Guild Wars 2

So I know I’m getting ahead of the story and making kittenumptions here, but bare with me.

Many of us assumed that Mordremoth was the creature we saw wake up at the end of Season One cinematic. The speculated location of Mordremoth is somewhere in Maguuma. Season Two begins with a new map in Maguuma being opened up and it’s likely as the season progresses more of Maguuma will follow. Already we are seeing sentient vines (which weren’t in the region in GW1) appearing as hostile creatures, possibly suggesting Mordremoth’s influence is being felt.

It’s not a big leap to think this season will deal heavily with Mordremoth and may even possibly end with a fight against it. Is that a good thing?

Lower your torches for a moment and hear me out. I know we wanted another dragon after Zhaitan and I know Scarlet felt like treading water for many of us, but for a dragon to wake/make it’s first appearance this year and be defeated some twelve month’s later (accompanied by all the campaigning the Pact and others would need to do to make that happen) wouldn’t that put another nail in the “Elder Dragons are credible threats” coffin? After the underwhelming fall of Zhaitan, now more than ever it is important to establish the dragons as serious threats to be reckoned with (certainly after Scarlet did more to Tyria as we know it than the current dragons are doing), introducing and killing one so quickly seems counter to that point.

Jormag made it’s first rumblings 250 years ago with Svanir (arguably) as its first champion (certainly a minion, corrupted by Drakar). Primordius’ first champion, the Great Destroyer, also made its presence felt 250 years ago forming the basis for that campaign. In the 250 years since, Jormag’s influence has spread (killing many norn spirit animals, pushing them out of the north and even having influence just outside their capital), Primordius has pushed the asura out from under the ground, Zhaitan raised a sunken continent, sank a city and Kralkatorrik took a morning stroll dramatically altering the landscape now known as the brand.

The Elder Dragons are a big deal, and the current known threats (specifically Kralkatorrik and Jormag) have had large impacts on the world and continue to do so, and they’ve been around for a while. Wouldn’t it seem too neat if Mordremoth were to appear, be fought then die all within the same Living Story season? Other dragons have been awake for years, closer to civilisation as we know it (certainly as we knew it), why would Mordremoth be the second to fall? I think it would be better to establish Mordremoth as threat, allow it to take territory and hurt the world, but not kill it yet.

Now I know I’m making a lot of assumptions here , but I am interesting in what people think about possibly introducing and killing a new Elder Dragon so quickly.

I’m all for introducing Mordremoth this year as the Elder Dragon that next awakens. But I’m totally against killing him this season, for the reasons you have mentioned.

Primordius, Jormag, Zhaitan, and Kralkatorrik have already risen long ago. They have done so much damage to the world of Tyria already, from forcing the Asura above ground to pushing the Norn south and killing many spirit animals, from building an evergrowing army of the undead to branding most of Ascalon and “branding” thousands in an instant. Zhaitan was taken out first because the threat of an army that always grew with his influence held the highest priority. Granted, we haven’t seen or heard about any further damage from the other awakened Elder Dragons, but does that mean we should take out Mordremoth before he begins his own apocalypse?

That really depends.

From what Entanglement is showing us, vines are starting to appear east of the Maguuma lands and perhaps even altering the waypoints to allow creatures to fast-travel to other lands and wreak havoc. This is quite a catastrophe, to be sure, but is it Tyria’s highest priority right now? What if Mordremoth doesn’t even awaken for many years longer? What if Mordremoth does wake up, but we’re too focused on helping the Zephyrites with their problems to stop it from causing chaos? What if, gods forbid, Scarlet returns from the dead?

If Mordremoth is to wake up, the threat needs to be established. The vines are merely a precursor to what will happen, but we have no idea what that actually is, or how much of a threat it actually will be. Monsters teleporting to other lands? The only real casualty would be the destruction of the ecosystem…

… which could cause a huge imbalance in everything environment-related…

… leading to giants and aatxes being the most dominant creatures on the planet.

A scary thought, to be sure, but highly unlikely.

Nonetheless, if Mordremoth is going to awaken, then Mordremoth should not die this season. Establish the threat, then allow the players to decide which Elder Dragon to defeat first. Hear that, ANet?

While it would be anticlimactic to kill of Mordremoth so early, it my actually make sense. I’m not saying this is a good idea story-wise. In fact, I agree with the OP. But if Mordremoth is just now awakening, it won’t have had as much time to absorb magic and therefore may be weaker than the other dragons, allowing for a faster kill. Taking out Mordremoth soon then becomes an attack of opportunity.

I agree with the OP. I had very similar thoughts.

Well, actually, I’m pretty easy to please and I’d be okay with either; but I’d be more okay with Mordremoth not getting defeated immediately (not to mention that some dungeon paths, boss fights etc. would make a lot less sense). I feel that a) the dragon should radically change the world and b) its defeat should, again, radically change the world. Not sure we have the resources to credibly do all these things in one season.

Doubt we get to kill him but im sure he makes an intro, i believe The Grove war is gonna be the end of this season, a all out battle pale tree vs mordys vines (scarlets vision) it was scarlets ultimate goal in all of her crazyiness, the pale tree shall be choked by the corruption of mordremoth as the syvari city burns to the ground

Much like the epic battle of scarlet and lions arch season 2 gets to go out with a game changing big bang

We should have killed him last year…

Let’s consider longevity of GW2 as a game, we killed Zhaitan in the first year, no one in the second year and now likely Mordremoth may/may not be killed in the game’s 3rd year. There’s still 4 more elder dragons and if GW2 continue this pace that means going on for another 4-5 years before we get to face all the elder dragon threats.
That’s asking for your player base to stick with you for 6-7 years; these days, that’s pretty long!
But of course, if Anet make it exciting, they will keep their loyal players with them – I for one hope I’m still here – for the time being I’ve found the perfect combination of playing GW2 and TSW since both are B2P+ (the + meaning purchaseable expansions/DLCs and my assumption GW2 will get an expansion sooner or later, it’s unavoidable).
But I’m part of a small % of the MMO player type, if GW2 doesn’t wrap up the elder dragon story in 6-7 years and move on to new stories to tell in the world, they will have set out to tell a story that no one got to experience the last chapters of.

Mordremoth is going to prove being a bigger threat than the others combined if it can spread it’s corruption through the magical currents of the world.

The other Elder Dragons are relatively quiet at the moment, so if Mordremoth starts his spreading offensive, and even targets the pact as seen in the trailer, then yes it will become a priority target. I assume it would indeed end with his defeat.

I hope we don’t kill it. Rather have them simply drift off into hibernation after passing out and rest for another cycle of centuries.

Why does Elder Dragons show up 1 at a time to get kill by us? Far as I know they are not ally to each other so if they keep showing up 1 by 1 then Tyria is in safe hands

I totally get what you’re saying and agree. Unfortunately, there’s enough kvetching that we AREN’T killing a dragon per year (literally, at that pace), that I figure it’s going to happen.

Riaky.8965:

Why does Elder Dragons show up 1 at a time to get kill by us? Far as I know they are not ally to each other so if they keep showing up 1 by 1 then Tyria is in safe hands

I agree completely, had I been in their position I would strike when everyone’s attention was diverted, imagine 5 elder dragons assaulting at the same time!

I guess it’s too difficult to realise properly, I’ve asked before why things happen so linearly. Scarlet did A, then B, then C and we responded each time. Why was Scarlet doing A, then Kralky started moving and suddenly Jormag steps up before Scarlet continues with her move B. Then some other event which impacts Primordius, etc. Which would’ve meant advancing all future main stories in parallel but at a different pace. That would feel more realistic, to see movements of the other elder dragons exerting their power while our attention is on Mordremoth.

Personally, I would rather see what kind of destruction Mordremoth can dish out than see him/her/it quickly put down. I would love for a Mordremoth conflict to last several seasons, so long as we get hit hard and fast with a show or multiple shows of power, so that long’ish story actually feels like a hard fought battle.

I’d like to see an aggressive, confident and powerful elder dragon that seems like a legit threat, not one that hides in Maguuma while the PC easily dispatches hordes of plant-corrupted minions.

Something more to consider… while these Elder Dragons are potentially mobile, they haven’t been except for Kral. So long as the story stays focused on the dragons, there’s no reason to leave Tyria for Cantha or Elona.

I don’t expect us to fight Mordremoth in a year.

I do, however, expect us to fight a champion of his, just like how we fight Claw or Tequatl. Multiple, hopefully.

Sariel V.7024:

Something more to consider… while these Elder Dragons are potentially mobile, they haven’t been except for Kral. So long as the story stays focused on the dragons, there’s no reason to leave Tyria for Cantha or Elona.

A fair point for game development purposes. However, as I understand it the Elder Dragons are a world-wide thing affecting Tyria-the-world not just Tyria-the-continent. Mighty convenient if they all decide to pounce on our corner of the land where we’ve been building up against them … it’s like every villain always attacking New York City/Gotham just because the comic publishers are based there.

I kinda don’t want him to die this soon already … I’d rather have us take down another dragon next, like Jormag cause I don’t care much for him and he’s hurting poor innocent Quaggan !