Guild Wars 2

So I was watching a video about fractals and several things in the video seemed incorrect, which lead me to do some research. This research lead me onto a very specific theory about the nature of the Elder Dragons, Tyria, The All and Fractals.

Within Fractals, we have this concept of defeating a powerful creature to stabilize the Fractal for Dessa’s further study. My theory here relies on some assumptions, which I’ll detail below, so bear with me.

- The bosses we defeat, with the exception of the Arch-diviner (I’ll get into this later) have a high-concentration of inherit magic
- This inherit concentration of magic is uncontrolled

Magic and it’s Effects on Reality

“Should the energies become imbalanced, the world will tilt and all beings will fall off it into the void.” – The Map of the All

This quote relates to Tyria and how the energies, being magic, must remain balanced else the world will slip into the void (I’m taking it to me this means the Mists). This could essentially mean that the energies of Tyria must be balanced, else it will “destabilize”.

From this quote and some assumptions about how the properties of Fractal bosses lead me to believe that these effects are the same for Fractals. The fractal bosses are a high concentration of unbalanced magic. This magic concentration is more than the Fractal can cope with. As such for the Fractal to remain in existence it must have the magic balanced or resulted in a “zero-sum”. Essentially the magic must be removed or countered.

Properties of Tyria and Fractals

I’ve essentially come to the conclusion that Tyria and Fractals are very similar. While Fractals are essentially small “islands” or “memories” of Tyria’s past, they are still reality. Tyria as a larger plane or island of reality would take a much larger imbalance of magic to slip into the void. This is why we don’t see Tyria slipping into the Mists.

This leads me to believe that a plane of Reality can not exist for a lengthy period of time with a large portion of unbalanced magic in the world.

Elder Dragons as Stabilizers of Tyria

We know now that Elder Dragons “balance” magic in Tyria and unbalanced magic would result in Tyria slipping into the void/Mists. Based on observations in the mists and the potential properties of reality, I believe that the Elder Dragons are essentially playing an enormous zero-sum game within Tyria’s Reality.

Essentially this concept is the natural Tyrian magic is a +1 and Draconian Magic is a -1. By the Elder Dragons consuming the Tyrian magic, it results in a 0.

We’ve seen the signs of this;

- Elder Dragons sleep when they consume “too much” magic
- Elder Dragons lose magic while they sleep
- When Elder Dragons lose enough magic, they wake up
- Elder Dragons have shown to be at their most dangerous after waking up and having their Tyrian magic stocks depleted, essentially being the -1

With all Tyrian magic being at a +1, the need arises to stabilize this, preventing Tyrian from slipping into the void.

Why Killing Powerful Creatures Doesn’t Destabilize A Fractal

Now, you’re probably asking why simply killing a creature in a fractal doesn’t result in the magic running wild and destabilizing everything. My theory regarding this is that it’s so close to the mists it’s no longer anchored there and simply slips back into the mists.

Cliffside Fractal

This fractal, above all, has lead me to this conclusion. The fractal ends not when we slay the Arch-diviner, who is essentially a somewhat powerful human, but when the Colossus exits the fractal. This mighty, powerful creature released from it’s bindings is what is destabilizing the island, not the humans. After it’s “+1” presence has left, the fractal is left at a zero-sum. So the island is stable.

My belief is that the human’s have chained it up to make use of it’s power. That’s what the chains are. They’re tapping into the power as a source of magic. That’s why they aren’t a -1 to it’s +1. By taking the Arch-diviner’s hammer and killing Novices, we are essentially using the Hammer like a mini bloodstone. We’re charging it with magic and using it to overload the seals, forcing them to shatter. Once the seals are shattered, the Colossus is able to absorb it’s magic and leave the fractal.

The reason behind the Colossus being the destabilizer is further made evident by Dessa’s comment, “he can’t be all bad”, she states. Why would he bad at all, if not for him being what is destabilising the fractal.

Conclusions

I know this seems like a wild theory and probably isn’t quite correct, but I felt it was something new. Right now we’re lacking a lot of information on the All and the Elder Dragons, so the idea of Tyria being like one giant fractal island (or all forms of reality having the same properties) appealed to me as a concept.

My tl;dr for this theory is that Tyria is similar to one enormous island in the mists and that maintaining a stable island requires a zero-sum of active magic. This theory also speculates on the properties of magic being that Dragon Magic and Tyrian Magic are two separate things which balance each other. Having an equal amount of this dragon and tyrian magic results in a zero-sum and allows Tyria to remain a Reality.

An overall interesting concept – one I heard before as an off-comment but never had anyone put research into. However, I feel that there’s two major flaws in your theory.

First off, if you talk to Dessa, she effectively states that the act of “stabilizing” is “pacifying” the hostile elements. To quote:

“I hate to ask, but I need combat specialists to dispose of the hostile elements we acquired in the fractals during Mistlock. Can you do this?”

“For now. Fractals operate like a loop. They reset and hostile elements return. I haven’t yet cracked how to permanently pacify them.”

Secondly, Fractals are stuck in a loop. This is the lore behind us repeatedly going to the same fractals – they “reset” after a time. Just like, if you were around for it, during Fractured! and the fractal’s story mode that Kiel tried to have Dessa leave through the asura gate but the second she did, Dessa appeared right where she always did, not knowing who anyone but her krewe was.

The fractals are more than just “islands of existence” – they’re literally stuck in time, eternally resetting.

And Dessa’s need to exterminate the hostile elements just grows as she has to clear them again, and again, and again.

Tyria doesn’t repeat. It’s gone on over a dozen thousand years without such.

mexay.3902:

This fractal, above all, has lead me to this conclusion. The fractal ends not when we slay the Arch-diviner, who is essentially a somewhat powerful human, but when the Colossus exits the fractal.

I’m fairly sure that the pop up for moving on happens when the colossus breaks its chains, not when it disappears.

This also counters Dessa’s explanations, that stabilizing = pacifying

I hadn’t quite considered the repeating element. This does put quite kitten in the theory.

Regarding the pacification, I don’t really have anything for this either. My only thought is perhaps it’s the active magic that causes the destabilization and by eliminating the active magic users the magic is then “lulled” into a passive state. The dragons work in a similar state where they remain dormant for millenia and one would assume the magic within them is inherently “passive” during this state.

That said, I’m still a fan of the zero-sum concept, though I think this would be more a matter of the nature of magic and the dragons, rather than fractals.

I’ll check when the pop-up occurs once I get through another Cliffside and report back. Though you may be right. That said, it could possibly be a problem of lore vs mechanics, but still we don’t really know the nature of the Colossus so I could be entirely wrong anyway.