Guild Wars 2

The chronicle of the conflict between dragon and civilization is written in the blood of both parties, and the most diligent of historians could not have conveyed the brutality of this history any more convincingly than the gore left in its wake. Memory is weakened by mortality, such that many of the most important details of this conflict have been forgotten by the lesser races. But dragons live for a very, very long time – and they never forget. Glint – a lesser dragon – was at least 3,000 years old. Some estimates put her elders at more than 20,000 years of age. Many even believe that dragons are immortal. Recent speculation by a prominent “lorerian” proposed that Glint would be reborn through her last remaining egg; Zaithan’s body was never recovered; and the Shadow of the Dragon is regarded by a few to be undying. Doubtless then, dragons – especially the Elder Dragons – remember the earliest days of their struggle with the civilizations of the lesser races.

It is often the fate of those who do not live history to repeat it. In the mind of the modern Tyrian, far removed as it is from the origins of the conflict between dragon and civilization by innumerable generations, the dragons started this war; in the long-lived mind of a dragon, however, the exact opposite may be true. Whilst we don’t know who struck the first blow, we do know that civilization has landed its fair share. Kralkatorrik is missing a spine and plenty of blood; Jormag is missing a tooth and plenty of blood; Primordus may have lost blood (in the form of Sohothin and Magdaer); and Zaithan is almost certainly now dead. So the lesser races present a major threat to dragons and the latter are not oblivious to this. In fact, they’re so paranoid about their own safety that they even have bodyguards.

Glint was Kralkatorrik’s former bodyguard. Although the Elder Dragon of Crystal can create armies of minions with ease, he entrusted his life to a fellow dragon. Indeed, those closest to the Elder Dragons are always either other dragons or dragon-like beings. This detail suggests that the long-standing conflict between dragon and civilization has left the majority of dragons so xenophobic that they will not trust anyone other than themselves and/or some other members of their own kind; this detail may also form part of the reason for the creation of minions. If you believe that lesser beings will ultimately fight you, you simply either enslave or destroy them before they can do so.

Fighting is what the lesser races do well. How well, you ask? Well enough to injure Elder Dragons. Drawing blood from them is no mean feat. With swords for talons, a phalanx of scales, and bones like deldrimor steel, they aren’t easy to hurt. To wound them, you need special tools. Yet this did not deter the lesser races. Their heroes of today – such as Aesgir Dragonrender – and heroes of old have reminded dragons that although the latter outive the lesser races, the sun eventually sets on all. Dragons bled, and from their blood the dwarves fashioned the Sanguinary Blade, Glint constructed and maintained a garden of crystal, and other weapons such as Sohothin, Magdaer, the Staff of the Mists and the Scepter of Orr may have been forged. It is even possible that the bloodstone is the petrified blood of one or more dragons.

Believe it or not, dragon may not have started the war with civilization. Imagine if you and your family lived happily until one day you awoke to find your children, your spouse, or perhaps even your neighbors, fighting for their lives against a swarm of killer bees. One such bee is bad enough, let alone a legion of them. You could try to protect your own kind alone, or with the aid of others. Naturally, it is much easier with others. You might even use another species of bee to fight the killer hive.

Regardless of who started the war, the question must be posed: How should we end it?