So, as I was running around Diessa Plateau trying vainly to hit something that begins with the letter M, it suddenly occurred to me…
Why do the dragons have minions?
Now, I’m familiar enough with the lore to know the dragons are giant magic-eating beasties that wake every few millennia to feed off the magic of the land and return it to a lower state. In the process, they destroy everything. They’re described as forces of nature.
So why do they need armies? Why do they need to corrupt lesser creatures, instead of just sucking up magic like a vacuum cleaner? Why do they care about invading? Why would they need a crazy lady with a giant drill to destroy LA when one of the dragons could presumably just sit on it?
Everyone needs minions, including dragons. For example if you have a dog then that dog is your minion. If you have a cat, then you are your cat’s minion. (Your poor dog has no minions, but everyone knows they lead a dog’s life. Sleeping all day except for the times they have to get up to bark at the mailman and eat. It’s a hard fate they’ve been handed).
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Now, I’m familiar enough with the lore to know the dragons are giant magic-eating beasties that wake every few millennia to feed off the magic of the land and return it to a lower state. In the process, they destroy everything. They’re described as forces of nature.
So why do they need armies? Why do they need to corrupt lesser creatures, instead of just sucking up magic like a vacuum cleaner? Why do they care about invading? Why would they need a crazy lady with a giant drill to destroy LA when one of the dragons could presumably just sit on it?
I think your perspective is a bit off.
The dragons are, in essence, a force of nature. You don’t ask a tsunami why it destroys things, so why would you ask the dragons?
They don’t “need minions”, lesser beings are simply too weak and fall under their influence. Kind of like a cult leader making followers. In some cases, the dragons use their minions for feeding purposes.
Similarly, their purpose for destroying things isn’t “invading”, but getting all of the magic.
What Scarlet did with the Breachmaker was kind of like hanging a delicious steak in front of a hungry person. Of course they’re gonna come rushing.
It is part of their God Complex they have. Each Elder Dragons think the other races are nothing more than tools to expand their influence along side some belief they themselves above the other races.
While they hunger for magic they also appear to be trying to turn the world into their ideal world such as Zhaitan believing a world of Death is a ideal world and Mordremoth beliving a world that flourished in Nature is a ideal world. However, they also want to rule that Ideal world as Gods so their minions worship them as such.
However, from GW2 lore the Elder Dragons have never once succeed due to a constant stalemate between each Elder Dragon which eventually leads to them consuming all magic among themselves and falling a sleep again until they awake and begin their cycle once again with consuming magic and trying to shape the world into their own ideal world.
Yet now that stalemate has been broken since the Pact has successfully killed Zhaitan thus leaving a power valcuum which has never happened in the past cycles when the Elder Dragons awakened.
@EdwinLi – so what you’re saying is… we’re upsetting the balance and making things worse!
What if… what if the Pact is secretly working for one of the dragons, killing off his competition? That means.. Treaherne really is a minion of Mordremo.. whatever planty dragon is called. It’s all starting to make sense!
It was already bad already since if left alone the Elder Dragons would have transformed all life into their own ideal image then exhaust each other by spending their magical energy going to war with each other until they put themselves to sleep.
All we did was break the long stalemate each Elder Dragon have with each other and now all that Magical Energy Zhaitan had is now released and up for grabs by the remaining Elder Dragons which will allow them to become stronger.
In the past none of the Elder Dragons were killed due to each awakening never having a unified organization to fight them due to infighting among and within the ancient races.
@ trehearne bit…
is that a joke or serious reply?
Trehearne is not influenced by Mordy since Mordy didn’t awaken until recently. the new Mordrem info reveal that the Dream prevented any Sylvari from following Mordy’s commands so he had no influence by Mordremoth.
I was joking. Treaherne may be as dull as dishwater but I don’t think he’s working for the big bad.
The way you describe it reminds me of that Jet Li movie (The One?) where there are multiple dimensions and one of his incarnations was hopping between dimensions, killing his other incarnations and each time he did the remaining incarnations got stronger and stronger..
So, if we’re making the remaining dragons stronger with each one we kill, isn’t that going to screw us up when we get to the last one or two and they’re super-powered, even for dragons?
The dragons need their minions as tools to reach things and places that are too small for them. Much like we need screwdrivers or pestcides to fix or clean our living space. Some of us even use minion insects that eat other insects that try to eat our food.
Only way to prevent the remaining Elder Dragons from becoming stronger is to some how discover a way to cut them off from consuming magic but that is more easier said than done.
For example, Zhaitan used the Mouths to eat magic since it sent the magic energy back to his body so killing them prevented him from gaining magic.
Mordremoth’s main source of magic is the Ley Line and since it is underground and Mordy can feed on it directly, compared to Zhaitan who needed a extension, he basically has a direct access to his own supply until the Ley Line runs dry of magical energy. He currently uses the Ley Line magical energy to create his Mordrems as we see by how Mordrem’s weapons are powered by the Ley Line and some of his Plants use the Ley Line magical energy such as the Mordrem Shield Plants.
The minions are like extensions of their body, influence, and will. Magic is always flowing around; if you move forward vacuuming it up, more will collect behind you. The dragons themselves seem to stay in more or less one place, while their influence spreads all around them, more efficiently gathering magic from everywhere at once. Corruption not only kills opposition, but adds to the dragon’s army, whereas the dragon alone would be a more singular target for everyone to join forces against. Minions are like tendrils they can send out indefinitely, killing and consuming.
Pretty much this. Zhaitan specifically had minions responsible for gathering and eating (the Mouth) magical artefacts. The more mouths and minions the more items can be gathered and eaten. The more eyes the more magical artefacts you can find etc.
But other than that, having an army to do your bidding is safer (the ED doesn’t go out and risk themselves), and it seems that every time the EDs wake up there’s a new host of races that they need to conquer / defeat. Last time was the Dwarves, Jotun, Forgotten, Seers etc. and this time it’s the main races.
Pretty much this. Zhaitan specifically had minions responsible for gathering and eating (the Mouth) magical artefacts. The more mouths and minions the more items can be gathered and eaten. The more eyes the more magical artefacts you can find etc.
But other than that, having an army to do your bidding is safer (the ED doesn’t go out and risk themselves), and it seems that every time the EDs wake up there’s a new host of races that they need to conquer / defeat. Last time was the Dwarves, Jotun, Forgotten, Seers etc. and this time it’s the main races.
While that might be true for Zhaitan, why does Mordremoth need minions? He get’s his magic energy by consuming it from the Ley-Lines with his roots. He could’ve just stayed hidden and consumed all of Tyria’s magic from underground, leaving the races wondering why the waypoints don’t work anymore.
Shana Flamewielder
Sylvari Elementalist of [SFF]
Abaddons Maul
A lot of people seem to forget that the dragons are NOT in fact cooperative with each other, they are competitive. They are each trying to devour as large a portion of the worlds magic as they can before they sleep again, and that includes undermining, attacking, and claiming territory from the other dragons without putting themselves in danger. Which, since presumably the dragons have a much easier time of killing each other than we have of killing them, is most safely done through minions.
It could be that they have no interest in their minions, but their minions are just a by-product of their nature and existence. While that would be cool, I think in story terms some of those minions were mouths that kept it fed. Presumably dragons like to sleep a lot and yet stay full, so …. minions.
they have minions because every antagonist bad guys needs minions, they just HAVE to, or they won’t be respected at the annual baddies con.
“Did you heard? I heard this year he doesn’t even have minions!”
“OMG and he was so good looking back in highschool, that’s so sad.”
Beyond the Fourth Wall, minions exist because MMO’s are all about replaying content hundreds or thousands of times. Minions provide players with things to fight and kill over and over and over, ad infinitum. There’s also the ideas of “slow buildup to an epic conclusion,” and “making one’s way through environments choked with hazards.”
Inside the Fourth Wall, the Dragons fear the sheer numbers of the forces of Tyria, so the minions exist to ablate the heroes’ numbers. The Dragons don’t know, being inside the Wall themselves, that the effective heroes have infinite respawn capability.
