Guild Wars 2

Sorry if this was already discussed but I couldn’t find anything.
I have a question about the ley-line surges that have been happening for a while now. They started after we killed Mordremoth and we assumed that they started because of the massive magic he released when he died. I haven’t played GW1 so you will correct me if I’m wrong, but 50 years before Primordus woke there wasn’t any surges of magic even though the amount of magic in the world should have been closely to the maximum levels. Yes, we killed 2 dragons and the magic should have spiked a lot, but still, imo, the level of magic shouldn’t be that high.
Is it possible that the surges are happening for some other reasons?

Thank you and sorry for my bad English.

I personally take it not as being the sheer amount of magic in the world as much as the speed at which it was released. I think of it like if you were to watch a dam burst flood occur. The world can honestly handle the amount of water within the reservoir behind the dam, but because it occurs so fast the rivers overflow their banks and widespread devastation occurs. I think, like a dam burst flood, after some time the magic levels would eventually equalize, but the danger comes from the rest of the dragons. Eventually the magic from all of the dragons would be too much for the world.

The Elder Dragons weren’t void of magic. The magic in the world 250 years ago wouldn’t have been at max capacity either, just high enough that the Elder Dragons begin waking up.

Which basically means that the amount of magic in Mordremoth and Zhaitan when they woke was more than the amount of magic consumed by two Elder Dragons for ~200 years, one Elder Dragon for ~150 years, and one Elder Dragon for 8 years.

Narc’s theory holds some water (heh) but at face value that’s all it means.

Mind you, I think the reaction does seem a bit much for only two dragon deaths. I’d expect for the overflowing magic to create highly destructive anomalies after three. If it is this bad with two, the world won’t survive two more Elder Dragon deaths, I’d bet. One more may make the whole world on par to Thaumanova and Bloodstone Fen, even.

Well, the fact that the magical anomalies and surges are sporadic means to me that it is likely that the whole world hasn’t reached these levels of concentration, merely certain areas, likely in proximity to major leyline. Though without more information on how magic works we obviously can’t prove it one way or another. I am curious, though, have we been given any information as to why Mordremoth’s death had a much different reaction than Zhaitan’s?

Not directly, no.

My theory comes from the line in Arah explorable:

Randall Greyston: They pulled the energies of Zhaitan himself, even though they did not know of the sleeping Elder Dragon.

Along with the fact that Zhaitan was being deprived of consuming as much magic as he wanted, while Mordremoth was chomping down raw ley energy right to the last moment of his death.

Basically, Zhaitan was drained – twice – of magic while Mordremoth wasn’t. I’d say the death of the other Elder Dragons would likely be as influencing as Mordremoth’s (with possible exception of Kralkatorrik).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The Elder Dragons weren’t void of magic. The magic in the world 250 years ago wouldn’t have been at max capacity either, just high enough that the Elder Dragons begin waking up.

Do the dragons wake up when there is too much magic in the world or when they are, so to say, hungry? Cos if they wake up when the magic is too high shouldn’t they all wake up roughly at the same time?

They do wake up roughly the same time.

To a being where 3,000-11,000 years (depending on which dates is true for the last dragonrise) is an overnight nap, a mere 50 years is not very far apart from each other.

That makes it even more complicated when we talk about the amount of magic there is in the world and how they absorb it.

I’m not sure how it would. It most likely means that the standard rate of an Elder Dragon absorbing magic is lower than the standard rate of Elder Dragons releasing magic for all to wake up each time.

Or that the waking of one does inadvertently leads to the others waking up.