Where is Balthazar planning to go after Tyria is in ruins?

[DDCarvalho.2071]

In the current story leading to the expansion, that is one question that stands out to me:"Why doesn't Balthazar care about Tyria?"Most (or all) of his followers are in Tyria, so if the Gods derive power from adoration (don't know what the lore says about that) the destruction of Tyria should worry him more than it does.Considering it doesn't, what are the options for where he intends to go with his renewed power?Options:

1. The mists? Way too generic for me.
2. The Fissure of Woe? always felt to me like a looping meta-dimension on the mists rather than a real habitable place. I may be wrong though.
3. The original human home planet? It could be, but I think there is probably a reason the humans left there. Could be that the Tyrian humans are a refugee faction from the planet, and with Balthazar's renewed power they could reconquer the place from the current owners.
4. The harbinger (Fractal CM) destroyed planet? Just because is the only other planet rather than Tyria that I remember that exists. Unless that is Tyria after Balth ruins it.
5. Anyone has other ideas?

P.S.1: My first post on the new forums, gotta get those badges!

[DDCarvalho.2071]

I like talking about the lore! That was one of my posts on the old forums, saved for posterity.https://web.archive.org/web/20170914185508/https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/lwd/Tyria-will-need-me-Scarlet/Different to that post, now I don't have many insights about where the story is going.Good that I have more opportunities to be surprised, bad that some options surprises may feel a bit unearned/undeveloped.Compared to now, pre-HoT story was even a bit obvious.(even tho some predictions about the story feel very probable to me, like: Balth will succeed in killing Klalk, but we will be able to contain Klalk power in Aurene or her sister or something like that, avoiding planetary meltdown.)

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

He undoubtably intends to go whereever the gods went - or where Menzies is - depending on whether his goal of revenge is against the Five or against Menzies.

Basically the answer is "to his foe".

Now, as to where that is... we literally have no clue. We know the Six went "beyond the Mists", which means another world entirely. But where or what that world? Not even a single syllable made towards it.

[castlemanic.3198]

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:He undoubtably intends to go whereever the gods went - or where Menzies is - depending on whether his goal of revenge is against the Five or against Menzies.

Basically the answer is "to his foe".

Now, as to where that is... we literally have no clue. We know the Six went "beyond the Mists", which means another world entirely. But where or what that world? Not even a single syllable made towards it.

I'm definitely reaching, and I wholly acknowledge that this is probably WAY beyond the scope that developers intended, but here's a tin foil hat theory.

We know the mist wars are an actual piece of lore where we interact with denizens of other Tyria's specifically, what if they've gone to not just another world, but another universe entirely? What if Balthazar's enemy is actually an enemy of the six gods as a whole, but in his loss of power he's seen how "there's no honor in war" and was disillusioned from protecting Tyria and the humans that reside on it?

Although I guess the "I will be the ONLY god" line kinda throws any kinship between Balthazar and the rest of the six to the wind (unless they're abandoned Balthazar to save their own skins, in which case...)

I dunno, total tin foil hat theory that even I'M not wholly convinced by.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Theoretically plausible as we've known since Prophecies that The Mists contained a multiverse, and around WvW itself we know that three Tyrias exist (maybe more maybe not). However, one key thing about the "alternate realities" part of the multiverse is that all the major events and most major individuals - Six Gods arrival on Tyria, Elder Dragons awakening, Destiny's Edge forming and falling apart - happen in all Tyrias. It's only the "minor things" that vary.

In the possibility of different universes that are not "alternate realities" (because such a thing may exist in a multiverse setting), thus meaning that every universe didn't already have a pantheon of Six Gods, we don't know if such exists or not - no evidence for or against. So hypothetically plausible but unprovable.

In either case, however, the multiverse is within The Mists still. And by all tiny evidence we have, no reaosn to believe that the Six Gods is plagued by a new enemy, let alone another universe enemy. Doesn't mean it isn't the case - ArenaNet has been adding in a lot of new lore in Season 3 that had no precedence before after all - but all the same...

@castlemanic.3198 said:Although I guess the "I will be the ONLY god" line kinda throws any kinship between Balthazar and the rest of the six to the wind (unless they're abandoned Balthazar to save their own skins, in which case...)

That's certainly what the trailer leads us to believe. But if one thing Season 3 should have taught is, it is to no longer take trailers at face value. Episode 4's trailer, with the minister's speech, is a prime example of this. The trailer sets it up to make us think that it's a pro-Jennah speech, when it is in fact an anti-Jennah speech. Episode 6's trailer has something similar, where we are led to believe the "throw them into his fires" is referring to the risen... when it's referring to the mercenaries.

[draxynnic.3719]

One thing to note is that Prophecies lore stated that after the Exodus, the gods went on to tend other worlds. Now, most of the Prophecies Manuscripts, particularly regarding the gods, turned out to be unreliable narrator, but it's possible that Tyria isn't the only world that the gods have followers on, which would explain why Balthazar would consider it inconsequential. Why care about one world if power harvested from it would allow him to secure several?

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:That's certainly what the trailer leads us to believe. But if one thing Season 3 should have taught is, it is to no longer take trailers at face value. Episode 4's trailer, with the minister's speech, is a prime example of this. The trailer sets it up to make us think that it's a pro-Jennah speech, when it is in fact an anti-Jennah speech. Episode 6's trailer has something similar, where we are led to believe the "throw them into his fires" is referring to the risen... when it's referring to the mercenaries.

Interesting wrinkle there, in that the ghost who tells you to do that was talking about throwing the undead into the fires. Either she's confused enough to think that the mercenaries are Risen, or the mercenaries are still good enough sacrifices for some undisclosed reason.

[Thalador.4218]

@draxynnic.3719 said:

Interesting wrinkle there, in that the ghost who tells you to do that was talking about throwing the undead into the fires. Either she's confused enough to think that the mercenaries are Risen, or the mercenaries are still good enough sacrifices for some undisclosed reason.

I think Balthazar is similar to WH40K's Khorne in this sense (as well). In the aforementioned universe, murder of most kind empowers Khorne. Here - with the added special requirement of having to be murdered in a specific way - no matter who's killed or who's the killer (even if it is his foe), if the person is killed in his sacred flames, it will bolster him / earn his favor.

[Thalador.4218]

Sorry for the double-posting / bump, but this just occurred to me: why doesn't Balthazar go after the remaining four bloodstones instead of risking a fight with an active and not paralyzed Elder Dragon? (O.K., being the god of war who loves combat and the glory of the fray, he must be itching to go toe-to-toe with an ED ala Kratos, and who can blame him for that)

Other than the one in Bloodstone Fen, we definitely know where two others are: one beneath the hills between Sparkfly Fen and Straits of Devastation, the other on the yet unexplored central island in the Ring of Fire, just next door to the Door of Komalie (a jump from Draconis Mons after getting thwarted in his plans to fell Jormag and Primo). Given his near-godly status and his knowledge of Tyria and magic, I bet he could locate the the remaining two as well that got "lost" after the volcano, Abaddon's Mouth, had erupted sometime after the Exodus, spewing the bloodstone pieces across the land (and probably the sea). He wouldn't even need the White Mantle anymore, just his forged and his fanatical acolytes to go drilling and cracking a bit - maybe in an even more controlled fashion, after all, the WM had started their careless bloodstone mining before Balthazar arrived and influenced Bauer to pursue the ritual.

Even if the ritual would always result in the explosion of the bloodstone, he's proven to be quite capable in siphoning the power away and stopping the explosion before it could reach cataclysmic proportions. So in theory, he could collect a considerable fraction of an entire world's magic from eons ago under a short period of time, without much risk and danger to himself involved. That doesn't mean he should stop there and spare Tyria from blowing up - if he needs even more power to reach his previous godlike power level - with another dragon's death, but it would give him all the more power and insurance to go on dragon hunting and deal with any pesky Commander and their guild trying to stop him again.

[Inc.4753]

If the bloodstones are indeed still a viable alternative (just to name a few options why they wouldn't be: surviving the bloodstone explosion could just as well have been luck; the Elder Dragons could have way more magic in reserve than the bloodstones so going after ED's would be more efficient) my guess would be time constraints. The White Mantle worked for years on the bloodstone. If Balthazar is in a hurry (i.e. afraid to be killed by his adversary while weakened, just impatient) then taking on an Elder Dragon might be the faster option.