The Identity of the Laugh from the "Trailer"

[Randulf.7614]

7 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Yeah. And this was a very large reason why I enjoyed one small piece of End of Dragon's ending: Cantha's energy crisis.

This issue put the most unlikeable (imo) character from EoD, Joon, the most powerful character, Aurene, and the most problem-solving-without-exposition character, Taimi, onto the proverbial bus by forcing them to work on an immediate issue that the Commander needn't be involved in. Effectively writing them out of the plot for as long as ArenaNet wanted. Aurene could not one-shot solve the plot because she is regulated to being a battery charger for the entirety of Cantha, let a new dark age occur and riots erupt.

Then What Lies Beneath/Within went and solved that with the flick of a switch. "Ah, yes, one large Ley-Line, please."

And we cannot kill Aurene because the literal fate of the world is tied to her heartbeat now - the moment she dies is the moment Void breaks out once more, and we'd no longer have an immortal crystal dragon jesus capable of solving the plot on her own except the game's fundamental need to have the player involved somehow shoved in.

Assuming she can even die without self resurrecting 

[Logos.5603]

7 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Yeah. And this was a very large reason why I enjoyed one small piece of End of Dragon's ending: Cantha's energy crisis.

This issue put the most unlikeable (imo) character from EoD, Joon, the most powerful character, Aurene, and the most problem-solving-without-exposition character, Taimi, onto the proverbial bus by forcing them to work on an immediate issue that the Commander needn't be involved in. Effectively writing them out of the plot for as long as ArenaNet wanted. Aurene could not one-shot solve the plot because she is regulated to being a battery charger for the entirety of Cantha, let a new dark age occur and riots erupt.

Then What Lies Beneath/Within went and solved that with the flick of a switch. "Ah, yes, one large Ley-Line, please."

And we cannot kill Aurene because the literal fate of the world is tied to her heartbeat now - the moment she dies is the moment Void breaks out once more, and we'd no longer have an immortal crystal dragon jesus capable of solving the plot on her own except the game's fundamental need to have the player involved somehow shoved in.

Yes! Exactly. ArenaNet is writing itself into a corner with Aurene. My fear is that they will somehow "solve" this problem by providing some convoluted ad hoc solution as to why Aurene can't help us that fails to engage the established lore and just creates more questions than it answers. For instance, Aurene can't help us defeat Kanaxai (the most likely villain) because her powers don't work in the Deep for some reason not really tied to established lore. 

Aurene should've died a long time ago. Then we really could've had the END of Dragons. Also, I can't imagine that the people of Tyria are OK with their existence depending on the whims of a single Dragon. I doubt the order of Whispers is OK with the potential of Aurene becoming an all-powerful dictator.

Hell, that would be an interesting twist to the story. Aurene decides that she should rule for the sake of "peace" and "order"...and we become her sword at least initially out of love or loyalty or whatever. Anet can (and should get) inspiration from the DC Injustice storyline.

Side note: I actually liked Joon, but her shift mid story kind of came from nowhere (I mean she was out to kill us!).

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

2 hours ago, Logos.5603 said:

Yes! Exactly. ArenaNet is writing itself into a corner with Aurene. My fear is that they will somehow "solve" this problem by providing some convoluted ad hoc solution as to why Aurene can't help us that fails to engage the established lore and just creates more questions than it answers. For instance, Aurene can't help us defeat Kanaxai (the most likely villain) because her powers don't work in the Deep for some reason not really tied to established lore. 

Aurene should've died a long time ago. Then we really could've had the END of Dragons. Also, I can't imagine that the people of Tyria are OK with their existence depending on the whims of a single Dragon. I doubt the order of Whispers is OK with the potential of Aurene becoming an all-powerful dictator.

Hell, that would be an interesting twist to the story. Aurene decides that she should rule for the sake of "peace" and "order"...and we become her sword at least initially out of love or loyalty or whatever. Anet can (and should get) inspiration from the DC Injustice storyline.

Side note: I actually liked Joon, but her shift mid story kind of came from nowhere (I mean she was out to kill us!).

To be perfectly honest, the corner has existed since Season 2. And it's not because of Aurene - it's because of the whole "killing Elder Dragons endangers the world" subplot that existed since S2E5. But the solution is easy, really. VERY easy.

Put Aurene into hibernation.

Can even serve as a dramatic heartfelt moment of basically saying goodbye because when she wakes up, all the mortals of those she knows will be gone - Kuunavang will be there, maybe Caithe and the Pale Tree, and maybe the Commander, but the rest won't be.

Aurene being tolerated has been a weird thing. Ever since Season 2 there was this on-and-off subplot of not trusting her or expecting people to note trust her, from Canach asking us to destroy the egg to Taimi hiding her existence from other asura, or even the moments of DW being surprised that Aurene's acting like a kitten dragon in S4 (for all of that one scene each of the three times before forgetting again), but somehow, Tyrians far and wide were given hope by "stories of Aurene" fighting Kralkatorrik off-screen all of a sudden in War Eternal, and no one puts any doubt into the Crystal Bloom who are basically Christianity in Tyria (and we know what eight major events they caused), and their sudden creation and spread across the continents like wildfire. You'd almost think that Aurene had Lyssa-level mesmerism powers that made everyone love her innately.

It's very uncanny.

That said... Kanaxai is unlikely to be a villain going forward, as all talks about the story implies What Lies Within is the last of Cantha and, more than that, if they were to bring him back, they would have name dropped him as the Ravenous Wanderer, which was the demon - the same role Kanaxai had. Either it was Kanaxai, or somehow a mere oni returned to life rather than Kanaxai through self-resurrecting ley-line energizing.

[SunRoamer.5103]

11 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

That said... Kanaxai is unlikely to be a villain going forward, as all talks about the story implies What Lies Within is the last of Cantha and, more than that, if they were to bring him back, they would have name dropped him as the Ravenous Wanderer, which was the demon - the same role Kanaxai had. Either it was Kanaxai, or somehow a mere oni returned to life rather than Kanaxai through self-resurrecting ley-line energizing.

On that note: with the upcoming "Cantha-Themed Fractal Dungeon", we are set to "peer further into the shadows under the Jade Sea", so I expect us to get a bit more context on the Ravenous Wanderer and Kanaxai - mainly, confirmation on whether they are one and the same, after all. That might also be a reason as to why they intentionally avoided mentioning the name until now.

(Also expecting the whole Wanderer/Kanaxai subplot to be fully done after that, though.)

[Ashantara.8731]

Calling that a trailer is a bad joke. Even for a teaser, it's horrible.

[Randulf.7614]

All the dispersed Dragon magic is now accounted for isn't it?

[Kossage.9072]

If by dragon magic you also mean the unstable (and later volatile) magic unleashed by Zhaitan, Mordremoth and Balthazar's deaths, it appears that it may not have been dealt with fully even if Aurene now regulates the flow and, according to Kuunavang's dialogue in Arborstone, has been sharing magic with at least some mortals to lessen the burden (without outright bonding with more people).

Kuunavang: It's a new era, to be sure. I've seen many of them pass. Of course, the one thing that has been a constant...was her. But the space she left behind is filling.

 Player: With Aurene, you mean?
Kuunavang: Not just Aurene, but...you all. All that she carried seems to no longer be so concentrated... (Source)

The existence of the ley-infused skelk and other "bounty" creatures with volatile abilities etc. in Gyala Delve's the Deep either means that these creatures have been infected since Mordremoth's or Balthazar's magic dispersed around the world and some of that magic hit Cantha before Soo-Won ate most of it, or they have recently been infected somehow while the ley line nexus didn't seem to affect the Commander's party at all during the fights against the ravenous wanderer.

Based on HoT ending cinematic, Mordremoth's magic dispersed in four cardinal directions and split off into multiple branches from there due to ley line shenanigans. The northern flow led to Tarir (boosting the egg containing Aurene) and eventually entered the Maguuma Bloodstone and apparently reached even as far as Drakkar/Jormag based on Bitterfrost Frontier Bjora Marches lore. The eastern flow seemed to have gone to Kralkatorrik in the Crystal Desert (as PoF's "Road to the Desert" article mentioned that Kralk stirred from his roosting place in Desert Highlands and flew south to Vabbi for unstated reasons after getting a good taste of that Mordy juice) and potentially beyond that. The southern flow led to Ring of Fire where Primordus hurried off to in Season 3 and eventually to Soo-Won. The western flow is still unaccounted for but seems to have traveled to the "Sunrise Crest" region across the ocean and probably hit potential undersea civilizations along the way (assuming that the unknown horrors/shadows of the depths haven't already wiped out undersea civilizations from those areas if such civilizations exist there). Then there are also the four surviving bloodstones out there (one on Ring of Fire unless the Flame Legion excavated it and took it elsewhere somehow, another near Straits of Devastation in the cave leading to Bloodstone Caves unless it has been moved, and the fourth bloodstone and the fifth aka keystone's locations are still unaccounted for) that must've also taken their share of the dispersed dragon magic within them like the now destroyed Maguuma Bloodstone did.

Once Balthazar's magic transformed the unstable unleashed dragon magic/ley magic into volatile magic, we've seen that it has affected regions from southern Elona to Blood Legion Homelands and Far Shiverpeaks in the north and even Central Tyria etc. to the west based on the skyscale flight collections featuring orbs of volatile magic in central regions as well as the volatile "bounty" creatures. We haven't seen any of it in Cantha likely due to Soo-Won nomming it all up with the reactor's assistance (so much so that even the dispersed magic from Dragonstorm somehow flowed south to Yong Reactor in Cantha instead of spreading all over Tyria). There are no doubt still many ley-crazed creatures and people out there as well as dragon champions who have consumed some of the dispersed magic to grow more powerful, not to mention whatever nefarious nature spirits that could've also gotten a power boost from this magic if they chose to consume it (or it was forced into them). So the problem still persists even if Aurene is now the stopgap to prevent further leakage shenanigans aside from whatever people or beings might do with other ley nexuses and the other bloodstones if they get to them.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Kossage.9072