so it must not exist" isn't accurate.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Tachenon.5270]

Maybe amber is an alternative (and, ironically, 'greener') energy source that the people profiting from the more easily (and profitably) exploitable jade want to keep secret. Or maybe at some point during the two and a half centuries of isolation, amber was the big thing but the process of extracting it proved to be too costly both economically and ecologically. Or there just wasn't as much of it.

 

But! I think it would be cool if we could have jade and amber power rings capable of forming/controlling jade and amber constructs with which we could wage epic battles. Oh, and jade and amber chargers that look like, I dunno, lamps, or something. In brightest day, in blackest night, no Luxon/Kurzick shall escape my sight! Uh. Well. Maybe not.