Sajuuk Khar.1509

> @"Tyson.5160" said:

> Could still come to pass at the end of the saga. Our allies are apparently going to be showing up at the eye of the north. Maybe after Jormag’s eventual betrayal.

Yeah. Even if Primrodus is such an uber big threat that we can't possibly stop without Jormag's help(which I don't buy for a second) Jormag isn't good, and has made that clear throughout the saga.

There will be some sort of reckoning.

> @"Svennis.3852" said:

> I doubt they will have any real “consequences” or diverging outcomes. Maybe some different paths, but nothing that they’ll have to account for in the story long term.

>

> I’m expecting each dragon response mission to be pretty self contained. Like mini strikes or dungeons.

Pretty much. All of these allied factions will default to the Commander/Pact's playbook since that is the default playbook for fighting dragons that have worked thus far.

They will provide unique NPCs, with their own special attack skills, but it wont be some big tactics choosing thing.

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> In gw2, they never made the elder dragons' scale of power clear,

I mean, we had a newly awakened Zhaitan bringing up an entire landmass out of the ocean like it was nothing. Heart of Thorn started off with Mordremoth casually destroying the fleet that beat Zhaitan. During the lead up to Kralk we had him opening tears in time and space, not only in Jahai, but in core maps as well.

Don't forget, we also see Exalted and Kodan in the allies section of the trailer.

As for lore reasons, Destroyers are popping up everywhere, the Commander and Aurene have set up shop in the eye of the North, everyone send some representatives asking the famed Dragon slayer for help.

* We have known since launch that the Destroyers have been harassing the Tengu, popping up on the other side of the wall. Most likely to attacks rise in number to the point the Tengu are forced to ask for help.

* The Stone Dwarves have been fighting destroyers since EoTN, and now come back up to the surface chasing them.

* Crystal Bloom are Aurene's servant, and would fight Primrodus for the same reason they helped fight Kralk.

* Ebon Vaungard, we see Ebonhawk getting attacked, and Crecia helping defend it. so Primrodus attacks there and the Vanguard get involved.

> @"HotDelirium.7984" said:

> That is unfortunate because the lore is just WAITING to be addressed.... vigil? kodan? Laranthir? Taimi still dying? Pale Tree on the floor? Glint? Mist wardens? Charr?

What about most of this still needs addressing?

* Jhavi has taken over leadership of the Vigil while Laranthir is on his leave in The Grove.

* The death of Drakkar, and all the other stuff we do in Bjora, means the Kodan are no longer troubled.(we also see Kodan allies in the trailer so they are sending people to help us)

* Taimi is still dying slowly.

* We healed the Pale Tree shortly after HoT, which is what the "Knight of thorn" side story achievements were all about.

* Glint and the Mist Wardens are still dead, and Jormag hasn't been attacking/eating the Mists, so they haven't had to do anything yet.

* The Charr are exactly where they were last time we saw them.

All of this stuff has been answered already.

> @"HotDelirium.7984" said:

> Is there a consensus about in-game time being about the same as IRL or is it different per update? Has it literally been months or only a few days/hours

> since the Ice Citadel fell?... Even though it took many weeks between Bangar talking was that the same amount of time too or a shorter intervel? If this has all occured within a few days or weeks then it makes sense that some lore related events are taking place I guess as we speak and we will find out during Champions?

In-game time passes in roughly the same length as real life time does. Jormag has even mentioned it been "months" since its awakening in one of the covnersations with Bangar as part of the "confer with Bangar" achievement.

> @"aspirine.6852" said:

> Part of the trailer reminded me of thunderheadkeep.

It was.

> @"VocalThought.9835" said:

> So you think they would misquote after showing someone threw a spear? Okay...

Sunspears were throwing spears on land back in LWS4. Its a Sunspear Paragon ability or something.

> @"Tazer.2157" said:

> No indication of what happened to the vigil after Almorra's death

Nothing. It would be like if the President was killed. It would be a big news story, but any even remotely large organization has a system to quickly replace leaders if they die. Jhavi took over as Commander of Jora's Keep, and temporary leader of the Vigil, since Laranthir, the normal second in command, is taking a leave of absence in the Grove.

>we have no idea what happened to the iron legion with Smodur's death

Efrahm very temporarily took over leading the Iron Legion troops in Drizzlewood, until the end of the war. The Untied Legions sent people to find Mia Kindleshot to inform her she was the next Imperator.

>No conclusion to the Charr civil war

We literally had a conclusion in the last episode. The United Legions marched on northern Drizzlewood, took down Bangar's forces, destroyed his Frost Citadel, and then captured Bangar himself. Its over. They spent the last few moths cleaning up stragglers, and we spent the time questioning Bangar.

>no shift in the balance of power in Ascalon or the legions

Why would this happen? Neither Flame, Blood, Iron, or Ash, is going to try to trample on each other any time soon after they just fought Bangar to stop him from doing just that. That would just be them making the same mistake they just got done fighting.

>Also, are the Kodan okay up in Bjora's Marches?

This was already covered back in episode 2. If you complete the meta achievement(meaning you solved pretty much all the problem up there) Dialog changes in the Kodan village talking about people coming back with their "voices" still intact, and generally things getting better.

>Also are the vigil, the order of whispers and the priory in the alliance?

All three of them are part of the Pact, the main force fighting the dragons. So yes.

All of this has been covered in the currently released episodes.

Nice to see Tengu, Stone Dwarves, Kodan, and Exalted, as future allies. A little bit more of some of the more "side" races/faction is nice.

> @"Daniel Handler.4816" said:

> Yes. But it's not what Jormag calls her in game.

Yes, Jormag calls her "Elder Dragon of Prisms" which are used to split light

> @"Daniel Handler.4816" said:

> Light is not a discrete domain like Ice, Persuasion, Fire, Conflagration, etc.

Its what Anet called Aurene's domain on the Icebrood Saga magazine they put out.

> @"Daniel Handler.4816" said:

> Aurene is the dragon of Fury/Crystal and likely a bunch of Shadow and maybe a little Mind.

Aurene is the dragon of light.

One thing to note. We see plenty of allies in this trailer... but no Icebrood beyond Bangar, who hates Jormag.

Unfortunately. I do hope there is some kind of twist ending, and Primordus ends up living past this.

Trying to jam two dragons into one arm would be like if HoT switched from Mordremoth to Bubbles in Tangled Depths and Dragon's Stand.

> @"Sir Alric.5078" said:

> Uhm, i hoped Primordus would have his own saga. Instead it looks like he will be the villain for the last part of IBS. :/

Unless it ends in a surprise twist ending where Primordus kills Jormag, and flies off.

But yeah, looks like anet is rushing the Primrodus plotline.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> There's still quite a lot of loose threads with the sylvari storyline.

I would debate that. Yes there is Malyck, but I don't see them doing a "how did either tree become purified" stroyline. The trees were planted, and grew, outside of the range of Mordremoth's mental enslavement. They were never corrupted to need purification in the first place.

>Technically, we did kill all the branded (well, Aurene did),

There is that achievement in Bound by Blood that shows theres still many Branded left underground, and people are building thumpers to draw them out. They just got most of the ones on the surface.

>but the Pale Tree being called "a sapling of Mordremoth" does give enough reason to return to her

Sure, but thats a different plot then the "the Pale Tree is injured" plotline I was responding too previously.

> @"anninke.7469" said:

> Not fully. And at least for a sylvari Commander is feels wrong to not care anymore.

And we didn't fully kill all the Risen, or the Mordrem, or the Branded, and we didn't stay to see WHO exactly the new Sunspear/Order of Shadows/Free Awakened coalition decided to be the new leaders of Elona, and a lot of other things. Narratives rarely stick around to see the absolute end. So long as they have sent up that a resolution is being reached, we don't need to. Just like LoTR didn't stick around to see the very last orc killed.

> @"Bast.7253" said:

> I mean, we haven't revisited the pale tree since Heart of Thorns,

Why would we have? The Knight of the Thorn side story update wrapped up the last major plot point left with the Pale Tree, with her still being injured from the attack by Mordremoth's minions, by having us restore Caladbolg, which in turn healed her.

> @"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:

> Across the seas means Elona? The gateway south of Fields of Ruin is still shut and may not be used ever at all. So Elona is still only reachable across the seas. This sounds a little unlikely, because the LW is normally tied to a special territory. During LW3 and LW4 we did not set a foot back into the Heart of Maguuma at all. So why change this in Icebrood Saga: Champions (IBSC)? The Ring of Fire is also across the sea, but I doubt they would link active LW story to an old and abandoned story-chapter of a former living world season.

No, it means Cantha, since that is where we are going after Icebrood Saga is over. Elona is not across the sea, its connected by land.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> Just because there will be four Champions episodes, doesn't mean we get four more maps.

> They might keep on with two episodes sharing one map, resulting in two more maps.

> Or they could just release a single map, so each Champions episode gives us one fourth of said map.

> MAYBE they won't even release any more maps during the season at all.

No one said we would be getting four new maps.

Each section of Bjora Marches and Drizzlewood has its own portal scroll for the tome, but you can only put one in the tome. Bjora's east scroll puts you at Jora's keep, while Bjora's west scroll puts you on the western side of the mountains the slip the map. Drizlewood's south scroll puts you at the Legion camp, while Drilewood's north scroll puts you are the north hidden base.

By this same metric most weren't expecting 4 new maps, only two.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> Just because it didn't happen before, doesn't mean it'll never happen in the future.

>

> They might have scrapped story segments and maps to finish Season 5 as quick as possible so they can dedicate all development resources to the expansion.

Except there just so happens to be 4 slots left in the portal tome, and 4 release left in Icebrood Saga

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Yeah, looks like ANet's full out retconned those two paragraphs of The Ecology of the Charr about imperatorship and the primus warbands of the High Legions. Another victim to the "post-HoT writing team ignoring small pieces of pre-S3 lore". It really does feel like, ever since Season 3, ANet stopped caring about the fine details and are constantly redefining things.

Given that you only have to go back a few generations to relate most people on earth in some way, by this point in time, every Charr that lives likely could claim the honor of being directly related to the Khan-Ur.

> @"radda.8920" said:

> pnj > eye of the north for the next updtate, almost certain you will see

> only invasion like Living story 1...

> It saves them time by having the majority of their team only preparing the expansion.

> No more map to create so fewer people to monopolize

We already know theres more maps on the way from things all the way back in episode 1.

> @"NotTooFoolish.7412" said:

> No raids, no strikes...

>

> I hope they are split up for a good reason. Let's see what we'll get...

Strikes have never been mentioned in the roadmaps.