Bast.7253

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Dunno about the statue thing, but Zhaitan's certainly capable of corrupting the landscape and always has been from a lore perspective. The Art of Guild Wars 2 has a description of such: "The breath of the dragons exudes their essence, twisting creatures, landscapes, and all things caught in their exhalation into a mimicry of the dragon's power. For the undead dragon, Zhaitan, this means his minions and landscapes are images of decay, watery decomposition, undeath, swampy morass, sickness, and pestilence."

>

> If we take that, and divide into two spheres, I suppose decay, decomposition, and undeath can go under death, while the rest under others go under shadow? A morass by either definition doesn't really relate to death directly, and while sickness and pestilence can (such as some GW1 death magic skills), I could also see them relating to a more metaphysical perspective of shadow.

>

> I've recently been wondering if Primordus only took Plant and Shadow domains, since it seems Kralkatorrik only took Death and Mind (and Jormag tried to take plant and death, but didn't have enough, like Aurene not getting a lot of any). While we do have Death-Touched Destroyers in S3, they're depicted with being covered in shadows. And you can't really kill or unkill rock and lava.

>

> The oddity in that, though, would be how Mordremoth got death if Kralkatorrik already took it. :I

The death touched shatterer is depicted in "shadows." It just seems more appropriate to classify him as death-touched because he was recreated/risen. But he's really just a collection of crystal similar to the way a destroyer is a collection of rock and lava.

I still feel like Jormag and Primordus have access to both of the spheres of Mordremoth and Zhaitan though. For whatever reason.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:The_All_(texture).png

I also find it interesting that there is a line drawn from DSD to Kralk in this picture and an extra pyramid/triangle between them at the top, but there isn't a line between Primordus and Jormag or a pyramid down there.

I mean, it could just be that they wanted the diagram to be asymmetrical with no meaning at all. But it is the one thing that Primordus and Jormag have in common that Kralk doesn't with the others. So maybe there's more to it?

And I still feel like the line between DSD and Kralk could be some kind of hint that they perhaps share the capability of some spheres. Perhaps both revolving around prophecy/reflection?

It could just be nothing but some artists rendition of the all and a bunch of circles and lines, but it's interesting to consider the possibility of it being a sort of map. Maybe a predetermined arrangement of who gets what when a certain elder dragon dies based on the alignment of the diagram and the spheres within it.

Each dragon STARTS OFF with 2 spheres and has access to those as their innate properties, but I'm implying that it's possible that Kralk and DSD cannot access both spheres of Mordremoth and Zhaitan due to the connection between them in the diagram that Primordus and Jormag don't share.

Hmm.. perhaps, following this diagram...

It could be split in half - horizontally.

Top half of Mordremoth and Zhaitan's influences being - Mind and Death or Mind and Shadow and the bottom being life/vine and Death or life/vine and Shadow.

Could we apply this logically to what we know of what we've seen?

I don't know. I think no matter how hard you try to think about it, crazy diagram analyzing aside, you're just going to wind up with inconsistences and contradictions.. especially as time goes on. Especially now that we have Kralkamamu gobbling up reality.

I'd like to think that they have some intricate plan or layout for the elder dragons and the All, but the longer it goes on the more I just feel like they make it up on the fly. And if they don't, it doesn't feel like we'll discover any of the hidden intricacies of their original design/ultimate goal for the All during the franchise's lifespan.

> @"mortrialus.3062" said:

> Tooth of Kralkatorik. You know the Jormag tooth in Hoelbrak? Yeah imagine that with a hilt and purple. Monster Hunter style, baby. Purple crystal effects for it's draw animation, aura, projectile, weapon trail and foot falls.

>

> > @"Palador.2170" said:

> > Well, the general pattern has been to **alternate between silly and serious**. So, I guess this one should be silly?

> >

> > Maybe some kind of gigantic, oversized buster sword, with little asuran rocket thrusters on it to help you swing it?

>

> ?

>

> Binding of Ipos > Claw of the Khan-Ur > Verdarach > Xiuquatl > Pharaus.

>

> I wouldn't describe any of them as silly, though Verdarach is hilariously large.

Definitely expecting something related to Kralk. Though the foreshadowing in Requiem implies that Sohothin is a possible contender. Or some merging of that plus Magdeer or whatever.

I'm sticking with it being called Destiny's Edge though. lol Maybe it will be a giant purple Soul Caliber -esque sword that's a giant purple crystal/shard of Kralk. And in the center of the crystal you'll see Kralk's eye peering out at you and looking in all directions Lord of the Rings style.

Hoping it will be pretty cool though. Seems like they've intentionally saved it for last. And everyone has different tastes, but it's hard to beat the original legendary greatswords. So whatever the design is I'd expect it to be pretty over the top to compete.

> @"thehipone.6812" said:

> Considering that we got a very human themed sword and a very charr themed dagger, I hope it is an asura themed greatsword that is super cheesy looking/joke legendary like a golem on a stick or something.

>

> Wouldn't surprise me to see a Glint-themed weapon though.

A forgotten theme could be cool.

Probably Destinys Edge and it will be some shard made from Kralk. And maybe have the charr dagger draw animation but with ghosts of the destinys edge crew or something instead. Who knows though. Could be another chainsaw for all we know.

> @"Tom Abernathy II.5241" said:

> > @"Dark Red Killian.3946" said:

> > Great story! Love reading about the lore. It got me thinking though when he mentioned Kralk going off to the mists and if we beat him all of Tyria will be gone. What happens if Kralk is beaten in the Mists? What happens then??

>

> This is EXACTLY the salient question.

It is interesting to think about, because whether we kill him in the mists it upsets the balance of Tyria. But where does the magic go? Does it still get released into Tyria or does it linger in the mists and create crazed enemies like it does on Tyria? It feels like at some point what we know is going to be contradicted somehow.

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> Aztec theme already existis in the game(old temples in the tropical jungle) = Verdant Brink.

The elonian architecture?

Now that we have Kralk devouring reality and creating time rifts, I wonder how likely it is that we'll have some strange beings from the mists popping out.

Perhaps beings like Virrastra and the Sun boss from the fractal. Maybe even some concepts from the scrapped Utopia Guild Wars 1 expansion. If you look at some of the concept art for it you can tell that it was meant to be an Aztec/Mayan themed, or at least partially themed expansion. Not that this means anything, but we had the gecko springer skin, the legendary scepter, and the new Siren's Reef assets that all have kind of that similar ancient civilization theme. Siren's Reef fits the Aztec theme a little less, but I still get the feeling that wherever this story is headed we'll be seeing a lot more of these assets.

We also had the Timekeeper Outfit which has always been curious to me, and if I'm not mistaken came before we found out Kralk was capable of creating time rifts everywhere. But it gives me a major Chronomancer vibe, even though the Utopia concept art is a little bit more cyborg.

A lot of the other outfits people have been claiming to be very Canthan-themed, and I only played Guild Wars 1 for the first time last year and am not fancy enough to know which outfits were originally in there, it seems possible that some of these outfits could fit into the Utopia theme as well. (Ancient civilizations and such.)

The most logical resolution is still Aurene and it wouldn't make sense to jump into a different world in the Mists while Kralk is alive, the idea of having an expansion in a foreign world in the mists could still be enticing. Or at least a living season. The difficult part of that is that I'm pretty sure they said they weren't able to do entire zones in the mists or something, but it's just a thought.

Would also be an interesting way to introduce a new race into the game as well as new elite specs.

As much as I would love to see Cantha, and want Aurene to resolve our current dilemma, it would be neat to see some of this concept art come into the game at some point.

And tying back to the beginning, could Virrastra and that sun boss be beings from these civilizations?

Could this potentially also be where humans originated from?

Or, if not humans, then perhaps the Forgotten?

Perhaps where Samarog and some of the demonic entities in Bastion are from?

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia - Link to the description of the canceled/"readapted" expansion.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Category:Utopia_world_concept_art - World concept art.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Category:Utopia_character_concept_art - Character concept art.

As much as I would love to see Cantha, and want Aurene to resolve our current dilemma, it would be neat to see some of this concept art come into the game at some point.

> @"Pax.3548" said:

> > @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> > Indirectly they answered a question I made here on another topic, if Sohotin is so powerful, why did Rytlock simply not lend her to the commander again?

>

> Because the sword was his. You see how obsessed he was with the sword, to the point of sacrificing everything that was dear to him, and now that he realized what was important, he basically says screw the high legions and their military mindset, and cast the sword aside, I wonder if this means Logan will wield it now.

Honestly, if anyone wields it I would place bets on Zafirah given that it belonged to her beloved god. And who knows, maybe it will secretly be a teaser for thieves getting off-hand sword or something for their next elite spec.

But, as I can't imagine it will help us against Kralk, and Taimi is on her deathbed, and Braham just upgraded to his mother's bow... I just don't really see anyone getting it that makes more sense than Zafirah.

I suppose Caithe could, since the story seemingly always circles back to her for some reason.

I guess Logan could as well, but it would mean more to Zafirah than it would Logan probably.

Betting Caithe's will be last and reveal a hint about the upcoming episode. Perhaps this is their way of revealing what Aurene told Caithe her purpose was and why she was so humbled. I feel like that would be kind of a giveaway to the events of the next episode though, but if they save it for last maybe it will be more used as a tie in to be less surprising or something? I don't know.

I think Caithe's will certainly be the most interesting in relation to the current story though.

Rhytlock's was neat I guess. It's interesting to get lore on Sohothin and now I want to meet his cubs. That's the most I took away from it. lol

I almost would rather have Taimi than Zafirah though. I just feel like they're really trying to push #teamZafirah and I've just never cared that much about her character. Then again I guess she was just introduced last episode. And perhaps her being able to sense Balthazar in Aurene could be used as part of this narrative. Maybe even hint that she feels his presence still.

Or just spend the entire time thinking, "These idiots killed my god, and now Tyria AND reality is doomed." Or maybe, given her distance from the blast radius she will give some insight into what it looked like when we were knocked back.

Probably just lots of pouting about Balthazar though. Bleh.

Kind of wish we would have gotten one of these a few episodes ago from Joko's perspective. That would have been an interesting read. lol

It is odd that they didn’t bring this idea into the mix this season. With Varesh Ossa or whomever in order to find out more about Glints Legacy or even that time we were looking for ways to kill Balthazar.

lol it’s just the copy and paste backpack

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> perhaps inst a person, just a geographical location in Mists or Tyria so the name: [Door of "that place"].

Agreed, Komalie could just as easily be a location or even the name of some long forgotten or distant civilization. For all we know it could be the name of the civilization that Mursaat were before they possibly transformed into Mursaat.

> @"TheQuickFox.3826" said:

> I think the GW2 story would devalue death too much if perished characters can be brought back to life too often. Therefore I think death is permanent here. If you would have asked me, I would not have let her die to begin with, not so soon/young at least.

> But let's see what happens next. I'm all ears.

>

> Maybe she can come back in spirit form or as any other form / rebirth. But not in her own body as it is clearly destroyed beyond healing by the crystal dragon.

I think this is partially due to the pc already pulling the trick once. I think it may have been better in the long run to not do that to begin with but I feel like the ultimate goal of that was to introduce us to joko. And who knows, maybe that moment will tie in with whatever we need to do for Aurene. People complaining about eir and Snaff I think are missing the point that if not for the rifts they wouldn’t be able to come back as they have. They would just be spirits in the mists. The ghost army though with Joko was another case. I think in general they’ve done so much ghost and resurrection this expansion that having one more honesty wouldn’t matter.

It is a shame we didn’t get any continuance of the deep stone fractal in thunder peaks. Especially given we had the light of Deldrimor.

I never realized how small Mordremoth is. He always looked so large..... Meanwhile Primordus is over here taking up half the picture... lol And poor Zhaitan. Looks pieced together with 20 other dragons and still a chump.

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> Maybe the new scenario is not so catastrophic, they can play the card of _"Kralkatorrik is injured"_. And we do not know if he fled to Mists or to another place in Tyria.

>

> Even if Aurene comes back, the plot has the problem of _"end game"_ scenario: Aurene Turning an Elder Dragon is virtually an end-game, who will oppose commander, a champion of the new, overpowered Elder Dragon?

>

> > Anyone else feel similarly or prefer a living season with stand-alone chapters that, although they have an overarching and ongoing story, have their own minor victories and resolutions without each episode trying to 1-up the last with civilization/world/reality ending threats looming over us?

> >

> Sure I'd rather fight minor villains like Caudecus or Joko. because

> 1 - We'll have excuses to explore more maps, a new villain coming in an X or Y region.

> 2 - Regional villains give, less concern about "transformation of the world". "all civilizations destroyed, we need to remake all maps".

> 3 - Its avoid _Dragon Ball Z_ effects, benefits immersion while we can just assume we have won through "skills" not super magical powers. For example, remember _Sohotin_, why Rytlock simply did not give her to the commander again?

Well, to the first part, I think that's part of the reason they wrote her to die this episode though. To break the bond with her so we are no longer her "champion." I mean, this bond was really only necessary to help her fulfill her destiny. So writing it as though she has no immediate involvement in our affairs from now on would be pretty easy.

No matter what way you kill Kralk you could face that problem though. Either, you find another dragon and that dragon though more neutral than Aurene, still potentially favors you and lends their guidance to you. Or you find some weapon or artifact that arguably could be used against any threat. We do it on our own and suddenly we've just beat this "endgame" reality eating dragon and suddenly every other enemy here on out is trivial.

I feel like it would be a lot easier to write Aurene to be something other than our fairy dragon mother guardian figure than people are giving credit for. They're just basing it off of what's happened so far - Balthazar and Joko. But Balthazar we stood no chance against without her and needed a magic sponge and she was already being held captive by Balthazar, and Joko was the lich that was needed as one of the signs.... meaning that she was kind of destined to be involved in that.

The ONLY exception to her not having neutrality toward future threats would be elder dragon threats. And given that she knows the balance would be tipped and she can't just kill them as she's been with us on this ride, she'll know that the only thing she can really do is help fight other dragon's minions/empower us/guide us towards a solution.

It all works out pretty easily.

And yeah, I was really hoping for season 5 to be more akin to season 3 in that we kind of jump around a bit. And maybe that's part of the plan. They knew they couldn't do Kralk justice by finishing him halfway through the season and then spending the rest building up to an expansion. With season 5 they could do smaller story, touch up on unresolved plots or things that players have always been kind of curious about, and find a way to tie them together without having such a huge focus on one major villain that trumps all other villains.

They haven't really touched on the idea of the mists merging with Tyria and what could be entering Tyria in the process.

In the end, it's just a waiting game.

> @"perilisk.1874" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > We also have the theory that Aurene mind-jacked Kralk, which could play into the forgotten cleansing ritual I suppose, but would honestly be a pretty poor direction in and of itself. Even if she did mind-jack him, she... what... controls him from the mists? She straight up planted her mind into Kralk and now she's just a corpse on Tyria and has no spirit in the mists? Kralk would still have his mind in there, unless she somehow switched minds with him completely and Kralk is Aurene's body that's now dead? So how would that be explained? Is there any precedent in this game of people mind-swapping that I'm just not recalling right now? And even if there were, how would she.. elder dragon candidate or not, have the ability to mind swap with an elder dragon when the forgotten couldn't phase Kralk? It just wouldn't work.

>

> I mean, that's true and all, but the chief counter-evidence to this theory is that Kraalkatorik is a mean-looking kitten, and they aren't going to visually do that to their cute little mascot. Not enough people want a looks-like-Kraalkatorik-but-is-actually-Aurene T-shirt. Guild Wars is pretty good about following the Evil Is Ugly rule, mostly.

Yeah, another reason why I don't buy into that theory.

It's just all really frustrating. Especially when the gaps are further out and far more inconsistent than they were in season 3. Perhaps this living story delivery system worked better for my personal taste when the story wasn't quite as linear like Season 3. I kind of feel like this season and its story chapters would be far better played out like Path of Fire - consecutively and released at the same time within the constraints of an expansion.

Anyone else feel similarly or prefer a living season with stand-alone chapters that, although they have an overarching and ongoing story, have their own minor victories and resolutions without each episode trying to 1-up the last with civilization/world/reality ending threats looming over us?

I like that they're pushing the story with these episodes, but is it too far? Is it too far for a plot that's this linear and episodic that leaves months in between? Maybe a bit too much drama?

I mean I get that some people will view me as implying that they're wrong if they do and they're wrong if they don't, but I don't remember being this frustrated with the release schedule last season.

Impatience aside, I just don't know how I feel about this potentially being a continuing trend for season 5.

And where does the commander even go from here in future stories? We're facing the literal end of reality with no hope, so it feels like everything we face after this will just be a cakewalk and we can just shrug it off as "I've seen worse."

And that part scares me because then the only way to not get to that point is seemingly to stretch out our current predicament which can't really happen either because we've been repeatedly beaten with the idea that we have to act NOW or everything is doomed.

I mean, at least if Aurene comes back into the picture and saves the day, the next time we face this threat it's believably just as imposing because Aurene would have fulfilled her destiny and we won't have her to fall back on this time.

I really like the idea of the elder dragons, and I'd love to finally get something on the Deep Sea Dragon, but I'm starting to see why so many people want to be done with them all together. And I feel like that's more true for me than ever due to how far they've taken Kralk and how much they've inflated him. I mean, threatening reality itself? How would another elder dragon plot ever have the same impact as this one?

I guess an underlying question to close out my thoughts is:

Do you feel like they've gone too far?

And, why would you WANT some magical "McGuffin" that allows us to do what the forgotten couldn't?

If they go the forgotten route, I think it would be much better served as Aurene somehow coming back branded and us finding forgotten and cleansing her in Arah like we did Twitchy. I think that would have the potential to be very beautiful and perhaps we could see that area of Arah purified now. The only real reason I would want them to go this route.

Given the millisecond we had to even look at Aurene before we went to the black screen saying, "I don't know" it's pretty obvious they want to elude or leave open the possibility for us that Aurene isn't as dead as the story makes her out to be. That as well as the fact that we what kills Aurene knocks us back half a zone so we don't actually see that exact moment of her death. Another indication that they want to cover their tracks in case they decide to bring her back.

A common theory is Joko, and I think it's probably the most logical route they could take. Given the name dropping from Ogden, the fact that she ate him out of the blue, and the fact that her skin was a grey fleshy color instead of branded and crystalline as it was in the vision illustrations. The statement about Joko's death in that way and at that time being important later on in the story. Also the fact that in Glint's trials it was implied her actual fear wasn't the countless deaths she witnessed but the fear of being branded by Kralk. So, perhaps the fear of being branded by Kralk was greater to her than dying because she innately knew that she couldn't die? Or more on that, she knew that if she were branded she risks being his unkillable branded weapon.

As usual, we're left with a fast-paced story that really leaves more questions than answers. And given the history of this game, for all we know next episode we could find this magical McGuffin you're requesting, Aurene is hinted at still being alive, and we go a completely different direction with even more open-ended plots to toss into the pile.

The Hall of Heroes theory could make for a very visually interesting and lore-interesting final encounter with Kralk, but I fear that even if they go that route it may not be everything people are hoping for. We may visit it, and it may look neat, but we could wind up having the battle and resolution there but nothing more than some ambient dialogue or extra chats with the spirits there which I'm not sure is entirely what people are hoping for when they hope for this situation.

I also just don't see how Aurene becoming this mist entity will help us in our current situation, unless for some reason she attains all of her magic and abilities with her in the mists. And if that were the case, why wouldn't Mordremoth and Zhaitan keep their elder dragon powers when they die if they go to the mists? It just wouldn't be consistent to have her all of a sudden be some spirit dragon like Glint but be able to fill this elder dragon role that Glint couldn't, while presumably the elder dragons we have killed still released their magic into Tyria and gave up their spot on the proverbial pyramid. Unless they do retain their abilities but are or were unable to have any influence on Tyria at that point because of the mists at the time were separated? The whole msits thing just seems like it would have far more inconsistencies and plot holes than simply having her resurrected by Joko's magic or somehow branded and cleansed despite the inconsistencies with that theory.

Finding Shiny or some other dragon immediately after spending years developing the plot with Aurene would be illogical if we're supposed to emphasize completely with the commander and their team. Because outside of the fact that reality could come undone, the commander isn't going to just be like... "well, this dragon died so let's rush off and find another one."

Lastly we have the issue of, if our solution takes the entirety of season 5, we have this constant threat looming over our heads of Kralk eating the universe. And what kind of writing would that be to diminish the impact of our current predicament episode after episode? Eh... Or, Kralk for some reason at his most injured goes back to sleep whether it be on Tyria or in the mists, we have no solution, and then what? Despite Kralk being asleep and being grief-stricken we set off to find plan B and then surprise Kralk while he's asleep? Talk about anti-climactic.

We also have the theory that Aurene mind-jacked Kralk, which could play into the forgotten cleansing ritual I suppose, but would honestly be a pretty poor direction in and of itself. Even if she did mind-jack him, she... what... controls him from the mists? She straight up planted her mind into Kralk and now she's just a corpse on Tyria and has no spirit in the mists? Kralk would still have his mind in there, unless she somehow switched minds with him completely and Kralk is Aurene's body that's now dead? So how would that be explained? Is there any precedent in this game of people mind-swapping that I'm just not recalling right now? And even if there were, how would she.. elder dragon candidate or not, have the ability to mind swap with an elder dragon when the forgotten couldn't phase Kralk? It just wouldn't work.

This theory: Aurene that we saw wasn't actually Aurene thus why in the trials the line "you seem different," before she exits with us on our way to Thunderhead. But Aurene seems pretty Aurene-like, and I feel like that branding moment with Caithe and speaking through her pretty much establishes that it is Aurene. You're also left wondering how Glint was able to create that kind of a decoy to begin with... So this theory doesn't really work.

I think the resurrection Joko bit is partially because people want Aurene to come back and Joko's death to have more meaning, but also because it's just the most logical direction they can take that leaves the least amount of questions and doesn't require as much stretching of certain aspects of the story to make it work. It's also the quickest way to a resolution for those of us that wish to move past Kralk in general.

Whatever direction they choose to take, I hope they start developing episodes with story that don't end in - "the world is ending" "oh, no, the world is ending even faster than before" "OH NO THE WORLD IS ENDING RIGHT NOW" because it just gets really annoying with the way these releases are timed.

The only way I can see them making the next episode SEEM like a finale and top this episode in terms of drama while providing a link to season 5 and without killing Kralk is:

1. Aurene come back and it leads us into something involving her in season 5 with season 5 finishing off Kralk.

2. The gods come back or we meet them in the mists chasing Kralk or something and that leads into season 5...

3. Something taking advantage of Kralk's weakened state whether it being a god or another Elder Dragon.. or some random mist being that's pissed at him..

Otherwise we'll have a finale that will be what? An aftermath episode picking up the pieces and mourning? Would seem a rather boring conclusion of a season that's formula has consisted of drama stacked on drama stacked on drama.

> @"GW Noob.6038" said:

> Hey all you wonderful and talented stylists! I'm looking for some more fashion advice...plus, I need your help identifying a rather rare fashion piece that I spotted recently. As always, I want to make this post as short and concise as possible...so, to that end, let me post my characters and the themes that I want to develop for them.

>

> 1. Asuran Female Ranger/Soulbeast: The look I want for her is a 'Child of Nature'. The outfit that I'm currently using on her is the 'Verdant Executioner'...the colors that I'm using are: Algae/Burgundy/Humiliation/Deep Pine. Her hair color is the 'Dark Rose' exclusive. She has the Kudzu bow, which is perfect for her. As for her mini, I'm planning on getting the 'Baby Doe' from the Gem store. I'm fairly happy with her look, overall; the only thing I want to change in the color pallet is the 'Algae' green...I'd like to go with a lighter green, but haven't found one that I like.

> 2. Norn Female Thief/Deadeye: The look I want for her is a 'Sci-Fi/High-tech' Bounty Hunter/Assassin. I've been researching some armor pieces for this character and have found the following: for the chest piece I have selected the 'Glorious Brigandine' as it's the only sci-fi looking one in the game. For the gloves, I have tentatively chosen the 'Dualist' gloves. For the leggings, I have chosen the 'Strider's' leggings...but I'll also get the 'Ascalonian Sentry' leggings and swap them out occasionally, just to change her look a bit. For the boots, I have chosen the 'Magitech' boots from the Gem store. The color pallet that I'll use for this outfit is up in the air, atm. I definitely don't want to go all black because there are far too many people wearing all black outfits already. I've been messing around with some light/deep reddish browns, some deep magenta's, a bit of black, along with Harrowing Maroon...we'll have to see if that turns out. I'm currently working on getting the HOPE pistol for her..she already has the 'Predator' rifle. As for her mini, I'm open to suggestions...I dislike the humanoid minis, though, because I find them to be uninspired, not to mention downright creepy!

> 3. Human Male Engineer/whatever: The look that I want to shoot for here is the 'post apocalyptic world explorer'. I've been building an outfit for him that includes: The 'Aviator's Cap', or possibly an eye-patch, for the head piece. I have the 'Pirate Hook' to use as a mechanical arm...along with the 'Peg-leg' boots - I'm not thrilled with the way these pieces look and probably won't use them. I also have the 'Zephyr Rucksack' for his backpack, to inject a bit of humor into the mix. Now, as far as his armor/outfit pieces go, I'm stuck...I really like the 'Rascal' armor that I got when I boosted him, but definitely want to swap out the gloves and the shoulderguards for something else - I'll ditch any piece, or the entire outfit, for something else if it gives a better 'post apocalyptic' look. The color pallet is up in the air, atm...browns, olive greens, I don't know. As for his mini, I really like that flying mechanical wasp-thingy with the propeller - I don't know what it's called because I haven't found it in the list of minis. Hopefully I can acquire this mini, or something even better, without too much hassle...Anet?! :anguished: :D

> 4. Norn Female Mesmer/Mirage: I like the sexy look of the Winged Armor...for the most part. I don't hate the shoulder pieces, just the antennae jutting up from the back. The boots are kinda blah, so I'm looking for replacements for them. As for the color pallet, I want to use the "Mesmer colors" that are used in the build-tree artwork and the interface icons. I've been experimenting with different color combinations but haven't found the look that I want. As for her mini, I'm open to suggestions.

>

> That is my character lineup...whatever fashion advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!

>

> Now, about that rare fashion element that I mention earlier: I saw a girl who had beautiful white, slightly mottled, translucent skin that seemed to glow ever so slightly...her eyes were pure white and also seemed to glow. This, I think, might be some kind of aura...but it's definitely not any of the ones featured on the wiki page. Any idea what causes this effect?

>

> Thanks, guy's...hope to hear from you soon! :)

1. I don't know how helpful this is, but I did manage to make a little male asura that looks like Link with the festive hat and added the toxic spore backpack to be my little fairy.

2. Sounds a lot like you could take some inspiration from this game I played on my friend's console awhile back. It was like a sci-fi version of Skyrim with robots that have taken the place of animals and an evil sentient master robot. Horizon Dawn I think it was?

3. Should be pretty easy but most of the pieces I've used for that style look were a mixture of magitech and aetherblade which are gemstore skins, some Crucible of Eternity gear, and I could see Sorrow's Embrace gear potentially working for it. It's just difficult because most chest pieces are all about the trenchcoat and buttcape action. And the boots and gloves are either simple looking leather riding gloves or similar-looking medieval padded gloves. Thus why I fall back to magitech usually.

4. Should be easy enough, but it's hard for me to stick with these looks for long. I either feel like I look like another generic scantily clad female character or.. well idk.

Colors I use on my Mesmer are generally Plum/Electro Pink/Cotton Candy/Recall. They're all pinks and purples. I think Plum might be the closest to the Mesmer color but I'm not sure.

Just want to make a note in the more logical thread choice.. but...

Why do people want this story to get darker and darker? In this season and expansion alone we've had Vlast sacrifice himself to save the player character from Balthazar before Aurene even had the chance to meet him, a charr cub's father be experimented on and tortured, a soldier ask to die alone on a floating platform in space just to avoid potential eternal slavery in undeath, a brother sacrifice his golem immortality just to become a gps to give us a slight advantage, and now people just want Aurene to stay dead? If you want it so damn dark why don't we just obliterate half of Tyria and change everything to greyscale. Just suck any potential light or hope out of every facet of this game that we can. For that matter, let's just cause Tyria to implode and have only 10 people or so magically find refuge in some time-loop in the mists where everyone dies over and over and over again. Just be as bleak as possible for an entire expansion.

I mean really, are people overlooking the fact that we've already had TWO sacrifices since Path of Fire released. Vlast and Blish. Both finite deaths. Do we really need Aurene's death to be the third in this increasingly cliché pattern.

Those of you that want her to stay dead and out of the picture, have you considered the fact that we will then be essentially spending an entire season somehow with this whole "Kralk is devouring the mists and destroying reality."

I mean really.. just to recap the overarching story here:

We have to kill the elder dragons.

If we kill the elder dragons, Tyria goes into chaos and can be destroyed.

Aurene and Vlast are meant to replace the two currently dead elder dragons.

Balthazar is threatening to kill Kralk so we have to kill Balthazar, but in doing so Kralk becomes more powerful.

We learn that Kralk now has the ability to travel to the mists, is eating the mists, and now not just Tyria but reality itself is at risk.

Aurene is now potentially dead, so we have Kralk still able to travel to the mists and reality is still at risk of being destroyed with no opposition.

So what's next? What's the next step in this fun little chain of higher and higher stakes bar-raising events?

We have another rogue god appear that prevents us from being able to pursue killing Kralk and creating another roadblock? We have another elder dragon show up and Kralk be like... nah bruh, you got my magic, and kill him too? Becoming even more powerful?

At some point they have to stop raising the bar. And spending an entire season finding some other solution for Kralk while we're still at risk of reality being destroyed seems like far worse writing than bringing Aurene back.

I do have to agree that they've kind of cornered themselves with the writing at this point.

Because now you're left with the choice of:

Do you want a somewhat predictable ending that can still be potentially well-written and rewarding to where we've been in the story?

Or do you want us to continue along this, reality is ending and there's no hope and now we have to find some other solution but we don't know what yet journey that could wind up with anything from Time Traveling, to alternate realities, to finding magical weapons that "do the work of elder dragons" and thus make all future elder dragon plots irrelevant unless it gets destroyed and we wind up going down this same series of ...big threat..setback...bigger threat...setback...biggest threat..setback…randomly introduced solution.

Idk. I think I'll go with the first choice and have a perfectly logical and rewarding solution to a problem that's been inflated over and over and over to the point that at any moment we could be dealing with some Warlord's of Draenor World of Warcraft time travel alternate dimension level story simply because we've blown everything so far out of proportion that we need a comic-book level reset on the entire story. And having this solution be because of a beloved fan-favorite character's death makes the most sense out of anything else.

Intentionally not showing Aurene's actual moment of death or letting us have interaction with her corpse, any of our team, and directly ending the instance with a black screen saying "I don't know" as well as countless hints about Joko being a part of this plan as well as dialogue establishing that awakening works on dragon minions.. as well as a dev post saying that Joko's death wasn't just a way to quickly write him off and change direction...

Like, why are people not seeing this? Why are people choosing not to embrace this as a viable and better alternative? Why discredit it as cheap or bad writing when we've had the building blocks being laid this entire time?

Also, to the note of the player character dying and returning to life by essentially bargaining their way out of the underworld... you're essentially using this as somekind of precedent or reason as to why they can't repeat something similar with Aurene.

But if you think about it, we fought Balthazar-- a former human god-- and died because we weren't ready. (I feel like this entire part of the story was only really implemented so that we would have interaction with Joko to begin with but beside the point)

Now Aurene, faces Kralk and dies because we're led to believe that she wasn't ready.

It's the exact same scenario, only if Aurene stays dead then what? What makes the player character so special that they can come back from the dead and not this dragon that's had an entire legacy and prophecy based around her with entire races of people ensuring her survival? How would that not be cheap? We deserve plot armor and a slap on the wrist in the form of everyone around us dying in the face of constantly looming apocalyptic level threats... but Aurene's plot armor is somehow more offensive?

The story is dark enough as it is and at some point this train has to get back on the track or just wreck completely.

So if you want it darker for the sake of it just being darker, in all sincerity, let's just blow up Tyria, the mists, and end the entire Guild Wars universe on that note. Then, as Guild Wars 3 never arrives as you may have potentially thought it would as the outcome of this whole scenario, you can see that darker story, shock value, and "bold story decisions" aren't everything you thought you wanted.

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> Joko doesn't have invincible magic.. he was a Lich.

> There's a lot of speculation regarding how Liches work in Gw2 but the general rule in a lot of fantasy games and works of fiction is that they put their soul into an item or phylactery.. and the only way to truly kill a Lich is to destroy the item binding them to the world after death.

>

> I do think Anet need to give us more details on Lich's in the Guildwars universe and go into detail on Joko's demise as well.

> So far the only 2 major Liches in Guildwars have died.. one to a Dragon through unspecified conditions and the other had his soul absorbed by a bloodstone way back in Guildwars 1 (although there is an ascended ring item in Gw2 which claims to be that lich's phylactery)

>

> I've a theory that Joko too had a phylactery and it was his mouth ring.. and odd piece of jewelry he has had for his entire run in the franchise and also the ony thing that could have been broken during his death.

Not really unspecified conditions though. She ate not just his body but all that fancy magic that kept him alive so long and made him what he was practically POPPED when she bit into him.

From a logic-standpoint, it would seem pretty risky wearing the artifact that's giving you immortality on your face. Especially if you're getting into a bunch of fights and at any point you could take a spear or blunt object to the face and have it smash the ring or something. lol

I really hate that the most we got from Joko and his backstory was some minor text at Halloween. Thus another reason why I'm hoping Aurene is brought back via Joko's magic, to give Arenanet the opportunity to at least give us somekind of vision or backstory on Joko and his involvement or his magic's involvement in the grand scheme of things. If they did that, it would also probably lessen some of the naysayer's saltiness about her coming back via Joko. It seems a lot of people think when this is suggested that it's non-sensical, rather due to the fact that Joko was "just a lich" or because they think she'll just pop back to life with no finesse from the writers. I think they could do some wonderful things with that story. Saying it's cheap favors one episode over an entire story arch, especially this entire season in which we first focused entirely on Joko.

Going back through the season and seeing the most recent vision of the all with the orbs, it definitely looks like the deep sea dragon's orb was the one that was glowing. I guess I never really noticed how obvious it was until looking at a still image of it and the other orbs. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/b/b1/The_All_%28The_Machine%29.jpg

So, if the orbs are in this placement:

water dragon - kralk

mordremoth - Zhaitan

primordus - jormag

Then wouldn't the dragon that has to be replaced to keep the scales from tipping too far immediately be Zhaitan or Kralk? I feel like this is even more reason as to why Aurene has to be the only resolution. If the pale tree simply replaces Mordremoth then we would have 3 on the left and 1 on the right. If something gets killed and we don't have a replacement then we have 2 on on the right and 1 on the side.

I also find it interesting that Zhaitan, Kralk, and Jormag are on the right and are known only for corruption to gain minions. Where as Mordremoth, Primordus, and potentially the deep sea dragon can actually forge their own right? Or am I missing something here? (According the wiki it lists Primordus capable of corruption which I didn't realize. I guess all dragons are? More speculation on this later...)

And I wonder what the intention of showing the water dragon's orb rising in the cinematic this still was taken from is if our main focus was going to be on Kralk.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:The_All_(texture).png

Just to map out the connections between the dragons with the above picture.. we have lines between....

DSD - Kralk.

DSD - Jormag

Primordus - Kralk

Mordremoth - Zhaitan.

To further note - Kralk is only connected to the deep sea dragon and Primordus. And the deep sea dragon is connected to Jormag and Kralk.

Upon further thought - if you trace the lines between them and get rid of the ones that are already dead you have

DSD-----------------------------KRALK

x

PRIMO JORMAG

So from that it would seem logical to draw the conclusion that:

The only remaining link Primordus has to anyone another dragon per the All diagram is Kralk. And the only link Jormag has per diagram is DSD. But the deep sea dragon isn't at risk of being killed at the moment, leaving Jormag as safe so-to-speak.

It would seem, that if the balance is created by keeping the elder dragons in opposition on the diagram/scales with their direct link then Kralk is in fact the spot in the all that has to be replaced and it isn't just a matter of the number of dragons on each side being even as it is those direct links said dragons have to the others. Zhaitan and Modremoth were only linked to each other with a line per the diagram, meaning that even if one of them were replaced it could potentially still mean that the balance is skewed. We would have either killed Kralk leaving Primordus unlinked, or left Kralk alive and left Mordremoth or Zhaitan's replacement without a direct link to any others. And given that Zhaitan and Mordremoth could essentially be symbolized as life and death domains of the all, that could imply even more unforeseen problems if one of them is taken over and unbalanced.

It's also interesting to note that an inner pyramid at the top, but not at the bottom. I'm not sure what to make of that, but the inner pyramid is formed entirely by lines excluding Primordus and Jormag. This doesn't really give me any ideas but the choice of making this aspect of the diagram asymmetric is interesting to me. Especially considering the emphasis on the pyramid collapsing in the vision in which the first image is taken from. Any thoughts on this in particular? It would also seem strange and seemingly intentional considering the reason there isn't a matching pyramid at the bottom is because there isn't a line drawn between Primordus and Jormag.

Now, examining the circles in the diagram we have

Deep sea, Mordremoth, Primordus sharing the larger orb on the left.

Kralk, Zhaitan, Jormag sharing the larger orb on the right.

Is this larger circle that they share indicative of a larger sphere of influence that each of those dragons has access to? If we simplify the dragons down to the elements they posses or use as weapons we have -

Deep sea - water/?, Mordremoth - life/mind, Primordus - fire/? - Trying to counter the blow train of thought but reaching a little - fire excels the state of something, water can speed growth and nourish and life is just... well...ongoing existence.

Kralk - air/crystal, Zhaitan - death/shadow, Jormag - ice/cold - interestingly - crystallization is the solidification of something, death is the complete end of something, and cold slows the state of something.

Over simplification - but is there anything we can draw from this that would imply what influence the larger spheres each of these sides represent? Perhaps the larger spheres could represent some aspects of time or the general balance of existence. But applying that logic in contrast to my earlier mention of the diagram and links, we would have -

So applying these shaky oversimplifications to the general imbalance of Tyria if Kralk dies we're left with:

DSD - water which is kind of hard to simplify in this sense with its impact on said balance.

Primordus with fire which can either be a catalyst or complete destruction - also a bit shaky.

And Jormag with ice which could either slow or completely freeze.

I'll leave this for now because it's becoming a bit of a stretch to make sense of.

Back to the circles in the picture -

If it's possible that the circles all represent spheres of influence, tracing the lines:

Kralk and DSD share two specific circles at the top - two orbs of influence.

Each dragon has a smaller potential orb of influence within their primary.

3 dragons on each side all share 4 other smaller orbs within the larger orb that they share on each side.

And interestingly the two orbs between Primordus and Jormag aren't linked to anything except DSD and Primordus respectively.

Another note is that Mordremoth and Zaitan each have 3 additional minor orbs connected only to them - which would make sense if they represented life and death as I would suspect them to be weighed far more heavily in terms of balance.

Also - the lines between Kralk and Primordus run through two spheres of influence similar to the orbs between Kralk and DSD. And DSD to Jormag as well. Implying that Not only do Kralk and DSD have a link to the same two spheres of influence, but DSD and Jormag and Primordus and Kralk.

When you take this into account - we only really know the influences of the two dead dragons - who were only linked to themselves. Shadow/death. Mind/life. We can make guesses about Jormag's other based on his behavior and the diagram might imply that this influence is the one that DSD also shares.

You can speculate that Kralk's main is crystal as he is the crystal dragon - but it could also technically be air. Applying what we know from Kralk and Primordus so far, what can we infer about their two shared orbs?

To finish off this section: Kralk and DSD also have lines running down through two smaller orbs extending all the way down to the two bottom orbs. DSD's line runs through the two smaller orbs just outside Mordremoth's area and connecting to the right left medium sized orb. Kralk mirrors this with the two small orbs outside of Zhaitan and ending through the bottom right medium sized orb.

Applying all of this to what we've seen in game :

Death and vine touched destroyers

I believe we've seen vine and death touched Jormag minions.

I don't think we've seen any vine-touched minions of Kralk have we?

If you try to apply these to the orbs we see in the diagram and common links, it begs the question as to why. Have they not gotten around to creating a vine touched branded creature or is there a reason? It would make sense that we see a death branded minion because Kralk and Zhaitan are on the same side. But we've seen vine and death of Jormag and Primordus minions and they are on opposing sides with no line on the diagram running through shared spheres. It's what Primordus and Jormag have in common in this case in that unlike Kralk and DSD - they do not have lines moving to the middle north convergence as Kralk and DSD do to the middle south convergence.

Or - is the link that Kralk shares with DSD what's preventing him from creating vine-touched minions and the fact that Jormag and Primordus don't have a link allows them to do so?

Essentially, in this big I'm trying to determine if there is it predesigned which dragon gets access to another dragon's domain/sphere/abilities and could it potentially be indicated based on the details of this diagram.

Temporarily jumping back to the lines in the diagram:

Note that Water and Ice are drawn with lines to one another, as are Crystal/Air and fire. DSD and Kralk are linked which could be Water and crystal.

Water can become ice but ice can also become water.

And sand becomes crystal with extreme heat. (Stretching a bit here too to draw some connections.) Air puts out fire, but can also spread fire. So that's a little iffy or my brain is slowly dying from this somewhat insane examination.

So on this note: If we assume the lines can imply the mixing of aforementioned symbolism/elements:

DSD and Kralk - Air line to Water = line drawn from DSD to Jormag and Ice.

Kralk and DSD - Water line to Air = line drawn from Kralk to Primordus - ??? Humidity? Kind of hit a stop here.

What can we draw from this train of thought as to why Primordus and Jormag do not have a line drawn between them?

Well:

A fire line to ice would technically become water but ultimately become air. Thus having a line going - Primordus - Jormag - DSD wouldn't be accurate.

A line from ice to fire would result in water - fire to ice would result in air - Arguably they could both result in water or both result in air. This could explain why there isn't a line between Primordus and Jormag.

So - that being said - perhaps the inner pyramid on the top of the diagram isn't mirrored at the bottom because the more necessary parts of this equation are Water - Air - Life - Death but heat and cold being taken out of the equation leaves water and air permanently as they are. Expanding on this - the more life there is in the equation - the more water and air being consumed - the more death - the less water and air being consumed. So: following this logic, Kralk would be the ideal dragon to replace given that life and death in this equation have been negated creating balance for the rest.

Note, and I may have mentioned this before and forgot because I've been at this for awhile - But Kralk and DSD represent Water and Crystal respectively - both tools for reflection and potentially - one of the two orbs shared by the line drawn between them could potentially wind up being prophecy but we don't know enough about the water dragon to know. Water and air also share similar ability to move objects. Flowing with water or blowing like wind. It's also interesting that Kralk and Primordus share a line and are equally destructive power. To elaborate - the deep sea dragon's destruction in relation to water can overrun/flood/wash away but not disintegrate as can Kralk's lightning or for that matter his ability to crystalize. Jormag can freeze and slowly destroy things but can't burn things to a crisp or create as much of a molecular? change as Primordus and his heat/fire.

Now, because I've probably lost everyone long before this point and I've honestly just lost track:

If I wanted to dive into the gods and their relation to the all:

Could we speculate that the three orbs on the outside of Mordremoth and Zhaitan are as follows:

Lyssa - water

Melandru - earth/life - Mordremoth

Balthazar - fire/destruction

Dwayna - air

Kormir/Abaddon - shadow/secrets -Zhaitan

Grenth/Dhuum - death/cold/ice

This part is obviously a bit of a stretch as well and classifies them simples them a bit too much. It's also difficult because some of these have could be easily debated. Having better knowledge of the gods would help me out during this part because I'm a little fuzzy on a lot of the details. Listing brief descriptions from the Wiki for each to help pinpoint possible relations to the diagram

Lyssa - beauty, water, illusion.

Grenth - death, ice, destruction, mortality, judgment. potentially opposes lyssa.

Balthazar - war, fire, challenge.

Dwayna - healing, air, life.

Abaddon - watery depths, knowledge, magic. While Kormir - order, spirit, truth.

Melandru - nature, earth, growth.

So upon reading these descriptions it's hard to apply them to the diagram. The only real way to place them in a respective circle would be to simply align them as

Mordremoth outer smaller circles - Lyssa, Dwayna, Melandru because they all represent life.

Zhaitan - Balthazar, Kormir, Grenth.

For better visualization -

Lyssa - Balthazar

Dwayna - Kormir

Melandru - Grenth

This order could be a bit strange but would make the most sense if there was any in any of this but mainly just for a few and it would be a stretch. Examples

Lyssa and Balthzar connected like the line between Kralk and DSD

Dwayna and Kormir - makes less sense - but Dwayna in opposition to Zhaitan does a little.

Melandru against Balthzar doesn't, but Melandru's shrine (Sun's Refuge) conveniently being a safe haven in our fight against Kralk does.

Grenth - in opposition of Lyssa per descriptions above - illusions vs casting off illusions.

Lyssa, Dwayna, Melandru on the side of life.

Balthzar, Kormir, Grenth on the side of death. Keep in mind that Kormir and Grenth both replaced other gods while Lyssa gained water which originally belonged to Abaddon. With how much the pantheon has changed and the domains amongst them have changed, it would be difficult to really place them anywhere that makes any complete sense.

Anyway, that's all I can handle for the night and this will probably be a ghost thread before it's even discussed but it was kind of fun mapping it all out and thinking about it.

I do firmly believe after writing this post though maintaining what slow decay of balance we have depends on replacing Kralk more than simply replacing just any elder dragon. And having Aurene be said replacement means an even better balance because if she were to be this undead crystal dragon - perhaps there's more potential for to balance the spheres that belong to the right side. And who knows, perhaps Aurene transferred some of her Mordremoth magic-goodness to Caithe to pass onto the pale tree after all. That way the pale tree can work towards becoming a Mordy replacement at some point after all while Aurene also passes the Mordremoth bit she has on the right side back to the left side where it was originally. That way they replace Kralk, bring back Aurene, and plant the seed of the pale tree becoming a mordy replacement at some point if they need it further down the line. Who knows. *shrug*

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > > > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > > And the fact that none of those scenes in her vision even remotely looked like where we actually fought Kralk could also imply that this is the one outcome she didn't forsee. That perhaps Glint's involvement with her this episode changed the outcome in a way that Aurene couldn't have forseen in those visions, leading us to fighting him where we did.

> > >

> > > We did change the vision, we changed it right off the bat. None of the visions had Aurene glow as she does after the trials, after she achieves Ascension. On top of that, none of the visions had Dragonsblood weapons.

> > >

> > > We changed Aurene, our weapons, and the location to not match any of those visions; to be better chances for us than in any of those visions. Yet it didn't matter in the end.

> > >

> > > That was the point of the hope of this episode, and how it all came to nothing in the end.

> > >

> > > > and the pale tree just becomes some super elder dragon magic infused oracle of dreamworlds

> > >

> > > Once again, you forget the fact we need four-six replacements. Aurene could never replace all six Elder Dragons. And nor can the Pale Tree. Not without retconning both Taimi in Season 3 and Sadizi in Path of Fire, our currently sole sources for the nature of The All's imbalance.

> > >

> > > Besides, plot-wise, whomever becomes the next Elder Dragon will no doubt go into deep sleep as having an Elder Dragon ally would be OP and trivialize any plot that isn't set to universe-shattering proportions, which would just be silly for the Commander to be able to withstand.

> >

> >

> > I didn’t forget, you were the one talking about the possibility of the pale tree ascending allowing us to kill kralk to maintain life as it is now and not tip the scales. What does replacing the other two have to do with that? I’m saying that even that little bit would be a cheap temporary resolution for me. I don’t keep forgetting anything? Lol...

>

> It has to do with the Pale Tree not actually becoming "some super elder dragon magic infused oracle of dreamworlds".

Obvious hyperbole.... I guess I should start putting disclaimers.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > And the fact that none of those scenes in her vision even remotely looked like where we actually fought Kralk could also imply that this is the one outcome she didn't forsee. That perhaps Glint's involvement with her this episode changed the outcome in a way that Aurene couldn't have forseen in those visions, leading us to fighting him where we did.

>

> We did change the vision, we changed it right off the bat. None of the visions had Aurene glow as she does after the trials, after she achieves Ascension. On top of that, none of the visions had Dragonsblood weapons.

>

> We changed Aurene, our weapons, and the location to not match any of those visions; to be better chances for us than in any of those visions. Yet it didn't matter in the end.

>

> That was the point of the hope of this episode, and how it all came to nothing in the end.

>

> > and the pale tree just becomes some super elder dragon magic infused oracle of dreamworlds

>

> Once again, you forget the fact we need four-six replacements. Aurene could never replace all six Elder Dragons. And nor can the Pale Tree. Not without retconning both Taimi in Season 3 and Sadizi in Path of Fire, our currently sole sources for the nature of The All's imbalance.

>

> Besides, plot-wise, whomever becomes the next Elder Dragon will no doubt go into deep sleep as having an Elder Dragon ally would be OP and trivialize any plot that isn't set to universe-shattering proportions, which would just be silly for the Commander to be able to withstand.

I didn’t forget, you were the one talking about the possibility of the pale tree ascending allowing us to kill kralk to maintain life as it is now and not tip the scales. What does replacing the other two have to do with that? I’m saying that even that little bit would be a cheap temporary resolution for me. I don’t keep forgetting anything? Lol...