Renewable Energy
Although ArenaNet goes out of their way to explain many of the utilities in-game that would otherwise break the 4th wall, like Waypoints, I think respawning ore nodes are literally just a game mechanic. I don’t think they’re magical/misty at all.
Although we don’t know how large Tyria as a planet is in relation to our own, its easy to say that if the Tyrian planet has anywhere near the amount of naturally occurring metal, they haven’t scratched the surface of those resources. Theres still enough to last thousands of years, so they likely have no reason to worry about renewable energy, as such as green energy, which a lot of Asurans and some Charr study. Metallurgy in Tyria is actually really privative still, since only a handful of alloys have been discovered, and they’ve only just discovered Cinnabar and Mercury in recent years.
Dragon’s do consume magic, yes, but when they go back to sleep, that magic is slowly seeped out of their bodies and rejuvenates the world, so that magic is never “destroyed”. It just goes round in a big cycle.
The topic of magic from The Mists is ambiguous at best. There are obviously professions that utilize Mist energies, such as the Ritualists and Revenants, but its unclear if this is magic, of if its something else, so then it sparks the debate: If the dragons did manage to eat all the magic in the world, and professions like Elementalists, Necromancers, Guardians, etc, were left unable to cast magikittenil the dragons sleep, and the magic seeps back out, could Revenants and Ritualists still go on?
The Mists clearly does contain magic, because its The Mists. Its quite explicit that it contains everything there ever was, never was, will be and won’t be, which likely includes magic, and the fact magic users can still cast magic while inside The Mists as evidenced in Fractals and other planes of The Mists indicates that magic does exist there, however, there seems to be no way to transport magic from The Mists into Tyria, otherwise Asurans, who guzzle magic like nobody’s business, would’ve found a way to do it by now, unless it comes up in a later update.
Hopefully HoT will reveal more information about the matter when its explained to us how Revenant’s can do the things they do. Thinking about The Mists makes my head hurt.
Although ArenaNet goes out of their way to explain many of the utilities in-game that would otherwise break the 4th wall, like Waypoints, I think respawning ore nodes are literally just a game mechanic. I don’t think they’re magical/misty at all.
That was kinda my point, it’s a gameplay mechanic and not something associated with the lore unlike the Mists.
And yeah hopefully HoT reveals more.
I would point out that it’s possible magic is getting increasingly messy in its distinctiveness from other types. That might get a lore explanation one day soon.