Guild Wars 2

Does it make sense that after all these years we’re just mowing the dragons down one by one?

Mowing is a big word. Zhaitan died by chance. We absorbed his magic, anticorrupted it, and fired it back. That turnt out to be his weakness. We then turnt to mordremoth who was winning and killing us off at every turn. Only at the end when it turnt into a battle of wits within the dream did we finally manage to harm mordremoth. I have no reason to believe that primordus and jormag will go down that easy. As for kralkatorrik, we might try the same method again

It’s the Tyrian interpretation that the dragons were immortal beings that is erroneous. Besides, the previous dragonrise also had an uprising, but the Mursaat/Jotun/Seers/Forgotten/Dwarves (and maybe even the Krait to some extent), albeit being very strong, arguably moreso than us concerning magic even if they didn’t have magitech, could not properly join up forces to combat the dragons. Maybe if they all agreed to fight or all agreed to defend and hide either choice would have succeeded better.

So we are not personally that strong, but we (as usual) are the metaphorical glue that holds the whole word together against an almighty enemy. Know what would be a real surprise? If we tried to pit the dragon energies against each other and they actually decided to join forces to prevent this, since we’re going to pull a Deus Ex Machina anyway to kill them (come on, we did it the last 2 times, why not 4 more), we might as well have no other choice, having two or more join and become actually world-ending-powerful.

maxwelgm.4315:

It’s the Tyrian interpretation that the dragons were immortal beings that is erroneous. Besides, the previous dragonrise also had an uprising, but the Mursaat/Jotun/Seers/Forgotten/Dwarves (and maybe even the Krait to some extent), albeit being very strong, arguably moreso than us concerning magic even if they didn’t have magitech, could not properly join up forces to combat the dragons. Maybe if they all agreed to fight or all agreed to defend and hide either choice would have succeeded better.

So we are not personally that strong, but we (as usual) are the metaphorical glue that holds the whole word together against an almighty enemy. Know what would be a real surprise? If we tried to pit the dragon energies against each other and they actually decided to join forces to prevent this, since we’re going to pull a Deus Ex Machina anyway to kill them (come on, we did it the last 2 times, why not 4 more), we might as well have no other choice, having two or more join and become actually world-ending-powerful.

They had a common ground, or rather, a common enemy. But the elder races werent buddy buddy. Hardly even. They could just stand each other. When fighting the elder dragons they were propably watching their backs more than the dragons. Even when a real solution was presented there was some bickering and betrayal

The elder races did have magitech. Mursaat and Forgotten both have their equivalents of golems and gates (although one thing that the current ArenaNet story team seems eager to forget is that we saw both in Ascalon too, although that might not have been of human make). We don’t know if they had an equivalent to asura megalasers, but the jotun had that giant magical telescope, so it’s possible they might have had a similar device for use as a weapon.

That they didn’t have was what we would call conventional technology, which works without magic. The dwarves had explosive powder (although exactly when they developed that is unclear) but they certainly didn’t have tanks and the like as the charr and dredge do. Against the dragons, this is a significant difference, since if your technology is entirely fuelled by magic, every time you lose a battle the dragon can eat the weapons you leave behind and grow stronger. A destroyed tank, on the other hand, offers little or no magic for the dragon to claim.

• Zhaitan was deprived of magic while he slept (done by the Six Gods), and the campaign against him was not exactly short. So even before we fought Zhaitan, he was already weaker than most Elder Dragons.
• While Mordremoth died about a month or so after taking out the Pact Fleet (and about a year after waking), this was by individuals used to fighting dragon minions, and we discovered (granted by dues ex machina means) Mordremoth’s weakness.
• Unlike previous cycles, magic isn’t hoarded by a select few races (per kodan in Bitterfrost Frontier, the only races to have magic in the last waking cycle were the very few who developed well, such as the five survivors – by the sound of it, though the kodan lived then, they had no magic).
• Similarly unlike the previous cycles, there was no(t a lot of) conventional technology which works without magic – meaning that the Elder Dragons could just eat up and the previous cycles’ races would be left with sticks and slingshots, effectively.
• Lastly, with the previous dragonrise, the races couldn’t cooperate. Yes, they had an alliance, but apparently they all had their own desires for how to go about it – much like the originally presented situation between the three Orders. But unlike the Orders who gave up their personal desires to follow Trahearne and the Pact Commander, the races of the previous cycle didn’t.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

• Unlike previous cycles, magic isn’t hoarded by a select few races (per kodan in Bitterfrost Frontier, the only races to have magic in the last waking cycle were the very few who developed well, such as the five survivors – by the sound of it, though the kodan lived then, they had no magic).

Given the focus on shepherding the spirits that the kodan have, I suspect they might have had a kind of access to magic through the spirits, but weren’t able to access it directly themselves. Similar to what seems to be the case for pre-bloodstone-unlocking ritualists, and possibly rangers.