Guild Wars 2

Magic. You wield it, but do you know how it is generated? Sure, you may get it from a broken bloodstone, or any other stone for that matter, but are said stones the true source of magic, or merely magical energy containers?
Doubtless, the bloodstone was important somehow. Just ask the mursaat. They’ll probably tell you that they waged a bloody war with the seers for it. To find out why the stone was important, we may need to look at the way in which the mursaat were generating magical energy.

We know that the mursaat were sacrificing chosen atop a piece of the bloodstone. Presumably, this was to generate magical energy. This may be an important clue, as it suggests that the souls of living beings – or more specifically, lifefore – form the basis of magic. What’s more, the mursaat didn’t kill the chosen just anywhere, they killed them on the bloodstone. But they had “soul batteries” at their disposal, so why not just sacrifice them on those? Why the need to involve the bloodstone at all? In my opinion, the bloodstone is made of a substance uniquely suited to processing lifeforce into magic: dragon blood. Thus, the mursaat were using the bloodstone to process the souls of their victims into magic, something that a mere precious stone, such as a “soul battery”, could never do.

The Mysterious Origins Of The Bloodstone
I am, of course, merely speculating that the bloodstone is the petrified blood of dragons. Although we know that Kralkatorrik literally bleeds precious stones (as per Edge of Destiny), they are described as emeralds or emerald-like, green gemstones. But the bloodstone is red. Admittedly, this doesn’t exclude the possibility that Kralkatorrik’s blood wasn’t used to form the stone, as real-world bloodstone is often green with red flecks. However, we only know that Kralkatorrik’s blood forms gemstones. There is nothing to indicate that the blood of other dragons does the same. I mean, come on, when Zaithan was bleeding over the ruins of Arah, the city wasn’t exactly being showered in Tyria’s finest riches now, was it?

That being said, we know that at least two dragons have lost blood: Kralkatorrik and Jormag. How? Well, in Edge of Destiny Glint treats Destiny’s Edge to a special showing of Kralkatorrik’s “bits” – a garden fashioned from the latter’s petrified blood. Additionally, in the Personal Story we learn about the Sanguinary Blade, a sword fashioned from the petrified blood of Jormag. The question, then, is not whether Elder Dragons have lost blood, but to who. Now, a successful argument can be made promoting the idea that in previous dragon-rises the Elder Dragons have had territorial conflicts that have led to violent clashes between them. Thus, knowing what we do about Jormag and Kralkatorrik, we could say that these two dragons fought each other personally at some stage in the past, were both grievously injured, turned tail and ran. From this fight, the lesser races recovered the remains of various dragon “bits”, like blood. I’m not averse to this idea, but I’m not going to explore it either, for another reason. That “reason” has to do with another of Kralkatorrik’s “bits”: his spine.

Glint had formerly been charged with guarding Kralkatorrik’s life. This left her with special knowledge of the weaknesses of dragons. When Destiny’s Edge expressed their desire to kill Kralkatorrik, Glint asked them, “How do you fight the wind?”. The little band of merry adventurers did not seek Kralkatorrik’s life with mere Deldrimor steel – no, they were given something far more valuable: basic instruction in dragon anatomy and a spear fashioned from Kralkatorrik’s own spine.

It is said that Aesgir Dragonrender entered the mouth of Jormag and from the Elder Dragon of Ice drew one of his teeth. What is not said as often, however, is that one does not simply stab a dragon in the side. Aesgir attacked Jormag at one of the latter’s weak-points and is rumored to have had the aid of both the Spirits of the Wild and an ancient jotun artifact. In the same way, Destiny’s Edge tried to kill Kralkatorrik by taking advantage of a weak-point in the armor of his hide. Of course, to a dragon, this is a weak-point, but to the lesser races, the weaknesses of dragons are always strengths. There was no way (at that point in time, at least) that anything short of dragon-bone would pierce the hide of a dragon. Which is why Glint gave Destiny’s Edge the spear fashioned from the spine of her former master, with which to smite him.

We need to keep in mind that Destiny’s Edge battled dragon and dragon-champion many years before the asura developed their “magic-poisoning” technology, which was instrumental in killing Zaithan. As such, they were relying on older, yet nonetheless effective, ways of rending dragon flesh. Kralkatorrik’s spine is interesting, not only because it was capable of piercing dragon hide, but also because it suggests that both Jormag and Kralkatorrik lost blood in the past not to each other, but to the lesser races. Why? Well, because it was fashioned into a spear. Now, why would Glint fashion it into a spear? Glint did make a garden out of Kralkatorrik’s blood, but a spear out of his spine? What use do dragons have for spears? None whatsoever.

But the lesser races would have a use for such a spear, not only for killing dragons but also for drawing blood from them. In my opinion, then, the spear was used like a needle on at least two of the dragons to fashion the bloodstone.

Why Create The Bloodstone?
The bloodstone may have been created to function as a replacement of the Elder Dragons for the lesser races. According to this theory, the Elder Dragons are the source of all “usable” magic in Tyria. Essentially, what they do is harvest the lifeforce of beings, processing it into magic. (This is similar to what the mursaat were doing. However, the mursaat needed something akin to a dragon to complete the cycle of magical generation.) Dragon biology is uniquely adapted to this role, nothing else is capable of it. But dragons and lesser races don’t get along. So the races harvested the blood of the Elder Dragons in order to ensure that they could enjoy access to magic without having to contend with dragons for the right to use it.

Questions In Closing
Glint was heralded as the last known good dragon to the lesser races, and a traitor to her peers. In my opinion, Glint has far more to answer for than we realize. It is not my intention to sully her reputation, but I’m not here to praise her to the Six either. Having said that, I wish to leave us with some questions:

1) If Glint had the gift of foresight, why would she assist Destiny’s Edge when she knew that both she and Snaff would die?

2) Did Glint send Logan away by tricking him into thinking that Queen Jennah needed him? After all, when Logan finally reached Ebonhawke Queen Jennah needed no assistance and was able to divert the attention of Kralkatorrik’s forces away from her city single-handedly.

3) Would Glint have approved of the death of Zaithan? Did Glint really want to kill Kralkatorrik?

4) Was Glint trying to soften Kralkatorrik’s heart by allowing Snaff into his mind? Was Glint trying to let the lesser races “get through” to Kralkatorrik in the same way that they “got through” to her?

These are questions that we may return to in the future, if not now.

Glint was quite intent on killing Kralkatorrik. Even if you dont buy that she would do so because she was a nice dragon: According to the new theories, she would have been the one to absorb Kralkatorrik’s power. A point she conveniently forgot to mention to DE.

As for why her foresight failed her before the battle, i guess she couldnt see anything of that future because of two possibilities. She might have guessed that she was either dead in that future, or that her absorbing such powers would somehow block the image of that future. We dont really know how exactly her foresight worked. Its just my assumption that she didnt see further than her own life.

As such, she wouldnt know that we manage to take down Zhaitan. She might not even imagine that we would be capable of doing that, and so she figured that “I cant see the future after this point, I’m either wielding the power of Kralkatorrik at that point in which case there wont be a problem with the rest, or I’ll be dead, in which case the mortals are doomed anyway.”

i’m sorry if you covered that, but sometimes i feel you write way too much to get your point across, and i end up zoning out.

but you got a key point wrong right at the start though: magic isn’t generated any more than rain in the real world “generates” water. in fact, thinking of magic like you think of water is probably the best way to think about it. it can be consumed, and released, and it can be used for a lot of things, but you can’t “create more” of it. too little of it and you have problems, too much of it and you have serious problems.