Guild Wars 2

Angel and others have stated that magic in Tyria has been growing in strength and variety over time due to magic leaking from the dragons, and the fact that they were not around to consume the excess, and that this is what has caused a breakdown in the bloodstone schools from GW1. Now that the dragons are awake, however, and are starting to consume the magic once more, does this mean that magic in the world is growing weaker and more restrictive again? If so, is it doing so at a rate that would be noticeable?

I’d say they are, but effects would possibly become visible after prolonged time, maybe hundreds, or even thousands of years?

I have little to support that claim of course, I can’t think of in game quotes saying how long Dragons are active when awake, but it stands to reason I think that they are awake for a long time, judging by the pacing of their efforts now, when they are awake for ages (I can’t quote exact awakening dates from wiki at the moment unfortunately) and little to no presence of Dragons is felt except places like Orr, Frostgorge or the Brand.

And since we haven’t felt diminishing in magic by now, I can safely wager that draining/corrupting of magic is a very long process by our standards.

ps. Take global warming for example from real life – it is happening, right now, yet it will take human generations to notice the effects of this relatively fast occurring events.

They have been up for up to 200 years now. And it is only just now noticeable that magic is decreasing.

But as the Elder Dragons die, the magic in their corpses will slowly seep back into the world, if they act like Glint’s corpse.

But my theory is that such a huge amount if magic is dangerous – after all, look at what massive amounts of magic can become: Crystal Sea turned into a desert (and it’s shore into toxic wasteland), The Searing, the Cataclysm, the Jade Wind, Thaumanova Explosion, etc. Magically seeped lands result in floating rocks, high rates of elementals, and it’s inhabitants easily capable of using magic (thus making the above world shaking events more plausibly normal).

It would be interesting if we keep a group of Glints (cleansed dragon champions) to regulate the world’s magic after the ED are dead.

True, I mean, the Elder Dragons were obviously not empty of magic when they awoke. I mean a magically impotent Zhaitan couldn’t just raise all of Orr at a whim. So with all of the magic that was still in their bodies at awakening poured into the world, on top of the already high magic levels (compared to Guild Wars 1) it’s interesting what could happen. I do want to point out though…

The Crystal Desert and Desolation were created by an after-effect of God magic, which is inherently different from Tyrian magic in some senses. Because of this, it may or may not be a good example. As for the Searing, Cataclysm, and Jade Wind, these were all rituals intended for the devastating effects that they created. That does not necessarily mean that magic concentrations are evil. It’s like saying nuclear power is bad because of the bombs it can create, while ignoring the energy that it can generate. From what I can see, magic is inherently neutral, and is taken one way or another by the individuals that use it.

My personal opinion, which is not as entertaining as some, is that magical levels will merely increase, allowing magic users to continue to be viable in a time of guns and machines. I could be completely wrong, and ArenaNet is free to go it’s own way, but this is how I feel.

Magic is inherently neutral indeed.

But so are hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes.

A little bit of fire can be helpful – it can warm you when cold, it creates light in darkness, it can cook food, it can be used controllingly to harm enemies. But too much can also be very harmful – like forest fires. I view magic to be similar. Too much of it may end up being very bad (though there’s no forest fire that does permanent damage, I would view the same for magic similarly – doesn’t mean forest fires aren’t disastrous).

Maybe that explains all the nerfs

Dragons are like bad companies. They “fund” the military to bomb and invade oil and resource rich nations to get better deals for themselves, and leach resources out of the host nation to enrich and empower themselves even more. And the cycle continues, the more they get rich, the more their power gets entrenched in the military and the government and their propaganda machine that is the media. As a side note, heck even game developers and publishers can become propaganda machines themselves.

What corrupted the elder dragon? If you can have cleansed dragons what corrupted them? I predict a super boss at the end.