Guild Wars 2

I’ve been thinking about the Elder Dragons lust for magic, and how they devour anything, and everything thing; however with seemingly one enormous exception: they do not fight each other. In a habitat from what I know is there is always with no exceptions that come to MY mind one super predator.

The Elder Dragons are without a doubt super predators if not “divine predators”, because of they’re deity like, or even rather deity surpassing powers. So what keeps them from fighting each other when each has the largest cache of magic in Tyria? It seems to me more than likely, because if they did there would be nothing left. Similar to nuclear annihilation. Despite the endless, and agonizingly maddening thirst they have for power is, they also without a doubt have the willpower, and intelligence to not fight each other.

Even after Zhaitan’s defeat they did not rush to fill the vacuum of power, because to do so would risk war between the dragons. One thing does seem in a way to offset this, which is shortly after Zhaitan’s fall the dragon in the Unending Ocean stirred driving the Karka inland, which is probably the closest dragon to Orr unless the dragon is speculatively farther away in the unending ocean than it may appear in which case the Unending Ocean Dragons rise may just be coincidental.

The Elder Dragon of the Unending Ocean after all had it’s territory as well as zhaitan did before Zhaitan’s fall which probably has roughly the same distance as every other Elder Dragon has to each other.

One thing that has come to mind which is a bit farfetched I will admit, but something I fantasize about is that like each Elder Dragon has it’s own champion, minions, and extensions of themselves, maybe the Elder Dragons themselves are an extension of a Supreme Elder Dragon.

Nothings written in stone yet, but I like the idea of a Supreme Elder Dragon living in The Mists with Elder Dragon Generals on different worlds throughout The Mists siphoning magic to a Supreme Dragon like Lord. My imagination takes it farther by having the six gods involved fighting this Dragon God in the Mists which is why we haven’t seen hide nor hair of them.

It’s already widely know that the Mists are not just one thing. They are everything including the space between spaces. They are The Borderlands, Eternal Battleground, Fissure of Woe, Underworld, Realm of Torment, The Hall of Heros, etc.

I’ve always wondered what the six gods really look like aside from Kormir. I’ve seen they’re avatars in GW1, but that seems to pretty much be just a messenger other than Kormir who I can see making personal visits to her personal champions. Anyway it would be cool to meet them, and fight along side them. Let Malchor be at peace not being the only one to carry the burden of what the gods really are like.

I found myself in GW1 thinking “Shiro won’t be a big deal I beat the Lich.” “Abbadon? Why not I’ve already saved two continents.” “Great Destroyer? Pfff I’ve beaten a god.”
The same thing is happening now “I killed Zhaitan therefore the Ancient Karka, and Molten Alliance should kill themselves in my presence!”

I’m just saying it would raise the bar even higher.

It would also be an extremely large step towards feeling like a real hero, and that you are the hope. Something that would truly find you a place in The Hall of Heros.

I suspect that the Elder Dragons don’t face each other because they’re not ready to. They’ve been spending hundreds of years building up their forces.

The deep sea dragon has been pushing karka out for a while, it’s not just something new because of Zhaitan’s death – it’s just that the karka had somewhere to go now that Zhaitan died.

Also, we know for a fact that the Elder Dragons are hostile. We’ve been explicitly told that their minions fight each other, so all six Elder Dragons working for some “supreme Elder Dragon” doesn’t fit. Which is, imo, a good thing because quite frankly, the concept of always having to face a larger threat is a terrible one.

Also, you’re misunderstanding something about the difference of GW1 and GW2’s end boss fights. In GW1, you’re right – it was “you” (as part of a small group of heroes) who killed Khilbron, Shiro, Abaddon, and the Great Destroyer (though I’d say your reaction was a bit far fetched, since threat wise Shiro and Khilbron were on par, as were Abaddon and the Great Destroyer (well, believed to be at the very least). In GW2, however, you’re wrong. It’s not “you” who killed Zhaitan, nor is it “you and four others.” It’s “the entire united forces of Tyria known as the Pact, aided by Destiny’s Edge and led by you.”

When you face the Ancient Karka and Molten Alliance, it’s not the Pact who killed Zhaitan fighting them. It’s a group of adventurers/commander of the Pact working with local forces.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I suspect that the Elder Dragons don’t face each other because they’re not ready to. They’ve been spending hundreds of years building up their forces.

The deep sea dragon has been pushing karka out for a while, it’s not just something new because of Zhaitan’s death – it’s just that the karka had somewhere to go now that Zhaitan died.

Also, we know for a fact that the Elder Dragons are hostile. We’ve been explicitly told that their minions fight each other, so all six Elder Dragons working for some “supreme Elder Dragon” doesn’t fit. Which is, imo, a good thing because quite frankly, the concept of always having to face a larger threat is a terrible one.

Also, you’re misunderstanding something about the difference of GW1 and GW2’s end boss fights. In GW1, you’re right – it was “you” (as part of a small group of heroes) who killed Khilbron, Shiro, Abaddon, and the Great Destroyer (though I’d say your reaction was a bit far fetched, since threat wise Shiro and Khilbron were on par, as were Abaddon and the Great Destroyer (well, believed to be at the very least). In GW2, however, you’re wrong. It’s not “you” who killed Zhaitan, nor is it “you and four others.” It’s “the entire united forces of Tyria known as the Pact, aided by Destiny’s Edge and led by you.”

When you face the Ancient Karka and Molten Alliance, it’s not the Pact who killed Zhaitan fighting them. It’s a group of adventurers/commander of the Pact working with local forces.

I do not see how the Elder Dragons would be building up they’re forces to fight each other only to go dormant after all of the worlds magic has been consumed only to wait for it to replenish itself. This is not the first time the Elder Dragons have risen. The last time was roughly around the same time the Giganticus Lupicus went extinct. None of the Elder Dragons where destroyed by each other by the fact they still exist today. Unless of course Elder Dragons where killed that we do not know about which of course there is no evidence of, and doesn’t seem likely given each Elder Dragon has a territory roughly the same as all of the others.

That may be the reason Elder Dragons minions fight each other is because they’re minions wander into another Elder Dragons territory. I was reading lore about the Norn and Char in GW1 which mentioned they left each other more or less alone unless they wondered into the others territory which is roughly the same idea of Elder Dragons minions not wondering into places where they are not suppose to go, because they are trespassing. Also minions fighting each other on small scale battles isn’t anything new. It’s been shown that the minions of the same Elder Dragon will fight each other if the link between them, and they’re leader ie the Elder Dragon Champion is severed. Evidence of this comes from Edge of Destiny when Destiny’s Edge killed Jormag’s champion, Zhaitans champion Morgus Lethe, and Primordius’s champion the Destroyer of Life. Also it has been shown that the Elder Dragons care nothing for they’re minions as evidence of Kralkatorrik wiping out scores of his own minions, and killing Glint his former champion.

I have also never seen Elder Dragon minions fight each other, or heard of it. I would like to see a reference to this please, so I can correct myself, or see if there are extenuating circumstances.

I wouldn’t say that the Elder Dragons have intentions to fight each other. I would instead agree with the notion that they fight due to entering each others’ territories – that is, they’re not allied, and are rivals, but they don’t go out of their way to fight what they view to be the biggest threat to them. It’d be too great a risk to their reign when they don’t need to eliminate those threats. As we see from the personal story, Elder Dragons do fear, and as seen from Edge of Destiny, they seek to remove any potential threats (Kralk killing Glint; Zhaitan targeting Trahearne and Fort Trinity before it can truly solidify itself)) and avoid all actual threats (Kralk fleeing from Destiny’s Edge once it saw it was more than a mere annoyance).

As to the source – it was a video interview shortly before release, though the matter is one of the hundreds of things ArenaNet never mentions in-game.

If the elder dragons sent their minions to fight each other then they would probably gain very little. What would they do with land corrupted by another dragon? There is also a possibility that they collectively dislike but tolerate/respect their ‘siblings’. Aggression by any one of them may lose the tolerance of all the remaining dragons.

I think Konig is pretty much hitting the nail on its head here.

The Elder Dragons seem to be very cautious with their own lives – which is pretty consistent with their nature. As far as we are aware, they are creatures that can only die by being slain (even starvation simply puts them into hibernation) so they have much more to lose than a mortal who will die in a century or so at most and may regard leaving a legacy as more important than stretching out their life as long as possible.

Another reason is that… well, dragons have minions. Why risk your own life when you can just send minions?

We’ve had people wonder previously why the dragons didn’t simply arrive in-person and start trashing cities, and the usual answer is that attacking a major city just represented too much of a risk that the city’s defenses will turn out to have something that can destroy them. Plus, the dragons are patient – why risk your own precious self when you can send waves of minions to wear the enemy down? Whether artificially created or converted from the enemy, minions do seem to be a lot easier to replace than mortal fighters, so a battle of attrition can be expected to ensure victory for the dragon while attempting a decisive resolution may prove to be decisive the other way. Thus, the dragons only commit themselves when desperate or when they feel sure of the outcome.

Outright warfare against other dragons is probably avoided on a similar basis. The dragons probably accept a bit of minion attrition along the shared border as the way things go, but with them being roughly evenly matched, a dragon launching a direct assault looking to kill and consume another elder dragon carries too much uncertainty and too much chance it’ll be the other dragon that is the victor. Especially if other dragons see one dragon consuming the power of another as a potential threat to them and intervene.